Lapis

What is Lapis?
Lapis is the more important of the two kinds of currency normally used in FFBE. (The other type is gil, which is primarily used to buy items from in-game NPCs, pay for crafting fees, and fund character enhancements and awakenings.) Lapis is used to expand your capacity for various items, and to purchase rare character summons. Unlike gil, Lapis can be purchased in-game using real money, if you so desire. You can also earn a guaranteed 90 Lapis every day just by completing daily quests and participating in some Arena battles, as noted below, so the decision of whether or not to purchase Lapis with real money will never completely devolve into a "pay or suffer" situation.

Your current total Lapis can be seen in the upper right corner of the Home screen, next to a blue gem (Lapis) icon.

How do I get Lapis?
Lapis is valuable, but buying it isn't the only way to acquire it. In fact, the game is very generous with its Lapis, especially for newer players. Here are the normal ways you can acquire Lapis:
 * 1) Purchase it. This method is highly time-efficient, but obviously, the drawback is that it costs actual money that could have gone to a savings account or a new book instead.
 * 2) Complete mission areas on the world map. Beating all red (story) missions in a given map area results in a one-time reward of 100 Lapis per area. Exploration quests (green missions) do not need to be completed to earn this reward.
 * 3) Rank up. Earning enough rank experience will increase your rank, and each new rank comes with a free 100 Lapis reward.
 * 4) Complete daily quests. By completing at least 5 of your daily quests, you can earn 50 Lapis once per day. See gameplay flow for details.
 * 5) Complete secondary goals. Near the beginning of the game, nearly every combat stage and map exploration stage can grant up to 50 extra Lapis when all the optional conditions are met. (Later stages usually offer 30 Lapis and an item.) These conditions are listed before the stage begins. You can only complete the optional conditions for any given stage once; after that, completing them again yields no additional Lapis. However, you can go back and complete unfinished goals at any time.
 * 6) Win gold trophies. FFBE awards trophies for various player achievements, accessible through the Menu link on the Home page. Players can earn Bronze, Silver, and eventually, Gold trophies in each category, and almost every Gold trophy comes with a 500 Lapis prize. Each prize can only be won once in a given account. Gold trophy winnings usually start accruing after a few months of steady play.
 * 7) Fight in the Colosseum. The Colosseum has several large Lapis prizes - from 100 to 500 Lapis per prize - waiting for you as you progress through its battles. Each Colosseum Lapis prize can only be earned once.
 * 8) Fight in the Arena. Arena matches come with participation awards, granted on a cycle that resets daily. You can earn up to 40 Lapis per day (2 x 20-Lapis prizes) by fighting in the Arena 5 times each day.
 * 9) Conquer Elite-level limited-time events in the Vortex. Most Elite versions of time-limited Vortex missions in FFBE grant Trust Moogles as a completion reward rather than Lapis. However, they may occasionally offer a good amount of Lapis as well - usually 100 or so - for completing all their optional goals. This method of earning Lapis is minor, and not feasible for most players until they have at least finished the story progression up to the current point, and built a competently-equipped party of max-level 6-star units. In other words, this isn't a good strategy for newer players. Elite-level challenges tend to be quite difficult.

What can I buy with Lapis?
There are actually quite a lot of things:
 * Rare character summons are probably the most common purchase for experienced players.
 * Each summon costs 500 Lapis, although spending 5000 Lapis will get you a free bonus summon and a guaranteed unit with a 4-star base rank or higher. I recommend never paying 500 Lapis for a single summon, but the 5000-pull may occasionally be worth it if you have your eye on a specific featured unit.
 * In addition, most days, you can make one summon per day at 250 Lapis - half the usual price. If you must spend Lapis on a rare summon, this is generally the smartest way to do it.
 * Found under the Summon menu, on the Rare Summons tab.
 * Extra character slots. For various reasons, it usually behooves you to hold on to most of the characters you summon, but you will quickly run out of space for them without adding more space. Additional slots can be purchased in bundles of 5 per 100 Lapis spent.
 * It's generally advisable for newer players to add character slots periodically/as needed, as the benefits of having a wider roster will eventually outweigh the Lapis cost.
 * Found under Shop > Slots.
 * Extra item slots. There are several different item categories, each with their own set of slots. You can add more at a rate of 5 slots per 100 Lapis spent.
 * The most important item slots to expand as needed are Equipment slots and Materials slots, followed closely by Ability slots. True "Item" slots (for items that are usable in battle, like potions) are actually not very necessary.
 * Found under Shop > Slots.
 * Extra friend slots. You can have up to 30 friends in FFBE, each of whom may send you a small free gift each day, and who will be easily available to help you with your quests and explorations each day. If you want to add more than 30 friends, you'll have to spend 100 Lapis per 5 additional friend slots.
 * There are some good reasons to consider this, but for the most part, your Lapis will be better spent on other things.
 * Found under Shop > Slots.
 * Special bundles. These usually include Rare Summon Tickets and various enhancement items for your team.
 * These aren't usually as wise an investment as rare character summons or character slots, but once in a while there are some very good deals to consider.
 * Beware - some bundles cost actual money instead of Lapis. Look before you buy!
 * In most cases, each bundle can only be purchased once.
 * Found under Shop > Bundles, or by tapping the blue treasure chest icon on the Home page.
 * Magic Keys. These are used to open the locked silver chests (actually black/dark gray colored) you will see around towns and map explorations as you play.
 * It's rarely necessary to purchase them as they can also be crafted and occasionally acquired in other ways.
 * In addition, I highly recommend you look online and see what's in a silver chest before unlocking it, as most of the prizes aren't really worth the trouble.
 * Found under the Shop menu.
 * NRG Restoration. 100 Lapis will restore your NRG to its maximum any time you like.
 * This isn't a very cost effective way to play the game, and I don't recommend doing it in most cases.
 * The option to spend Lapis on NRG appears automatically if you try to play a mission without having enough NRG for it.
 * Alternatively, you can purchase NRG at-will from the Shop menu, under Restore NRG.
 * Continues. If you get wiped out during battle, you can often pay 100 Lapis to revive your party to their full health and pick back up where you left off. In some cases, though, continues are not allowed. (This will usually be noted next to the name of the mission before you select it.)
 * Most of the time, continuing with Lapis isn't a great strategy, but I do recommend considering it in two cases:
 * One, if you're close to beating an optional boss and earning a valuable reward (such as a powerful weapon, or more than 100 Lapis) from it;
 * Two, if you're extremely frustrated with the fight, reasonably confident you can finish it with one continue, and really not looking forward to suffering through it again if you lose.
 * DO NOT spend Lapis to continue if you aren't in a boss fight. If a regular fight takes you down, you won't make it through the boss anyway, so it's best to take the loss and go train for a while instead.
 * The option to continue is presented automatically upon an eligible Game Over.