I'm stuck in Part 2 and need help

[MindfulOcean]

The last story section I cleared was the place you get the Spring field from, and now I'm on that wintery road with the holes and caves (sorry, can't remember the name). I've grinded and grinded, and I have upgraded magic and upgraded gear (the next tier needs some other metal I don't have) and I still feel like I'm taking WAY too much damage and doing not so much to the enemies. I can get past encounters, but they don't feel satisfying or fun.

I'm kind of losing patience with the game. I like it, and I think I'm doing everything I can for my character build and generally like all of the characters in town. But the combat just doesn't feel good at this stage.

Oh, and Clorica won't love me no matter how many apples I give her. ;.;

[Fel]

I assume you mean Sechs territory but not certain:
https://therunefactory.fandom.com/wiki/Sechs_Territory
Mobs there definitely deal quite a bit of damage at first.

Usually the answer is to upgrade your equipment (including accessories) and/or to farm the previous dungeon (or the area leading to the current one) for a few extra character levels.

Having a strong monster friend as well as a villager can also make things significantly easier.

Don't forget that high tier food have potent buffs, which get even better if you use high level ingredients.

More informations about your gear and levels would probably help to give you more specific answers.

[Xhoas]

Man, I was in the same situation. It just goes on and on...
Oh, i don't want to spoil anything, but the arc has still some "surprises" for you.

[Fel]

Just in case you didn't know, you can capture most boss monsters (those that are in monster form like the butterfly of the first dungeon) as well, they usually make pretty good companions.

[Mackenzie]

Having good Magic ATK (or a Magic Charm accessory) paired with good distance and crowd control magic spells could make things easier on you. Same with bringing 2 companions, particularly to powerful monsters.

I like to play without companions and use minimal magic (solo in RF4) as I find the combat both fun and rewarding. Also use of good Rune Abilities. You definitely aren't at the right power level if you're having such a struggle at Maya Road / Sechs Territory.

I'd look online for the best weapon (in your preferred categories) and armors that you can make right now or with a little effort - and Level Bonus imbue them. (+350 VIT for each piece of armor and +700 ATK/MATK for the weapon).

To do this, first you need to be at least Crafting/Forging level 50, then you want to craft the best weapon/armor pieces you can. Now for each piece, you want to upgrade it to Level 10 using any junk items. Now craft the easiest item possible in the same category of weapon or armor that you have Level 10 ingredients for. There will be six slots when crafting it. One of these slots needs to be the Level 10 powerful weapon/armor you crafted and upgraded previously, while the other 5 slots all have to be Level 10 items, doesn't matter what items they are, they just have to be level 10. Craft it up, then simply upgrade it 9 times to max level using all Level 10 items once again. If done right, you'll have the massive stats boosted listed above.

This technique should be quite effective until you get more toward Arc 3 where you'll want to look into Rarity Bonus imbues instead.

[DaBa]

Unless you're playing on the highest difficulty, you should have no trouble progressing at a normal pace and with minimal amount of grind. If you are struggling and dying over and over, that means you're rushing too much and neglecting powering up your character. I bet you're also not utilizing all the in game systems to make yourself stronger either.

Level up your forging and crafting, craft the best armor and weapons possible and level them up with best items you can find. You said you already did that, but if you're having trouble then I severely doubt you did the best you could. Level up your cooking to unlock recipes with powerful stat buffs. Tame some monsters, maybe even a boss monster, raise their level and affection, then take them into the field with you. You'd be surprised how much of a difference two good monsters can make, at least until you get to super lategame stuff. You can also score some free stats if you just keep farming, sleeping on time, eating every day, going to the bath every day, etc... May not seem like much but it adds up quick and is a big help early on.

So, don't give up. If you hit a wall, just take a breather and do other things. There are multiple other things you can progress, and doing every single one of them helps another in turn. Not sure what difficulty you're playing the game on, but I beat all 3 story arcs on my second hell difficulty playthrough in a single in-game year. If I could do that, you can definitely make some progress!

[DaBa]

Originally posted by Mackenzie:

I'd look online for the best weapon (in your preferred categories) and armors that you can make right now or with a little effort - and Level Bonus imbue them. (+350 VIT for each piece of armor and +700 ATK/MATK for the weapon).

To do this, first you need to be at least Crafting/Forging level 50, then you want to craft the best weapon/armor pieces you can. Now for each piece, you want to upgrade it to Level 10 using any junk items. Now craft the easiest item possible in the same category of weapon or armor that you have Level 10 ingredients for. There will be six slots when crafting it. One of these slots needs to be the Level 10 powerful weapon/armor you crafted and upgraded previously, while the other 5 slots all have to be Level 10 items, doesn't matter what items they are, they just have to be level 10. Craft it up, then simply upgrade it 9 times to max level using all Level 10 items once again. If done right, you'll have the massive stats boosted listed above.

This technique should be quite effective until you get more toward Arc 3 where you'll want to look into Rarity Bonus imbues instead.

This is all good advice, but you REALLY do not need to do any of this, this is all advanced hidden in-game mechanics that really only come into play when you want to play on Hell, or you're doing postgame stuff. If I were a new player and I saw this I'd be like "wtf is this, I'm out". Tailor your advice to the person you give it to. In this case it would be like this: Gear gets bonus stats depending on the total level of items used to craft and upgrade it. That's all, higher level=good. No need for a step by step guide. He's not trying to min max the most powerful weapon in the game, he just needs to get stronger to progress.

But really, what OP needs is to take a break from making progress on the story, and do some progress in all the other systems, so he can power up and keep going. Basically, he needs to engage in the core gameplay loop of Rune Factory. Or for a more direct advice, one of the best weapons you can craft at this point in the game should be the Twin Leaks. Dual Blades that use two leaks as a crafting ingredient. Throw in some good upgrade items for more damage and status effects and you're good to go.

[MindfulOcean]

Originally posted by DaBa:

Originally posted by Mackenzie:

I'd look online for the best weapon (in your preferred categories) and armors that you can make right now or with a little effort - and Level Bonus imbue them. (+350 VIT for each piece of armor and +700 ATK/MATK for the weapon).

To do this, first you need to be at least Crafting/Forging level 50, then you want to craft the best weapon/armor pieces you can. Now for each piece, you want to upgrade it to Level 10 using any junk items. Now craft the easiest item possible in the same category of weapon or armor that you have Level 10 ingredients for. There will be six slots when crafting it. One of these slots needs to be the Level 10 powerful weapon/armor you crafted and upgraded previously, while the other 5 slots all have to be Level 10 items, doesn't matter what items they are, they just have to be level 10. Craft it up, then simply upgrade it 9 times to max level using all Level 10 items once again. If done right, you'll have the massive stats boosted listed above.

This technique should be quite effective until you get more toward Arc 3 where you'll want to look into Rarity Bonus imbues instead.

This is all good advice, but you REALLY do not need to do any of this, this is all advanced hidden in-game mechanics that really only come into play when you want to play on Hell, or you're doing postgame stuff. If I were a new player and I saw this I'd be like "wtf is this, I'm out". Tailor your advice to the person you give it to. In this case it would be like this: Gear gets bonus stats depending on the total level of items used to craft and upgrade it. That's all, higher level=good. No need for a step by step guide. He's not trying to min max the most powerful weapon in the game, he just needs to get stronger to progress.

But really, what OP needs is to take a break from making progress on the story, and do some progress in all the other systems, so he can power up and keep going. Basically, he needs to engage in the core gameplay loop of Rune Factory. Or for a more direct advice, one of the best weapons you can craft at this point in the game should be the Twin Leaks. Dual Blades that use two leaks as a crafting ingredient. Throw in some good upgrade items for more damage and status effects and you're good to go.

What is this "core gameplay loop" you mentioned? I had no idea crafting was so complex, and I have continually been rotating how I spend my days. About the only thing I'm guilty of is not raising monsters in the barn because I didn't know how and hadn't seen any I liked. I've played Stardew Valley and beaten the Community Center goals (first try!), I've also completed Story of Seasons and several Harvest Moons. I have no idea how you could beat this game in just 4 seasons and I've sunk a ton of time into it. Is there some general part of the flow of Rune Factory that I'm not understanding?

[Fel]

Well, monsters have a variety of purposes depending on the monster.
Some give you items every day (mostly farm animals like the cow near the second dungeon for example), some can help you with the farm, some are great as mounts and some are incredibly helpful in a fight.
When the animals love you more, they give you higher level items or get better at whatever they do.

The main difference with harvest moon games is that there are levels attached to pretty much everything.
This means that you can increase the level of your crops, of several things about each tile of your field and so on.

Higher level ingredients when cooking gives you a higher level for the dish, which means stronger effects (on top of more gold if you sell) and it is basically the same for all other crafting activities.

All skills you can level affect your stats in some way, some more than others but it's helpful to get most of them levelled up to some degree (including spells and weapons you don't typically use).
Funny enough, farming is a pretty decent source of skill levels since the tools level more than just the farming skill and harvesting can get you free skill levels for random skills.
Getting a status effect on a weapon is also a pretty good way to level several skills at once.


While you can finish the game (mostly) in an ingame year, this requires quite a bit of min-maxing.
The game is balanced around the idea of doing roughly one dungeon per season, giving you enough time to do quite a bit of each activity in between.

[Mackenzie]

Originally posted by DaBa:

This is all good advice, but you REALLY do not need to do any of this, this is all advanced hidden in-game mechanics that really only come into play when you want to play on Hell, or you're doing postgame stuff. If I were a new player and I saw this I'd be like "wtf is this, I'm out". Tailor your advice to the person you give it to. In this case it would be like this: Gear gets bonus stats depending on the total level of items used to craft and upgrade it. That's all, higher level=good. No need for a step by step guide. He's not trying to min max the most powerful weapon in the game, he just needs to get stronger to progress.

But really, what OP needs is to take a break from making progress on the story, and do some progress in all the other systems, so he can power up and keep going. Basically, he needs to engage in the core gameplay loop of Rune Factory. Or for a more direct advice, one of the best weapons you can craft at this point in the game should be the Twin Leaks. Dual Blades that use two leaks as a crafting ingredient. Throw in some good upgrade items for more damage and status effects and you're good to go.

It's not so much about min maxing the most powerful thing in the game. Getting the 2nd highest level bonus instead of the highest is such a tiny negligible stat boost that it is not worth sacraficing all your crafting and upgrading slots with (usually mostly at this point) level 10 junk items. Thus if you're going to do it, do it right.

It's also not hidden, one of the tourists tells you about level bonus and rarity bonus, put 2 and 2 together and eventually you try to make an all level 10 item. If they want solid advice and gaining the most strength in the most reliable way possible at their point in the game, this is how you do it.

Level Bonus video: Click here.
Rarity Bonus video: Click here.

Other advice is pretty basic and I assumed OP knew, such as cooking good food for buffs, grinding your level and stats, crafting the best tier of equipment you can while upgrading them with effective items for your play style and becoming slightly stronger as you go - but I didn't assume OP was that inexperienced based on the progress they made so far.

OP asked for help and wants to progress because they're starting to lose patience. I offered some. It's a bit immature of you to declare someone else's advice like this, to be invalid or unnecessary and hype yours up like it's superior and more important. Uncool!