The Hard Way and NG+

[Respwner]

Anyone know if this achievement is possible to complete during NG+ or am I required to do it from a fresh start/save? Asking because Im almost finished with the main story on a standard/normal playthrough.

[Brown_Town86]

Excellent question. I would like to know as well.

[Broso]

I don't know if it is possible but it really should be considering the game can literally already be completely broken in chapter 1 by using beastmasters, even on a fresh Hard mode game.

[Katak]

I'm also wondering this, I don't mind doing a NG+ run for this achievement alone...ONLY if it works. I basically got everything maxed out and would be a waste of time otherwise.

[Emerald Lance]

Originally posted by Broso:

I don't know if it is possible but it really should be considering the game can literally already be completely broken in chapter 1 by using beastmasters, even on a fresh Hard mode game.

I'm doing one such fresh hard mode game, and just tonight I finished with the salve-maker boss. I tried twice with my regular setup and just couldn't get even close because some status effect would always get through. Then I remembered that I had been rocking beast whisperer on every character, swapped them all to beastmaster, and pretty much steamrolled the fight without issue. I didn't even need to bother re-equiping everyone, my stats were just that high.

Honestly I've been trying to avoid using beastmaster as a crutch (I still don't plan to) and I just lost my patience tonight because I spent three hours dying and at this point just wanna go to bed. I knew it would be strong, but I didn't know I'd basically be turning super saiyan.

[Wish Maker]

Originally posted by Emerald Lance:

Honestly I've been trying to avoid using beastmaster as a crutch

I know the feeling. I mostly use it for power leveling jobs, but otherwise I mostly keep my Beastmaster as a passive sleeper tank in the party, rarely using beasts and mostly just running support for all other roles. Just having the huge pool of HP and defensive stats did indeed save my ass when the game pulls some cheese. So it's cheese vs cheese at that point, to which I feel thankful to have it equipped on one person for emergencies.

[AH-1 Cobra]

Originally posted by Emerald Lance:

Honestly I've been trying to avoid using beastmaster as a crutch (I still don't plan to) and I just lost my patience tonight because I spent three hours dying and at this point just wanna go to bed. I knew it would be strong, but I didn't know I'd basically be turning super saiyan.

If you're losing in Bravely Default 2, then you're definitely not playing Beastmaster: The Game™, lol.

Super Saiyan? Naw, that's an understatement. You become the God of Destruction, a destroyer. Beastmaster holds his hand out, says "hakai" and the target gets deleted.

This is Beastmaster: The Game™ in a nutshell:
https://youtu.be/0WWyPZ3lMYs

[TSVStriFe]

I don't see how beastmaster is so good though, sure some monsters are great, but besides that? I notice myself that godspeed strike wrecks bosses and otherwise gambler's cash skill does a static amount of damage based on your level.

[Emerald Lance]

Originally posted by TSVStriFe:

I don't see how beastmaster is so good though, sure some monsters are great, but besides that? I notice myself that godspeed strike wrecks bosses and otherwise gambler's cash skill does a static amount of damage based on your level.

With enough time, beastmaster can net you 9999 HP, 9999 MP, and dealing 9999 damage with regular attacks. Other jobs definitely have useful abilities, and some will definitely out-damage beastmaster in the early game. But very quickly the stat bonuses makes it so nothing else even comes close.

[Wish Maker]

Originally posted by TSVStriFe:

I don't see how beastmaster is so good though, sure some monsters are great, but besides that? I notice myself that godspeed strike wrecks bosses and otherwise gambler's cash skill does a static amount of damage based on your level.

Eventually the game begins to have built in counter measures for Godspeed Strike, forcing you to stop using it. You see, when it comes to Beastmaster, it's the PASSIVES and 2nd Unlocked Specialty that make it great. Because the secret passive is that you gain stats based on how many Creatures you've captured. If you keep capturing beasts and never use them, you are basically harvesting souls for your god class.

[TSVStriFe]

yeah I never really used beastmaster much I think only for a passive, but hey everybody play it the way they want heh. I make it myself quite hard though as I love to have all the classes maxed out and fighting bosses with subpar classes is a pain, but the jp they give overall is nice. I know there are easier ways, but still :)

[AH-1 Cobra]

Originally posted by System Senpai:

Eventually the game begins to have built in counter measures for Godspeed Strike, forcing you to stop using it.

When is this? Against counter attacking mobs, you got counter-savvy, which is a good passive to be using anyway in a lot of fights. You can Godspeed: The Game™ if you want. Nothing stops you from doing it.

[Shintara]

For those still wondering, I recently tested this with a New Game+ file that had 'Hard Mode' selected from the very start and it does NOT give the achievement, so this will have to be done from a completely fresh file.

As someone mentioned, you can burst through a lot of the game with Beastmaster for large passive stats if you've already played through it and just want the achievement. You can also use Hellblade with the Ultima Sword + HP/MP Converter once you get to the end-game if you just want to get it out of the way ASAP.

[Ryced]

Anyone know how to unlock the monster guide achievement because mine didn't unlock even though I've completed the book also do I have to do a hard mode run without NG+ to get the hard way achievement?

[Tyrant]

Originally posted by Emerald Lance:

Originally posted by TSVStriFe:

I don't see how beastmaster is so good though, sure some monsters are great, but besides that? I notice myself that godspeed strike wrecks bosses and otherwise gambler's cash skill does a static amount of damage based on your level.

With enough time, beastmaster can net you 9999 HP, 9999 MP, and dealing 9999 damage with regular attacks. Other jobs definitely have useful abilities, and some will definitely out-damage beastmaster in the early game. But very quickly the stat bonuses makes it so nothing else even comes close.

999 is max MP, and you can break damage cap if you're maxing all stats relatively easily using one of the jobs passives. That said, Beastmaster ain't even worth the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ time or effort to capture 99 of each creature to get it to max your stats. You can get stat buns faster than you can capture monsters, even with the perfect capture setup. Then add using Freelancer secondary with the passive for secondary job, and you're pretty well set.

Beastmaster isn't even the most broken setup. That goes to a combo of Oracle/Freelancer and Red Mage/Freelancer. With that, you can beat every single encounter in the game with just two characters moves in one round.

[Eltia]

Or you can download a save game on Hard and just get The Hard Way achievement.