Final Fantasy XIII Guides - Transformation Catalyst Info

Update: 3/22/10
Added Fangs Weapons.

Update: 3/23/10
Added Sazhs and Vanilles weapons.

Update: 3/24/10
Added Snows and Hopes Weapons.

The Why

Every Weapon and accessory in FFXIII can be upgraded through components. (See here for some info) and when you max out their levels, you can upgrade that weapon | accessory into a better form using transformation Catalysts.

But the prices on those Catalysts are obnoxious in FFXIII. So you really can't experiment by buying up weapons and catalysts and seeing what goes where with which.....

The How

So with that in mind, here is a list of weapons and Accessories (not yet ^^) and which Catalyst Items are used to upgrade them.

Weapons

All Weapons Come in a 3 part series. 1 weapon You can buy. A unique version of that weapon it upgrades too. And an ultimate version of that characters weapon type. The Ultimate weapon is always the same, but it's stats are based on the 2 weapons previous in the series the Ultimate came from.

All weapons have max levels. These go 21/41/100 or 26/61/100 in the series. With all Ultimate weapons being capped at 100. You need to get the weapon to this level before you can upgrade. (with the exception of the Ultimates of course.)

For ease of reference. And a handy way of telling if you are pumping tons of Gil into trash, I posted the weapons Max Stats and any special auto abilities the weapon may have. The stats are ordered by Strength then Magic in all cases.

And Finally, I added what Transformation Catalyst (T-C) the item needs to be upgraded to the next highest form.

Final Fantasy XIII Guides - Leonara's Garage and cost effective weapon upgrading.

The Why

If you played FFXIII, and you tried your hand at upgrading weapons and accessories, you know how goddamn unintuitive the whole experience is. Trying to figure out which part gives what XP isn't that much of a problem if you are getting the components as drops from mobs. But once you start shopping for components, your (Ridiculously) hard earned gil starts coming into play. And buying up tons of the wrong part can definitely drain what little money you already have.

The How

With that in mind here are some tips for Minimizing amount of gil spent and maximizing XP. The key thing here is knowing what component does what in general. There are 4 main types of components.

1. Organic: Low xp, Gives XP multipliers.



2. Synthetic: High XP, Removes XP multipliers.



3. Transformation Catalyst: Changes Weapon, accessory to next strongest type when level is maxed (Star where level should be.) Need specific TA to upgrade. (Currently working on a list) Have the list started Here



4. Sale items: Includes Credit Chips and Dolls. Sell them because they give 1-3 xp a pop.

Ok now with the basics down lets get to upgrading. First things first, get that 3x multiplier on your weapon or accessory. You do this by adding organic components to them. Cheapest way to do this, is to go to Creature Comforts and buy 36 sturdy bones. Slap them on your weapon or accessory and you have your multiplier.

Note: you can Get the multiplier as far up as 5x but that requires a ridiculous amount of components. 3x is plenty.

Next comes leveling the weapon. Here is a list of the items sold in Leonara's Garage. (May not be complete, still dicking around in Gran Pulse.)

Lenora's Garage Gil to XP Ratio (Helter-skelter Baseline)
Name	Bought	Sold	XP	X Gil for 1 xp
Amplifier	520	260	108	4.81
Bomb Fragment	430	215	82	5.24
Bomb Core	1200	600	551	2.18
Ceramic Armor	660	330	147	4.49
Crankshaft	840	420	215	3.91
Epicyclic Gear	320	160	66	4.85
Ferroelectric Film	460	230	102	4.51
Fiber-optic Cable	840	420	216	3.89
Insulated Cabling	280	140	65	4.31
Liquid Crystal Lens	320	160	70	4.57
Parafin Oil	320	160	67	4.78
Passive Detector	840	420	188	4.47
Perfect Conductor	1600	800	751	2.13
Piezoelectric Element	840	420	310	2.71
Polymer Emulsion	200	100	48	4.17
Radial Bearing	320	160	64	5.00
Ring Joint	840	420	208	4.04
Silicone Oil	660	330	162	4.07
Superconductor	840	420	400	2.10
Turbojet	840	420	212	3.96

These XP totals where gotten from the Helter-skelter weapon with no Multiplier. The X gil for 1 xp column shows how much gil you spend for 1 point of xp. This will scale with other equipment you upgrade other than the HS. So don't worry if your XP totals are different. Superconductor's are still the best bang for your gil buck on this list. But you may not have access to those right away. (Chapter 10 or 11 I think.) Just pick the lowest Value component in the X gil for xp column you currently have access to. Buy it up, and pop it onto your item.

note: synthetic parts will clobber your XP multipliers so use them in bulk, or you are gonna have to keep using organic items to get back multipliers. Also note That I added bomb cores to the list since I farmed the hell out of those repeating Cie'th stone mission 7. It's a short walk and you get 5 Bomb cores guaranteed. I was using bomb cores as a baseline for my spreadsheet because I had a ton of them.

I'll be updating this list when I unlock more (probably still more) items from Leonara's Garage. Also here is a list of what Transformation Catalysts are used for weapons and accessories.

Topic Shenanigans

Every so often, I like to vent stupid on Gamefaqs.com. It starts off innocently enough. I go there to try and help people out with some of my favorite games. My "good deed of the day" if video game advice counted for that....

But the longer I stay, the more stupid I end up reading. And by virtue of what I am reading, I become stupid myself. (Hell if they aren't gonna take this seriously why should I?)

example:

I'm on the dragon age board and a TC (Topic creator) states. "That dragon looks like a wyvern to me." Now it takes a special type of nerd to enjoy dragon age. A type I am proud to be. The type that can name all the different dragon types from memory. (Oh like there is any difference memorizing dragon families and memorizing baseball stats :/) we are the Tolkien Nerd. Those guys that could recite The Fellowship of the Ring (Book or movie) or recite the Canticle of the Lance. We go nuts for things like Dragon age and spit fiery venom at things like Eragon. So you would think someone who was a fan of DA:O would Know what the hell they where talking about when it comes to dragons.

So, with that, I assumed the TC was just making a joke and decided to go along for the ride. And this list of dragon types popped out of my brain.

• Dragon: 4 legs, set of wings



• Drake: 4 legs, no wings




• Wyvern: 2 legs, set of wings, no arms




• Wyrm: no legs, no wings




• JRPG: 4 legs, set of wings, plasma cannon, may or may not have eyes, gigantic floating symbol on back, feathers (wtf?), may or may not have a young girl in a mini skirt on back or in arms.




• Western Developers: 3 legs 1 is way bigger than the rest, 1 wing, 4 eyes, mask of another dragons face on shoulder, chains(srsly wtf?), maybe a motorcycle built into it's body depending on how high artist was at the time, tail with a mouth on it.

Now I'm currently playing FFXIII And seriously can't wait to see what Bahamut looks like. It's a long standing, spoiler free tradition of mine that harkens back to FFVI. Sometimes I'm disappointed (ff10, where I got most of my JRPG jab from) sometimes I think he bleeds awesome (ff8,9 and 11) sometimes I think he is over doing it (ff7, Orbital beam much?) and sometimes I worry about Square-enix in general. (ff12)

I hope to hell he doesn't look like (or turn into) a train or some nonsense.

Also, in case you thought I pulled the JRPG description out of my ass. (Wouldn't blame you since JRPG's get a lot of needless Flak these days.)
I'm at least fare in my assessments.

Resident Evil 5: Desperate Escape DLC - First 60 Minutes

Random Thoughts

I hope the hell this isn't like last time......

Having to skip the cutscene I saw way back in RE5 means now I don't know why Josh and Jill are together.... Oh like it really matters. Josh: "Hey it's Jill. Lets get the @#$% out of here!" Jill: "OK." If I didn't hit it exactly I came damn close.

Oh good I get to actually fight something this time. And their good old-fashioned Majini.

Lots of Majini.....

Holy crap that's a lot of Majini....

Ok that was a lot of Majini 15 minutes ago, this is Mercenaries on Super Modified Crack Cocai... Oh you have got to be kidding! {My reaction to four, yes four, Chainsaw Majini}

Executor Majini? O.o

Yes Josh, I want you to use the grenade Launcher. No Josh I don't want you to shoot the guys behind you, I'll handle that. Josh.... Josh! Don't make me shoot you Josh! {They really should have just labeled the context B option "Have partner touch grenade launcher for one second."}

Oh good, more executor Majini.

Holy crap it's quiet.... Ok soon as I blast that door open... yep here they come >.<

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
{My reaction to dying for the 5th time running around an area with what seems like infinite spawn Majini, 1 Executor Majini and 3-4 Big Man Majini. Also 2 Grenade Launcher placements right in front of me. Finally figured out to play "run around the storage crate" with the executor till the G launchers take him out. Hurray for Friendly Fire.}

Nice going Capcom, I felt like I was playing "Lets play relaxing RE5 Mercenaries" for the past 50 minutes and now you put the timer up. {Note: "Lets play relaxing" is a series of ROM hacks of old NES games. They're usually of the "Die in first 5 seconds if you don't push something" Variety.}

Gatling Gun Majini? T.T

{Vroom Vroom Vrooooooom}..... more chainsaw Majini..... yaaaay...

Oh screw this, I'm just running around in a corner for 5 minutes. Not Like I'm getting score for extending my time.

Or have the ability to extend..... my...... FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
{My reaction to Doug saying he has to find an alternate route, thus adding 2 minutes to the timer.}

{Cue last Gatling Gun Majini} I don't even care anymore. T.T

{Cue final Cutscene. Note spoilers I guess} Ah Doug, you are probably the Only none dead RE series Helicopter pilo{kaboom}.... Apparently, rockets in the RE Universe are helicopter pilot seeking. {Seriously Figured he'd live since he's your pilot for Mercenaries. Oh well, he knew the risks, and the body count, of being a helicopter pilot in RE5. Seriously think they kill one every 1 and 1/2 games on average.}

Retrospect

I actually enjoyed this more than Lost In Nightmares. If for no other reason than you actually fight. Ok you fight a lot. And goddamn do I mean a lot. If you never played the mercenaries portion of RE5 you are gonna be in for a shock. It's insanity from the getgo and just gets increasingly worse. It's basically a bastard child OF RE5 and Mercenaries. It requires exploration, but there are a ton of Majini on your ass. You need to kill a ton of Majini, but need to do exploration to get to new areas.

Thankfully there are plenty of ammo pickups, but health is a bit on the "oh come on already" side. And the bosses... 8 Chainsaw Majini, 4 Executor Majini, and 2 Gatling Gun Majini. (There might even be more if you kill too many Majini in an area. That was a device of Mercenaries.) Surprisingly though, the Game was chalenging but never aggravating. (Yeah I curse a lot while dying.... and seeing what Capcom was throwing at me next. But I did enjoy myself.)

Which is another big difference between this and LiN. Those Lamprey monsters where just made of pure cheese. And taking your weapons from you was a bullcrap move to end all bullcrap moves. Thankfully, nothing like that happens this time around.

So all and all another worthwhile DLC from Capcom. If you have to choose one, definitely go Desperate Escape. For where as LiN Was more a nostalgic experience, DE Actually feels like a game. And one thats gonna Kick your ass if you haven't played Mercenaries in a year.