Help FFXIII: Chapter 13 is impossible!!!!!!

[quantum metaphysics]

I was kicking ass up until midway through chapter 13, and now, even though I'm playing like 2 hours a day nearly every day for the past week, I can hardly progress at all. All of my guys have nearly all of their main jobs fully upgraded. I'm currently at the part just after that one miniboss with the many arms who is a Cieth, and now I'm stuck at the part where I have to fight him and the Sanctum Archangel guy.

My team generally consists of Lightning (lead), Sasz, Hope
I start with commando, synergy, synergy and then rotate around with some commando and ravager paradigms with at least one other paradigm with synergy and one with double medics

I also occasionally use Lightning (lead), Sasz, Vanille
This one is basically the same except Vanille is in their instead of Hope for her saboteur.

I occasionally mix things up like sometimes putting Sasz in lead, and I'm currently trying out using snow instead of Hope/Vanille for Sentinel.

Lightning's weapon is the one with stagger lock and it is as high upgraded as possible without being upgraded to the next class (I don't have the right component to upgrade it there). Sasz is at the same upgrade point, his weapon is the one with stagger maintenance. Hope uses the one with defense maintenance and has been upgraded to its second form and is in the 20's I think, and Vanille's is the Increased Debuff at second form in the 10's. I don't believe I've upgraded anyone else's weapons.

I do have a fair amount of components and money to buy more components, so if you think I should have Snow or Fang on my team I can probably upgrade one of their weapons.

If you think I need to grind more, where should I go? I've gone to gran pulse but there I only get organic components and not that much gil. The adamancheild gives me some good stuff sometimes and I know the adamantoise does too but I'm pretty sure I can't take the adamantoise unless there is a particular team I should be using that makes it easy. I've also tried going back to eden but there doesn't seem to be too much there either.

So basically what I think it comes down to is having the right team/paradigm/weapon/accessory combinations, and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions?

 

[Gaige]

I'm surprised you've lasted this long without having everyone's weapons upgraded to Tier 2, which would make life a lot easier. You can buy the necessary upgrade items in The Motherlode shop, which can be accessed at any savepoint.

After a little research, I've figured out which upgrades do what for your characters. If you're using the Hauteclaire, Uraninite will be the catalyst to bring it to the next level.

Unfortunately, Sazh's upgrade is expensive as hell, and can be found in the R&D Depot. It's Dark Matter, which will upgrade it to the next level. Expensive, but worth it.

Now, a team of Hope and Sazh isn't very productive. They both excel in the Synergist and Ravager Paradigms. However, Hope excels moreso, and having two excelling synergists in your party can confuse the AI, making them cast the same buffs multiple times and basically stripping you of a character who actually does anything.

I suggest including a Saboteur. Vanille and Fang excel in this aspect, but since you've put more effort into Vanille, it might be less tedious to include her. Otherwise, you'll be making up for the upgrades you haven't given Fang. She has the highest attack in the game, and makes a good Sentinel, though I find Vanille outclasses her as a Saboteur.

That done, have you been regularly buffing up your character's Crystariums? If not, make sure they're catching up in at least one role they major in. For example how Lightning majors in Commando, Ravager and Medic. Basically the roles available to them before the Fifth Ark. It's worth your while to buff em up a bit if you're not doing a No Crystarium Playthrough. If you have everything main buffed, Lightning makes a good Synergist, Hope a good Saboteur, and Vanille a decent Synergist. Fang's buffs not only override those you do have. They last less. And the increased effectiveness isn't worth it. Never use her as a Synergist.

If you want to make it even easier on yourself, there is a cheap way to get the necessary component, the Trapezohedron. You need to go into battle with an Adamantoise, with two Saboteurs, meaning Vanille and Fang, and a Synergist, meaning Hope or Sazh. Vanille has to be your leader, and you need the TP to summon Vanille's Eidolon, Hecatoncheir. Immediately go into Gestalt Mode, and use its final attack, Gaian Salvo, to dismiss it. The moment you summon, its legs are knocked out, making the Adamantoise unable to do anything for about thirty seconds.

At this point, your characters should start spamming it with debuffs for about 15 seconds, while Hope/Sazh buffs the party. If there's time, stagger it with a triple Ravager attack. It makes life so much easier. Then, all you can do is spam Vanille's Full ATB skill, Death, and hope it goes down. There's a slim, slim chance that you'll get a Trapezohedron. It's tedious, it's risky, but even one Tier Three weapon gives massive boosts, as well as an extra ATB slot. Result. Alternatively, you can buy them for 2 million gil apiece in the R&D Depot, but that's worse and slower than taking your chances with the Adamantoise.

Hope this helped.

 

[quantum metaphysics]

Ya the reason why my weapons are so low upgraded is because I made a lot of stupid mistakes early in the game. I was using my incentive and credit chips instead of selling them, I wasn't upgrading efficiently using organic and inorganic components, and I was upgrading weapons part way and then ultimately selling/deconstructing/abandoning those weapons for others because one FAQ or message board post said one weapon was the best and another a different one, until I eventually realized to just do what works for me.

This sounds like good advice so I'll try it out, but the only thing I'm wondering is if there is any super-efficient way to get gil. I wish you would just get gil for kills (if I'm wrong about this and I am getting gil per battle, it must not be much). I know on eden you can get credit and incentive chips, and the sacrifices give you perfume or far more scarletite than you actually need that sells well, and I know that adamancheilds sometimes give some gold stuff that sell especially well, but to get to those guys in eden you have to fight through a bunch of other guys, and the adamancheilds are suddenly hard to find on gran pulse. I guess your strategy works for me against the adamantoises that should help, but any other advice in that regard would be appreciated.

 

[Gaige]

Well, unfortunately, the Perfumes and Gold Dusts are the best you'll get.. Sell anything at all that "Sells for a Premium." Use the stuff like Paraffin Oils and stuff that won't sell for much or do much for your weapons to actually upgrade your weapons, which will cause multipliers of up to 200% to the upgrades that do count, making it easier to upgrade.

 

[quantum metaphysics]

Haha ya I did eventually figure out the proper way to upgrade weapons, but I had been using the expensive medicinal oil stuff when I was running low on components. I guess I'll switch to the cheaper stuff.

The perfume and gold dust are good money, it just seems like I'm not getting as much of that stuff as I'd like . I'll try to test some of your ideas out tonight if I get the chance, but more likely tomorrow.

Any other ideas you may have, or that anyone may have, would be appreciated.