what party for Grimstone?

[Jesse]

Hi

I'm 9 hours into Grimstone and only just got past the prison and into the town after the path blocked by angels. The game is horrifically unbalanced and I picked a trainwreck (pun intended!) of a party that is missing and doing 1 damage 80% of the time. It's extremely annoying, but I love everything else about the game and when watching a walkthrough saw people take only an hour to get to where I am now so I'm gonna bite the bullet (pun intended!) and just start over.

What party would you say makes the game easiest consistently all the way through? The one caveat is I refuse to leave Rufus in the fire, I'm not a monster.

thanks

[Arzaac]

If you want a consistently powerful posse, it'll probably look like this:

Pearl - She's the 2nd or 3rd tankiest posse member, so putting her at the front of the posse can soak a lot of hits. She mainly uses shotguns and heavy weapons, which are of varying usefulness. Basically she'll do a bunch of damage when she hits, but she's pretty weak against evasive foes. Still a very strong posse member, especially early game.

Umbra - Arguably just the best posse member. She's got strong single target damage, the best AoE in the game, great sustain with her heal, and good buffs/debuffs. Her two main weaknesses are that she relies on SP and isn't very tanky, but your next two posse members will help solve this.

Maria - One of the best single target damage dealers in the game. Has the best attack scaling in the game, and uses Rifles, which are powerful single shot weapons. Maybe her best quality is related to her story vignette though: When you encounter Betty, you can pay 4k teeth instead of fighting her. Doing this turns Betty into a vendor who sells coffee, a full SP heal, for 1k teeth each. She's an incredibly powerful combo with Umbra for that alone.

Rufus - You said you want him so we're bringing him! His damage is somewhat mediocre, but he has a permanent protect status applied, so he'll jump in front of dying allies to save them. This is really useful, but he himself doesn't have great bulk, so you probably want him in the back of the posse at full health. His presence does mean you won't lose too many people in random encounters though, and there's a late game dog treat shop that lets you buff him into the best posse member.

[Foamed]

Party selection:

Bull (or Pearl), Lee, Maria, and Umbra for the absolute best optimized group. Lee and Umbra are absolutely mandatory as they have the best abilities/spells in the game.

Maria can do the most damage out of all the characters with the calamity rifle, she also unlocks purchasable coffee which allows you to fully regain all mana in the mid-game (pay 4,000 teeth to settle a debt).

If you want a better late game group then switch out Bull/Pearl for Anne, but get ready to grind more. Anne is absolutely useless until the late game.

Your party should stay in this formation: Bull/Pearl at the top, then Lee, Maria, and Umbra at the bottom. If you pick Anne you should let Lee stand first, then Maria, Umbra, and lastly Anne.

Bull is better with rifles and fighting powerful enemies, his story perk teaches you the protect skill, and can harden at level 50.

Pearl is a better at fighting groups with her high skill in shotguns and heavy weapons. Her story perk is a big letdown but at least it can be completed early.

If you absolutely have to take Rufus with you then substitute Lee with Rufus. Rufus is going to be absolutely garbage until the late game, he's worse than Anna until you can purchase dog treats.

Umbra spell picks:

- Heal (it can resurrect characters, it can even resurrect Umbra if she's already dead).
- Flap (if you picked Bull/Pearl). Pick leech if you have Anne on the team.
- Howl if you picked Bull/Pearl), pick Fang if you have Anne.
- Gust
- Shield
- Gallop
- Pick Regen if you want to survive fights, or camo if you want to avoid them. You can purchase salt to evade enemies for longer, but it's nice to be able to skip dangerous areas.
- Heal 2
- Squeeze (anti is a waste to pick, status ailments aren't a big issue in this game).
- Revive or Flurry - You can pick either, just be aware that holy water can be purchased. I'd probably stick with flurry.

Lee should acquire the "multhit" ability from the knocker enemy (found in the first dungeon, the mine) as soon as possible, it will carry you through the whole game. Take out all the enemies then spam lassos while you try to study the knocker, you'll get it eventually.

Another good ability for Lee is "break" learned from studying bisonmen and wardens.

Best of luck.

[CabbitGurl]

I beat the game pretty easily (also cherried at the same time) with Pearl, Maria, Umbra, Anne (that party order from top to bottom) and it was a blast

[Arzaac]

I disagree on the spell list a little bit with umbra - in particular, I really don't think Heal 2 is worth it. It doesn't really do anything a medkit can't do, and in exchange you're giving up Umbra's damage.

Similarly I don't think Gallop is an always take - if you took Fang, sure, Gallop is a nice buff. But if you took Howl, you probably really want to take Kick to give her some single target damage.

[Foamed]

Originally posted by Arzaac:

But if you took Howl, you probably really want to take Kick to give her some single target damage.

You pick gallop for the improved survival during big encounters and boss fights. You don't need more than one single unit attack spell unless it offers a debuff or a stun.

Pick crush if you're going to have a really good single unit damage spell, the only problem is that you get it pretty late into the game.

[Jesse]

thanks yall! that helps - a buncha characters i didnt pick lol - my posse was Anne, Doc, Rufus and Pearl. I do just like...no damage. I've gone a few turns in a row doing 10 damage a turn besides Rufus several hours in. It's brutal. And Rufus has been missing more too but...I just can't leave him behind.

I think I'll do Bull > Umbra > Maria > Rufus. I'm pretty disappointed in Pearl also, the shotgun does basically no damage like 50% of the time.

[Foamed]

Originally posted by Jesse:

I think I'll do Bull > Umbra > Maria > Rufus.

Just keep in mind that your party position should be Bull first, Rufus, Maria, and lastly Umbra. You could potentially switch Rufus and Maria's position if Rufus keeps dying.

[Jesse]

oh ok gotya thanks!

also i just restarted - this is a completely different game lol. I do hope they rebalance/patch some of the characters later to make more teams viable. It took me 3 hours to save that kid from the mine the first time i played and i just did it in 30 minutes without buying any equipment yet....