Is there ever a reason not to fuse your equipment?

I've been finding a lot of equipment that are not as good as what I'm currently using. Gald also doesn't seem to be an issue.

Is there ever a reason not to go ahead and fuse the equipment together to upgrade the equipment's stats?

Solution 1:

Fusing equipment increases your equipment's stats. This is good. You want the highest +X values for your equipment that you can find.

But Fusing equipment means potentially changing skills. This may be good or bad. The logic there is simple -- each item has 4 "slots" which can each contain a skill. When an object is fused, the slots are combined -- 1 to 1, 2 to 2, etc. If the skill is the same in both slots, it remains. If the skills are different, they will become a locked 3rd skill (this will be shown on the Fusion screen).

Having duplicates (stacks), adjacent (horizontal), or an entire column (vertical) skills give you E-Bonus meta skills. Some of these skills are pretty good, such as the 1st column bonus, Soljurr, which gives a flat bonus to all stats.

Essentially, the E-Bonuses you're getting might be more valuable than the raw stats you're gaining from a +X fused equipment.

The other reason to not fuse is much simpler -- fused items can be resold for much less money than unfused items. So if you're trying to make money, don't use Lailah or Edna's Fusion ability -- the base equipment is better value.