Support Personnel

Support Personnel 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 	Ice Reaper 	Boreal Blade, Glacies Tertia, Vol. I, Mythril Ring	Absolute Zero, Blizzaga MIS-II, Curaga
 	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
 	Ace 	Ace's Japanese VA 	Level-based 	
 	Deuce 	Deuce's Japanese VA 	Level-based 	
 	Cater 	Cater's Japanese VA 	Level-based 	
 	Jack 	Jack's Japanese VA 	Level-based 	
 	Queen 	Queen's Japanese VA 	Level-based 	
 	King 	King's Japanese VA 	Level-based 	
 	Machina 	Machina's Japanese VA 	Level-based 	
 	Rem 	Rem's Japanese VA 	Level-based 	
 	Nine 	Vocalist and Guitarist for Bump of Chicken	Level-based 	
 	Seven 	Guitarist for Bump of Chicken 	Level-based 	
 	Cinque 	Bassist for Bump of Chicken 	Level-based 	
 	Eight 	Drummer for Bump of Chicken 	Level-based 	
 	Trey 	Nankai Candies 	Level-based 	
 	Sice 	President 	Level-based 	
 	King 	Project Manager 	Level-based 	
 	Eight 	Battle Animator 	Level-based 	
 	Queen 	Environment Artist 	Level-based 	
 	Seven 	QA Coordinator 	Level-based 	
 	Ace 	Rendering Environment ARtist 	Level-based 	
 	Trey 	Environment Artist 	Level-based 	
 	Nine 	Senior Publicity Producer 	Level-based 	
 	Cinque 	Character Modeler 	Level-based 	
 	Jack 	VFX Artist 	Level-based 	
 	Cater 	Facial Animator 	Level-based 	
 	Rem 	Facial Animator 	Level-based 	
 	Deuce 	Lighting & Compositing Artist 	Level-based 	
 	Sice 	Character Cutscene Planner 	Level-based 	
 	Rem 	Cutscene Animator 	Level-based 	
 	Nine 	Lead Level Designer 	Level-based 	
 	Trey 	Office Manager 	Level-based 	
 	Queen 	Scenario Writer 	Level-based 	
 	Cinque 	Battle Animator 	Level-based 	
 	Sice 	Character Texture Designer 	Level-based 	
 	Jack 	 	Level-based 	
 	Ace 	Lead Character Modeling Artist 	Level-based 	
 	Seven 	Level Designer 	Level-based 	
 	Eight 	Lead Character Action Designer 	Level-based 	
 	King 	Production Manager 	Level-based 	
 	Deuce 	Character Texture Designer 	Level-based 	
 	Trey 	Lead VFX Artist 	Level-based 	
 	Cater 	Project Manager 	Level-based 	
 	Sice 	VFX Artist 	Level-based 	
 	Nine 	Character Modeler 	Level-based 	
 	Machina 	Battle Director 	Level-based 	
 	Rem 	Lead Character Texture Artist 	Level-based 	
 	Cater 	Publicity Staff 	Level-based 	
 	Cinque 	Publicity Staff 	Level-based 	
 	Queen 	Lead Menu Artist 	Level-based 	
 	Seven 	Project Manager 	Level-based 	
 	Ace 	Project Manager 	Level-based 	
 	Deuce 	Publicity Producer 	Level-based 	
 	Machina 	Publicity Staff 	Level-based 	
 	Nine 	Director 	Level-based 	
 	Jack 	Art Director 	Level-based 	
 	Machina 	Producer 	Level-based 	
 	King 	Creative Producer 	Level-based 	
 	Eight 	Executive Producer 	Boxing Gloves, Vitality Apparatus, Dominion Helmet	Lightspeed Jab, Blizzara BOM-II, Curaga
 	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==
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
 	10,000 	Can equip SP Armlets.
 	15,000 	Can equip SP Chestplate.
 	20,000 	Can equip SP Robes.
 	30,000 	Can equip SP Shield.
 	40,000 	Can equip SP Cape.
 	60,000 	Can equip SP Armor.
 	80,000 	Can equip SP Helm.
 	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
 	Low amounts of casualties in missions or trials. 	Reraise
 	Obtain S-Rank from missions multiple times. 	
 	Obtain A or B-Ranks from missions multiple times. 	Boost
 	Trigger Break/Killsights consistently. 	Kill Fire
 	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
 	PSP: Allow intrusions in multiplayer.HD: Allow Support Personnel for certain hours. 	Hell Thunder
 	Use Cure or Esuna-type spells in missions multiple times. 	Full Cure
 	Complete Special Orders (S.O.) frequently, white or red in any mission. 	
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.
Category:Gameplay in Final Fantasy Type-0