Play tips?

[HeikoFennec]

I'm curious if I'm not progressing too quickly, not even done with the first month/season and I'm level 54 with story progression as such. Better to ease up and focus on other points?

[MESeele]

Play how you want.

Either way, you'll probably be done at least 2/3 arcs within the first year. I was done all 3 before the first Autumn.

Farm if you want, fight if you want, craft if you want, tame if you want. If you have a spouse you're aiming for, make sure to talk to them and give them a present each day. There are a few guides that give loads of more specific tips.

[DaBa]

There's no wrong way to play the game. If you feel like you're progressing too fast, I recommend playing the game on the hardest difficulty. That will ensure that you will really have to prepare (and play well) to make any kind of progress. I guarantee that you will not be clearing the story in the first year if you do that, maybe the first arc if you really know what you're doing.

[DaBa]

Originally posted by MESeele:

Play how you want.

Either way, you'll probably be done at least 2/3 arcs within the first year. I was done all 3 before the first Autumn.

Yeah, that's what I meant. When I played this game for the first time, I played on the normal difficulty and completed the story in a little over a single year. Crank it up to at least hard, or honestly just go all the way, even if you're new. It will ensure you will not be able to make progress quickly and you'll actually have to use all the systems available to make your character strong enough.

I'm playing it through this way right now and it's really nice. It's funny, but the game feels more relaxing now that all the enemies and bosses are so strong. I know I cannot make any progress and I need to get stronger, so I stop worrying about exploring the maps asap and I just focus on all the other systems. Then once I level things up and get stronger, I just go and craft the best gear I can, upgrade it as much as possible, cook food with as many stats as possible, and make a push for the next goal. Basically, I take my sweet time to prepare and don't stress about being fast or efficient.

[HeikoFennec]

One thing I noticed was the increased rp cost for crafting, which after starting anew I realized why my rp wasnt up to par: skills. I'd been going through without really investing in developing those so I'd been making the game harder than need be.

[taznkid]

Originally posted by DaBa:

Originally posted by MESeele:

Play how you want.

Either way, you'll probably be done at least 2/3 arcs within the first year. I was done all 3 before the first Autumn.

Yeah, that's what I meant. When I played this game for the first time, I played on the normal difficulty and completed the story in a little over a single year. Crank it up to at least hard, or honestly just go all the way, even if you're new. It will ensure you will not be able to make progress quickly and you'll actually have to use all the systems available to make your character strong enough.

I'm playing it through this way right now and it's really nice. It's funny, but the game feels more relaxing now that all the enemies and bosses are so strong. I know I cannot make any progress and I need to get stronger, so I stop worrying about exploring the maps asap and I just focus on all the other systems. Then once I level things up and get stronger, I just go and craft the best gear I can, upgrade it as much as possible, cook food with as many stats as possible, and make a push for the next goal. Basically, I take my sweet time to prepare and don't stress about being fast or efficient.

You finished Rune Prana in first year? Color me impressed.

Then again, I could have finished Rune Prana in first winter, but it's Spring now and I am delaying it to:

1. Max out all my Crop Seed levels (crystals and trees are the worst)

2. Unlock Golden Veggies (the above is making this take longer, because I am too stubborn to have more than 3 fields)

3. Min-Max my equipment for basically invulnerability(I'm constantly pushing back Typhoons to do the above, even with Wetting Powder)

4. I really want Venti to host the wedding, so I don't have access to Spouse/Child specific areas and materials :(

[DaBa]

Originally posted by taznkid:

Originally posted by DaBa:

Yeah, that's what I meant. When I played this game for the first time, I played on the normal difficulty and completed the story in a little over a single year. Crank it up to at least hard, or honestly just go all the way, even if you're new. It will ensure you will not be able to make progress quickly and you'll actually have to use all the systems available to make your character strong enough.

I'm playing it through this way right now and it's really nice. It's funny, but the game feels more relaxing now that all the enemies and bosses are so strong. I know I cannot make any progress and I need to get stronger, so I stop worrying about exploring the maps asap and I just focus on all the other systems. Then once I level things up and get stronger, I just go and craft the best gear I can, upgrade it as much as possible, cook food with as many stats as possible, and make a push for the next goal. Basically, I take my sweet time to prepare and don't stress about being fast or efficient.

You finished Rune Prana in first year? Color me impressed.

Then again, I could have finished Rune Prana in first winter, but it's Spring now and I am delaying it to:

1. Max out all my Crop Seed levels (crystals and trees are the worst)

2. Unlock Golden Veggies (the above is making this take longer, because I am too stubborn to have more than 3 fields)

3. Min-Max my equipment for basically invulnerability(I'm constantly pushing back Typhoons to do the above, even with Wetting Powder)

4. I really want Venti to host the wedding, so I don't have access to Spouse/Child specific areas and materials :(

Actually I've got a small follow up, just remembered this thread existed. I was doing that Hell difficulty playthrough on the Switch and I was 100% certain after I started that I would not be able to complete the game in a single year and that I will have to take things really slow. Well... I was completely and utterly wrong.

I completed all 3 arcs in 3 seasons, just a day before Winter starts. How? Well, it turns out that if you do some research into the game mechanics, especially how crafting works (level bonuses, rarity, inheritance, and abusing 10 fold steel), and then you utilize those mechanics properly, you can steamroll through the majority of the game. With a lot of save scumming, because things still hit really hard and you do tend to die a lot in later parts, the difficulty starts spiking somewhere around flying fortress and the game catches up to you, even if you crafted yourself godlike gear. And so, I completed both first and second arc during Summer, and then Rune Prana took me the entire Autumn.

And it's not like I only grinded the story and ignored everything else. I also somehow found the time to level up most of the seeds to level 10, by spending all my money of Greenifiers and Formulas, unlock (almost) all the seeds, including the golden ones, level up cooking, medicine and all the crafting to 90+, Get everybody to 5-7 friendship, start dating Dolce, get a barn full of cows, chickens and some other monsters, and just in general make a ton of progress in every single area of the game and reach the point where money stops becoming a thing you think about, you just buy whatever you need and never check how much it costs. Yeah, I think I did pretty alright.

[DaBa]

And also one last thing that was invaluable during my playthrough: tamed monsters. I went with Ambrosia (first boss) and a green Fairy, a normal mob you see near obsidian mansion. At the beginning they scale pretty well and they will be able to contribute to killing things pretty effectively. Ambrosia worked especially well because of the huge AOE that also heals it.

Towards the end they started to drop off and stopped doing significant damage, but they were still extremely useful as damage sponges. They pulled aggro from me during fights, especially useful in boss fights! They still had tons of HP so they tanked a lot of damage, plus I could just keep healing them. I don't think I could've done Rune Prana if not for those two tamed monsters, I would've just kept being focused by enemies and killed over and over.

[Alrescha]

Originally posted by HeikoFennec:

I'm curious if I'm not progressing too quickly, not even done with the first month/season and I'm level 54 with story progression as such. Better to ease up and focus on other points?

Honestly? Don't go too fast. Post-game is like disgaea if you like to max your stats and equips, but without multiplier that can ease the grind.