[Bootcamp] Soulweaver’s Horribly Inefficient Tactics – Rem

Despite the name, this series will be focused on units that are good, but not quite meta-defining. You won’t see units like Hyoh or Trance Terra in these – unless I’m doing something silly with them, like turning Trance Terra into a 100% evade cover tank who Holy-counters like a madwoman (requires iNichol)… actually that sounds like fun. No, I totally didn’t get machinegunned half to death by a RoL-wearing Terra in arena earlier.

Today I’ll be discussing Rem, the 5* base healer/caster from FFT-0. This might be an easy one to start with, because let’s not mince words – Rem is GOOD. However, I haven’t heard anyone mention a single word about her other than “Oh, she got her 7*”, so I figure she’s fair game here. Anyway, let’s get to the point.

Introduction

One of arguably too-many units currently in the game from FFT-0, Rem is one of three 5* base units (for now), and the only one who has any kind of healing worth mentioning. I’ve never actually played FFT-0 – I’ve finished 8 or so of the main series, nearly finished one of them (two if you count FF14, where I’m nearly at the end of the current MSQ), started and quickly abandoned another three, and never started another couple. But enough about things not related to Rem.

Rem was, unless I’m mistaken, the first source of Reraise in the game. It wasn’t a white magic spell, but it did make your damage unit of choice get back up after getting punched in the face by Mr. Robo. She’s also gotten probably the best GL-exclusive stuff, starting with Dagger Boomerang and ending with sweet enhancements. More on that later.

Stats and Trust Rewards

Let’s start it off with base stats. She hits 233 MAG and 242 SPR after pots. Compared to the heavy hitters in the MAG and SPR departments, this isn’t great. (Ayaka hits over 270 SPR, while Trance Terra hits 260+ MAG). But at least she gets both, right?

Passive abilities (after enhancements and at lvl120) include a massive 110% in both MAG and SPR worth of dagger mastery, which is nuts. That isn’t all, either. She gets another 20% MAG and 30% SPR passively, with another 30% to each with her trust ability. She also gets 10% All Element Resist, 20% worth of bonus DEF, 50% HP, 50% MP, and 30% MAG TDW. Her passive stat bonuses, assuming you meet all the (pretty easy) requirements, amount to 160% MAG, 170% SPR, 50% HP/MP, 20% DEF, 10% All elements resist and 30% TDW. That’s a lot of bonus stats.

Her TMR is a materia that gives 30% HP/MP. That’s not included in her above stats, so she ends up with a bucketload of MP (Auto Refresh too, btw) and a decent pool of HP. Her STMR is absolutely ridiculous, giving 40 MAG/SPR and 40% MAG/SPR. Yes. BOTH. Holy shit.

Abilities

But what does she do? What makes her worth looking at? Let’s start with her spells.

She gets access to Dualcast and 5 elements worth of black magic, including chaining monster Tornado, and it’s less popular sibling, Quake. This lets her chain with, among others, Dark Fina, Malphasie and Barbariccia. There are a lot of Tornado chainers. The three basic -aga spells are nice for completing missions, but that’s honestly about it. She also gets Raise (enhanced to 95%, so it’s almost a Full-Life) and Curaja, which works nicely with her stupid high SPR stat even if you don’t build her for SPR. If you don’t have a healer, or your main healer is busy, she can pick up the slack. Her Curaga also heals more than average if you’re short on MP.

Abilities-wise she gets Undying Wish (non-magic Reraise), Healing Prayer (Curaga + heal all status) as basic support skills. Oh, and another Trust ability she gets is to randomly cast Healing Prayer when she’s hit. She shouldn’t be getting hit (although she does have several re-raise options), so this is mostly for trolling people in arena.

She also gets the standard Summon Eidolon (4 turn CD from turn 1) suicide-to-fill-esper ability all the FFT-0 7*s get, as well as an AoE 100% DEF/SPR, 20% Damage Mitigation and 80% Reraise mega-buff (6 turn CD from turn 1). That second one is crazy strong, having an AoE mostly-on-demand reraise on turn 1 without having to wait for LB crystals *glares at CG Fina*. Her support kit is completed by a 180 AoE instant MP regen that costs only half her LB bar. While it does require some LB crystals, 180 mp is a LOT, and more than enough to do pretty much anything that isn’t quad-casting Chaos Flare. If quad-casting Chaos Flare is your thing, you can bring another MP battery who will suddenly have enough fuel in the tank to top up your pink nuke monster.

She also has two awesome damaging abilities in Dagger Boomerang and Flying Daggers. The former, once enhanced, is a stacking attack that goes up to 8.6x per hit. The latter is a 6.4x attack that breaks SPR by 60%, has 9 hits and 0 chaining partners. What makes these skills cool, though, is that they are Physical attacks that deal Magic Damage. To put it simply – they work with Dual Wield, weapon element, killers, and damage off her MAG stat. For BOTH HITS. Lots of damage.

Gearing

Rem’s equipment options are not super diverse, but cover everything she wants. Daggers, Swords, Staves and Rods let you choose weapons to build her for either of MAG or SPR (you’re gonna be using a dagger regardless), and her armor options consist of Hats, Clothes and Robes.

For Daggers, there are 4 MAG daggers in the game –

The first is one of the approximately 50 Zwill Crossblades in the game. This one is Ignis’s STMR, so unless you’re an omega-whale, got really lucky on the FFV banner, or got really unlucky chasing GLS, you probably don’t have it. It gives a massive 145 ATK/MAG as well as 20% MP.

Next in the Dagger hierarchy is Rem’s own event dagger, Defender’s Daggers. 68 MAG with some SPR and a Rem-exclusive 15% MAG boost, it’s one of those things so many people are kicking themselves for skipping.

Further down is another limited-time dagger, Ashteroze’s TMR – Breath of Rose. 48 MAG and Dark element means that if your Rem ever gets bored of chaining Tornado with Dark Fina, she can take advantage of the 120% Dark imperil by throwing the dagger in someone’s face. No, not that Throw. Go away, Shadow.

After that there’s Lightning Dagger from the Main story, and it’s a… lightning dagger. So not a Staff of Blizzards, which is neither a Staff, nor does it have Ice element. That’s (not Staff of Blizzards) useful for capping Hyoh chains – or, if you’re adventurous, Knight Delita chains.

Then there’s the lazy and not-actually-tjat-bad alternative of the Bowie Knife – free unconditional Dual Wield so you can slap on a Mateus’ Malice without using any extra equipment. Plus you’ve probably got almost as many of these as you have Gungnirs after all the Item World runs.

Sample uber-whale build. Using a whopping 7 STMRs, you end up with 1930 MAG and 1129 SPR. Not bad, eh?

Sample budget MAG build. No STMRs or limited items, Only her own 5* base TMR, you end up with 1476 MAG and 953 SPR.

Sample budget SPR build. Same conditions as above, Rem can hit 1453 SPR while still getting over 1k MAG. While 1k MAG is so 6*, it’s still not bad if you’re using her as a healer.

Pros

– Super versatile with an amazing support kit

– Covers 5+ elements for missions

– Element-customizable magic damage that applies physical killers is actually a big deal

Cons

– MAG stat is a bit low for a 7* Mage

– Can’t dualcast re-raise

Conclusion

Rem is incredibly slot-efficient, providing a strong healer (reraise included), mana battery, magic chainer and finisher (unfortunately not at the same time). While not being the best at any of these roles, she is a more than competent healer even when not built for it at all. Or a competent Mage when built to heal.