Totally new to this game, I watched my friend play it for a bit a while ago but he never really explained this system to me. I'm not sure if even he knew himself. I notice that when I cursor over different actions, this little pink bar either decreases or increases for this character called "????" over on the right hand side in the Turn Order Bar. Or whatever it's called. For example, when it's ????'s turn, the Item command makes the darker purple disappear and reveal more pink. When I cursor over Attack and Special, more purple is taken up.

And right now, it's Tidus' turn and when I go to Item, for some reason his turn changes to directly before ????. When I'm on Attack or Special, it switches to directly after ????.

What does this mean and what exactly affects this?

Different moves have a different "delay" on them for your next action. Typically, normal attacks and using items are the fastest, and using more powerful specials (such as the "Break" moves) will have longer delays to your next move. Some moves will also delay enemies longer, and some will make you go faster (Quick Hit). I've never really payed close attention to the specifics of the pink bar, but that's basically how it works.

You mean an "FFXpert".

@xyzygy: Basically what @epidehl said earlier but here is a little more specificity (you don't need to know most of this - I'll mention what you do at the end in a TL,DR).

The next time a person will take a turn uses the following things:

1. The character's Agility
2. Buffs or Debuffs on the character (e.g. if Delay Buster is used or if they have Haste/Slow status)
3. The Speed Rank of the last move that character used
4. Ordering in relation to all other characters.

Here's how it works (not being technical or explaining the formula):

Basically there is a clock ticking down until zero when that character will take a turn. So let's say a character completes a turn. Immediately, they will be given a starting number to count down from which will count down until zero when they can act again. We can think of the time it takes for this to occur in two parts:

• How big is the starting number
• How fast will the ticking occur

The size of the number is most significantly affected by the Rank of the ability used. Each ability has a rank from 1 to 8. Rank 1 abilities are the fastest. Rank 8 abilities are the slowest. In fact because of the way it is calculated (as a multiplier) Rank 8 abilities will increase the counter by 8 times what would occur with a Rank 1 ability. The size of the counter is also determined by buffs and debuffs - it will be halved with Haste status and doubled with Slow status (you can think of it as Haste doubling the speed of the counter, but in practice it is calculated at this point affecting the size of the number instead of the speed of the ticking)

The speed of the ticking, on the other hand, is affected mostly by your character's agility. You can think of the game as occurring as lots of frames where each frame all characters decrease there counter by a value determined by their Agility. The higher the character's agility, the more it will decrease each frame. In-game however, you only see character's act after all these frames are calculated and a character has ticked down to zero.

In relation to the order displayed on the top-right within a battle:

This area of the screen shows you a couple things.Firstly the most obvious part is it shows you the order in which each character will hit zero on their counter and take a turn.

But that's not all, it also shows a prediction of the turns after that but much more - it gives you an idea of how big their counter is.Let's break it up:The first move of each unique character (not including the one who's turn it is) is per-determined in that they have already produced their counter number and the ticking has started. This means you can think with almost complete certainty that these characters will have their turns in that order (it is slightly more complicated due to the possibility of someone getting a sped-buff not on their turn changing the size of the counter, but for the sake of this ignore that). The next move of the character who is currently on their turn is then variable (As you said, different moves will move it in the cue). The screen at the top right then shows (assuming a speed-buff doesn't occur) where that character's next turn will land if they use the current move highlighted. (i.e. how the rank of the listed move highlighted by the player will affect the order of that character's next move in relation to the others)

The final part is the extra turns listed. I.e. the move after each unique character's next turn. (E.g. it might say that Character X will have a turn next as well as the one after it). This is a prediction based on the assumption that the move they will use on their next turn is a Rank 3 (or default rank) move - such as Attack. This is to give a general idea of when that character will act again after their next turn but it is only a prediction.

TL,DR

Finally here's how it is represented visually in the order screen:

The further to the left the character's emblem is, the closer that turn is to zero right now. The colour gives an indication in the size of the counter as well:

• Pink = a counter below 20 - or a turn very soon.
• Blue = a counter above 60 - or a turn further away.
• The lighter the colour - the closer they are of reaching zero on their counter and acting

I hope this helps. And I hope the length wasn't a turn-off. I wanted to explain the variables without going specifically into exactly how it is calculated. But if you are interested further, here's a fantastic FAQ on it as well as all the other Systems in FFX.

P.S. I was tempted to just reply to this with "Thread Complete" but I couldn't help actually answering the question.

@dixavd: Wow that's insanely helpful. Thank you so much. One more thing though - when the game refers to "Rounds" (for instance Wakka's Blind Hit ability makes the enemy blind for 3 rounds), does that basically just mean 3 times an enemy can attack? So say if Tidus was just blinded. He attacks three times, misses all of them. Then on his fourth turn to attack he shouldn't be blind any more?

Also ???? is now named as Rikku. lol

I believe so yes. But Blind technically doesn't make it so you always miss (it just severely lowers your accuracy).

In general, the "__ Attack" where __ could be Blind or Silence etc... have a lower shot of activating but if they work then the character is blinded or silenced for 3 turns (I believe these are 3 of their own turns - though I haven't checked, I also haven't checked how counter-attack makes a difference etc... - I might look it up further).

The "__ Buster" abilities have a very high likelihood of afflicting the status ailment but only for a single turn (that character's next turn).

Similarly, the Darktouch weapon ability has a low likelihood of working and Darkstrike weapon ability has a high likelihood of working.

But again that is dependent on the enemy's resistance to that status ailment (if they are immune nothing will work, but if they have high resistance then the Buster/Strike abilities are probably you're only realistic chance).

If you want more information on abilities and such then go to the "Help" screen in the menu of FFXHD. Those screens are usually useless but in this they give some great information.

For instance inside "reference" and "auto-ability" will show you every possible weapon/armor ability and a brief description of them. The "command" section tells you the names, MP cost, and a brief description of every ability that your character's can learn as well.

The Help screen is pretty useful if you get the option of getting something and you can't remember exactly what it does (saves actually googling where you might end up with too much information - such as how things are calculated when all you want to know is what it basically does).

P.S. If you end up getting to Yojimbo then definitely look up how his mechanic works once you've generally understood what it does (when you look up how it relates to every other enemy in the game it becomes insane to think they put it in - especially on encounters only possible before meeting Yojimbo).

Have Fun!

EDIT: Possibly spoilery I guess? Taggin for safety.

You just blew my goddamn mind. 9 year old me would have looooved to know that I only needed to pay 2048 gil to cheese the last boss. XD

Definitely gonna test some Yojimbo stuff now. I was only gonna get him for completions sake in the HD game.

@dixavd: I have one more question that I want to ask you since you know so much about the game. I have Kimahri now and he has about 12 S levels. I've been avoiding putting him on the sphere grid entirely because I am given like three different ways to go, with more branches following. He seems to be the most malleable character in terms of Sphere Grid (I chose Standard, Expert is for when I'm familiar with what each character needs to be great). So basically what I'm asking, is there a way to level him wrong or will any path I choose lead to a good Kimahri?

@xyzygy: There isn't really a "wrong" path for Kimahri, he's basically a character that's designed to fit as a replacement for other characters. But if I were to recommend some things here's what I would suggest for him:

• First there is a minor mechanic later on (very minor, appears in only 2/3 areas of the game) where characters are split into those that can swim-and-fight and those who can't. The Only ones who can swim-and-fight are Tidus/Play Character, Wakka, and Rikku. As such, some might say that levelling him in a way as to fit one of their roles will be useful: e.g. as a speed-buff character like Tidus/Player Character (can use Haste etc...); or as a status affliction character that Wakka plays; or as the theif/stealing item-using character that Rikku is. This way, when those three characters aren't present you have someone to fit the role. That said, it doesn't occur often (in fact, even at those sections all-but-one time the three swimmers are present on the land part so the fitting of roles in this direction is mostly useless).
• Another option is to make use of the fact that most of his weapons have the piercing ability meaning treading him down as a heavy-hitter might be useful.
• The option I'm quite fond of is to teach him the magic that I find useful, having a secondary black mage or white mage can be useful during the main story (especially the early parts) so moving him down Yuna's or Lulu's side can be useful.

In the end it doesn't really matter as he can fit any role very well. However my big tip is this:

Having him learn Steal is very uniquely useful for Kimahri.

Steal can be gained for him very early by waiting to level up until you have a level 1 key sphere to go and pick it up (which you can get fairly early.

The reason it's helpful is firstly because getting the ability early is just useful anyway (accumulating a lot of items is very good early on as you get to a point about half-way where they can be used for customizing equipment and Aeons) and since Kimahri is less defined, having him be the one to wait to get it can be good.

Still, the reason it is so useful for him to have is because, about three-quarters of the way through the game, he has a fight that involves just him (you battle as only Kimarhi). The enemy he fights happens to have a very rare and useful item (a rare item in terms of the story, something you'll soon find annoying having so few of - but they can be farmed for at the end of the game). The fight is important in terms of significance for him as a character, but if you bothered to make him learn Steal then it also becomes a very rewarding fight as well.

So my advice is to make him learn that. Just wait until you have a level 1 key sphere and find the path on the sphere grid to get Steal. Then he can do whatever.

Another option is to level him in any direction and then when you get a level 1 key sphere, moving him back to an earlier point on the sphere grid to get it. When a character is moving through a line they have already passed through on the sphere grid, they can move 4 nodes per level - so it is actually fairly easy to return a character to an earlier point and re-spec.

@tobbrobb: Ha! Yes it is pretty crazy.

In fact, since Yojimbo can kill any enemy in the game at just the cost of gil or luck, then you can fight the hardest bosses - such as dark aeons - without actually levelling properly, just abusing the system of Yojimbo. IT should be noted though that, most interestingly, there is only one fight in the game that has not been completed on a no-sphere-grid playthrough without the use of Yojombo... Penance. Every other enemy has been killed without ever levelling a character on the sphere grid without his help. So maybe he's not as useful as it seems.

@dixavd: Yeah I abused him a lot more as a kid. Aside from Omega Ruins, the game isn't nearly hard enough to warrant exploiting it. Though Yojimbo is badass enough that I'd use him just to see his animations more. :D

Know anything about solo runs? I was following an Auron-only run of the game at some point. Curious if he beat anything impressive with that.

@tobbrobb: No sorry. My knowledge of different playthroughs with self-inflicted restrictions like only using specific characters/moves/blah is very limited. I've never been into the whole scene for most games (I'm not one of those people to follow a lot of streamers or speed runs or whatever. So I don't know much more than that little tidbit I mentioned (and I only found it out when looking up stuff about Yojimbo on my previous playthrough a couple years ago so it may have changed by now - though I can't find in a quick search right now, any information to say that isn't true anymore).

@dixavd: Oh well. You seem to have a firm grasp of the game itself in any case. :P

Man I'm just excited you told me something I didn't know about this old favorite. It's a feeling that doesn't come up very often at all. WEEEEE.

@dixavd: Awesome! I actually just started on the Mi'ihen Highroad so I'll make sure to keep my eyes out for that Key Sphere.