String Theory: A Puppetmaster's Guide *NEW*

Ya know, there is too much damned math in attachments.

Base whatever + % increase from Attachment + % increase from OP I/II + % increase from maneuver

So much effort for really no appreciable difference.
Nothing of value just fe'e stuff spoilered

Is Neo Animator from Ody better than the Su2 +1 Animator without Augments?

ty my kind fellow.

Since those stats don't actually tell you anything:

What we're ultimately comparing is the impact of DMG+10 SpecialAtk Dmg+5% vs All stats+20 for the automaton. Stat+20 is effectively equal to or better than +10D since automaton WS have 50% or higher WSC more or less across the board. fSTR can then compensate for a lot of the benefit of the +5% pet WSD (automatons don't benefit too much from this). The extra ACC from augments should never matter. Without augments it doesn't come close.

Neo Animator needs to be R23+ to beat P +1 ever. An R30 neo is a tiny bit better than P +1 for melee auto, and about equal or slightly worse for ranged. Neo better for a debuff puppet if you need macc, worse if not since you lose the MND/INT from P+1. Never better for healing or blm puppet.

Slight advantage if you're meleeing w/ the puppet due to the WSD+5% for the master, but that only matters on a handful of H2H WS and isn't very important.

Not worth the extra inventory spot really.

lacks white box

I'm very new to PUP and trying to build out a few PUP characters to do ambu strats and such. I'm hoping to have it up and running by Ambu next month.

My question is: It seems the most common OD set is Sharpshot Head + Valoredge Body. On the front page of the guide it has a "SS OD" set and a "VE OD" set, which of those should I be using if I'm SS head/VE Body?

For the purpose of OD, SS/VE is just melee w/ different elemental capacity than VE/VE. I can't think of many (any) times when you'd use Sharpshot head over Valoredge or Soulsoother on Valoredge frame though as it potentially makes the puppet much more annoying to use in addition to giving you little benefit in elemental loadout. The more common swap is the Sharpshot frame over Valoredge in order to change the puppet over to piercing damage. You're going to use the VE OD set for melee (slashing/blunt), SS for ranged (piercing).

So since this info is actually surprisingly difficult to find in an easy to digest format, a brief description of what the parts do:

Range is primarily determined by your animator these days since your main animator will be the P +1 line. Animator P forces the puppet into melee range. Animator P II causes the puppet to maintain distance from the target that it's deployed against.

Heads are mostly swapped for elemental capacity however they affect spellcasting behavior for mage frames.

Sharpshot head causes the puppet to focus on maintaining enfeebles.

Soulsoother reduces cure interval and changes the % hp for the target that the puppet will cast cure at.

Spiritreaver focuses on offensive magic.

Stormwaker is more or less an amalgamation of Soulsoother, Spiritreaver, and Sharpshot: red mage basically. Will try to use every category of magic however it won't do any of them as well as a dedicated head besides Enhancing, which it excels at. It is the only head that can cast Phalanx and Stoneskin, and it will cast them on the master.

Valoredge essentially works like a worse Soulsoother. Worth noting that it can also cause the puppet to want to engage in melee combat on frames that normally don't try to chase the mob.

Generally the interval for each type of magic is changed based on the category of the head. Honestly you won't be using this feature very often and the one you'd be most interested in using 90% of the time is Soulsoother, 8% Stormwaker, 2% Spiritreaver for a mage automaton.


Bodies affect damage type, available weaponskills, spell pool, natural DT-%, and basic behavior.

Valoredge has the highest natural overall DT and deals slashing damage, and it will always try to stay in melee range and has no spellcasting ability.

Sharpshot has the same natural DT as VE, deals piercing damage, and will stay put when deployed unless influenced by an animator. It also has no spellcasting ability.

Stormwaker has 0 natural -PDT but by far the highest natural -MDT/BDT, stays put when deployed like the Sharpshot frame, and has access to a wide variety of spells whose usage changed depending on which head you attach.

Harlequin has about half the natural DT of SS/VE, the same weaponskills as Stormwaker, will try to stay in melee range, and can cast a limited selection of spells. It also has much less MP than the Stormwaker frame.

If you want specifics including how each head prioritizes spellcasting, how each head can change range behaviors on certain bodies (largely irrelevant these days since the Animator mostly overrides this), etc then it's all listed on the BG Wiki page under frames.

I can virtually guarantee that you dont want Sharpshot Head + Valoredge Body. Your OD options are VE head / SS body or VE head / VE body. It depends on if you want piercing or slashing/blunt damage, and what kind of gear you have. For new puppetmasters, VE/SS is probably better unless you are fighting undead.

Take a look at the Overdrive section in https://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/52194/string-theory-a-puppetmasters-guide-new/ for gear sets.

Harle head / Valor Body can have an use in some circumstances though.

More than for different elemental capacity it's about the fact you can combine SP1 + SP2. Harle gives you Mighty Strikes and that's usually more beneficial (in terms of DPS) than VE's Invincible.

To name a practical example, it was a nice way to make the Toad Ambu fight a bit faster.

SS head and VE body isn't quite as useless as one would think.

Most importantly, with SS head and VE body, Heady Artiface SP2 defaults to Mighty Strikes as it can't EES with VE frame. I haven't done any testing of the job point category bonus for SP2 besides just some fun experiments and determining some behaviours with different frames and heads etc, but the job point category for Sharpshot head is a damage increase of 3% per rank, something to consider as well if it is applicable for the duration of the SP2(not sure how this functions specifically). Combined with elemental capacity difference over say Harlequin head, can situationally be better if you are looking to still utilize Mighty Strikes as SS head has more light capacity which allows you to use ARK4 vs only being able to use ARK 3 with Harlequin head (if utilizing both optic fibers obviously).

Thanks all so much for the input. I love all the combos possible with PUP. Its fun to read about it all!

Just to clarify on my original Q: If I use VE Head/SS Body, am I using the "SS OD" set on the front page of this guide?

Also another question while I have you all: Sounds like VE/SS for piercing damage and VE/VE for slashing. Is there an ideal set for blunt damage? Looks like both Stormwalker and the base frame offer it, but I've also seen a few mention VE frame for blunt. The wiki says its only slashing though.

Body(along with designated maneuvers) determines the WS that will be used, so it'd be SS.

Blunt comes to 2 WS options really, primary one is bone crusher which is VE, 3 hit blunt damage, the 2nd is knockout which is reserved for the stormwaker/harelquin bodies. Solid damage but stormwaker frames arent regularly used for frontline combat and harle is seldom used at all.

If you are using SS body, you would use the SS OD set.

Your best blunt damage will be from VE Frame and using maneuvers to prioritize the automaton using Bone Crusher weapon skill. Bone Crusher is considered blunt damage. The VE frame auto attacks are considered slashing which is why it says slashing.

I hadn't actually thought about job points when considering Sharpshot head and didn't even think that it'd work, that's actually kinda big. Now I want to test where that 60% is applied and how impactful it is, if it affects Mighty Strikes at all, etc.

The way it's worded makes it sound like it could mean Eagle Eye Shot only but stranger things have happened



Re: Blunt damage

Bone Crusher is "the best" however getting the puppet to only use that is difficult (and not worth it since it would mean not activating the full bonus on Inhibitors/Attuner) and I believe impossible if the target isn't undead. This can be offset by skillchain damage but not everything will be susceptible to that. Slapstick and Knockout aren't incredible however they are both blunt and you can almost 100% stop the puppet from ever wasting TP on Magic Mortar, meaning if your goal is blunt damage then OD w/ Harle body isn't that bad. It still gets a good amount of DT and workable elemental capacity. If you're fighting something that primarily deals magic damage then Stormwaker body would be even sturdier than Valoredge, too. I've used Harle body to OD Gigelorum and had great results.

Harlequin frame won't ever do Magic Mortar without a light maneuver (if there are other maneuvers active)?

It will do MM if one of the other WS maneuvers arent up(wind/thunder) since it will default to its highest level WS, or if it just has 1 light up since it will take top priority, so youd need 2x wind or thunder to force the other WS if 1 light is active

If the maneuvers are Thunder / Fire / [not Light and not Wind] then it'll actually do self skillchains with Slapstick?

Just wondering b/c technically the automaton could self-SC with Magic Mortar but it never does anything other than Magic Mortar (with the other blunt WS available with Harlequin or Stormwaker) with light up and not 2x of wind or 2x of thunder. This is with at least 1 Inhibitor attachment

With inhib on and fire maneuver up, it will try to make the highest level skillchain possible. That means using magic mortar if it can close fusion or light. If not, it will check the other options. If none are available, it will default to behavior as if it didn't have an inhibitor.

I'm looking to Overdrive spam some Odyssey NMs for 5% damage. I typically se PUP to tank Statues in Odyssey.

For DD purposes which frame head/body should I be using? Which attachments? I'm looking for a list if someone can share.

Bone Crusher for blunt, String Clipper/Shredder for slashing and Arcuballista for piercing damage. The sets in String Theory are mostly complete so you just have to decide on optional attachments and alter your maneuvers to prioritize automaton weaponskill usage.

I used PUP solo and in party exclusively farming Gogmagog and Gigelorum. Tried Xevioso a few times, but v25 farming wasn't practical or reliable at all so I opted for v24 and it was fine. I am sure there are others that can easily be done but those are my experiences with pup farming RP.

Gogmagog and Gigelorum were VE/VE, more of a bruiser type set up with pet haste to cap. Fire,wind,light. Gigelorum I would use King of hearts to put dia on quickly when it was safe to do so. Then just OD and AFK out of range. Gogmagog I fought alongside automaton with trusts, made puppet attachments far more tanky because I was engaged doing the damage so adjust for that accordingly. Automaton held it, I did punchy stuff. Xevioso was VE/SS. Fire Wind Light. typical OD stuff. Maintenance and Repair when necessary. If bee pops fetters, puppet is fine during overdrive...after that it will die quickly so keep a RR on.

But yeah, the sets in string theory and attachments are a great place to guide yourself. Then its just a matter of understanding PUP behaviour, what you're fighting and the damage type you want, adjust accordingly.

Thanks for the reply/explanation. Apologies, I checked the first page and don't see, even a list of the pup attachments to use. Of course, I googled it and found this guide of the same name:

https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/String_Theory

Thanks for the nudge in the right direction

Been doing Arebati v24 as part of my RP farm/supercharge run solo sometimes. Using SS/SS automaton, OD and heady artifice fire,wind,light. KoH for dia right away and get the hell out of there. Brygid for DT/DEF, Sakura because why not when out of range. Running in quickly after automaton engages to get dia on it using a master DT set and then once out of range swapping to SS OD set until fetters pop. When fetters pop I go into a bruiser set liberably use repair and maintenance on cooldown. Once OD wears I use cooldown immediately, and quickly swap to water,water,light and go into my turtle set. Typically automaton will survive the rest of the time but I am actively using repair and maintenance on cooldown so bring plenty of oils. There have been times I run out of oils and pup will go down, so bring and use RR just in case anyways. Usually knocking off about 8-10% during the whole process.

Thank you for sharing! Some questions as I have yet to try this on PUP:

1.) Which 16 attachments do you have set at the start of the fight?
2.) When you switch to water,water,light, do you make any attachment changes mid-fight?
2.) What does your turtle set look like? (I use mostly Rao+1 for Pet DT)

1.
ARK 4
Optic Fiber 2
Optic Fiber
Attuner
Flame Holder
Magniplug ii
Inhibitor ii
Turbo Charger ii
Truesights
Steam Jacket
Mana Jammer IV
Armor Plate IV

2.No

2b(:P). My turtle set personally has zero Rao. Presently its my Bruiser taeon set with extra Pet DT thrown in like shepherd's chain, isa belt, enmerkar, rimeice, jse cape with MDT as its much harder for pup to cap MDT.

Optimally I'll be creating a second taeon set which will become my true turtle set with Pet DT, Regen and MEVA as IMO that set with those augments is superior to Rao these days. Just haven't got around to it yet mostly because RIP inventory woes 80/80 x8 wardrobes lol Also why I never bothered with Rao, personally I just didn't feel it was worth it for me or my inventory.

Not sure if this was strictly avatars or just pets in general but atleast for them pet meva is bugged
https://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/53593/a-summoners-gear-guide/14#3593186

hmm maybe, now I am curious. See what I can conjure up to do a quick test.

or not... just updating but burned through a stack of stones and pet meva only rolled twice in 99 stones. Probably just stick with my current stuff... puppet never has issues tanking stuff as is anyway. At least from a survivability standpoint.

Was hoping to get more than two pieces with some pet meva on it but even the two times it did roll they were still garbage.

If anyone has some experience with the pet meva stat on taeon for PUP specifically being bugged or not like SMN. I would appreciate the insight.

Worth noting that the topic you're pointing to was from September 2021, so there is a good chance that's now outdated information.

February 2022 update was the one that changed pet physical and magic evasion to increase along with item level, which seems likely to have also addressed Pet Meva more generally (and fix any bugs?). I'd be interested to see any further testing conducted after Feb 2022.