ffvii-highwind

FFVII Highwind A Tool to Assist your Quest to Max HP/MP With Optimal Resets

Created by codemann8

Highwind is a tool to assist any player wishing to achieve Natural Max HP/MP for any characters in the Final Fantasy VII game. The goal is to minimize the probability of requiring resets into the future by making smarter choices in the begininng. Prior to this tool, there was only a guide[See 'Evolution' below] to tell you each character's Safety Level, the level in which all HP and MP values that can be achieved at this level all have paths that can lead to the maximum possible HP and MP. The level following the Safety Level is where the player must now start verifying whether their HP and MP can eventually lead to maximum values. To do this, one had to look up values in a chart, found in Party Mechanics Guide on GameFAQs made by Terence, and later corrected and made more complete in AbsoluteSteve's Full Walkthrough, also on GameFAQs. This tool builds on the knowledge of both guides and incorporates the game's probability calculation to determine and provide for you an insight as to which value you can expect to be more fruitful. For example, you might hit one of your safe values for a level on the first try, but that value may cost you an estimated 63 restarts more down the line due to the possible paths to the end shrinking as you reach the end; However, instead of taking that value you got on the first try which leads to sooner doom, it could be possible that there's a 1/8 chance of hitting a value with a better future path that doesn't lead to that extra 63 restarts, and this tool helps you determine that.

How to Use:

1. First, all that is needed is the executable (*.exe), found in /FFVIIHighwind/bin/x64/Debug/, however, this should be placed into a directory of some kind that you have 'write' permissions for, there are some cache files that are created in the same directory as the program to save yourself from constant recalculation.
2. Upon opening, you can click each Character to see all the paths available in the tree window.
3. You can start by entering in your Characters' Level, HP, and MP in the boxes on the top and then hitting Set, this will refresh the tree to that node and will show you the possible values you can get during the next Level Up. Hitting Clear will reset that Character and the tree will show Lv 1.
4. The tree will show to the Level of the Character, followed by the HP and MP value, followed by the chance of hitting that value, followed by two estimated amount of game resets required (the first one if you follow Highwind's advice, the second one if you don't). For example, one node in the tree may say: Lv 83 (7307 / 814) 4.3% chance [541.92 - 850.46 resets].
5. The "safe" values are color coded (Green to indicate a good value, Yellow to indicate a not-good but not the worst value, Red to indicate a bad value). Basically, if it's green definitely accept the value, if it's red definitely reject the value, if it's yellow you can make the call but it's recommended to reject the value, but you can see the estimated resets that will result.
6. When you've decided to accept the value the game gave you, select that node and hit Set, this will re-structure the tree and display it accordingly.
7. Optionally, you can hit Simulate after selecting any value in the tree and it will simulate 10k times, comparing "smart" vs "normal" strategies. Smart strategy is only accepting green values, normal strategy is accepting ANY safe value.

In review, you can either enter your Characters' Level, HP, and MP in the textboxes or by selecting a node in the tree and hitting Set, depending on which is more convenient given the situation. Focus on hitting Green values, but you can consider taking yellow values as well with a penalty.

Evolution:

1. First, Terence, a user on GameFAQs, pioneered the exploration of the game's inner calculation of HP and MP during each Level Up. He found that for each given Level Up, there are 8 possible HP values and 8 possible MP values. Due to the game's algorithm, he found there was a curve to the calculation, effectively penalizing you for always only going for the highest HP or MP available. Instead, it's generally better to go for average until the end. He then provided 2 charts for each Character, one for HP safe values and another for MP safe values. These are to help guarantee a possible path to a maximum value at Level 99.
2. However, it was later found that it's not possible to gain both the highest HP and highest MP during the same Level Up, so additional work was needed to determine how to grow both HP and MP at the same time. AbsoluteSteve, another user of GameFAQs, created 1 chart for each character that combined both HP and MP.
3. As mentioned earlier, there's 8 possible HP and MP values during each Level Up. These are determined by the game's RNG (Random Number Generator). However, due to the game having a poor RNG implementation, it was found that not only is the highest of both not possible to achieve, there's a couple combinations that also aren't possible. Along with that, it was found that some combinations hit more often than others, in fact, some hit 9/256 while others hit 1/256. Because of this wide disparity of probability, this would mean that some paths leading to Max HP/MP have better probabilities than some others. That is what Highwind helps you, the gamer, determine. Starting at Level 1 for a given Character, the smart/normal resets may show as 600 vs 950, meaning, if you stayed true to the smart startegy, on average, you will reset your console 600 times. If you take ANY safe value, you will average 950 resets. Yellow values can be considered, but they will, on average, result in more resets, but not more than 3 resets more.