Final Fantasy 13 Guides - Transformation Catalysts for Accessories

The why

Yeah this took me a ridamndiculous amount of time to post up. Sorry about that. For the basics of transformation catalysts see here.

The How

Compiled this list of which accessories are transformed by which catalysts. Also added some basic stats info to help you decide what to upgrade or not. I've posted the list twice. Once sorted by Accessory type (did you know you can safely sell all those damn millirites you have been getting?) and once sorted by Catalyst type. Enjoy ^^

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.