A brief explanation for different Final Fantasy Ever Crisis features such as gacha mechanics, leveling and stamina, weapons and Overboost, stats and abilities, game modes and events, and materia synthesis. This isn’t intended as an in-depth guide covering the story, the best heroes and weapons, how to clear specific stages, exact synthesis odds, and so on.
Introduction
I’ve been playing since release and love that Ever Crisis got a Steam release since this means new players can give the game a try. Unfortunately it doesn’t run too well on my computer so I’ll be sticking with mobile overheating my phone. I’m hoping the advice below is useful for new players but it doesn’t go over everything.
In-Game Currency
There are two types of Currency, three if you count Gil, but only Blue Crystals and Red Crystals can be used to summon on banners or unlock new slots. Blue Crystals can be earned for free by playing the game (Ex. Login, Story, Events). Red Crystals can only be obtained through in-app purchases and are used to buy packs in the Shop or summon if you’re out of Blue Crystals. Limited Time Offers can only be bought with Red Crystals and typically end within 12 hours. Exclusive banners that guarantee one five star weapon or more can only be pulled with Red Crystals.
Gacha
Keep in mind this is a gacha game so if that isn’t your thing this may not be the game for you. Whether or not this game is F2P friendly is often debated but I’d say yes. The biggest complaint I see is the stamp system since this determines how many Crystals are needed to earn a focus weapon and/or costume of choice. The luckiest I’ve been was 15,000 Blue Crystals for 12 Stamps but the unluckiest will take 36,000 for 12 Stamps and is the only way to get the costume. Focus weapons for one banner will be pullable on later banners (See “Weapons” for exceptions) after it ends but costumes won’t be.
Characters are free so the only reason to pull on banners is for weapons and costumes. You can only pull one copy of a weapon that can be given to the matching character (Ex. Falchion can only be used by Zack as a main weapon). Any additional copies pulled will be converted into parts (if Auto-Convert is on) and used for Overboost.
Each banner will have a Wishlist where you can pick five weapons (not including focus) that have a higher chance of appearing. As per gacha there are no guarantees and lower percentage weapons can still appear. Each banner will be available to summon from for a limited amount of time, some can last close to a month and others less than two weeks.
Player Level/Stamina
As you complete battles your Player Level will increase with the amount of EXP earned varying by stage and difficulty. Only battles that use stamina give Player EXP with the one exception being first time Co-op battles since they cost stamina after.
Leveling up increases the total amount of stamina you can max out at a time so it’s highly recommended you use all or nearly all stamina you get restored through waiting. Getting a Game Over or Retiring doesn’t use stamina, it’s only consumed after a successful clear.
Stamina Tonics refill 50 stamina each and can be obtained for free through certain events, logging in after certain times as part of daily missions, or signing in at least three days in one week for a weekly mission. The max Stamina Tonics you can hold at a time is 99, anything extra will be sent to your Gift Box. If you find yourself running low, up to 200 Stamina Tonics can be bought every day for 50 Blue or Red Crystals and restore 100 stamina instead of 50.
Missions/Campaigns/Jumpstart
Missions are separated into four categories being Daily, Weekly, Campaigns, and General. Daily missions are available from one reset to the next and are always the same. Weekly missions are available from one Sunday until the following Sunday and are always the same. There are more missions and points available than needed to meet the 70 Daily and 90 Weekly points requirements so don’t worry if you can’t clear one or two.
The Shop has a pack under “Special” named “Free Daily Pack” which can be collected every day. This counts towards “Make use of the shop’s services every day” for Daily Missions and “Make a purchase at the shop 5 times for Weekly Missions. Gil can be used to buy a random selection of materials under “Gil” and also counts towards these missions.
Campaigns are limited time missions, lasting a week or two on average, which give Stamina Boost, Blue Crystals, or Draw Tickets depending on the requirements. One exception was the Sephiroth campaign which rewarded the player with memories for leveling Sephiroth up to 50 within the time frame.
General missions are always available ranging from leveling up characters and unlocking character stream nodes to Overboosting banner focus weapons for wallpapers, using specific amounts of stamina, and meeting support requirements in Co-op. These missions can only be cleared once but are useful for earning Blue Crystals, character memories, character exclusive Draw Tickets, wallpapers, and profile icons and titles.
Jumpstart missions are one-time clear missions and a great way for beginners to learn the basics while earning useful rewards such as Draw Tickets, weapon parts to explain Overboost, Blue Crystals, and weapon materials. These missions guide players on building a strong team and progressing through the story.
Daily Quests can be found under Solo Content and are separate from Daily Missions. Up to three quests are assigned per day with rewards such as Gil and weapon parts you can choose five drops for.
Season Pass (Treasure Hunt)
Season Pass runs from the first day of the month to the last day of the month with its own Daily, Weekly, and Season Exploration missions separate from Daily/Weekly missions. Daily Exploration missions are the same every day and can be cleared again at reset but only give one step each. Weekly Exploration missions are the same each week, can be cleared again at reset every Sunday, and give three steps each. Season Exploration missions can only be cleared once per Treasure Hunt and give eight steps each, enough to clear four levels. 30 is the max level and easy to achieve but 200 Blue or Red Crystals can also be used to purchase levels if you fall behind. Premium Hunt requires spending so if you’re F2P only Normal Hunt rewards are available.
Chocobo
The Chocobo Farm allows you to collect materials for synthesis, weapon upgrades, memory stream nodes, a bit of EXP for the character(s) sent on an expedition, and Chocobo Medals. There will be a chest to open after reset as well. Any character(s) sent out will still be available to use in battle. Additional exploration items can’t be used but are necessary to collect for 100% completion in each area. If an expedition is taking too long you can use Chocoboosters to speed things up with each saving three hours.
You’ll be given one slot to start but an additional two can be opened with Blue or Red Crystals. Having more than one slot available allows you to collect materials quickly at one time, complete missions easier, and unlock new areas to explore sooner so it’s recommended to buy them if you have Crystals.
The Chocobo Farm has its own set of missions which reward Blue Crystals and Chocobo Medals based on the amount of area seen and items collected. Chocobo Medals can be used in the Chocobo Exchange to buy new Chocobo with the grade letter and cost reflecting how high or low stats will be. Speed determines how long an expedition takes, Stamina the amount of collectable items, Intellect the amount of collectable Chocobo Medals, and Adaptability the amount of EXP earned.
Buy what’s affordable to start, otherwise you may have empty spots you’re unable to fill, and any unneeded Chocobo can be sold after upgrading. There are three types being Chocobo, River Chocobo, and Mountain Chocobo that are needed for later area explorations so saving is important.
Sealed Tower of Cetra/Criterion Dungeons/Crisis Dungeons
Story progression is necessary to unlock The Sealed Tower of Cetra and Criterion Dungeons. The Sealed Tower of Cetra is necessary to unlock Crisis Dungeons.
The Sealed Tower of Cetra currently goes up to B70 and gives rewards such as Gil, Power/Magic/Healing Pieces, and character memories. Character memories are exclusive to Boss Floors, with the exception of B1, but doesn’t include any for Sephiroth since he was added later. Boss Floors include B5, B10, B15, B20, B25, B29, B30, B35, B40-50, B55, B60, B65, and B70. Only B1-B30 are necessary to complete for Jumpstart missions but B50 and B70 give profile titles and Steam achievements.
Criterion Dungeons can be played as many times as needed a day, there’s no limit. Each stage has three missions to complete and are a great way for new players to earn Draw Tickets to unlock new weapons. Chests may contain additional Draw Tickets or Blue Crystals as well.
Crisis Dungeons currently have nine areas available with Normal and Hard difficulties. Normal Dungeons unlock new materia recipes at Ranks C and A, the only way outside of playing the story. Hard Dungeons reward Mythril Ore at Ranks C, A, and S+. Defeating the Boss will end a Dungeon so defeat any other enemies and collect chests first. Each Dungeon has an estimated power level which is determined by the number of enemies you kill, meaning it can be as easy or difficult as you can handle, but harder gives more rewards and a higher score.
Leveling up weapons to 80 is simple enough once you have a strong team, Level Uncap Nanocube and Genome Pods quests are available or you can earn materials in events, but 90 can be a bit more difficult. Mythril Ore is a material that can be earned from clearing Hard Crisis Dungeons or exchanging Crisis Medals but there’s only 30 to exchange for and doesn’t reset. Mythril Ore is tied to your rank for 1st Time Rewards and won’t be obtainable from a stage again once S+ is achieved. Very Hard 1st Time Rewards become available after clearing a stage on Hard but you need Rank A or higher. The only other way Mythril Ore has been available to earn was in the FFIX Crossover Event.
Each Crisis Dungeon uses one Dungeon Key, six Keys can be held at a time, and three Keys will be restored every Sunday at reset. Blue and Red Crystals can be used to purchase Keys up to five times a day or Dungeon Key vouchers restore one each for free.
Events
There are different types of events such as Seasonal Story, Crossover Quests, Critical Threat, and Dungeon Ranking which vary between how long each lasts and difficulty per stage. Events are optional to participate in but are a great way to progress and get stronger. Co-op is recommended (can’t be used for Dungeon Ranking) since it grants additional materials but these stages are separate from solo completion. Each event offers rewards such as a weapon to easily Overboost, character memories, and materials used for upgrades. Seasonal Story events will normally offer a costume that matches the theme while the rest are banner exclusive.
When playing Co-op you’ll receive a title and ranked bronze, silver, or gold based on how well you performed. Some examples include Crusher for highest damage in one attack, Fantasia for most Limit Breaks used (Tifa/Red XIII charge Limit quickly), and Iron Heart for most debuffs on enemies (Aerith is good for Cheerleader by buffing too).
Earning the same title five times earns you a profile title, another profile title at thirty, a profile icon at 100, and a profile title at 1,000. Only silver or higher counts towards these achievements which can be tracked in your profile under “Play Log”.
Stats
Stats can be increased by leveling up a character, using memories in the Character Stream, and equipping weapons/sub weapons/costume/materia. Sub weapons only provide half of their displayed stats. If you’re not sure the best way to build your units use “Recommended Party” and the game will equip the best gear for you. Once you have an understanding of how equipment and stats work it’s better to build your own teams.
Story progression is necessary to unlock Character Stream.
The fastest way to level-up is by clearing the highest difficulty Character EXP stage your team can handle with 3x Stamina Boost on. Character EXP can be found under Training Quests and has two versions, stamina or no stamina used, with the free stages being useful for free Blue Crystals rather than leveling. Stamina Boost can be turned on after clearing a stage for the first time and clicking the button above “Start” or “Retry” if playing a stage again. All characters earn EXP when fighting story battles but outside of it only the three characters on your team or solo character do if playing Co-op.
Character Stream is the best way to raise stats since these are permanent increases. The higher your level, the more streams you can access up to the current cap of Level 60. Small nodes need Power/Magic/Healing Pieces while big nodes need Power/Magic/Healing Pieces and character memories. Pieces Stages can be found under Training Quests and Character Memory stages under Premium Quests.
Story progression is necessary to unlock Premium Quests and is limited to three times total a day, not three times per stage a day.
Reinforcement Abilities are additional stats tied to the main and sub weapons equipped and costume. These abilities start at level one but increase with better costumes and weapons with high Overboost to provide better bonuses. The amount of points a weapon gives is determined by how many times it’s been uncapped and Overboost. The more weapons you equip with the same reinforcement abilities, the easier it is to reach max level. Boost HP goes up to Level 10 and requires 100 points while Boost ATK goes up to Level 7 and requires 55 points, not every ability takes the same amount.
Support Abilities are tied to your first main weapon which can be ATK Boost, PATK Boost, MATK Boost, Heal Boost, and Sigil Boost. Support abilities are used to increase the damage, healing proficiency, or double the number of Sigils destroyed. Examples include Fire or Fire Blow for ATK Boost, Thunder Blow for PATK Boost, Thunder for MATK Boost, Cure for Heal Boost, and any attack materia for Sigil Boost if the symbol matches an enemy weakness.
Where you place materia matters if you want to get the most out of each slot.
High Power doesn’t always mean a strong team. Boost HP greatly increases your overall Power but greatly decreases your PATK/MATK so characters deal less damage.
HP – The amount of health a character has
PATK – The amount of physical damage a character deals, effects physical elemental and non-elemental weapons and physical materia such as Fire Blow
MATK – The amount of magical damage a character deals, effects magical elemental and non-elemental weapons and magical materia such as Fire
PDEF – The amount of physical defense a character has, lowers the amount of damage taken from non-magical attacks
MDEF – The amount of magical defense a character has, lowers the amount of damage taken from non-physical attacks
HEAL – Increases the proficiency a character heals, effects materia like Cure/Cura and weapons like Fairy Tale with Curaga A
Aerith is considered one of the best units in the game since she’s great for healing and has weapons dedicated to buffing allies or debuffing enemies. Depending on how you build her she can deal high damage as well and is recommended to have on your main team.
This is coming from someone who still runs Barret/Sephiroth/Zack so don’t be like me.
Weapons
Some weapons like Cloud’s Buster Sword can only be obtained once a month by collecting 2,500 Crisis Medals from Crisis Dungeons. Others are time limited and can only be obtained through events (Ex. Cloud’s Holiday Cheer – The Holy Flame’s Gift) or Crossover Draw banners (Ex. Sephiroth’s Kuja Spirit Blade – FFIX) which won’t appear on future banners.
Weapons can be used as main weapons and sub weapons. Main weapons are locked to a specific character, such as Cloud being the only one who can wield Buster Sword and use its Command Ability, but everyone else can equip it as a sub weapon for the stats. If Cloud is on the team with Buster Sword equipped no one else can use it as a sub weapon since there’s only one copy.
If you have more than one copy of a weapon go to Weapons –> Armory –> Turn Auto-Convert on or you can manually turn extra copies into parts.
Weapons can be Overboosted up to 30 times total (Five pink Stars +20) but isn’t that useful after Overboost 10.
Overboost x1 = Greatly increases weapon stats and percentage damage dealt by C. Ability
Overboost x6 (One pink star) = Greatly increases weapon stats and percentage damage dealt by C. Ability, adds + (Ex. Gale Blast+)
Overboost x10 (Five pink stars) = Greatly increases weapon stats and percentage damage dealt by C. Ability, adds ++ (Ex. Gale Blast++), unlocks Overboost+
Materia/Synthesis
Materia is broken up into four categories being physical damage, magical damage, buffing/debuffing, and cleansing. Most of these are unlocked by progressing through the different stories or achieving high ranks in Crisis Dungeons. Materia listed under physical or magical can be upgraded into stronger versions such as Fire Blow becoming Fira Blow or Thunder becoming Thundara.
Story progression is necessary to unlock Synthesis.
Physical – Fire Blow, Blizzard Blow, Thunder Blow, Quake Blow, Water Blow, Aero Blow
Magical – Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, Quake, Water, Aero, Cure
Buffing/Debuffing – Barrier, Manaward, Debrave, Defaith, Breach, Mana Breach (last four are magical)
Cleansing – Healing Esuna (Poison), Healing Esuna (Fatigue), Healing Esuna (Fog) are magical since they provide a bit of healing
Synthesis has two slots unlocked to start with three additional slots that can be opened using Blue or Red Crystals. This is how you create new materia and may appear confusing at first glance. The lowest star rating materia can have is one and the highest five. You can synthesize without adding materials, which I believe requires story progression to unlock, so expect mostly one or two star materia until then. Each materia has an estimated time frame and higher times are more likely to synthesize into three and four stars or five stars if you’re lucky. You can use Bookmarks to shorten the time, one per hour, if it’s taking too long. The number of stars increases the percentage damage dealt or health healed and how high substat bonuses can go.
The materials needed vary between materia which include Synth Catalyst Dawn, Day, Evening, and Night. Five star Synth Catalyst are difficult to obtain, since they’re limited to events, and four star Synth Catalyst are somewhat limited but can be traded for with medals or earned in events. Three star Synth Catalyst can be earned through Materia Synthesis Quests making them easier to earn and use which is recommended. Each materia can have four substats but are random and can’t be chosen. Substats based on percent, rather than a flat number, are often better to use as 3.1% MATK gives more stats than MATK +12.
From what I can tell there’s no way to guarantee anything better than three stars with max level synthesis, it’s all RNG. It took 935 tries to get my first five star materia while a friend got hers within a little over 200 so never give up.
Conclusion
Hopefully this makes the game less confusing as I recall being lost for my first month. This was originally posted as a review but here it is as a guide with a few new sections added. I’m sure there are things I missed but other more in-depth guides are available. I’m willing to make changes, additions, or corrections as I’m sure there’s at least one mistake.
