Lightning

Character Notes & Recommendations

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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.
  • Ramuh choose 3 / 4 / 5

  • Odin choose 3 / 6 / 7

  • Bahamut choose 4 / 5 / 6

  • Usuals:

    • Ifrit, Shiva, Brothers 4 / 5 / 7

    • Leviathan, Diabolos, Pandemonium, Alexander 4 / 5 / 6

  • For more details and help with summons, check Summon Hub!

Additional Weapons

  • Manikin Weapon: Adds S1 & S2 BRV DMG +10%

    • Acquire by finishing Act 2, Chapter 5 and going to Chapter 5.8

    • Acquire through Item Exchange > Power Token Exchange

Sphere Recommendations

NOTE: The sphere letters below are hyperlinked to our Sphere Hub which lists all available spheres sorted by effect!
  • A Spheres: Focus ATK & BRV DMG primarily! If you can boost ATK & mBRV simultaneously, that's great, since it will boost both her BRV gains & her self battery from her regen. King, Ardyn (any of the ATK/mBRV that aren't Rinoa are good), Gau (any BRV DMG spheres are great just check their condition!) are all solid. Raijin's is good, but it won't boost BRV gains, just her damage.

  • D sphere: Focus ATK & mBRV again. Hope’s is truly excellent for her, otherwise opt for one of the ATK or mBRV spheres. Any of them are reasonable choices, except probably Aphmau & Freya which belong on other characters, and Wakka’s, which won’t always trigger as she only has 4 buffs.


How-To-Play Notes

  • Tl;dr - Lightning is a stance based character (her S1/S2 buffs are the stances) and her opposite skills upgrade when you get 2 stacks of a stance which you will use to swap between them as they are free use. Breaking with HP++ in either stance will grant her an instant free turn, but will not charge the EX gauge :c

  • You can opt to open with Sparkstrike, into EX (+ version), into LD - or if you need to be more aggressive, you can open with Flourish for the buffs, into LD, into 2 free skill uses, into EX, into free skill. This skips your first EX, but it gets your buffs up faster and deals more damage up front if needed.

  • If you can avoid breaking on her very first turn, that's good, because it will allow her turn immediately after to get a free turn from EX breaking. Otherwise, just grab breaks whenever you can, and use her EX on already broken targets to maximize the delay.

  • Sparkstrike (S1) puts her in Ravager stance.

    • With 2 stacks of Commando (S2 and another S2 or HP++ Commando) her S1 will upgrade and deal 3 HP attacks with a splash and apply Thunder Resist Down on all enemies

  • Flourish of Steel (S2) puts her in Commando stance.

    • With 2 stacks of Ravager (S1 and another S1 or HP++ Ravager) her S2 upgrades and also deals 3 HP attacks with splash; it also ignores defense.

  • Army of One (EX, "upgraded" in Ravager stance) deals serious damage to a single target and delays the target 1 or 2 turns depending on the stance she's in.

  • Crushing Blow (LD) pulls enemies out of their break state and focuses the bulk of the damage on the targeted enemy while splashing the other. Using LD will grant her 2 free turns and skill uses so use this opportunity to set up an EX in Ravager stance if possible. Using it for some extra turns to use her upgraded versions for slightly more power is fine too.

  • Gestalt Drive (BT) grants her the BT effect which helps the party, especially vs broken enemies.

Removable Passives

(if you lack enough CP to equip important passives)
  • Depending on how tight the orb counter is, you probably want to remove Break Speed Up & Buff Speed Up

  • BRV Attack+ HP Attack+ character boards is fine to remove, as you generally will never BRV+ with her, and her EX+ upgrades her to HP++, so these passives generally do very little.

  • DEF passives