Starting game and clueless

[Rezzo]

Hello folks. Is there a definitive video/guide i can watch for this game anywhere or even a book I can buy? Im struggling with the crafting side of things as I have no clue what im doing. Also what are these orb things? How do I use them, I have a few and no clue what to do with them. Any help is appreciated.

[BennyT8]

Hi,

I'm afraid this game lacks an overall guide, although there's a few playthroughs on YouTube. Similarly there's some tips on GameFAQs and in the General Discussions here on Steam, but not really a definitive guide.

I'm no expert, but I can offer a few thoughts.

First, to answer your question, the "orb things" are runes. They can be attached to weapons, armour and accessories in the smithy under "Modify" then "Upgrade". They'll grant minor improvements such as increasing stats, providing immunity to statuses or increase damage against certain types of enemies. Be aware that some runes can only be attached to accessories, others only to body armour and so on.

[BennyT8]

Second - classes. Initially, each adventurer just has a single primary class. At level 10 you unlock secondary classes.

Classes are unlocked by missions as you go through the game. None are missable. Your class determines your basic stats, what equipment you can use and what active skills you can use.

Be aware that the order of your classes on a character does make a difference. First of all, what equipment you can use is determined solely by your primary class. Secondly, the order will affect your stats. An elementalist/sage will have distinctly different stats to a sage/elementalist.

Passive skills are slightly different. You gain access to a classes passive abilities by switching into that class, and can then access it even if you switch out of that class, but you can only set a few passives at a time - on the status screen. You start with 3 slots, and levelling up allows up to 6 at the same time. Active skills by contrast, you have access to all of them from your primary and secondary class, but you lose that access if you switch to a different class.

The game generally isn't difficult enough to need min/maxing, so I try for a variety of roles so that I don't have all characters doing the same thing.

Initially, I started with fighter*2, archer, priest and wizard. I considered swapping in a thief, but I didn't find much worth stealing until late game.
Late game, I had a samurai/elementalist, samurai/thief, ninja/dancer, priest/sage and elementalist/sage. Samurai have good equipment access and attacks that hit multiple enemies; sages have area effect healing and attacks, plus the ability to revive allies. The other classes and subclasses are more for flavour.

[BennyT8]

Then we come to attack and defence. Attack is fairly obvious. ATK for physical attackers, MAT for magical attackers. I think there's one battle where you need to have some form of magical attack, but it's about half way in. You'll have secondary classes by then and the elementalist has skills that will adjust regular attacks to elemental.

There seem to be two schools of thought on defence. You can either go for high DEF, MDF and HP, or you can go the dodge tank route with high evasion. The description says that evasion affects physical based attacks, but some people believe it also affects magical attacks. To be honest, I think the manual is right, but I've not found myself taking enough damage from magical attacks that I've had to worry about it. Personally, I currently prefer the high evasion route, but it does leave you vulnerable in the early game.

Status effects can be a pain. Later in the game, one of the deities has a status resistance bonus, and the priest has a passive that does the same, but requires a lot of gold to level up. Very early in the game, the main issue will be poison when your characters are already lacking in HP, but it's probably not worth one of your precious passive slots just to avoid it. There's a couple of battles where paralysis can be problematic, so around mid-game I'd recommend just buying some paralysis resistant orbs and attaching one to a piece of armour for each character. By late game it's not an issue because of the extra passive slots and the deity bonus I mentioned.

One major challenge particularly early on is lack of MP. You need MP for all of your active skills, and without active skills many battles can become a chore. Try to pack at least a few mana potions. After the very early levels, they're not overly expensive compared to the coin you'll make from selling equipment you've crafted. If you're running low on MP and potions, definitely considering exiting the dungeon and coming back after healing up. The good news is that you can always quit the dungeon without having to walk back, so don't worry about getting trapped.

[BennyT8]

And finally, smithing. It's both good and bad. Good, because it grants you access to armour. Bad because the amount of grinding to get some of the specific materials you need can be irritating. It doesn't cost gold to craft anything - in fact you make it by selling the items you craft either in your smithy or at the shop. It does cost you those materials though.

Essentially you get materials from either mining spots, from killing enemies or from buying them. Buying them is easiest, but you'll find funds limited until late in the game, so be prepared to go into the dungeons often. Sometimes specific things you'll need will be available as a prize in the arena, so it's worth taking a look there as well.

As you forge weapons and armour you'll gain proficiency in crafting that weapon/armour. Getting this to 100% can have a few different effects.
1. It will increase the stats of all weapons/armour of that type. This always happens.
2. It may unlock a new weapon/armour for crafting. This doesn't always happen, but you can see which ones will under the blacksmith tree.
3. It may unlock a special skill for that weapon/armour. This is less common.

Essentially, it's a cycle. Go into the dungeon, get materials, use them to craft better gear, use that to go further into the dungeon, which in turn unlocks better materials, which leads to better gear.

I'm not sure what else I can add as a quick introduction, so I'll leave it there and wish you luck.