Unit Rankings

Warning!

Ratings are maintained by FFBE subreddit's Discord. Newbie questions and question whether a certain unit is good or not should be asked in #global-help. If you have experience with the game you may freely discuss unit ratings in #wiki-unit-ratings. These lists provide a rough estimate of units' utility when used by newbies. Veterans should assess the unit based on their needs instead. The ratings for attackers are calculated using a unit builder based on specific criteria. Visit Unit Rating Notes. Updates: Read recent changes here.

Unit Ratings (6★ Units)

Only units that can be awakened to 6-star are rated, since 5-star units are now generally obsolete.

The archives (>6 months unupdated) for 5★ Units and 4★ Units are still available.

Unit Ratings (6★ Units)
Unit	Base Rarity	Role	Abilities Awakened	Base	Links/Notes
Ayaka	5-star		15.5	15.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Lotus Mage Fina	5-star		15.5	15.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Ang	5-star		15.0	15.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Christine	5-star		15.0	15.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Tidus	5-star		15.0	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) May be difficult to chain with.
Trance Terra	5-star	()	15.0	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Best when spark chaining.
2B	5-star		14.5	14.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
A2	5-star		14.5	14.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Barbariccia	5-star		14.5	14.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Basch	5-star		14.5	14.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Blossom Sage Sakura	5-star		14.5	14.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Chow	5-star		14.5	14.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Grim Lord Sakura	5-star		14.5	14.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Onion Knight	5-star		14.5	14.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Difficult to chain with DW.
Roy	5-star		14.5	14.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Aileen	5-star		14.5	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Lunera	5-star		14.5	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Orlandeau	5-star		14.5	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Ramza	5-star		14.5	7.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Wilhelm	5-star		14.5	14.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Yun	5-star	()	14.5	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Eiko	5-star		14.0	14.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Explorer Aileen	5-star		14.0	14.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Fryevia	5-star		14.0	14.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Kunshira	5-star		14.0	14.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Fohlen	5-star		14.0	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Marie	5-star	()	14.0	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Noctis	5-star		14.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Warrior of Light	4-star		14.0	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
White Knight Noel	5-star	()	14.0	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Charming Kitty Ariana	5-star		13.5	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Illusionist Nichol	4-star	()	13.5	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Can confer tank role on ally, Time limited unit
Loren	5-star		13.5	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Lulu	5-star		13.5	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Mystea	4-star		13.5	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Tilith	4-star		13.5	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Veritas of the Dark	5-star		13.5	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Veritas of the Earth	4-star		13.5	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Veritas of the Light	5-star		13.5	13.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Ace	5-star	()	13.5	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Cupid Artemios	4-star		13.5	10.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Demon Rain	5-star		13.5	7.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Garnet	4-star		13.5	11.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Randi	5-star	()	13.5	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Rem	5-star		13.5	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Aura	4-star		13.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Barusa	4-star		13.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Beatrix	5-star		13.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Cagnazzo	4-star		13.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Camille	3-star		13.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Cloud	5-star		13.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Emperor Shera	5-star		13.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Knight Delita	5-star		13.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Kryla	5-star		13.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Nyx	5-star		13.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Ozetta	4-star		13.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Pirate Jake	4-star		13.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Prishe	5-star		13.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Prompto	5-star		13.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Ray Jack	5-star		13.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Reberta	5-star		13.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
William	4-star		13.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Yan	4-star		13.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Yuna	5-star		13.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Zargabaath	5-star		13.0	13.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Agrias	4-star		13.0	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Emperor	5-star		13.0	11.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Ling	4-star		13.0	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Luka	4-star		13.0	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Roselia	3-star		13.0	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Soleil	4-star		13.0	7.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Zidane	3-star		13.0	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
9S	4-star		12.5	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Charlotte	3-star		12.5	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (non-essential)
Divine Soleil	4-star		12.5	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Goken	4-star		12.5	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Lara Croft	5-star		12.5	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Great unit for farming, Gains levels 2x faster, Time limited unit
Pyro Glacial Lasswell	5-star		12.5	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Refia	4-star		12.5	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (non-essential)
Rikku	4-star		12.5	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (non-essential)
Victoria	4-star		12.5	12.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (non-essential)
Kuja	3-star		12.5	9.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) (Flare Star awakening non-essential)
Olive	5-star		12.5	10.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Vivi	3-star		12.5	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
White Witch Fina	4-star		12.5	7.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Aria	4-star		12.0	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Ashe	4-star		12.0	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Chloe	4-star		12.0	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Gladiolus	5-star		12.0	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Iris	3-star		12.0	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Mercenary Ramza	5-star		12.0	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Minfilia	4-star		12.0	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Rubicante	4-star		12.0	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Y'shtola	5-star		12.0	12.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Bran	4-star		12.0	11.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Luneth	5-star		12.0	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Santa Roselia	4-star		12.0	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Balthier	5-star		11.5	11.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Wadow	4-star		11.5	11.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Veritas of the Heavens	4-star		11.5	11.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Dark Knight Cecil	5-star		11.5	6.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Elfreeda	5-star		11.0	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Jiraiya	5-star		11.0	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Veritas of the Waters	4-star		11.0	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Verun	4-star		11.0	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Yuri	3-star		11.0	11.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Cecil	3-star		11.0	10.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Elza	5-star		11.0	10.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Firion	3-star		11.0	9.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Queen	5-star		11.0	8.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Crowe	4-star		10.5	10.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Duke	5-star		10.5	10.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Kaede	4-star		10.5	10.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Kaliva	4-star		10.5	10.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Tinkerer Carrie	4-star		10.5	10.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Xon	4-star		10.5	10.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Great unit for farming
Zyrus	4-star		10.5	10.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Amelia	4-star		10.5	9.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Chizuru	4-star		10.5	9.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Gaffgarion	4-star		10.5	7.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Gilgamesh	5-star	()	10.5	9.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Ilias	4-star		10.5	10.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Desch	4-star		10.0	10.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Nameless Gunner Jake	5-star		10.0	10.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Orran	4-star		10.0	10.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Silvia	4-star		10.0	10.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Veritas of the Flame	5-star		10.0	10.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Black Cat Lid	3-star		10.0	7.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Delita	5-star		10.0	7.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Ruggles	3-star		10.0	9.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Vaan	3-star		10.0	9.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Aranea	5-star		9.5	9.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Rasler	4-star		9.5	9.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Setzer	4-star		9.5	9.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Sportive Ariana	4-star		9.5	9.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Gains levels 2x faster, Time limited unit
Mercedes	4-star		9.5	7.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Cedona	4-star		9.0	9.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Cor	4-star		9.0	9.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Fina	2-star		9.0	9.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (non-essential) Story Unit - Gains levels 2x faster
Glauca	4-star		9.0	9.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Meliadoul	4-star		9.0	9.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Miyuki	3-star		9.0	9.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Ohga	4-star		9.0	9.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Vargas	5-star		9.0	9.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Beach Time Fina	4-star		9.0	7.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Grace	4-star		9.0	6.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Helena	4-star		9.0	8.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Lightning	5-star		9.0	6.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Nine	4-star		9.0	8.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Snow	4-star		8.5	8.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (non-essential)
Dark Fina	5-star		8.5	7.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Garland	3-star		8.5	7.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Seabreeze Dark Fina	5-star		8.5	7.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Seven	4-star		8.5	6.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Shine	4-star		8.5	7.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Sozhe	4-star		8.5	7.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Terra	3-star		8.5	6.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Cerius	3-star		8.0	8.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Lasswell	2-star		8.0	8.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Story Unit - Gains levels 2x faster
Maxwell	5-star		8.0	8.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Olif	4-star		8.0	8.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Rain	2-star		8.0	8.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Story Unit - Gains levels 2x faster
Sandee	4-star		8.0	8.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Steiner	4-star		8.0	8.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Werei	4-star		8.0	8.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Dracu Lasswell	5-star		8.0	7.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Primm	4-star		8.0	6.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Drace	4-star		7.5	7.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Nyalu	4-star		7.5	7.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Papalymo	4-star		7.5	7.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Vayne	4-star		7.5	7.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Wakka	3-star		7.5	7.5	Unit Page Summary Notes
Yda	4-star		7.5	7.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Bartz	3-star		7.5	7.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Cloud of Darkness	3-star		7.5	6.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Exdeath	3-star		7.5	6.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Kefka	3-star		7.5	6.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
King	4-star		7.5	6.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Adam	4-star		7.0	7.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Eve	4-star		7.0	7.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Dangerous Ariana	4-star		7.0	7.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Gains levels 2x faster, Time limited unit
Kelsus	5-star		7.0	7.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Kupolkan	4-star		7.0	7.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Moogle	4-star		7.0	7.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Seymour	4-star		7.0	7.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Xiao	3-star		7.0	7.0	Unit Page Summary Notes
Hayate	3-star		7.0	6.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Medius	3-star		7.0	5.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly)
Popoi	3-star		7.0	6.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Ability awakenings (costly) Time limited unit
Ashteroze	4-star		6.5	6.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit
Chic Ariana	4-star		6.5	6.5	Unit Page Summary Notes Gains levels 2x faster, Time limited unit
Grinfield	4-star		6.0	6.0	Unit Page Summary Notes Time limited unit

Unit Summaries (6★ Units)

2B

• Speed is her main chaining skill. It unlocks Extract Speed, which has the same chaining frames but deals more damage.
• Speed/Extract Speed perfect chaining is possible with a clone. You will have to chain both 2B within 0~1 frame offset, according to calculations. Otherwise, her second set of hits will run into the first and can interrupt the chain.
• However, the frames are unique, and she cannot chain well with other units. Being a limited unit, it may be difficult to find a 2B friend after a few months.
• Avoid Attack is another chaining option, but it requires unlocking beforehand with Avoid. Again, frames are unique.
• Not worth it to use her to lower Lightning resistance—use another unit to do it.
• Equipment & TMRs: Doesn't need Dual Wield. Use standard ATK materia.

9S

• Support unit with good stat debuffs, imperil, and a party mitigation buff
• Possesses really potent break with Purge: ATK/DEF and Purge: MAG/SPR, offering dual 50% break
• Also possesses great 50% imperil in 6 elements, broken down into 2 skills, Element Purge: Fire/Lightning/Wind and Element Purge: Ice/Water/Earth
• Able to greatly reduce the damage taken by the party with Spread Shield
• While of minor utility, is able to inflict a great deal of status, via View Hack (blind, confuse, disease) and Balance Hack (stop and paralyze)
• His LB is a tad more potent than his on-demand break, breaking all stats by 54% while fully maxed and inflicting disease
• Equipment & TMRs: As a support focus on survivability HP/DEF/SPR as well as MP to support rather costly spells
• Side note: His TMR is a fantastic bundle of utility, offering A120: Repair for a more than decent heal across turns, A060: P Shield for an amazing 40% physical mitigation, A170: Scanner which boosts the drop rate of items and R020: Mirage which offers a great chaining skill with a decent modifier

A2

• Offensive Heal Combo can now chain perfectly, with its drain effect doing hits in between the main hits.
  • Perfect chaining is possible with a clone. You will have to chain both A2 very close together (0~1 frame offset). This is because her second set of hits will run into the first.
  • However, the frames are unique, and she cannot chain well with other units. Being a limited unit, it may be difficult to find an A2 friend after a few months.
• Her LB applies a very strong ATK buff to herself. The damage to herself can be overcome with healing. This allows her to deal plenty of damage using her chains.
• Equipment & TMRs: Doesn't need Dual Wield. Use 2 Champion's Belt and standard ATK materia.

Ace

• Without ability awakenings, a decent magical finisher centred around Wild Card, which deals magical damage but is affected by killer effects and weapon element.
• Ability awakenings:
  • Ace becomes a top tier support unit with good MP recovery and excellent imperils.
  • Tri-beam Laser +2 (Power: 3 Purecrysts and 6 Giancrysts) now hits considerably harder, but more importantly, lowers enemies' fire/lightning/light resistances (-75%!). This is the highest multi-element imperil, and is particularly worthwhile since units that specialize fire or lightning or light damage are common (e.g. Olive, Orlandeau). Tri-beam Laser+2 can also chain with a clone, although the damage does not carry element and thus is inferior to most other chaining skills.
  • Spirit Hand +2 (Healing: 1 Giancryst) also gives more MP to allies, including himself. Starting with at least 45 (35 to himself including the skill cost), it can restore up to 140 MP to all allies. This provides enough mana for virtually everything except DC Alterna, and since it is an active skill, it is particularly helpful against enemies who Osmose frequently after MP regen has happened at the end of the player turn.
  • Devotion +2 (Support: 1 Purecrysts and 3 Giancrysts) adds some extra MAG and LB generation, and does not significantly improve his gameplay.
• Equipment & TMRs: Use MAG gear with an eye on HP/DEF/SPR. Ace is probably better used as support than as a magical attacker, so there is little need to equip him with a fire/lightning/light weapon for Wild Card. Consider equipping with Pod 153 or Rikku's Pouch to provide more utility as a support unit.

Adam

• Limited equipment selection, with a poor base attack and absolutely no attack passive.
• Three crisis buffs:
  • Katana Evade: Negating one physical attack when HP drop below 50%.
  • Sever Network: Boosting his DEF and SPR by 80% for 3 turns when HP drop under 30%.
  • Raw Feelings: Boosting all stats by 150% for 3 turn when HP drop below 5%.
• Cube Explosion has a good 5x modifier when used after Damage Cut, but the set up makes it average 2.5x/turn, which is far from great
• Bullet Wave also possesses a good 5x modifier, but is a delayed attack, which, once again averages the modifier at 2.5x/turn
• His main and more "reliable" option for damage is his LB, which, once fully leveled offers a decent 8.1x modifier along with a self 104% attack buff
• This is supported by Longing for Humanity which increase his LB fill rate by 100%

Agrias

• Without ability awakenings, she's an average light chainer with not enough ATK.
  • Still usable, but her version of Divine Ruination +0/+1 doesn't chain with Orlandeau/Veritas of the Dark.
  • Probably the most lenient chainer available in terms of timing - when chaining with another Agrias, the offset can be 0~10 frames.
• Learns Curaga and Full Break, but other units will do those roles better.
• Ability awakenings:
  • Divine Ruination +2 (Power: 4 Purecrysts and 12 Giancrysts) adds damage and hits, such that it becomes a copy of Orlandeau's skill. Must awaken.
    • Perfect chaining is relatively easy - it can accommodate up to 0~5 frame offset.
    • Particularly valuable since she now forms a trio of non-dupe units that are able to chain well with each other: Veritas of the Dark, Orlandeau and Agrias. This will become relevant soon, since future "Chamber of Arms" trials will not allow you to bring duplicates.
  • Knighthood +2 (Support: 2 Giancrysts) gives extra ATK for wielding a greatsword - repairs her biggest original flaw. Must awaken.
  • Full Break +2 (Power: 1 Giancryst) adds some elemental reduction and debuff duration, but 30% is superseded by skills from many other units. Not necessary, but cheap to awaken anyway.
• Equipment & TMRs: Use Dual Wield, Excalibur to take advantage of light resistance reduction, and various ATK materia. If enemy is light immune, use a greatsword with different element (e.g. Crimson Saber).

Aileen

• Solid earth physical chainer with a splash of support skills.
• Piledriver is her main skill, dealing decent damage and lowering earth resistance (-50%). Her own TMR is an earth-element weapon, so the imperil is quite useful
• Regarding earth imperil: Earth is a double-edged sword - few bosses resist it, but few skills/weapons confer it. For her own use, Gaia Blade or Artisan (her own TMR) are great options, or you can give her earth element by using Ground Work beforehand.
• In terms of chaining, Piledriver hits are widely spaced but the skill animation involves walking up to the enemy. Hence, her skill timing will vary depending on her unit slot and the distance to the monster's sprite. In most cases, perfect chaining is possible even with Dual Wield. It simply means that you will have to experiment with which slots work for a particular boss (rather than just rely on a clicking macro).
• Recovery Oil and Refreshing Tool are handy utility skills that recover HP and MP respectively.
• Statwise, she is not tied to a specific weapon type. She has decent ATK and 2 uncommon killer passives.
• Equipment & TMRs: Use Dual Wield, at least one earth weapon, and standard ATK gear.

Amelia

• Dual-wields (guns only) - does damage twice
• Ricochet can inflict Stop on all enemies
• Disorder chains well, but damage is average
• Can also do some healing or buff ATK/DEF

Aria

• Good healer with AoE 100% revive and support spells.
• In terms of healing, she learns Curaga, but doesn't have Dualcast. Equipping it on her is a must. Her LB heals allies to 100%, but it may not be available often enough in a serious fight. Protectga and Shellga can also be used on free turns.
• Miracle of Rebirth revives all dead allies to 100% HP. Healing Affection recovers all status ailments for all allies. Water Maiden Blessing can lay down some regeneration preemptively (~1500+ hp per turn). However, all three are abilities and cannot be dualcast or used in the same turn as Curaga, forcing you to choose your action carefully.
• Durability-wise, Maiden of Water heals herself every turn, but she has no innate status immunities.
• In summary, she is capable of good healing, but the fact that she cannot multi-task any of the healing skills means it requires some finesse to keep the rest of your team alive and healthy. It may be good to partner her with other units who can side-heal or recover status ailments, to give yourself flexibility.
• Equipment & TMRs: Use Dualcast and Ribbon. Use her exclusive materia if you expect to use Water Maiden Blessing. Otherwise, standard HP/DEF/SPR gear.

Ashe

• Unique magical attacker with healing effects attached to her damage skills. Effective for Arena.
• Liberating Flash can break enemies' DEF/SPR by 40% for 3 turns.
• Meditate can buff allies' MAG/SPR by 45% for 5 turns.
• Sword of Kings is Ashe's physical chaining move, which happens to chain with Rasler's Patriotic Slash and other moves.
• Her Northswain's Glow has a weak 2.3x modifier, dealing weak magic damage, but allows her to cure all status aliments for the team.
• Her Heaven's Fury deals more damage with a decent 3.07x normalized modifier, and allows her to chain. It also heals your team with a really good 1200 HP base with a 3.4x modifier, making it heal more than a Curaga by a steady 200 HP.
• She gets Thundara, Thundaga and Thundaja. Only Thundaja is really notable, but the lack of innate Dualcast or Dual Black Magic significantly limits her usefulness.
• Passives are great. 80% MAG & 50% ATK when equipped with a Sword, thanks to Power Seeker supporting good base stats, 20% MP, 10% HP, and a much appreciated Auto-Refresh.

Ashteroze

• (real notes coming soon)

Aura

• Solid unit with good base stats and good equipment selection
• Her LB, Tornado Spear, is really solid, decreasing wind resist by 72% in AOE for 3 turns while dealing decent damage.
• Pin-point Focus allows her to imbue herself with wind and boost her attack by 50%, which is helpful if you lack her TMR, and lets her profit off her LB imperil.
• Excitement is a small LB fill rate buff, but allows her and her team to get their LB more quickly.
• Gale Strike weirdly decrease thunder resist, while dealing wind damage. It's still a decent-ish AOE, if you need one.
• Thousand Thrusts is her main chaining move, with a good modifier and a good number of hits. However, the frames of the skill only allows her to chain with a dupe.
• Hundred Thrusts has lower damage, but better frames, allowing her to chain with more units.
• Her passives are great, with an innate High Tide to help her get her LB quickly, a good 70% ATK while using a spear, 20% SPR & MP, and an innate camouflage in the form of Sand Cloud

Ayaka

• Top healer with anything and everything you could want.
• To begin with her spells, the brand new Curaja heals ~6000 hp with 400 SPR (easily reached), essentially refilling HP to full for all units except stocky tanks. The ability to use this with Dual White Magic makes her a big improvement on Tilith, since you can now choose a second spell like Esunaga or Full-Life. Being able to resurrect an ally AND fully heal all party members is very handy.
  • The Reraise spell is also of note here, since it auto-revives at high HP; if ever Ayaka has nothing to do for her second spell, you can always use it as further backup protection.
• If you need more than just healing, Resurgence raises all allies, Hi Regen lays down future healing, Dedication gives HP and MP to other allies, and Purify cures all status ailments (including disease and petrify, which Esunaga doesn't cover). Even the dreaded stop can be removed using Stop Detach.
• Ayaka also comes with a large set of useful passives that give her critical status immunities and stats, including immunity to stop (so she can remove it from allies!), some HP and some reduced targeting. Auto-refresh is standard on healers by now.
• To top it off, her LB does all the healing and status removal that she normally can do, but in one big go. It's a giant reset button for your team. The only downside is that it costs 56 LB crystals - almost 3 times what it costs to charge other units.
  • A good way around this is to get another unit to Entrust their LB to her - this fills based on gauge percentage, not on LB crystals. This is even better when the Entrusting unit charges LB at an accelerated rate, like Ling does.
• Equipment & TMRs: Wield a staff, and use standard HP/DEF/SPR gear for survival. SPR above ~400 is probably superfluous.
  • Her own TMR, Pure White Blessing, provides a strong regenerative buff for both HP and MP, and increases LB charge rate.

Balthier

• A great and flexible finisher.
• Balthier's main trick is to imbue himself with an element while imperiling it, making use of Elemental Shot - Fire, Elemental Shot - Lightning, Elemental Shot - Water or Elemental Shot - Light. All of those moves have a decent 3x modifier, and imbue Balthier with their respective element for 5 turns, while imperiling it for the same duration. Fire, Water & Lightning have a 60% imperil, while Light "only" has a 50% one.
• His finishing move after that is Killer Shot; it's a pretty nice 5x modifier, one hitter, but more than that, it allows Balthier to use Finishing Blow, an amazing 10x modifier. Balthier will rotate between those two, as long as his imperil and imbue are up.
• Passives are great. 80% ATK when wearing a gun, 20% DEF/HP, 15% chance to evade physical & magical attack, along with an immunity to paralyze, confuse, and petrify. 5% MP regen & 30% chance to counter Physical & Magical attacks with Mark, which also allows him to make use of Finishing Blow, thus letting Balthier increase his average output when he counters on a Killer Shot turn.
• Base stats are excellent, and the equipment selection is, too. Balthier has no issues with easily reaching high numbers in attack, making him an excellent finisher.

Barbariccia

• Flexible wind magical attacker who can even finish her own chain.
• Using her innate Dual Black Magic, Barbariccia has two main primary damage options.
  • Tornado is a decent wind chaining skill (perfect chainable if DCing, 0~3 frame offset between clones) which lowers wind resistance (-50%), but the damage modifier is mediocre. Shantotto learns this, and some future units will learn it too.
  • Aeroja is a 1-hit finishing skill that maxes out at 6x damage modifier after using it 5 times.
• This means she can perform either role for your team, but this has limited impact midfight since you will need to decide beforehand whether to bring 2 Barbariccia for chaining.
• However, due to the unique way stacks work, you can alternate Aeroja with some other non-stacking skills/spells/LB without it going back to 2x. This means she can potentially cast Tornado then Aeroja at max 6x in the same turn, and fulfil both roles efficiently.
• Other utility skills include Refreshing Winds, which restores HP and MP to allies over time; Cyclone Shield, which allows her to self-buff evade attacks; and Storm Ward, which can increase allies' wind and lightning resistance by (+70%). Her LB also deals damage and lowers wind/lightning resistances (up to -74%!), but it does not chain well. She also comes with important status immunities and decent MAG passives.
• Slight downsides are that she is very wind-focused, and stacks will reset on death, forcing her to ramp up again.
• Equipment & TMRs: Use standard MAG gear. She is one of the few mages able to wear Malboro's Tentacle and/or Serpent Mace. Consider using her own TMR.
  • Her own TMR, Barbariccia's Spirit adds rare magic killer effects against four races, which is stronger than MAG materia in most cases.

Bartz

• Enhanced
• Can suicide to heal HP and MP (one ally)
• Can transfer LB gauge to an ally
• Low ATK and MAG and mediocre skills
• Should wield a sword

Barusa

• Rawr (real notes coming soon)

Basch

• The best cover tank available for a long time.
• For starters, Basch packs a lot of tools into his kit to help his team survive.
• Commander's Orders is a pretty good 70% DEF/SPR buff for 5 turns to all allies. However, the MP cost is quite heavy.
• He's also able to AOE break ATK/MAG or DEF/SPR, by 45% with the excellent Arms Eraser and Armor Eraser.
• More than that, he possesses more potent, ST, single stat breaks up to 50% (Confusing Lament, Inescapable Disaster, Fulminating Darkness and Ruin Impendent respectively breaking MAG, SPR, ATK, DEF)
• Finally, Basch possesses two amazing covers:
  • Twilight Guard is his AOE magic cover, with 75% chance to activate with a 50 to 70% mitigation.
  • Dawn Guard is the physical counterpart of this cover, with the same chance & the same mitigation.
• Basch's passives are great. 50% DEF/SPR while wearing a shield (any kind of shield), 40% HP, and 5% MP regen. They go along nicely with his incredibly good base stats. His counters are amazing too. Spirit of the Fighter counters physical attacks with a pretty potent self-heal (400 base, 16x modifier, at 500 SPR and 200 MAG, it's ~4700 HP heal). It's limited to 2 per turn, but it should be more than enough to fill him up. Undying Fighter counters magical attacks with a 50 MP regen for himself, which isn't limited in its number of activations. All of that makes him a pretty self-sufficient tank, which barely require any of your attention on the battlefield.

Beach Time Fina

• Poor healer with inadequate status recovery and no standout strengths
• (full notes coming soon)

Black Cat Lid

• A really nice finisher after ability awakening. A bit messy before those.
• Her kit is loaded with skills, but only a few are really relevant.
• Hex Strike deals weak physical damage, but inflicts 3 random status aliments to an enemy.
• Focus allows her to weakly buff the team's MAG/SPR (40%).
• Ultimate Blow is a nice 3.85x modifier, one hitter. It's her go-to move when you use her as your finisher.
• Weakening Scratch is a rather nice all-imperil, decreasing every elemental resistance by 40% while dealing moderate damage.
• She learns Dualcast but her only good magic spell is Barthundaga.
• Passives are quite low and a bit messy. 20% ATK/HP/DEF, 10% SPR, 10% chance to evade physical attack & 90% chance to survive a fatal blow when HP is over 50% and an immunity to poison and paralyze. She also gets 100% machine & undead killer, and 50% demon killer.
• Her base stats are low in every stats and her equipment selection is particular, and rather limited. It's really difficult to get a decent use out of her.
• Ability Awakenings:
  • Her ability awakenings are amazing.
  • Hex Strike can easily be forgotten, only increasing the number of status inflicted to 4, and the chance to inflict them to 50%
  • Sturdy Cat gives her a 50% HP and a 30% DEF boost, making her amazingly resilient for a damage dealer.
  • Nature Protector makes her weapon of choice a hammer, by giving her an amazing 100% ATK when wearing a hammer. It also increases her demon, undead, & mechanical killers by 25%
  • Finally, Ultimate Blow become an amazing 6x modifier, making her a really reliable finisher especially when her killers are of use.

Blossom Sage Sakura

• (real notes coming soon)

Bran

• Decent chainer and excellent mana battery.
• Thunder Clap is Bran's chaining skill, dealing AOE Light and Lightning damage, while imperiling those two elements. The modifier is a partially weak 2.7x, but it's still nice thanks to the imperil.
• Lightning Shield allows him to increase his team's Lightning and Light resistance by 50%.
• Elven Song offers an okay-ish 1350 base HP, 10x modifier, and an excellent 30 base MP with a 0.6x modifier split over 3 turns.
• Osmose Blade deals hybrid damage (terribly weak) & absorbs MP—the sole reason you would use it is that you lack the MP for singing, and even then...
• Passives are meh. 30% ATK, 20% HP. 50% innate Lightning and Light resistance and an innate resistance to paralyze. Eye for an Eye allows him to counter twice as much, but his sole counter is Counter, which is really weak.
• It's unfortunate that his passives neither support his excellent base ATK nor his meh SPR, with the latter being especially needed for his song.

Cagnazzo

• Provoke tank with innate draw and decent mitigation, but clumsy to use.
• Statwise, Cagnazzo boasts decent DEF and SPR and 50% innate provoke effect (from Conspicuous Existence). Final Struggle allows him to survive one ultra-heavy hit per battle, and he gains extra DEF/SPR when he reaches low hp. the "Carapace" skills are simply gimmicky, since the self-buffs are short and are less efficient than guarding.
• Defensive Stance seems to be his primary defensive skill, providing 60% mitigation, minor self-healing and increased provoke, but it locks his 2 following turns. This is a big downside, since normally you can simply guard for 50% damage reduction, with more flexibility in turn use, and you can also stack additional mitigation from other sources (e.g. 9S's Spread Shield). Hence, the advantage from this skill is that Cagnazzo is relatively self-sufficient, and also the extra provoke.
  • Importantly, during these turns, he cannot be swapped in 10-man fights or counter enemy attacks.
• As with other provoke tanks, he can offer good synergy with Illusionist Nichol.
• His other downsides are his poor equipment selection (can't equip weapons, hats with evasion, or shields) and his counters. These deal no damage (and most bosses are immune to status ailments), so he does not generate LB crystals like other provoke tanks. His status immunities cover paralyze but not confusion or petrify.
• Equipments & TMRs: Use standard HP/DEF/SPR gear. Consider Winged Saint for extra DEF, or equipment with damage counter abilities. Equip L Shield/Equip H Shield may be more efficient than normal HP/DEF/SPR materia.

Cecil

• Enhanced
• Can cover one ally with high mitigation at high chance
• Good bulky tank as long as cover triggers
• Covering one ally at a time leaves other units to fend for themselves
• Can do some healing, and can buff ATK/DEF/SPR (all allies) with LB

Cedona

• (real notes coming soon)

Cerius

• Can cast 2 spells/turn, but little to do
• Can buff fire/ice/lightning/dark resistance (all allies)
• Can buff DEF (all allies)
• (Can't equip Cura, but can get it from Carbuncle or Healing Staff)

Charlotte

• Without ability awakenings:
  • A decent tank with less stats and less frills, but does the job. She can cover allies from physical attack, and survive a big damage burst, but her skillset is narrower with fewer stat passives. Notably, she still lacks Provoke in any form.
• Ability awakenings:
  • She is slightly improved in every way and made more useful, but lack of Provoke-type skill still leaves questions. The question is—why invest when better tanks like Warrior of Light and Veritas of the Earth are readily available?
  • Immortal Spirit +2 (Support: 1 Purecrysts and 3 Giancrysts) greatly improves the chance and window for surviving a large damage burst. This is the only reason you would want to use her, and so is possibly worthwhile.
  • Grandshelt Shield +2 (Guard: 3 Purecrysts and 6 Giancrysts) improves her covering skill somewhat, but the large cost is prohibitive.
  • Royal Armlet +2 (Guard: 1 Giancryst) is cheap, but only boosts her resilience against hybrid/magical attacks AFTER a physical attack has forced her to cover, but in most cases Grandshelt Shield will take precedence and completely negate this skill.
  • Lift Spirits +2 (Healing: 2 Purecrysts and 6 Giancrysts) is an expensive investment for a skill that only extends the turn duration—the MP recovered per turn stays the same (tiny).
• Equipment & TMRs: Use her unit-exclusive shield Patriot as it unlocks a status recovery move. Otherwise, standard HP/DEF/SPR gear.

Charming Kitty Ariana

• Great healer with powerful supporting ability.
• Learns Charming - Refresh, a Curaga-like ability that can also clear most status aliments, except Blind and Poison.
• Learns a 100% raise ability (Charming - Revival) and a 80% reraise ability (Charming - Survival).
• Can support nicely with:
  • Great offensive (Charming - Offense) and defensive (Charming - Defense) buffs, at 60% each.
  • No Distractions! offers a niche break resist.
  • No Worries! offers a decent, even if not amazing 40% elemental resist, which can help in a pinch.
  • Aqua Touch offers the totally unique ability to grant Water element to an ally, which can provide niche use, in a Fixed Dice build or for elemental chaining.
  • Can regen MP nicely while singing for 2 turns with Chorus.
  • Sole unit that can clear Charm with Charming - Seduction and is immune to Charm (similar in that regard to Ayaka and Stop).
• Her LB, while a bit costly (though 100% LB Fill rate from Singer's Appeal helps), provides a 100% heal, clears all breaks on your team, and imperils for 50% Water and Light to all enemies. This goes along nicely with her Aqua Touch.
• Finally, she possesses the ability to dual cast all of her Charming skill with Charming, making her healing and supportive ability more potent.

Chic Ariana

• Magical attacker with some ice and earth skills, but they aren't affected by Dual Wield.
• Quake Verse and Enhanced Quake Verse can boost her MAG.
• Learns Blizzaga/Stonga/Ultima, but these are comparatively weak and she has no innate Dualcast.
• LB lowers Ice and Earth resistance, but the few strong units that use Ice and Earth have their own skill with similar effects.
• Equipment & TMRs: Use her event gear (these have unit-exclusive bonuses), and standard MAG gear. Dualcast not particularly needed since her abilities are approximately the same modifier.

Chizuru

• Physical attacker with good ATK, but outdated damage skills.
• Really limited equipment selection (only Katanas & Daggers offensively).
• Fingersnap allows her to dispel enemy buffs or even your own team's buffs or breaks, with friendly targeting (be wary of her ATK stat as too high a number may kill your own unit).
• Dismissal possesses 30% chance to Stop, which can help you deal with evade units in the Arena.
• Scintillia can be used as a weak finisher, with a 2.67x normalized modifier.
• Hayate lets her dodge 3 physical attacks for 2 turns.
• Phantom Shadow, her main move, allows her to AOE chain, but it has a weak 2.8x modifier, only 5 hits, and doesn't bridge by itself.
• Passives are so-so—45% innate ATK & 25% DEF/SPR/MAG while wearing a Katana with Blade and Body. High Tide helps her get her LB more often, but you don't really have a use of her LB. Molt gives her 20% innate physical evade, which helps her survivability. Counter is to counter with normal attack, but that's really far from amazing.
• Enhanced:
  • High Tide +2 now gets the LB fill rate to 300%. How high it is doesn't matter much as you still won't be using her LB often.
  • Molt +2 increases her innate physical evade to 40%, which lets her easily reach a 100% evade build.
  • Phantom Shadow +2 becomes a decent 4x modifier and gets a lower MP cost. Its issues remain, however.

Chloe

• Elemental resistance buffer with unique ability to grant killer effects to mages.
• Chloe's main strength is similar to that of Minfilia—she has 8 different "Anti-element Method" skills which increase allies' resistance to one particular element. Often, 70% extra resistance can make or break a battle, but you will need to rotate these diligently against multi-element bosses.
• She also learns 6 different "Research" skills. These boost one ally's magic damage (+50%) against a particular race (beasts/plants/birds/demons/dragons/stone monsters), but the buff is rather short and doesn't affect all allies.
• There are a few unusual gimmicky skills as well. Strong Memory is the most useful, debuffing an enemy's DEF/SPR (-45%). Elemental Rule can weakly lower all enemies' resistance to all elements. Objection deals tiny damage on counter.
• Like Minfilia, she is immune to all status ailments. She also boasts decent base HP.
• Her LB can buff resistance against all elements at the same time (+74%!) while also boosting MAG/SPR. This is excellent, but without LB rate boosts, she will find it difficult to use it every 3 turns.
• Equipment & TMRs: Use standard HP/DEF/SPR gear to prioritize survival.

Christine

• A powerful ice magic chainer.
• Can decrease ice resistance for all enemies by 40%. You will want to avoid using that, though, as her rotation is already quite packed and 40% isn't that good for an imperil.
• Can break DEF/SPR or ATK/MAG by 40% with Cold Air or Frost Fall
• Frozen Armor gives an amazing 50% damage mitigation and 100% increase to ice resistance for one turn to an ally and to Christine, but also stops the target ally for one turn. This can be avoided by using stop resist, or simply acting before using Frozen Armor. The stop will lock the unit's ability to counter or cover, though.
• Hand in Hand is an amazing and rather unique ability, allowing Christine to give one skill to an ally. This skill, Ice Shards, has a quite good 4.4x normalized modifier that also happens to be a 10-hit chaining skill, which lets Christine become a chain partner for any unit.
• Winter Fall allows Christine to dualcast two of her most powerful skills while boosting her MAG/SPR by 80%:
  • Snow Burial is a great chaining skill AOE, with a very potent 7x modifier.
  • Absolute Zero is an amazing ramping-up skill, starting on a 3x modifier to a maximum 9x modifier, which is quickly attained by the use of Winter Fall.
• Outside of that, Glacial Storm deals some weak magic damage, and increases her LB fill rate by 50% for 3 turns.
• Her LB is pretty cool for a team, and offers a lot in a TDH/FD meta. Snowbear Rampage chains greatly, but mostly imbues the attack of the team with Ice for 2 turns, which allows them to elemental chain & profit from outside imperil with an high variance weapon. The cost is quite heavy though, and her LB generation is only supported by Glacial Storm, which is quite weak.
• Pretty good passives—70% MAG, 30% SPR, 20% HP & MP & ice resistance, which support really nice base stats. She also has 5% MP Refresh and an immunity to paralyze, confusion, and disease. These are further supported by a good, albeit limited, equipment selection for a mage. Can counter physical attack with Snowbear's Fury which decreases ice resistance by 100% for the enemy. As it procs against physical attack, it may be difficult to take advantage of it in a set up with tanks.

Cloud

• Pretty one-dimensional unit, but good at his job.
• You will only ever get damage from Cloud. That's what he does and what his kit offers.
• Possesses various ST & AOE damage ability that are just weaker version of the main one.
• Climhazzard is Cloud's go-to move for finishing. With a nice 5.5x normalized modifier, it's pretty good for capping.
• Meteor Rain is Cloud's chaining move. He acts better as a capper, but can chain if you want him to. It's a decent 3.6x normalized modifier, with nice, regular frames.
• Finishing Touch is Cloud's AOE move, should you need to cap or damage in AOE. It offers a decent 4x modifier one-hitter.
• His LB is his strongest move, with an amazing 21x modifier when maxed. It have 15 hits, but chains poorly. Can only chain with a dupe, and even then, the last hit will not be part of the chain. It's still worth using, since the damage is massive.
• Passives are excellent. SOLDIER 1st Class is an amazing stat boost, increasing HP/MP by 50% & ATK/DEF/MAG/SPR by 30%. He has 50% chance to ignore fatal damage up to 3 times with Fleeting Illusion and resists blind, sleep, confuse, and disease with Jenova Cells. All of that makes Cloud really hard to kill for a damage dealer. His Vanguard increases his EQP ATK by 100% while single-wielding any weapon, which is pretty much his TMR. His Aggression generates 3 LB crysts per turn, allowing him to get his LB more often, which has a massive cost (30 LB crysts).

Cloud of Darkness

• Enhanced
• Some resistance to all elements and status ailments
• Can recover most status ailments (all allies)
• Can buff all elemental resistance (all allies)
• Extra damage vs humans, but weak skills

Cor

• Decent finisher with decent base stats.
• Can break ATK/MAG or DEF/SPR by 40% with Way of the Mind's Eye or Kotetsu Flash.
• Can buff the party's ATK/MAG by 80% for 3 turns with Inspire.
• Hien is a decent 3x modifier attack if an AOE is needed.
• Slaughtering Blade is a weak 2.8x modifier, but can chain, and mainly, increases Cor's LB fill rate by 200%.
• His LB, Lion's Roar, is a powerful 9.4x modifier, which also decreases ATK/DEF/MAG/SPR by 44% for one enemy when maxed.
• Cor as a finisher relies on Slaughtering Blade to get his LB as often as possible and use it for capping.
• Passives are pretty good: innate immunity to blind, confuse and disease thanks to White Knight; can ignore fatal damage once and counter physical & magical attacks with self-heal via The Immortal; and stat boosts to HP (20%) & SPR (10%) with Tri-Guard.
• Offensively, Katana Mastery+ offers him 80% ATK when equipping a Katana and Sword Draw gives him 80% EQP ATK when single wielding a one-handed weapon.

Crowe

• Support unit with good mitigation buffs, who can also dabble with magic or healing.
• For Hearth and Home can reduce damage to all allies by 30%, a valuable skill.
• Crowe's LB does the same and more—it reduces damage to all allies by 30%, as well as increasing resistance to all elements by up to 64%. However, she does not have any passives that speed up her LB gauge filling. Lone Woman can be used, but it only increases filling by 50%.
• She can also buff the party's ATK/DEF or MAG/SPR (40%), or specifically boost one stat (100%) for one ally for 3 turns.
• Magic-wise, she learns Dual Black Magic, but learns no strong black magic spells. In terms of healing, Crowe can use Curaga, or cure all status ailments for one ally, but lacks Dual White Magic/Dualcast or Raise or AoE status recovery.
• Equipment & TMR: Use status immunity equipment and standard HP/DEF/SPR gear.

Cupid Artemios

• Skills are all light-element
• Can debuff dark resistance (one or all enemies) while hitting
• Good status immunities
• Should wield a bow
• Can suicide trying to cover for no reason

Dangerous Ariana

• Can buff either ATK or MAG (all allies) while singing
• Should wear her exclusive event gear
• Event materia lets her cast 2 spells/turn
• Learns Thundaga and Bioga

Dark Fina

• Enhanced
• Can cast 2 damage spells/turn
• Ultima deals excellent non-elemental damage with her high MAG
• Retaliate is dangerous in arena
• Can also inflict status ailments, or debuff ATK/DEF (all enemies)

Dark Knight Cecil

• Without ability awakenings, his skills are suicidal and deal mediocre damage. Do not use.
• Ability awakenings:
  • They transform him into a heavy hitting dark-element chain finisher. Soul Eater +2 and Shikkoku +2 complement each other, so you will need to +2 both, as costly as that is.
  • Soul Eater +2 (Power: 3 Purecrysts and 12 Giancrysts) increases damage modifier to 7.5x, and it lowers dark resistance (-100%) while dealing dark damage. Chain finishing moves don't get any better than this....except that the HP cost also increases, and he would normally die if dual-wielding.
  • When using two weapons, it is possible to heal him in between the two sets of hits such that he survives. Timing is reportedly fairly generous. However, this alone still leaves him on low HP.
  • Shikkoku +2 (Support: 1 Purecryst and 3 Giancrysts) remedies this, by allowing him to heal 9999 at the end of turn, which should be full HP in standard gear.
  • Dark Cannon +2 (Power: no Purecrysts/Giantcrysts) is cheap and boosts AoE damage slightly.
• Equipment & TMRs: Use Dual Wield and standard ATK materia.

Delita

• Enhanced
• Can debuff DEF or SPR (one enemy) while hitting
• Can buff MAG/SPR (all allies)
• Decent ATK, but mediocre skills

Demon Rain

• Without ability awakenings, a doublehand-counter unit with good ATK but lacking in damage skills, mitigation and provoke. Do not use.
• Ability awakenings:
  • Key ability awakenings allow him to draw attacks and gain mitigation, as well as improving ATK and counter damage dramatically. These allow him to be a potent, one-of-a-kind counter-tank, especially when synergized with Illusionist Nichol. Being able to unlock damage skill is a bonus.
  • Defend +2 (Guard: 1 Purecryst and 3 Giancrysts) is absolutely essential, since it allows him to halve any incoming damage and avoid dying from it. Without this, Demon Rain will die easily. It also helps him to draw enough enemy attacks, so that he can counter several times per round and rack up good damage.
  • Counter +2 (Guard: 2 Giancrysts) is equally important, and inexpensive to awaken. It more than triples his counter damage (!!!) and also increases his effective counter chance to 100% in tandem with Demon's Revenge.
  • Demonic Fury +2 (Support: 1 Purecryst and 3 Giancrysts) gives him much needed bulk, and a decent conditional DEF buff.
  • Doublehand +2 (Tech: 3 Purecryst and 6 Giancrysts) is much more costly, but immediately grants him extra ATK when using a single weapon. Since his counters don't benefit from dual-wielding, it is basically a potent
  • Ignite +2 (Support: 3 Giancrysts) improves the ATK/MAG buff to 80%, but since you will need to spend 1 per 3 turns using Defend+2, realistically you will only use the unlocked skills for 1 turn only, if Demon Rain is tanking. Hence, Ignite+2 opens up the option of not using him as a counter-tank, and simply as a direct attacker. These include:
    • Demon's Wrath - a passable 1-hit finishing skill with 5x mod, and
    • Inner Fire - a decent SPR self-buff with a little bit of MP regen.
• Equipment & TMRs: Use a single weapon, and equip for HP/ATK/DEF as per tanking needs. Consider using equipment with high flat ATK (e.g. Desch's Earring, Ifrit's Claw), or high variance (e.g. Zodiac Spear) to maximize the benefit of his doublehand passive. Another good build is using a fist weapon together with Equip Fist, Martial Arts Mastery and Champion's Belt.

Desch

• Debuffer with decent bulk, but not enough to offer.
• Learns 4 different "Spark" skills which debuff two stats at a time, but the most useful combinations (normally ATK/MAG and DEF/SPR, available from other units) are glaringly missing. His atypical combos might save time in specific trials, but are not as useful generally.
• Can also remove buffs/debuffs from enemies or lower lightning resistance (-50%), but these are only situationally useful, and have been paired with mediocre physical attacks.
• Has some defensive stat passives and two status immunities, but poor stat distribution and no ATK passive.
• Equipment & TMRs: Focus on HP/SPR/DEF, as his stats are too poor to make into a decent hitter. No Dual Wield or Dualcast required.

Drace

• (real notes coming soon)

Dracu Lasswell

• Can debuff ATK/DEF and debuff ice resistance (one enemy) while hitting
• Less likely to be targeted
• Mediocre ATK, and no good ice weapons to use

Duke

• Great base stats, passives, and equipment selection
• Can give himself access to Ice, Wind, or Lightning, using Glacier Lance, Gail Pierce, or Pulse Javelin but can only imperil for Ice
• Immunity to blind, paralyze, and confuse with Dragon Sealer
• Can use some good jump skills, reinforced by Dragoon Spirit, but jumps are quite out of the meta right now
• 3 innates killer for beasts, birds (50%) and dragon (100%) with Airborne Combatant
• His chaining skill, Hexa Thrust imperils for ice but the frames are bad, so the skill can't spark, which makes him lose a lot of DPS compared to other chainers

Elfreeda

• Weird mix between a Provoke/Counter tank and a DPS
• Possesses two 100% Provoke. The first one, Clever Smile, breaks ATK/MAG for all the enemies. The second one, Vigorous Cry, increases her ATK/DEF by 80%. All of these effects, buffs, breaks, and provokes, are two turns long.
• Possesses multiple Sub- ability ( Sub-zero Blade, Sub-zero Shield, Sub-zero Heart and Sub-zero Magic) they respectively dispel and break one stat (ATK, DEF, MAG, SPR) by 45%. Be careful while using it, as the dispel will remove all previously applied break on the enemy (but will also take care of any possible buff that has been applied, and apply the selected break).
• Frozen Blade is a decent-ish 3x modifier one hitter, which allows Elfreeda to imbue her attacks with Ice for 5 turns.
• Icicle Storm if you need AOE damage, no real reason to use it outside of that.
• Frost Fall is a decent 4.5x normalized modifier and decreases the enemy's ice resist by 50%.
• She also possesses several counters, which hide her more powerful abilities:
• Falling Snow decreases an enemy's ice resist by 60%, a bit stronger than her on-demand imperil and has 40% chance to proc, against magic or physical damage
• Absolute Stillness is terribly bad, a weak 0.8x modifier AOE with 30% chance to proc against physical damage
• Ice Prism is her strongest move, an amazing 9.75x normalized modifier, but only have 10% chance to proc against physical damage
• Her Limit burst, Skating Heart, is a good chaining move with a great modifier, but she's not supported by any form of LB generation or LB fill rate.
• Her passives are great, mainly defensively, with 20% HP & 50% DEF & SPR, while wearing either light or heavy armor. She also innately resists Paralyze & Confuse. Sadly, her base stats aren't as great as her passive, which gives a mitigated result.
• Offensively, she gets 30% ATK, and 50% EQP ATK when single-wielding any weapon, which once again, isn't amazing with her base stats.

Elza

• Enhanced
• Her DEF/SPR debuff (one enemy) is particularly heavy
• Madness Rush hits hard (random enemy) but can't cap a chain
• Good ATK, but can only wield spears

Emperor

• Without enhancements:
  • Can cast 2 damage spells/turn
  • Learns Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga and Aeroga
  • Fire From Below, his signature damaging skill, starts out at a 2x modifier, but can get as high as a 20x modifier after 10 casts.
  • Control is a solid self MAG buff of 100%, however it's counterbalanced by breaking your remaining party's SPR by 20% - both last 5 turns
  • Can inflict stop (all enemies)
• After enhancements:
  • Fire From Below's max modifier jumps up to 25x, while also providing a 50% fire imperil, basically boosting it to 37.5x
  • Control gains better synergy with Fire From Below - SPR break also affects enemies, SPR break and MAG buff values are increased to 50% and 200% respectively, and it also gets an increased duration to 11, matching the full warm-up period of Fire From Below's modifier to the max.

Eve

• Emo Noctis in the Afterlife (real notes coming soon)

Exdeath

• Enhanced
• Can cast 2 damage spells/turn
• Learns Meteor, Firaga, Blizzaga and Thundaga
• LB inflicts status ailments (all enemies) while hitting
• Extra damage vs some races balances out poor armor selection

Fina

• Decent healer to start with.
• Fina is a decent healer, even if she's not the most oustanding one.
• She can heal with Curaga and resurrect allies with Raise.
• Esuna allows her to clear Poison, Sleep, Silence, Paralyze, Confuse, Blind to one ally, but you won't really use it a lot considering she has Superior Healing, an AOE heal that's 200hp less than a Curaga and clears all of those statuses for the whole team.
• Cleanse allows her to clear disease.
• She can fill up the LB gauge of an ally with Entrust and offer a meh-ish buff with Cheer.
• Her passives are pretty decent, 50% SPR with a bow, 30% MP, and she counters physical attack with Honest Wish, which heals all of the team for a more than decent amount.
• As a main character, Fina get exclusive equipment in Training the Soul. Reincarnation, her bow, give a nice amount of SPR and offers her 40% MP. Fina's Clothes grants her decent DEF & SPR, 10% HP and a nice status immunity against Sleep, silence, and paralyze. Finally, Fina's Insignia give her 15% MP & 5% auto refresh. All of those MP boosts makes Fina easily self sustainable, and the status resistance helps her stay constantly in the fray. Her base stats, albeit a bit low, are on par with Refia. And just like her, she need Dualcast to really work as a healer.
• Ability awakenings:
  • These aren't really essential.
  • Cheer just gets a lower MP cost, but you weren't using it in the first place.
  • Curada heals 200 more HP, but as a ST heal, you won't be using it a lot.
  • Innocent Shot increases her SPR by 30% when wearing a bow and gives her 100% LB fill rate. Her LB is pretty bad, but it's pretty nice if you use her Entrust a lot. It's the sole enhancement worth doing. It's also really cheap.

Firion

• Enhanced
• Can use all weapon and most armor types
• Extra, extra damage vs 6 races
• Low ATK and mediocre damage skill

Fohlen

• Sonic Blast chains decently, hits hard and negates next 3 physical attacks against him
• Has additional evasion, and can draw attacks to make use of his evasiveness
• Skills are mostly wind element
• Can reduce encounters to make explorations faster

Fryevia

• Hybrid ice chainer able to reach high MAG and deal excellent damage.
• Frost Flower Blitz is a very strong chaining skill, as it lowers ice resistance (-50%) whilst doing ice damage, and is hybrid. It is affected by Dual Wield, and the second set of hits benefits from the resistance reduction laid down by the first set.
  • Perfect chaining while dual-wielding is possible within 0~2 frame offset with a clone.
  • The gap between dual-wield hits for Frost Flower Blitz is particularly small, so the entire chain is relatively short. This makes it harder to fit both DW hits of a chain finisher - although past trials/events have not been hard enough to make this an issue (she already does plenty of damage by chaining with herself).
• Many bosses have lower SPR than DEF, and thus are more susceptible to hybrid attacks than physical. This is the main reason she is such a strong unit - she can outdamage units like Orlandeau easily while in MAG build. ATK build is possible, but she doesn't reach as high ATK.
• Aside from her obvious strengths, she also learns some evasion, and her AoE skill inflicts paralyze (30%). Her LB can also deal heavy damage to all enemies while inflicting stop (up to 84%!!).
• Equipment & TMRs: Use Dual Wield, her own TMR (Fryevia's Needle) and 3~4 Letters and Arms. Sorcery and Death Trap are viable alternative weapons.

Gaffgarion

• Without ability awakenings, he is a poor dark attacker with suicidal skills. Do not use.
• Ability awakenings:
  • They turn him into a semi-functional dark chain finisher, but without good synergy like Dark Knight Cecil and still moderately suicidal.
  • Abyssal Blade +2 (Power: 4 Purecrysts and 12 Giancrysts) boosts damage massively (damage modifier 7.5x!), and is first priority to awaken, if you do awaken his abilities at all. However, it is still hampered by the HP sacrifice (90% of current HP if dual-wielding!), and (despite costing 1 extra Purecryst!) it doesn't lower enemy resistance like Dark Knight Cecil's Soul Eater +2.
  • Divine Knight +2 (Support: 1 Giancryst) boosts his ATK and damage against humans. Cheap and effective, but it doesn't give him enough ATK to compete with the top attackers.
  • Self-Sacrifice +2 (Tech: 1 Purecryst and 5 Giancrysts) allows him to spend a turn to make Blood Weapon/Dark Weapon AoE next turn. Too fussy to be useful.

Garland

• The original dark knight (real notes coming soon)

Gilgamesh

• Without ability awakenings, he is an average physical attacker with good weapon selection.
  • Use bladed weapons for maximum ATK and Snowpetal to deal damage.
• Ability awakenings:
  • These significantly improve his ATK and damage, but leaves him just shy of top-tier.
  • Weapon Collector +2 (Tech: 1 Purecryst and 6 Giancrysts) is first priority, giving additional ATK (since you will want to dual-wield two different weapon types) and giving him even broader choice.
  • Snowpetal +2 (Power: 3 Purecryst and 12 Giancrysts) is expensive, but adds significantly more damage to his main damage skill (3.6x => 5.71x). Worth the investment if you intend to use Gilgamesh regularly.
  • Tri-Attack +2 (Power: 1 Purecryst and 3 Giancrysts) adds more hits, but doesn't improve damage modifier. The new chaining frames are irregular, so perfect chaining is only possible with a clone.
• Equipment & TMRs: Many options are possible, but probably best using Dual Wield, a greatsword and another of his favored weapons. Use standard ATK gear otherwise.
  • His own TMR, Genji Glove, grants dual-wield from an accessory slot - much better than the normal materia.

Gladiolus

• Decent cover/counter tank with decent stats
• (full notes coming soon)

Glauca

• Average physical attacker with chain and finish options, with preference for light or dark
• Daybreak Darkness lowers light and dark resistance (-50%) and can perfect chain with a clone (0~2 frame offset), but damage is a bit weak.
• For straight damage, Great Chop is a straightforward damage skill (4x damage modifier). Otherwise, Glauca can inflict stop (50%) with Flash of Despair or dispel an enemy with Wall Smash.
• Passives give 50% resistance to all status ailments, extra ATK when using a greatsword, and the useful Man-Eater killer effect. All in all, he makes a usable all-round attacker, but better units exist.
• Equipment & TMRs: Use Dual Wield, at least one greatsword, and standard ATK gear. Deathbringer, Excalibur, Organyx and Durandal are worth considering if available.

Goken

• Physical attacker with chainable skills, but hampered by skill unlocks and changing chain frames.
• He looks to have decent ATK on paper, but Bare Knuckle Extreme is only helpful if you don't have good equipment (ATK TMRs). This is because without a weapon, Goken will only hit once - whereas Dual Wield will hit twice and deal more damage as long as he has been equipped with good ATK.
• Otherwise, his attack skills involve sequential unlocks, with them getting progressively stronger. Each time, a single-target and an AoE option is available:
  • Turn 1: Choose from Firm Punch (ST) or Light Kick (AoE).
  • Turn 2: Wolfclaw Fist (ST) or Falcon Kick (AoE).
  • Turn 3: Tigerclaw Fist (ST) or Dragon Kick (AoE).
  • Turn 4+: repeat from Turn 1.
• The main issue is that these skills don't have the same hit frames from turn to turn. This means that you must use two Gokens to chain (a different unit would only match one chaining skill as it comes up), and that both Gokens need to be on the same turn rotation as well. It only takes one Goken to die to entirely disrupt your plans. Given the hassle in ensuring the above, Goken's skillset has severely limited practicality.
• Other downsides include poor equipment selection (only fist weapons) and lack of defensive passives.

Grace

• Unlimited either self-buffs strongly, or self-inflicts Berserk for damage boost
• Can deal heavy damage while suiciding
• No innate ATK passive and mediocre weapon selection

Grim Lord Sakura

• Decent magical chainer requiring her own TMR to optimize MAG and HP.
• Unlike some other magic users, most of her skills can be used twice in a turn via Dual Black Magic or Grim Lord, without ever needing Dual Wield.
• Of these, Grim - Soul Barrage is an excellent non-elemental chaining skills with decent damage (perfect chaining with a clone is easy = 0~6 frame offset window). For an elemental option, Grim - Eldritch Flames deals dark/fire damage and lowers resistance to these (-50%), but has a lower modifier. Unfortunately, dark and fire are commonly resisted, and the skill forces you to use both elements, which means Soul Barrage is more useful of the two. If lightning damage is required, DC Thundaja is handy.
• She also has some support skills. Undying Fervor grants immunity to debuffs and some status ailments, and Sacrificial Barrier boosts allies' DEF/SPR (+100%) while boosting fire resistance (albeit with the drawback of nearly dying). Thunder's Protection is also available for resistance against light/dark/lightning.
• Her passives are a double-edged sword. In order to access the bulk of her stat buffs, she must use a single dual dark/fire weapon with high flat MAG and HP. Her own TMR, Reaver, is all of these things, but the problem is that it is a spear and not a longsword. This prevents her using Letters and Arms for even more MAG, although she has enough MAG and a lot of HP to make the spear worthwhile. It also makes it very unlikely for other units to benefit from using it.
• The only downsides are low DEF and no reduced targeting or evasion (although he has high HP), and that she uses MP very quickly. This makes her better for short fights where you need burst damage.
• Equipment & TMRs: Use her own TMR, Reaver, and standard MAG gear. No need for Dual Wield. HP is low priority due to her passives.

Grinfield

• (real notes coming soon)

Hayate

• Without ability awakenings, he is a wannabe fire hybrid attacker that is too weak to be competitive. Do not use.
  • His main problem is lack of damage. His base stats are low, he doesn't get strong ATK/MAG passives, and Flame Type 2 and Wildfire Type 2 both have very low modifiers for hybrid skills.
  • The only reason to use him is Spy, which reduces encounter rate more than any other skill. This may allow you to walk through exploration maps with minimal fuss - but there is little reward from explorations at the moment.
• Ability awakenings:
  • They slightly improve his evasion and damage, but still too weak to be useful.
  • Mirage +2 (Tech: 1 Giancryst) adds 1 extra dodge and turns.
  • Flame Type 2 +2 (Power: 3 Giancrysts) and Wildfire Type 2 +2 (Power: 1 Purecryst and 6 Giancrysts) improve damage slightly and can now be alternated with Mirage while maintaining overall damage per turn, but still far too weak.

Helena

• Nosy adventurer
• She's a dual-wield physical finisher with low ATK. Bring her along for farming gil/drops, not damage.
• Urgent Rebirth offers a typical 30% HP Raise.
• Super Aid heals a laughable amount of HP (300 base, 3x) and cures poison, blind, silence, and disease for one ally, if you're in trouble.
• Ability awakenings:
  • Ace Adventurer +1 gives her the same boost to common item drops as Locke and Pirate Jake.
  • Best Shot +2 is a surprisingly decent 5.55x normalized modifier, providing help for offsetting her low ATK.
  • With Ace Adventurer +2, her LB should be up every 2-3 turns. It's not much better than Best Shot +2, but it does buff the party's ATK/MAG.
  • Endless Dream +2 which makes her sleep, but also regens 50% HP/MP (and if you awakened it for some reason, buffs her ATK +50%.) Make her immune to sleep for a cheap boost.
• While she has innate dual wield with daggers, guns, whips, and throwing weapons as well as innate gun mastery, her low stats mean she won't be of much use for any challenging fight.
• Awaken Ace Adventurer to +1 if you plan to use her. Her +2 won't be as worthwhile for the power crysts consumed compared to the damage dealt by Best Shot +2. Endless Dream is hardly worth the gil and crysts.

Ilias

• Capable of using any item on the whole party
• Can clear most ailments from allies with Recovery
• Can make all allies fully immune to ailments via Immunization
• Special Recipe unlocks HP/MP recovery and area Full Break
• Extract unlocks ATK/MAG and DEF/SPR area buffs + elemental debuffing

Illusionist Nichol

• Unique support unit able to confer tank role onto an ally
• He's pretty good at supporting.
• Disenchant allows him to dispel an enemy, while dealing a minimal amount of damage.
• Illusion - Terrifying Visions is a nice 45% ATK/MAG break, even if only for 2 turns, and for one enemy.
• Illusion - Redirect is an amazing & unique skill that transforms the target into an AOE cover tank. The chance to proc is 100%, so it will never fail you. Using it on a really sturdy provoke tank, or on a full-evade unit will make your team really more sturdy.
• If you doubt your tank's ability to survive, you can soften a bit of his burden with Illusion - Doppelganger, which will allow him to evade 2 physical attacks.
• Illusionist Nichol can also chain, with Illusion - Phantasmal Forces, a 7-hit single target move and also a nice stacking spell, going from a 2x modifier, stacking up to 6x.
• Finally, he can use every of Illusion - skill twice, with Master Illusionist allowing him a lot of decent combinations.
• His LB, Phantasmal Respite, is amazing. Not only does it grant an AOE mirage, but it also offers a nice HP & MP regen over 3 turns, healing for 1520~~ hp & 44~~ mp per turn with 400 MAG/SPR
• His passives are decent, even if a bit limited. He get 60% MAG when equipped with a hat, & 60% SPR when equipped with clothes. Absorb MP is a rather niche spell that allows him to absorb the MP from the enemy spell. But all in all, it's quite rare to see an enemy use his MP, and thus, it doesn't replace the MP refresh that you would rather have. Finally, Phantasmal wards is a rather strange counter. For the 3 first turn of the battle, he will counter the physical damage that his allies take with Physical damage using MAG scaling (Opposing his MAG to DEF). The modifier is quite low, though, and the main, limited use of it is to make some LB crystal.
• Base stats are a bit low, but stay respectable. His equipment selection for his roles is pretty good, having access to the regular Mage/healer set.

Kaede

• She can debuff fire resistance (50%) with Phoenix Thrust.
• Halberd Dance is a passable chaining ability.
• Battle Princess's Descent and its follow-ups can buff her ATK, but it's usually not worth the time spent.

Kaliva

• (real notes coming soon)

Kefka

• Mediocre magical attacker without innate Dualcast or anything to stack or chain.
  • The only useful skill is Last Footstep, which does decent magic damage to all enemies (more than Light of Judgment +0!) and debuffs enemy SPR.
  • Has evasion and a counter effect, but not enough to compensate for not dealing enough damage.
• Ability awakenings:
  • They give him a boost, but still doesn't do enough damage to be significantly competitive. Theoretically some niche use in arena, but costs too much.
  • Mage of Destruction +2 (Support: 1 Purecryst and 3 Giancrysts) adds MAG and a chance to counter with damage, but the damage will be insignificant outside of arena.
  • Light of Judgement +2 (Black: 3 Purecrysts and 12 Giancrysts) adds damage to a weak skill, but the outcome is still subpar. There are better uses for those Black crysts.
  • Roar of Laughter +2 (Tech: 2 Purecrysts and 6 Giancrysts) improves his counter-debuff by a tiny bit only.

Kelsus

• Dual-wields (fists only) - does damage twice
• Good elemental coverage on damage skills (all enemies)
• LB slow to charge, but self-buffs ATK/DEF/SPR strongly
• Decent self-protective skills

King

• Dual-wields (guns only) - does damage twice
• High ATK and critical chance
• Normal attacks hit three times but can't cap a chain
• Damage skills are mediocre, and poor weapon selection

Knight Delita

• Solid physical attacker, with both chaining and chain finishing options, and a preference for lightning element.
• Strategic Blade deals decent damage (5x) while lowering lightning resistance (-50%). The paucity of good lightning weapons is an issue, but you can use Raikiri, or prepare him with Commanding Blade beforehand (which still deals 4x damage)
• Commanding Blade - seems to be a viable chaining skill. Frames appear widely spaced, but DW causes the second set of hits to run into the first set. Perfect chaining is possible with 0~2 frame offset - slightly more lenient than Onion Knight, Tidus and A2.
• Crush Weapon and Shield Break are handy debuffs - ATK/MAG (-40%) and DEF (-40%) respectively.
• Equipment & TMRs: Use Dual Wield, a sword, heavy armor, Dark Knight's Soul and standard ATK gear. Raikiri and Katana Mastery is a good combination if enemy is not immune to lightning.

Kryla

• A good breaker & imperil user, with some niche exclusive utility
• Can break all stats by 50% via 4 abilities, (Jinx - Sap ATK Pot, Jinx - Sap DEF Pot, Jinx - Sap SPR Pot, and Jinx - Sap MAG Pot)
• Can imperil up to 6 elements by 50% via 3 skills (Jinx - Emberfrost Brew for Fire/Ice, Jinx - Geysershock Brew for Lightning/Water, and Jinx - Cycloseismic Brew for Wind/Earth). Those skills deal some substantial damage, being 3x modifier scaling on SPR.
• Soul Swap kills an ally to fully regen Kryla's HP & MP (if the unit has a I shall not lose! type of passive that lets them survive fatal damage, they will be left at 1 HP, allowing you to heal them back)
• Nullifying Chant is a rather massive dispel, dispelling everything on the battlefield, friend and foe.
• Witchcraft allows her to dualcast all of her "Jinx" skills, mixing any break & imperil as you see fit
• Hex Eye deals 10000 fixed damage per negative effects per turn over 3 turns (Negative effects counts as Imperils, breaks, stop, charm. and status aliments. An imperil can count as up to 8 different status effects.)
• Her LB, Mambo Hodge-podge, inflicts 4 random status ailments, stop, and allows her to use Wicked Eye, a twice more powerful version of Hex Eye
• Passives are good, 30% HP, 30% MP and either 20% DEF or SPR, using clothes or robes, decrease target chance by 30%, 20% chance to dodge physical & magical attack, 15% all elemental resist & immunity to poison & disease as well as increased magic damage against humans and fairies.

Lasswell

• Enhanced
• Can break DEF and debuff ice resistance (one enemy) while hitting
• Exorcising Storm counts as two attacks in arena (all enemies)
• Low ATK, and no good ice weapons to use

Lightning

• Enhanced
• Dual-wields - does damage twice
• Learns elemental skills, but this confers no advantage as other units can just switch weapons
• Crushing Blow can't chain or cap a chain
• Once good, now outdated

Ling

• Can debuff ATK/MAG or DEF/SPR really well (all enemies)
• Can revive or recover most status ailments (all allies), allowing your healer to focus on healing
• Evasion and status immunities, but slightly low HP
• Can also recover MP (all allies), or transfer her LB gauge to an ally

Loren

• Physical chainer with innate dual-wield and good debuff, but best chaining skill requires unlocking
• She is a fantastic stat debuffer. Full Break+ debuffs all four of an enemy's stats (-45%), and sometimes she will even do it on counter and free up an action. If there are multiple enemies, Arms Eraser and Armor Eraser are perfect for the job.
• On the downside, Loren was designed to be a damage-dealing chainer, but Blade Prison will only perfect chain if you can spark chain with a clone (0 frame offset). Hence, on turn 1, she isn't a good chainer.
• Using Model of Ares or LB will unlock the following for 3 turns:
  • Swiftwind Blade - different frames, but same problem - perfect chain only when sparking (0 frame offset),
  • Quickbolt Blade - lightning-element finisher skill, 1 hit, damage is alright, and
  • Greased Lightning - has highest mod of all of skills and is easy to perfect chain when dual-wielding. The ideal window is 0~6 frame offset, but because of the way the frames fall, even if you're way off, this chain should never break in the middle - the final hit/s would just drop off the end of the chain.
• This presents a dilemma, since the raw damage mod on Greased Lightning, when the unlocking turn is taken into account, isn't enough to be fully competitive. On the other hand, once unlocked, it will deal damage consistently. Unlocking it via LB is probably the better option (since it lowers wind/lightning resistance (-74%!)), but her LB has irregular frames and cannot form a perfect chain. Also, there are very few wind/lightning weapons with high ATK.
• However, on the bright side, Loren has more HP/DEF/SPR than most attackers, innate Dual Wield, good ATK, and important status immunities. These things make Loren a good utility unit with good bulk.
• Equipment & TMRs: Use at least one sword and a wind or lightning-element weapon (e.g. Raikiri, Zwill Crossblade). Standard ATK gear apply. No need for Dual Wield.

Luka

• Can heal and recover most status ailments (all allies) in one skill
• Also learns Raise, covering all healer basics
• Can buff DEF/SPR (all allies)

Lunera

• Lunera is a decent support & magical DPS who needs her ability awakenings to really shine.
• Her DPS options are all pretty decent, but not outstanding.
• Gleaming Arrow & Gale Arrow are two stacking abilities starting at a 2.5x modifier, stacking up to 5 times, up to a 15x modifier, respectively for Light and Wind. It's pretty decent, but her inability to dualcast it, or dualwield it hurts the damage quite a bit.
• Aureole Ray is a 4x modifier Wind/Light 20 hit AOE magic damage. The modifier is decent, and the hit count is really great, but as it can't be dual wielded, it ends up as pretty average. Also, the dual element makes it harder to fit a correct imperil for it.
• She can grant 50% Wind & Light resist with Beautiful Shield
• She can clear Poison, Blind, Silence, Paralyze, Confuse, Sleep for all allies with Esunaga
• Her main ability is without doubt Elven Song, which regens around 1250 HP and 66 MP turn over 3 turns with 400 MAG/SPR and also offers a meh-ish 40% all stats buff. The main point is obviously the HP & MP regen.
• Her passives are quite decent, 80% MAG & 70% SPR when wearing a bow, 50% Wind/Light resist, 30% MP, 5% MP refresh and a nice immunity to Silence, Paralyze & Petrify. All of that is supported by really nice base stats & a good equipement selection.

Luneth

• Without ability awakenings:
  • One-dimensional unit with only attack skills.
  • Cut Through is usable and 1-hit, making it very straightforward for chain finishing.
  • He gains important status ailment immunities and learns Dual Wield innately, both quite handy features.
• Ability awakenings:
  • Sword Master +2 (Tech: 3 Giancrysts) is a must-get. It gives him more flexibility with weapons and an easy 50% ATK.
  • Cut Through +2 (Power: 3 Purecrysts and 12 Giancrysts) improves the damage modifier to 7.5x total, greatly increasing damage output. It's costly, but worth the investment.
  • Advance +2 (Support: 2 Purecrysts and 6 Giancrysts) is debatable, since the skill is only setting up ATK for Cut Through.
• Equipment & TMRs: Use standard ATK materia. Katana Mastery could be useful if using a katana.

Marie

• Can buff all elemental resistance (all allies)
• Can debuff all elemental resistance (all enemies)
• Can cast 2 spells/turn
• Can buff DEF or MAG/SPR (all allies)

Maxwell

• Good single target and aoe damage options with Destiny and Rune
• Impressive auto hp regen
• Able to self buff ATK/DEF by 80% and reraise
• LB hits many times, enabling chains
• Innate Man-Eater
• Limited equipment selection and locked into light damage

Medius

• Enhanced
• Should wield a gun
• Skills weak except Blazing Glory and Hyper Fire
• Low HP and Draw Attacks - suicidal

Meliadoul

• Stat debuffer with little else in her skillset.
• Crush Weapon and Crush Armor supersede some of her initial skills, and apply important 40% ATK/MAG or DEF/SPR debuffs.
• Can buff all allies' with DEF or MAG or SPR on other turns.
• Counters generate LB crystals, but seems to be a gimmick without any Provoke-like skill
• Equipment & TMRs: Dual-wield/Dualcast is unnecessary. Use standard HP/DEF/SPR gear, and include items that confer skills (e.g. Pod 153 or Rikku's Pouch) to give her more utility.

Mercedes

• Enhanced
• High ATK, should wield an axe
• No skills attacking all enemies
• (TMR: Viking Axe is perfect for herself)

Mercenary Ramza

• Doesn't know what to do with his empty hand.
• Base stats are overall average, a tad more ATK orientated
• His skillset is a mess, he's doing a bit of everything and it's clear when looking at his passives.
• Stone Throw, his most iconic skill, deals 400 fixed damage to an enemy, but good luck finding a use for it.
• Second Wind increases ATK/MAG by 50%, but only for one ally, which eliminates any possible use.
• Weapon Break & Mind Break respectively break ATK and MAG by 40%.
• Blade of Justice is a normalized 3.33x modifier, which can chain decently.
• Cura allows him to heal a bit, Esunaga allows him to clear most status aliments, and Raise does what it does.
• Ultima is here if you need a decent magic nuke, but there's little reason to have Merc. Ramza using it.
• His passives are a mess, but overall, quite alright. 20% HP/MP/ATK/DEF/MAG/SPR. On top of that, when using a Hat (Warrior's Pride) you will get 50% ATK, or when using a Helm (Last of the Beoulve) you will get 50% DEF. You get 15% DEF/SPR if you use a Light Shield (True Justice) and 50% MAG if you wear a Robe (Branded Heretic). If you want to use him as a Chainer, you will focus on your ATK passive by wearing a Hat. If you want to use him as a tank, you will focus on your DEF passive, by wearing a Helm and Light Shield. If you want to use him as a Mage, you will not do it, it's a terrible idea.
• His tank side is supported by his Noble Lineage, which gives him 75% chance to cover an ally from physical damage with 50% damage mitigation. Bear in mind that whether you build him as a tank or as a DPS, he will keep doing that, as it's a passive.
• Can counter with Counter Tackle, which is just Counter with a different name. His skillset is supported by a decent Auto-Refresh.
• Finally, True Hero makes him immune to all status aliments, making him unstoppable (except for when he dies).

Minfilia

• Can buff resistance to any element, one at a time (all allies)
• Immune to all status ailments
• Can buff stats (all allies, or higher for one ally)
• Can recover all status ailments (one ally)

Miyuki

• Lightning-based physical chainer. Use Kunai Rain to apply a -50% lightning imperil, then spam Thundersplit Blade.
• She has dual wield via Twin Edge, but Fixed Dice is more effective than any other weapon you can give her.
• Man-Eater means she outperforms other budget chainers against human-type targets, but otherwise she's lacking.
• She has several hybrid attacks, but they aren't very good, and neither are her hybrid gearing options.

Moogle

• Kupo kupo? Kupokupokupo!!!
• Can only equip Spears, Hat and Accessory.
• Possesses a Mog XXXX ability for every element (1x modifier & imbue himself in this element for 5 turns, kupo)
• Mog Barrage is a really weak 1.88x normalized modifier ability, but it can chain, kupo!
• Moogle March makes your party immune to stop for 3 turns, kupo! Mainly of use in arena, and may be useful in some content, kupo.
• Mog Waltz lets you unlock Mog Waltz which regens 30% HP/MP for himself, kupo. It's a 2 turn version of Chakra, kupo.
• His LB, Mog Dance, is of use, increasing the team ATK/DEF/MAG/SPR by 64% when maxed.
• Can heal with Curaga and its weaker version and clear some status ailments for one ally, either with Esuna or with Cleanse or Stona, kupo!
• Passives are nothing to brag about, 10% HP/MP/ATK/MAG/DEF/SPR, Mooglimit generates 2 LB crysts per turn, Camouflage decreases the chance that Moogle gets targeted by 50% and Double Paw is a Moogle exclusive Doublehand (increase EQP ATK by 50% when single wielding a one handed weapon)
• Equipement: His exclusive Moogle Spear, Moogle Crown, and Moogle Cape will add 30% HP, 20% ATK and 10% DEF to Moogle, 1 LB cryst per turn, a resistance to petrify & 10% chance to evade magic attacks, kupo!

Mystea

• She is the first magic cover tank, with Triteleia Wall.
• Can sustain herself with Reinstate, which recovers 100% of her HP and clears all the breaks from herself
• Can further increase her tanking with Destination, which boosts her SPR by 100% and mitigate 20% of the damage
• Can help her team with Clear Veil, which protects against stop & all statuses for 3 turns, Mind Fortress, which increases the SPR of the team by 80% and her LB, Field of Resistance, which buffs the SPR of the team by 94% & mitigates 42% of the damage for 3 turns.
• Her HP is a bit lacking and she doesn't get any HP passive, so be aware of that when you gear her up. Alternatively, focus on elemental resist adapted to what you're fighting, since most magic is elemental

Nine

• Decent ATK and good boosts to Jump skills
• Jump hard to chain and unaffected by element and killer effects
• Can inflict stop (all enemies)
• Hyper Dive takes too long

Noctis

• Many skills capable of filling different roles
• Blizzard Flask and Fire Flask are the most infamous, since they inflict ailments to all enemies
• LB extra slow to charge, but hits hard and buffs all stats strongly (all allies)
• (TMR: Ring of the Lucii gives evasion and Alterna, the strongest available spell)

Nyalu

• (real notes coming soon)

Nyx

• Unusual unit with preference for fire and daggers, but poor weapon selection
• Kingsglaive on paper looks like a decent chaining skill that lowers fire resistance, but calculations suggest perfect chaining is only possible by spark chaining with a clone (0 frame offset). This is because when dual-wielding, Nyx will land two hits on exactly the same frame, inevitably breaking the chain if the two clones are even slightly off.
• Desperate Blow provides an excellent chain finishing option. The HP sacrifice is only 40% while dual-wielding, which can be easily recovered using Curaga.
• Main downside is the chaining problem above, his poor weapon selection (can't use greatswords, fists or guns) and the fact that his main ATK passive requires a dagger. Daggers tend to have less ATK, and there is currently no dagger mastery materia. This means that compared to other units who can equip two different weapon types with corresponding materia, Nyx gets much less ATK.
• Having innate Dual Wield balances this out slightly, but still not top tier.
• Equipment & TMRs: Wield a dagger and a fire-element weapon, and standard ATK gear. Dark Knight's Soul and Vernard worth considering, or Fixed Dice if you won't be using him to chain.

Ohga

• Carnage Howl draws attacks to himself to trigger one of ten different counterattacks.
• Stat-wise, he lacks those found on a tank, and those that could be of help are tied to a counter, meaning he spends most of his time dying instead of tanking.

Olif

• Possesses the Bar-ga for Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Earth, and Water, allowing him to increase elemental resistance in those elements by 70%, but no innate Dualcast to back it up
• Rather weak SPR damage skill
• Can boost 4 elements at once, either ice, water, earth, and dark or fire, lightning, wind, and light for 3 turns, with Dark Drake Crest and Light Drake Crest, but only for 30%, which is weak
• Can also regen MP for the team with Whisper of the Wyrm, but it's once again, weak
• Can grant to his allies physical & magical dragon killer with Drake Slay Ritual but only for 10%, which is weak
• Able to mitigate 15% of the damage for the team and to increase elemental resist by 20% for 5 turns with Drake Formation, but once again, the values are way to weak
• His LB, Full Enhance, is decent, boosting ATK/MAG/DEF/SPR by 74% when fully leveled, curing all statuses for the team, and increasing resistance to all statuses for 3 turns

Olive

• Heavy Arms Proficiency acts like Doublehand, boosts ATK a lot
• Shattering Shot debuffs DEF and lowers lightning resistance
• Mortar Beacon deals free damage on 3rd turn
• LB charges fast and hits hard (random enemy)
• (TMR: Sparky is perfect for herself; needs it to really shine)

Onion Knight

• Chaining physical attacker with multiple elemental skills.
• He learns 6 skills with the same chaining frames - 4 Splendors with different elements, 1 non-elemental AoE, and 1 single-target. For all of these, perfect chaining can only be performed with 0 frame offset (i.e. both Onion Knights need to use their skill within the same frame and spark chain). Otherwise, the chain breaks in the middle.
  • Additionally, Onion Cutter (available from his TMR) is a more powerful version (with more hits and more damage!).
• On another note, his LB has irregular frames and is not as useful for chaining
• He learns innate Dual Wield, good ATK passives, important status immunities and some elemental resistance. He can use all weapons except guns, whips and maces. These advantages him somewhat more general-purpose than other chainers. However, he doesn't lower enemy elemental resistance in any way.
• Equipment & TMRs: Use his unit-exclusive gear, including Onion Sword, and standard ATK gear. No Dual Wield required.

Orlandeau

• Straightforward light chainer able to reduce light resistance.
• Divine Ruination deals solid damage, lowers light resistance (-50%), and can chain with clones or Veritas of the Dark's Dark Punishment, or Agrias's enhanced Divine Ruination (Agrias) +2.
  • Perfect chaining is relatively easy - it can accommodate up to 0~5 frame offset.
• Crush Weapon is good to have in a pinch, since it debuffs ATK/MAG (40%) and protects your team.
• Equipment & TMRs: Use Dual Wield, Excalibur to take advantage of light resistance reduction, and various ATK materia. If enemy is light immune, use a greatsword with different element (e.g. Crimson Saber).

Orran

• Support unit with a touch of magic damage
• Durai Papers give elemental resistance to allies and buffs MAG/SPR - easily his best skill.
• Angelsong can give allies' MP, but drains his own
• Can also buff allies' ATK or DEF or SPR, or even do some healing with Song of Life
• Learns Meteor and innate Dualcast, but he doesn't have strong MAG or killer passives to boost damage.
• Equipment & TMRs: Dual-wield is unnecessary. In general, use standard HP/DEF/SPR gear, and include items that confer skills (e.g. Pod 153 or Rikku's Pouch) to give him more utility. Use MAG gear only if you are using him as a magical attacker (and you don't have a better MAG unit).

Papalymo

• Can cast 2 damage spells/turn
• Can self-buff MAG while hitting
• Learns Flare, Firaga, Blizzaga and Thundaga
• No spell/ability with particularly good damage

Pirate Jake

• Physical attacker with really great ATK passive, semi-decent damage mods and some thief skills.
• Some fire & thunder damage skills (Shock Laser & Flame Laser)
• Can break an enemy's ATK/DEF by 45% with Walk the Plank
• Parrley! is a weak 2x modifier lightning physical damage but also has 50% Lightning imperil
• Avast Matey! lets him fully protect an unit, from Physical AND Magical damage with 50% mitigation.
• Feed the Fishes is a cool ST chaining move with a 3.5x modifier. It also decreases water resist by 50%.
• Passives are quite complex, but good overall. Brew Tolerance increases his HP/SPR by 20% & makes him immune to poison & disease. Yo Ho Ho! increases his ATK by 30% & makes him immune to petrify. I am the captain now! increases his ATK by 30% when equipping a gun and his HP by 30% when equipping a sword. It's nicely supported by Aye Aye!, which lets him dual wield swords and guns. All of that sums up to a nice, 60% ATK, 50% HP, & 20% SPR. Heave Ho! is a good Crisis buff that increase his ATK/DEF by 80% when his HP drops under 60%. Planking gives him 30% chance to ignore fatal damage.
• Hahaha, let's dance! gives him 20% chance to cover a female ally.
• X Marks the Spot increases gil obtained by 100% & Booty! boosts the rate of normal items dropped by enemies, which makes him a good unit for farming.

Popoi

• Aims to be a magical attacker. Without ability awakenings, his damage skills are weak. Do not use.
• Ability awakenings:
  • Still weak with both Acid Storm +2 and Burst +2. Waste of ability awakening material. Do not awaken or use.
  • Acid Storm +2 (Power: 1 Giancryst) adds some minor damage and debuffs enemies' ATK/DEF by 40%, but you can get 40% debuffs from other units with less investment.
  • Burst +2 (Power: 1 Purecryst and 12 Giancrysts) similarly makes it hit for better damage and debuffs enemies' MAG/SPR by 40%, but not enough to make Popoi worthwhile.

Primm

• Skills weak except Saintly Beam (magical)
• Can buff ATK/MAG (all allies), or do minor healing
• LB debuffs SPR while hitting (one enemy), but is physical

Prishe

• A decent physical attacker with good support skills, but takes many turns to build up combos to reach her strong damage skills.
• The main sequences for her attack are:
  • Raging Fists -> Berserk Attack+ -> Will to Live+ -> Swelling Vitality+
    • Berserk Attack+ deals damage while buffing her ATK by 100%.
    • Will to Live+ grants auto-revive to all allies (80% HP) for 3 turns
    • Swelling Vitality+ restores 130 MP to all allies (including herself)
  • Raging Fists -> Berserk Attack+ -> Tornado Kick+ -> Prishe Special.
    • Berserk Attack+ deals damage while buffing her ATK by 100%.
    • Prishe Special is her strongest attack (10x modifier), has 15 hits, but seems difficult to perfect chain with a clone.
  • Raging Fists -> Crushing Fists+ -> Asuran Fists+
    • Crushing Fist does no damage, debuffs enemies' ATK/DEF (-45%).
    • Asuran Fists+ (5x modifier, 7 hits) only compensates for not dealing damage the previous turn
• Alternatively, her LB can do decent damage while debuffing DEF/SPR (up to -64%)
• She also auto-heals 1800+ hp each turn. Since Prishe has decent HP and SPR and some evasion, survival is not a problem.
• Her main downside is that her skills have to used in consecutive turns to obtain the full effect, making it difficult to take advantage of particular turns against bosses, who often cycle through their big attacks.
• (TMR: Prishe's Hairpin is by far the best hat for physical attackers.)
• Equipment & TMRs: Use Dual Wield, at least one fist weapon, and standard HP/ATK gear.

Pyro Glacial Lasswell

• Top-tier single-target finisher, once he activates his limit burst to unlock his best attacks. As a finisher, he always wants to land his attacks at the end of a large chain whenever possible.
• Once he's filled his LB bar, his rotation is Limit Burst, Blade Flash - Final x2, Crimson Era/Fatal Bloom, BF-F x2, repeat.
• If your team needs his -45% DEF break, replace the first Blade Flash - Final in each pair with Crimson Flash.
• This rotation gives him a 100% ATK buff and applies strong -50% imperils for fire and/or ice.
• He's very easy to gear and has inherent dual wield. Equip him with standard ATK gear, and pair Purple Lightning with a fire or ice weapon such as Icebrand, Hoemaru, or Crimson Saber.

• Filling up his limit burst gauge takes 2-4 turns without outside support like Eccentrick or Entrust. It fills even slower if he spends that time focusing on damage or debuffs rather than spamming Mirror of Life.
• If his limit break isn't max level or isn't usable for any reason, he can start off with Crimson Flash, but that reduces his damage and further complicates his rotation.

Queen

• Without ability awakenings, she is nigh unusable, as having to go under 3% HP is very risky, therefore do not use.
• Ability Awakenings:
  • Her ability awakenings work together beautifully to make her a very powerful finisher.
  • Devastate+2 is a hard-hitting ST (single target) ability that allows her to cap a chain. However, it is harder to use compared to most finishing moves, since it is still 5 frames. A TDH build is recommended to allow her to fit Devastate in the chain to cap.
  • Berserk+2 gets an increase to its ATK buff (300%!) as well as a high DEF/SPR buff which makes her a tankier, higher damage dealer for 3 turns. It can be activated unlimited times within 1 life at a higher activation HP, which means using Magic Martyr+2 allows her to proc it right away.
  • Magic Martyr+2 gives more MP and lingers more, but will usually be used to proc Berserk+2 in a single turn.
  • Justice Guard+2 gives her confuse immunity (all that ATK won't kill your allies anymore) and allows her to survive a death blow when over 50% HP once per life, making it easier to proc Berserk+2.
• Needs a turn to set up but becomes a fearful force for 3 turns after it.
• Can't imbue elements to her attacks, which is very important for finishers.
• TMR and Equipment: Use a Buster Style/Marshal Glove TDH build if possible, otherwise use Dual Wield (not recommended if used as a chain finisher) and stack as much ATK on her as possible.
• Units to be paired with: Christine and Charming Kitty Ariana (limited time units) as they would allow her to get rid of her biggest weakness.

Rain

• Enhanced
• Can AoE buff all stats
• Can debuff all stats on a single enemy
• Low ATK and weak skills

Ramza

• Some resistance to all status ailments
• Can debuff ATK or MAG (one enemy) while hitting
• Can buff all stats (all allies) while singing
• Can transfer LB gauge to an ally

Randi

• Without ability awakenings, he is a mediocre physical attacker. The race killers do compensate somewhat, but fairy/undead bosses are uncommon.
• Ability awakenings:
  • 5 skills can be awakened, all of which contribute to making him a chaining/chain finish powerhouse. He doesn't get any extra killers, but his damage skill becomes decent (important when killers don't apply), and he gains ATK and status immunity.
  • The downside is that it takes a lot of crysts to awaken them all - but the result is arguably worthwhile.
  • Power Charge +2 (Tech: 1 Purecryst and 3 Giancrysts) is probably the main point - Relatively cheap, it gives him a temporary boost and unlocks Torrential Slash for chaining. Torrential Slash is able to perfect chain while dual-wielding (can accommodate 0~4 frame offset), and the high modifier compensates for the turn consumed by unlocking.
    • It could be hard to find a clone to chain with, but reportedly there are enough to go around. Try asking around community sites if you can't find one.
    • You could also setup some wind synergy using Whirlwind Slash before chaining, although that skill doesn't chain well.
  • Mana's Bond +2 (Guard: 1 Purecryst and 3 Giancrysts) makes him immune to status ailments, gives him MP regen, and is relatively cheap, so why not.
  • Auto-Charge +2 (Support: 1 Purecryst and 3 Giancrysts) is a relatively cheap boost to ATK.
  • Hero of Legend +2 (Support: 2 Purecrysts and 12 Giancrysts) is disputable. It is the most expensive, but it adds a lot of ATK particularly if its Doublehand-like effect is triggered. However, since Doublehand can't be stacked, it may not be viable to single-wield until more DH items are added later on. If you dual-wield, the 35% ATK by itself isn't worth it.
  • Slice Thrice +2 (Power: 1 Purecryst and 3 Giancrysts) is awful. Unfortunately, it changes the hit frames to his default one and destroys his ability to chain finish. +1 only has 3x modifier and isn't competitive enough, although it might be usable if you like the -50% DEF debuff and are really desperate to use Randi.
• Equipment & TMRs: Use either Dual Wield or Doublehand, a good sword, and standard ATK gear.

Rasler

• Good innate stats for a tank, but impractical skills
• All Resist Light gives light resist to all, as the name suggests, up to 50%.
• Patriotic Slash is a light physical move with a decent 3x modifier. It chains with Ashe's Sword of Kings
• Royal Obligation is an impractical AOE Cover. Its only one turn long, has a 20% chance to proc, and only mitigates 30% of the damage. The weakest AOE cover available.
• Can offer some healing with Curaga and its weaker version and cure most status ailments for the team with Esunaga
• Passives are decent, 70% DEF while using Heavy Armor with Vanguard Slasher, 20% DEF/HP/SPR, and 50% ATK when using a sword with Sword Mastery. 100% innate light resist & a resistance to blind. Sentinel allows him to cover one unit from physical damage with 50% damage mitigation (30% chance to proc).

Ray Jack

• (real notes coming soon)

Reberta

• Can debuff fire/ice/lightning resistance
• Mystic Thrust chains decently
• Extra damage vs dragons, and can self-heal
• Jumps strong on paper, but hard to chain and unaffected by element and killer effects

Refia

• Enhanced
• Can revive an ally to full
• Also learns Curaga/Esuna, covering all healer basics
• Can buff ATK/DEF (all allies)
• LB recovers all status ailments (all allies)

Rem

• Can cast 2 spells/turn
• Learns the standard healer spells, but can also deal damage with magic or Dagger Boomerang
• Can heal and recover all status ailments (all allies) in one skill
• Should wield Defender's Daggers + another dagger

Rikku

• LB charges fast, boosts DEF/SPR, and grants auto-revive for 3 turns (all allies)
• Learns 4 chaining skills of different elements
• Mix uses a turn to unlock some fancy support skills

Roselia

• (real notes coming soon)

Roy

• All of Roy's buffs and heals are while singing, which lock him down for the duration of the songs
• Hero's Prologue increases DEF and SPR by 100% for the team and provides as well a decent HP regen over 2 turns
• Angel's Whim increases ATK and MAG by 100% for the team and regens an enormous amount of mana for 1 turn
• Life's Refrain heals a more than decent amount of HP for the team
• Twin Blade Beauty provides a decent imperil for wind & lightning for his friend Loren
• Fool's Ballad breaks all enemies stats for 1 turn by 45%
• Roy's songs become really powerful when they are used in succession
• If Hero's Prologue was used last turn, Angel's Whim become Ares Protection which increases ATK/MAG/DEF/SPR by 100% for the team, and also regen a decent amount of HP & MP
• If Ares Protection was used last turn, Fool's Ballad become War of the Gods, which keeps all the effects of Ares Protection and adds a 40% break for all enemies on top of it
• War of the Gods lets you unlock Victory to the Brave which keeps all the element of War of the Gods but make the buff 10% stronger & the break 5% stronger
• If Roy dies, you have to start all over again from Hero's Prologue
• Alternatively, Roy's Limit Burst, Dragon's Madrigal, increases ATK/DEF/MAG/SPR by 124% when fully leveled and regens around the same amount of HP as his combos songs, but offers a better MP regen. It doesn't offer the break that his combo offers, though. At the cost of 20 LB crysts, it's quite easy to be able to use it once every 3 turns
• On the stats side, Roy base stats are great, flaunting a great amount of HP and SPR and a decent DEF, supported by good passives and a more than decent equipement selection

Rubicante

• Fire magical finisher, with gimmicky skills and counters. Decent for arena.
• Rubicante's main strength comes from being able to use Firaja with Dual Black Magic, maxing at 12x modifier per turn after 2 turns of ramping up. To further improve his output, his LB is a 1-hit finisher that lowers enemies' fire resistance (up to -74%!) while dealing damage and self-healing, and it does not reset the Firaja stack. His role is to simply do damage.
• Face Me! grants him a high chance to counter any physical or magical attacks taken, with different AoE spells. While these do not deal significant damage for harder bosses, it can be devastating in arena, since two Rubicantes will spark-chain if they counter simultaneously with the same spell.
• Cloak Closed can protect him from all elements for 1 turn while healing him. Cloak Open boosts his LB charge rate, but temporarily leaves him weak to ice. I'll Recover You! self-buffs his MAG, but heals all enemies by a small amount. These unusual skills may come in handy in niche situations.
• He has only 30% MAG in his passives, and no status ailment resistance.
• Equipment & TMRs: Use standard MAG gear.

Ruggles

• (real notes coming soon)

Sandee

• (real notes coming soon)

Santa Roselia

• Learns Curaga/Esuna but doesn't have Raise (!)
• Can counter with healing (self or all allies) or status recovery (self)
• Can transfer LB gauge to an ally
• LB heals and recovers status ailments (all allies)

Seabreeze Dark Fina

• Virtually identical to Dark Fina without enhancements (see notes here)
• Doesn't have her enhancements yet
• Can buff water resistance (all allies)

Setzer

• Excellent at inflicting status ailments (all enemies)
• Two decent chaining skills, but hits are fast = need fast fingers
• Double Dice does high fixed damage, but at random
• Should wield a throwing weapon
• (TMR: Fixed Dice can boost damage greatly, but at random = niche weapon for certain cappers)

Seven

• Enhanced
• Can debuff fire/ice/lightning resistance (one enemy) while hitting
• Can debuff SPR (one enemy) while hitting
• Some skills use ATK, others use MAG
• LB inflicts paralyze (all enemies) while hitting
• Low ATK and MAG and mediocre skills

Shine

• Can debuff DEF and lower dark resistance (one enemy) in one skill
• Skills are all dark-element
• Mediocre ATK, but skill modifiers are decent
• (TMR: Quick Assault adds ATK and evasion, is stackable)

Silvia

• Decent support unit with elemental and stat debuff protections, with a splash of hybrid damage.
• Her main strengths are her 4 "Gem" skills, which deal hybrid damage to all enemies while granting elemental resistance to all allies (+70% in either fire, ice, wind or light). However, the damage is very weak (4x hybrid) and there are insufficient hits to generate a strong chain (4 hits each).
  • Sunlight Gem has slightly different chain frames to the other three.
• For direct damage, she also learns 4 "Blade" skills, which have slightly better modifier (4.6x hybrid).
• Aside from these, Cover Shield and Stop Shield provides temporary immunity to debuffs and stop respectively, but there isn't much else of note.
• Magic Field is a counter that potentially restores MP to all allies, but it is too sporadic and unpredictable at 5% chance.
• Supposedly, future units will be able to chain with her, but her damage is too mediocre nonetheless to be top tier.

Snow

• Enhanced
• High HP, but average DEF
• Can draw attacks with no mitigation
• High chance to counter for weak damage
• Poor weapon and armor selection

Soleil

• Enhanced
• Good status immunities
• Can buff any stat (all allies) for 1 turn, or just ATK or MAG for longer
• Can inflict silence/blind/confuse (all enemies)

Sozhe

• Can debuff fire resistance (all enemies) while hitting
• Can buff DEF/SPR (all allies, or higher for self)
• Decent ATK, and Hell Shaft is decent damage
• Skills mostly fire-element - commonly resisted
• Can Provoke, but nothing else tankwise

Sportive Ariana

• Messy provoke tank with some useful supportive skill
• She possesses an innate Provoke which means you won't have to rely on Golem having it.
• Meditate is a really limited self-status heal, clearing blind, poison & silence.
• Strong Heart can be of use, clearing DEF and SPR break for herself
• Flame Heart gives her 30% self mitigation, which is totally useless, since she learns Solid Resolution, which grants her and the team 30% mitigation for 4 turns. It's a pretty cool buff.
• Her LB, when maxed grants a bit more of mitigation (34%) and also acts as a fire/wind imperil, up to 50%.
• Her passives are surprisingly decent. 50% DEF/HP when wearing a light shield. 20% SPR, 10% MP. The light shield restriction hurts her quite a bit, as all the good shields will be a Heavy Shield. She can also cover, but to a really limited rate with Dangerous Facade. Finally she counters magical attacks with Pop Heart, a pretty decent self heal.
• Even with her excellent HP/DEF passive, her low base DEF prevents her from reaching a good amount of DEF. Her base SPR is quite higher, but not supported by a lot of passive. All of that, along with her extremely limited equipment selection for a tank (Can't use Heavy Armor, Light Armor, Helm, Heavy Shields) makes her really dysfunctionnal.

Terra

• Can cast 2 spells/turn and cast Meteor after Unlock Magic used, but slow
• Can revive an ally to full
• Can recover all status ailments (all allies)
• Learns Firaga and Flare

Tidus

• Quick Hit chains decently and hits hard
• Can give himself water element, and reduce water resistance on enemy via LB
• The reduction is great (-100%!) but will need to wait for for LB to charge up, though

Tilith

• Goddess's Miracle heals and recovers most status ailments (all allies) in one skill
• Can heal allies to full, or revive dead allies to full
• Can also buff elemental resistances, restore allies' MP, or buff stats
• Low base HP and can't equip weapons/shield, so rather squishy

Tinkerer Carrie

• (real notes coming soon)

Trance Terra

• Can cast 2 damage spells/turn
• Learns Ultima, Holy, Firaga, Thundara and Blizzara
• Can do powerful chain after Magical Activation used
• Can revive an ally to full

Vaan

• A weak chainer with a decent side utility
• Base stats are really low.
• A lot of outdated/useless skill (Steal, Armor Break, mainly).
• Biohazard can inflict disease, which has close to no use, but is worth mentioning.
• Focus can buff the team MAG/SPR by 40% for 3 turns.
• Full Break can break an enemy ATK/DEF/MAG/SPR by 30% for 3 turns, which was great early on, but is largely outdated and easily accessible.
• Accelerate lets him negate 3 physical attacks for 2 turns.
• Resist Stop makes your party immune to stop for 3 turns. Mainly of use in arena, and situation for some other content.
• Assault Strike lets Vaan ST chain, but with a weak 2.7x modifier.
• Passives are okay, 50% ATK, 20% DEF, 20% HP, innate Bird Killer, 15% innate phys. evade with Sprint and 20% chance to counter magic with Counter Break breaking all stats by 40%.

Vargas

• Supreme Blaze deals very high damage to all enemies
• Can buff ATK (all allies) if need arises
• Skills are mostly fire element

Vayne

• (real notes coming soon)

Veritas of the Dark

• Excellent dark chainer able to reduce dark resistance, with additional utility skills.
• Dark Punishment lowers dark resistance (-50%), and can chain with clones or Orlandeau's Divine Ruination, or Agrias's enhanced Divine Ruination (Agrias) +2.
  • Perfect chaining is relatively easy - it can accommodate up to 0~5 frame offset.
• Dark Retribution can further lower dark resistance (to -100%)
• Impact is excellent when not chaining, since it debuffs ATK/MAG/DEF/SPR (45%) and protects your team, even though it deals weak damage.
• Equipment & TMRs: Use Dual Wield, Organyx/Deathbringer to take advantage of dark resistance reduction, and various ATK materia. His own TMR works well for him. If enemy is dark immune, use a greatsword with different element (e.g. Crimson Saber).

Veritas of the Earth

• (real notes coming soon)

Veritas of the Flame

• A top-notch chain finisher with excellent imperil skills as well.
• Full Charge Stomp is going to be your bread and butter. It's a 1-hit skill with 10x modifier.....enough said. It does need to be unlocked via a counter, but Heavy Stomp is a adequate substitute (5x modifier) when its not available.
• He learns 4 "Axe" skills that can lower resistance (-50%) to fire, wind, earth or dark. Fire is preferred, since he can also lower fire resistance (-100%) via counter, but weapon selection is challenging.
• The biggest strength is that he can equip Fixed Dice, a weapon which can make his damage monstrous. Even though it means forgoing his innate Axe Mastery and elemental imperils, equipping FD means his attacks are multiplied by that high damage variance, resulting in very high damage.
• Equipment & TMRs: Use Fixed Dice and standard ATK gear. If this is not possible or the enemy has specific elemental weakness, Dual Wield is a viable alternative - use an axe and any weapon with suitable ATK materia.

Veritas of the Heavens

• Awkward unit with a powerful imperil, a chaining skill and some jumping skills.
• His LB can lower wind resistance dramatically (-104%), although he doesn't gain any skills to charge it faster.
• This makes Heavenly Wind more potent, a 10-hit physical attack with decent modifier. The frames are regular and it should be easy to chain with a clone.
• Several "Spineshatter Dive" jumps are available, and are meant to be used in sequence for increasing damage. However, he only gets +100% to Jump skills (c.f. Nine who gets +260%!), and since Jump skills currently are not affected by elements or killer passives, it's not as strong as simply using his wind attacks.
• This makes him a one-trick pony, with weak ATK passives.

Veritas of the Light

• Decent hybrid chainer/chain finisher restricted by element and equipment selection.
• Divine Shot is a decent hybrid 7-hit skill, dealing decent light damage while lowering light resistance (-50%). The frames are regular and easy to chain with a clone. She can lower an enemy's light resistance more (-100%) as a counter.
• Saint Buster can be unlocked after 1 turn, and deals heavy light hybrid damage in a single hit.
• However, she can only innately dual-wield guns and throwing weapons. She gets stat bonuses for using these, but there are only a few good weapons and they happen to be TMRs. However, being able to wear swords means you can equip multiple Letters and Arms for MAG.
• Her LB can lower DEF/SPR by 74% - worth leveling.
• Equipment & TMRs:
  • She is hybrid, but MAG is expected to be stronger. Nue is important - it gives good MAG as well as triggering her MAG passive for throwing weapons. Use it with Dual Wield, then either a rod plus Rod Mastery, or a sword plus multiple L&As. No light or heavy armors give good MAG.
  • ATK builds would use Dual Wield, a good gun, a sword, heavy armor, and Dark Knight's Soul.

Veritas of the Waters

• Average healer with some unlockable support skills.
• Learns Curaga/Esunaga/Raise, but doesn't have Dualcast immediately. Instead, Dualcast needs to be unlocked via Forbidden Arts, creating a heavy inconvenience.
• Waterja could potentially deal good damage if repeated over consecutive rounds, but her gear options limit her MAG.
• The other unlocked skills are decent. She can buff elemental resistance, buff stats, or debuff enemies' stats once Aqua Prison and Elemental Power are unlocked. Swift Current is not as strong as DC Waterja.
• She has only 2 status immunities, so that aspect needs to be supplemented with gear. Also, her SPR is lower than her MAG, although her skillset makes her a much better healer than magical attacker.
• Equipment & TMRs: Wear Dualcast to avoid waiting to unlock it every 3 rounds. Standard HP/DEF/SPR gear applies. Alternatively, if using her as a magical attacker, you can try use MAG items, although there are few armors/helms available to her in that regard.

Verun

• (real notes coming soon)

Victoria

• Fire/Dark magical finisher with excellent MAG, boosted by stack transfer mechanics.
• With innate Dual Black Magic, Victoria can DC Firaja. This spell ramps up to 6x after 5 uses, providing a decent finishing skill that's better than her Meteor. She learns some other "-ga" spells, but these are not potent enough for harder bosses by now. For dark damage, Victoria can stack Overflow, which maxes at 9.4x by the 7th use.
• However, like Zyrus, the stacking mechanics help her to greatly boost her output. Since stack values transfer from one skill to another, Victoria can potentially deal high damage by moving from maxed Overflow to Firaja. One efficient way to ramp up her stacks is:
  • Turns 1-2: DC Firaja (stack = 2x - 4x)
  • Turns 3-6: Overflow (stack = 5.2x, 6.4x, 7.6x, 8.8x)
  • Turn 7: Go back to DC Firaja.
• The two Firajas at the end of the above cycle now does (1 + 8.8)x, which means Victoria is dealing 19.6x MAG damage per turn. This provides a relatively easy way to deal high damage with a base 4-star unit.
• Aside from these, she can use Time Crush to stall weaker enemies, or Farewell to Wisdom to debuff enemies' MAG/SPR (-40%). Note that using these skills will not interrupt her stacks.
• Equipment & TMRs: Use a hat, a robe, and standard MAG gear. She is one of the few units who can use Serpent Mace.

Warrior of Light

• Only unit able to cover whole party from physical damage
• Can debuff ATK/MAG or DEF/SPR really well (all enemies)
• Chance to self-heal if hit by magic
• Good bulky tank as long as cover triggers

Werei

• Subpar attacker with decent ATK but low modifiers on damage skills. Prefers Earth.
• Stone Fall is the only skill of note, lowering earth resistance (-50%) while dealing 2.7x damage.
• Master Fencer gives him a bonus with greatswords, but ironically, his unit-exclusive weapon is an axe. There are very few earth weapons, none of which are greatswords.
• (TMR: Proud Fencer grants 20% HP, and 40% ATK if using a greatsword. Unstackable, but massively useful to equip even 1 on a greatsword wielder.)
• Equipment & TMRs: Use Dual Wield, a greatsword plus Gaia Blade/Galkan Dagger, and standard HP/ATK gear.

White Knight Noel

• Can draw attacks with high mitigation
• Excellent bulky tank if equipped properly
• His unique mitigation stacks with other forms of "all damage reduction" (e.g. Rikku's Hyper NulAll)
• Damage spells and counters are negligible in boss fights, but dangerous in arena

White Witch Fina

• Learns Raise, but no Curaga (!) or unified Esuna
• Ritual heals HP and MP for all allies except herself
• Can buff ATK/DEF (all allies)
• Can transfer LB gauge to an ally
• No innate way to recover own MP

Wilhelm

• Can draw attacks with good mitigation
• Excellent bulky tank with good SPR
• LB charges fast and grants high damage reduction (all allies)
• Also does excellent stat buffs (all allies)

William

• Great mage with some decent side utility
• Withdraw allows him to buff his team DEF by 110%, but decrease their ATK by 50%, Open Heart does the same for MAG and SPR.
• You can avoid that issue by using a break resistance skill, getting only the buff.
• Innocent Magika is a weak chaining move, but gets the advantage to be non-elemental, if your enemy resists earth (To be honest, if your enemy resists earth, don't use William).
• Lacking any form of innate mp regen, there's Osmose. Spell selection also includes Stonja which is a really potent finishing spell, once ramped up. Quake allows for elemental chain while reducing earth resist for the enemies. Frames are a bit wonky, but can still perfect chain.
• The above spells are supported by a really useful Dual Black Magic.
• Passives are good, 70% MAG while equipping a Rod, 30% MP & an innate resistance to petrify.

Xiao

• Can debuff ATK/DEF (one enemy)
• Can self-heal
• Can self-afflict Berserk status to boost damage (stacks with other buffs)
• Can only wield fists

Xon

• Can steal from all enemies at once
• Can uniquely copy stat buffs onto allies, then dispel them (one enemy)
• Supposedly improves drop rates of rare items

Y'shtola

• Can cast 2 spells/turn
• Learns the standard healer spells, but can also buff DEF or SPR (all allies)
• Has some damage spells, but low MAG
• LB grants high damage reduction (all allies)

Yda

• "Combo" attacker - gains access to increasingly powerful skills when used in sequence
• Can debuff stats while hitting (one enemy), but only MAG to begin with
• Can deal heavy damage after sequence maxes on 4th turn
• Too finicky to use as a reliable chainer or capper

Yun

• Normal attacks hit twice, high critical chance
• Can store power for next normal attack
• Raging Bird can chain well
• Good status immunities, and can self-heal

Zargabaath

• Not Balthier (real notes coming soon)

Zyrus

• Decent magical finisher due to FFBE's stacking mechanics.
• His primary spell arsenal is normally unremarkable. Even Dual Black Magic Waterga and Stonga are relatively commonplace and mediocre. In terms of skills, again, none of the "Blood" skills are particular standouts, except Blood Pulsar, which can stack upto 6.5x damage after 4 uses.
• Zyrus' LB somewhat improves on this, since it allows him use 2 "Blood" skills/turn for 2 turns. Together with the MAG self-buff, it helps him to ramp up faster on Blood Pulsar.
• Surprisingly, however, his main strength is Comet, since for unknown reasons, stack "value" transfers from 1 skill to another. If you max Blood Pulsar's stack to 4x, then DC Comet in the following turn, surprisingly the stack transfers to Comet and he ends up doing 5.6x twice instead of starting over at 1.7~1.8x.
• Aside from this, he gets decent MAG from his passives and has immunity to paralyze.
• Equipment & TMRs: Use a rod, a robe, and standard MAG gear.

Role Rankings

Main article: Role Rankings

These rankings are no longer supported, meaning they won't be heavily maintained after each new unit batch. For rankings that exclude base 5-star units, click here.