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Item effect and acquisition details for the Platinum Casino Ticket Specialty Item in Final Fantasy XIII-2 (FF13-2, FFXIII-2, PlayStation 3, PS3, Xbox 360). The video game Final Fantasy XIII-2's so-called Serendipity Casino includes a couple card games, Chronobind and Serendipity, as part of the 'Heads or Tails' DLC (Downloadable Content) episode. Chronobind's rules seem complicated at first, but it's simpler than it looks. Serendipitous achievement in Final Fantasy XIII-2: Amassed a fortune in casino coins - worth 12 Gamerscore. Find guides to this achievement here.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 Achievements You will need to have winnings of 10,000 Casino Coins for this achievement to unlock. This requires that you be UP 10k, so even if you've won 10k, but spent 2k. Floating in the Void Beyond and formed through hope, dream and passion, this casino world contains a range of games that offer coins which can be exchanged for prizes and bonuses. Each mini-game has a different set of playing conditions, but if you want to bank a lucky coin fragment you need to take a spin on the casino’s slot machine.
Ff13-2 Casino Tricks
Earning one of the infamous lucky coin fragments in Final Fantasy XIII has been the bane of gamers across the world for years. The problem raised its head once again in 2014 when the game was released for PC.
The majority of game guides give you a clear path to victory. However, because of the way a lucky coin fragment is earned, this guide cannot guarantee you a win every time.
The reason for this is that a fragment can only be earned through a combination of luck and dedication. Fortunately, we have got a few tips on how to improve your chances of getting a lucky coin fragment in Final Fantasy XIII.
The Basics
Before you can get your hands on one of these coin fragments, you need to take a trip to Serendipity. Floating in the Void Beyond and formed through hope, dream and passion, this casino world contains a range of games that offer coins which can be exchanged for prizes and bonuses.
Each mini-game has a different set of playing conditions, but if you want to bank a lucky coin fragment you need to take a spin on the casino’s slot machine. However, before you ante-up and shoot for a bonus you need to realize that you need to speculate to accumulate. That means earning enough coins to spin the reels enough times to unlock a fragment. According to Final Fantasy XIII experts, the minimum amount of spins you’ll need to complete before a fragment is unlocked is around 30,000. This haul should give you enough ammunition to fire bets at the slots game until you achieve a total win of 7,777 (this unlocks a fragment).
If this is the case, then you first need a strategy of building up coins. There are three main ways you can do this by racing chocobos, playing poker or grinding at the roulette table. All of these games will return a large amount of coins which can then be used to hit the magical 7,777 score.
Racing Chocobos
In order to be a successful racer, you first need to catch a chocobos. In terms of ease, yellow chocobos are the simplest to catch but require a number of level ups before you can race them in any meaningful way. Red chocobos, like yellows, are located in the Archylte Steppe but are more difficult to catch. These options make decent commandos, but they aren’t the best for racing.
Blue Chocobos are located in the Archylte Steppe and spawn in the Marshes when it’s sunny/rainy. These are decent Ravagers when you level them up, but aren’t a fantastic choice for racing. Green, purple and black chocobos are also not the best choices when it comes to racing.
The best tip for racing chocobos is to catch the white, silver and gold creatures. Overall, silver and gold are the best chocobos to race with, mostly because they only have 45 levels and can be levelled up a lot faster. More specifically, silver chocobos are slightly better than gold because its max STR/MAG is around 800/800, compared to gold’s 800/600.
Maxing your chocobos is the best way to race them to their maximum capability, but keep in mind that the number of races with each is limited to three. Fortunately, you can re-register each chocobos for a career and each more coins. So, if you’re looking to make the most money possible you need to choose the silver, gold or white and level the up as quickly as possible.
Playing Poker
Another tip for earning coins is playing poker. While you won’t be competing against WSOP champions such as Daniel Negreanu, your futuristic foes will have good poker faces. In order to be successful at the felt you need to keep in mind some basic tenets of profitable poker. Although the simulation is not able to capture the subtle nuances of a real poker game, the players do conform to certain standards of play which means you need to be able to exploit.
So, how do you play profitable poker? Here are some tips to help you out:
- Don’t play a lot of hands. It might be a boring way to play, but sitting back on waiting for good hands is the best way to beat the system. Wait for big pairs and high ranking cards before you commit any coins to the pot.
- Only play in position. Poker is a game of incomplete information, so the later you can act the more information you can glean from the table. Acting last gives you the advantage of seeing what everyone else has done and, therefore, enables you to make more sensible decisions.
- Don’t be afraid to fold. Pride can often get in your way at the poker table and this can cause you not to fold. This attitude has caused many people to go broke and is one you should eliminate from your game.
Poker is a great way to earn coins in Serendipity and if you can follow the above tips you’ll find it’s easy to boost your bankroll.
Chronobind Basics
If you are in control of Sazh, then you can also play Chronobind, or heads / tails, inside Serendipty. Chronobind is played using a standard deck of 52 playing cards, and a “clock” with one hand and 13 positions numbered one through to 13 clockwise. In this game, Ace = 1, Jack = 11, Queen = 12, and King = 13. Suits are irrelevant. The game is divided into rounds with four stages. These are the Draw, the Showdown, the Clock, and the Bind phases.
The hand of the clock is set to the “13” position and each player makes a starting bet before receiving five cards. The dealer then draws one more card and moves the hand clockwise a number of positions equal to the value of this card.
In the Draw phase, each player draws cards until they have five in their hand, and then choose cards to play from their hand. Each player may put down either a single card or multiple cards of a single rank. For instance, if the player has a hand of 3-3-4-5-8, they may play a single 3, both 3s, a 4, a 5, or an 8. Playing multiple cards in a round does not increase their value. However, there are other benefits to doing so.
In the Showdown phase, all players reveal their chosen cards. The player with the highest ranking card (or cards) wins the Showdown. If two or more players tie for the highest ranking card, no one wins the Showdown. This game is very similar to Casino Hold’em, so if you’re planning on anting-up during the game you should check out the basic premise of this game. Once you’ve done that, simply take note of the structure and the hand rankings listed below and you should be able to make a decent amount of coins in this game.
Cards are ranked as follows: Low Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, Clock, and High Ace.
Using Your Coins
Once you’ve banked enough coins to tackle to slot machine, Final Fantasy XIII’s director, Motomu Toriyama installed one simple premise into the game. That is to achieve a score of 7,777 during a single session and you will unlock a lucky coin fragment. Of course, hitting this score isn’t easy and the one thing you’ll have to invest, other than money, is time. However, before you ante-up you need to ensure the game is in “hot summer’s day” mode. This “mood” will improve the game’s return rate and decrease the amount of time you have to play in order to hit that magical score.
Once you have started playing the game you will need to perform a constant stream of spins and one of the best ways to do this is by using an elastic band or some Sellotape. Sticking down the L1 button and letting the machine do the work is the main way people have unlocked a lucky coin fragment. Assuming the slot performs roughly 20 spins per minute, which is 1,200 revolutions an hour. The average win rate is approximately one coin per spin, which means you will need to play the game for almost eight hours to hit the magical coin total of 7,777. Although you could do this manually, it’s much better to simply stick down the L1 button and wait for the system to do its thing.
Leave the game to play out overnight and when you return you should find a lucky coin fragment ready and waiting for you. Although you do not need to be a hardcore gambler in order to succeed in Serendipity, you will need to invest time and effort to learn the various mini-games and carry out the necessary tactics to become a big winner. If you can do this, then Final Fantasy XIII (not to be confused with Guardian Cross) glory awaits.
Index
- Serendipity: Casino & Chocobo Races (<–you are here)
Serendipity
The Serendipity is Final Fantasy XIII-2’s poor man version of the Golden Saucer. However, it does have a very important items and one major NPC, plus endless hours of frustration…
Casino Shop
At the Casino Shop, you can purchase Casino Coins (1 CC = 10 gil), redeem tickets, and purchase prizes.
Items of Interest:
- Chaos Crystal – can be traded for Noel/Serah’s ultimate weapons (see FAQ page)
- Just 1 gil – fragment
- Setzer’s Dice – fragment
- Wild Artefact – 1 of 10, opens a blue time gate
- Ribbon – raises all resistances by 40%
All of the above items are 10,000 CC, so you’ll need to choose wisely unless you’ve hit the mega jackpot play the slots. Otherwise it would cost 500,000 gil to be able to buy everything outright.
Casino prizes can also be reduced by 25% with the Bargain Hunter fragment skill.
Cards
Unfortunately, this content is locked and will be released in a future downloadable update.
Slot Machines
Ah, the worst part of the entire game… Like all slot machines, Final Fantasy XIII-2’s require no skill whatsoever. Instead, you just holding down LB until you win big or run out of Casino Coins.
You can watch the tutorial to see how it all works, but this is very misleading since it makes it look like triple jackpots happen all the time. They don’t. I’ve left the game on playing slots for upwards of 10 hours now, and while I’ve have a decent amount of jackpots, I never really broke even, and I definitely never hit the 50K payout. I once got two jackpots during Super Victory Mode, which gave my the 10K I needed for the Chaos Crystal, but that was after hours and hours of grinding.
I recommend starting your slots session with at least 1,500 CC. This means you can grind for longer, and only costs 15,000 gil. Then just rubber band the LB on your controller and go to work, school, sleep, or write a game guide…… 1,500 CC won’t last you very long (less than an hour), so check back often to see if you’ve won or gone bust. If you lost, dashboard out and restart the game to prevent it from autosaving. You can then retry your luck with your 1,500 CC again.
1,500 CC is also a good number because if/when you enter Super Victory Mode, you’ll be betting 100 coins a turn (instead of 5!), and your wallet will decrease very rapidly.
You can also see what “mood” the machine is in by talking to the cat girl nearby. If she says, “That machine is on fire!” or “It’s like a hot summer’s day!” then you should play, otherwise exit and come back to check again. You should see a noticeable difference in how many payouts you get.
Ff13-2 Slots Trick
Chocobo Races
Chocobo races are not quite as epic as they were in Final Fantasy VII, but they’re at least more interesting than grinding the slot machines. Unfortunately, they also don’t pay out as well until you’ve mastered the highest tier races.
If you just want to beat all the races and collect the items for the sake of doing it, I recommend waiting till you find the Gold Chocobo in a treasure chest in A Dying World 700 AF. This is the best chocobo of all, but will require a lot of leveling (and therefore a lot of gil spent on expensive monster materials) to get it into top shape. Once you’ve leveled it to 45, you can pretty much just steamroll the competition throughout all of the races.
The Mystic
The Mystic is found in a tent from the left of the time gate when you first enter Serendipity. It’s the room with Mog in it. You’ll need to speak with her to obtain Fragment Skills. See the Fragment Skills page.