Huge difficulty spike in Shambala

[Arcaniaz]

Been doing well up to this point and been keeping my equipment up to date. Just arrived on shambala and cant beat the first boss. I'm wondering if I need to purchase gear upgrades? What merchant should I check for the latest gear?

[phenir]

The merchant in Shambala sells pretty good gear. Get the chests around the village first though so you don't waste money.

[Arcaniaz]

Originally posted by phenir:

The merchant in Shambala sells pretty good gear. Get the chests around the village first though so you don't waste money.

I'm having a hard time even getting to the village though. First boss is rough. Enemies were rough too so I think something is off for my characters. Anyplace before then I can get better gear?

[Jeff]

Have you explored all the previous areas and done all the sidequests and stuff you're able to up to that point? I just got to the same area and had the opposite thought - I found the enemies and boss (including the emblem battle) easier than I expected. I haven't done any grinding, but I've been pretty good about collecting all the treasure I can from all the previous areas and fully exploring them and doing side quests before moving on.

[Nero]

It's been a while so I'm not totally sure but IIRC the shop in New Wyrnshire should have the latest gear up to this point.
Do look there. And don't forget to upgrade your gear.

Also you could do some side quests, look for class emblems (eg just north of Rockbottom, etc), searching for new recruits for your base.

For the enemies and the boss: Use Glenn's UM always when possible (the bar gets filled for bosses anyway).
Yes, Robb sucks. But he is your only reliable source for slowing the enemies down, especially bosses.

Glenn's Ultra (when available), Victor's shield spell and Sienna's blinding thing should always be your first moves, like literally in every single fight.

[jerseyp19]

You need to be using your sky armors to fight enemies in this area.

[phenir]

Originally posted by jerseyp19:

You need to be using your sky armors to fight enemies in this area.

Did you read the thread? He hasn't even gotten to the village.

[Nero]

One thing I forgot: Do you claim your chain rewards?
Go in the reward board menu and press the button that's shown down on the screen (eg triangle on PS4/5)

Maybe you've missed a level or two. Or don't have enough Sacred Water to unlock class trials

[Rampage]

uhm isnt this the part where the game majorly opens up and gives you an airship to go ANYWHERE?
Perhaps a hint you should do some side quests and can grind whenever you want or collect any material you need...

[Arcaniaz]

Do class emblems give levels? I can def do a few more.

I've done all available side quests at the moment and been completing alot of the reward board.

I found out one of the enemies giving me issues is just a unique monster so I guess thats why it was so tough.

Its really just Egyl that's giving me issues.

[phenir]

Class emblems don't give levels but they do give some bonus stats when equipped. You should be able to get 7, though the archipelago one might be difficult.
Egyl is the last fight before the village. Are you debuffing his attack with Glenn? Got hp regen and other buffs from Victor? I think you can get leg shot on Robb at this point and the monk class for the aoe agility buff.

[Arcaniaz]

Well I did the class emblems and went around hunting the unique monsters. The extra Earth ability helped and I finally beat him.

[Arcaniaz]

Originally posted by Nero:

One thing I forgot: Do you claim your chain rewards?
Go in the reward board menu and press the button that's shown down on the screen (eg triangle on PS4/5)

Maybe you've missed a level or two. Or don't have enough Sacred Water to unlock class trials

Ugh, finally got the end game dungeon before I realized this was the issue. Didn't realize there was a second page to claim your rewards. No wonder the game was so damn hard.

Anyone else having difficulty issues: you have to manually claim your rewards on BOTH pages of the reward board.

[Nero]

Originally posted by Arcaniaz:

Originally posted by Nero:

One thing I forgot: Do you claim your chain rewards?
Go in the reward board menu and press the button that's shown down on the screen (eg triangle on PS4/5)

Maybe you've missed a level or two. Or don't have enough Sacred Water to unlock class trials

Ugh, finally got the end game dungeon before I realized this was the issue. Didn't realize there was a second page to claim your rewards. No wonder the game was so damn hard.

Anyone else having difficulty issues: you have to manually claim your rewards on BOTH pages of the reward board.

I'll say it again: Chained Echoes is indeed a 90/100 game.
But the tutorials / help messages, etc. are utter trash.

I mean, yes, if one reads all the text in the menu one SHOULD find out (eg for PS4/5 "Oh, I have to press Triangle and then again Square to claim the chain rewards").
BUt the thing is: Some people simple didn't. I myself didn't know that you can manually level up skills using your free skillpoints until after I beat the strongest boss.
(this is helpful to level skills you just "bought" or so)

This issue backfires hard, eg. here:
https://gamingtrend.com/feature/reviews/chained-echoes-review-complexity-is-not-compelling/
By just reading the review you know in an instant that this guy simply didn't understand the mechanics and this isn't his fault alone.


When taking into account that every other shard-purchase is a "level up" (except for Robb for whatever reason) stat-wise I can really imagine your pain in the game so far.
It's not only the stats, it's the timing of when you eg reach a new "skill-tier" which can drastically change the flow of the game (eg stuff like all-break, leg-shot, Heaven's Tear, aso)

[Zalugar]

To throw in my two-cents, the only tutorial information I thought was lacking in the game were gems and exact mechanics of some debuffs. But I'm also in the camp of 'I'm okay with figuring it for myself.' Makes feel old that this camp isn't the default anymore. Gems were the hardest to figure out, personally, due to needing to fully back out of the menu every time to play with them and the scrolling being inflexible. Everything else I understood through its explanation when given.

Also, that reviewer not only didn't understand mechanics, but he didn't understand the writing or the plot either. I think he just has personal issues. He's one of many reasons I don't bother reading game reviews anymore — their purview almost never matches my own.

[Nero]

Originally posted by Zalugar:

To throw in my two-cents, the only tutorial information I thought was lacking in the game were gems and exact mechanics of some debuffs. But I'm also in the camp of 'I'm okay with figuring it for myself.' Makes feel old that this camp isn't the default anymore. Gems were the hardest to figure out, personally, due to needing to fully back out of the menu every time to play with them and the scrolling being inflexible. Everything else I understood through its explanation when given.

Also, that reviewer not only didn't understand mechanics, but he didn't understand the writing or the plot either. I think he just has personal issues. He's one of many reasons I don't bother reading game reviews anymore — their purview almost never matches my own.

While I get your point the game really has some issues on that front.
What does eg Sienna's Dragon Fang "scales with AGI" even mean?
Where does the game say that crits are capped at 200% dmg?
And so on.

And reviews are important as stupid as it sounds.
Google eg that stupid thing between Bethesda and Obsidian regarding Fallout: New Vegas not reaching 85 on Meta.

This hilarious review of this guy (who gave Forspoken a 90, WTF....) in indeed part of the Metascore or Opencritic score
https://www.metacritic.com/game/switch/chained-echoes/critic-reviews

BUt I agree, that guy is no real reviewer and fails at being objective (that's what differs reviewers from users).
Eg, even if someone sucks at playing Cuphead or Elden Ring they sill can't rate them 60/100 or so, that's simply unprofessional.

And yeah, that guy takes the cake. Playing on easy because normal is too hard (triedto brute force every battle...) and then complaining that's too easy...
What the...