FFXIII - Bravega? Bravera? Bravery? Which Is It? - Information On The FFXIII Bravery Spell

How Final Fantasy Sequels Link Together

There is a laundry list of recurring spell types in the Final Fantasy series, just like weapons, items, names and places that all link the series together, at least tangetially. Players and veterans of the series will instantly recognise names such as Firaga, Cura, Haste, Shell, Protect, Slow or Thundara, as they have grown into an eponymous part of the Final Fantasy universe. The inclusion of these spells ties together the unfamiliar and new settings of each series entry, in a similar vein to the use of recurring weapons (Omega Weapon, Nirvana) and summons (Bahamut, Ifirit) or even enemy types (Flans, Bombs). One such spell is Bravery, which is the focus of this article in particular, as we provide information on contextual usage of the FFXIII Bravery spell and detail what it does when cast.

Effects of The Bravery and Bravera Spells

In FFXIII, Bravery can be cast by four of the six playable characters. The Bravery spell is made available to Lightning and Snow on stage seven of the Crystarium progression found in the game. Hope will unlock the ability during stage eight of his own Crystarium lineage, while Sazh has the basic spell as early as stage two of his own personal development. In contrast to this, both Fang & Vanille are not given the option of using Bravery but can access an upgraded form of the spell in FFXIII, Bravera. For Fang, this upgrade is available at stage seven of her development while Vanille has to wait until stage ten before finally unlocking the Bravera spell.

Bravery in FFXIII – Bravega doesn’t exist in this particular series entry – has one effect for a limited duration with a set ATB cost. That cost is two full chunks of the ATB gauge, which isn’t too much of a worry during the later chapters when it is finally unlocked by Synergist characters. Furthermore, its duration is 150 seconds, giving two-and-a-half minutes of usage whenever it has been cast – plenty of time in the furiously paced battling action of FFXIII. Bravery itself increases a characters physical damage and attack strength by 40%, meaning Commando or Ravager classes (ergo Tanks/Rangers) can yield a decent physical attacking advantage when it is cast on them specifically.

The Potency of Bravery & Its Counterpart – Faith

By contrast, the upgraded FFXIII Bravera spell doubles the potency of its effect, with an 80% physical damage increase instead of 40%. As a trade off for this however, the duration of the spell is significantly reduced, only lasting a disappointing but still useful 30 seconds. This increase adds onto the default damage, ergo players will notice they do 140% or 180% of their normal physical damage when a Bravery based spell has been cast on them. Furthermore, the Boon ability can add an additional five seconds of duration to the Bravery spell, as long as a previous buff has already been cast on the character in question – whether that is Faith, Haste, Protect, Shell or Vigilance etetera.

It should be noted that there is an accompanying spell that offsets the physical bonus of Bravera or Bravery. That is the Faith spell, which is unlocked in the same stages and manner as the other spell, but further along the Crystarium path. Faithra is the stronger, Fang & Vanille specific, upgrade also. As with Bravery, Faith lets players increase damage dealt by 40%, however instead of adding to your physical damage, it makes for stronger magic attacks. This applies to Faithra also, which allows an 80% increase in magical attack damage with the prohibitive 30 second duration culled from the weaker spell. Both can be used to penetrate and take out the plethora of boss encounters strewn throughout the thirteen chapter game.