Upgrading Weapons (no spoilers please)

[Che]

I'm a little curious about upgrading weapons. The instruction booklet says something about unlocking hidden abilities when you mix the right stuff together, but I haven't unlocked anything like that yet. I'm on Chapter 9 or 10, and I'm really wondering what I can do to upgrade my stuff. Since gil actually has value in this game, I don't want to waste it.

Let's get some discussion going on things you've mixed, etc. I'm still using a Gladius (second weap you get for Lightning), but I have it upgraded to lvl8.

[DragonHeart]

I...haven't figured it out either. I have Lightning and Fang's weapons to level 17 each but I haven't found any hidden abilities on either. Actually I didn't know they had hidden abilities. >_> First FF where I didn't read the manual first lol. But eh, I'm still curious as to where this upgrade stuff is going. I was just trying to see what level they upgraded to. XD

~DragonHeart~

[Che]

Okay, I just figured this out this morning.

Say you have a certain item called "Silicone Oil". If you try to upgrade a sword with it, it only gives you 32 exp each. However, if you try to use the Silicone Oil on an accessory, it gives you 232 exp each.

So apparently, the items you use to upgrade give you different value based on what you're upgrading. Wish I had known this a long time ago, instead of leveling my items up using horrible upgrade exp. I'd seriously buy 20 of something just to get 640 exp, instead of using those on something else that probably would have gotten me 4640 exp.

Still haven't found any hidden abilities yet, though. On page 39 of the instruction booklet it talks about Synthesized Abilities.

When equipping weapons and accessories, take note of the passive abilities they bestow, displayed in the passive abilities tab in the "Equipment" menu. Synthesized abilities occur when certain combinations of equipment link to unlock previously hidden abilities. There is a wide range of these abilities to discover, so be sure to experiment with various equipment combinations to take advantage of their considerable power.

[Josh_R]

I haven't upgraded my weapons to much. I didn't have that many components cause I sold them all before I got the upgrade.

Only thing I have upgraded is Lightning's Gladius weapon. I have it up to Lvl.3...Thats about it. I started to upgraded the Airwing.

[Dodie16]

^ That tip that Che mentioned will really come in handy for me.

Anyway, I'm a dumbass and thought that the stuff that you get from enemies worked the same as the loot you got from FF XII, so I sold a lot of the stuff for gil. I had no idea you needed it to upgrade your weapons. When I finally got to the point where I was told I could use that stuff to upgrade my weapons and accessories, I was like "Oh...".

The weapons I have managed to upgrade, I only got the strength and magic boosted. So yeah, no hidden abilities for me either.

I'm wondering about the option that you have to break down your weapons and accessories. Is that a lot more useful than just selling them off? I haven't done it yet, but I think I'll try it out and see what kind of stuff I get from breaking it down. Maybe something that will help me boost my other equipment. That'll be nice.

[Polk]

I'm wondering about the option that you have to break down your weapons and accessories. Is that a lot more useful than just selling them off? I haven't done it yet, but I think I'll try it out and see what kind of stuff I get from breaking it down. Maybe something that will help me boost my other equipment. That'll be nice.

From what I can tell so far, it's better just to sell stuff you don't plan on using. Maybe it's just because I dismantled some really early weapons/accessories, but they just dismantled into one mediocre item, whereas you could sell that same weapon for 5,000 gil. I assume the quality of items you get from dismantling goes up with the level or quality of a weapon, but it still seems to be better to sell it off.

Right now I have most of my characters (Fang excluded) with either their first or second weapon upgraded to level 6 or 7. I can't help feeling that I'm ****ing myself over by doing this, though.

[Che]

I have been randomly dismantling certain things just to experiment, and so far I haven't gotten any rare items by doing so, as far as I can tell.

And Dodie, as far as I can tell, the chips you get (upgrades your stuff by only 1 exp) are made specifically for selling. The rest you can use to upgrade things with. =D

Incentive Chips and Digital Chips I believe are their names? Someone correct me, I don't currently have any so I can't check.

[Ralz]

I haven't been upgrading too much, just enough to level them up really. I have the Blazefire Saber (Lightning's starting weapon) at level 15, and now her base Attack and Magic is 180 and 160, respectively.

I haven't noticed any ability gains, though. Maybe you need a specil item, or you have to transform the weapon somehow? I don't know.

[Andromeda]

There are actually a few other things that are sell for gil items besides just the credits. I found a gold nugget from a side-quest that I completed and a Moogle toy or something like.

I haven't extensively checked between weapons and accessories to know if they give different amounts. I figured that they gave the same amounts. But there are items that boost the exp bonus and some that take it away for the cost of giving you a huge exp drop. Generally, I bring the item up to 2x exp bonus and then drop some huge item on it and get it level a lot. Unfortunately, I've wasted a lot of items on different weapons. I've found that Lightning's Gladius is one of the best weapons after a few upgrades unless you want to go even on strength and magic. Which is a little disconcerting with all of the items I've dropped. Though thinking it through I should have just reloaded rather than forgetting it.

There are specific items for transformation the gear and it only works on specific gear. So if you don't have the transformation item you can't get the gear to change once you maxed it out. That was something I learned recently. I just figured the items would have different degrees of transformation bonuses or something.

I'm going to need to go to Pulse and do some farming. I think I have enough money to buy that accessory that increases the item drop rate of monsters. And I'm finally in a position to be able to fight Behemoth King and what not. But I do officially hate the Adamantoise Turtles. They are evil things. Impressive and cool, but evil evil evil things.

[LordK4G3]

kk, before you guys get even more mix up sometime this week ima upload a page that tells you everything the item can do if you use it to upgrade n dismantle it only for the people who wanna use it,

n first of all a item will always do the same amount of exp on any item you use it on. the reason why it did more was because you had a higher multiple on it which increase the exp gain

the trick is to use organic items to add a small amount of exp n increase the multiplier.

example : Starblossom seed 230 exp 91+ multiplier

the machanical items are the items to use once the multiplier is high main reason it has the highest gain of exp so with the multiplier you will be seeing huge number but in return it lowers your multiplier so you gotta know when to use them.

example: ultracompact Reactor 40 000 exp -100 multipler

premium components serve nothing when it comes to upgrading but they are worth alot, these items should be sold to gain gil.

example: platium ingot exp 1 multiple 0 sell price 150, 000gil

catalysts are the same has premium items but could serve useful if you keep them l8er during the game wont say reasons hope this clears alot of confusing over upgrading weapons, n how to do so.

[Che]

kk, before you guys get even more mix up sometime this week ima upload a page that tells you everything the item can do if you use it to upgrade n dismantle it only for the people who wanna use it,

n first of all a item will always do the same amount of exp on any item you use it on. the reason why it did more was because you had a higher multiple on it which increase the exp gain

the trick is to use organic items to add a small amount of exp n increase the multiplier.

example : Starblossom seed 230 exp 91+ multiplier

the machanical items are the items to use once the multiplier is high main reason it has the highest gain of exp so with the multiplier you will be seeing huge number but in return it lowers your multiplier so you gotta know when to use them.

example: ultracompact Reactor 40 000 exp -100 multipler

premium components serve nothing when it comes to upgrading but they are worth alot, these items should be sold to gain gil.

example: platium ingot exp 1 multiple 0 sell price 150, 000gil

catalysts are the same has premium items but could serve useful if you keep them l8er during the game wont say reasons hope this clears alot of confusing over upgrading weapons, n how to do so.

Thanks for the post! (even though it was a little hard to read)

[Rocky]

basically from what I found, use all the organic items to boost the exp multiplier to x3, then use the most exp machine stuff you can get a hold of. Most of the weapons max out at like level 25 or so, and the 2nd tier weapons max out in the 60s-70s.

The best thing I did was I went to the Creature Comforts shop and bought a bunch of cheap stuff like the Sturdy Bones and other organic items. It costed me 80gil a piece, so about 8k to max out in the inventory. I then used about 40 of them on the item, which was enough to get me the x3 multilplier. After that, I spent as much money on all the machine items, and saw which one would grant me the most exp out of all of them. That's pretty much how you make the best weapons.

In order to upgrade the weapon after being at max level, you have to use the catalyst item to change it to the next tier. These items can all be bought from the Motherlode and the R&D Depot shops.

[DragonHeart]

Well now I don't feel so bad lol, it's a bit tough to figure out isn't it. I'd started working some of this stuff out, just had no idea how close I was to reality. I actually dismantled Fang's lance and bought the Gae Bolg cause of the counter bonus, then managed to max it out. I actually wasn't planning on keeping it, just experimenting but since I defeated a pain in the ass boss with that setup I guess it's staying.

~DragonHeart~

[Rydia Lover]

i think they be talking about the wepons upgrading into their second teirs, i just changed my blazefire saber into a flamberg

[theblackmonster]

this is probably my favorite feature besides the paradigm shift.

i will take up to 20 mins upgrading and dismantling weapons and accessories to see what different effects and boosts i get, and lenora's garage is the **it, you can just go buy all the main things to upgrade! whether they be what you need or not it is a very useful store.