so is it ok to grind half way threw the game

[funchowharris]

i read a guid saying battel ranks are bad but is there a cap to were eventualy they stop going up and i can have veary strong caricters. sorry for any misspelling im bad at it

[ArcRiseGen]

IIRC, Battle Rank caps at 255. However, you don't want to raise Battle Ranks too fast. What you want to do is raise your stats alongside your Battle Rank.

Basically, you want more fights where at the start of the fight, your morale bar is lower than the enemy's or equal to it. Having a lower morale bar than the enemy's means your Battle Rank is lower than the enemy's, leading to better stat gains (as long as your Unions are alive by the end).

Don't try to raise your Battle Rank. Focus on raising stats by fighting monsters stronger than your teams or equal to your teams and you should be fine. Let the Battle Rank increase naturally.

[PinkPаптҥэя]

Originally posted by funchowharris:

i read a guid saying battel ranks are bad...

Not as bad as in the XBOX version, so if you read a guide for that version it's good to know that a too high BR in the PC version is not such a sensitive issue any more.
But still, don't waste your BR for no stat/skill gains in return.

You gain BR for a certain number of enemy unions defeated.
You gain stats/skills mostly for arts performed.
So you want the greatest number of arts performed against as few enemy unions as possible.

This equals to long battles against few enemy unions (= rare monsters), opposed to one turn battles against a lot of weak mobs.
So avoid cleaning entire areas of weak enemies; this is not grinding, but destroying your BR.
Better engage every rare you can find and do all side quests.

Originally posted by funchowharris:

...but is there a cap to were eventualy they stop going up.

Both stats and BR will not rise any longer if the BR of your party is more than ~10 higher than that of the enemy. You can tell this situation by your starting morale being mostly in the blue.

[Stabbey]

Grinding is generally unnecessarry. It's also a bad idea to grind in part because new units join your group with their stats at a fixed BR, and if your BR is a lot higher than theirs, they won't be very effective. It's better if your BR is below the BR of the new party members joining, because they'll gain more stats.

You probably don't want to grind until you have most of your final party decided on and in your group. I say most because some good units are obtained after some very tough battles.

Even then it's probably better to grind Bai Ze to get specific arts up on specific characters rather than just grind everyone up just because grinding.

[Squidcake]

that BR system was fairly aggravating really. If you didn't read a guide on it, it was very easy to completely handicap yourself towards the end of the game, having to deal with enemies that way more powerful because they scaled to your overly high BR.
Even though when people start losing a lot of fights, the instinctive reaction was to increase your BR ...

I've always hated that about japanese games, these unintuitive, generally convoluted under the surface mechanics that just serve as an added layer of unnecessary frustration. In this case the BR system and the seemingly arbitrary nature of union members upgrading and obtaining skills That being said, I pushed through this game and ended up enjoying it quite a bit. But preferably, you'll want a guide

[BIngBong]

my br is 16 and i have to fight the one in nests eye i think was the name? im stuck. any help?

[PinkPаптҥэя]

Tactics for Nest of Eagle:

Let David lead a union with a reviver in it. Stand by until the guest union gets killed, then have David's union revive it. The very next turn David's unions should be out of deadlock and thus be able to fire Gae Bolg.
Next, two Reinforcements move in. After they are finished (you might get another Gae Bolg if you keep David out of deadlock), let one union, preferably the guest union, target Roeas and the others Castanea. As soon as one of them dies, the surviving one will use Overdrive. David's team should be on healing/standby as often as possible, because his special arts are not usable when in deadlock.
It's better to terminate Castanea first because otherwise his AoE attacks under Overdrive can be deadly for the entire party.
Good luck!

[BIngBong]

yea thats the problem. i cant seem to find one with revive. im out of gold too. should i grind?

[PinkPаптҥэя]

This battle will yield 14675g, so I would not recommend to grind for gold. Only if you lack the gold to buy reviving herbs, then I'd go hunting some rares.

As for revivers, the best would be Faye from Celapaleis. But without gold she's no option right now. So I'd suggest hiring one or two Athlum soldiers: Sutherby & Neales. They will not last for the entire game, but are well suitable for temporary duty.
You can still hire Faye afterwards, when you got the gold.

[BIngBong]

ill try that thanks! the last time i got real close was a one on one with Castanea, I thought castanea was the girl so i killed her first. big mistake XD

[PinkPаптҥэя]

The girl is Roeas, she's single-deadlock, thus less dangerous than Castanea, the big hammer guy, who is multi-deadlock.

[BIngBong]

so thats my mistake, Castanea ♥♥♥♥♥ 1 hits my whole team. how long does gae bolg take once used, to use again?

[PinkPаптҥэя]

Needs 80 AP, more enemy unions than you and David out of deadlock, that's all.

[BIngBong]

thanks!

[xhin the caveman]

Guys need help,what do I press to capture monster using keyboard?

[BIngBong]

capture? u mean fight it? spacebar i think