Learn how to effectively use Item Synthesis in Star Ocean: The Last Hope to enhance equipment with powerful factors, manage Synth Limits, and craft ultimate gear.
When Sarah joins the party, you gain the ability to perform Synthesis at the Item Creation terminal. Synthesis lets you fuse an item to a piece of equipment, adding special factors or raising its stats. Select the Synthesis option at the Item Creation terminal and you will see a screen somewhat different from the screens for inventing or creating items.
Choose the piece of equipment you want to enhance. That will become your "Base Item." Then select an item to synthesize to your base item. You can choose the "Additional Item" from the equipment lists or from other categories like usable items, food and other items. Select an "Additional Item" and the "Notes" section of the screen will display the stats and factors your Base Item will have after synthesis, with the changes highlighted in green.
Different items will affect the Base Item differently. Select an item to see what effect it will have. Don't worry, you won't actually synthesize the items until you select "Start." Try various items in the lists until you find one with a factor or factors that interest you. Then select "Start" to synthesize that item to your equipment Base Item.
Factors
A piece of equipment can carry up to four "Factors" that can give it special effects. If the equipment already carries one or more factors, you can only add factors through Synthesis until the four-factor limit is reached. Synthesize an item with two factors to a piece of equipment that already has three factors, and only the first listed factor will be transferred.
The Additional Item you choose may have a different effect depending on whether you are synthesizing it to a Weapon, an Accessory or a piece of Armor. Listed below are items that add some of the most beneficial equipment factors.
| Item | Weapon Factor | Accessory Factor | Armor Factor |
| Saber-Toothed Tiger Fang | ATK +18% | ATK +10% | |
| Faerie of Agression | ATK +18% | ATK +10% | |
| Mana Ribbon | INT +18% | INT +10% | |
| Faerie of Wisdom | INT +18% | INT +10% | |
| Red Dragon Scale | DEF +12% | DEF +20% | |
| Faerie of Fortification | DEF +12% | DEF +20% | |
| Faerie of Accuracy | HIT +25% | HIT +15% | |
| Faerie of Protection | GRD +15% | GRD +25% | |
| Hyper Potion | ATK/INT/DEF/HIT/GRD +5% | ATK/INT/DEF/HIT/GRD +3% | ATK/INT/DEF/HIT/GRD +5% |
| Potent Health Seeds | Maximum HP +10% | Maximum HP +20% | |
| Potent Magic Seeds | Maximum MP +10% | Maximum MP +20% | |
| Ultimate Bomb | HP Damage +35% | ||
| EM Bomb | HP Damage +20% | ||
| Slayer's Bangle | Adds one hit chance per attack | Adds one hit chance per attack | |
| Crystal | Increases critical hit chance | Increases critical hit chance | Maximum MP +300 |
| DANGER! DO NOT DRINK! | Adds stun effect to attacks | Adds stun effect to attacks | Increases chance to survive incap via fury 40% immunity to stun status |
| Riot Potion | MP Cost -10% in battle | MP Cost -5% in battle | |
| Blue Talisman | Nullifies HP damage 15% of the time | Nullifies HP damage 25% of the time | |
| Red Talisman | Nullifies MP damage 15% of the time | Nullifies MP damage 25% of the time | |
| Green Talisman | Increases chance to survive incap via fury | Increases chance to survive incap via fury | |
| Barrier Spiritwater | 10% immunity to all status ailments | 15% immunity to all status ailments | |
| Healing Band | Restores 2% of HP periodically in battle | Restores 3% of HP periodically in battle | |
| Regeneration Symbol | Restores 2% of MP periodically in battle | Restores 3% of MP periodically in battle | |
| Curry Rice | ATK +2 +20% EXP after each battle | ATK +1 +15% EXP after each battle | |
| Mille-Feuille | INT +2 +40% Fol after each battle | INT +1 +30% Fol after each battle |
In some cases, the factors added through Synthesis have changed from the original Xbox 360 version of the game. As an example, on Xbox, Curry Rice had the factors: +20% EXP after each battle and ATK +2 when synthesized to a weapon. You could use an "overflow trick" to synthesize four +20% EXP after each battle factors to a weapon. The factors stack, giving you a weapon that would increase EXP by a total of 80%. Make a weapon like that for each member of the battle party and you could earn 320% more EXP than you normally would receive for a battle.
For later versions of the game, the developers eliminated that exploit. The ATK +2 junk factor was moved to the top of the Curry Rice factor list. There is no way to remove an unwanted first factor, so you can't add more than two "+20% EXP" factors to a weapon.
Synth Limit
A piece of equipment can carry a limited number of factors and each also has its own Synth Limit. The Synth Limit is the maximum number of times you can synthesize an item to that piece of equipment. Most equipment has a Synth Limit at or around four; the same as the factor limit. Some pieces can accept more synthesized items, making them more desirable for Synthesis.
The example shown in the image above uses a Laser Suit as the Base Item. The Laser Suit (and the Laser Weapon) are great Base Items for Synthesis because each has a Synth Limit of 16. You can add the factors you want and still have a high Synth Limit for further Synthesis.
Synthesizing Ultimate Equipment
The Laser Weapon and the Laser Suit are the best Base Items for creating ultimate equipment through Synthesis. They have no factors, so you can add the four factors that you want. Each has a Synth Limit of 16, allowing you to add your factors and still synthesize more items to boost equipment stats. Finally, they can be equipped by anyone. You can create one and then Duplicate it for other party members.
Once you decide on the factors you want, add all of them to your Base Item at the same time. To do this, synthesize items with the selected factors to a different piece of equipment that carries no factors of its own. Then synthesize that piece of equipment to your Laser equipm
100% Human-Written. AI Fact-Checked. Community Verified. Learn how AntMag verifies content