FINAL FANTASY XIII

Short + Simple Guide (Not using any special items)
My first try using this setup i beat the boss in 1:11 and the target time was 2:08

Battle Team Used:
Lightning/Fang/Hope

Paradigms Used:
MED/SAB/SYN
RAV/RAV/RAV
COM/COM/RAV

Step 1.
Libra and wait for Hope to use Haste on everybody

Step 2.
Use paradigm 2 and keep attacking till it is staggered.

Step 3
Once staggered switch to paradigm 3 and keep attacking till it dies.

Extra step:
If your health drops at any stage use renew if you have the required 2 TP

This is the Superstar achievement. To unlock it, you have to 5 star the final battle of the game.

My party was Vanille (Leader), Snow, and Hope.

Paradigm setup was the following:

1: SAB - SEN - SYN (initial setup)
2: RAV - COM - RAV
3: RAV - RAV - RAV
4: MED - SEN - MED
5: SAB - SEN - RAV

For the fight I had already maxed out Vanille's Saboteur class (Crystarium 9) for the Death spell. Start the fight off by buffing up and debuffing the bad guy, and let Snow take all the damage (he really doesn't do too much). After you land a Deshell, switch to paradigm 2 (RAV/COM/RAV), and get his CG near breaking, then wail on him with setup 3 to stagger him. After he's at 700% or more, switch to setup 5 and just spam Death. When you stagger him he loses his immunity to death, so he's not very hard. You should be able to stagger him again pretty easily if your death doesn't land on the first one. Setup 4 if he does too much damage, but he probably won't if you play it safe with Snow as a sentinel.

I beat him in 1 minute, 37 seconds.

This solution is for the SUPERSTAR achievement and it will be 100% spoiler free. I'm not going to give the name of the final boss. However, when the final battle starts, you fight one boss. After a cutscene, you'll fight a different boss twice. It's the second form of the second boss where the 5 star rating is needed. I got a 4 star rating on the first form of this boss and 5 star on the second.

I just wanna add another strat. The other 3 solutions are top-notch and I thumbed them up before posting, so be sure to read their solutions if mine doesn't work. There are many ways to go about getting this achievement, so if one of our solutions do not work, try another. If you find a different way, then come post your own solution. The more information we get out to people, the better chance they'll have the achievement and that's the point of TA's solution section.

Anyway, I wanted to get this achievement before completing the game, so I reset the fight many times to try different strats out with different party members. My weapons and accessories weren't the best, but they weren't bad either. My final party settled on Light, Fang and Sazh. I'd post a video of this fight, but just watching a video won't do much for ya.


++UPGRADING++

You should be fairly familiar with upgrading. If you need some help, check my starter guide post out here:

Upgrading questions in FF13 (Upgrade starter guide inside)

There is undoubtedly much better guides somewhere on the internet. I made this starter guide after only on night of toying with it and it's only meant to get people started, not craft the ultimate weapon. So if you're looking for *the* guide, you won't find it in that thread hehe.

++WEAPONS and ACCESSORIES++

Lightning:

-Flamberge (tier 2 starter weapon)
-Power Glove (tier 2 Warrior Wristband)
-Power Wristband (not upgraded)
-Rune Bracelet (first * level)


Fang:

-Glaive (tier 2 starter weapon)
-Warriors Wristband (not upgraded)
-Power Wristband (not upgraded)
-Glass Orb (not upgraded and useless)

Sazh:

-Procyons (no upgrades)
-Sorcerer's Mark x2 (no upgrades)
-Weirding Glyph (no upgrades)


++STATS++

I'm going to list each character's strength and magic stats to give you a feel of how your character compare to mine. If you're going to use my solution, then try to get them somewhat close. However, Lightning and Fang's strength stat and Sazh's magic stats are the only stats that matter. If you went the Commando route with Sazh, then strength will matter more than magic. Any extra points you have in the main stats (above me) will only help you even more.

-Lightning: 1643 Strength, 1258 Magic
-Fang: 1831 Strength, 794 Magic
-Sazh: 573 Strength, 945 Magic


++PARADIGMS++

You only need 3 paradigms:

Character order: Lightning/Fang/Sazh

1. RAV/COM/SYN (Decimation)
2. RAV/COM/RAV (Relentless Attack)
3. COM/COM/RAV (Aggression)
3a. COM/COM/COM (Cerberus) if Sazh has higher strength than magic


++STRATEGY++

The target time for me was 2 mins 51 seconds and my completion time was 1 minute 56 seconds. Make sure you have at least 4TP before entering this battle because RENEW from the TECHNIQUES menu is how you'll heal your characters. 4TP allows you to cast RENEW twice.

You cannot damage the boss until it has been staggered. So don't be alarmed when you notice there is no damage. You need to kill the boss during the FIRST STAGGER (providing you staggered it fairly quickly) if you want the Superstar achievement. If you don't kill it during the first stagger, press start and then back to retry. Get a stopwatch or use your phone/clock/watch to give yourself an estimate on how long it's taking you to win the battle. I started my timer the moment I saw the boss during the cutscene which ended up being about 10 seconds before the timer starts (I think it starts when your character has DOOM cast on it).

Start off with Decimation paradigm (RAV/COM/SYN). Stay with this paradigm until everyone has HASTE and Light and Fang have BRAVERY.

NOTE: The boss has an ability to SLOW your characters. This will remove the the HASTE buff (or cast SLOW on your characters without the HASTE buff). If you lose HASTE, then wait for Sazh to cast HASTE again. If you're in another paradigm, swap back to RAV/COM/SYN until HASTE is cast on all your characters.

Once those buffs are applied by Sazh, swap to Relentless Attack paradigm (RAV/COM/RAV). What this does is allow you to build the chain gauge faster.

When you stagger the boss, switch to Aggression (COM/COM/RAV). The boss will launch into the air and you can air juggle the boss, but it CAN STILL ATTACK. So keep an eye on your health. If you don't kill it during the first stagger, just retry and go for it again.

The brief solution:

1. Make sure you have 4TP so you can use RENEW to heal your party twice if needed.

2. Start with RAV/COM/SYN until everyone has HASTE and Light and Fang have both HASTE and BRAVERY.

3. Swap paradigms to RAV/COM/RAV until the boss is staggered.

4. Once the boss is staggered, swap to COM/COM/RAV to kill the boss before the first stagger is over.

5. *Achievement Chime*

Good luck everyone, hope this helps and, as usual, sorry for the long solution.

This achievement isn't very hard to get at all, and doesn't require grinding. Many of the other solutions recommend having characters with upgraded weapons and CP invested in minor roles, but it can be done with tier 1 weapons, only using major roles, and Army of One being the only skill necessary past Role Level 4.

To end the battle within the 5 star time limit, it's almost essential to kill the enemy within a single stagger. Fortunately you can load up on stat boosting accessories because the boss will barely hurt you at all if you are quick, and you should be. My strategy uses Lightning, Sazh, and Vanille, though you could probably optimize a little better if you chose to invest CP into minor roles.

For reference, my team's stats (after accessory bonuses) were as follows:
Lightning: 5185 HP, 1441 Str, 929 Mag
Sazh: 5885 HP, 834 Str, 839 Mag
Vanille: 5330 HP, 750 Str, 1522 Mag

You should have approximately the same stats if your characters are a bit past Role Level 4 in each of their major roles, and have equipped items corresponding to the important stats -- Str for Lightning (Army of One is physical), Mag for Vanille, and my Sazh has a little of both but it doesn't really matter.

Lightning is holding the Lionheart to speed up staggering, Vanille has the Belladonna Wand to improve her debuff accuracy, and Sazh has the Spica Defenders to lengthen buff duration -- though it's pretty meaningless in this particular fight because it's over so fast.

If your stats are lower than mine, I would highly recommend upgrading some accessories. It took me approximately 3 tries to get the timing right, and it might be impossible if the stats are much lower. Lightning's Str is easily the most important stat out of everyone's; if you are going to be upgrading items, focus on her's first.

To improve stats, the best, relatively cheap way is through Warrior's Wristbands and Sorcerer's Marks, sold for 10,000 Gil each at B&W Outfitters. They give +100 to Str/Mag respectively. This can be increased to +180 when fully upgraded*, and +230 if you also have a Scarletite. Both Gil and Scarletite can be farmed from the Sacrifices right outside of the final room should you need either/both. Odds are, you probably already have a fragment or two of Scarletite, and more than enough Gil if you got the Platinum Ingots from the Pulsian Pioneer reward.

*This costs another 33,960 Gil for 36 Sturdy Bones and 37 Superconductors.

Now that your stats are up to snuff, it's time to fight the boss. The general strategy is to buff Lightning while debuffing him. The most important buffs for her are Haste, Bravery, and Enfire. The important debuffs are Deprotect, Imperil, and Poison (though more is always better).

My recommended setup is this, with 1 being the default. 2 is a duplicate for ATB refreshing** because it takes a while for everything to get set up. If you're not comfortable doing this, you can eliminate 2 altogether, or fill in something else you think would be helpful.

**In layman's terms, this is where you get a full ATB bar when you switch paradigms after two rounds.

1. RAV SYN SAB (Guerrilla)
2. RAV SYN SAB (Guerrilla)
3. RAV RAV SAB (Smart Bomb)
4. RAV RAV RAV (Tri-Disaster)
5. RAV COM MED (Diversity)
6. COM COM RAV (Aggression)

Switch between 1 and 2 until the appropriate buffs are in place. Next work on staggering with 3 and 4, with 3 adding additional debuffs. Switch to 5 if anyone's health gets too low, which realistically shouldn't happen, but it's there just in case.

Once the boss is staggered, immediately cancel Lightning's upcoming actions and launch Army of One. As soon as the animation begins, shift to 6. She should continue attacking, but she'll receive the COM's damage bonus.

After it ends, do one full bar of Attack to launch the boss, then switch back to 5. Use Army of One yet again, then switch immediately to 6 as before. This time, when it completes, go directly back to 5 and do it again. You should be able to repeat this one more time, for a total of 4 rounds of Army of One. Note that the stagger bar might be empty before it finishes, but you will be doing 999.9% damage the whole way through.

If, for some reason, the chain gauge dropped too quickly, you will have to retry. Otherwise, you should have dealt more than enough damage to defeat the boss, and finish in a timely manner.

Simple tactic that anyone who hasn't ground out thousands of victories can easily attempt. I did this on my first playthrough, after having struggled through everything leading up to the final boss... For the second Orphan battle:

Use Lightning (leader), Vanille, and Hope.
I had maxed out their crystariums (only level 9, not 10) on their COM, MED, and SYN jobs respectively, with a fair amount of levelling on RAV for every one of them. Basically, you'll need RAV levelled up fairly high, but nothing ridiculous. I had Vanille and Hope just about into level 4 on it. Equipment was fairly standard. A few Strength+ rings, but nothing special or anything I'd say was required. Go with Magic+ or Strength+. Weapons were all base models.

With regards to the paradigms, feel free to mix your character roles around to suit your party best. If Vanille is your best SAB, use her instead of Hope, likewise with the SYN. As long as they have Faith, Bravery, Deshell, Deprotect, and Imperil you'll be fine.

Paradigms:
MED / SAB / SYN
MED / MED / MED
RAV / RAV / RAV

MED / MED / SYN *
MED / SAB / MED *
*These two aren't absolutely necessary, use them if you need to heal and still need debuffs to stick / some more buffs on your party.


Start off with MED / SAB / SYN
Use Libra with Lightning, and then hold out while Hope buffs your party with Haste, Faith, Bravery, etc. By the time you're buffed up fully, make sure Vanille has hit Orphan with Deshell, Deprotect, and Imperil, since he's not immune to these. Orphan won't attack much, but keep an eye on your health, and switch to MED / MED / MED whenever you need to.

Once your buffs are up, and IMPORTANTLY Orphan's been debuffed, switch to RAV / RAV / RAV. It'll stagger easily. Again, don't be afraid to change to MED / MED / MED if your HP starts to drop.

Once Orphan's been staggered, keep RAV / RAV / RAV on, and watch its health evaporate. Three RAVs fully buffed, against Deshell, Deprotect, and Imperil, will quickly get it to 999.99%, and you should be able to kill the boss in the first stagger. (If not, same tactics again, but quickly switch to MED / MED / MED before Orphan comes out of stagger, to save yourself from its Rebirth attack - though I'm not sure you can get a five star rating if you need two staggers. A retry might be useful here...!)

Hope that helped. Worked a treat for me. Basic points:

- Use MED / SAB / SYN to fully buff your party and fully debuff Orphan.
- Switch to RAV / RAV / RAV to stagger it, and keep that paradigm on to kill it in the first stagger.
- Use MED / MED / MED if things start to look a little shaky.

Good luck!

If you wait to attempt this until after your party is fully developed it's one of the easiest achievements in the game to get. I didn't bother attempting it until after I had unlocked the Master's Seal Achievement (all crysterium roles maxed out). I know it can be done earlier but if you're going for 1000/1000 you have to upgrade that far anyway.

I had Fang (leader), Lightning, and Hope in my party and equipped all 3 with Sprint Shoes (dismantle fully upgraded Tetradic Tiara's to get them, or just upgrade Hermes Sandles) as well as a Genji glove on Fang. Start off in Tri-Disaster and max out the chain gauge to 999%.

I know some of you will ask why I didn't have Lightning as leader for Army of One and the simple answer is, you don't need it. Once you're maxed out in all levels Tri-disaster raises the chain gauge so fast its not even worth your time.

Once the chain guage is maxed, just switch to Cerberus and burn him down. No tricks. No healing. Just fast and easy. If something goes wrong and the chain meter is about to run out, just finish him with a quick Highwind and you're done. Easy.

*EDIT* - It's worth mentioning that when I got this, I did not have the gold watch accessory equipped. You're doing so much damage that it is unessential.

to get this you must bet the final form of the last boss with a 5 star rating.

Characters:
Vanille (leader), Lighting and Hope

Paradigm:
1: SAB - MED - SYN
2: RAV - COM - RAV
3: RAV - RAV - RAV
4: MED - MED - MED
5: MED - COM - MED

Paradigm 4 and 5 are not really needed.

Start with Paradigm 1 until you have a few buffs on your characters and at least deshell on the boss. Then if his stagger bar is around or about 250% switch to Paradigm 3 to stagger him. (if not use Paradigm 2 until it is about 250%). Once the boss has been staggered continue ripping into him with Paradigm 3. This should beat him in one stagger.

I beat him in about 1:30.

Just throwing my two cents in. When I did this I had Light/Fang/Vanille, all with maxed lvl 2 weapons, and the following accessories:

light - aurora scarf, sprint shoes, ribbon
fang - aurora scarf, brawlers wristband, powerglove
vanille - aurora scarf, sprint shoes, goddess recovery

All accessories were maxed except power glove. Starting paradygm was Rav/Syn/Sab. Basically I spammed Army of One with light while fang and vanille buffed/debuffed. As soon as Orphan had deprotect and imperil on i hit Army of One and switched to Rav/Rav/Rav to start raising the gauge faster. I keep hitting army of one until he's stagger and over 850-875 then switch to Com/Com/Rav, again DURING army of one. He was down in no time at all.

Solution without using Crystarium Level 10.
Just for info the last boss looks like a golden sun it s not the one with the 2 changing forms/sides/faces whatever.
And you`re going all in against him so there is no need for healing besides his attacks are not really worth mentioning ;)

I used Lightning Fang and Hope for this one.
Weapon were: Light Lionheart Max. Tier 2
Fang Apocalypse Spear LV 15 Tier 2 improved debuffing.
Hope Improved Buffs Boomerang (forgot the name) Max LV Tier 2
Lightning and Fang should have everything what powers up the attack power and Hope magic power.

I used only 3 Paradigm sets but I improved some of the side jobs like Rav for Fang and Sab for Light. Lightning should definitly learn the Saboteur tree.

Paradigms were:
Lightning/Hope/Fang
Commando/Ravager/Commando
Saboteur/Synergist/Saboteur (Starting paradigm)
Ravager/Ravager/Ravager
I controlled Fang.
Just start the fight and Hope will cast Haste while you check when he has deprotes and deshell on him. When you have the two debuffs on him change to triple Ravager until he has 850% Stagger than change to Cmd/Rav/Cmd and finish him of.

Good luck ^^

(This is a rewritten Solution from March 2010)

SIMPLE AND EASY WAY:

Fully upgrade the best weapons you have available for Lightning, Snow and Fang.

I did some crystogen point farming in Gran Pulse (as the characters I used need to be Level 5 on their first and secondary roles plus at least Level 4 on their third roles then warped back to Orphan's Cradle and then The Narthex.

Equip Lightning with a platinum bangle and some glass orbs (reduces the change of getting slow cast on you by Orphan)

Beat Barthandelus and Orphan (first form) as you need to five star Orphan in his second form to get this achievement.

I used this party:

Lightning (15,000HP)/Snow (19,000HP)/Fang (18,000HP)

I had these paradigms and did this:

COM/RAV/RAV (slows the stagger drop)

After one round of the above I switched to:

RAV/RAV/RAV (which filled his meter and staggered him)

When he is staggered switch to:

COM/COM/COM (does most damage)

This took me about 1 min 45 secs.

Lightning - Hope - Fang

Rav - Syn - Sab (You get haste str8 away)
Rav - Rav - Com
Med - Med - Sen
Com - Rav - Rav

I 5 starred all 3 parts of the fight - on the first try - No summons & no TP moves at all and I've never played a FF game before. The fight was very easy imo - Ignore all of the extras in phase 2 and just concentrate on the main guy (MAKE SURE HE HAS DEBUFFS). Most important in phase 2 and then 3 for the achievement.