String Theory: A Puppetmaster's Guide *NEW*

They're not outdated, but even if Kusamochi provides more Attack, you're missing out on a lot of total stat+ by comparison. In this case the Grape daifuku would let you drop your Stabilizer without second thought for a more impactful attachment.



With an Inhibitor, having a Wind maneuver up will always force an Armor Shatterer into Armor Piercer skillchain. You don't care for the SC damage and Piercer is technically worse than Shatterer, but the massive STP boost makes it worthwhile. Even if you only use Inhibitor II on its own.


While OD should definitely boost Acc enough to make this a non-issue, Stabilizer V with Optic fiber boosts is 60 Acc, so dropping that will result in a small deficit even if you start using Mpaca hands. In any case, if your maton dies and you lose OD the Grape acc may end up mattering, while the 38 Attack from Kusamochi most likely won't even affect Shatterer's damage.

And sure, if you can do 6% damage either way that's great, but the goal is to do it as easily and safely as possible without having to get lucky, right? Plus it sounded like you were already doing Truesights + Wind Maneuver, just without the Inhibitor, so you were mostly already there.

Allright, thanks for the clarifications and tips.
One problem for sure was my automaton dying twice, but using Armor Plate IV and Steam Jacket should solve that.
I will use Inhibitor II in place of Tension Spring IV.
Grape Daifuku for food.
Mpaca hands.

I'm still pondering on Karagoz+1/Dispersal over Anwig/AmbuCape.
Useless for Shatterer, very useful for Piercer, right?
But given how there is no Pet_Precast packet, I'll have to decide to keep equipped one or the other. Hmmm, guess I'll test things around a bit and see what happens.

Just like Skald mentioned I do eventually plan to test this on Arebati as well, I'm nowhere close being done on Augmenting my Mpaca pieces after all.

While TP Bonus definitely makes a difference for Armor Piercer, it's not as massive as it is for Arcu/Daze. And the extra DT from Anwig/Ambu cape might be a necessity for your maton to survive.

Everything Aerix said :D

The attachments I use were decided on primarily with survival in mind. More often than not during rp farm I get lazy and light/fire/water the whole way to 94% otherwise light/fire/wind until fetters at which point I drop the wind for water.

The one offensive swap I would like to squeeze in would definitely be Truesights and, afaik, Xevi being everything magic based the Armor Plate might be the slot to free up for that? Or if in the end the trade of Magniplug for Truesights nets greater results.

It's been a situation of "ok this works with a comfortable margin of success" so I have not attempted to refine it further.

Regarding swapping for automaton WS, if feeling safe enough to do so it can't hurt to manually toggle/macro in a set as puppet approaches TP. Occasionally cycling through maneuvers I will double up on fire to anticipate an Arcuballista toggled into TP bonus set for funsies, however majority of the runs I leave his Taeon full time.

Let us know how it goes and happy pupping!

I'm a little surprised I haven't seen any discussion of /mnk ... then I think well Kick attacks is only comparable to da 10% from /war before master levels and pup needs attack bonus more.

really /mnk would need footwork instead of just kick attacks to be more worthwhile.

It was brought up way back when ml started, ultimately not worth
(unless you got a dragonfangs somehow, without having to chose them over a better option lol)

https://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/52194/string-theory-a-puppetmasters-guide-new/76/

Not sure what Dragonfangs would have to do with it, even as a joke. They have +14 kick rate, so they would create diminishing returns instead of helping.

Yeah, the doubled KA damage proc on Dragon Fangs wouldn't really make a difference without boots for KA damage+.

The double damage and 26% kick rate would make more deeps than the 12% da and you get a unique ws specifically with attack bonus that's better than howling fist

Yes, compare pup/war with kenkonken and max perfect gear, crunch those numbers.

(clarity, it wouldn't be 2da, it would be -12da) 24 KA or 12 DA

Can't ignore the fact that DA can proc on both hands and on WS while /WAR also gives Berserk. That said, there are some diminishing returns due to gear.

Double damage of 80+ base damage hit? Thats wet noodles. It would only be like 66% damage of one hit with Kenkonken and Kenkonken isnt even big damager per hit H2H. AM3 on KKK is way higher white damage than Dragon Fangs with /mnk. That would be 24% chance to add around 126 base damage hit, while AM3 on KKK is like 80% chance to add around 250 base damage hit. It's not even close. Kick attacks on pup are more about TP gain, not damage, even with Dragon Fangs.

Anyone have insight if Mpac's Gloves- Automaton: Weapon skill damage +10% are better than Karagoz Guanti +2-3?
I seen in the BGwiki guide Karagoz Guanti listed.

Aerix, I seen in the OP post you have the sortie earring +2 listed as BiS. Given how annoying they're to obtain, where would the +1/NQ rank along side other options out there, or would they work just as well? Thanks

the +1 earring is not that far behind the +2. I'm sure its 2nd best in slot

Nq/+1 doesnt have the str/dex tho , so for ws's schere/moonshade might still be better until +2

its BiS in alot of sets.. only ones you are looking at are Stringing Pummel I guess.

NQ I'd only bother with for Automaton setups. The +1 is a solid TP earring with high Acc if it has Store TP+4-5, but for the most part you'll just want to stick with a combination of Schere, Dedition, Telos or Mache+1 depending on your weapon until the +2.

As for WS sets like Stringing/Vsmite, Moonshade/Schere until Karagoz +2. Asuran Fists is an exception where you could use any Karagoz earring for the HTH skill and Acc.


Not sure who edited the Bgwiki guide since I haven't gotten around to reworking it yet, but in general Mpaca's should win out slightly for SS frame WSs at high damage numbers. Karagoz+3 would probably edge it out slightly if WS damage is only average.

For VE frame's Chimera Ripper it's pretty much the same and for Bone/Shredder I'd probably continue to use DA Taeon if pet burning (or Mpaca if you have AM3 up).

Just tested ODing Xevioso v20 myself and had good results using the following attachment setup fulltiming Acc/DA/DT Taeon gear, no TP bonus, Grape, and no rolls:

• Inhibitor 2

• Flame Holder

• Magniplug 2

• Attuner

• Turbo Charger 2

• Truesights

• Armor Plate 4

• Steam Jacket

• Mana Jammer 4

• Optic Fibers 1+2

• ARK 4

Waited until around 4:00 left on the clock to run up and engage, deployed and immediately OD'd with Light/Wind/Fire. Maton was mostly okay just riding Repair recast, but I usually swapped in a Water Maneuver if damage started getting out of hand. More or less ended up having OD active until I timed out with proper credit and was never in much danger of dying (Xevioso is fairly easy to kite if needed) or doing too little damage as I typically got to 90-92% before I used a Water Maneuver. This was with Xiucoatl C for the record, but 94% should be entirely doable without one, especially if you bring Dawn Mulsums to go longer without Water. The same strat should also be entirely viable for Arebati and is potentially even easier due to TP moves being less dangerous.

Hope this is of some help to someone.

The strat you guys developed works 100% fine for Arebati V20 as well, just as Skald said. If anything Arebati is even easier.


We need a similar post for Bumba V20 as well now!
Granted I'm not sure it's possible to deal >5% damage before Denounce lol

Well it should be possible up to V19 for sure!


And how about Mboze?
I guess for Mboze Tiiiiimber could be a real problem but that's only used under 50% so it shouldn't concern us, right?
Would need a build with Valoredge using a Slashing WS.

With Bumba I'd just bite the bullet and keep lowering the difficulty until you find one where you can comfortably do the 6% damage before fetters and Denounce happen. Steam Jacket also won't work too well with Bumba since the fetters are all different elements, but the other damage moves aren't terribly dangerous anyway. Full damage VE/SS with Jammers and enough Dawn Mulsums for safety is probably the way to go. Might have to skip Inhibitors to avoid triggering fetters early.

Mboze is an issue even without Tiiiiimbeer, however. I'm pretty sure both Uproot and Canopierce can one-shot a VE automaton under OD with DT gear and since they are different elements you can't mitigate them reliably with Steam Jacket.

But if you wanted to try, I'd go for a Light/Thunder/Fire VE setup with Coiler 2 and DA Taeon while skipping Inhibitors altogether as they'll just make the maton spam weak WSs to keep skillchaining. I'd highly recommend bringing a COR for Comp Roll to make up for this, if at all possible.

Chimera Ripper with TP Bonus is technically a stronger slashing WS, but you'd have to use Light/Fire/Fire to force it over Bone Crusher. Without AM3, Inhibitors or Thunder Maneuvers for Coilers the matons TP speed would be pretty miserable. It might work out with the aforementioned COR for Comp Roll, however, assuming that wearing less DT gear for the TP Bonus stuff won't get the maton killed early.

I cant remember, but Im like 90% sure I did Bumba V20 or V19 solo on PUP with Bone Crusher setup using KKK. I think I had one attempt when I failed at 95%, but other 2 were successful. I don't use Dawn Mulsum at all (inventory issues), so I have done it without it.

I agree that without Inhibitors a AM3 VE would very likely have a better time than a VE/SS on Bumba, but most people don't have Kenkonken unfortunately.

Aerix, could you show me which attachments you would use for a VE Bumba, with Kenkoken and no Inhibitors?

Working on pup all the way I can, but my knowledge is, kinda limited.

I'd probably try something like

• VE/VE with Light/Water/Fire

• Attuner

• Flame Holder

• Magniplug 1+2

• Tension Spring V

• Turbo Charger 1+2

• Mana Jammer 4 (or potentially AP4 if some of the physical damage is an issue)

• Steam Jacket (before fetters it's almost all Light)

• OF 1+2

• ARK 4

This is about as offensive as it gets for an AM3 VE setup without giving up magic mitigation. If incoming damage is too much of an issue I'd maybe switch to SoS/VE and replace the Tension Spring with AP4 or Mana Jammer 3, but only if absolutely necessary.

Since I haven't attempted cheesing Bumba with VE yet it'd be good if someone else could chime in with their experience.

Thanks, I wont be able to test it on bumba in the coming days, but this is going on the to-do list for sure!

The really important thing is to have Samurai with all the meditation gear, so you start the fight with 3000TP and can put am3 asap.

Or, if you don't:

1. SAM Meditate, swap to PUP for 800 TP (remember to lock in KKK while it's ticking up)
2. Tactical Switch with your Automaton
3. pop some Frontier Sodas in the lobby and after warping up
4. use Tactical Switch 2-3 times more depending on how many Sodas you've used (maton needs to have almost 2000 TP to give you 3k depending on your Empy feet upgrade)

Very convoluted, but you're gonna be waiting to time out of Bumba anyway. Also this way you won't have to get JP, AF or any Relic for SAM just to make it work.

Corsair and tact roll in lobby still works, no?

Have to swap job for that, so it wouldn't work.
Could still use Icarus Wing though, or Opo-Opo necklace with Sleep potions!
Since you have to wait anyway...
And while you wait you can equip Karyeh+1 and Republic neck for some more idle regain.

Thanks for the info. Just trying to decipher some of these values since SE never has been really clear.

-With this newer gear that has Automation +1 does it equal the same stats increase as listed in master levels?
Pet Effects
Pets are also enhanced when the master increases their Master Level.

Automatons, Avatars, and Wyverns all saw the following increases for each Master Level earned:

Accuracy +1.5
Attack +1.5
Evasion +1.5
Defense +1.5
HP +7*


-Does Pet Defense stat on Snow Orb augment actually increase defense beyond PetDT gear?

-In regards to the Empyrean set could this be a decent set for automation weapon skills wearing all 5pcs?
3 Pcs are listed in the wiki for Arcuballista/Daze weapon skills.

(Set: Attack occ. varies with automaton's HP
Occasionally will cause damage to increase based on a automaton's HP with 100% HP doubling damage.
Set is activated by wearing two or more pieces with each separate piece providing a 1~2% chance of activation.)