I'm not an expert when it comes to builds, nor do I claim to be. This guide won't tell you which is the best build, but rather teach you how to work with the schemata system so that you can discover what works best for you. Lightning Returns offers a large variety of approaches to combat and each person have their own playstyles, so I can't tell you what you should do, but rather show what you can do.

I made this guide to aid those lost with the variety in customization offered in LR. Even though the game is two years old and we have Google, there are still some people who might be lost and would appreciate helpful information right at the Steam overlay. Plus, the comments can be a place for discussion and if an information is very helpful/accurate, I'll edit the guide to include it.

If you find any inaccuracies, missing information or have a suggestion, please let me know in the comments!

"Schema (スタイル, Sutairu?, lit. Style) (plural: Schemata) is a term in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII related to the game's new approach to the Command Synergy and Active Time battle systems. By assigning different Schemata to Lightning to use in battle, the player can use different sets of skills, garbs, accessories and weapons."

Source: Final Fantasy Wikia[finalfantasy.wikia.com]

The Schema system introduced in Lightning Returns is an evolution of the Paradigm system present in the previous titles and also reminiscent of the Dressphere system from FFX-2. Players have to use three different sets of builds, each composed of one garb, one weapon, one shield, two accessory slots, one adornment slot and four ability slots.


Untraditional armor, most garbs have different statuses and abilities. The game offers around 80 different garbs that you can acquire from outfitters (who also sell adornments), as gifts from Hope or from quests.


There are six weapon categories: swords, great swords, staves, rapiers, spears and dual blades. Most of them are acquired on forges, but enemies (monsters, bosses and hostile humans) can drop the weapons they're carrying. New wepaons become available for purchase as you progress.


There are nine shield categories: shields, large shields, tactical shields, ensorcelled shields, light shields, valuable shields, crest shields (all from FFXIV), other shields (DLC and save data shields) and gauntlets. They are sold in forges together with weapons and new ones become available as you progress in the game.


There are two categories for accessories: head pieces and arm pieces. Unlike garbs, weapons and shields you can't buy accessories in store. Instead, you have to find them in treasure spheres scattered around Nova Chrysalia or by defeating the Last Ones (magenta enemies with an omega character in their names).


There are four ability categories: physical, magic, guard and ailment. These are the actions you perform in battle and they come in two forms, common and rare. The common abilities have white names and no special passive abilities, while the rare ones have yellow/golden names and offer different passive abilities. Two of the same rare ability can provide a different passive ability. Most abilities are dropped by enemies and some can be found in treasure spheres around Nova Chrysalia.

You can upgrade your gear, but that requires you to finish the game once. There are two types of New Game + in Lightning Returns: when you run out of days and are allowed to start all over with your gear, stats and some items from the previous playthrough, or after you defeat the final boss. Upgrades to garbs, weapons and shields can only be made after you have defeated the final boss, while accessories can be upgraded if you ran out of days. Once you find an accessory you previously had, it will be automatically enhanced. However, only head pieces can be enhanced. Treasure spheres containing arm accessories in NG+ will have them replaced by gil or other items if you have picked them up already.

You can upgrade your abilities on your first playthrough by going to a sorcery shop. At first you can only combine two of the same abilities to make it better, but after a few days you'll be able to upgrade capped abilities up to a star level.

FFXIII and XIII-2 had different roles based on the paradigm shift. Although Lightning Returns offers a similar way to have access to abilities in battle, it doesn't lock roles to anything specific. Each garb, weapon and shield offer different statuses and bonuses and how they will be used depends on what the player wants. There are some garbs, weapons and shields meant to be used in a certain way, but that's not the case for most of them.

The player can come up with whatever role they want for a specific schema, but it's usually recommended that you have at least one schema for physical damage and another for magic damage. You can also balance your schemata and make each slot complement the other, which can be an easy way to conserve ATB.


As mentioned, it's recommended to have one schema slot for each damage type (phsycial and magic), although that's not necessary. The paradigm physical damage/tank/magic damage can be very useful during exploration if you master your own playstyle, but unorthodox setups can work just as well. You'll have to experiment to find out what works best for you.

Now, on the matter of roles. In case you're planning on playing with common roles, here are a few hints you can use to come up with your own builds. Notice that I'll be using the XIII/XIII-2 role names, but you don't ave to stick to this at all!

Commando


This role focuses on physical damage. The harder or faster it can hit, the better. Soldier of Peace (aqcuired in the Wildlands) can be a good choice because it turns Heavy Slash into Artemis Arrow. Martial Monk (the one I'm using on the screenshot above) can also be very useful due to its Whirlwind Kick ability which can knock down enemies. Focusing on building up strength is very important for this role, but trusting it to take all the punches might be dangerous. Depending on the garb you're using, it might be advantageous to raise your ATB speed, but with a garb such as Martial Monk (starts with half ATB and its most useful attack consumes only 5) the accessory Fencer's Earrings can be very useful to speed up recovery of the idle schemata at the cost of magic resistance.

Sentinel


SEN is meant to guard most attacks. A shield with a high guard defense is quite useful for this role, but practicing perfect guard can also save your skin as some enemy attacks will still cause damage if you start guarding too soon, not to mention some of them stagger from perfectly timed guards. I use my SEN as a hybrid with saboteur to debuff and increase my magic attack with Transform Faith, so I can give up damage statuses to benefit a higher defense with the Ghostly Hood (+75% physical damage resistance, but cuts strength and magic by 100%). Going for higher guard and abilities such as Defender can also be useful, but be careful with the Abyss Gate shield as it lowers your HP by 95%, making perfect guard necessary if you want to survive with it. However, one can also build an aggressive SEN that will counterattack with abilities such as Counterblow, or build it in a way to benefit the COM schema and use it to counter, or make it self sufficient with high physical damage and defense.

Ravager


A lot of enemies can be easily staggered with magic. The ravager comes into play with high magic status and powerful spells. As strong as the -ga spells are, they're not the best to deal with common enemies due to their speed and staggering capabilities. The -ra spells can prove more useful as well as the Spira's Summoner garb, which carries Elementa at star level. Staves are the best type of weapon for a ravager (in the image I'm using the Magician's Wand, which increases the magic stat by 530 and combo finale by 10% at the cost of -40% stagger power and -15 ATB speed). I'm also using the Iseult's Lament shield for a slight boost in magic and ATB as well as 60 guard defense so that I can quickly defend myself without swithcing schemata if necessary. Most face buttons can be used for different purposes with the Spira's Summoner garb since Elementa is the only spell people generally use, so placing guard instead of a -ra spell on X isn't a problem. In that case, one could also use RAV as a hybrid with saboteur and repurpose SEN, or increase its physical damage and make use of the elemental strikes.


These roles can be a little tricky to master, but with a bit of effort and sacrificying focused statuses and abilities one can conserve ATB more efficiently. There's more freedom with them as they're not situational or serve a specific purpose, so building and finding your perfect balance is entirely up to you. The following image is an example I built quickly to demonstrate what my friend does:


Basically, the three roles I previously described are present in all three schemata along with debuffs. The secret to this is finding the right gear balance and placing the same type of ability on the same buttons (e.g. all three have some type of guard ability on X) for all three so that you don't have problems when switching back and forth. This way you can always keep them with enough ATB for emergencies as well as keeping a very aggressive approach. What you do with this scheme is entirely up to you as there are even more possibilities with unorthodox builds.


For some bosses, well balanced schemata should be enough. However, if you want five stars and a high score or if you're having a hard time you might want to build specialized roles specific for those battles. Just like exploration builds, boss builds are not specific. Each boss can be staggered in a different way and each has multiple ways to survive and reach the staggering point, so the way the boss fights and how they should be staggered should be enough to tell you how your specialized builds should go. For instance, a good way to deal with Caius is by surviving through his commando phase, debuffing him when he swaps to ravager and slamming -ga spells to make him fly. How you build your schemata to achieve that is up to you as there are many different combinations to serve this purpose.

Lightning Returns is not a common RPG as it lacks a leveling system. How well your fights go depend on your gear, your ability and your stats. Since you can't level up and build the character like in XIII and XIII-2, you have to run side quests to increase your stats. Either world quests or requests from the Canvas of Prayers will reward you with some HP, strength, magic and maybe more. Learning how to manage time so that you can explore and become stronger is essential, so if you're finding an enemy or section too hard to beat, go back and run quests you might've missed to increase your stats.


I hope this guide helped you. Remember, experimenting is the key to finding the perfect build for you, but sharing doesn't hurt! Discussing builds can provide valuable information that can assist on your own experimentation. Everyone will have a different opinion on what works best for which situation, so paying attention to what they do may teach you a thing or two.