Brigade

Brigade is the titular system of Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade, brigades are a fairly unique mechanic that encourages players to work together on a much larger scale than just parties. Every week, the game randomizes all players into brigades of around one hundred members each. If they are in a party, all party members will end up in the same brigade. Brigades then earn rewards depending on how well their members do that week.

Brigade Battles
The main purpose of participating in a brigade is to defeat espers. Each week, the target is a different esper, but the only difference this makes is which element the esper is weak to, if any, and which summon stone they'll get at the end of the week.

To find an esper, someone in the brigade must find a Gate Crystal through questing. Once one person finds a Gate Crystal, the entire brigade can fight the esper, until either the esper dies or time runs out. Note that sometimes, they will find a fiend instead of an esper; and during events, they may find an event boss instead. Espers have a total time limit of 30 minutes, while fiends and event bosses have a time limit of 60 minutes. "Total time limit", however, starts from when the Esper was first sighted. For example, if the player's brigade finds the esper 5 minutes after the other brigade does, then they will have 25 minutes left.

They must have at least 1 BP in order to attack. Using up 1 BP does a "normal attack", while using up 3 BP does an "all-out attack". All-out attacks do more damage than 3 normal attacks, and they can only summon with an all-out attack. However, if they can kill something with less than 3 BP, they might not want to waste all of them.

When the player choose to battle an esper or other brigade battle creature, they will be taken to a battle preparation screen. They can choose to fill their summon gauge with a Phoenix Down if they don't have a filled summon equipped; they can optimize equipment to take advantage of the target's weaknesses; and they can change their equipment manually. Two brigade-or-party members will join the battle with the player; They can also change them if they wish, but the game automatically picks the two strongest members in their brigade. If they have less than 3 BP when they battle, they'll have the choice of using items to refill BP.

The actual battle is automated. Turn order is based on job. Usually, the player and the brigade members will attack, then the enemy will attack, then repeat. The attacks alternate between a physical attack and using their ability, and the order depends on whether the player's weapon is stronger or their ability. They will use the stronger one first and third. They can attack for a maximum of 3 turns. At the end of 3 turns, if the enemy is not dead, it escapes. If, before 3 turns, the enemy takes out all the player's HP, both the player and their teammates', then they will flee. In either case, the enemy retains the damage for the duration of the time limit, so other brigade members can fight it.

When a brigade enemy is defeated, it sometimes levels up. Espers and fiends level up with every defeat, while event bosses do so only after a few. The maximum level for espers and fiends is 30, and 7 for event bosses. Espers and fiends gradually become stronger; event bosses, however, get significantly harder each level.

Sometimes, when they attack an esper, they'll discover a battle bonus. There are three bonuses, and they change each day - one type of ability, one type of weapon, and one job. Using battle bonuses will do a lot more damage to espers and fiends. They do not affect event bosses, however. When one brigade member finds a daily bonus, the entire brigade will see what it is.

Points and Ranking
There are four kinds of rewards given out for brigade battles: Daily Brigade Bonuses, Personal Contribution Rewards, Brigade Ranking Rewards, and Personal Ranking Rewards.

As the names suggest, brigade rewards are given to all members of the brigade, whereas personal rewards are given on an individual basis to players who fulfill the requirements.

Daily Brigade Rewards
Each day, each brigade is faced off against a single rival brigade. Both brigades fight the same espers together, competing against each other to earn more points for that day. At the end of the day, the brigade with more points gets a Platinum Chest, a Hi-Ether, a Weapon Scroll II (R), and a Fat Chocobo Treasure Chest. The one with less points gets a Copper Chest, an Ether, and a Weapon Scroll I (N).

Personal Contribution Rewards
Personal Contribution Rewards are based, as the name suggests, on personal contribution. Unlike the other reward types, they are non-competitive, and depend entirely on how many points a player earns in a week.

The reward levels are:
 * 10,000 - Silver Chest x1, 5000 gil
 * 30,000 - Silver Chest x1, Weapon Scroll II (R) x1, 5000 gil
 * 50,000 - Silver Chest x1, Weapon Scroll II (R) x1, 5000 gil
 * 100,000 - Gold Chest x1, 5000 gil
 * 250,000 - Gold Chest x1, Weapon Scroll II (R+) x1, 5000 gil
 * 500,000 - Gold Chest x1, Weapon Scroll II (R+) x1, 5000 gil
 * 750,000 - Gold Chest x1, Weapon Scroll III (SR) x1, 7500 gil
 * 1,000,000 - Platinum Chest x1, 10,000 gil
 * 2,000,000 - Platinum Chest x1, Weapon Scroll III (SR) x1, 20,000 gil
 * 3,000,000 - Platinum Chest x1, Weapon Scroll III (SR) x1, Ability Scroll III (SR) x1, 30,000 gil
 * 5,000,000 - Platinum Chest x2, Weapon Scroll III (SR) x2, Ability Scroll III (SR) x2, 50,000 gil
 * 10,000,000 - Platinum Chest x3, Weapon Scroll III (SR) x3, Ability Scroll III (SR) x3, 100,000 gil

Note that points from one week do not carry over to the next. Thus, the player would only be able to get platinum chests from Personal Contribution Rewards if they can earn over 1,000,000 points in a single week.

Brigade Ranking Rewards
Brigade Ranking Rewards are given out at the end of each week, depending on how well the brigade did as a whole compared to all other brigades.


 * Rank 1-10 - Platinum Chest x1, Weapon Scroll II (R+) x1, Hi-Ether x1
 * Rank 11-250 - Gold Chest x5, Weapon Scroll II (R) x1, Hi-Ether x1
 * Rank 251-500 - Gold Chest x1, Weapon Scroll II (R) x1, Ether x1
 * Rank 501-1000 - Silver Chest x1, Weapon Scroll I (N+) x1, Ether x1
 * Rank 1001-2000 - Copper Chest x1, Weapon Scroll I (N) x1, Ether x1
 * Rank 2001-3000 - Wood Chest x1, Weapon Scroll I (N) x1, Ether x1

Personal Ranking Rewards
Personal Ranking Rewards are essentially the same as Brigade ones, depending on how well each person did individually.


 * Rank 1-100 - Platinum Chest x1, Weapon Scroll II (R+) x1, Hi-Ether x1
 * Rank 101-2500 - Gold Chest x5, Weapon Scroll II (R) x1, Hi-Ether x1
 * Rank 2501-5000 - Gold Chest x1, Weapon Scroll II (R) x1, Ether x1
 * Rank 5001-10,000 - Silver Chest x1, Weapon Scroll I (N+) x1, Ether x1
 * Rank 10,001-20,000 - Copper Chest x1, Weapon Scroll I (N) x1, Ether x1
 * Rank 20,001-30,000 - Wood Chest x1, Weapon Scroll I (N) x1, Ether x1