Stranger of Sword City- Early game

[MaChao]

While i'm certainly not new to the genre and i'm not afraid of some grindyness, the early game feels a tad too cruel, unless i'm missing something.

EXP gain is exceptional miniscule, (normal) gear seems to make little if any difference, survivability is rather poor, turning trips even to the Mausoleum of Metal to a slog and the way the game seems to handle levels (a.e. enemy levels and player levels don't seem to corelate, trash mobs start at lvl 12) makes it difficult to judge a situation and often turns it into trial and error.

Don't get me wrong, this is less of a complaint and more me just asking if i'm missing something vital or if the game is actually meant to be this slow and difficult at the beginning.

[Sigil]

what is SoSS? and what is MoS? mauseoleum of storm?

[MaChao]

Originally posted by Chupacadabra:

what is SoSS? and what is MoS? mauseoleum of storm?

Yeah, i misspelled a bunch, i blame the toothache and painkillers xD
I meant SoSC = Stranger of Sword City and MoM = Mausoleum of Metal

I'll correct it asap, thanks for pointing that out!

[dudex]

if u are struggling stack evasion on everyone. u will barely be touched by enemies without magic.

i

[Silverquick]

Oh yes it is,

The first few levels are brutal, you have no skills yet, and don't have the equipment. Its best for the first few levels to go hunt the Ambush sites for gear. Once you have better gear then things get a little easier.

It still doesn't prevent them from One shotting your front liners on occasion, you just have to make absolutely sure to use your flash escape if you see monsters in the group that are 10 levels over yours.

The game WILL do that to you on occasion to keep you from getting complacent, and you'll get wrecked. So always make sure to check the levels of you opposition so that doesn't happen.

It starts to get better around level 4 as you have more survivability and better gear.

[superjwren329]

Well, stacking Avoid spells only goes to far since it's capped at 10 per character. But yeah, the early game's a bit on the slow side, since if you're hoping for good weapons, there's one or two good ones at Rank E for each type while the rest of them, not so much.

As for enemy levels, them being 10+ higher than your party's going to be a thing for most of the game, it's not...as much of a problem as stuff that's 15 levels is still doable if your team comp's alright and anything 20+ is something that if the first turn is not good in terms of damage taken or doing little damage to an enemy, you'll want to Flash Escape out of there.

Rows of enemies, your best bets are Wizards with Soul Blast at Level 7 if you want to converse MP or Samurai with Slash. Single-targets, Fighters have more weapon options and Rush, Dancers get Weapon Trick, Claws and Tri-Step.

MoM isn't too bad, Skeletons/Skull Caps are rare, as are the spell-casting enemies. Guard Counter's also handy, too. There's usually one or two enemies per area you want to avoid or be real careful around for different reasons.

[Silverquick]

Yeah they changed it from the original Super,

I remember the last game where they were always 10+levels over you, but now they're only 5 levels over you and the 10+ levels over you are the ones you have to watch out for.

[dudex]

stacking evasion means high agility, having evasion dance, and using evasion gear. i dont even use magic to buff it and still most enemies cant touch me.

try it for urself make a bunch of samurais with high agility/strength and prob 12-15 vit with evasion dance. use slash on trash and carnage on bosses. u will find urself breezing through early and mid game. im not in late/post game yet so i dont know if evasion falls off.

just have use dragon fist divinity on the bosses or enemies with high evasion and have spirit wall up for enemies that can crit or use spell.

[236403mo]

A bit of necro but:

Upgrade your gear at base. There is no reason to not use at least +3s/+5s since its almost no cost. In early gear where you have 20ish def, each +3/+5 is significant and cheap.

Deprived ney samurai with evade training trait is huge bonus. I rolled 28 on stats on mine and fed her full agi, 15 vit then all other points strength (but vit should be more or less same as str). That thing is a beast early game.

[phadin]

Heh, it can really get youo though. Was still running Kyo's tutorial quests, got underground, ran into a single enemy that cast a spell that one-shot two characters. finally got to see what it was, it was freaking level 22. My characters were level 2. The darkness can suck.

[236403mo]

I guess that could happen but it is rare and we still have saves on our side

[Thamor]

Early game ambush grind in that first map for gear and gold. If you get low on health just leave map heal at base then go back.

[Corin]

Best advice I can give with regards to melee is make sure they all have as much AGI as you can get once you have a decent bedrock of 15-20 VIT. The difference between 10 agi and 25 is like the difference between being Level 1 and Level 10 in old school D&D, it's so immense.

SOSC is definitely a very different game based on what you know going into it. If you build a party with no synergy or roles and low stats, the beginning will be rough. If you already know how to play, the beginning becomes a push-over.

[phadin]

After being distracted by some other things, finally returned to this game, and... wow, I don't remember early MoM being THIS hard when I played the original version. midway through the underground, I ran into a skeleton captain, lvl 18. I could barely hit the guy, and of course being undead, I did next to no damage when I DID hit the guy. My puppeteer was doing enough damage I could have killed him probably, except he summoned more lvl 16 skeletons as backup, then I ran.

What are undead doing in MoM before you even see weapons or equipment to handle undead/spirits.

Ahh, crap, I remember now. The cleric/wizard have skills for that. Too bad the cleric was laid up in bed still recovering from dying some trips ago.

[Corin]

Originally posted by phadin:

After being distracted by some other things, finally returned to this game, and... wow, I don't remember early MoM being THIS hard when I played the original version. midway through the underground, I ran into a skeleton captain, lvl 18. I could barely hit the guy, and of course being undead, I did next to no damage when I DID hit the guy. My puppeteer was doing enough damage I could have killed him probably, except he summoned more lvl 16 skeletons as backup, then I ran.

What are undead doing in MoM before you even see weapons or equipment to handle undead/spirits.

Ahh, crap, I remember now. The cleric/wizard have skills for that. Too bad the cleric was laid up in bed still recovering from dying some trips ago.

It's possible you got lucky and just never spawned them. But no they've always been there, it's just a possible spawn. When you get them you're supposed to run away. You probably don't have weapons to deal with them at that stage, and they will brutalize you anyway. I think it's supposed to be an early learning moment of, "Sometimes there are enemies you will have to run away from".

[Bishop]

Also make sure to have lvl 10 dancer or two with maxed PIE asap. Having full moral refill on demand is game changer especially for grinding hide spots.