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Puppetmaster: Understanding PUP Guide

CAUTION!
This article is only a guide. Information expressed in a guide is usually more opinion than fact and should be taken as such. Guides are written by players, based upon their experiences, successes and mistakes, and meant to aid other players. However, there may be differing opinions than those expressed in a guide.
Strategies and information in guides may not work for everyone.

Intro

This guide is meant to educate the adventurers of Vana'diel about the Puppetmaster job. Through my travels as a Puppetmaster, I have encountered many who were unfamiliar with the job. They knew nothing about the job, not even its fundamental operations. If they had a Puppetmaster in their party, they didn't know what the PUP's role was or could be.

I was not an exception either. Before picking up Puppetmaster, I too had very basic knowledge of the job. It was this lack of understanding that inspired me to pick the job up in the first place. As I progressed I discovered one of the best parts of the job was teaching fellow adventurers what a Puppetmaster was capable of.

Quick note on terminology

I will refer to the actual adventurer character as the Master or Player.

I will refer to the Automaton as the Puppet or Auto.

If I use PUP, it is referring to the job as a whole.

The Master

Like Summoner the focus of PUP isn't on the Player but on the Puppet. So Master isn't very special. This sadly causes some stigma. Many have difficulty adding the abilities of the Master and the Puppet together to get an accurate assessment of the job. Much of this stems from the lack of knowledge about the Puppet. However, an understanding of the Master is essential to understanding PUP.

Combat Skills

The Master is burdened with a C in Hand-to-hand (H2H) and a C- in daggers. Most Players opt for H2H for the slightly increased skill and because the H2H Weapon Skills are pretty good. This often causes the Master to be referred to as a gimp Monk. Which in all honesty, in a DD situation, isn't far off the mark. The C rating causes both Accuracy and Attack to become an issue. Due to the Masters odd gear selection (covered later), it can be hard for a Player to make up the skill gap in gear.

The Master is given some decent defensive skills, with a B in Evasion and B- in Guard (though Guard is notoriously hard to skill up). The B Evasion coupled with the Evasion Bonus traits will cause the Master to evade similarly to an A+ skill without the traits. This is a great benefit when fighting Tough or lower monsters. It also makes farming Easy Prey very safe.

Job Traits

The Master receives its first Martial Arts trait at level 25 and receives the other two at 50 and 75. For comparison a Monk receives six Martial Arts traits. Martial arts reduces the delay on H2H weapons allowing for more attacks in the same amount of time.

The Master receives its first Evasion Bonus trait at level 20 and receives the other two at 40 and 60. For comparison a Thief receives four Evasion Bonus traits and a Dancer receives three. These traits act like putting on evasion gear. Again, coupled with the Masters B Evasion Skill, the Master has an impressive evasion.

The Master also receives Resist Slow, but it is not critical for understanding the job.

This guide will not cover Merited traits.

Job Abilities

The Master receives very few actual job abilities (pet commands covered in the Automaton section).

  • Activate summons the Master's Puppet. This has a 20 minute timer and can be very disheartening if a PUP's Auto dies shortly after summoning. (timer reset covered in Deactivate)
  • Overdrive increases the abilities of the Auto for one minute. This is PUP's two hour. The Puppet will hit harder, faster, and more accurately. The Puppet cannot overload but still suffers from burden (covered later).
  • Repair will use an Automaton Oil (equipped in the Ammo slot) to restore HP to the Master's Puppet. This actually gives a regen effect that restores HP over ten ticks. Amount restored depends on the Oil used. A select few pieces of gear also enhance this effect.

This guide will not cover Merit abilities.

Gear choices

If I were writing a guide for any other job I would probably exclude a section like this, but PUP has an interesting gear selection. As far as DD gear goes, the selection is terrible. Not until the 70s does the Master see any really good pieces of DD gear. Much of the Master's choices before then are what is considered "Mage Gear." Cloaks, slops, mitts, gloves, clogs, capes, etc. If you've seen a mage in it, there is a good chance a PUP can wear it.

I mention this because it is a critical factor in understanding PUP. A well geared Master (pre-70) often looks really under geared compared to any other pure DD job.

Weapon selection, however, isn't too terrible. The Masters can't use Cesti or Knuckle H2H weapons which are the best kinds in the early levels. When the Pata/Hook style weapons come along, around level 50, the H2H selection becomes much better. The gap between a Monk and a PUP as far as good weapon selection becomes very small.

Master's Role

While this will be covered in more depth later, I felt a quick view would prove useful. The role of the Master (besides controlling the Puppet) in a party, is often that of a DD. They are found up front meleeing, trying to overcome the C rated combat skills. Because actions taken while controlling the Puppet aren't too complex, there is little point to the Master sitting in the backline.

The Automation

The meat of the PUP job. If I had to put a number on it, about 70% of PUP's versatility and power come from the Puppet. That's not to say that the Automaton will do 70% of the damage all the time. Just a number to demonstrate how much of PUP comes from the Puppet.

Note on pets in general

Pets follow some slightly different rules when it comes to attacks. Their Attack and Accuracy are calculated differently. I can only assume this was done to make up for the lack of gear for pets. This is especially apparent in Accuracy (even more so in Automatons). Also there is one critical difference between pets and players. Pet's melee attacks cannot deal zero damage (A Puppet's ranged attacks can deal zero) except when prevented by Stoneskin, Invincible, Phalanx, or some other physical immunity. This is important for skill ups and against very high defense mobs.

There is another important distinction between players and pets. When a pet uses a curing ability, such as a Wyvern's Healing Breath or a Puppet casting Cure IV, there is very little enmity generated. This "hate-free" method of curing can be very important in low member parties. Where there may not be a true tank or a consistent way to generate enmity to focus the monster on one player, having a way to avoid the enmity flux from curing can be essential to the party dynamics.

Commands

  • Deploy is the basic attack command. It makes the Puppet perform its attack pattern which is determined by the head and maneuvers up.
  • Retrieve will call off the attack. The Auto will return to its Master's side.
  • Deactivate will Unsummon the Puppet. In order to reset the Activate timer, the Puppet must be at 100% HP. Any less and the Activate timer will be unaffected.
    • Note: There are ways to accidentally deactivate a Puppet. This will not function like a Deactivate and will not affect the Activate timer. If a PUP rides a chocobo, it will desummon the Auto. If the party Level Syncs to a level lower than the one the Puppet was summoned at, it will desummon the Auto. For example: If a PUP has a Puppet out, summoned at level 50, and the party syncs to level 45, the Puppet will desummon. If that PUP then resummons the Puppet at level 45, the party Delevel Syncs, and then Relevel Syncs to level 45, the Puppet will stay out. If the party were to Relevel Sync to 44 in the previous situation, the Puppet would be desummoned.
  • Elemental maneuvers will help control the Puppet's actions and give stat boosts based on attachments. The maneuvers last for one minute and are all tied to the same ten second recast timer. A PUP is allowed for three maneuvers at once. It can be any combination of the eight elemental maneuvers.

Overloading and burden are covered in later sections.

Heads and Frames

The heads of the Puppet determine its attack pattern. Also, they will determine what spells the Puppet will cast if the Frame allows for spell casting. All heads do have a spell casting pattern despite the associated frame having no spells.

The frame affects the skills, HP, MP, base stats, Weapon Skills, Evasion, Defense, and Attack types.

This guide will only cover homogeneous (ie. no mix and match) Head and Frame combinations.

Harlequin

The Harlequin frame's melee attacks deal blunt damage. The Harlequin has fairly moderate stats across the board.

This is the starter Head and Frame. It only has enfeebles and cures. The skills are average. As are the stats, defense, and attack. There is nothing wrong with this frame, but there is nothing special about it. It doesn't have much use once other combinations have been acquired.

Weapon Skills

Harlequin and Stormwaker frames share the same Weapon Skills.

  • Slapstick is a three hit blunt damage Weapon Skills. There is nothing much special about it. Because the frames that use this Weapon Skills are relatively weak, the damage from this isn't too impressive. It's not bad, just nothing special.
  • Knockout is a one hit blunt attack that lowers the target's evasion. Because it is a one hit attack the damage is much more consistent and is much improved over Slapstick. It will hit much harder than a full three hits from Slapstick.
  • Magic Mortar is a one hit special damage attack. The special damage is similar to Spirits Within damage. In fact Magic Mortar is like a reverse Spirits Within. Its damage is proportional to the HP the Puppet is missing. The lower the HP the more damage, but the greater the chance to be taken out by an AoE or a stray hit.

Stormwaker

The Stormwaker frame's melee attacks deal blunt damage. The Stormwaker has low defense, low evasion, low HP, and high MP.

With the Stormwaker head it is often referred to as the Red Mage Puppet. It has curing magic, enfeebles, and elemental nukes. It will only cure the Master and itself. It will prioritize the cures by hate. If the Puppet is the main target of the monster, it will cure itself. If the Master has hate or neither the Puppet or Master have hate it will cure the Master.

The Stormwaker frame also has other heads. These heads change the spell casting pattern as well as give access to new spells and restrict others.

The Soulsoother head is often referred to as the White Mage puppet. It loses elemental nukes but gains the regen line, status cures (-na spells), and Cure V. It will also cure other players beyond the Master. It will only cast Regen on the player with hate and if that player is below 100% HP but above the percent needed to trigger a cure. It prioritizes the Master and itself over other players. So if the Master or the Puppet need a cure it will tend to that first. Then it will cure the player that needs a cure and has the monster's attention. If the player with the monster's attention does not need a cure, but other players do, the Puppet will choose one based on current HP of those players. The Puppet will also take care of any status effects on the Puppet and Master before curing.

The Spiritreaver head is often referred to as the Black Mage puppet. It loses the cure spells but gains Drain, Aspir, and Absorb-INT. It also gains access to higher tier nukes in later levels. Due to the amount of MAB that can be accessed from attachments, this Head and Frame combination can produce some impressive numbers. However, the Stormwaker head and Spiritreaver head do not differ in nuke access until later levels.

Weapon Skills

Harlequin and Stormwaker frames share the same Weapon Skills. Refer to the Harlequin section.

Sharpshot

The Sharpshot frame's melee attacks deal blunt damage. The ranged attacks deal piercing damage. The Sharpshot has high evasion, low defense, and moderate HP.

Often referred to as the Ranger puppet, the Sharpshot is the choice for dealing physical damage in a party situation. The only time the Sharpshot is not preferred is against high defense mobs (crabs and beetles) or when the mob uses many AoE attacks (goblins). With respectable TP gain if meleeing while firing, the Sharpshot's Weaponskills can produce excellent numbers.

Weapon Skills
  • Daze is a one hit piercing attack with a stun effect. The stun effect will typically last about one to two seconds. The damage on this is much improved over Arcuballista. This is one of the reasons this frame is preferred for physical damage situations.
  • Armor Piercer is a one hit piercing attack that (possibly) ignores the target's defense. This further improves the damage from Daze making this a deadly attack for both the monster and the Puppet.

Valoredge

The Valoredge frame's melee attacks deal slashing damage. The Valoredge has high defense, high melee attack, high HP, and a faster melee attack rate.

Often referred to the Paladin or Warrior puppet. However, the Valoredge cannot casts spells. It has the ability to Shield Bash and will attempt to Shield Bash a monster's TP moves. Many players think that Valoredge can tank in a party. This is not the case. While it can take damage and has decent HP, it is too hard to heal. If players could heal the Puppet it might stand a chance, but even then it takes considerably more damage than a Paladin.

Weapon Skills

Attachments

Attachments are in essence equipment for the Puppet. They are stored in the Puppet, so no inventory space is taken by them. From giving Accuracy to giving Refresh, attachments have a variety of types and uses. Some attachments give stat boosts, like Tension Spring and Armor Plate. Some will change the AI, like Damage Gauge. Some will give job abilities, like Flashbulb and Mana Converter. Some will give job traits, like the Coiler and Mana Conserver.

An Auto has 12 total slots for attachments. Each attachment is associated with an element. Each head and frame combination allows for so many attachments of a single element. Some attachments will take multiple elemental slots but will only ever take one physical slot.

An attachment's effectiveness increases as maneuvers of the same element are used. For instance, the Tension Spring (a fire attachment) gives the Puppet an attack boost. With a Fire Maneuver up, it gives even more attack boost. As maneuvers of the same element are added, the attachment's effectiveness increases further. Some attachments will do nothing until an associated maneuver is used. These are mostly the attachments that either change AI or give job abilities.

Playing the job

This section is not specifically meant to give advice on how to play PUP. It is to demonstrate what a Puppetmaster is doing and what the PUP has to deal with. It is also here to give an idea of what a PUP can bring to certain situations.

Starting warning

If you are reading this guide trying to decide if PUP is for you, I have a few words of warning.

The start up cost of PUP is extraordinarily high compared to other jobs. A Monk can effectively go from level one to ten with minimal gear. A PUP could probably do it too, but the Puppet control skills required to operate at later levels would be undeveloped. An Auto doesn't function well without attachments. The "standard" set of attachments (the ones bought from Yoyoroon) cost around 110k for all 16. The other attachments come from a variety of places. The cheaper attachments, on my server, currently cost between 5-10k. Some of these cheaper attachments are great to have and can vastly increase your Puppet's power. Other, more expensive, attachments are nice but are not required in early levels.

To have a well geared Puppet at level one can cost nearly 200k. However, this is a one time cost and you will never have to buy those attachments again. With proper attachments and Puppet control, your Auto will be nigh invincible for the first 10 levels.

Burden and Overloading

Burden is how much elemental stress is on a Puppet. Each element has its own burden gauge. Burden is gained by using a maneuver. Burden is lost over time and only over time. Using a maneuver of an opposite element has no affect on any other burden gauge. The Master cannot see these burden levels. In fact, burden is a player created term used to describe this.

Excessive burden will lead to Overloading. When overloaded a Puppet will not respond to maneuver commands and all maneuvers will be removed. Overloads occur when a maneuver is used when over a certain level of burden. Even if this condition is met there is only a chance to overload. It is possible to get lucky and escape an overload, but even then the Master doesn't know a bullet was dodged.

There is one other way burden can reach high levels. Burden is set at (or slightly above) the overload point when an Auto is activated or has switched zones.

Party setups and the roles of the PUP

Solo

While not actually a party, PUPs make excellent soloers. With the possibility of hate-free cures, the Master will outlast the monster with curing power. Because Puppets can have their MP refilled in a variety of ways, there is no need for a PUP to stop fighting.

Duo

Now we have a situation where a PUP can play a few roles. PUP is very adaptable and the role it takes will depend on the other member.

  • If the other member is a DD or tank, the PUP will most often serve as a healer. The prime goal of the Master should be to keep the Puppet ready to heal. This requires the use of the Soulsoother head however.
  • If the other member is a magical DD, the team will most likely work together for a sleep nuke tactic. This does require that other member have a reliable form of sleep or method of kiting. The Master will most likely not be meleeing in this style of duo.
  • If the other member is another solo style job, both members will not need to make extreme changes to their solo tactics. The Master may not be tanking the majority of the time allowing for more damage options. For the most part the two members will just have to look out for themselves and everything will be fine.
  • If the other member is a healer or support job, the Master may very well be the tank. However, healer and support is a pretty broad definition and the role will depend heavily on the specific job and the style in which the other member plays that job. A DD WHM may be the tank while the PUP provides damage. A COR may just provide support and damage while the PUP tanks and heals.

3+ members

Now there are too many combinations to be covered individually, so I will give broad overview of how PUP fits into parties.

There are 2 main roles the PUP can fill. These were glossed over in the Duo section as well. A PUP often finds that a Healer or a pure DD helps the party most. As the number of members increases the likelihood that the PUP serves as the tank decreases (not that it isn't possible).

PUP as a healer

What can be expected of a PUP as a healer? Provided the PUP has the Soulsoother head, quite a lot. The Soulsoother/Stormwaker combo will cast a spell approximately every 25 seconds (depending on attachments and maneuvers). So every 25 seconds can be a Cure if necessary. The Puppet gains Cure spells at the same level a Red Mage would (provided the Puppet has reached the proper skill as well). In addition it gains Cure V at 61. White Mage also gains Cure V at 61.

How much of the healing needed can be covered by a PUP? In some situations, all of it. However, these situations are pretty rare. Mostly a PUP can serve as a strong primary healer with a secondary back-up. This secondary could be as much as a WHM or as little as a /WHM or a /DNC. The secondary healer is often freed up to pursue stronger support or damage roles than would typically be allowed.

When is a PUP healer the most effective? PUP healers often work best with PLD tanks. PLDs slowly take damage. Eventually the PLD will trigger a cure. Then the cycle repeats. Because PLDs are often better at keeping a monster focused on solely the PLD, the Puppet won't accidentally cure a DD that took hate as often. NINs tend to take damage in bursts. It can be a little scary for the NIN not to receive cures as soon as the damage starts to add up. The advantage of a PUP healer in this situation is that even though the Puppet may cast a big cure (Cure IV for example), the Puppet will generate little enmity.

When does PUP healing not work? Heavy AoE damage situations (like Goblins), AoE status effect situations (like skeletons), or when a status effect would be detrimental to your tank (Crawlers with a NIN tank). AoE damage will have the Puppet focusing on the Master and itself before the Tank or other critically injured players. AoE status effects will have the Puppet taking care of the status effects on the Master and itself before casting any cures. Because the Puppet will not cast status curing spells (-nas) on other party members and doesn't naturally get access to Erase, certain status effects will go untreated and can be very inconvenient for the tank. In these situations a PUP healer would function as a secondary while another member would be the primary healer.

PUP as a damage dealer

What kind of damage can a PUP deal? All kinds. The Master will primarily deal blunt damage with Hand-to-Hand weapons. The Puppet can be made to deal Slashing, Blunt and Piercing mix, or Blunt and Magical mix. So if a monster has a weakness to a damage type a PUP can at least partially capitalize on it.

What advantages does a PUP DD have? PUP DDs are naturally low hate. The total damage is split between two sources, so either one has a hard time taking and/or keeping hate. In drawn out NM or HNM fights a Puppet's damage will add up quickly. The Puppet cannot normally deal zero damage and can obtain impressive levels of accuracy. Therefore, the Puppet will consistently gain TP despite a high defense and/or high evasion monster.

Does a PUP DD really do as much as other DDs? In short, yes. A PUP allowed to unleash the full power of both the Master and Puppet will be in the same level as other DDs. The PUP does lack an extreme damage setup (like a Kraken Club DRK), so PUPs aren't really made for NM burning. PUPs are very consistent though.

What about PUP as a magical DD? They perform well. PUP is not a replacement to a solid BLM or SCH in terms of potential magical damage, but a Puppet can match a BLM in spell for spell damage. That is to say a Puppet's Fire IV can be as strong as a BLM's Fire IV. A Puppet can receive extraordinary amounts of MAB. This does leave one problem, magic accuracy. PUPs cannot reach the level of magic accuracy that BLM can. There is one attachment to enhance a Puppet's magic accuracy, but it's effectiveness has not yet been quantified. You can also get endgame gear that can enhance your automatons magic accuracy. The Mirke Wardcor's with the proper augments give you +7 Magic Accuracy and Magic Attack. Also the Pantin Churiders give an additional 5 Magic Accuracy. A Puppet can easily refill it's MP but is unable to cast spells back to back for quick damage.

Closing Comments

I hope this has given you insight to the world of the Puppetmaster. It is a complex job. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Let's give PUP a chance.

Source entry: Puppetmaster: Understanding PUP Guide. Cached on this server on 4 November 2026.

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