re: Final Fantasy Tactics-Ivalice Chronicles

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I'm currently replaying this on my Vita and figured I would share a few tips for people new to this game. I know it's hard to imagine people who haven't played it before, but they are out there.

1 unlock - JP Boost from the Squire

2 plan out which jobs and abilities from each job you want early as this well help save time and wasted JP

3 the Monk's Chakra ability is very helpful for healing HP and MP for free (range of self +1 in ever direction on the same height)

4 use Adrenaline Rush from the archer job (counter ability that adds +1 speed from damage)

5 don't waste any turns, using Adrenaline Rush works best if you attack your own units to trigger it more, then heal them back up with Chakra.

6 always set one unit with the item skill that learned Phoenix Down for accidents or emergencies

7 any action that deals damage or heals even 1 point of HP grants JP (even if it's healing an enemy unit)

8 when fighting human units ALWAYS pick learning skills over restoring HP/MP (you will learn ever skill listed not just the one you click on)

9 be prepared for very long battles (I finished chapter 1 at level 39 with Ramza having mastered Black Mage, mastered Knight, level 8 Ninja, level 8 Dragoon and level 8 Geomancer in my process to unlock Dark Knight)

10 once you get special units that you are going to replace your standard units with don't leave them sitting there collecting dust, save enter a random batter and crystallize them and pass on the skills to save time grinding (check the skills and if they aren't the ones you want reset and try again. Also in order to be learned skills that job has to be unlocked first. For example you can't transfer Holy if the unit learning the skills doesn't have White Mage unlocked)

11 probably the most important is save before you move on the map, you never know when there is a surprise battle that you weren't expecting and you dont want to reset and lose countless hours spent grinding because you got ambushed with your units set up for grinding not battle.

12 pay attention to your faith and bravery. Some jobs need high faith or bravery to be more effective, and others less, but at certain values you can lose units.
If Bravery falls below 7 (I believe but could be a little higher I don't go below 10 to be safe) after battle the unit is too scared to keep fighting and will leave your team for good. The same if Faith is too high above 93 (again I'm pretty sure that's the number, but to be safe I don't raise it past 90) they will leave because they are too close to god to continue killing. The opposite has no risk of units leaving. You can safely have 100 bravery or 1 faith without risk of units leave. Also they do have some affects in battle, higher faith means more damage given and taken from magic attacks as well as higher % of status effects being successfully inflicted (positive or negative status affects, it doesn't matter if it's haste or blind it raises both % to be inflicted) and lower means the opposite being less damage and so on. Bravery helps deal more damage for some weapons as well as non Monk unarmed attacks and it affects the % chance of your counter ability being triggered successfully. One other thing is that using the Chemist movement ability Treasure Hunter is better with a lower Bravery. Each spot that you can find an item has 2 possible items you can receive, the better item (usually a more rare item) has a higher chance to be found with low Bravery or a common item like a Potion or Phoenix Down with high Bravery.

These are just a few helpful tips that I hope will help people when starting the game. Some of these things I didn't learn until after my 4th or 5th time beating the game. If anyone has anything else to add or questions feel free to post them and I'll do my best to answer them or point you in the right direction. There are many boards and FAQs that explain more in

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At least you admit some of it may be based on bad memory.

4&5. Adrenaline Rush really isn't as uberawesome as you make it out to be. You have to take damage for it to trigger and who would honestly want to fight every battle with a turtle formation? Not saying I hate it but it's not mandatory. You also have tons of other amazing Reaction ability like Shirahadori, Reflex, Manashield and even Counter is good. Auto-potion also makes the beginning game that less brutal especially when having to deal with monsters' Counter attacks.

6. While I agree with this, having someone with White Magick with Raise or Arise also helps. The downside would be that you do have to rely on Faith and watch out for the CT. The bad side to Phoenix Downs is that it resses that character pretty much in single digit HP and that leaves them very vulnerable.

10. That is really a personal preference. A lot of the special characters can either be hit or miss. Even strong characters like Agrias and Mel gets outshine by T. G. Cid unless you decide to delevel the former.

12. The Sticky covers Bravery and Faith far more in depth. But to give you the correct information:

Bravery can be safely lowered as low as 6 but doing so would cause that unit to start the battle as a Chicken. So unless you raise their Bravery to 10 ASAP that unit is going to be useless because they will run as far away as possible from enemies.
Bravery affects the damage output of Knight Swords, Katana and Unarmed.(whether with Brawler or without)
Bravery has no effect on Weapon Guard and Reflex, both of those Reaction Ability is always on. Something to keep in mind if you want to keep an unit with low Bravery.
The formula for Treasure Hunter is that the lower your Bravery the better % chance you will get the better item. So at 10 Bravery, you should have a 90% to get the rare item. You can still dig up the crappy common item since you still have a 10% of failing. Something to keep in mind when doing Midlight's Deep.
Faith can be safely raised to 94. Desertion threats start at 85 and above. Ramza is super duper awesome ultra special so you can raise his to 97 without fear of leaving.
Faith can be lowered to a maximum of 3. You can't go below that because you need to -4 points in battle to permanently alter one point of that stat. Units under Atheist are treated with a Faith of 0 though.

@Excalibur1027: Males also have 25% more HP compared to Females while Females have 25% more MP than Males.

But! There's also another curveball/reason to break that rule:
You'll need a Male to raise Job Levels in MA based Jobs if you want to unlock Bard.
You'll need a Female to raise Job Level in PA based Jobs if you want to unlock Dancer.

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