Tips, Hints, Suggestions--Random Bits of Value

[Fate]

Anyone with any sort of tips about the overall game or specific parts, just post it in here. It can be something you discovered while playing the game, something someone's told you that you found useful, or any of that.

Anyway, something I noticed while playing the game is the Sentinel role and its positioning. If you start out with a character as a Sentinel, it's a bad idea because they're so close to the other two; attacks will hit two or all three, and the Sentinel will not take in all the damage. So, if you're going to use one, start them off as a Commando or something, and have them run up to the enemy first. Then switch to Sentinel so that they can take hits away from the rest of the party.

Also, something I learned from someone else is that you should use Thunder (and the ranks) if the enemy isn't weak to anything and has a neutral resistance to multiple elements (including thunder). This is because the Thunder spells have the extra juggle effect, which is nice, and it activates instantly because it forms above the enemy, taking no time to "charge up."

That's all I can come up with now. Anyway with some good tips, I'd love to hear.

[Andromeda]

The thunder trick generally only works on enemies that are small since they are I guess lighter or something. Larger ones won't get tossed into the air. Though for later in the game when you want to do some mob control. Thundaga is better since it has a wide area of effect and any monsters affected by it typically will be in the air long enough that you can get a second Thundaga off before they can recover. So you can technically endless juggle them with a Thundaga, though one usually ends up escape eventually. However, if you're dire needing of healing and don't have Sentinel Thundaga from Ravager or Ruinga from Commando make very good juggling techniques. Along with that Aerora and Aeroga also seem to have similar affects, which is significantly more pronounced when you use it during Stagger events.

When fighting the Ochu early on before I did the death stuff and I was trying to manage the fight on my own. I actually would use the Thundaga strategy since its little seedlings are easily juggled by Thundaga and someone could heal up my party saving it. And Fang could go all out attack without getting hurt as well. So it is a good technique even when don't need to heal, but just need to keep the enemy from hitting you period.

A Summon's level is equal to the number of Level 5 roles you have plus 10. So a Summon can be level 16 and thus the more Level 5 roles you have the stronger than Summon will get.

The higher the role level the most the bonus increases for having that role in active use in the battle. I don't remember the numbers, but it is done something like this for Sentinel. The character with Sentinel received 100% of the bonus that it gets for being a Sentinel (meaning an increase in defense against attacks). On top of that a Sentinel gives all party members including itself a 5% defense bonus. So a Sentinel has a 105% defense while others have 5%. At Level 3 it goes up to 10% and Level 5 15%. With Sentinel x3 in the party it would be 160% defense bonus for a Sentinel. There are similar affects for all roles.

Summon's attacks void natural defense of monsters and have a damage cap of 999,999 automatically without any work. So even a monster with high natural defense will end up getting hit for significantly more damage than a character would.

After the end of the Summoning all party members will be restored to full health. Making it a useful strategy to save your party in a dire position.

Certain accessories in combination on a character will produce a hidden additional effect. Having Energy Sash plus a Speed Sash will give a Random Stagger Effect, which I have noticed will also be produced by other items that is not just the Speed Sash. Multiple Strength accessories will produce a Physical Wall effect that voids the first X amount of HP damage done to the character. There are a lot of hidden bonuses to be found.

Death's odds of hitting increase with more Saboteurs and debuffs on the enemy, but in the end it is still only 4%.

[Che]

One thing I'm wondering is if a monster's loot is pre-determined. Like, say I kill a Adamantoise and it didn't drop anything. Can I quit, reload my game and kill the same exact Adamantoise and it actually drop something the 2nd time I kill it?

also +repped both of you for this thread.

[DragonHeart]

You could but...why waste the CP? One Adamantoise is 40k, 80k if you have the growth egg. That's nothing to sneeze at even endgame. Better to just let the Adamantoise respawn, which is what I'm doing right now, farming them for Platinum Ingots and Trapezohedrons. If you don't want to run back and forth you could always kill one, save and reload, then kill it again. Personally I prefer the run back and forth method.

~DragonHeart~

[Che]

You could but...why waste the CP? One Adamantoise is 40k, 80k if you have the growth egg. That's nothing to sneeze at even endgame. Better to just let the Adamantoise respawn, which is what I'm doing right now, farming them for Platinum Ingots and Trapezohedrons. If you don't want to run back and forth you could always kill one, save and reload, then kill it again. Personally I prefer the run back and forth method.

~DragonHeart~

I'm not strong enough to kill them legit. I've been using Vanille's Summon to knock them on their legs, and then spam Death until it KOs it. Retry if it gets back up before a Death goes off. I'm using the fully upgraded catalog to increase the chance of rare drops as well.

I've been taking the CP so far and using it, but I have thought about just resetting if nothing drops since I have to farm TP after I fight one using my method.

[DragonHeart]

Hmm...you can use the Death method without a summon, that's how I did it to start. It did take me a few tries to get it down but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. What kind of setup/accessories do you have?

~DragonHeart~

[Tiffany]

Okay, I'm going to cave and ask: What's this Growth Egg and how do I get one?

[DragonHeart]

The Growth Egg is an accessory that, when equipped on someone in your active party, doubles the amount of CP you get. You can acquire it only from Cie'th mission 54, the abomination known as Neochu.

~DragonHeart~

[Che]

Hmm...you can use the Death method without a summon, that's how I did it to start. It did take me a few tries to get it down but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. What kind of setup/accessories do you have?

~DragonHeart~

My Party


Fang


Hope


Vanille

As you can see, I use Vanille/Hope/Fang. Vanille and Fang both have their final weapons, but not maxed. Snow has the least upgraded weapon with a Lv. 3 tier 1 Paladin.

I have kept all of my accessories for the most part, but I haven't upgraded them much. As far as I know, I can have access to anything you suggest to help me take down the Adamantoise without using a summon.

[DragonHeart]

Ok, it looks like you're good stat-wise, this method works when you have 8-10k HP and you've more than that. I tried this when I had less than you, so I know it works...

First, accessories.

For Fang you'll want tanking gear so +HP and physical/earth resistance. Diamond/Adamant Bangles, General's Belt, etc. Give her one or both of the Catalogs if you're confident in her damage-soaking ability or maybe one Catalog and the Growth Egg if you have it.

Vanille, +HP, a damage resistant accessory and Aurora Scarf.

Hope, definitely +HP and damage resistance, as much as you can pile on him. If you gave Fang one Catalog, give him the other.

You may need to play around with your accessories as you see fit but you can see where I'm going with this. You want to be pretty much on the defensive from the start. As for weapons, if you have Vanille's Belladonna Wand, use it, upgrade to Malboro Wand if you can. Use Hope's Vidofnir or the upgraded version.

Now, Paradigms. Fang is going to be Sentinel basically no matter what. You could use Snow if you want to, he is better suited for this particular purpose, but I've never had a problem with Fang tanking Adamantoises and I like her better anyways.

Vanille / Fang / Hope
Med / Sen / Syn
Sab / Sen / Med
Med / Sen / Med

These are essentially the only three Paradigms you'll need. Start with the top one as your default.

So when you start the battle, Vanille will be standing by to heal any stomp-damage you incur while Hope buffs the party. Make sure everyone has every buff he has to offer, particularly Haste and Faith for Vanille.

Once your buffs are up, switch to the second Paradigm, Sab/Sen/Med. This is where you'll spend most of the battle. Now you just spam Death over and over while Hope takes care of the healing. If you get stomp-Quaked (I did, a lot), switch to Med/Sen/Med as soon as you see Quake on the screen. Once everyone's got green HP, go back to Death spamming.

As soon as your buffs wear, go back to Med/Sen/Syn and let Hope reapply them. Then Death spam some more.

Keep an eye on the time, though. This method is pointless if you don't get a 5 star ranking for the battle, which increases the drop odds. If Death doesn't land within 10-15 minutes (yes it sometimes does take that long), retry. Once you do get a win take a look at your target time and aim for half of that.

And....basically you rinse and repeat, into infinity. You may want to play with your accessories and such as I was more focused with my roles on each character. That's the basic strategy though. Keep TP handy for Renew or Summon.

~DragonHeart~

[Che]

Ok, it looks like you're good stat-wise, this method works when you have 8-10k HP and you've more than that. I tried this when I had less than you, so I know it works...

First, accessories.

For Fang you'll want tanking gear so +HP and physical/earth resistance. Diamond/Adamant Bangles, General's Belt, etc. Give her one or both of the Catalogs if you're confident in her damage-soaking ability or maybe one Catalog and the Growth Egg if you have it.

Vanille, +HP, a damage resistant accessory and Aurora Scarf.

Hope, definitely +HP and damage resistance, as much as you can pile on him. If you gave Fang one Catalog, give him the other.

You may need to play around with your accessories as you see fit but you can see where I'm going with this. You want to be pretty much on the defensive from the start. As for weapons, if you have Vanille's Belladonna Wand, use it, upgrade to Malboro Wand if you can. Use Hope's Vidofnir or the upgraded version.

Now, Paradigms. Fang is going to be Sentinel basically no matter what. You could use Snow if you want to, he is better suited for this particular purpose, but I've never had a problem with Fang tanking Adamantoises and I like her better anyways.

Vanille / Fang / Hope
Med / Sen / Syn
Sab / Sen / Med
Med / Sen / Med

These are essentially the only three Paradigms you'll need. Start with the top one as your default.

So when you start the battle, Vanille will be standing by to heal any stomp-damage you incur while Hope buffs the party. Make sure everyone has every buff he has to offer, particularly Haste and Faith for Vanille.

Once your buffs are up, switch to the second Paradigm, Sab/Sen/Med. This is where you'll spend most of the battle. Now you just spam Death over and over while Hope takes care of the healing. If you get stomp-Quaked (I did, a lot), switch to Med/Sen/Med as soon as you see Quake on the screen. Once everyone's got green HP, go back to Death spamming.

As soon as your buffs wear, go back to Med/Sen/Syn and let Hope reapply them. Then Death spam some more.

Keep an eye on the time, though. This method is pointless if you don't get a 5 star ranking for the battle, which increases the drop odds. If Death doesn't land within 10-15 minutes (yes it sometimes does take that long), retry. Once you do get a win take a look at your target time and aim for half of that.

And....basically you rinse and repeat, into infinity. You may want to play with your accessories and such as I was more focused with my roles on each character. That's the basic strategy though. Keep TP handy for Renew or Summon.

~DragonHeart~

Thank you very much sir! Looks legit to me, but I have yet to try it. I'm going to Block's house tonight to play some Starcraft 2 beta. I will let you know how this works out. I appreciate the write-up. +repped

[DragonHeart]

No problem, I've been fighting these things for so long I have it down to a science lol. At this point killing them is the easy part, getting the drop...not so much. As soon as you get a Genji Glove you can start killing them without Death, though. =D It's more tense but way more fun too.

And then you run into a Long Gui and get Ultima'd to death. Or maybe that's just me. >_>;

Here's a good tip for those as (un)observant as me...after you input commands in the ATB queue, the next time you attack if you go to abilities and hit the right directional button it changes to repeat and it...repeats the last set of commands you input. I didn't know that until yesterday. <_< Sure makes turtle farming faster.

~DragonHeart~

[Djinn]

Discovered a decent way to grind those traps/plat ingots and get decent CP, after several hours of trial and error >.>.

There's a Adamantortoise near a save point, up the top somewhere (i don't have the game open so i'm being vague), basically right near the entrance point to where there's a small herd of adamanchellids. You need a fairly well built up party for this, but i used Vanille, Fang and Hope. I tried Lightning, Vanille and Fang, but none of them have haste yet so i could put out the DPS i needed to kill them in a single go.

Basically you approach the adamantortoise in the same way as if you were going to Death spam it, via DragonHearts method. However once you're fully buffed up, cast summon with Vanille, then debuff the target with deprotect, deshell and imperil, should only take a turn or two. Get rid of your summon through Gestalt as quick as possible and then switch to RAV/COM/RAV and go balls to the wall on damage. I've been able to kill them before they get up again every time i've tried, each fight lasting just over 2 minutes... so fairly efficient compared to death spam.

The downside comes in trying to get 3 bars of TP back, however even that takes less than 5 minutes as just around the corner from that save point is 2 packs of those wolves and 2 adamanchellids which are fairly easy prey, (about 1 minute for adamanchellids and 10-20s for the packs of wolves).

Rinse and Repeat. Test to see if you can take those adamanchellids quickly, if not just stick to the wolves, also test to make sure you can take almost all of the HP of the adamantortoise before it gets back up, if you've maxed 2 of the tier 10 crys grids you should be fine though... i didn't have any ultimate weapons equipped either, same accessories as DH suggested also, except all my accessories are gimped so i could probably do it faster haha.

The bonus to this way is the adamanchellids you kill for TP after can drop gold dust and some other item that sells for a fair whack (gold something, can't remember). Also its a guarenteed kill, unlike the death method which could have you fighting for 15 minutes without getting you anywhere (that and i've not had a death kill take less than 2:30 yet)

Edit: Just timed a full run, from reload point to saving, and it took me 10 minutes... which includes getting my TP up to 3 bars. With my CP for that 10 minutes coming in at around 125k, gil however is pretty sporatic... but as you can tell, its around 750k CP an hour, with money ranging from nothing to several million if you get traps. You do get creature upgrade mats aswell though, which saves a bit of money in the end XD.

[Che]

Just did a 44 second Adamantoise (look at the CP [I had growth egg equipped], and where the battle took place in the background, right outside Eden with that one Adamantoise near the save point, and target time). It dropped a Platinum Ingot too (what I'm looking for, I have my Traps)!

Just had to brag.

[Kaiden]

I have seen several people comment about it and others ask. But each role while giving that character abilities affects the other two as well with a "Role Bonus"

Commando: Augments physical and magic attacks of all party members

Ravager: Improves Chaining for all party members

Sentinel: Reduces physical and magic damage taken for all party members

Medic: Increases potency of healing abilities and items for all party members

Synergist: Increases enhancement ability duration for all party members

Saboteur: Increases success rate for all party member when using abilities against foes.

Also I see a lot of people say to use medics to get rid of status aliments, I find a synergist much more effective at doing that.

I don't have a lot of data to back this up yet, but I have noticed after two sets of moves if you switch paradigms your atb gauge is full again right away. So as to get more moves in per fight I end up switching my paradigm after 2 sets just to fill the gauge.

[Che]

I have seen several people comment about it and others ask. But each role while giving that character abilities affects the other two as well with a "Role Bonus"

Commando: Augments physical and magic attacks of all party members

Ravager: Improves Chaining for all party members

Sentinel: Reduces physical and magic damage taken for all party members

Medic: Increases potency of healing abilities and items for all party members

Synergist: Increases enhancement ability duration for all party members

Saboteur: Increases success rate for all party member when using abilities against foes.

Also I see a lot of people say to use medics to get rid of status aliments, I find a synergist much more effective at doing that.

I don't have a lot of data to back this up yet, but I have noticed after two sets of moves if you switch paradigms your atb gauge is full again right away. So as to get more moves in per fight I end up switching my paradigm after 2 sets just to fill the gauge.

You're indeed correct.

The Commando's role bonus adds a percentage to the damage dealt to the *
* enemies. This bonus applies to both physical and magical damage. If *
* there is more than one Commando in the party, the bonus is the sum of *
* all applicable Commando bonuses.


The Sentinel's role bonus reduces the damage dealt by both physical and *
* magical attacks. This bonus applies even if the attack ignores type *
* based Defense. If there is more than one Sentinel in the party, the *
* bonus is the product of all applicable Sentinel bonuses. If Lightning is *
* a level 5 Sentinel (self bonus of 0.50) and has two role level 3 *
* Sentinels on her team (party bonus of 0.89 each)then her total bonus *
* would be equal to 0.5 x 0.89 x 0.89 = 0.396 = 0.4

And so on and so forth with the rest of the classes.

source: GameFAQs: Final Fantasy XIII (PS3) Game Mechanics Guide by ximaus

Also on paradigm switching, if you do it in the last animation of your last attack it will skip showing each party member switching and give you a full ATB bar automatically.

[Ralz]

Among the three Catalogs, the Survivalist Catalog seems to have the largest effect. (Yes, it actually DOES increase the shroud drop rate. ) I also learned its the first tier in the Catalog accessory family.

Death apparently has a 1% hit rate. I knew it was small, but that looks like its impossible to deal with without declaring insanity.

Even with the Crystarium maxed on everyone, plenty of Cie'th missions and Adamantoises will still give you hell.

For some reason, Alexander has the most rape stats in the game. (Not that I know how powerful he is, though... Never used him.)

I did some calculating on the Crystarium. Obviously there's WAY too many nodes to possible write down and track down. (Well, I could, but it would take a few minutes.) To fill Lightning's Commando grid from the beginning all the way to the very end, it would take over 1 million points. Multiply that by her six roles, and multiply that by the six characters, and the total cost to completely fill the Crystarium for everyone would be well over 36 million, possibly going over 40 million. And you can't surpass 999999 at any one time.

Barthandelus is not hard to defeat at all. For his first forms, kill the nodes and you've won. The second form, stack on buffs, like the important Haste, and utilize debuffs like Slow. For his final form, have a Sentinel paradigm to survive Ultima, even though its not that powerful. Almost same as second form, actually.

When you open the main menu when riding on a Chocobo on Gran Pulse, its picture will likely freak you out. It did to me.

Behemoth Kings run faster than Chocobos. Why can't we ride those, then? D8<

Cactuars ARE little dicks when you're riding a chocobo.

The Bombs look stupid in this game.

Juggernaut is a very hard fight the first time you encounter him and becomes routinely easy every time after that. (He will be back MANY times.)

Taejin's Tower is home to another Cie'th mission. Good luck trying to remember how to get to the top. While we're at it, you cannot skip the elevator scene.

Finally... the final boss will likely give you hell.

[Che]

Death apparently has a 1% hit rate. I knew it was small, but that looks like its impossible to deal with without declaring insanity.


Taejin's Tower is home to another Cie'th mission. Good luck trying to remember how to get to the top. While we're at it, you cannot skip the elevator scene.

Death's hit rate can be increased with Vanille's Belladona staff. Also I usually put 3 Lv. 5 SABs in my party as they help each other with success rates stacking.

On Taejin's mission, I actually teleported back to Oerba and ran the short distance back to the elevator tower and took it to the top.

[Unknown Entity]

Taejin's Tower is home to another Cie'th mission. Good luck trying to remember how to get to the top. While we're at it, you cannot skip the elevator scene.

You can re-align the last section of the elevator near the top. This'll allow you to take it from the top to the bottom without switching. There's another Cie'th mission you can do which'll do it for you.

EDIT: It also makes another Cie'th mission possible for you...

The Tower is...:

like a music box, which'll draw one of the undead out from hiding. It'll only come out once you've activated the mission though.

You can find this out from Vanille's robot friend you can find in a house in Oerba once you've fixed it (and you get some pretty loot from it too - bits and pieces, Ingots and Ultra Compact Fusion Reactors!!!).

[GranFran]

I'm going crazy here.. Is it just me or does the game begin to slow down during battles? I mean it's like sit and wait, sit and wait for the battle meter to fill up and then fire.. I double checked my settings to make sure 'battle speed' wasn't on slow but it's set to normal..

Is it like this through the whole game? Is there something I need to do or get to make the leader's gauge fill up faster? I'm topped off at the moment with the Crystarium, so that doesn't seem to be the problem.. It's just so slow.. Any help would be appreciated..

[Che]

I'm going crazy here.. Is it just me or does the game begin to slow down during battles? I mean it's like sit and wait, sit and wait for the battle meter to fill up and then fire.. I double checked my settings to make sure 'battle speed' wasn't on slow but it's set to normal..

Is it like this through the whole game? Is there something I need to do or get to make the leader's gauge fill up faster? I'm topped off at the moment with the Crystarium, so that doesn't seem to be the problem.. It's just so slow.. Any help would be appreciated..

Cast Haste.

[GranFran]

Cast Haste.

Ah, haste, of coarse, I forgot.. Well, don't have it yet, but definitely have to remember to do that when I get it.. Thanks, hon..

[GranFran]

Cast Haste.

The only character I'm finding that has haste in their arsenal is Sazh.. It's hard to use it if none of the other characters have access to the ability.. The way the guide is written out it says it's best to stay with Light, Fang and Hope and make the other 3 specialists.. Besides, you don't even get access to all 6 specialties until way late in the game, right? So, Hope, my only Synergist and the only one who has access to Haste, can't get it for a long time due to the amount of CP required and the high Crystarium level it's on for him..

Did you have access to it earlier then that? Can you tell me if I'm missing something on accessing the ability by the 3 main characters earlier then chapter 9, which is what I'm on now? Thanks so much for your help.. It's appreciated..

[Zargabaath]

The only character I'm finding that has haste in their arsenal is Sazh.. It's hard to use it if none of the other characters have access to the ability.. The way the guide is written out it says it's best to stay with Light, Fang and Hope and make the other 3 specialists.. Besides, you don't even get access to all 6 specialties until way late in the game, right? So, Hope, my only Synergist and the only one who has access to Haste, can't get it for a long time due to the amount of CP required and the high Crystarium level it's on for him..

Did you have access to it earlier then that? Can you tell me if I'm missing something on accessing the ability by the 3 main characters earlier then chapter 9, which is what I'm on now? Thanks so much for your help.. It's appreciated..

Sazh is the only character to have haste by chapter 9; everybody but Vanille gets haste. I got the same feeling of slowness as you did and even though this is my second favourite battle system, it is my least favourite system for grinding because of the ATB rate.

[DragonHeart]

Keep in mind that the guide tends to favor a balanced setup more for newcomers; if it's not to your style there's nothing saying you can't change it up. I played most of the game with Fang, Vanille and Hope but when I play again I am definitely adding Sazh in more often for Haste early on. It really makes a huge difference, enough that it'd be worth your while to switch him in for someone when he gets Haste so you can see for yourself. The ATB gauge will fill as fast, if not faster than you can input commands.

Also, every new segment of the ATB gauge you gain will make the entire thing fill a little bit faster. It's noticeable when you have characters with different numbers of ATB segments in your party.

~DragonHeart~

[GranFran]

Keep in mind that the guide tends to favor a balanced setup more for newcomers; if it's not to your style there's nothing saying you can't change it up. I played most of the game with Fang, Vanille and Hope but when I play again I am definitely adding Sazh in more often for Haste early on. It really makes a huge difference, enough that it'd be worth your while to switch him in for someone when he gets Haste so you can see for yourself. The ATB gauge will fill as fast, if not faster than you can input commands.

Also, every new segment of the ATB gauge you gain will make the entire thing fill a little bit faster. It's noticeable when you have characters with different numbers of ATB segments in your party.

~DragonHeart~

Yes, I agree with both of you, I'm going to change up and add Sazh when the game allows me too.. It's good to know that it will eventually get faster on it's on, though.. Funny thing is, I'm usually the type of player who likes things a bit on the slower side because I have arthritis in my hands and fingers, so when things really get cooking in a game and I can't slow it down, I end up shelving said game, now here I am complaining because the game is a little too slow.. But I ALWAYS finish my FF games, no matter how painful it gets.. And I must said, I thought the graphics were good in 12, but this games just blows me away.. Never thought I'd end up playing a game designed in a Dyson Sphere..

[Tiffany]

I used Lightning/Fang/Hope up until Mah'haraba or whatever its called. Then I switched to Fang as the party leader and had Sazh and Vanille. I found that the buffs/debuffs that Sazh and Vanille could dole out much more useful than Lighting or Hope's at that time frame.

[GranFran]

I used Lightning/Fang/Hope up until Mah'haraba or whatever its called. Then I switched to Fang as the party leader and had Sazh and Vanille. I found that the buffs/debuffs that Sazh and Vanille could dole out much more useful than Lighting or Hope's at that time frame.

Excellent, I will use them then too.. Hopefully, it will make things easier on me.. You see, I went back from Mah'haraba to start again at chapter 4, because my character's were just too weak and kept getting killed.. I got into too much of a hurry and didn't build them up enough, now they are doing much better and I'm not having to clean the floor with their poor broken bodies.. Thanks for the tip, hon, I really appreciate them..

[Che]

Also, if you want faster ATB rate, you can combine items like a speed sash+whistlewind(aurora) scarf (i think). This will give you ATB rate +10%, and you can get up to 20% somehow by combining accessories like that on a character. Lightning's ATB gauge on attack weapon and 20% ATB rate accessories make her awesome for building % at ravager.

[Fate]

^ Ah, I never knew that you can boost the rate of the ATB gauge. =S

On the topic of speed, I just equip a pair of Sprint Shoes on all three characters to give them Auto-Haste at the start of battle. Granted, it doesn't last that long, but it's long enough that I can have my buffs on and stagger the enemy; on the lesser monsters I kill them off way before Haste wears off, though. The Sprint Shoes, combined with the Aurora Scarf if you want it, will give you a full ATB gauge from the start that refills in two seconds after you use it.