Celes
Character Notes & Recommendations
Have updates or suggestions? Contact us via Reddit or Discord, find our info Behind the Scenes!Summon Board Passive selections:
Numbers listed below refer to the 7 passives to select for each Ultimate Summon Board for the character. Top is 1, bottom is 7.Shiva choose 3 / 5 / 7
Ramuh choose 1 or 2 / 5 / 7
Bahamut choose 3 / 4 / 6
Usuals:
Ifrit, Brothers, Odin 4 / 5 / 7
Leviathan, Pandemonium, Diabolos, Alexander 4 / 5 / 6
For more details and help with summons, check Summon Hub!
Sphere Recommendations
NOTE: The sphere letters below are hyperlinked to our Sphere Hub which lists all available spheres sorted by effect!A Sphere - Focus on ATK or BRV DMG, & mBRV is a good add-on. Something like Sephiroth’s sphere is great, but you can opt to give her a more offensive sphere with a higher ATK boost, like Aerith. Any other ATK or BRV DMG boost sphere works fine too!
B Sphere - Her own sphere belongs on a faster character or on a character that doesn’t have the Lock debuff (like Aphmau or Gabranth). Gladio’s sphere is premium for her, augmenting her average ATK aura. Just avoid 3T HP DMG spheres, since the effect may not always be active (unless she's doing solos/duos).
D Sphere - Rejoice! A match for Wakka’s sphere has arrived :) Wakka is perfect, but any of the other ATK spheres work well for her. Hope/Cissnei/Queen are premium too!
How-To-Play Notes
Use her S2 followed by LD on quest start as doing so nets you some extra damage and LD will restore the S2 use back and it applies her Magitek Ice Block debuff while also extending her Runic buff.
Shine Edge (S1) is a great single target BRV shave when her EX isn’t fully charged. This is used to maintain her imperil on enemies, and burst heal your party when needed.
Runic (S2) is a good battery effect, used to maintain her buff and keep all enemies locked on her, protecting your party.
Spinning Edge (EX) recharges in just 1 skill use, and is good for upkeep her Rune Knight buff. She can spam skills and has plenty of room to skip an EX charge in favor of a skill use when needed for utility, just don't let the buff fall off as it extends new debuffs she places by 2 turns!
Set Lock All (AA) is a great choice if something bad has happened and you need to lock enemies on you while also using Shine Edge to heal the party and you're saving LD. You can also use it to apply it's aura.
Change the Air (FR) applies her debuff for 6T (8T with her EX buff up!) and her Force Conditions HEAVILY favor Celes doing things and restricts her teambuilding quite a bit (see more below in Extra Notes)
Searching for Friends (BT) provides great auras including HP DMG Limit AND allows Celes to absorb any incoming BRV DMG if her Runic is up as the BT effect enchants enemy attacks to Magic type (think Leon!)
You are most likely NOT using this BT phase to rush enemies down as you would with Vaan, Rinoa, Tifa, Terra, etc. However the most damage you can get out of it for those who want to go the extra mile is
- ST: S2 -> S1 -> LD -> S1 -> EX -> FR
- 2+: S1 -> S2 -> EX -> LD -> S2 -> FR
Extra Notes
For her full potential, she demands a ton of investment and enemy-centric strategies for those used to bum rushing content in a single FR phase. If you just want another floozy for protection and occasional damage, other cover tanks are alternatives as well as Beatrix.
She wants her speed passives removed (allowing more enemy turns), she prefers having 1 ally if she isn't solo to make the most of her FR turns and traps and the ally ideally should bring their own off-turn damage.
List of favorable allies: Cor, Maria, Minwu, Firion, Faris, Ace, Leon*, Kain, Freya, Machina, Trey, Sice, Beatrix and Garnet
Note: some of the listed characters may be tied to another element, however the damage dealt, having access to another call and splitting split enemy attacks can provide some safety on future runs with enemies that don't play nice. *Leon can allow +60% FR bonus on an enemy ALL attack which can be considered if running 3 units and when bosses like ALL attacks. In addition, Celes is ice, she enchants the party with Ice, unless the enemy absorbs Ice, she can still work just fine with Cait/Alisaie LDCAs or a Setzer LD use before her force time if desired. The alternative is her Trap will do half to a third of it's expected damage (depending on enemy count) however her main turns will still do solid damage thanks to BRV gains. This can also be addressed with a strong off-turn attacker (linked above) to pick up the slack.
Unless enemies do frequent ALL attacks or you have Leon, DO NOT PAIR HER WITH OTHER TANKS as the cover tank will get hit, not absorb and lots of FR Bonus will be lost. Other Lock tanks will compete with the lock debuff and potentially
Absorb note: BRV DMG reductions are applied to the party *after* her absorb triggers. So her own MAG BRV DMG reduction, or other BRV DMG reductions do not reduce her battery. ATK Down debuffs on enemies will lower her battery, as will DEF spikes to the party. With her BT effect active Celes will absorb ALL incoming BRV damage so her only concern is bosses with big BRV gains.
If you’re going to give her more buffs from another support, be sure they are better than her existing generics. 5 buffs can be tricky to support, but shouldn’t be a problem generally.
Another potential problem Celes may face in Solos/Duos with extremely fast enemies is her Trap may fall off however with 5 uses of LD and one in the Burst phase, she should have more than enough to melt most bosses' HP.
Bosses that cleanse debuffs or remove party buffs - as rare as they may be - can prove to be hard counters to Celes as she's heavily reliant on her LD trap and her Runic buff for her force conditions and damage.
Removable Passives
REMOVE HER EVASION PASSIVES! If pairing with Leon on appropriate fights, remove his -and any other ally's - evasion passives as well
Shine Edge Lite & All Buff Boost Speed (Slow and steady wins the bonk)
BRV Guard Up (actively bad for her, at least if she’s absorbing magic attacks)
BRV Attack+ HP Attack+ Up (you likely won’t use this very much)
DEF passives
HP Damage Attack Up (minor 10% boost for just a turn after HP damage)