I've seen many questions pop up about upgrading your weapons, and accessories. Mainly about how to go about doing if effectively and economically, and some other questions.
Basics
To begin upgrading your weapon you must have reached a certain save point in chapter 4, the game then gives you a quick tutorial, but it doesn't explain much.
So, let's start at the basics, to begin upgrading your weapons, get to a save point, and SAVE YOUR GAME BEFOREHAND, then select "Upgrade".
You'll be taken to a menu with Upgrade or Dismantle, let's begin with Upgrade. Click it. You'll now see a list of your weapons, and be able to go down to your accessories, click on weapons, Each and every weapon you own has it's own Level, you will get them at Tier 1, Level 1, there are 3 tiers of weapons per character, the 3rd tier being 8 "Ultimate" weapons all having the same name, but different stats, depending on which base weapon you usd.
Components
You'll be taken to a list of components for your weapons, there are 4 types:
- Organic [These boost the EXP multiplier for electronics]
- Electronics [These give high EXP, but reduce your multiplier]
- Transformers [These are used to transform your weapons into a higher tier]
- Premium Items [These should NOT be used in upgrading, and should be sold in shops for nice gil]
It's fairly obvious which is which, look in the name, if it sounds high-tech and electric, it's probably Electronics, if it sounds like it's from an animal, then it's organic, Transformers (usuaully sound like an ore, or metal) and Premium Items (usually Dolls, Perfume, Gold or Platinum) say it in the item description, so no problem there. Also, each class has it's own symbol next to each item in it's group, except for premium items, they are mixed in with the other groups, here is a list of items which should be sold:
- Credit Chip
- Incentive Chip
- Cactuar Doll
- Moogle Puppet
- Tonberry Figurine
- Plush Chocobo
- Gold Dust
- Gold Nugget
- Platinum Ingot
So, how do you go about upgrading weapons and accessories economically?
It's best to do it in bulk. Here's what I mean:
Step 1) Save your game. Seeing as your using this tutorial means you're probably still early in the game and can't just buy the materials, so SAVE YOUR GAME.
Step 2) Go to the upgrade weapon screen, and select your weapon or accessory, then start throwing Organics on it until it pops up X3 multiplier, this gives you a 3 times boost on your next electronic upgrade.
Step 3) Go to the electronics and refer below to see how much EXP you need to get it to the top rank, do not get it to say, Level 17, this means you have to go and use more organics, so just boost it up to STAR straight away.
Step 4) If you don't have enough resources to upgrade to STAR, reload your game and try again later, or, reload your game and buy some electronics from the shops and try to get it to that STAR rank.
Okay, Understood? Probably not... Knowing my luck. Oh, and, It doesn't matter what you use to upgrade, no items give you unique stat boosts to the weapon.
Exp Tables
Extended Accessories
Note: EFS stands for "Exp for Star", this is the EXP required to get from Level 1 to Star.
For the accessories table, if you've got your accessory by making it yourself via a catalyst, to workout the XP for Star, see your accessories EFS, then minus the previous tiers EFS, this gives you a new number, which is your EFS.
Example: Selfmade Diamond Bangle (From Platinum Bangle) would be: 143200 - 75390 = 67,810, this means I will require 67,810xp on my Diamond Bangle for STAR.
The extended accessories link will send you to the raw spreadsheet on Google Docs which I uploaded, it gives you the XP difference between each and every level for each and every accessory, aswell as the max level for each one.
Shops
If you go to the shops, you're best choice for multiplier bonus would be Sturdy Bones, Barbed Tails and Vibrant Oozes, electronics however, varies on what tier you're on:
Tier 1) Supercharger - Cheap and Good Exp/Gil ratio, and ideal for Tier 1 upgrades.
Tier 2) Particle Accelerator - A bit lower Exp/Gil ratio than superchargers, but these give more bulk XP, preventing you from having to use multiple visits to the shops to get to STAR on tier 2 weapons
Tier 3) Ultracompact Reactor - Best EXP/Gil ratio, and give a huge blast of XP, a must-use for Tier 3 weapons due to the requirement of 1.5mish XP.
Dismantling
Dismantling can be very worthwhile, and very wasteful, due to the huge amount of variation on dismantling items, I won't put an entire list up as it will simply take too long to make.
To dismantle an object, be sure to save first, incase you regret it, go into "Upgrade" at a savestation and select Dismantle, pick which item you want dismantling and it will change into a number of items.
Here's a list of dismantles that might be worth the time:
Kains Lance (STAR) - 3 Trapezohedron, 36 Moonblossom Seeds
Nirvana (STAR) - 3 Trapezohedron, 36 Moonblossom Seeds
If you're finding it a pain to get Trapezohedron's from Adamantoises or buying them, these 2 weapons dismantle into 3 of them each, with 36 Moonblossom Seeds which you can sell for 216k.
Tetradic Crown (STAR) - Hermes Sandals
Tetradic Tiara (STAR) - Sprint Shoes
The only way to obtain as many Sprint Shoes/Hermes Sandals as you need, you can get Tetradic Crowns and Tiara's from Mission 7, he drops them both. Upgrade them to STAR and you can dismantle for Sandals/Shoes.
Energy Sash (STAR) - Ethersol
You can't buy Ethersols... or can you? By dismantling Energy Sashes you can, it's expensive but, Buy Speedsashes from Moogleworks for 5k each, and upgrade to Energy Sash, then upgrade it to max, dismantling it gives you an Ethersol and Black Mycelium.
Doctor's Code (STAR) - Elixir
There's only 1 elixir to be found in the game, but only 3 Doctor's Codes too, so if you want another 3 elixirs, along with 3 Ethersol, Aegisol and Fortisol, feel free, but be wary that you won't ever see a Doctor's Code again.
Goddess's Favor (STAR) - Ribbon
Ribbons are amazing, and you can obtain infinite of them! Buy an Entite Ring from Sanctum Labs for 120k, upgrade this to Goddess's Favor, fully upgrade that and dismantle: Ribbon!
FAQ:
When should I start upgrading?
I started at Chapter 10, I upgraded 1 of each characters weapon to Tier 1 STAR, By the end of the story everyone had atleast 1 Tier 2 weapon at STAR Rank. Due to the effort required to get Tier 3 weapons at STAR, and to get Trapezohedrons I advise that you don't go for Tier 3 until post-story. It's down to you, if you think the game's getting too hard, either improve your weapons or CP farm, in some cases improving weapons maybe the only option.
So what are the best organics?
Using 36 Sturdy Bones, Barbed Tails and Vibrant Oozes will give you an instant 3x multiplier, or by using 24 Otherworldly Bones, Diabolic Tails and Transparent Oozes will give you a 3x multiplier.
What's the best weapon for my character?
It comes down to personal preference, read the passive abilities and see what they do, for example, having the Augment Maintence boost from Spica Defenders/Sirius Sidearms on a Synergist based Sazh will be helpful, but that's just one example, there is by no length a perfect weapon for each character, each weapon is special in it's own way.
How do I know what Tier 3 weapon I will get?
It depends on what you used for the base weapon, suchas, a Lionheart/Ultima Weapon gunblade will upgrade to an Omega Weapon that isn't as strong in comparison to some of the other Omega Weapons, but will have the Quick Stagger ability, just like Lionheart and Ultima Weapon.
What boosts do I get from Tier 3 weapons?
It depends on what you used for the base weapon (see above), however all Tier 3 weapons have an ATB+1 boost, which is handy to say the least.
How much does it cost to go from Tier 1, Level 1, to Tier 3, STAR?
Depends how much of it you farm , you could get them there for free if you farm everything, if you buy everything it wil cost around 4m. I advise getting Trapezohedron's from Adamantoises though, using Vanilles Eidolin and Death Spell trick, if you can't take them down easily, this reduces to cost to around about 2m, and while farming Adamantoises for Trapezohedrons you will get a load of Platinum Ingots, which sell for 150k each.
Can I miss any weapons?
No, Aslong as you've unlocked every shop, every Tier 1 weapon can be bought in the shops.
Liar! I missed the Lionheart and can't find it any of the shops!
The Lionheart can be bought from Gilgamesh Inc, an optional shop unlocked by beating Mission 46, along with a number of other weapons.
Credit:
TheNomandicOne: Helpful in general, Gave me the list of catalysts for Lightnings weapons.
Everyone who posted on the previous thread: Ideas for the FAQ section, thanks 
.
The Official Guide: Extremely helpful at times, not the best guide in the world but like I said, extremely helpful at times.
Thanks for reading Any suggestions are greatly appreciated, and please highlight any mistakes you find .
Good Guide, Kudos.
Hypothetical question time.
Let's say that I am currently farming CP in the Mah'habara mines (Start Ch 11) to level all of my party in every specialist role and I'm starting to think toward upgrading my parties weapons.
Now suppose that I used all the High XP electronic items I had to get Lightings Gladius to a Tier 1 Star rating, leaving me with no additional items to service the other party members. 
Where on Gran Pulse can these electronic items be farmed and what minimum stats are required? (all of my parties CP are half way through level 3 in their respective roles at this point in the story)
FYI - only 33 Vibrant Oozes are required for a x3 multiplier. So buy 99 of them and you have 3 chances to x3 the EXP reward.
Danlisa wrote:Good Guide, Kudos.
Hypothetical question time.
Let's say that I am currently farming CP in the Mah'habara mines (Start Ch 11) to level all of my party in every specialist role and I'm starting to think toward upgrading my parties weapons.
Now suppose that I used all the High XP electronic items I had to get Lightings Gladius to a Tier 1 Star rating, leaving me with no additional items to service the other party members.
Where on Gran Pulse can these electronic items be farmed and what minimum stats are required? (all of my parties CP are half way through level 3 in their respective roles at this point in the story)
FYI - only 33 Vibrant Oozes are required for a x3 multiplier. So buy 99 of them and you have 3 chances to x3 the EXP reward.
Ah, the guide must be wrong then, it said 36 
.
For farming electronics in Chapter 11, I'd go with Bomb Cores, they're easy to get, majority of missions give you a few for the secondary reward (reward when completing the mission for the 2nd time+). Mission 01 is a good one: It's relatively easy, the Ectopudding is rather close to the Cie'th stone too.
Or, you could try farming Cryohedron's (Bombs in the Mah'habara) for them, rare drop though, 5% chance according to the guide.
Out of those 2, I'd suggest a backtrack to the first Cie'th stone (Right by where you first entered the Central Expanse) to rack up some Bomb Cores to get however many you need.
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