Support Personnel

Yoshinori Kitase and Hajime Tabata as support personnel.

Remember cadet: you aren't fighting this war alone. Don't be afraid to call for backup if you find yourself in a pinch.

Dominion Quaestor

Support Personnel (魔導院の支援, Madōin no Shien?, lit. Akademeia Support) is a system in Final Fantasy Type-0. It works much like multiplayer in that it provides the player with temporary allies, but instead of other players joining in, support personnel are AI-controlled allies. Excluding the three rare unique support personnel, they are named after Square Enix staff members and other people who helped make the game.

Mechanics

At the start of a mission, the player is given an option to accept support. Support personnel will randomly enter the player's party, replacing any non-leader party member. They will persist for a time, fighting alongside the player and accumulating SPP. At certain SPP thresholds, their time will be extended (this does not apply to the three unique characters). They can be dismissed within a mission by having backup on "Refuse" within the preferences menu, which would stop other support personnel from entering until backup is accepted again by the player. Leaving or dismissed support personnel store their SPP earned (HD version only); they can appear again with the same codename in the same mission. If a support personnel dies, they will lose all the SPP they had accumulated—this can cause the player to earn zero SPP if the support personnel dies right before the mission ends. They are AI-controlled and behave slightly less actively than the AI-controlled party.

In the original PSP version, the SPP collected by Support personnel is not stored, and is only used to extend the guest's duration. In the HD version, due to the removal of multiplayer, support personnel will store any SPP they obtain during the mission.

Strategy

One way to amass SPP is to select only one person to be in the party, perhaps Rem because she can easily regenerate lost ability gauge and MP, preferably with the Avoid magic equipped to minimize damage taken. The next step is to find an area that has an infinite enemy spawn rate, such as the sewer areas in "Operation MA Demolition", or the West Stairs in "Operation Breakthrough" from the second playthrough onwards. Once one obtains the SP Spell Boost II, it becomes easier to gain SPP, as it casts Aura and Protect on everyone, including support personnel, which augments their somewhat meager damage output as well as preventing knockdown. The SP Helm obtained from amassing 70,000 SPP provides Freecast allowing more freedom of choice in party leader.

As the party leader, the player's responsibilities are providing aid to the support, healing them when necessary and refreshing Boost, as well as harvesting phantoma from fallen foes. The West Stairs area has a maximum number of enemies, alive and dead of six, so when there are six corpses, no more enemies will spawn, so frequent harvesting is necessary to maintain a good enemy presence—with Boost support personnel should be making light work of most enemies. This method can be set up to gain SPP overnight, but without the player present, SPP is not as quickly garnered due to breaks in combat and no Boost refresh.

List of Support Personnel

With the exception of Kurasame, Tonberry, and Joker, who are original characters, Support Personnel are named after production staff for Final Fantasy Type-0 and assume the likeness of the playable characters. Moglin introduces the characters with their levels according to the mission and difficulty, as well as their code names that describe their relation to the game.

Support Personnel	Character	Code Name	Equipment	Abilities
Kurasame	Kurasame	Ice Reaper	Boreal Blade, Glacies Tertia, Vol. I, Mythril Ring	Absolute Zero, Blizzaga MIS-II, Curaga
Tonberry	Tonberry	Reaper's Right Hand	Kitchen Knife, Safety Bit, Angel Earrings	Death Grudge, Thundaga SHG-II, Curaga
???	Joker (Akademeia Soldier)	???	Unknown, SP Armlet, Camouflage Cloak	Aloud, Firaga MIS-II, Curaga
Yuki Kaji	Ace	Ace's Japanese VA	Level-based
Kana Hanazawa	Deuce	Deuce's Japanese VA	Level-based
Minori Chihara	Cater	Cater's Japanese VA	Level-based
Kenichi Suzumura	Jack	Jack's Japanese VA	Level-based
Ami Koshimizu	Queen	Queen's Japanese VA	Level-based
Tomokazu Sugita	King	King's Japanese VA	Level-based
Hiroshi Kamiya	Machina	Machina's Japanese VA	Level-based
Ryoko Shiraishi	Rem	Rem's Japanese VA	Level-based
Motoo Fujiwara	Nine	Vocalist and Guitarist for Bump of Chicken	Level-based
Hiroaki Masukawa	Seven	Guitarist for Bump of Chicken	Level-based
Yoshifumi Naoi	Cinque	Bassist for Bump of Chicken	Level-based
Hideo Masu	Eight	Drummer for Bump of Chicken	Level-based
Yama-chan*(Yama-chan is the stage name of Ryota Yamasato, who is one half of the comedy duo Nankai Candies (南海キャンディーズ). He is a 'frequent video game spokesman.' He appeared as the final boss of the Social Theatrhythm game that was available online prior to the game's release.)	Trey	Nankai Candies	Level-based
WADY	Sice	President	Level-based
Hitomi Watanabe	King	Project Manager	Level-based
Rina Okumoto	Eight	Battle Animator	Level-based
Yoshiko Higohashi	Queen	Environment Artist	Level-based
Hiroko Kawabe	Seven	QA Coordinator	Level-based
Ryoto Shinzato	Ace	Rendering Environment ARtist	Level-based
Shihori Tanzawa	Trey	Environment Artist	Level-based
Akio Ohfuji	Nine	Senior Publicity Producer	Level-based
Rei Motora	Cinque	Character Modeler	Level-based
Akiko Yamaguchi	Jack	VFX Artist	Level-based
Satoko Funakubo	Cater	Facial Animator	Level-based
Haruka Suenaga	Rem	Facial Animator	Level-based
Hidemi Mizoguchi	Deuce	Lighting & Compositing Artist	Level-based
Atsuko Ishikura	Sice	Character Cutscene Planner	Level-based
Rei Katou	Rem	Cutscene Animator	Level-based
Yasuhiro Sato	Nine	Lead Level Designer	Level-based
Hideki Imaizumi	Trey	Office Manager	Level-based
Sara Okabe	Queen	Scenario Writer	Level-based
Rie Honda	Cinque	Battle Animator	Level-based
Marie Iwanaga	Sice	Character Texture Designer	Level-based
Taketo Nozawa	Jack		Level-based
Tatsuo Heianzan	Ace	Lead Character Modeling Artist	Level-based
Sayako Oozono	Seven	Level Designer	Level-based
Taisuke Ooe	Eight	Lead Character Action Designer	Level-based
Ichiro Hazama	King	Production Manager	Level-based
Haruna Kato	Deuce	Character Texture Designer	Level-based
Tadachika Iima	Trey	Lead VFX Artist	Level-based
Tatsuya Nonaka	Cater	Project Manager	Level-based
Aya Izumi	Sice	VFX Artist	Level-based
Kumiko Kaji	Nine	Character Modeler	Level-based
Kenichiro Yuji	Machina	Battle Director	Level-based
Sayoko Hoshino	Rem	Lead Character Texture Artist	Level-based
Noriko Inoue	Cater	Publicity Staff	Level-based
Yumi Katsuyama	Cinque	Publicity Staff	Level-based
Sayako Hirata	Queen	Lead Menu Artist	Level-based
Tomomi Iwakura	Seven	Project Manager	Level-based
Nobuyuki Ueda	Ace	Project Manager	Level-based
Kakuko Obinata	Deuce	Publicity Producer	Level-based
Masato Kogure	Machina	Publicity Staff	Level-based
Hajime Tabata	Nine	Director	Level-based
Yusuke Naora	Jack	Art Director	Level-based
Yoshinori Kitase	Machina	Producer	Level-based
Tetsuya Nomura	King	Creative Producer	Level-based
Hashimoto Meijin	Eight	Executive Producer	Boxing Gloves, Vitality Apparatus, Dominion Helmet	Lightspeed Jab, Blizzara BOM-II, Curaga
Yosuke Matsuda	Jack	Head Honcho	Level-based

Although several voice actors were represented by their Class Zero characters, only eight are included. The six who are not included are Yuichi Nakamura (Trey), Aki Toyosaki (Cinque), Miyuki Sawashiro (Sice), Mayuko Aoki (Seven), Miyu Irino (Eight), and Daisuke Ono (Nine).

SP Rank and Class

Gaining rank.

There are two categories to determine the title given to the player: the rank and the class. The rank depends on accumulated SPP and the class depends on certain criteria on how well the player is doing on missions. The player can lose class if they, for example, die too many times, and no longer qualify for the better class. There are eight classes, each one with a different magic associated with it. Each class has a different requirement, and they have a hierarchy, the player's class being the highest one they meet the requirements for. The requirements for the PSP version and HD version are different, because multiplayer was removed from the latter. The rank (Knight, Leader, etc) determines which SP armor the player can equip.

Rank

Rank	SPP	Reward
Knight	10,000	Can equip SP Armlets.
Leader	15,000	Can equip SP Chestplate.
Commander	20,000	Can equip SP Robes.
General	30,000	Can equip SP Shield.
Marshal	40,000	Can equip SP Cape.
King	60,000	Can equip SP Armor.
Emperor	80,000	Can equip SP Helm.
God	120,000	Can equip SP Crystal.

On obtaining 150,000 SPP, Ultima is unlocked as a permanent spell, and the player's rank will remain as "God", even if all SPP is spent. It may be possible to be demoted if SP class changes, however.

Class

Class	Requirements	Reward
Guardian	Low amounts of casualties in missions or trials.	Reraise
Wise	Obtain S-Rank from missions multiple times.	Ultima II
Supreme	Obtain A or B-Ranks from missions multiple times.	Boost
Violent	Trigger Break/Killsights consistently.	Kill Fire
Squenix	PSP: Upload data to Square Enix member site multiple times. HD: Frequent Triad Maneuvers, Eidolon summonings, and/or use of the Vermilion Bird spell.	Flux Blizzard
Type-0	PSP: Allow intrusions in multiplayer. HD: Allow Support Personnel for certain hours.	Hell Thunder
Healing	Use Cure or Esuna-type spells in missions multiple times.	Full Cure
Battle	Complete Special Orders (S.O.) frequently, white or red in any mission.	Full Magic

There is a priority list in place between the titles—if the player does not specifically act on the title conditions, they will most likely end up with Supreme or Guardian as their title. The title priority is as follows: Healing > Guardian > Wise > Supreme > Violent > Squenix > Battle > Type-0

Healing title has priority over all the titles and will override them if the conditions are met. This is unlikely however, as its prerequisites are unlikely to be met (repeated usage of Cure/Esuna) in a normal playthrough.

Type-0 has the lowest priority of all the titles; it is also the easiest to obtain and will only appear if all other title conditions are not met.

Moving away from Guardian title may be difficult unless there are active party member deaths in the missions undertaken. To change from this title, one can find a mission where it is easy to be killed (Operation M.A. Demolition's Marduk, or Capturing the Imperial Capital), enabling support personnel to come in and die repeatedly (casting Reraise II and letting them repeatedly revive will increase the casualty process and will count towards demoting from Guardian). Upon meeting a certain threshold of deaths versus total number of missions completed, the player's title will move down the list, opening opportunities to obtain the game's other unique spells.

Wise title can be acquired efficiently by repeating the mission "Capturing the Imperial Capital" on Cadet difficulty and beating Qator Bashtar in under 30 seconds, ensuring an S-rank in the fastest time possible.