Final Fantasy Brave Exvius units can be very hit and miss. The best units in the game usually drop from colorful, yet rare rainbow crystals. Players can expend a ton of resources in pursuit of these top-tier characters appearing from these crystals. When one of those crystals cracks, however, it is not always a welcome unit that the player is rewarded with. Sometimes, in fact, it is a troll unit, destined to sit on the bench for an eternity. Well, unless they are redeemed by enhancements, that is. Here are some units in the game that finally found some use after Gumi gifts them enhancements.
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Final Fantasy Brave Exvius Units Redeemed Through Ability Enhancements
Dark Knight Cecil (July 20th, 2017)
Dark Knight Cecil was one of the first ever Final Fantasy Brave Exvius units released as a 5* base. He was also one of the original troll rainbow pulls. His kit as a Dark Knight was not very well put together upon release. Dark Knight Cecil’s main skill, Soul Eater, ate half of his HP, making it tricky to use. This was problematic because he was released in a time when healers struggled to keep up with the amount of damage enemies dealt.
His enhancements turned him into the Dark Knight that he should have been from the beginning and made him one of the first units to work best as a Doublehand finisher. Soul Eater, which started as a 3.2x modifier that dealt dark damage, increased to a whopping 7.5x modifier. When fully enhanced it even decreased enemy dark resistance by 100%, effectively doubling that damage.
Some bemoaned the fact that his enhancements increased his HP sacrifice to 60%, but that is easily manageable. By also enhancing his Shikkoku trait, it not only increased his attack an extra 20% (giving him 40% total), but it also gave him a 9,999 HP heal at the end of the turn. This means that as long as he has over 60% HP, he would go right back to full at the end of the turn.
The downside of his sacrifice is that it does not work well with Dual Wield since using two Soul Eaters in one turn would effectively kill him unless the player timed a heal in-between. Still, it was a great opportunity for him to use Doublehand, a materia that many players had already obtained by fusing duplicate Bartz that they pulled. Now, he is even more valuable with True Doublehand abilities, which boost his attack further than ever.
Mercenary Ramza (May 31st, 2018)
Aside from Orlandeau, the 5* Final Fantasy Tactics units did not get a lot of love. Interestingly enough, the developers decided to release two version of Ramza and Delita, both of which were terrible units before receiving enhancements. Mercenary Ramza finally saw some improvements in one of the more recent batches of enhancements, turning him into one of the best provoke tanks in the game.
Initially, Gumi tried to market Mercenary Ramza as a jack-of-all-trades type character. That rarely works, and this case was no different. When geared for either attack or a tank he is easily outdone. He can break attack and magic, but only a single skill at a time. When it comes down to it, Mercenary Ramza should have been released as a tank from the beginning, especially with the trait Noble Lineage, which gives him 75% chance to cover an ally and mitigate damage by 50%. His True Hero trait even makes him immune to all status ailments.
With enhancements, his potential is finally unlocked. Stone Throw adds a 100% chance of being targeted with 40% damage mitigation when fully enhanced. True Hero enhancements add charm and 15% elemental resistance. Branded Heretic and True Justice gives him sizable defense, spirit, and HP boosts (as well as attack, but that is unnecessary).
It is also worth noting that Blade of Justice can be used to both chain and break attack and magic by 45%. Then, if players want to go ahead and use Weapon or Mind Break, the stat decrease goes up to 60% for six whole turns. Not bad, but most would just focus on his breaks. Mercenary Ramza seems to still be having trouble breaking his stigma of troll unit, but when fully enhanced, he is a very bulky tank.
Demon Rain (Oct. 20th, 2017)
Released as a Halloween Final Fantasy Brave Exvius unit back in the game’s first year, Demon Rain was used by absolutely nobody. He was the game’s first attempt at creating a counter tank, but it just did not work out. His defense and spirit were way too low to give him any survivability. To make him even halfway decent, players had to put the absolute best defensive gear they had on him, which crippled his potential for doing any damage with his counters.
His enhancements though, well, they made him scary and worthy of his Halloween theme. While he is tricky to use and still will not survive very long as a tank, he will also annihilate enemies very quickly with his beastly counters.
For starters, his regular Doublehand becomes a True Doublehand, giving him a 150% boost to his equipment attacks when single wielding any weapon. Then, when his Counter is enhanced, it does three times the damage of his regular attacks. From there, players need to enhance Defend to make him both draw attacks and mitigate physical damage.
Demonic Fury stacks on an additional 30% HP and also gives him a massive 120% attack and defense boost when his HP drops below 50%. To finish things off, Ignite gives the entire party an 80% attack and magic boost and gives him access to Demon’s Wrath and Inner Fire. Demon’s Wrath is a solid damaging move with a 5x modifier. Inner Fire adds an 80% spirit boost. This move will rarely be used.
Demon Rain is still more of a fun, unique type of unit after enhancements, but players who were lucky enough to pull him were surely happy to finally see his potential released.
Ace (June 15th, 2017)
Moving on to a Final Fantasy Type-0 unit, we have Ace. He was not necessarily a troll rainbow immediately upon release. However, he quickly fell out of favor to other mage characters, especially his fellow Type-0 mate, Rem. Initially, Ace was a very unique unit, with some big damage dealing capabilities. Wild Card was very valuable because it was used twice in one turn if he was Dual Wielding and did not use extra MP. The move also took advantage of physical killers, which regular magic-based abilities did not. He also had a great Limit Break that filled quickly and dealt big damage.
However, what crippled Ace was his lack of magic passives. Because of this, he was soon outclassed by characters like Emperor, who was a much better finisher than he was and whose magic could get much higher. Then chaining mages like Trance Terra came along and made him almost completely irrelevant for a long time.
He returned with a vengeance with his enhancements. Namely, Tri-Beam Laser went from being useless to extremely valuable. When enhanced, it had a random modifier of anywhere between 2.8x and 22.5x added on to it already ignoring spirit by 25%. Even more valuable was that it has a 75% imperil for fire, lightning, and light resistance to all enemies.
His lack of a magic passive was somewhat solved as well. A fully enhanced devotion not only caused his Limit Burst to fill more quickly, but it also gave him a 40% increase in magic instead of his default 20%. Finally, he became a very good MP battery with Spirit Hand. This move could heal anywhere from 45-140 MP when used in a turn. All in all, Ace is a Final Fantasy Brave Exvius unit who managed to regain relevance through enhancements.
Dragonlord (May 3rd, 2018)
When he was first released, Dragonlord looked like a true troll rainbow. He was released with a sought-after 4* base, Liquid Metal Slime, so most people would have much rather their crystal stay gold than crack into a rainbow on that banner. Gumi announced that Dragon Quest characters were going to get enhancements the week after their release, so it gave some hope that Dragonlord could at least be semi-relevant.
That hope paid off. His Kafrizzle began as a solid finishing magic move that dealt fire magic damage with a 20x modifier. When enhanced it shot up to an unreal 30x modifier. Although the MP cost also skyrocketed to 150 with it, it was actually lower than JP’s 200 MP cost for the move. If the player has another unit that can imperil fire, that MP cost shouldn’t matter, because two shots of Kafrizzle are usually more than enough to annihilate even the biggest baddy.
Just in case players want more MP sustainability, they can also enhance his Dragonlord’s Guard trait. This will give him a 30% boost to his HP and MP, as well as 10% MP refresh each turn. Wave of Relief enhancements add HP recovery to the status ailment removal, but it really isn’t valuable.
In the end, Dragonlord is an extremely one-dimensional unit, even after enhancements. Kafrizzle remains his only move worthwhile, but it does so much damage that it has its uses in certain battles and makes him an in-demand unit for certain trials.
Ramza (Squire) (Jan. 18th, 2018)
Wait, two Ramzas on the list? Well, in this case, the original, squire version of Ramza may have gotten his enhancements a tad too late. Players waited for months on end for them to come but were continuously disappointed when the next batch’s announcements kept him out. He finally received them in this year’s first batch, but for most players, it was too little, too late.
A big reason was that Roy was released way beforehand, who was a little more versatile in his kit than Ramza was while enhanced. Plus, Roy was ready to go right out of the box, whereas Ramza needs valuable resources and gil to even be remotely useful. Still, not every player has Roy, and there are some benefits to Ramza over Roy.
Mainly, Ramza could also have his breaks enhanced. Mind Break and Weapon Break, which break magic and attack respectively, could be enhanced to debuff the enemy’s attack or magic by 60% for five turns. This could be used turn one against hard-hitting enemies and allowed him to go straight into his enhanced Hero’s Rhyme.
This was a great move that gave a 100% increase to attack, magic, defense and spirit, as well as healed HP and MP. For enemies with defense and spirit debuff immunity, this was all he needed to do and resulted in players finally putting him on their teams. Still, many preferred to use the more versatile Roy, who could also break defense and spirit.
Bonus: Gold Crystal Final Fantasy Brave Exvius Unit: Garnet (May 11th, 2017)
In the spirit of continuing some momentum from the last gold crystal highlights article, it is fitting to finish by mentioning Garnet, who is only a 4* base, but also saw some use for the first time for many due to her enhancements. Garnet is a summoner, a class that has only recently gotten very niche issues. Until Bahamut was released, esper’s damage was negligible, and the only materia to increase their damage is a measly EVO Magic +10%.
Once Bahamut was made available to battle and add to the esper team, Garnet finally found her time to shine. First off, Bahamut’s damage blew away all other esper’s damage up to that point. This made it reasonable to use summons to cap chains and finish enemies. Garnet’s EVO Mag could be increased to deal 50% more damage than that, suddenly making her a top-tier damage dealing unit. She was actually one of the go-to units that people requested to take on Bahamut. Players simply built up their esper bars before the battle to take him out in one turn.
Last Word on Final Fantasy Brave Exvius Units That Shine After Enhancements
There is nothing worse than having the ecstasy of a brilliant rainbow crystal drop ruined by the realization that the unit is nothing more than a useless troll. Luckily, the developers decided to make things right for some of the fanbase’s favorite characters and give them new light through ability enhancements. Some, like Ramza, at least become useful. Others, like Dark Knight Cecil, immediately become the monsters they should have been as soon as they were released.
For more on Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, check out the Two-Year Anniversary Review and the Gold Crystal Highlights from Ryan Hawks.
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