Tag Features

Today, we go over how the fifth and final version of the PvP Patch will finally support the Campaign so you can embark on a single-player adventure with one of the greatest stories in video game history and suit up afterward to take on some of Tactics League’s best players in competitive PvP. Let’s go over these changes below.

Party Roster Expansion

Though this was first mentioned in the v5 Focused series, the roster expansion is a very important detail for those looking to progress the story once more or for the first time. The expansion unlocks the four reserved Guest slots to be fully usable, expanding the party limit from 24 to 28. Leveraging this also allows for more unique characters to join your party permanently in the story and for Tactics League PvP, but there are a few important notes to share:

• Guest characters are fully deployable (for the first time) in both story and random encounters. Note that because of this, you can have duplicate Guest characters in a mission, such as two Delitas in the Chapter 1 fight in Garland. If you want to keep things true to form, avoid deploying these Guests where they normally would already spawn.
• Guest characters are also fully dismissable now so keep cautious of this and always remember to save in between battles.
• NPC-controlled mission-based Guest characters do update their stats, gear, and abilities if they already exist in your party.

Progress Faster with Always-On EXP and JP Boost

Everyone loves being able to build their party and further explore the creative offerings of Final Fantasy Tactics, and version 5 is supporting that by ensuring that the EXP and JP Boost support abilities are always enabled – you won’t need to slot these abilities to quickly start watching your units grow in levels and unlock abilities faster.

Additionally, the Bard and Dancer jobs both now support spillover JP whereas they originally did not and Onion Knight Base and Master versions can now accrue EXP and JP as well; all a part of making sure you can progress in the way you choose to.

Warriors’ Guild Changes and Zodiac Signs

A few changes also went into the Warriors’ Guild unit recruitment. Such as:

• New hires are always 60 Bravery and 60 Faith to conform to the Tactics League Standard format.
• Female-generated Squires will start with an Oak Staff instead of a Dagger since their Magick scales better with this starting weapon.
• New hires always have the Serpentarius Zodiac Sign.
• The hiring cost is now a flat 1,500 gil instead of being 1,000 gil + equipment price.

There may be additional changes to follow with the Warriors’ Guild in a later update during beta.

Additionally, the Zodiac Compatibility system is fully disabled. This change is to follow suit with the Serpentarius-neutral sign that is already used in Tactics League game formats to set expectations early that this system no longer plays a role in this mod. Units with different signs that you come across in the Campaign did not have their signs changed.

Errands Unit Customization

Ever deployed a unit on an Errand and maybe forgotten to remove gear from them beforehand? Or do you want to deck them out in the latest fashions while they are away? Or even change their job or abilities while unavailable? Now you can with this quality of life change! The picture below is a screenshot of being able to use the Outfitters on “unavailable” units deployed on an Errand.

Encounter Updates and Monster Improvements

One of the main goals of the Campaign is to set some expectations heading into Melee. Additionally, one area that I felt needed improvement was monsters and monster abilities. The following changes have been made to story and random encounters in general:

• All non-unique units are set to 60 Bravery and 60 Faith, including monsters.
• Monsters in story-based encounters and Midlight’s Deep now use Party Level +2 level scaling unless they were already assigned a higher value by default; this is to improve their combativeness while not hopefully making them overbearing for most players.
• Many monster abilities have been improved, notably in their PWR (which dictates its base damage/healing or chance); you should see more non-attack-like monster abilities happen due to this change and monsters are a bit more challenging, especially in mid-to-end game encounters!

One of the bigger goals was to avoid changing encounters from their original design; besides the NPCs now having access to stronger gear and abilities due to the PvP Patch, the majority of fights are familiar as intended. However, with access to new stuff, some battles may require a bit more strategy and careful planning as some can be quite surprising to handle if you are not prepared, such as Argath’s battle at Fort Ziekden.

With Aerith joining the Tactics League roster in Standard, a change was made to Cloud’s Sal Ghidos event that now has her staying instead of fleeing and fighting alongside Cloud and friends. Aerith will now also join your party roster alongside Cloud after a successful finish now scaled with your party level instead of the original Level 1 join-in!

Tactics League-Exclusive Abilities and Equipment Balancing

Efforts were made to all Tactics League-exclusive abilities to now have a JP cost associated with them to ensure they are a part of the campaign progression and some equipment balancing was made to reduce getting your hands on powerful gear early game, such as moving the updated Knives, such as Blind Knife or Tiptaptwo later into Chapter 1 instead of being a part of the starting Chapter 1 inventory. Keep in mind, that with some changes, the “balancing act” isn’t perfect, but suitable for those wanting to go from start to finish with the PvP Patch in Campaign.

Conclusion

Though the PvP Patch was originally multiplayer-focused only, community feedback and requests stoked a change in heart with version 5 to ensure that those who wanted to enjoy this mod in a single-player setting could now from start to finish, with bigger hopes that you can become better accustomed to changes and more ready to enter the true endgame: PvP.

In the fourth article of the Version 5 Focused series, we go over one of the bigger aspects of what this newest update focuses on: major quality-of-life changes that improve and add various aspects to not only the PvP Patch but to Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions in general. There’s a lot to cover, so we will focus on the bigger highlights you want to know once the public beta is out. Just to note, though Campaign received several QoL changes, we will focus on that in a separate article later this week.

⚙ Customized Options

PvP Patch v5 will add a requested feature that is scarcely available in other FFT mods; the ability to change your team’s battle color via the new “Battle Palette” Option! Helmed by @Tzepish, this modifies the previous Cursor Repeat Rate setting to now allow you to change your generic unit’s color according to the various enemy factions you encounter in the campaign. You’ll be able to finally put some extra customization with your team in addition to being able to change your unit’s name via the Warriors’ Guild from a previous update.

Additionally, with Spell Quotes being reintegrated, the “Display Ability Names” setting is now named “Ability Names and Quotes” which disables or enables ability name display and Spell Quote pop-ups. This setting is enabled by default.

The “Display Earned EXP/JP” setting now affects the enemy team’s EXP/JP display as well as disabling or enabling the celebration they do when they gain a job level as a means to speed up battles.

💬Spell Quotes Integration

A feature disabled in the original War of the Lions, Spell Quotes have returned and are fully usable in both Campaign and Multiplayer modes. There are a few caveats with Spell Quotes returning to ensure it doesn’t impact live gameplay performance in general. Thank you to @Tzepish and @3lric for the translated text and optimizations!

• Spell Quotes can occur 35% of the time
• Invisible, chicken, or toad-status units or Mimes cannot quote
• Some generic abilities, such as Steal and Speechcraft, do not have quotes set
• Quotes, when triggered, are fairly short-lived so that they do not take away much time from Melee. Note that quotes do not consume a player’s timer while being displayed

☠ Status Effects

Version 5 introduces Curse status – a new negative effect that reduces the target’s damage dealt and healing received by 33% while affected denoted by a new status bubble. Curse status is a new form of “damage reduction” that affects mitigation-ignored sources, like Axes or Knight’s Mow Down, and lowers the HP restored from sources like Regen or Elixir. Additionally, Curse is a permanent debuff until removed via Esuna or Holy Water. Curse is accessible via the following abilities:

• Curse (NEW Black Magicks) – variable status chance to single target Inflict: Curse, instant cast
• Ama-no-Murakamo (Iaido) – 19% status chance to Inflict: Curse in an AoE
• Unholy Darkness (Mystic Arts or Ebon Blade) – 19% status chance on hit
• Accursed Umbra (Ashley’s Break Arts – Axe) – 100% status chance on hit

Float status increases your effective Height from 2 to 4; this change affects Longbow’s variable range by 1 depending on targeted tiles, allowing your bow and arrow to go further distances even if the map is not as favorable!

Reflect status now has a status bubble to show units affected and Veil additionally displays a yellow-invisible tint to improve status messaging. Poison and Vampire’s status bubbles have been removed to allow for Curse and Reflect, but these still have their respective status color.

⏰Updated Melee Mode Timers

As part of efforts to speed up gameplay and overall competition total time-per-game, Tactics League’s Standard ruleset will now use a 12-minute timer with a 20-second reset time instead of the previous 15-minute timer with a 15-second reset time. Though the initial time window is shortened per player, the 20 seconds on reset if you reach zero on the main timer gives a bit more flexibility with decision-making making and the extra 5 seconds surprisingly cuts down on those “nail-bitter” situations where you only have a few seconds to spare to commit to an action. I will be monitoring these timer changes as a whole going into the beta and am hopeful that it will help game time and reinforce the need to think ahead more off-turn.

Conclusion

With v5 being the final series of updates, Quality of Life changes are a bit focused on ensuring the final product is ready for the future and beyond. There are a handful of other lesser-important QoLs (but still impactful nonetheless!) that will be mentioned going into v5’s changelog.

Version 5 introduces a new and familiar mechanic that will affect Aerith (now playable in both campaign and Tactics PvP) and Cloud – the Limit Level System from the original Final Fantasy VII.

For anyone who has played Final Fantasy VII (if you haven’t by now what are you waiting for!) this system should feel and act quite at home while making some minor adjustments to fit for Final Fantasy Tactics and PvP balance and fairness. First, Let’s review how this system works and how it will impact both Aerith and Cloud in version 5.

Limit Level System Functionality

Cloud and Aerith both have “Limit” skillsets that correspond closely to their behavior in FFVII. This also means that Cloud (who we are already familiar with) had most of his abilities adjusted to mimic his FFVII counterparts in various ways where possible while ensuring there was still a physical and magick side of him that could be explored during teambuilding. We will go into more about that later when we go over the ability changes. For now, let’s go more into detail on how this system translates over to Tactics:

• Cloud and Aerith’s “Limit” is initially unusable at battle start. Abilities unlock based on the percentage of HP damage taken from only enemy attacks. Steps were added to ensure that team damage cannot influence your Limit Level. This does mean that Cloud and Aerith are both more reliant on their secondary skillset and weapon attacks initially as well, but their “counter” options vastly grow stronger and stronger the higher their Limit Level reaches up to a maximum of 4.
• Limit Levels are separated by: Level 1 = 20%, Level 2 = 30%, Level 3 = 40%, Level 4 = 60% HP damage taken
• Limit is no longer blocked by Silence status.
• Limit no longer costs MP (since there is an HP damage requirement).
• Damaging Limits cannot target/hit allies.
• Recoil damage and Poison status do not increase your Limit Level.
• Mana Shield works with incrementing Limit Level as the HP to MP conversion is still considered HP damage.
• Reaction abilities, such as Soulbind or Counter, can increase your Limit Level.
• Once a Limit ability is used, your Limit Level will reset to zero as it did in FFVII; you will need to make choices on whether to “save up” or use lower levels (which are still of great benefit).
• If a Limit ability has zero targets hit/affected, it will not reset your Limit Level.
• If Cloud or Aerith is KO’ed, your Limit Level will be reduced by 1 (instead of being reset as it did in FFVII) so that you still have the option to utilize them as long as you were at least Limit Level 2.

Cloud – Limit Abilities

As mentioned earlier, Cloud’s Limit abilities are much closer to their FFVII counterparts instead of oddly being only MA-based abilities like they were in the original FFT. With the Soldier job having innate Doublehand, this plays a bigger role and Cloud can reach further damage potential when speccing him for physical damage. For those that enjoyed a magick-based Cloud, you will find some of his abilities a bit more limited than they were in v4, but more lethal due to the buffs pertaining to Limit Level. Let’s go over his reworked skillset:

• Braver (Lv. 1)
  • An “attack-like” ability that deals 10% more physical damage with your [weapon] to one target, can now Cast or Inflict: [weapon], evadable, and can critically strike. This ability will strike twice if dual-wielding.
• Cross Slash (Lv. 1)
  • Deals cross-shape AoE physical damage based on your [weapon] + 1 PWR, 25% chance to Inflict: Stop, can critically strike.
• Blade Beam (Lv. 2)
  • Deals 3-range conal AoE physical damage based on your [weapon], uses Abyssal Blade row scaling (but does not recoil), and can critically strike.
• Climhazzard (Lv. 2)
  • Deals 70% of the target’s max. HP in single target damage, ignoring mitigation. This ability no longer triggers Magick Counter.
• Meteorain (Lv. 3)
  • Now 18 PWR instead of 14 and is still AoE magic damage (with the same range/vert.).
• Finishing Touch (Lv. 3)
  • Inflicts all of: KO, Stone, and Stop (in that order) instead of randomly one of the three, and is still single target.
• Omnislash (Lv. 4)
  • An “attack-like” ability that strikes with your [weapon] at 75% of its normal damage, but Omnislash now hits 5 times randomly within the AoE (and no longer hits allies). Can now Cast or Inflict: [weapon] and can critically strike. This ability will strike 10 times if dual-wielding.
• Cherry Blossom (Lv. 4)
  • Now 20 PWR instead of 16 and has a 25% chance to Inflict: Poison, Immobilize, or Blind per target hit (still tri-elemental).

As you have probably noticed, most Limit abilities are now influenced by your equipped weapon this time around (as most Limit abilities were enhanced “Attack” in FFVII) and Doublehand, Attack Boost, and even Brawler, affect them too so there is a plethora of ways to build Cloud and ultimately, he is even more lethal than in v4, albeit he will now need to be “pushed to his limit.”

Aerith – Limit Abilities

As Aerith is a support-type unique character, most of her skillset is centered around supporting her allies to victory, but don’t sleep on her abilities as they can quickly turn the tides of battle!

• Healing Wind (Lv. 1)
  • Restores HP to allies in an Iaido ranged-AoE. Heals undead instead of damaging them.
• Seal Evil (Lv. 1)
  • 3 range, single target, 100% Inflicts: Silence and Stop.
• Breath of the Earth (Lv. 2)
  • Iaido-ranged, removes all negative effects from allies.
• Fury Brand (Lv. 2)
  • Iaido-ranged, increases allies’ Power and Magick by 2.
• Planet Protector (Lv. 3)
  • Single ally, Bestows: Protect, Shell, and Veil.
• Pulse of Life (Lv. 3)
  • Iaido-ranged, ally revive at % = PA + 70. Restores 50% HP on success per target.
• Great Gospel (Lv. 4)
  • Iaido-ranged, fully restores HP and MP, and Bestows: Protect, Shell to allies.

Though the majority of Aerith’s skillset is support-based, her stats on her Ancient job allow her to dive into either physical or magick abilities or attacks, as well as having innate Halves: All Elements, so not only is she tanky-capable, but also offensive too!

With these changes, I am hoping not only for further creativity especially for Cloud, but also your opponent will need to be cautious about how they play against either Cloud or Aerith as pushing their Limit at the wrong time could be disastrous for them!

Spanning almost 5 months, the Tactics League’s fourth version of the PvP Patch, which changes and updates the game for the competitive Melee and Rendezvous environment, has finally reached its official launch today and is the last major update for the 2024 year. Version 4 was by far the biggest patchwork put into our mod and it opens up many new avenues of play, creativity, and challenges for the competitive scene. Let’s review the last of the changes coming with this update.

If you are curious about ALL of the changes that have gone into version 4, make sure to read up on the https://tacticsleague.com/ruleset/pvp-patch-changelog/ as this contains all changes from the original War of the Lions to the updates with the PvP Patch.

To download the all-in-one package that includes the PPF file and save data, please visit Downloads. To learn more about how to apply the PPF patch, visit Tutorials.

Table of Contents

• PvP Patch v4.0 Official Changelog
  • Bug Fixes
  • Jobs
  • Abilities
  • R/S/M Abilities
  • Weapons
  • Gear
  • Quality of Life
• Competitive Standard v5.0
• Generics Premade v5.0
• PvP Patch-Changelog (opens in a new tab)

PvP Patch v4.0 Official Changelog

Bug Fixes

• “KO” status will now properly display in the preview when using Phoenix Down to revive a target
• Defending perma-status has been resolved on Mime (the sprite was previously in perma-defending state via Bulwark, though they were not currently affected by Defending status)

Jobs

• Dragonkin/Reis
  • Added Clothing as available equipment
    The Dragonkin job has limited equipment due to the volume of stats Reis has while on her original job. However, this is being expanded a bit instead of just having only Minerva Bustier as an armor option.
    
• Netherseer/Marach
  • Removed Staves from equipment
  • Added Rods, Knives, and Ninja Blades as available equipment
  • Added Death Strike innately
    
• Skyseer/Rapha
  • Removed Books from equipment
  • Added Katanas, Rods, and Knives as available equipment
  • Increased Skyseer PAM from 100 to 130% (+3 PA)
  • Added +1 Move and Jump
  • Added Death Strike innately
    These changes to Marach and Rapha is to entice them to use their primary job more than to just job change them. Because there is flexibility in their skillsets, the idea is to delve more into their Assassin archetype and provide more options for build variety while using their main job. Note that Rapha’s PA increase is solely based on Skyseer and the bonus does not transition to other jobs.
    
• Mime
  • Decreased HPM from 140 to 125% (approx. -43 HP)
  • Mimes can no longer mimic/cast MP-costing abilities for free and are subject to MP costs (will flag “❌MP” if insufficient)
  • Mimicked Throw or Items (if undead) now respects the target’s Sticky Fingers (removed Mime bypass check)
    The first HP reduction towards Mime’s bulk was small scale but also did not reach the goal at reducing their total bulkiness, so an additional reduction was made to ensure they are a bit easier to kill while still retaining some bulk necessary for robes.
    
    The removal of some of these vanilla functions is to balance some of Mime’s “free actions” and have them be more in-line like the other generic jobs instead of getting freebies just because it is a Mime.
    
• Onion Knight
  • Increased Move from 4 to 5
    Looking in regard to the mobility of Mime and as a special job, Onion Knights will have increased Move to give them the ability to get into a fight quickly if melee, or faster engagement time if ranged.

Abilities

• Holy Magicks (Alma)
  • Aegis – Increased Tick from 2 to 3
    This slowdown on Aegis is to reduce the spamming potential of this ability to provide a bit more window of countering its charging. With Swiftness, it can still be cast quickly around 1-2 turns, but cast times in the current CT flow can cause Aegis to cast a little slower than it did before.
    
• Dragon (Reis)
  • Holy Breath:
    • Reverted calculation from [MA * 14] to [(MA + 14) / 2 * MA]
    • Changed from Linear AoE (line) to 1-tile “t-shaped” AoE
    • This ability can hit 1 – 5 times randomly within the AoE (and is still magic evadable)
    • Changes are ultimately similar to Omnislash’s behavior except the number of hits is entirely random and function closer to the vanilla version of Holy Breath
      When the Breaths were changed to function the same way, Holy Breath ultimately lost its uniqueness as a skill. These changes brings back some of the randomness of how it originally operated but within a tighter AoE and 1 cast could only hit 1 time upwards to 5 hits.
      
• Spellblade (Beowulf)
  • Zombie – Increased PWR from 100 to 130
  • Berserk – Increased PWR from 120 to 130
  • Confuse – Increased PWR from 130 to 155
  • Disable – Decreased PWR from 185 to 145
  • Break – Decreased PWR from 120 to 110
  • After re-assessing Spellblade, some abilities received a bump in PWR to be over the 50% hit chance without Faith status and Disable and Break received reductions to fall in-line better with the strengths of these statuses.
    
• Magicks (Valmafra)
  • Added 3 new faithless abilities previously exclusive to monsters: Thunder Anima, Water Anima, and Wind Anima.
  • Important notes about Anima abilities:
    • Each ability is 14 PWR and calculates using [MA * 14]
    • 4 Range, single-target
    • No MP cost, unevadable, can trigger Magick Counter, direct line of sight, and can be cast while silenced
  • Thunder Anima – Lightning magic damage with a 19% chance to Inflict: Blind
  • Water Anima – Water magic damage with a 19% chance to Inflict: Doom
  • Wind Anima – Wind magic damage with a 19% chance to Inflict: Confuse
  • Removed Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga
  • Added Death (Black Magicks), Empowerment, and Invigoration (Mystic Arts)
  • Rearranged instant-casting abilities to the top of the Magicks skillset
    Why were the anima abilities added? Based on feedback one of Valmafra’s biggest drawbacks is that her entire skillset is faith-based, and all have charge time excluding Gravity. Diving more into the Elementalist side of things, these new Anima abilities were added to give Val more flexibility with building her as you can purely build for MA now and disregard faith entirely if you choose to OR continue to build more into faith for devastating AoE potential.
    
    The Firaga/Blizzaga/Thundaga removal is because these abilities are ultimately redundant in scope especially with the changes to Boost/Halve gear.
    
• Aim
  • Take Aim:
    • This ability now increases the bonus damage dealt by 33% instead of 5 PWR. This is initially slightly less damage (approx. 1-2% less), but now scales higher with damage modifiers
    • Doublehand now works with Take Aim
      The addition of Doublehand now means that Take Aim is as close to vanilla’s Aim+ as possible, while the 33% bonus instead of 5 PWR makes it fairer, easier to calculate, and ramps up better when you have Attack Boost/Vehemence/Doublehand.
      
• Black Magicks
  • Fire/Blizzard/Thunder – Increased PWR from 15 to 18
    After re-assessing their PWR and Cure’s recent bump, these abilities could use a bit extra damage especially for instant-cast builds.
    
  • Death:
    • Reverted this ability (and formula) to its vanilla version, dealing maxHP damage if successful causing KO infliction through HP loss instead of attempting to just inflict KO status
    • Note: this ability still respects KO immunity and will “zero out” if so
    • Due to this reversion, Death can now fully heal living undead units
    • Additionally, added a 25% maxHP revive only when targeting undead units as a unique means to revive them before their counter reaches zero (no other ability can revive undead)
    • Increased MP cost from 24 to 34
    • Added text to the Help menu stating this ability can revive undead
      Based on feedback, cursed gear’s biggest drawback was that utilizing undead minions meant you only had the 50% (now 60%) means of waiting for the 2-tick countdown for them to come back to life. Now, players have an option to bring them back on demand, while still needing to do some specific team-building to cater to their weaknesses. As always – a legend, thank you @Tzepish.
      
• Mystic Arts
  • Induration (stone) – Increased Tick from 3 to 4
    Tick increased slightly since stone infliction yields a technical KO.
    
• Steal
  • Increased the Vert of all Steal Equipment abilities and Steal HP from 1 to 2
    Since Steal requires you to be point-blank, the verticality of these abilities are being increased so there’s a bit more flexibility to land the art of thievery.
    
• Summon
  • Golem – Increased Tick from 4 to 5
    Tick increased to reduce the potential spamming of this ability.
    
• Iaido
  • All Iaido abilities now have a hardcoded 33% break chance instead of being based on the Katana’s WP
    This nerf to Iaido is create a bit more room for breakage as it is now shifted into a ⅓ chance vs. ¼.
    
• Bardsong and Dance
  • Decreased the PWR of all abilities, except the HP/MP ones, by 10 to offset the 20% increase in Performing Arts. This changes the following:
    • Rousing Melody – from 50 to 40
    • Battle Chant/Magickal Refrain – from 60 to 50
    • Nameless Song – from 70 to 60
    • Finale – from 34 to 24
    • Slow Dance – from 50 to 40
    • Polka/Heathen Frolic – from 70 to 60
    • Forbidden Dance – from 70 to 60
    • Last Waltz – from 34 to 24
      The adjustment in PWR is to reinforce needing Performing Arts on non-Bard/Dancer though some abilities are still fairly performant even with the PWR reduction.
      
  • Nameless Song – Increased Tick from 5 to 6
    This increase in cast time is so that this ability fires slower, and reinforces Rousing Melody’s place in terms of the premier Haste bardsong.

Reaction/Support/Movement Abilities

• Monkey Grip – Added a warning to Monkey Grip’s help menu that it does not work with Reequip (this may be addressed in a future incremental and requires further discovery of the optimize equipment code)
  
• Counter Throw – This reaction now triggers from HP Loss instead of physical attack sources
  This reaction now activates on all HP damage taken so you can get a bit more value out of slotting it. Keep in mind that while Throw Dagger is random, it does scale with Brawler/Attack Boost/Vehemence.
  
• Doublehand – Increased the Forced Two-Handed bonus from 40 to 43%
  This small buff is to aid the rounding behind the math when using this ability so its value feels more true than the previous version.
  
• Performing Arts – Increased the chance this ability improves with Bardsong/Dance abilities from 10 to 20%
  This change ultimately keeps the ability hit chance the same as they were in v4.4B except the base PWR of Bardsong/Dance has been lowered to compensate and further enforce this ability or Bard/Dancer to have the best effectiveness.
  
• Nature’s Wrath – This reaction now additionally also triggers on any physical or magic ability that is Fire, Lightning, Ice, Wind, Water, or Earth where it previously only either triggered on physical attacks or Geomancy. This is flagged for the following abilities:
  • • Dragon – Breath attacks except Holy Breath
    • Nether Mantra – All except Corporeal Void
    • Limit – Cherry Blossom
    • Huntcraft – Earthsplitter
    • Magicks – Thunder Anima, Water Anima, Wind Anima
    • Black Magicks – Fire – Firaja, Blizzard – Blizzaja, Thunder – Thundaja
    • Summon – Ifrit, Ramuh, Shiva, Titan, Salamander, Leviathan
    • Ja-Magicks – Aeroja, Waterja, Quake
      This buff to Nature’s Wrath is to further expand this reaction as a viable choice with it now being able to trigger off of non-Holy/Dark elemental damage from either damage type. Note that Nature’s Wrath triggers as AoE Geomancy still using the offender’s tile.

Equipment – Weapons

• Axes
  • Slasher – Increased WP from 18 to 19
    Since this Axe has a random Rend ability while others are specific, the extra point of power is to entice using this while not having full control over what it breaks.
    
• Fell Swords
  • Apocalypse – Increased WP from 18 to 20
    Though this weapon is purposefully lower WP than the other Fell Swords, this bump in WP is to help aid initial mitigated damage even if Celestial Void does cast and also gives a bit more damage on Darkness abilities that scale with WP.
    
• Katanas
  • Changed calculations from [PA * WP * (Br / 100)] to [PA * WP * ((Br + 2) / 100)]
    With the buff to swords, Katanas are a bit behind in “effective WP” potential so this pulls them ahead after a +20 Bravery investment. Thank you to @Dr. Jay for highlighting the initial damage discrepancy.
    
• Ninja Blades
  • Orochi – Added Inflicts: Poison (50%)
    Since Orochi doesn’t offer any specific value outside of Absorb HP, this ninja blade now has a chance to apply damage-over-time to targets hit while healing from each successive strike and this now sets it a part from Blood Sword and Muramasa.

Equipment – Gear

• “Cursed” equipment – Removed Reraise immunity and Help menu text from all equipment as Undead and Reraise status are already immune to each other by default 
  This change is made to clarify this interaction which was already there in the original game. The only way you can perma-dead a unit is if you have Angel Ring + Cursed gear equipped.
  
• Cherche:
  • Removed +1 PA/MA and Equip: Float, Regen
  • This item now restores 20% maxMP per end of turn
  • Added +1 Speed
    Honing in on the “refreshing” aspect of this item’s flavor text, this now has a unique utility that stacks with Manafont or can allow casters to not lean typically on Manafont and change their mobility options entirely.
    
• Thief’s Gloves – Additionally increases the Steal Equipment chance by 12%
  Originally, this was removed when the Safeguard and +1 Speed additions were added. However, after assessing the calculations of Steal and the need for high Speed in order to really move the hit%, this item will have some added Steal chance added back in to reinforce its theme and to further help remove pesky gear. This accessory also enables lesser Speed jobs to potentially slot Steal as a secondary as well.

Quality of Life

• Status Effects
  • Faith/Atheist – These statuses when ability-sourced now persist through KO
    Instead of KO removing these “inflicted” statuses on death, these statuses will now persist and will continue to wind down on their duration while dead similarly to how Protect/Shell operates now.
    
  • Undead – Increased revival chance from 50 to 60%
    This 10% bump is to make the automatic revival a bit more in your favor when the 0-counter hits and a bit less concern about attempting to build with “cursed” setups.
    
  • Oil – This status effect is now removed if the target was KO’d
    Previous oiled-up targets could stay Oiled if the damage was greater than their remaining HP on death. This change addresses that so that this debuff is no longer persistent through death which previously allowed for consecutive bonus elemental damage if the unit was revived later.
    
• Practice Mode (Araguay Woods)
  • Delita Team (West)
    • Replaced Archer with Samurai (F)
      • Equip: Ice Bow, Close Helmet, Lordly Robe, Elven Cloak
      • Abilities: Iaido, Items, Dragonheart, Equip Bows, Dexterity
        
  • Mustadio Team (West)
    • Mustadio – Replaced Arcane Strength with Swiftness
      
  • Cloud Team (East)
    • Cloud
      • Replaced Iaido skillset with Aim
      • Cloud now prioritizes using Limit abilities
    • Archer
      • Replaced Ward with First Strike
      • Replaced Death Strike with Concentration
    • Squire
      • Replaced Nagnarok with Toadsong
      • Replaced CT Boost with Reflexes
        
  • Valmafra Team (East)
    • Thief – Replaced Blind Knife with Cinquedea
      
  • Meliadoul Team (East)
    • Archer – Replaced HP Boost with Death Strike
    • Ninja
      • Replaced Move +2 with Dexterity
      • Replaced Cherche with Invisibility Cloak
    • Bard – Replaced Arcane Strength with HP Boost
      
  • Special Encounter Team
    • Marach – Replaced Defense Boost with Attack Boost
      
• Single Player/Campaign
  • Adjusted item prices and all following items are only available at Chapter 2’s start (except Steadfast Ring which is already available at the start of Chapter 3):
    • Cursed Helm – 200 to 20,000
    • Cursed Armor – 800 to 30,000
    • Cursed Robe – 300 to 20,000
    • Cursed Garb – 500 to 20,000
    • Cursed Shield – 400 to 30,000
    • Escort Guard – 150 to 30,000
    • Steadfast Ring – 10,000 to 50,000
      Prices were exponentially increased to reduce players from being able to buy these at the start of the game and to make these grind worthy. This change is to only address feedback about these items’ accessibility if venturing forth in the story with the PvP Patch.

Competitive Standard v5.0

• Characters
  • Valmafra
    • Increased base PA from 13 to 14
    • Increased base MA from 15 to 17
    • Increased Move from 3 to 4 (as Witch of the Coven)
    • Changes affect Rendezvous/SLOT 2
      Based on feedback, Valmafra’s base PA/MA is being buffed a bit to help not only her offensive capabilities but to also better transition her onto either physical or magic-based jobs. She plays a lot more hybrid-like and is much more of a force to be reckoned with. Thank you all for the feedback regarding her state in earlier updates and I am hoping to see more Valmafra playability!
      
• Limited and Semi-Limited Gear Restriction Update
  • NEW Semi-Limited – Gae Bolg
  • NEW No Longer Limited – Cursed Helm
  • Note: all limited/semi-limited updates affect Rendezvous/SLOT 2
  • Consumables
    • Shuriken, Flameburst Bomb, Snowmelt Bomb, and Spark Bomb – Decreased from 10 to 5 (also affects Rendezvous/SLOT 2)
      Cursed Helm being at 3x is treated similarly to Onion Helm and allows for a bit more accessibility for Undead-themed teams while still retaining helms limitation in jobs.

Generics Premade v5.0

4 new premade builds join the roster in this official update to make the Generics Premade/SLOT 1 format a generics-only format! Additionally, some previously “lower” level gear that was equipped primarily as filler has been swapped out with gear that is also accessible in Standard and Rendezvous to improve item consistency and availability across all Tactics League formats. Stats have been adjusted ultimately to avoid adding “power” to builds and the goal is mostly for aesthetics and consistency.

• Characters
  • DMG-Aquafina (NEW by @Mistral)
    • Role – Damage
    • Female Knight
    • Equipment:
      • Caladbolg, Kaiser Shield, Genji Helm, Luminous Robe, Sortilege
    • Abilities:
      • Arts of War – Bulwark, War Cry, Rend Speed
      • Ja-Magicks – Waterja
      • Reaction – Replenish
      • Support – Monkey Grip
      • Movement – Dexterity
        
  • DMG-Red Mage (NEW by @Rumer)
    • Role – Damage
    • Male Black Mage
    • Equipment:
      • Runeblade, Red Hood, Black Robe, Protect Ring
    • Abilities:
      • Black Magicks – Fira, Blizzara, Thundara
      • White Magicks – Cura, Raise
      • Reaction – Mana Shield
      • Support – Equip Swords
      • Movement – Move +2
        
  • TNK-Echo (NEW)
    • Role – Tank
    • Male Mime
    • Equipment:
      • Hydrascale Bag, Celebrant’s Miter, Black Garb, Sortilege
    • Abilities: N/A
      
  • SPT-Agent (NEW)
    • Role – Support
    • Male Orator
    • Equipment:
      • 2x Tiny Bee, Acacia Hat, Ringmail, Elven Cloak
    • Abilities:
      • Speechcraft – Entice, Praise, Intimidate, Preach, Enlighten, Hush, Insult, Mimic Darlavon
      • Time Magicks – Haste, Slow, Immobilize
      • Reaction – Vanish
      • Support – Dual Wield
      • Movement – Move +2
        
  • TNK-Souleater (NEW, replaces TNK-Guardian)
    • Role – Tank
    • Female Dark Knight
    • Equipment:
      • Arondight, Grand Helm, Peytral, Nu Khai Armband
    • Abilities:
      • Darkness – Sanguine Sword, Infernal Strike, Abyssal Blade, Unholy Sacrifice Black Magicks – Poison, Death
      • Reaction – CT Boost
      • Support – Arcane Strength
      • Movement – Dexterity
        
  • DMG-Shadow
    • Replaced Kodachi with Iga Blade
    • Replaced Reflexes with Vanish
    • Replaced Move +2 with Dexterity.
      
  • DMG-Sorcerer
    • Increased base HP by 31
    • Increased base MA from 21 to 22
      
  • DMG-Warden
    • Replaced Papyrus Codex (book) with Icebrand (sword) since this weapon is normally disallowed via job (geomancer)
    • Replaced Wizard’s Robe with Black Robe to retain Boosts: Ice
      
  • DMG-Hunter
    • Added Break Aim to Aim skillset
    • Removed Throw Dagger from Fundaments skillset
    • Replaced Headgear with Green Beret
      
  • DMG-Berserker
    • Replaced Francisca with Slasher
    • Replaced Headgear with Green Beret
      
  • DMG-Parivir
    • Replaced Diamond Helm with Genji Helm
      
  • DMG-Armiger
    • Added Aim skillset as a secondary which includes Take Aim and Break Aim
    • Replaced Iron Sword with Diamond Sword
    • Replaced Headgear with Headband
    • Replaced Leather Armor with Ringmail
  • DMG-Zen
    • Removed Mythril Shield
    • Replaced Equip Shields with Doublehand (doublehanding Whale Whisker)
    • Increased base MA from 13 to 15
      
  • DMG-Lancer
    • Added Steal Weapon and Steal Accessory to Steal skillset since this character is the only one with access to Steal
    • Removed Borrowed Time from Steal skillset
    • Increased base HP by 30
    • Decreased PA from 16 to 14
    • Decreased SP from 15 to 14
    • Replaced Obelisk with Gae Bolg
      
  • TNK-Sentinel
    • Replaced Platinum Helm with Vanguard Helm
      
  • TNK-Guardian
    • Replaced Brass Coronet with Grand Helm since this gear is normally disallowed via job (knight)
    • Replaced Platinum Armor with Peytral
      
  • SPT-Apothecary
    • Replaced Geomancy with Throw skillset, which only includes Bombs
    • Replaced Arcane Strength with Safeguard
    • Replaced Leather Cloak with Elven Cloak
      
  • SPT-Stalwart
    • Replaced Mythril Gun with Muse’s Harp
    • Replaced Equip Guns with Brawler
    • Decreased PA from 34 to 25
      
  • SPT-Distractor
    • Increased MA from 1 to 14
      
  • Inventory
    • Added 3x Fuma Shuriken for DMG-Shadow to use with Throw
    • Decreased Flameburst Bomb, Snowmelt Bomb, and Spark Bomb from 10 to 3 each
    • Decreased Ethereal Tonic from 10 to 3
    • Decreased all other Chemist “tonics” from 10 to 5

As the fall season approaches, the work, playtesting, and iterating of the 3.0 Beta builds are complete and today we are releasing the official update that we have been testing over the course of the past few months.

As stated in the v3.0 beta update article, this update includes Tactics League’s first-ever software modifications for Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP), focusing on improving both Melee and Rendezvous modes for a complete multiplayer experience.

Since much time has passed from v3.0 to v3.6 Beta, we won’t go over all that has been changed here but instead provide the changelog for what this official update brings. If you are curious about the work done, please head to the PvP Patch – Changelog.

To download the all-in-one package that includes the PPF file and save data, please visit Downloads. To learn more about how to apply the PPF patch, visit Tutorials.

Table of Contents

• PvP Patch v3.0 Official Changelog
  • Quality of Life Updates
  • Jobs
  • Abilities
  • Equipment – Gear
• Competitive Starter 4.0
• Rendezvous 2.0
• Generics Premade 4.0
• PvP Patch – Changelog (opens in new tab)

PvP Patch v3.0 Official Changelog

Our beta testing period is over, and with it comes a very jam-packed update. Not much has changed at the closure, but there is still a few tidying up to be done, and one quality change to make your battles even more intense!

Quality of Life Updates

• Soundtrack
  • The random battles background music has been refreshed and will now randomly play one of the following nostalgic battle themes, fitting the theme of PvP much better than ever before. Note that this change also affects random encounters in the world:
    • Trisection
    • Back Fire
    • Decisive Battle
    • Antipyretic

Jobs

• Holy Knight (Agrias)
  • Reverted the temporary HP multiplier from 160 to 140% now that her base HP has been increased to better transition it between jobs
  • Reverted the temporary PA multiplier from 120 to 100% now that her base PA has been increased to better transition it between jobs
    
• Samurai
  • Increased Move from 3 to 4
  • Increased HP multiplier from 85 to 100%
    A buff to Samurai to help it perform better; especially since they require to be up-close for both weapon attacks and Iaido. Samurai is now decently bulky with a higher base HP can be increased further with their access to heavy armor.

Abilities

• Tasks (Construct 8)
  • Dispose and Pulverize – Increased the recoil damage from ¼ to ⅓
    Recoil damage increased to increase the penalty Construct 8 receives from using its primary damaging abilities.
    
• Vengeance and Blade Beam (Beowulf/Cloud)
  • Increased the damage cap from 70 to 80% of your missing HP
    This should give these abilities more room but still restrict abuse where a player lowers their HP through team damage.
    
• Time Magicks
  • Gravity – This ability is now single target and instant cast
    This gives Time Mages an instant damaging spell if necessary, still subject to evasion/reflect, but potentially devastating against high HP targets.
    
• Bardsong
  • Nameless Song – Removed Bestows: Protect or Shell chance from this ability, improving the odds of Haste, Reraise, and Regen
    Since this ability doesn’t bestow both Protect and Shell together and this ability isn’t usually cast for these buffs that can be obtained via gear or Barrier/Kiyomori/Ward, this ability will no longer provide Protect or Shell improving its viability for the other buffs.

Equipment – Gear

• Cursed Robe – Increased MP from 100 to 150
  Since Wizard’s Robe had an increase in overall bulk due to the recent MP buff, Cursed Robe also needs a bit more, but its bearers should consider Mana Shield since they gain 0 HP from this item.

Competitive Starter v4.0 (Slot 3)

• All Characters
  • Learned Unholy Darkness (Mystic Arts)
    
• Agrias
  • Increased HP from 401 to 481 (+20% HP)
  • Increased PA from 13 to 15
    These changes are to adjust her stats as it was previously stated in v3.5.1B. The end result is that Agrias has a net gain of HP and 2 more PA that will transition to other jobs rather than being forced on Holy Knight if desired.

Rendezvous 2.0 (Slot 2)

• Luso – Set PA/MA to 15/15 to match Starter
  
• All Competitive Starter changes, including Unholy Darkness, have been applied to this slot
  
• Gear Restriction Update
  • NEW Banned – Invisibility Cloak
    Because the AI retains its vanilla functionality of not targeting invisible units, this item permanently removes such targeting allowing players to bypass aggression. Items that provide temporary/Initial: Invisible will remain as is since they wear off after action.

Generics Premade (Slot 1)

• Inventory
  • Removed Faerie Harp as an equipment choice for Armiger since squires can no longer equip instruments
    
• Replaced Movement abilities for most builds since Move/Jump +1 is no longer accessible. This will mostly improve mobility for most builds. This affects the following:
  • Ramza – Move +1 > Manafont
  • Delita – Move +1 > Lifefont
  • Balthier – Jump +1 > Fly
  • Beowulf – Move +1 > Lifefont
  • Shadow – Move +1 > Move +2
  • Hunter – Move +1 > Move +2
  • Parivir – Move +1 > Manafont
  • Armiger – Move +1 > Fly
  • Bouncer – Move +1 > Move +2
  • Sentinel – Move +1 > Move +2
  • Guardian – Move +1 > Move +2
  • Cleric – Move +1 > Manafont
  • Apothecary – Move +1 > Levitate
    
• Ramza
  • Replaced Resilient (Parry) with Soulbind
    
• Shadow (Damage)
  • Replaced Assassin’s Dagger with Chaos Mace since knives can no longer be dual-wield
  • Replaced Headgear with Green Beret
  • Reduced SP from 15 to 14
    
• Lancer (Damage)
  • Reduced SP from 15 to 14
    
• Sentinel (Tank)
  • Reduced MA from 20 to 12
    
• Specter (Tank)
  • Replaced Sage’s Robe with Cursed Robe to give back his original undead theme
  • Reduced MA from 25 to 19
  • Added Delirium and Unholy Darkness
  • Added Venetian Shield since Mystics can now equip shields innately
    
• Distractor (Support)
  • Replaced Parry with Reflexes
  • Reduced PA from 20 to 15

As part of our community mission to provide a home for multiplayer Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, we wanted to include a save that hones in on some of the game’s toughest PvE battles that you can take on with a buddy online wherever you have an internet connection and ZeroTier/PPSSPP. This supported save is included with our latest v2.5 save data update which you can read more about here.

✅Features

• All 15 Rendezvous missions unlocked (game cleared)
• This save is built similarly to how Starter is; the inventory is limited in quantity and characters have all jobs and abilities unlocked
• Ramza is listed as R-Ramza so you can track multiple Rendezvous saves within the Tactics League save data if needed

📃Important Details

• The PvP Patch must be disabled as this mode was designed with “vanilla” or original gameplay in mind
• It is highly recommended to have an original version of your FFT WotL backup ready so you can play with original text/descriptions
• Characters on the roster should not be modified, except via gear and abilities, and should retain their original Br/Fa values and stats
• Any stat changes, including EXP/JP, while in Rendezvous are reset after the mission ends
• Arithmeticks are disabled automatically in Rendezvous
• Characters that “crystalize” are not permanently removed from the party roster
• Multi-part missions, such as Brave Story, do not reset HP/MP, KO’d characters or status effects, inventory changes (such as katana breaks)

🏆Challenge and Scoring

You can always take on these missions with a friend casually, but why not add a little extra difficulty for added fun and strategy? The game’s Treasure Wheel dictates not only how many chests you get from completion but also your “Star Rating.” This Star Rating or the number of chests increases the fewer units you and your partner take on a mission together in addition to completion.

To go for a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐score:

• Ideally, both players bring no more than 1 unit each. However, this may vary from mission to mission
• Have zero party members KO’d by the time the mission ends (reviving does not penalize scoring)
• KO as many enemy characters as possible

At a later date, we are working on featuring a competitive-style Rendezvous challenge for everyone in the Tactics League Discord to participate in, so make sure to start learning these missions and prep to show your PvE prowess. If you have not already joined our Discord hop in and find a partner!