This section of the strategy guide provides a more in depth look at each of the characters in Final Fantasy XIII and some guidance on which ones you should consider including in your party more often than not. A few quick notes to get things started:
So what exactly are we looking for in a “Best Party”? The core areas to look at include:
Let’s delve into each of the core areas. At the bottom of the page is the final summary of which characters you should lean towards if you want to fully optimize your playthrough.
In the early chapters of the game, your characters will only be able to select from a few of the six available roles: 
Commando, 
Ravager, 
Sentinel, 
Medic, 
Synergist, and 
Saboteur. These early restrictions will give you some insight as to which characters are better in which functions, even though later on in the game all of your characters will be able to select from all of the roles.
Commando performing just a bit better than Lightning. She is also a capable Saboteur and can do okay as a Sentinel. Ravager, Medic or a Synergist.Commando and Ravager roles and she is mediocre as a Medic.Synergist and can do half decently as a Ravager.Sentinel in the game and he is okay as a Commando.Saboteur and she is not bad in other magic-based roles like Ravager and Medic.Commando are your strongest damage dealing class so it makes sense to ensure the characters that perform best in that role (in order, it’s Fang then Lightning then Snow) are assigned that role for your team.
Your characters stats will grow differently depending on where you assign the Crystogen Points (CP) that your team members earn, so the best way to do a comparison between all six is to look at their stats collectively assuming they have all fully completed their Crystariums:
| Max HP | Max Strength | Max Magic | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fang | 24,000 | 2,005 | 1,300 |
| Hope | 18,000 | 1,100 | 1,900 |
| Lightning | 20,000 | 1,700 | 1,700 |
| Sazh | 27,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| Snow | 30,000 | 1,500 | 1,200 |
| Vanille | 21,050 | 1,400 | 1,700 |
The stats alone generally don’t tell us much… except there is definitely a clear picture forming for Sazh, and unfortunately that picture is not good. His Strength and Magic stats are the worst of any character, and since he is not the strongest in any absolutely critical role, we have pretty much ruled him out of any “Best Party” already.
He does have high HP, and Hope’s HP is the lowest, but HP is not as significant of a stat as it may seem. Optimized usage of both strategy and equipping accessories will mean that having HP is not a necessity for most fights. It just has to be ‘high enough’, not the highest.
Otherwise, the character stats for Fang and Hope look great for both a physical character and a magic-focused character, and Lightning is coming in a close second for both making her a good fill in for whatever role we need her to fulfill.
All six characters will have a wide assortment of weapons available for them to use. In fact, they will even have access to weapons that attempt to make up for some of their weaknesses. For example, there are weapons which help pump up Hope’s Strength just in case you wanted to put him in a role as a Commando… but don’t do this!
Alternatively though, there are some characters with strong weapons that are helping to build a case for them to be in a specific role. At a high level, here are some of the weapons worth noting:
Taming Pole and Dragoon Lance). She also has access to the Shamanic Spear if you wanted to put her in a magic-focused role but not enough to overcome this being one of her lower stats.
Hawkeye.
Belladonna Wand which increases the likelihood of her successfully applying a debuff to an enemy in her Saboteur role.Looking at the equipment availability for each of the characters there are very few surprises. Each of the character’s has one or more weapons that can help support them in almost any role. But there is one character/weapon combination that causes the scales to tilt just a little bit and that is for Vanille and her Belladonna Wand. The added power that this weapon provides to her in her Saboteur role means that there are certain times where she can be more effective than Hope as a magic damage dealer.
*Note that all of the weapons listed above can be upgraded to their Tier 2 and Tier 3 levels which will still provide the same high level stats to the user.
There are six unique character abilities available to each of the six characters in one of the Crystariums. This is their most powerful attack and they are eventually unlocked in Stage 9 of the Crystarium which opens up after reaching the end of Chapter 11.
Lightning, Sazh and Hope each have access to an ability in the Ravager Crystarium that can very quickly boost the Chain Bonus on a Staggered enemy allowing the party to deal massive amounts of damage. Snow and Fang both have access to a Commando ability that resets the Chain Gauge and is intended to be a finishing attack for when you’re not building a Chain towards a Stagger.
The last unique ability is Vanille’s 
Death spell which has a baseline 1% chance to instantly kill an enemy target no matter how much HP they have left. While this alone isn’t enough to put Vanille in front of Hope as a magic dealer, it means that there are certain instances where using Vanille will be an important part of the strategy. Check out the Unique Abilities page for more information:
Each of the Eidolons are unique and obtained at different points throughout the game, but each character will eventually have one Eidolon that they obtain as a mandatory part of the story.
While they each look and operate differently when summoned into battle, the differences between them are minimal. It’s worth noting that for the purposes of deciding the “best party” that each character’s Eidolons should not be a factor.
So which party members are the best? To summarize, the best party will include:
Fang is the best Commando and this role deals the most overall damage. Lightning and Hope are the first and second strongest magic users in the game making Lightning effective as a Ravager and a backup Medic when called for while Hope excels at any of the magic-based roles.
Fang can switch to a reliable Sentinel when you need her to and has some strong debuffs as a Saboteur. Hope is a very strong Synergist and Fang generally gets access to the buffs that he is missing. Hope and Lightning can both serve as reliable Medics when the situation calls for healing.
As noted above, there are certain situations where you will want to swap in Vanille, and there are some odd mechanics to be aware of when using Lightning (detailed on the Vanille Character Page), but otherwise these characters are the recommended “best party”. That said, as mentioned before, you can get through the game with any character combination and you don’t have to use this “best party” recommendation.
