just wanted to say you're a good teacher. I've played this game a lot but I've been watching your vids to make sure I'm understanding everything correctly and not missing any features. Thanks!

You missed the reason for wanting three substats. If you craft a single substat materia, then level it up, the first 3 levels add 3 substats, and the 4th upgrades a substat. If you start with 3 substats, the 1st level up creates a new substat, and the next 3 level ups upgrade existing substats.

Note: Ruin materia actually are better if they have opposite stats (matk on ruin blow, patk on ruin), especially if they come together with mdef/pdef. Ruin is mostly used for sigil breaking, so you want the AI to avoid using it except for breaking sigils, as such, equipping the magic one on the physical user and vice versa helps to ensure that. On top of that, having mdef/pdef on those helps with damage mitigation as you would need use at least one sigil breaker anyway. So don't consider a 4 star ruin "bad" because stats are opposite. ;)

i needed this soo badly, thx a lot

When adding the shards its only cheaper to increase the level with the basic Ruin/Ruin blow. the elementals both take the same. So a fire magic and fire blow at max will take 1 gold, 9 purp, 10 blue. If you're wanting something just for as a stat stick the basic sigil ruins are the cheapest.

:) great video payne materia needs work but good to have something to work with while we have it

Great guide btw I got a few things I would like to add 1. when you upgrade materia if it emits a ring when you do it upgraded 2. you should upgrade the amount of materia you can hold a few times 3. don't hoard materials they do you no good sitting in your inventory and lastly craft the 5 hr+ materia before work or bed time.

The fire materia actually does more damage than Glen's weapon if you account for ATB cost.

If i set synthesis lv at 3 and then add a few more items but not enough to take it to level 4 (i.e. like lv 3.5), are the odds of getting a better materia improved over just leaving it at lv 3?

Hi, nice video now i know what to do in the game, quick question, for Ruin materia is better just to focus a strong stat of MATK and Ruin Blow ATK, or it doesnt matter if i have a really good %ATK in the Ruin materia and a really good %MATK in the Ruin Blow materia? haha sorry if i dont made myself clear

A trick I learned that I believe helps is to synthesize a materia by itself with no added materials and see how long the time is on that materia knowing that the time absolutely equals the level of stars, so if I synthesize said materia and I know the time it has to finish means its going to be a level 1 or 2 star, or even low end of time for it to be a level 3 I do nothing and let that finish and be food materia for something better, HOWEVER, if that first "test" materia shows the amount of time I know is equal to that specific materia definitely being 3 star or higher I then create the same exact materia again in slot beside it but now with added materials to make it a guaranteed 3 star or higher cause I usually find more times than not the second one you make beside first test one when add material almost always makes that second one more time ie higher level than the first, Idk if that makes sense to you but for example I know for a Cure materia to be at least 3 stars it needs at least 6 or 7 hours to synthesize, any less time than that its a 1 or 2 star materia, so if I first synthesize a Cure materia and its time is less than 6 hours Ill forget about that and try another different materia because I know that means its less than 3 stars, again until first one with nothing added shows me by how long it takes that its 3 star or higher I try another one until one I try is going to take the amount of time I know it takes to be 3 stars or higher before taking a shot at creating one with added materials beside it cause again even if by a little the second one created next to it with added materials is almost always more time/higher level but if test one is only 1 star than next one with added materials may only be a 2 star, still higher than first but when start off at 3 stars the next one can be 4 or higher, I have a few different 5 star materia and a shit ton of level 4, in fact have every single materia up to at least 2 to 3 level 4's just need 5 stars for everything which is very hard but promise ton of 4 stars if understood what I'm trying to say lol

I'm already level 65 with Cloud and only 48K of power... precisely because the materia I have suck! I've seen players level 55 with 65K power, now I understand how important materia is. Thanks for the video man, great info'.

It probably doesn’t matter but would you suggest focusing on one type of materia until you get the desired result?

video I've been looking for! thanks!

MVP 🏆

This game is a full time job. I love FF7 and will be WATCHING other KZfaqrs play as more FF collabs are released (cloud with Lionheart? Yes pls), but playing it, farming, synthesizing, farming, farming, farming, leveling, farming....it's just...alot. also as people has said before, there is blatant favoritism with it comes to which characters get love. I may be one of the few who like Gachas that have nothing to do for periods of time. Sometimes, too much of a "good" thing is bad....right? For me at least lol. Happy gaming y'all. I'll be happy watching 👀. Great content btw Payne. Keep it up 💪🏾

Of course the time it takes equals the level of stars the materia becomes, for example the Cure materia is level 1 from like 2 to 4 hours, level 2 from 4 to 6 hours, level 3 from 6 to 8 hours, level 4 from 8 to 12 hours and 5 star 13+ hours.... Not exact times but basically it so 100% you KNOW how many stars soon as see the time it takes and have experienced each materia's time table cause they're all somewhat different but all follow same rule, Ruin for example is always level 1 from 20 to 30 minutes level 2 from 35 to 45 minutes level 3 from 50 to 60 minutes and so on, so soon as learn the time range of each materia will ALWAYS know what getting based on time ALWAYS!!

I'm just hoping they decide to make an event that will increase the odds of making 4-5 star. I have slowed down a lot on synthing. Got a good stockpile of 4 stars with good substats. I think the only 4 star I could use(but not really a necessity) is Blizzard/blow, and some of the Ruin/blow

I love your videos. But I still have doubts about the subjects. 1. What I have to focus on the stats? 2. So I have to get enough materials to be 3 stars or more? 3. How do you know if a materia is good to use or good for other materia?

You speak fast, which is good..I don't have to X1.25 you. Thanks

One thing that I think should be noted is that when you get a materia to level 5 and decide to upgrade it, IF it gets that small chance to have its rarity upgraded the substat boosts are still going to be comparable to its previous rarity. The substat growth of a 4 star materia from level 1 will still be better than a 3 star rarity upgraded to 4 star. So for getting the highest boosts to substats its always best to try to get a 4 or 5star right at level 1. Not saying to neglect the rarity upgraded ones when first starting but to just keep in mind that you will eventually want to replace it for something that's a higher rarity right from level 1. My example: I have 2-4 star Fire blows. 1 of them was upgraded from a 3 star, and its sub stats are 2.6%Mag/6Mdef/2%Patt/0.5%HP. My 4 star from level 1 has 1.5%Mag/7Mdef/1.8%Patt/5.1%HP. I still keep the first one more for my DPS and the Second one for the HP with slight damage for my SubDPS.

Im just gonna copy my own comment and alter it a bit: as a rule of thumb, if the time is above the time you see recommended, you have a chance at a 4* or higher materia, so for example in the video: ruin 1 43 minutes 50 seconds = 3* needs to be above 49 minutes for a chance at being a 4* fireblow 1 2 hours 21 minutes= 3* needs to be above 2 hours 31 minutes to have a chance at being a 4* fireblow 2 3 hours 23 minutes 58 seconds = 4* or 5* materia, can go either way another example for ruin... anything between 40 minutes and 1 hour can be a 3*, but 44 minutes could also still be a 2* as another rule of thumb, roughly 50% higher than recommended time = 5*, so for ruin 1 hour 15 minutes, for fire blow, would be roughly 3 hours 45 minutes 4* guarantee is roughly 25% higher than normal these rule of thumb don't exactly apply to all materia...for example for fire/blizzard/lightning it needs to be 2 minutes above for chance at 4*, and for the other elemental blows with that random time of 306, its off by 24 minutes, so anything above 330 minutes = chance at 4*... for esunas/cures, its also off, but in the other direction, even if you are an hour below the recommended timer, you have a chance at 4* materia

i have 35 4 star materia and 2 5 star materia from what i see the myth on how much time in making the materia is a better chance of a high star rank is true any ruin materia than need over 1 hr to be made got a nearing 100% to be a 4 star but only a low % to be a 5 star all the materia i got as 4 or 5 star did take more time over any of the 2 or 3 star i made so if you want good materia you just need to keep on trying your luck and farm for the items you need to make the materia

It’s not a myth time does effect quality of materia there even a chat showing what time for what materia you will get

The more time the higher grade is true anytime i have a ruin over 45 mins it is always a purple cure over 8 hours water and earth over 6 hours and fire and ice over 2 hours will get you 4 star.

Hey Payneblade, if they drop Yuffie on Christmas Day you should give me a shout out

I think the real question is how in the heck did you get over 1mil Gil meanwhile im struggling here with like 249 Gil?😂 Which dungeon did you farm that drops the most Gil at a time? Thats what i need.....

Been playing for 2 months but only have 4 4stars hahaha 😂 great guide as always!

No wonders you don't have many 4*/5* materias yet, you're hoarding gold mats! I have now 6 gold materias (Ice/water/waterB/cure/ruin*2) and 45 purple ones with all mats used

The 5* synth rate is absolute dogsh*t and should prob be slightly buffed, I've been playing since the first week and I've got 900+ synths and I have yet to get even a single 5* Materia, I've gotten a handful of 4* either by synth or a rare lucky upgrade giving me a rarity increase.

paid account = lame account.