@TheSauseMan

As much as I'm happy to see there's interest in modding for this game, I'm still a bit iffy about sharing my findings (not in the best of mental states these days, and I'd want to present a clean explanation, which takes time I don't have, to make). Someday maybe I'll feel better about it, but for now, I can only ask for your forgiveness and your patience.

As for the challenge, the only one I know of who beat it is me. I managed to beat the story and the entire post-game, without getting Dark Matters or Trapezohedrons (which means no TIer 3 weapons and no +3000 HP accessories). I have a small playlist of videos for fights I found notable and interesting (although arguably some are missing).

I know of two people who reached Mahabara Tunnels, and of one other who beat Barthandelus 1.

Hmm... I doubt it'd be possible to do that by modifying the game files, but maybe some Cheat Engine sorcery could do that, but that'd require quite a bit of work

I tried it myself using Cheat Engine to get me Stage 10 right at the start of Chapter 3 and played up to chapter 7, and had no adverse effect except the one I mentioned earlier

The only adverse effect is thus : when you unlock a role again after doing that (say Medic for Lightning after beating the Dreadnought) its role level reverts back to 1, so if you had leveled it up, you'd lose the possibility to max the role level.

There are multiple ways to make these obtainable. From my fiddling with the game files, I know treasure chests, mission rewards, shop inventories, enemy drops and special drops can be edited. As far as I know, however, weapon stats are not modifiable. Or they are written in obscure numbers, I haven't looked much into weapons. I'll start looking into the game files more come September.

I've been looking into the game files recently, and although I haven't looked into abilities yet, discussion with other modders make me think this is possible.

However, it defeats the purpose of the Commando role being specifically built towards damage, and non-elemental at that. Use En-Spells (such as Enfire) to get elements on a Commando, and you can double your damage input if the enemy has a weakness or if you use Imperil.

Some Cheat Engine cheat tables allow you to edit the crystarium stage, although I have no idea exactly where they are, you can easily find cheat table by googling them. Know that however getting Stage 10 does not give you the secondary roles (the ones unlocked at the beginning of chapter 10)

Sorry, but I would rather not share any information for now, as I might use it for a University project next year.

Once it gets approved (or not), I will gladly share my findings, so just a bit of patience until the end of September, alright ? :p

Update to the files : There was a mistake in Sazh's Stage 6 Crystarium, with 9 HP and 7 Strength. Re-download and reinstall before it is too late !

Glad to hear that, Xero !

I also find NCU pretty boring, with the lack of flexibility and options, and the absurd amounts of grinding, so when I had figured out how the crystarium works, I thought of making this mod.

I hope you enjoy it !