Crystarium system The Crystarium system is a character growth system from the " " subseries . Its most prominent appearance is in " Final Fantasy XIII " , where it is the base of stat and ability growth for the party . Appearances . " Final Fantasy XIII " . The Crystarium system is the ability and statistics development system where each party member has a unique Crystarium , similar to the Sphere Grid of " Final Fantasy X " , although the systems do not intersect . The Crystarium is fueled by Crystogen Points ( known as Crystal Points in the Japanese version ) , or CP , which are won after every battle , and are spent to unlock nodes in the Crystarium . The system allows players to select which bonuses their character gains , rather than automatic level bonuses . Players fill the experience gauge between bonuses themselves , which is analogous to level gauges in previous games , but manually filled to fit the player ' s preference . Each character ' s Crystarium originates from their eidolith ( the crystal containing their Eidolon ) and branches out in six directions , with one branch corresponding to each role . In addition to the characters ' eidoliths being unique , the spatial layout of each Crystarium is also different for each character . For example , Snow ' s six roles extend along perpendicular directions , while Vanille ' s six roles extend in approximately the same direction , but diverge before slightly converging again , creating a spherical structure . As the character levels up the details on the grid get increasingly elaborate . Crystarium stage . Each character ' s Crystarium growth level corresponds to the progress of the game ' s story . After fighting certain boss es , the Crystarium levels up , enabling players to advance through the layout and possibly upgrade their stats and learn new abilities , but enhancing stats and learning skills is still dictated by each role ' s level . By filling up the experience ( CP ) gauges between bonuses or abilities , the player can choose which abilities to learn or bonuses to receive . The player is limited to the abilities and bonuses within each Crystarium level . In previous games , characters were given stat bonuses or abilities at set levels , while in the Crystarium , these bonuses or abilities are the player ' s choice . The main bonuses players encounter are Strength , Magic and HP , while stats such as Defense , Speed or Evade have been removed as attributes , though remain as special effects that can be augmented with abilities , such as Physical Defense + 5 % or ATB Speed + 10 % . There are ten stages to the Crystarium and the stage of Crystarium is factored in when calculating the Eidolons ' rank . The Eidolons have no Crystaria of their own and neither are their stats tied to the character ' s ( as is with Yuna ' s aeons in " Final Fantasy X " ) . Instead , the Eidolons ' stats are determined by their rank , which is the sum of the summoner ' s Crystarium stage and the number of roles they have advanced to level 5 . Roles . Paradigms model the job system of games past while adding some level of customization and restriction . Each character in the field can take on one of six roles in a paradigm ; any combination of three characters ' roles constitutes a paradigm . Paradigms can be changed mid - battle with a Paradigm Shift ; however , what is more important to the Crystarium system are the particular roles each character can take on . The six roles are : Each character starts out with three roles in which they are more proficient . A short way into Chapter 10 , each character becomes able to access the other three roles , a feature called " Role Development . " These secondary roles can be used once the character learns at least one ability from that role . In each level of the three primary roles a character has , there are occasional branches that contain additional skills and stat increases . Their secondary roles have no branches , being more straight - forward and restricted to fewer skills . CP costs for the secondary roles ' nodes are much higher than those for the primary roles , despite having fewer nodes to activate . Expanding the Crystarium . The characters ' Crystaria expand to the next level after certain bosses are defeated : Achievements . The player can earn achievements by completing the Crystarium role paths for a single character for each job . After activating all nodes in the Crystarium for all roles for every character the player earns the Master ' s Seal achievement . " Final Fantasy XIII - 2 " . The Crystarium system returns as the stat and ability growth system for Serah and Noel , and the recruitable monsters . The Crystarium differs from the original in several ways . Now , each character can unlock other roles from the start , and there is no cap on the development . The stat growth is determined by crystals ' size and role selected to expand , e . g : if the crystal is large and player chooses to raise Sentinel ' s level by one , the HP growth will be larger than when raising Sentinel ' s role on a small crystal . When developing roles on larger crystals for Serah and Noel , player can get : With this knowledge , the player can min - max their way to optimal stats . When Crystarium expands , the player is free to choose one of the following options while developing Serah and Noel : The structure of the Crystarium has also changed : there are no longer tiers and the Crystarium takes the shape of the character ' s weapon . Monster Crystaria take the shape of the creatures themselves , with the exception of DLC monsters , whose Crystaria are shaped like the Mog Clock , and Zwerg Droid s ' , whose Crystarium takes shape of those of Spooks . There is also a difference between the Crystarium of main characters and the one of monsters : while Noel and Serah ' s Crystaria are developed with the returning Crystogen Points and each of their roles can reach LV99 , the monsters ' Crystaria are developed with items dropped by enemies , found in the field , or bought from Chocolina , and have level limitations . Mastering a character ' s Crystarium to level 99 in all roles earns the player the " Supreme Being " achievement / trophy . " Final Fantasy Type - 0 " . " Crystarium " is the library at Akademeia . The Altocrystarium system is used to upgrade the party ' s magic spells with phantoma . Magic can be leveled in several fields : power , recovery rate , MP cost , casting time , range , speed and homing .