Basic Grids

As a beginner, the quickest way to increase your power is to improve your weapon and summon grid. Fortunately, every element has farmable/free-to-play options which perform respectably (even compared to more exclusive builds) and can ultimately tackle any content in the game.

Listed below are the basic grids for each element as well as general notes on early-game progression.

Many communities call these Omega grids (or Magna in Japanese) due to their focus on Omega Weapon Skills
See the Damage Formula and related sources for the mathematics behind why these types of grids are effective. For a simple, visual guide, see "Understanding How Grids Work for New Players" (via reddit)

Notes[edit]

Grids[edit]

The grids below contain only farmable and accessible (non-Premium Draw, non-Event, non-High-Level) options, and are not meant to be competitive with fully optimized late-game grids (with exception to Xeno Weapons).

Each grid lists only nine weapons. The tenth (your mainhand) will depend on the classes you wish to play and the weapons you've acquired.

You can purchase 4 Omega SSR weapons each month (except Luminiera Sword Omega) with Renown Pendants, which are primarily farmed from Normal and Hard Raids. As you need to do these raids anyway, it is recommended to do them all every day and take advantage of the SR and R bonus pendants where possible.

It is strongly recommended to prioritize pendants on Light and Dark weapons due to the low drop rate of its best weapons. Since they also contain the most difficult bosses, it is often smoother to build one of the four main elements (Fire, Water, Earth and Wind) before expanding to Light and Dark.

Revenant Weapons are subpar as grid weapons, but can work as filler. They're noteworthy as mainhands since you can change them to whatever element you need, and in particular an element-changed Four-Sky Blade is fantastic as a mainhand due to its charge attack effects.

Bahamut Weapons are very powerful, but require Rank 50 to acquire at all and Rank 80 to acquire reliably. The weapon you will want to choose depends on the race(s) of your characters. What Makes the Sky Blue provides you a free Bahamut Nova Weapon of your choice, which can drastically save your time to farm it.

Seraphic Weapons are very powerful when fighting under elemental advantage and their base forms are easy to acquire.

Side Stories provide weapons which can be used either as temporary mainhands or filler. More recent Side Stories also provide EX weapons that are fortunately easy to acquire (note maximum trade amount), and can be used as long-term filler.

Proving Grounds weapons are on par with EX Side Story weapons but also provide valuable secondary skills past rank 101; they're often good weapons to invest in long-term.

Xeno Weapons are the strongest EX weapons despite difficulty to obtain them and long gap between Xeno Clashes. Obtaining at least one copy is very beneficial due to their stronger skill compared to other EX weapons, and most endgame grids will use a Xeno weapon or two.

Sephira Weapons benefit from Omega summons and have great base stats and charge attack, but are limited in availability due to the daily expedition constraints and in long-term usefulness due to having a maximum level of 100. Keeping at least one fully-uncapped copy is recommended for use as a mainhand. They can drop from any Arcarum stages and there is no trade limit for them although Arcapoints are better spent on something else.

Filler Weapons[edit]

Filler weapons provide a stop-gap of power to more easily or efficiently farm your ideal grid. Because they are temporary, however, it's important to budget how much fodder you invest in upgrading their weapon-skills, keeping in mind that they may eventually be used as fodder themselves. Ultimately only you can weigh the opportunity cost of the fodder versus immediate power, but some recommendations are listed below:

Generally upgrade your weapons to their max EXP/Level as the base stats help and Angel Weapons are plentiful. Make sure to use Journey Drops for efficiency if you're upgrading a lot at once, as you'll eventually need more and more for weapons that are uncapped past level 100.
Always upgrade 02 weapon-skills to at least SL2 (SL3 is recommended, above SL4 is not recommended).
Always upgrade 03 weapon-skills to at least SL3 (SL4 is recommended, above SL7 is not recommended).
Because it is often better to Reduce Premium Draw weapons than use them as fodder (but not always; research individual weapons before reducing), note that any fodder invested in their weapon-skills will likely be lost. Still, such weapons tend to make powerful fillers and are usually worth upgrading at least once or twice.
Filler weapons generally shouldn't be uncapped at all unless they might see continued use as a mainhand-option or the like.

Filler Summons[edit]

Consider using elemental boosting summons over Omega summons if your weapons' skill level isn't high enough, due to lower damage output. You can estimate your raw damage by setting a support to your party via the button above your weak point damage estimation. However, estimated damage doesn't reflect your damage accounting for a foe's defense. See Damage Formula for details.

Side Stories provide filler summons, but not all of them are notable. Summons with elemental boost should be prioritized due to how the game calculates the damage, but be aware of some summons' auras which penalize you before they are fully-uncapped.

Arcarum Summons provides unique yet powerful main aura and call effects. However, obtaining the base SR Arcarum summons is time-consuming as you're limited by a single daily expedition. Also, they cannot be uncapped normally. While their base stats are low as SRs, their main auras, sub auras and call effects can compensate for that loss in some manners.

Fire[edit]

Basic Grid[edit]

4×
Omega ATK Weapons
- Colossus Cane Omega
- Ancient Ecke Sachs
(Ancient Ecke Sachs is generally stronger, but more difficult to obtain)
1× Summer's Mirage (exceptional Omega RotB weapon)
1×
Bahamut Nova Weapon
2×
EX Weapons
- Balanced Blade
- Schoolbag
1× Ray of Zhuque (exceptional RotB weapon)
1×
Seraphic Weapon
- Sword of Michael (SR)
- Sword of Michael (SSR)
(when against Wind; replaces one Cane)

Fillers[edit]

Sephira Emerald Dagger (Recommended SSR; Arcarum)
Sephira Emerald Fork (Arcarum)
Ray of Zhuque (Second copy)
Ifrit Halberd (Normal Modifier)
Dragon Spear (Normal Modifier)
Ifrit SR Weapons
Ifrit SR Weapons:
(Normal Modifier)
Colossus SR Weapons
Colossus SR Weapons:

Main Summons[edit]

Colossus Omega 3★
Ifrit (Filler)
Phoenix (Filler)
Fafnir (Filler; note DEF penalty before 3★)
The Devil (SR) (Arcarum)
Lady Katapillar (Filler; note charge bar penalty before 3★)

Support Summons[edit]

Shiva (Best damage)
Sylph, Flutterspirit of Purity
Michael
Zaoshen (Note summon requirements)
Athena 3★+ (Powerful defensive call)
Satyr (Summer) 3★+
Surtr 3★

Progression[edit]

Advance in Main Story for:
- Colossus Blade Omega 3★
- Colossus Cane Omega 3★
Clear Four Knights of a Fallen Land for Fafnir if you don't have a better Fire ATK Summon
Farm Colossus (Raid) Normal and Hard for SR filler weapons and Colossus Omega Anima
Clear A Tale of Intersecting Fates for Balanced Blade
Clear Love Live! Sunshine!! Aqours Sky-High!‎‎ Hard free quest for Aqours Third-Years
Farm Love Live! Sunshine!! Aqours Sky-High!‎‎ for Schoolbag
Clear What Makes the Sky Blue for a
Bahamut Nova Weapon
of your choice
Farm Arcarum for:
- The Devil
  The Devil
  - The Devil (SR)
  - The Devil (SSR)
  for its Aura, Sub-Aura, and Call
- The Sun
  The Sun
  - The Sun (SR)
  - The Sun (SSR)
  for its Sub-Aura and Call
- Sephira Emerald Dagger as main-handed weapon and filler
- Sephira Emerald Fork as main-handed weapon and filler
Farm Colossus Omega Showdown for:
- Colossus Omega
- Colossus Cane Omega
Trade for Sword of Michael (SR) and forge it into Sword of Michael (SSR)
Friend-request Shiva, Sylph, Flutterspirit of Purity, and Athena 3★+ owners
Farm Rise of the Beasts at your earliest opportunity for Summer's Mirage