Struggle for Freedom Proud Mode (PM for short) is a more difficult version of the Struggle for Freedom mod intended for veterans of the game and those seeking a more thrilling challenge. Although it is certainly doable by players unfamiliar with XII, it will be very difficult without being familiar with XII's mechanics, so new players may wish to play the "regular" version of SFF.

Please check out SFF's page here for more details on the base mod.

A few VERY IMPORTANT things to keep in mind:

1. This is a beta, so things may need to be fixed/rebalanced. I will make sure this is updated regularly as bugs are fixed. That said, there are some bugs already known, so please check the Known Bugs section at the bottom.

2. This mod may not be for everyone, and that's okay! Proud Mode is very challenging and is meant for those who really want to push XII's battle mechanics to the limit. "Regular" SFF may be preferred by players who are new to the game.

3. This mod is completely separate from "Regular" SFF. As such, you should not have "Regular" SFF installed at the same time, and you should start a new save specific for Proud Mode to prevent bugs/other unintended issues.

4. Many things in PM are experimental. Chances are good that you may not agree with all changes made. PM has been, for me, a bit of a sandbox to see what works, what doesn't, what's balanced, what's not, what players like, what they don't, etc. To that end, feedback is super important! The changes that people really like will likely be migrated to "Regular" SFF in future updates.

5. Proud Mode is based on the upcoming 1.91 update of SFF. To that end, there are several changes from 1.9. The 1.91 changelog can be found here.

Without further ado, here's a general changelog (full changelog included with documentation, which will be uploaded shortly after the mod is uploaded):

ENEMY EDITS:

-Enemies get an HP boost generally starting at Giza Plains (Rain) and beyond. This makes regular fights more interesting, as it allows enemies to use their attacks more often, but shouldn’t drag fights out significantly longer, especially as weapon ATK has not been decreased.

-Many enemies have had changes to Steals/Drops/Poaches/etc.

-Each enemy gets at least +5 STR/MAG/VIT/SPD and +25% DEF. Some enemies also have some other stat boosts, such as Tortoises all having 99 VIT.

-Many enemies are now considered Flying, or can Teleport.
New Flying Enemy Types: Gargoyles, Steelings
New Teleporting Enemy Types: Mage-type enemies (such as Mindflayers, Imperial Magi, etc.)

-Many enemies now inflict debuffs that they didn't before.

-Enemies may now use abilities that were not previously in their arsenal.

-Evasion is a greater factor on some enemy types, such as Cactites, Gargoyles, etc.

-"Alpha" enemies are now much stronger and, as a result, now yield more EXP/LP.

-Jelly farming has been severely nerfed. They now give only 1 EXP.

-Certain enemy types are now much more resilient to physical or melee attacks, making a varied party/skillset more important.
Physically Resistant Enemy Types: Slavens, Flans, Tortoises
Magickally Resistant Enemy Types: Golems, Urstrixes, Dreamhares

-Entites now have max STR/MAG/VIT/SPD, making them much harder to take out, but the reward of a 100% Halcyon (needed for many ultimate weapons), is worth it!

-The Imperial Magus in the tutorial fights at Nalbina now have a 100% chance to drop an Ether.

-Cactites in the Estersand have a 100% chance to drop Potions now, reducing the need to backtrack to Rabanastre when the gate is closed.

-Steelings in the Garamsythe Waterway now have a 100% chance to drop Potions, reducing the need to backtrack to Rabanastre after going into the sewers.

-Enemies in the Necrohol of Nabudis and Nabreus Deadlands have had changes to their Drops, Steals, and Poaches to make them less game-breaking.

-Some enemies have been completely replaced with new ones. The old bestiary entries will still be triggered, however.

CHARACTER EDITS:

-Penelo now starts with the Orrachea Armlet equipped (and begins with the related License).

-Amalia/Ashe now starts with Thunder.

-Upon Balthier/Fran joining the party, 50 Potions are added to the party’s inventory to make up for there being no easy way to attain them at that point before some tough fights. Use them wisely!

GUEST EDITS:

Lamont:
Lamont is now very similar to a White Mage, but tends to have very potent buffs for the time that you receive him. His spells cost halved MP, and he tends to prioritize supporting and buffing more than healing. Larsa will heal allies (though not as well as a proper White Mage), and will buff himself repeatedly, allowing the player to finish off with Stamp to buff the entire party at once when he is almost fully buffed.

Passives:
-Parry
-Halved MP Cost
-Warmage
-Martyr
-Spellbound
-Ignore Traps

Abilities:
-Cure
-Cura
-Bubble
-Bravery
-Faith
-Stamp
-Water
-Syphon
-Charge
-Haste

Vossler:
Vossler is a true warrior, focusing on raw offensive might, powered by Bravery and, if the player manually wills it, Berserk. Vossler is able to penetrate enemy buffs with Dispel and Erase (which can also be used to heal debuffs if the player wills it), and is able to Expose to reduce enemy DEF. Using Blitz, he can take out large swaths of enemies at once.

Passives:
-Counter
-Counter Plus
-Adrenaline
-Focus
-Ignore Traps
-Attack Plus

Abilities:
-Blitz
-Expose
-Souleater
-Erase
-Telekinesis
-Bonecrusher
-Shear
-Berserk
-Dispel

Larsa:
Almost exactly the same as Lamont, albeit replacing Cure with Regen, since Cure is fairly useless by the time the party gets him. Water has also been replaced with Drain, as Water’s power falls off hard around that time as well.

Passives:
-Parry
-Halved MP Cost
-Warmage
-Martyr
-Spellbound
-Ignore Traps

Abilities:
-Cura
-Regen
-Bubble
-Bravery
-Faith
-Stamp
-Drain
-Syphon
-Charge
-Haste

Reddas:
Reddas is a quick, speedster-type party member, being able to penetrate through enemy evasion while deftly evading attacks himself. Reddas focuses on quick blows with a high combo rate, allowing him to quickly cut down foes.

Passives:
-Null Evade
-Shield Block
-Parry
-Counter
-Combo Plus
-Ignore Traps

Abilities:
Traveler
Float
Hastega
Slowga
Thundaga
Blowfish
Immobilize
Blindga
Drainga
Syphon


EQUIPMENT EDITS:

-Armor and some Accessories now provide less DEF/RES, meaning enemies will deal more damage. Every single point of DEF/RES now matters much more than it does in normal modes.

-Weapons now provide far less Evasion than before, making it harder to simply shrug off attacks. However, certain weapons (and weapon types) still have better EVD than others, making EVD builds still viable.

-Blood Sword is now Non-Elemental, rather than Dark.

-Anastasia is no longer 0 CT, but uses the Speed formula and has 110 ATK, making it stronger than most Daggers/Ninja Blades, albeit slower.

-Excalibur’s ATK has been reduced from 122 to 107.

-The On Hit percentage of most Daggers has been reduced from 25% to 15%. They are still the best debuffing weapons however due to their high Combo rate. However, this change should make inflicting debuffs via spellcasting a little more attractive while keeping a relatively high proc rate on Daggers. Zwill Crossblade (Add: Sleep) remains the same at 10% as well as Mage Masher (Add: Silence) at 12%. Most Daggers now have an EVD of 7%, except for Main Gauche, which is at 15%.

-Ninja Blades have been revamped to be more unique and not just a straight upgrade from Daggers. Ninja Blades now have 0 CT, but also only 2% EVD, making them very speedy weapons, albeit at the cost of EVD. This makes Daggers good for EVD/debuffing, Ninja Blades good for raw speed, and Knuckles good for their versatility. Sakura-Saezuri now inflicts Silence (5%), Kagenui inflicts Slow (5%), and Iga Blade’s Oil proc is 5%. Mesa loses Auto-Haste and its ATK has been increased from 90 to 102. All Ninja Blades now have 0% Combo to make up for them having 0 CT.

-Spears have been edited to give additional stat boosts compared to other weapons. This allows the wielder to play around with things like magick, simply boosting their own strength, or acting faster in general. The Zodiac Spear is now attainable earlier in the game, albeit at the cost of having to defeat a Diakon Entite.
-Javelin is now long-range, but can’t Combo.
-Spear grants +20 VIT.
-Partisan is well-balanced, granting +25 HP/MP.
-Heavy Lance grants +7 STR and +5 VIT.
-Storm Spear grants +10 SPD and Immune: Slow.
-Obelisk is good for mid-game mages, granting +70 MP and +6 MAG.
-Halberd is 1H, allowing Shield usage.
-Trident is also well-balanced, granting +10 STR/MAG.
-Holy Lance is good for end-game mages, granting +120 MP and +9 MAG.
-Gungnir grants +50 SPD.
-Dragon Whisker grants +12 STR and +10 VIT.

-Rods have been altered slightly; they are now more geared towards support and other abilities that allow the White Mage to sit back and heal or focus on healing better:
-Serpent Rod now has 6% EVD (matching other Rods) and 0 ATK, but inflicts Poison/Sap at a 100% rate. Bonk the enemy once to start their imminent demise and then get to healing!
-Lilith Rod is now Guardian’s Rod. It has 0 ATK, but 20% EVD, allowing the caster to heal the party while more easily avoiding attacks.
-Power Rod is now Gravity Rod, which has 0 ATK, but inflicts Immobilize and Slow at a 100% chance. However, as a tradeoff, it has 0 EVD and a lengthy CT at nearly twice the speed of other weapons.
-Empyreal Rod is now the Punisher, a 40 ATK Rod that ignores the user’s stats and uses the Gun formula.
-Holy Rod’s ATK has been decreased from 63 to 56.

-Diamond Armlet now enhances the accuracy of Steal and allows for the theft of multiple items, emulating the Master Thief effect. This is useful for those playing the Unchanged version, where Master Thief is only present on Monk.

BAZAAR EDITS:

-The recipe for Soleil Fangs now yields Duel Claws instead.
-The recipe for Holy Mote now yields a Manufacted Nethicite instead, and is now non-repeatable.
-The recipe for Dark Energy now instead yields 99 Black Orbs for use in the Pharos/Subterra.
-The recipe for Holy Mote x5 (requiring the Diakon Halcyon) now instead yields a Zodiac Spear.
-The recipe for Scathe Mote x5 now instead yields a Sage’s Ring and is non-repeatable.
-The recipes for Stoneblade and Great Trango have been swapped.

ESPER EDITS:

-Espers now have completely overhauled abilities and properties. See here for full details. However, PM has Espers having reduced timers compared to those found in the document.

ITEM/SHOP EDITS:

-Teleport Stones and Gysahl Greens now cost only 2 Gil. Loot items that shouldn’t be sold (things such as the Great Serpentskin, Jaya Stick, etc.) now sell for only 1 Gil, indicating that they really shouldn’t be sold.

-All Gambits now cost only 1 Gil to purchase.

-The Clan Shop has been altered slightly:
-Moppet: Decoy
-Hedge Knight: Oil
-Rear Guard: Gauntlets
-Vanguard: Drain
-Headhunter: Ether
-Ward of Justice: Steel Poleyns
-Brave Companion: Syphon
-Riskbreaker: Bubble
-Paragon of Justice: Drainga
-High Guardian: Winged Boots
-Knight of the Round: Cat-Ear Hood
-Order of Ambrosia: Various high level Consumables/Loot/Accessories/Spells

-New Potions have been introduced. Mega-Potions, which heal in an AoE, and Ultra Potions, which heal even more than X-Potions.

-Potions/Hi-Potions/X-Potions/Mega-Potions/Ultra Potions now share the same animation, which is much faster. This will hopefully make item healing more reliable compared to before.

-Float Motes are now known as Levisalves and Dispel Motes are Purifying Salts.

-39 new Azuricite items have been added. Azuricites are gems that house an enemy’s soul, allowing the player to use them to unleash an ability based off traditional Blue Magick abilities. These are obtained primarily by Poaching enemies. The full list of available Azuricite, their effects, and from what they can be obtained from can be found here.

TREASURE EDITS:

-Treasure chests have been significantly altered. Now, chests will only spawn if they contain a set item and will not respawn. In other words, the amount of chests is significantly decreased and said chests will no longer respawn. This means that Stealing/Poaching is more important, Gil is more valuable, and using Shops/Bazaar wisely is crucial.

-Some treasures have altered rewards.

-The chest containing a Sakura-Saezuri in Barheim now contains Ashura.

-Sagittarius has been moved to later in the Necrohol and is a reward for fighting Humbaba Mistant.

-Shades of Black’s chest has been replaced with Shades of White. Shades of Black can now be found in the Nabreus Deadlands.

-Bonebreaker has been moved from Cerobi to the Ridorana Cataract.

ABILITY EDITS:

-Quickenings now have a Charge Time of 99. This makes their use somewhat more tactical. Instead of being able to instantly deal large chunks of damage to a foe, it’s more important to protect whoever the user will be while they charge their Quickening.

-Bleed is now available much earlier, being available for purchase from Bhujerba now (rather than Jahara). It has also been moved to the Time Magick 3 License. MP cost has also been reduced from 10 to 6.

-Regen is now considered Time Magick and is attained from the chest formerly containing Vanish at the Tomb of Raithwall. It can be found on the Time Magick 3 License.

-Vanish has been replaced with Dia, which is now a mid-level White Magick Holy Elemental damaging spell (similar in power to -ra level spells). It costs more MP than spells of the same level and deals slightly less damage to represent White Magick users not being offensive casters, but is great for taking out individual Undead enemies, who tend to be weak to Holy. It can be obtained from the Giza (Rains) at the Nomad Camp and Tchita Uplands, and is part of the White Magick 5 License.

-Debuffing spells are now more accurate to adjust for higher enemy VIT and to make them more attractive options, particularly early-game. Note however that this also affects when enemies use these spells, meaning they will also be more accurate when used against the party. Base accuracy has been changed as follows:
-Confuse: 70% -> 80%
-Blind: 75% -> 85%
-Blindga: 65% -> 75%
-Silence: 75% -> 85%
-Silencega: 65% -> 75%
-Sleep: 60% -> 70%
-Toxify: 75% -> 85%
-Slow: 85% -> 100%
-Slowga: 65% -> 85%
-Disable: 50% -> 60%
-Break: 65% -> 70%
-Countdown: 65% -> 70%
-Berserk: 70% -> 85%

-1000 Needles is now Blowfish (to prevent redundancy with the 1000 Needles Azuricite.) It now also deals a flat 2000 damage, making it more viable with enemies having increased HP pools.

-Enemy abilities have been buffed and are now more dangerous. Many have increased power, or inflict statuses that they did not before.

TRAP EDITS:

-In general, Traps are now far more dangerous. Using Libra/Float/Bangles is key to not being taken by surprise.
-Explosion traps now deal additional damage.
-Sten Needle traps now inflict both Sap and Immobilize.
-Fusilade traps now deal additional damage.
-Wizardbane traps now deal additional damage.
-Choking Gas traps now inflict both Doom and Disable.
-Stone Gas traps now inflict Stone, rather than Petrify.
-Swarm traps now inflict Poison and Sap in addition to Disease.
-Oil Bug traps now inflict both Oil and Slow.
-Gil Bug traps now reduce Gil by a much higher amount.
-Rejuvenation/Manafont traps now only restore the HP/MP of the person who steps on it.

LICENSE EDITS:

-Balthier loses Time Magick 3 and gains Blitz, for those using the Struggle/Freedom boards.
-The Second Board now costs 1 LP, for those using the Unchanged/Rebalanced boards).
-All Gambit slots now cost 1 LP.
-Quickenings now cost 250 LP.
-All Espers now cost 1 LP. Summon them and use them more freely, knowing they’ve been buffed and are useful.
-Warmage now costs 200 LP.

GAMBIT EDITS:

-Several new Proud Mode-unique Gambits have been added:
-Foe: Not Undead (great for using Drain/Drainga/Syphon!)
-Foe: Lowest Defense
-Foe: Lowest Magick Resist
-Foe: Resistant to Gun Damage
-Foe: Casting Magick
-Foe: Immune to Physical Damage
-Foe: Immune to Magickal Damage
-Ally: Is Not Affected by Protect (great for Gambitting things like Stamp and Shades of White!)
-Self: Item Amount >= 30

HUNT CLUB EDITS:

-1 Trophy to either Atak/Blok/Stok now allows for the purchase of a 10 Ultra Potion bundle.
-5 Trophies to either Atak/Blok/Stok now allows for the purchase of a 5 Mega-Potion bundle. 
-10 Trophies to either Atack/Blok/Stok now allows for the purchase of a 10 Hi-Ether bundle.
-15 Trophies to either Atak/Blok/Stok now allows for the purchase of a 2 Elixir bundle.
-10 Trophies to Atak and 5 to Blok now allows for the purchase of a High Arcana.
-20 Trophies to either Atak/Blok/Stok now allows for the purchase of a 5 Elixir bundle.
-25 Trophies to either Atak/Blok/Stok now allows for the purchase of a Megalixir.
-5 Trophies to Atak, 5 to Blok, and 15 to Stok now allows for the purchase of 99 Mega-Potions.
-30 Trophies to either Atak/Blok/Stok now allows for the purchase of a 5 Megalixir bundle.
-25 Trophies to one of the brothers and 1 to the other 2 now allows for the purchase of a 5 Elixir bundle.
-12 Trophies to one of the brothers and 5 to the other 2 now allows for the purchase of a 99 Ultra Potion bundle.

MISCELLANEOUS EDITS:

-After reaching the Gambit tutorial, you’ll start with a variety of Gambits that won’t need to be purchased. These Gambits will hopefully make early-game fights a little less tedious, requiring less manual entry. These Gambits are:
-Foe: Fire-Weak
-Foe: Thunder-Weak
-Foe: Ice-Weak
-Ally: Status = Poison
-Foe: Flying

-After getting Amalia, the below Gambits are automatically added to the inventory:
-Ally: Status = Sap
-Foe: Undead
-Ally: Status = Blind
-Ally: HP < 60%
-Ally: HP < 40%
-Foe: Status = Oil
-Foe: Character MP >= 30%

STATUS EDITS:

-Poison, Doom, Petrify, and Regen all now tick faster.
-Immobilize’s duration has been decreased from 50 ticks to 30.
-Silence and Blind no longer last indefinitely and wear off over 60 ticks.

KNOWN BUGS:

-Hydro may randomly not act at all after reaching 50% of his HP.
-Character portraits appear in the non-Struggle/Freedom License Boards. This is just a graphics bug, and is not a suggestion for who should take which jobs.
-Steel Poleyns/Quasimodo Boots have incorrect text. The former increases Attack damage by 20%, the latter reduces all damage taken by 30%.
-The Hybrid Gator in Ozmone is bugged and will not attack.
-Tiamat has an animation issue during a certain attack.
-Agate Ring will show "NOT USED" text.