Final Fantasy Type-0 HD Guide: How to Survive as a Beginner

Get Acquainted With Class Zero

It can be a bit daunting when you’re suddenly given 14 cadets to choose from and can only pick 3 for your mission squad. The thing to note about Final Fantasy Type-0 HD is that its combat system is going to take awhile to get used to. It also happens to be a rather challenging game.

Fear not, though. There are a few characters that are quite beginner-friendly and will help you get used to the battle system quickly enough.

Ace is a pretty decent starter character. His choice of weapon is a deck of cards that works well for both short and mid range attacks. The cards will home in on targeted enemies as well, making him a rather easy character to use for players who might not be too good at executing precise melee attacks. Depending on how you want to play Ace, his deck of cards can also be used for healing purposes or defense and attack boosts.

Queen, on the other hand, is a very solid close ranged fighter. With a decent strength stat, her attacks consist of stabs and jabs, making her a quick damage dealer. She also starts out with the Divine Judgment ability that enables her to summon a cross that spins around her, damaging any nearby enemies. As she damages enemies with Divine Judgment, allies’ HP will also be restored.

Alternatively, Machina’s also a rather effective close ranged fighter but I’ve found that his movements are just a tad slower than Queen’s.

Another starter character you can consider for your squad is Cater. This girl wields a magicite pistol and she can fire off bullets pretty quickly without having to reload. Though Cater’s strength stat isn’t very high, she more than makes up for it by being one of the most agile cadets on the roster. She evades attacks very easily and she can shoot quickly, making her one of the easier characters to use when you’re just getting started with the game.

Know Which Skills to Purchase

Once you gain access to your cadets in chapter 2, you’ll be able to assign skill points that allow them to learn new abilities. All cadets have character-specific skills that cater to their abilities. While it may be tempting to get those as soon as possible, you really shouldn’t.

Instead, spend those early skill points unlocking the fundamental stuff for your characters first. Abilities like Accelerate and Slipstream will really help you out in the long run, so those should be your priority. Accelerate allows your characters to move much faster in combat, allowing you to cover longer distances in a shorter period of time.

Abilities like Triple Slip, Slipstream, and Untouchable will improve your dodging and evasive maneuvers. Consider getting these for your slower, tankier cadets.

Break Sight and Kill Sight

When in battle, always lock on to the enemy you’re targeting. Sometimes, a bright yellow circle will appear around the enemy; this is called Break Sight. If you manage to land a hit on the enemy during Break Sight, you’ll be able to deal a huge amount of damage to them.

However, if a red circle appears and you manage to hit the enemy then, you’ll get an instant kill. This is called Kill Sight.

Combat in Final Fantasy Type-0 HD isn’t so much about blocking your enemy’s attacks or hacking away at them till they go down. It’s more about dodging and watching carefully for an opening. Taking advantage of Break Sight and Kill Sight will give you a much easier time in combat, and will allow you to take down even the toughest of foes.

Trey is a good character for exploiting Break Sight and Kill Sight. He’s a long ranged attacker equipped with a bow and arrow, meaning he can hit enemies almost instantaneously from a distance once there’s an opening.

Farm that Phantoma

After you’ve defeated your enemies, you’ll want to hold down on the R1 button until a red glow surrounds their bodies. After that, tapping the square button will allow you to absorb a material called Phantoma from their bodies.

Phantoma comes in a variety of colors and these will allow you to upgrade your magic and defense capabilities once you’ve unlocked the Altocrystarium in chapter 2. Try to make it a habit to farm Phantoma from your fallen foes after every battle; you can never have too much of that stuff.

Level All Your Cadets

Once you’ve gotten a good feel for the game’s combat system, it’s time to start experimenting with the rest of the characters on the roster. All 14 cadets play very differently and it’s important to find a character that suits your playing style.

Having said that, it would not be wise to focus on only a handful of characters and neglect the rest. There will be story missions that force you to play with a variety of characters and you might regret it if you end up having to use a bunch of underleveled ones.

A good way to level them up evenly is to replay missions that you’ve already beaten. Not only does this help your characters gain experience, you could also try going for the S Ranks to get better rewards.

Do the Side Quests

This should pretty much go without saying, given that you’re playing an RPG. But you’ll find that there’s plenty to do during your breaks in between story missions. There are lots of NPCs you can interact with, and you can identify them by the exclamation mark hanging over their heads.

Interacting with them will cost you 2 in-game hours but they’ll usually give you some handy items in return for your time.

Optional missions can be taken on by talking to the NPCs with the ‘Task’ icon above their heads. These missions usually require you to bring back certain items or kill specific monsters.

Regardless, do as many of these as you can. The rewards can be bountiful and may even give you an edge in an upcoming story mission.

Go to Class

During breaks in between missions, you can also choose to spend your time attending lectures. By heading over to the classroom and talking to Mog the moogle, he’ll give you a selection of classes you can take.

At the cost of 2 in-game hours, these classes can provide a variety of helpful rewards, ranging from experience boosts to other stat increases. If you don’t particularly feel like level grinding on the world map, Mog’s lectures could help in giving your characters a slight boost in an area of your choosing.