Example snapshot made using the Outerworld service, a low quality JPG file.
Outerworld Services was a way of communication in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII players could use to showcase their customized Lightning, location and character snapshots, bosses' Battle Scores, send items for sale (except for DLC items and weaponry/shields upgrade components), or buy items sent by other players. The service was added by Motomu Toriyama, the director of the game.. The service closed 26th April 2016.
Sending items for sale did not remove it from inventory, nor did one receive gil from sales. As it had no downside, one could always attach an item to their messages.
By submitting a boss score from the Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII demo, the player could unlock the Siegfried garb for use in the main game.
The player couldn't summon an Outerworld NPC if they were only linked to Twitter. Facebook was needed.
The player should have linked their PSN account to their Facebook account.
One could join the Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII for Timeline application on Facebook; .
The player could submit a Lightning message or take an Outerworld snapshot in-game, so they were added to the Outerworld application.
The player could look around on the application for someone with the item they wanted. This could have taken a while.
The player could press the "summon" button and take note of the name of who's selling the desired item, their message, etc.
The player could enter the pause menu; save, then choose "Exit game". When the player reloaded their file, checked around for an Outerworld NPC with the same name as the person they just saw., they could buy the item they wanted from them.
button to submit a snapshot.
All created snapshots are low-quality JPGs below 50 KB in size and 640×360 pixels in resolution.
On February 14th, 2014, Square Enix initiated a series of four "Outerworld Challenges": for every specific number of sent Outerworld snapshots within two weeks after Challenge's initiation a "new" garb was unlocked and a new Challenge appeared. When a Challenge's requirement were met, the garb was available at the Rewards Barter Shop provided that the player talked with an Outerworld Services non-playable character from Square Enix called "@LRFF13". All unlocked garbs came from the game's Hard Mode, and after being unlocked were available through the Outerworld Services until May 7th, 2014.
On the announcement day of Outerworld Challenges, Square Enix announced Challenge which said that posting 100,000 or more snapshots would unlock the Helter Skelter garb. By February 21st players were able to fulfill the requirement and the garb appeared within Square Enix's Outerworld characters. On the same day, it was announced that if Lightning Returns community reached 250,000 posts by March 7th, another Hard Mode garb, Duelist, would be made available through the services. On March 7th, Square Enix announced that the players completed the second Challenge, and announced the third on the same day without specifying the time limit, but mentioning a total of 300,000 posts should be made by the community to achieve the La Fouldre garb.
Gold Chocobo Chick in Nest was available between March 18th and March 25th. The subject's title was "Discover Enemy Weaknesses".
Dark Knight Glasses was available between March 21st and March 28th. The subject's title was "Use your EP Abilities".
King's Crown was available between March 25th and April 1st. The subject's title was "Quests, Quests, Quests!".
Gold Chocobo Chick was available between March 28th and April 4th. The subject's title was "Try using Guard!".
On the same day, it was announced that Square Enix would put back Cactuar and Tonberry figurines for players who didn't manage to get them the first time around.
"Almighty Bhunivelze" - "Crimson Blitz" - "Divine Love" - "Noel's Theme ~The Shadow Hunter~" - "Noel & Yeul ~The Promise~" - "Savior of Souls" - "Desert Lullaby" - "Will to Fight" - "Worlds Collide"
"Opening Theme" - "Eternal Wind" - "Battle 2" - "Battle at the Big Bridge" - "Terra's Theme" - "Etro's Champion"