Stat maxing questions

[beema]

Ok, so I know where and how to get all the Sources that I need. My question is more or less: how do you go about maxing out stats for everyone?

I'm assuming you should wait until they are all level 99 to make it easier on yourself.
Should I equip the lowest armors/weapons so that none of their stats are modified by them so I can see what they really are?
What are the max numbers for each stat, or how will I know when a character has hit his maximum?

things of this nature

thanks

[BG-57]

I think everything you need to know can be found in either Mike Truitt's Stat Maxing Guide or TFergusson's Battle Mechanics FAQ on gamefaqs.com.

[beema]

hmm
those answer some of my questions
too bad I'm using a PC so I have to get Sources the hard way...

[d£v!l'$ ph0£n!x]

yeh i'd wait till 99 before getting sources

get loads of power sources from the tank enemy at gongaga to make gelnika that much easier

i wouldn't bother putting the weakest weapons on because ur not gonna have them equipped in real battles are you?

max of each stat is 255 methinks

[Captain Maxx Power]

There's no reason why you can't start getting sources as soon as you get the Morph materia. The best person to use by far is Yuffie since the damage mechanics of her Conformer weapon ignore the damage reduction of morph. Maxing out your Strength and Vitality stats will eventually cause nearly all of your normal attacks to do 9999 damage and you'll also take the minimum damage even with base defence (meaning you can basically ignore the Def stat along with the MDef stat on armours). For the record you needn't deequip armour for two reasons; one you can do with the materia slots, and secondly they provide evasion bonuses. Granted once you have maxed out both Vitality and Spirit the Def and MDef on the armour won't matter (not that MDef matters anyway since it's ignored due to a glitch), you can easily see what your current stats are by looking in your status screen. Note that if a stat is equal to or over 100 then you won't gain a stat bonus on levelling up. 100 is the "max" each stat can go from purely levelling.

[ReloadPsi]

Though I can honestly say that this is one of the games where stat-maxing is never gonna be needed, what I would suggest is that the first stat you max out is Yuffie's Luck. Start by giving her the following Materia setup:

Sneak Attack - Morph
Command Counter - Mime
Cover

It doesn't particularly matter if any of those are at master level or not: You're gonna get so much AP from doing this anyway.

Equip her with the Conformer; it doesn't matter what weapons and items you equip as they don't affect your actual stats, just seperate ones called Attack, Attack%, Defense, Defense% (Evasion), Magic Defense, Magic Defense% (Magic Evasion). Maxing out her Luck (I think it's Poodlers or Bad Raps; either way, the first hallway only ever pits you against those so you'll max out her Luck in no time) means that almost every hit with those Morphs she's gonna do will score critical, something which becomes essential once her level gets higher and the Conformer consequently gets ever so slightly weaker because your levels are now above those of the enemies.

I wouldn't recommend giving her the Mystile armlet as it gives you such a massive evasion boost which means she'll perform less Morphs by means of that Command Counter you've got.

Those six stats that can be augmented by Sources can go up to 255, although for some reason they may stop working when it reaches about 252 or 253. Don't ask me why, I just don't know :P

[Captain Maxx Power]

Those six stats that can be augmented by Sources can go up to 255, although for some reason they may stop working when it reaches about 252 or 253. Don't ask me why, I just don't know :P

The base stats are capped at 255, and from there are then affected by materia negativity bonuses. So the 253 would be the result of having a materia with -2 to that stat. Also note that although negative stats worh on 255 values to bring them down, positive values won't raise them above (in other words, 255 is the max you'll ever get).

[TheSpoonyBard]

Maxing out her Luck (I think it's Poodlers or Bad Raps; either way, the first hallway only ever pits you against those so you'll max out her Luck in no time) means that almost every hit with those Morphs she's gonna do will score critical, something which becomes essential once her level gets higher and the Conformer consequently gets ever so slightly weaker because your levels are now above those of the enemies.
Morph never deals Critical hits.

[ReloadPsi]

Maxing out her Luck (I think it's Poodlers or Bad Raps; either way, the first hallway only ever pits you against those so you'll max out her Luck in no time) means that almost every hit with those Morphs she's gonna do will score critical, something which becomes essential once her level gets higher and the Conformer consequently gets ever so slightly weaker because your levels are now above those of the enemies.
Morph never deals Critical hits.

That's weird. I maxed out her Luck to achieve that exact result and it worked.

[Captain Maxx Power]

That's weird. I maxed out her Luck to achieve that exact result and it worked.

You are mistaken. Morph never criticals and also ignores row modifiers on enemies automatically.

[beema]

Thanks for the info

I was asking about dequipping armor/weapons because of the stat bonuses they give. I figured the only way you'd be able to see a characters "true" base stats is to see their stats without the benefits bestowed upon them by armor. Like their vigor (for instance) might already be at 255 with some given armor equipped, but that wouldn't be their actual stat.

[Comet]

Morph always takes out 9999 for me :) (on yuffie only, everyone else like 81 lol)

[TheSpoonyBard]

I was asking about dequipping armor/weapons because of the stat bonuses they give. I figured the only way you'd be able to see a characters "true" base stats is to see their stats without the benefits bestowed upon them by armor.
You can't unequip weapons or armour, but there are a few that don't increase stats. Here are the ones that are 'safe' to have equipped

Barret: Gatling Gun/Drill Arm/Rocket Punch/Pile Banger
Cait Sith: Battle Trumpet
Cid: None, but Mop is the lowest (Mag +3)
Cloud: Nail Bat
Red XIII: None, but Magic Comb is the lowest (Mag +3)
Tifa: Leather Glove/Master Fist/Work Glove
Vincent: Silver Rifle
Yuffie: Magic Shuriken (Mag +0, Dex +10) / 4-point Shuriken (Mag +6)

As for the armours, they're all safe except

Chocobracelet
Edincoat
Fourth Bracelet
Gigas Armlet
Warrior Bangle
Wizard Bracelet
Zeidrich

[Bart's Friend Milhouse]

That's weird. I maxed out her Luck to achieve that exact result and it worked.

You are mistaken. Morph never criticals and also ignores row modifiers on enemies automatically.

Exactly what do you people mean by critical?
I've heard sound enhancements signifying more powerful blows many many times whilst using Morph and seen differences in damage dealt to boot

[TheSpoonyBard]

Critical = double damage. You can't land a critical hit when using Morph.

[beema]

WOW
The strategy Reloaded recommended with Yuffie using the Conformer with Morph=Counter really works incredibly well.

To the others having the argument: normally Morph can't do critical damage, but apparently when you have it in a slot on one of the Ultimate Weapons it completely ignores this. It works particularly well with Yuffie.

For even more ease, I equipped the Pre-Emptive materia and also gave Yuffie a MegaAll materia. This makes for taking out the Poodler/Bad Rap combo, or a bunch of Spirals even quicker than waiting for her to counter. Just have Yuffie Morph them all at once for 9999 damage each.

Thanks for the help fellas