How to survive?

[Brids17]

Is it normal for you to get two shot a lot in the game? I feel like perhaps I'm missing something because HP upgrades seem to do very little and armour doesn't feel like it makes much difference. Am I just supposed to grind like crazy to max damage and HP or is there something obvious I'm missing?

[Prominence]

Positioning can help. Use Guard to greatly reduce damage taken. Stacking evasion can also help.

[Omega]

Hold formation together, maybe use guard ability from sailor (halves damage received) on any character that is exposed and likely to get surrounded. I play on max difficulty (first playthrough), and it seems to be doable.

Don't forget to equip armors on every character (it might be easy to miss at first), every piece reduces some of damage, and cloaks add a lot of dodge (I think you can stack cloaks like 3 times, not sure if it's intended:P).

Get tons of bandages, on each character. I believe I get like 3 shot on my characters by spiders, but if you make a wall, they can only attack you 1-2 times, then you heal and counter:) Consider taking warrior's counterattack passive, it helps a ton in long fights.

Gl!:)

[game-zerox]

I think the main factor on how a fight develops depends on how you approach it. While yes buffs are important, there is still some more to it. That or just giving critical healing to your tanks.

First and most simple, how does your first round look? Did you start the fight with a strike from afar? Is your party going for buffs from a safe distance or do you go for an early kill? The main key here should be to avoid getting attacked when the enemy team has their first turn and start an engagement on your own terms.

A good second tip I got is how much damage and sustain is your group doing? This one is more asking about how easy/hard it is to take down a weak/strong foe because, as you've experienced, your characters usually can't take that many hits themselves. In short, take a look at the turn order and check if you can take down someone or if retreating to heal is a better choice.

Okay, I've talked a lot about planning and maybe not much about doing, so I'll just add a bit more. Remember your action economy as to waste your enemies turn while fully using yours. Immobilizing or silencing can take out an entire class line when used on the right one. Blind, poison and burn will dominate a fight and an early regen will save you if you choose to. Finally, use corpses as your extra walls.

[Brids17]

Provided the fight doesn't start in a really bad spot, I do try to position everyone so they aren't hit by the enemy in the first round and can move in and get the first hit. Admittedly, I don't know if my builds or damage is all that good, I went with a fairly standard RPG party of tank, off tank, melee DPS, ranged DPS, AOE/support. It's hard to know if the damage output is good, I will say landing AOE is difficult due to cast times, so I've been falling back on instant cast spells at the cost of their lower damage.

[IreneFray]

I'm just going to give a bunch of small things to consider that you can take or leave, or experiment with. Most of these should be pretty easy to implement in an early game party but I wanted to emphasize that some of the skills the game hands you at the start are good at even the highest difficulties in increasing survivability.

That Sailor Steady skill that applies Guard is so good that keeping it up at all times on Ruin difficulty is the main thing that reliably keeps me alive in the early game and whenever I run into something that outclasses me, I fall back on making sure 2 of my party can cast this on everyone. That and Swagger are never bad uses of a turn that a character can't hit someone right at the start of the game. Swagger even helps with positioning someone out of harm or into a favorable position for next turn.

High Morale and Guard makes your party have so much more survivability that there's a lot more time to get your kills and healing where it needs to be.

Your party's formation should really be built around what kind of support abilities and weapons you're carrying.

If you're using a greatsword, your front line should form a wall for melee enemies to line up for big swings whenever it's safe to do so and you're not dealing with big enemy AoEs.

If not, a lot of early heals and buffs affect a cross formation that I like to keep the healer in the center of. A single healer w/ regen and heals every turn can deal with a lot of incoming damage. Doubly so if the party has Guard or high morale.

If I've got a ranged heavy comp, my spellcasters tend to invest in the starting caster's wind skill to make kiting easier.

The basic Warrior's shove can also be great for setting up enemies into AoE range, shove them away from anyone you need to protect, or, into other enemies for bonus damage to both of them. (I tend to keep someone as a basic Warrior for a looooong time because Bash is one of my favorite skills and Battlecry to reduce some, but not all, enemy types' morale can also up your survivability and ensure enemies are dying quicker from lowered defense.)

An early priority for me is to give most if not all members of the party a buff/support ability, as spending that first time buffing our stats and what we're capable of is really what lets me punch above our weight class.

Like for my tank, the Defender class is something I like to speed into unlocking, as its rally skill can raise a cross of unit's morale at once. But if one of my other melee classes (you have an off-tank) doesn't have anything they can do w/ their choice of buff or subclass, I would also have them consider some time in the Defender class to get two casts of Rally on the party to max out our Morale right at the start of the fight. That's +2 to your defense and +4 to your offense stats no matter your party composition.

Don't be afraid to keep characters in classes until they hit those 250 exp thresholds for extra stat stars. It doesn't take long to make a character fairly competent, often only a few good skill options. Getting a lot of hp/mp or heavy into weapon/elemental skills is more of a long term thing.

Just about all the starting classes can be workhorse subclasses until you unlock and settle into a primary class you're happy with.

[McFrugal]

One hp boost purchase doesn't do a lot, but they're much cheaper than other upgrades so en masse they contribute a lot.

[Gilmoy]

Briefly, yes, getting two-shot is always a threat.
Human-like monsters with classes are just as deadly as yours, with the same skills.
(Caveat: Their gear sucks. They use low Iron, no enchantments. And it beats you.)

You can consistently beat them, outlast them, yoink them, and outplan them.
Your tools suffice. "Just" play full game, see every advantage, go go go and get them,
and weave everything into your big-brain plan.

Then increase difficulty to Intense to give all AIs +60% stats, and beat them anyways.
They don't get +60% to their AI brains

I weave a bit of everything. Briefly, record everything, cherry-pick, and go get it.

• You're right, Armor is a drop in the bucket.
  Mithral armor absorbs 2 Physical damage. Only 2. They hit you for 20 - 2.
  
• Don't (All) Get Hit. Position, position, position.
  Never let them swarm you. Don't dumbly All Rush Forward.
  Count tiles, stay out of range, run backward, run around rocks, chokepoint them.
  
• Absorb chunk damage.
  Sailor Steady for Guard buff is good all game long. You never outgrow it.
  High Morale is another +2 damage absorption, plus it buffs your damage.
  
• Heal damage.
  Tactical healing is OP in your favor in every game that has it.
  You can take infinity damage and heal it all, they can't.
  At least 1 guy always has Scout First Aid + Medic, and does nothing else.
  (OK, maybe he's a Stormshot and gets 1 alpha-shot.)
  
• Hit them harder.
  Enchant all your weapons. Enchanting is crazy free.
  All it costs you is time, in any port with a Smithy.
  Rotate all of your spare Focus items onto weapon (and armor) slots.
  Your landing party of 5 should all have Mithral/Volskarn, with all slots full.
  You can change your mind at any time, for free, and pull items out of slots.
  
• Cheese game rules in your favor.
  Unconscious bodies (yours and theirs) block 1 space each.
  They get in your way. They get in their way.
  Push guys into water, or into Spikes, or into each other.
  Tile a floor with Wood Debris and ignite it. It booms powder kegs.
  
• In certain fights (esp. boardings), +mobility is precious.
  Sailor Swagger is a free +2 tiles of movement, plus its buffs.
  That means you can regular move + free 1/2 move. It's a tool.
  Similarly, Charge, Hurricane Kick, Sidestep fill this role.
  
• Yes, do buy up each hero's first +3 HP, costing 1* each.
  They'll never be cheaper, and having only 20 HP sucks.

Ultimately, it's like any other tactical party-vs-party game, c.f. Fell Seal.
The best way to not get two-shotted is to never take 2 full shots on any 1 guy.
You can prep, take 2 half-shots on 1 guy, promptly heal, KO those 2.

It helps to recognize every class and active skill from their icons alone.
(But you can hover over enemy character sheets and read at leisure. There Is No Clock.)

[IreneFray]

Originally posted by Gilmoy:

• Cheese game rules in your favor.
  Unconscious bodies (yours and theirs) block 1 space each.
  They get in your way. They get in their way.

I actually just won a fight because I was able to use the dying actions of two characters to left click and drag corpses in such a way that my 2 healers were completely inaccessible from the enemy party's melee units.

I'd never really considered it until now that a healer walking towards the enemy, positioned in the middle of a bunch of corpses can't be hit unless they have a 2+ tile range.

[Syger]

I love all the tactics available. Even sailor has it's uses. Nothing more satisfying than using rope on a corpse to snag it out of an enemy revive xD

[Gilmoy]

Wow, I never even thought of that. Sensei, teach me more!