Vivi
Infographic (March 2023)
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.Ifrit choose 3 / 4 / 7
Diabolos choose 3 / 4 / 6
Odin choose 4 / 6 / 7
Bahamut choose 3 / 6 / 7
Usuals:
Shiva, Ramuh, Brothers 4 / 5 / 7
Leviathan, Pandemonium, 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 Spheres: ATK boosts are generally the best thanks to his BRV gains based on ATK, but you can also weave in a Seven sphere or another BRV DMG sphere. Avoid mBRV, he has one of the highest BRV pools in the game
How-To-Play Notes
You can open with Meteor (IX) (EX) to drop his Fire imperil. You want to use it as much as possible as it also unlocks his Double Fire (transformed HP) which hits harder than his base skills.
Doomsday (LD) refreshes his Memories of the Soul stacks. They trigger a follow-up after each of Vivi's turns as long as he has stacks. Just be sure to heal your party back up as the LD and follow-ups each consume party HP!
Fire+ (S1) is an AoE attack with splash, and it hits hard. Filler if you don't have Double Fire up and don't need to refresh buffs with Focus.
Focus (S2) is instant turn rate and should be used to maintain Vivi's buffs or for turn manipulation.
Vivi’s recharge can be wonky because of his artifacts boosting his speed. The key is to enable an EX > Fire/Doomsday > Double Fire+ > EX cycle for optimum damage results. Focus' high turn rate means you'll need to weave in an HP++. See Removable Passives below for more information.
Double-Effect Reflect Double Flare (BT) makes buff's Vivi gave himself turn gold meaning they can't be removed. This makes his Double Fire attack spammable which is great damage if EX isn't up or you're running low on LDs.
BT Phase usually lookes like Double Fire x3 -> EX -> LD -> FR
In Single Target fights or fights where you focus a main boss, you can opt for Double Fire x5 -> FR instead
Our Journey (FR) is a bit restrictive asking for:
Transformed BRV/HP abilities on turn (+40%)
Party member acts below half health on turn (20%) &
Any Fire abilities (5%, 10% for Vivi)
These conditions are heavily skewed in Vivi's favor as he will likely be a main damage dealer in the party, but it's nice to see he can enable a little extra FR Bonus when paired with linked attackers like Cor/Kain/Cissnei if they're enchanted.
If he's missing BT and isn't the main damage dealer, it's best to rely on his FR Echo attack instead of FR time to allow a more flexible FR time.
Against 2 targets (the most common fight format) his EX/LD + follow-up deal a wopping 8 HP attacks per target (16 HPs total). His Double Fire deals 11 HPs to the main target and 5 HPs to the other which also totals 16 HP attacks, but may need to alternate targets for more even burning.
Removable Passives
NOTE: Passives should generally only be removed if you lack CP space. There are very rare occasions where a character has a bad passive that disrupts their optimal gameplay.Dark Soul has a low chance to inflict a weak poison... you can safely remove this
Bravery Kill is awful also
Buff Speed Up & Break Speed Up can be removed to help enable the cycle below, especially when you have his Buff Attack Speed Boost artifacts
Focus on enabling EX > Fire/Doomsday > Double Fire+ > EX cycle
In-Depth Analysis of Early Echo Era Damage Dealers
After many questions and requests of whether to chase Vivi, Serah or Squall or if Rinoa can keep up or if Mog and Serah are really worth it outside of support, we crunched a few numbers and so did our friends!
Estimates of Expected Damage by Cel
Burst Damage Estimates by Destroth
Quick FAQ
Units chosen were mainly favorites/recent units/convenience
Estimates may have slight innacuracies
Estimates don't take into account launches/linked follow-ups/FR bonuses
Tifa is still a solid damage dealer (12 HPs to target + extra true damage) and can be used to great effect. In Single Target focused fights, she can focus the main boss better than Vivi, however in 2+ target fights she would offer the equivalent of 12-14 HP attacks over 2 enemies (about 6-7 HPs per target avg) and while it scales great with launch, it's still slightly behind the listed units and she offers no unique utility or significant mechanic. (See reminder below)
Notes of Pros/Cons of early Echo Era Damage Dealers
REMINDER: All these units are amazing damage dealers and unless fights have specific requirements, they can each heavily overkill content for months
His own FR offers said 50% HP DMG Limit, but having allies to boost FR Bonus may be difficult
Follow-up attackers can benefit nicely from his 50% HP DMG Limit
Can pump out tons of damage for newer players who lack access to UW, supportive HA+ and many BT+ options
Very reliable damage, but his own FR offers no HP DMG Limit
His own FR may also be difficult for allies to raise if there is an HP regen present
Tied to an element which may be restricted in fights
On top of her strong damage, she offers great support if opting to not BT phase (everyone in party can dish out good damage)
Bow UW may not be easily accessible for those who can't decide on which damage dealer they want to use
His HA+ holds him back
His BT phase can feel weird to plan for, but is a great support if no BT phase needed (everyone in party can dish out good damage)
On top of his strong damage, he offers great utility in the form of auras, confuse and enchant
He is tied to elements that may be restricted in fights which extends to the party
No access to FR Echo means she is either relying on her own FR and allies may struggle to mean the HP condition or she's relying on allied FRs and can't echo to raise the bonus before BT phase
She can however use her own FR and S2 to 8T to leave 1T for allies to summon and echo for any remaining enemy HP
While she has a super high damage ceiling, she needs extreme help to reach it as Ultima is 1 BRV + HP done 9 times and BRV gains have strict limits meaning she'll need modern batteries and potentially Prishe/Iroha LDCA. Especially vs 3 targets.