String Theory: A Puppetmaster's Guide *NEW*

The maton usually facetanks it all. Depending on the fights I add in AP4, Steam Jacket and/or rarely Mana Jammers. For most stuff, though, Repair combined with Overdrive's innate DT bonus and massive Regen from boosted ARK4 is more than sufficient to keep the maton alive.

This is one of my standard OD loadouts for stuff like Omen midbosses, for example.

• VE head, SS frame

• Inhibitor 1+2

• Speedloader 2

• Magniplug 2

• Flame Holder

• Attuner

• Armor Plate 4

• Turbo Charger 2

• Coiler 2

• Optic Fiber 1+2

• ARK4

The maton solos Craver and iirc Gorger (it's been a while) pretty easily on its own within the duration, though VE body might be more efficient on Gorger due to slashing.

Is this helm good for pet nuking, or you can get higher? I recall I heard something that you cant get more than 20matt/macc if get both of those stats (only can get like 30mab without macc?)



Are those boots good for any hybrid (pet+master) build? I mean I know they are ok for standard hybrid build, because herculean boots are there anyway. I'm more asking if I can get some value from that 2% pet haste. Probably not, but worth to ask.

For Herc head high MAB doesn't allow for any MACC at all and high MACC caps MAB at +15. The best you can get would be Pet: MAB+30/MACC+0 with INT or MACC+30/MAB+15 with a much lower chance for INT. Personally, I went for MAB with guaranteed INT to maximize damage from gear since Tranquilizers and pet food are already very good sources of MACC. At the moment your Herc is basically a Naga Tekko for your head, which is a good start but can definitely be improved upon.

As far as those boots go, they look absolutely insanely godly to me lol, I'm jelly. I'd use them for the melee stats and Pet: Acc obviously, but I can't think of any useful setup where the Haste+2% would allow you to replace a piece of gear with something better.

That said, in this set I use to build TP for KKK or when I don't need Malignance, Pet: Haste totals 25% with standard Herc feet. I'm not sure if Pet: Haste has the same issue of not capping at 25% due to it being calculated in 256ths, but if it does your feet would let you cap for real.

ItemSet 353038

As far as I'm concerned, you won the PUP lottery.

for anyone that does up in arms as pup, for whatever reason the nibiru path d gives automaton 20 to all skills despite being under level sync.

they're already one of the better pieces for that level, getting 5 str, vit, and attack and pretty low delay. figure most have a pair for repair macro anyways

Hey folks! I'm sorry that I haven't kept the guide up to date in the past year... I was inactive during that time, and I very recently had the itch to play again, so I've resubbed and I have quickly realized that I've got a ton to catch up on regarding PUP. I'll be doing my best to collect all the new information, gearsets, and attachment loadouts and updating the guide accordingly.

If anyone wants to tell me some important new things of note or old data that really needs updating in my guide, feel free to drop me a PM. Cheers!

He... lives! PUP confirmed to be Necromancer after all.

Jokes aside, you'll probably get the best idea of what has been going on if you read through the PUP thread since your last post before you took a break. Glad to see you back, I had to mention your guide being outdated too many times for my liking lol. Sorry~

WB Fabiano! Aerix has been taking great care of us ;)

Make sure to skip the whole 'is Pup a tank or not?' 10 pages or so though, those were a sh*tshow :).

Welcome back, I saw you online last week and I was surprised (and pleased). I think the H2H changes for PUP and MNK have been the biggest change tbh.

hey guys, i'm still trying to get my cait ring.

can someone share their sets + strategy?

https://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/52194/string-theory-a-puppetmasters-guide-new/37/#3488341

Would recommend to stick to N or E.

Thanks aerix, was trying this on D and was dying every time. Will switch to e to start with. Is this an overdrive strategy?

It can be done without Overdrive on E, perhaps on N. If I recall correctly Enlight and ? Holy aren't a huge deal at those difficulties thanks to Steam Jacket and DT gear (Light/Wind/Fire). In any case, Disruptor doesn't work and although Regulator does, stealing Enlight causes your maton's attacks to heal Cait Sith a bit each time.

That said, even with COR buffs it's gonna be pretty slow. It's usually faster (albeit tedious) to OD zerg and then reset your 1hr in MMM or Abyssea.

It's been so long that I don't remember all the details, though. Just give it a shot and see how it goes.

N isn't worth bothering with solo even as /COR unless you're job master and have nearly all the best gear in the game IMO. This means the omen pet earring and neck, SU5 maxed out and Adoulin ring. Even pet ACC/DA5/DT-4 on all Taeon pieces.

I haven't been able to consistently solo N with better than a 70% success rate, even with trusts. I've tried nearly every setup there is. Not worth the frustration. Cait Sith N makes Sarama and Sovereign Behemoth look easy!

I only have an SU4 maxed out and none of the omen pieces. Pet haste is capped and I also use pet attack food. Accuracy isn't an issue and my auto is self SCing non-stop if not hit by mewing lullaby.

When you gear for ONLY 1hr on N and it's runs out, you're pretty much dead. If you're lucky you might be able to survive 5 minutes.

Even with steam jacket and a water maneuver up you can see enlight with additional effect of up to 200-300 damage AFTER OD/1hr is down. Can't dispel it since trusts are already dead.

The only way I could reduce it down to around 90dmg (when 1hr is out) is with two Water Maneuvers and Mana Jammer IV along with Steamjacket. I also even tried Armor Plate IV and 3.

You'd be amazed at how many times my 1 hour ran out with Cait Sith on N at under 5% HP.

Best luck I had was with a Taeon set with all pet attack+21 or so and water, fire, light. Five straight wins with less than 20 seconds left on 1hr. After that it was nearly all losses.

PS Enlight on N sometimes does little damage when 1hr runs out, but will then randomly spike to 200-300 additional effect for no reason. Either this fight is broken or it's Steam Jacket. I thought maybe Water maneuver wore off, but it didn't.

BTW there is absolutely no way anyone on pup could solo N without OD (without meleeing). Of course i'd like someone to prove me wrong and post a video! I doubt you would last even 10 minutes.

@tmd5

to give some perspective:

based on aerix's suggestions i've been doing normal runs with overdrive and it's pretty consistent now.
was doing it without OD and died every time.

i've done like 10 fights atm - 2 stones 1 earring

My setup is:
pup pup cor thf

i think two pups are not needed because "mewing lullaby" puts one to sleep most of the time. it's also that i have 2 overdrives available and during cooldown i'm doing maiden.

thf is only for th, it's not doing much dmg, altho i find it survives most of the fights strangely.
trusts yoran (wakes me up very consistant) + ajido dispel

regal cor rolls companion + beast

my pups have



my Ohrmazd pup is doing just as good as the Xiucoatl one. so not needed. 20-30k bone crushers.

water fire light maneuvres


food: grape daifuku

i would recommended thf + cor is on normal, droprate is pretty good. 30% for now. th9 most of the time but not always proccing, just like maiden.

od still needed i think, else it will take too long and cait will smoke you.

I have done some Cait recently trioboxing mnk+brd+cor (Honor/minuet/carol/carol/chaos roll/samurai roll) at N difficulty and its like a 1min fight. I wouldnt be surprised if PUP could do the same (using master damage I mean), just slower and kinda less safely. Seems like spaming Howling Fists (with Godhand at around 1500) is not much slower than self skillchaining with SP/VS/VS because SC damage is heavily reduced.

I used Aerix Strategy a long time ago and I don't think I've ever failed on N, it's super easy.
Requires Overdrive of course.

On D I won a few times but others I failed. It sorta depends on how early Caith uses Benediction. If she goes early, you're gonna win. If she uses it late, bye bye.
Xiuacoatl (which I don't own) should make D more reliable but I don't think it's ever gonna make it 100% safe with this strategy.
If you have a COR mule it's a different story. With proper Beast Roll and Companion's Roll the win rate on D is gonna be very close to 100%, but then again in that case it's not "soloing" anymore, more like "dualboxing" :-P

Hey sech can you give some perspectives on the drop rates?

Very bad. I haven't done enough D solo to offer estimates.
On vd with th drop rate of at least one item is probably at least around 75% with a chance of two drops.
On D I dunno, not higher than 50% probably.
N, E and VE are all close to each other I feel. Sample of real solo runs are skewed anyway because you never know if a run that dropped nothing w a real nothing, or if it actually dropped something you already own and so it didn't show in the treasure pool.


On N I was getting a drop once every 4 or five runs but, as I said above, I dunno if this number is realiable because of R/E items.

Anyone mind sharing their bis bone crusher od set?

BiS is pretty much just Xiucoatl with as much DA/Acc/Atk as you can fit in any slot. If you have the spare inventory you can use VIT Herc to swap into to maximize damage.

ItemSet 368676

This is a set that requires no swaps, but to optimize you could swap between Ohtas + Incarnation and Xiucoatl for WS if you wish. But you need keep track of maton TP, which is not always possible due to distance and enemy AoEs.

This is for a pure BC swap if you want to absolutely maximize WS damage:

ItemSet 376125

Wouldn't necessarily recommend this second set for swapping, though, as losing all that DT (and taking extra via Kyrene's) is not usually something you want to risk. But it's nonetheless the BiS swap for pure damage.

great reply aerix tnx.

was confused about the OD sets for arcuballista and bone crusher so thanks for clearing it up. swaps are just not working for me, so i'll ignore the herc setup for now.

btw i'm trying out your htbf / unity videos and a few notes on them.

tried:

sovereign behemoth - was crazy fast with OD with the sets you recommended. had cor rolls. was really surprised on this one.

sarama - had to swap for the new attachments worked good with rolls
VE head/SS body; Attuner, Inhibitor 1+2, flame holder, Turbo Charger 1+2, Coiler 2, Steam Jacket, Maniplug ii, ark4, Optic Fiber 1+2

savage - failed many times on vd with your exact setup. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to9SXD7FvdU i'm not getting in damage and don't know why. did this fight change after your video? tried with beast/comp rolls + grape

I assume the issue isn't due to Ouryu flying, yeah?

Aside from procs, Ouryu can be a bit iffy due to his Invincible sometimes. I'm not sure if Invincible is random or time-based, but back when I attempted it multiple times to record the video I don't think I ever ran into it during OD. But someone on Youtube did comment about it, so you wouldn't be alone with that problem.

Unfortunately there isn't much you can do to prevent it, so I guess Ouryu is kinda luck-based like Cait Sith. If VD keeps screwing you over consistently it would probably be best to stick to D to guarantee the win.

that would be funny... :)

did another run and found out part of the problem, non of my 2 pups were doing weapons skills during the whole fight (20 minutes i think)

this looks like a bug

btw just died to D because no ws ..

Did you use Animator P II at any point? That can break maton AI sometimes when you switch between I and II.

unfortunately not.. :(

How much of a boost does AA-MR do to /cor rolls? I think that may be part of my problem. Don't have AA-MR yet.

Today I finally thought I had Cait Sith N figured out. Went in and got good rolls and won 3 in a row. Next 2 I die at 1%. No joke. No changes in gear.

Kusamochi seems to be the best food for my setup and my auto parsed around 97% accuracy.

Here is my setup if anyone has any suggestions other than getting the Omen neck/ear pieces. Pup is job mastered too.

Taeon - PET: DT-4, 21ACC, DA5 (one piece with pet haste to cap).
Pitre Fists (Max pet augments)
Pitre Tobe +1 (strangely I seem to do better in this full time vs Taeon body for this fight).
Ambuscade Mantle (pet haste 10%, everything else capped)
Animator P +1
Domesticator's Earring
Rimeice earring
Klouskap Sash +1
Varar Ring +1 x2

Seems like what is making it not a 100% win every time is due to not enough pet DA in other gear slots.

My attachment set is the same as everyone else uses, but I swapped out Turbo Charger 1 for Coiler 2 (seems to help). I was thinking swapping out something else for Coiler 1 too might be worth a try.

My pet can still SC non-stop.

Still need to get the pet adoulin ring.
Luckily my issue isn't dying or taking too much damage.

Normally I use Amchuchu, Ajido (dispel), Apururu, King of Hearts and Zeid II. Don't ask me why, but I seem to do better with Zeid II in the party. Any better trusts to use? Arciella 2 was suggested so that you possibly get less Mewing Lullaby.

I only actually started to use trusts to avoid getting 1-shot on entry.

PS I use Amchuchu because he can sometimes last through a whole fight. I don't have August or the AA tank.

about 10%, least im pretty sure the job potency on rolls doesnt change between cor and /cor

Correct, AAMR just guarantees the job bonus for having a BST present in the party. Lhu Mhakaracca should also work if you don't have AAMR. Best to test it with /checkparam <pet>


The assumption for that was that you'd have a COR mule to buff you like ksoze does. Even if it could be done without rolls nor meleeing, I don't know why anybody would even attempt it. There generally are only 4 ways PUPs would approach any harder fights: Melee, Overdrive, pet burn with main COR rolls or pet burn as part of a proper group regardless of rolls.

Solo pet burn without any kind of special buffs is literally the slowest possible way for PUP to beat any kind of content. It works for stuff like Lilith VE/E, but as mentioned before OD + 1hr reset is still much faster.


She's very useful and you only have to beat her on VE to get the Trust, if I remember correctly. Highly recommend for any kind of soloing. As mentioned above, Lhu Mhakaracca might also work if you don't have AAMR. Best to test it with /checkparam <pet>


As was mentioned a couple of times throughout the thread, Cait Sith is kinda luck-based. If she pops Benediction early you'll usually win; if Bene happens late you're gonna run out of OD duration before winning. There's unfortunately not much you can do except improve your damage output with gear or rolls and hope for the best.

But even with the best gear you can sometimes get screwed over by bad luck.


Ideally you'll want 99% Accuracy, but 97% is still within the margin of error while parsing, I guess, if your sample size wasn't very large.

If Kusamochi is performing noticeably better for you then your Automaton is likely Attack-starved even during OD. AAMR Beast Roll would definitely make a difference (at which point you could use Grape in case you aren't actually Acc capped).


Pitre Tobe +1-3 is definitely useful if the extra Store TP lines up just right to get the maton over 1k TP after x-hit amounts of hits. If you can manage to upgrade it to +2 (just enter all Dynamis-D areas once to unlock) you'll be able to start upgrading. If you're on Asura the upgrade will cost you approximately 4.4m gil, if you are able to afford that.

The upgraded body piece would go a long way to help you with your maton's Attack. DA Taeon body would be an improvement only once you no longer have to worry about Acc/Atk thanks to buffs/debuffs, assuming the DT- isn't make or break.


I'm not sure if you checked out the link I posted previously for the attachment setup, but if you weren't using Coiler II before are you sure your setup is otherwise identical to the one I posted? Important attachments not to miss would be Attuner and Flame Holder.


I would recommend using more Trusts with Dispel capabilities to force Cait Sith into rebuffing more often. I'm not sure I ever tested him, but Mnejing should be able to tank on pull and then be able to Dispel throughout the fight.

On the other hand, I would drop almost all Trusts that melee Cait Sith as that'll just lead to more TP feed and Mewing Lullaby spam, which will reset your maton's TP and reduce its DPS. Zeid's random Stuns don't do much if your maton isn't dying anyway.

Arciela II to enfeeble Cait and make it use Divine Favor could work, but I'm pretty sure she'll mostly just keep trying to MB your maton's skillchains instead.

I think King of Hearts will usually spam Dia if it keeps getting removed or if the enemy is immune, but if he isn't doing that after every Divine Favor, then I'd just drop him to reduce TP feed.

I posted this in the thread somewhere but I would save OD until 60% on Caitsith (or if it got hairy) and this was with above average gear but not great. ODing at 60% was 99.9% win.