FINAL FANTASY IX Tetra Master for scrubs

Introduction

Tetra master is a fully functional card game accessible from the very beginning the game. Players choose 5 cards form their collection and attempt to convert the opponents cards to their own colour through winning "card battles" while attempting to prevent the opponent from doing the same to them. Looking at Tetra Master for the first time can be quite confusing which typically leads to new players disregarding the game entirely. It does not help that the only tutorial NPC in the game mugs you if you do not interact with him first and only even appears in the alleyway if the player does not immediatelly run after puck after he steals the ladder. As such, I felt the need to write this guide.

What Do You Get From Playing Tetra Master?

Unlike Triple Triad from VIII, Tetra Master cards cannot be turned into items, nor can you directly transform monsters into cards. In fact, there is only one non-card item you can get from Tetra Master - a rebirth ring for placing first in the card tournament at the start of disc 3 which teaches the auto-life support ability. Playing Tetra Master after that is just for fun and achievements. Thankfully, there is no achievement for collecting one of each card or for reaching a certain collector's score.

How Do I Play?

If an NPC is receptive to a Tetra Master challenge, a card icon will appear next to the interaction icon. Pressing square and accepting the prompt will then take you to the card selection screen.

Once you have picked five cards to fight with, a coin is flipped in order to decide who is playing first. The board is a 4x4 grid with randomly placed stone blocks. The aim is to place your cards next your opponents in order to take them over.

Each Tetra Master card has a number of arrows around its border as well as a small array of stats at the bottom. We'll cover the stats in their own section. The arrows dictate the directions it can "attack" in - if it is placed next to a card where the placed card has an arrow but the defending card does not, the defending card instantly gets captured. If this applies to multiple adjacent cards, they all get taken.

If both the placed card and an adjacent card have arrows that meet, then card battles occur. Based on both RNG and their stats, each card is assigned a value and will then attack each other. To determine a winner, a number is chosen between 0 and the value. the card witha largest difference between the two values wins the fight. This means that card battles in Tetra Master have a RNG element which can be a pain in the arse where a card loses with quintuple the point score of the defending card. The losing card and every enemy card its arrows point at get captured, enabling you to take large swathes of cards just by playing a single card. A large part of Tetra Master is setting up these combos and blocking your opponent from playing combos against you.

The card battle mechanic makes it so that the arrows on your cards are a double edged sword - they allow you to attack your opponents cards but they also allow your enemy to exploit them. Because of this, decent stats a much much better then a card with 8 arrows.

Once both players have played all their cards, the player with the most cards of their colour on the board is declared the winner, allowing them to choose one of the converted cards as a prize. However, should every card on the board be a single colour, then it is declared as perfect victory and the winner takes their entire hand. Obviously, perfects are very powerful, so look out for them and try to avoid getting perfected. If you lose a single card, the opponent will usually use it in a rematch, giving you a chance to take it back. If you lose all your cards to a perfect, you will probably not be seeing them again.

What Do The Stats Mean?

One of the least known things about Tetra Master is the meaning of the the text at the bottom of the card. While one NPC mentions it in passing, there is no in game explaination for these stats in the entire game, so I will cover each:

The first value is the cards attack power.

The second value is the battle class of the card. More on this in a bit.

The third value is the physical defense stat of the card.

The forth value is the magical defense stat of the card.

The first, third and forth figures are hexidecimal values. This means that they go from 0, the weakest value to F, the highest value. As such, the scale goes 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F. However these hexidecimal numbers do not directly represent the values that are used in card battles, but are rather the range in which the actual value lies. For example, a card with 0 listed attack power actually has an attack power between 0 - 15 which can only be seen by putting it in a card battle. The table below displays the maximum and minimum values a stat could potentially be when it is created:

Value Minimum Maximum 0 0 15 1 16 31 2 32 47 3 48 63 4 64 79 5 80 95 6 96 111 7 112 127 8 128 143 9 144 159 A 160 175 B 176 191 C 192 207 D 208 223 E 224 239 F 240 255

It would be prudent to make a note of the cards that have statistics on the higher end of their given range.

When you get new cards, the stats and arrows on the card are randomly generated. It is important to note that monster cards can have different hexidecimal stats aswell as the number covered in the range. This can be exploited by saving before opening a chocograph chest and reloading repeatedly until the card rolls the best stats. Keep in mind that each monster has specific stat minimum and maximums shown here[espritduo.com] , so don't hold your breath expecting a FPFF goblin drop.

Battle classes

The battle class of a card determines how it fights other cards when attacking. This can be one of four values - P, M, X and A.

P stands for physical. This combats the cards power against the defenders physical defense.

M stands for magical. This combats the cards power against the defenders magical defense.

X is flexible. This pairs the attacking cards power against the weakest of the defending cards defenses.

A is assault. This is the best battle class as it pairs the highest stat on the attacking card with the lowest class on the defending card.

How card battles play out

Card battles are a mixture of stats and RNG. As previous mentioned, cards will have a "hidden" value for each stat within the range represented on the card. The exact stats used in a battle are determined by the battle class of the attacking card as well as if the card is attacking or a defending. For example, If a 1M00 card attacks a 0P02 card, the attacker will use its hidden stat in the 1 range(which would be a number between 15 and 31) while the defender would use its hidden stat in the 2 range (which would be a number in between 32 and 47). Now that these two numbers have been chosen, a number is rolled for each card between 0 and the value on the card. This is not a number that is in anyway visible to the player. The card with the biggest difference between the visible number and this "Phantom" number wins the fight. This means that while a card with better stats has a huge advantage over the weaker card it is still always possible for the weaker card to win a direct card battle.

After winning a card battle with a card, there is a very low chance that the battle class on the card will upgrade after the match. P or M cards have a chance of upgrading to a X while X cards have an even lower chance of upgrading to an A.

Thanks to Arndell, who pointed out that it is also possible for a cards other stats to upgrade, as long as they are still within the limits of the monster card. After experimenting for myself, I have found this stat upgrade to be at a much higher chance then the battle class upgrading. It appears that it is the hidden stat that upgrades with the hexdecimal value upgrading if the hidden stat can enter the range of a higher hexidecimal number. Unfortunately there is not much information available on the specifics of the upgrade mechanic, though any information would be much appreciated.

Credit to FFwiki[finalfantasy.wikia.com] for the numbers and thanks to Commander Data for spotting a mess up and Sarge for explaining how the stat system works!

Getting Started With Tetra Master In A New Game

Now that we have covered the mechanics of the game in detail, I will demonstrate how to get a good head start in amassing a decent array of cards. Losing enough cards that place your deck under 5 cards in the beginning is the worst as it locks the player of from playing the game until they get a new card drop. The starting area with Vivi contains a literal tonne of cards drops netting you a decent collection before you even play your first game.

First things first. Follow the kids into the town square and talk to Hippaul, who will mention that he has hidden a stash of cards. It is important that you get these cards before going to the ticketmaster agreeing to be puck's slave(thanks Commander Data) as the scripted event will prevent you from ringing the bell and dropping the stash.

This will net you 3 cards including the somewhat rarer ironite card. Next, go to the kid by the docks and agree to help him find his cat that is by the gates out of the city. Doing so will net you a bomb card.

The rest of the card drops are all interact points all over the city, shown below.

Meeting Alleyway Jack

Finally we can get on with the tutorial. Proceed with getting Vivi's ticket rejected and being introduced to puck. However, instead of following him as he runs off the ladder, wait a few seconds and a four armed man appears and the end of the alleyway and walks towards you. If you fail to interact with him before he moves too close to you, he will mug you and run away. If this does happen, simply exit the area and come back to try again. Catching him and asking him if he is Alleyway Jack will then take you to the tutorial. Granted, the tutorial does not even cover much at all but this character will make a showing quite a few times thoughout the game, so you might as well get introduced to him now. If you want much more powerful cards, you can also win four high powered cards by reaching certain scores in the jump rope minigame. I personally completely fail at this minigame, but if you can stick it out longer than I these prizes are in it for you if you reach certain thresholds:

50 jumps = Cactuar Card

100 jumps = Genji Card

200 jumps = Alexandria Card

300 jumps = Tiger Racket Card

Finish

I think I have written more then enough about Tetra Master now. If I missed something or theres something that feels missing, do not hesitate to leave a comment or send me a PM, I would be glad to adapt the guide.

Unfortunately the game has not gotten the amount of attention that its sister card game triple triad has. While it used to be playable in an online client through final fantasy XI's play online system, this was shut down a few years ago as it was not popular enough. So until they actually implement it in FFXIV, we are stuck with fanmade versions, such as this rpgmaker game[rpgmaker.net] which does not allow you to get your own cards but apparently support multiplayer.

A much more intresting tetra master client can be found on this russian website[tetra-master.ru] which seems to include persistent accounts and card aquisition. While the website is entirely written in russian, the previous incarnation of the client also had english language options. As of writing, this client is currently running a closed beta, but I will update this section once it goes live.

Thanks for reading!

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=665845408

Tetra Master for scrubs