Any other players here with tips for beginners? Is it as terrible to progress through as KHUx for F2P?
FFBE isn't as time-consuming as KHUx is, since the only regular rankings are the Arena rankings (you also don't lose out on much if you don't participate/rank low). We did have a Holiday event raid ranking, but again you really don't miss out on much for ranking low.
Which ended with a lot of cheering for the whales, because of collective group milestone rewards. It will take a while, but it's definitely possible to progress through for f2p. The main story is also much better paced than it is in KHUx, though the story itself might not be too exceptional.
The
Exvius wiki and
r/FFBraveExvius have pretty much everything you need to know, but some general tips:
You'll first want to clear some story quests for the free Lapis and to level up your Rank to increase your max NRG capacity--NRG is like Ux's AP system, but takes longer to refill. Leveling up Rank gives you a free NRG (and Coliseum/Arena orb) refills, along with 100 Lapis.
A side note, the story really doesn't start picking up until the 3rd island.
For exploration quests, you can refer to the guides
here for the treasures/material spots/exp zones.
Team setups should generally be: 1 support unit (Full Break is a great debuff skill), 1 healer, 2-3 attackers/mages, 1-2 tank(s) + ideally a whale friend. In battle, try to chain attacks/spells for more damage.
Lapis is the game's premium currency, and while you will have to eventually use some to increase equipment/material/unit slots (100 Lapis for +5 slots), you should generally save up as much as you can. I wouldn't recommend using Lapis for NRG refills until you've got a higher Rank level; NRG refills are much more worth it at higher Ranks when you have a higher max NRG gauge capacity. Be sure to do Arena matches 5 times a day and complete daily quests for Lapis, too.
About the rare summons (referred to as "Banners"), avoid doing single 500-Lapis draws. Go for the daily 250 Lapis pulls instead, or use Rare Summon Tickets (obtainable in events/daily logins). Try to save up for 5000-Lapis draws for when a banner comes around with a unit you want. I don't recommend pulling too hard on the current Type-0 banner, maybe pull for the event Phantoma drop bonus, but Ace, Seven, Trey, and Jack here aren't really anything exceptional. Try to keep as many units as you can from the rare summon, in case you get extra duplicates in the future for their TMRs. Also, unit rarity can be upgraded, so don't be too disappointed if you pull a 3*. The highest rarity a unit can awaken to (6*) depends on the unit.
Some nice 3* base units: Cecil, Cloud of Darkness, Exdeath, Krile (no 6*, but she has some use with innate Dualcast and Curaja at 5*)
4* bases: Refia, Chizuru, Agrias, Warrior of Light.
5* base units, with a very low summon rate, are all generally very good, especially Noctis, Lightning and Luneth for their innate Dual Wield, Gilgamesh, and
Dark Fina.
You can check out Unit rankings and info
here on the Exvius wiki. More detailed Unit reviews can be found
here.
There's also a free Friend Point (obtainable by taking companion units into quests) draw, use the units from this draw if you have to but you'll want to bench them as soon as you get a better unit from the rare unit/premium draws. Otherwise, only keep units from this draw for their
Trust Master Rewards (TMR), keep an eye out for Killer passives, +10% HP, and Sunbeam. Fuse duplicate units here together (any rarity of the same unit) to increase their TMR % by 5%.
About TMRs: Never fuse Zidanes or Ludmilles (or any unit with a worthwhile TMR) together unless you've got a boatload of extras, you'll actually want to grind out their TMRs at some point. Zidane's Dual Wield TMR and Ludmille's Dualcast are game-changers--Dual Wield allows a unit to equip two weapons and grants an extra attack during battle, and Dualcast allows two spells to be cast in one turn during battle. Gilgamesh's TMR also grants Dual Wield.
(About TMR farming: most players, including me, use Nox's
macro function to do this. Gumi has given the OK on this, since it's a built-in emulator function and not a 3rd-party/cheating device, but still be careful.)
About story units, the free story units really don't compare to other units available in the premium summons, but for now Rain's 6* form (you'll have to upgrade/"Awaken" him, he starts as a 2*) is currently a very viable support unit. Fina is obtainable somewhere during the second island and is a decent healer/support unit (mainly for her Cheer attack/def buff), but there are much better healers available in the rare summon draw. There are more free story units later down the road, but again they're not really all that great compared to other pullable units.
Ariana's unit, which is easily obtainable in her event right now, is actually a pretty great support/magic unit for newer/unluckier players (in her 6* form; her awakening and equipment materials need to be farmed from the event), definitely farm her awakening and equipment materials when you can. Megathread/event guide about it
here. (Try to ignore the negativity/salt on reddit.)
Awaken her to 5* by the end of the event for a free 500 Lapis, too.
The Type-0 event will probably be tougher for newer players, but you should still be able to farm some phantoma to exchange (in the Farplane, talk to King Mog) for useful things (summon tickets, Metal Gigantuars, awakening materials). Megathread/event guide
here.
About Espers: Siren is just average so you'll eventually bench her, Ifrit should go on physical attackers, Shiva can go on mage attackers or healers,
Golem should go on tank units, Ramuh goes on mage attackers,
Diabolos can go on physical attackers for his Killer passives,
Carbuncle goes on support/healer units.
Odin is expected to release in the next story expansion, apparently he's excellent on physical attackers. When unlocking grids, don't bother with stat upgrades--go for the abilities instead.
The Ariana Grande "Touch It" remix video actually spoils some more unreleased Espers from JP FFBE
(Lakshmi and the Tetra Sylpheed).