Unbalanced difficulty

[StephanFS]

I'm on Chapter 6 right now and it seems this game's difficulty really doesn't know if it wants to provide a reasonable challenge or being downright ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on Normal. There are too many enemies that can kill me in 2 or 3 hits, even with decent armor, and they can heal themselves on top of that. This isn't good design, it's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[level3]

Played it on hard and the only challenge was the lava boss + 1 secret boss + postgame endboss. Granted, i used that "override projectiles" skill lmao

[VertVentus]

I only felt like the Rispadar Soldiers were overtuned when I played that chapter on Normal, but you can burst them and the healers with Circle of Disaster or Random Shots. Weapons with low Handling have higher ST gain, which pairs nicely with multi-hits like Sky Sword and Air Blade to amass ST quickly.

You are very much rewarded for grinding out equip masteries and the 5 Formulas from silver/gold chests per chapter (2 weapons, 1 shield/armor/accessory), in turn Force to develop Growth, which made my first Normal playthrough and my current Hell playthrough at Ch. 7 relatively easy outside the former's first post-script boss and latter's early game. If not opting to grind, you can at least prioritize

• Wrestler to increase knockback + Herculean Power for attack speed + Berserk possession skill for physical damage
  
• Great Sorcerer Staff/Magical Staff + Magician for pelting them safely from afar with fire magical damage (Urugut is mostly Water enemies, Magical Staff can hit far horizontally if aimed upward with Jump Slash disabled)
  
• Turtle Shield to up your defense
  
• Passive damage with Lollipop and Angel
  
• Energy Drain to heal tank by spamming cheap possession skills (the Water/Earth one) or Eliminate to remove all bullets on-screen

Before post-game, it felt like magic staves generally just outpaced physical weapons in damage if not using the Berserk Karon skill (3x damage but OHKO), except if the terrain blocks the projectile when 3 range melee weapons can hit through walls, so you could try pivoting to magic. You just won't gain ST unless the staff makes contact.

I only started to pay attention to Libra until the end of my first playthrough, but what I used for Hell:

• Apples from the King's Castle (54) + Soft-Serve Ice Cream (44) + The Book of Karon: Vol 36 (Travel) (68) = 166
  
• Crystal Pickaxe (56) + Strawberry Crepe (45) + Sirpphae (65) = 166

If you don't have that apple, replace it with a Jam Roll (Rispadar Bakery) then swap its position with the Crystal Pickaxe. I think you get that apple with Small Metals within that chapter.
Decent survival, extended duration for possession buffs/followers (33.33 seconds +64%, 50 seconds +50% respectively), and increased EXP/gold gain (+7.5%, +25% respectively). Once you get the Scale Pan at the end of the chapter, I pivoted toward:

• Apples from the King's Castle (54) + Strawberry Crepe (45) + Soft-Serve Ice Cream (44) + Chocolate Chip Cookie (43) = 186
  
• Pure White Garment (70) + Large Water-filled Bottle (60) + Crystal Pickaxe (56) = 186

Better buffs but removing the increased EXP/gold.

One thing you can do in Chapter 6 is infinitely farm Magic Crystals by mastering gear within the Radamantus boss fight but intentionally dying to retry, which'll retain the Magic Crystals but reset your gear to their pre-mastered states (go into the fight with them almost mastered and equipped). You only get 104+40=144 Magic Crystals, so you'd have to farm 267 of them to use every Karon skill simultaneously.
You're not even at the hardest part of the game: the second half of Chapter 7 where Karon is missing so you can only rely on attack items like the Torch Bow or (Double) Crossbow, all while hoarding your Throwing Knives for the optional boss behind the barrier in Rispadar.
Later you can stack Darkness (possession skills take HP but deal more damage) + Demon Rage (2x cost, 2x damage) + Full Burst (uses all ST, 1% damage per ST consumed) and kill things pretty easily.

[nesoukefka]

Using Energy Drain and Eliminate really makes mob fight trivial enough, the good old strat of using Berserk and Elemental weakness weapon with corresponding KARON skill generally melt mobs even on Impossible, if doing that use also the Cicada Shell to give you one more hit before going down, alternativly simply using Possession Skills the ennemies is weak to is generally good, if playing without Berserk Magic is your best source of damage with Possession Skills.

[Nyxtus]

Lil bro getting filtered on Normal...

[Death is Coming]

Played and beat it on hard. The only challenges I faced were the secret bosses, but partially because I relied on Berserk + Cicada.

[StephanFS]

Originally posted by VertVentus:

I only felt like the Rispadar Soldiers were overtuned when I played that chapter on Normal, but you can burst them and the healers with Circle of Disaster or Random Shots. Weapons with low Handling have higher ST gain, which pairs nicely with multi-hits like Sky Sword and Air Blade to amass ST quickly.

You are very much rewarded for grinding out equip masteries and the 5 Formulas from silver/gold chests per chapter (2 weapons, 1 shield/armor/accessory), in turn Force to develop Growth, which made my first Normal playthrough and my current Hell playthrough at Ch. 7 relatively easy outside the former's first post-script boss and latter's early game. If not opting to grind, you can at least prioritize

• Wrestler to increase knockback + Herculean Power for attack speed + Berserk possession skill for physical damage
  
• Great Sorcerer Staff/Magical Staff + Magician for pelting them safely from afar with fire magical damage (Urugut is mostly Water enemies, Magical Staff can hit far horizontally if aimed upward with Jump Slash disabled)
  
• Turtle Shield to up your defense
  
• Passive damage with Lollipop and Angel
  
• Energy Drain to heal tank by spamming cheap possession skills (the Water/Earth one) or Eliminate to remove all bullets on-screen

Before post-game, it felt like magic staves generally just outpaced physical weapons in damage if not using the Berserk Karon skill (3x damage but OHKO), except if the terrain blocks the projectile when 3 range melee weapons can hit through walls, so you could try pivoting to magic. You just won't gain ST unless the staff makes contact.

I only started to pay attention to Libra until the end of my first playthrough, but what I used for Hell:

• Apples from the King's Castle (54) + Soft-Serve Ice Cream (44) + The Book of Karon: Vol 36 (Travel) (68) = 166
  
• Crystal Pickaxe (56) + Strawberry Crepe (45) + Sirpphae (65) = 166

If you don't have that apple, replace it with a Jam Roll (Rispadar Bakery) then swap its position with the Crystal Pickaxe. I think you get that apple with Small Metals within that chapter.
Decent survival, extended duration for possession buffs/followers (33.33 seconds +64%, 50 seconds +50% respectively), and increased EXP/gold gain (+7.5%, +25% respectively). Once you get the Scale Pan at the end of the chapter, I pivoted toward:

• Apples from the King's Castle (54) + Strawberry Crepe (45) + Soft-Serve Ice Cream (44) + Chocolate Chip Cookie (43) = 186
  
• Pure White Garment (70) + Large Water-filled Bottle (60) + Crystal Pickaxe (56) = 186

Better buffs but removing the increased EXP/gold.

One thing you can do in Chapter 6 is infinitely farm Magic Crystals by mastering gear within the Radamantus boss fight but intentionally dying to retry, which'll retain the Magic Crystals but reset your gear to their pre-mastered states (go into the fight with them almost mastered and equipped). You only get 104+40=144 Magic Crystals, so you'd have to farm 267 of them to use every Karon skill simultaneously.
You're not even at the hardest part of the game: the second half of Chapter 7 where Karon is missing so you can only rely on attack items like the Torch Bow or (Double) Crossbow, all while hoarding your Throwing Knives for the optional boss behind the barrier in Rispadar.
Later you can stack Darkness (possession skills take HP but deal more damage) + Demon Rage (2x cost, 2x damage) + Full Burst (uses all ST, 1% damage per ST consumed) and kill things pretty easily.

Yeah, I did your strategy and it worked. But it doesn't work now on Chapter 8 since the game throws all fair challenge out of the window. I'm dropping this piece of ♥♥♥♥ if this keeps going, because the amount of ♥♥♥♥ this game throws at you at NORMAL shows how ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ unfair this chapter is.

[VertVentus]

Chapter 8 isn't really that bad outside the machines inside the lab that multi-punch like the Ch. 7 spiderladies. Equipping Super Armor for 0 knockback kills you there while Burst Armor felt like it increased your own knockback instead, so I turned both off.

How's your stat distribution? HP, ATC, DEF, and MAG set to [Level + 3] and the rest dumped into SPD or LUC [Level -12] makes for good damage and bulk while also working for even on Hell difficulty. You may have to sacrifice some HP depending on your Gross Weight, which I did to equip the Mighty Blade Balmung my first time through, but Sylphid will compensate for it and also make your ST gain much faster.
With the Great Sorcerer Staff, you won't need the SPD and can spec into LUC.
Earth Dragon Hammer Blutgang from Ch. 7 and Durandal from Ch. 8 remains powerful but light melee options to also LUC spec compared to how heavy the "ultimate" weapons via the optional superbosses are. You'll probably need Final Chapter's growth tree to swing them more feasibly, and its dungeon Iron Maiden is the best Force grinding spot outside Wind (Anesta flies and grasshoppers) and Holy (maybe Urugut yetis?).

Ch. 8 is actually when the game gets easiest because of the last spoiler I posted.

• Energy Drain from Ch. 4's Nexagram (Formula, for HP recovery by tanking attacks with the blue honeycomb shield)
  
• Full Burst from Ch. 7's Dragon God's Shield (Formula)
  
• Demon Rage from Ch. 8's Diabolos (materials in the lab, 2x ST cost for 2x damage)
  
• Darkness from Ch. 8's Armor of Darkness (materials in the lab, HP cost for better skill damage)
  
• optionally Magical Power Conversion from Ch. 8's Soul Armor (Formula, for HP recovery as your ST drains and can be extended with Breather & Great Magic)
  
• The Art of Summoning from Final Chapter's God-Slaying Sword Anes Zesia (Obtain every weapon, shield, and armor and show Great Sage Karon. This buffs the first 3 possession skills of every element but matters most for Berserk, Turtle Shield, and Sylphid as it's +50% stats while Lollipop/Angel are outclassed by Purple Flash/Sword Waltz, then Dark Flare/Valkyrie Strike in Final Chapter if you can afford it, then Magic Broom/Regeneration in Post-Script.)

As is you'll just have Full Burst, which might suffice until you get to the lab, but stacking it with Demon Rage and Darkness makes a big difference.

My Ch. 8 Normal file right before its last boss (Mighty Blade Balmung, Dewprism, Stardust Armor) is Lv. 57, with 3157 Max HP, Max 455 ST, 1395 Attack Power, 1262 Defense Power, 410 Magical Power, and 430 Agility with a 45/60/60/60/60 stat investment.

• Berserk/Turtle Shield gives +182 ATC/DEF respectively.
  
• 350 ATC and 387 DEF with Full Burst by itself.
  
• 364 with Demon Rage by itself (+100%).
  
• 473 with Darkness on top of that (+60%).
  
• 651 ATC/678 DEF with Full Burst on top of that.

That's roughly half and bigger numbers = more damage and survivability.
I reached Lv. 60 before the final main story boss on Normal (Earth Dragon Hammer Blutgang, Anastasis, Soul Armor), and got to 4364 Max HP, 589 Max ST, 1483 Attack Power, 1321 Defense power, 562 Magical Power, and 410 Agility with a 63/63/63/63/0 spread (48 on LUC), while The Art of Summoning gave me +1149 ATC and +1202 DEF for nearly double. You'd sooner die from Darkness's HP cost you can immediately recover with Energy Drain/healing items, or Magical Power Conversion between mob rooms, than actual damage output from enemies, so it only gets easier from here on.

With Full Burst + Demon Rage + Darkness, your Possession Skills with the respective elemental buff (+50% Efreet, Undine, Gnome, Sylph, Luna, Shadow) and Ch. 8 Anastasis's Maxwell (+50%, Formula Shield) also will nuke fractions of a boss's HP, so much so you can kill every boss from then on (including Final Chapter & Post-Script) in under a minute even on Hell.
Heck, post-script lets you add every element on your weapon via the board system and boost your stats considerably via enhancement that you can kill anything purely with melee damage without using Berserk before you even max out your ST to Full Burst buffs/damage skills.

For the Libra I used on Hell, since I prefer Libra-exclusive effects like HP Recovery, ST Gain Rate, Gradual Recovery, Use Speed, and Effect Duration,

• 8 Scale Pans, Left = Pure White Garment (70) + Large Water-filled Bottle (60) + Soft-Serve Ice Cream (44) + Pie Dough (12) = 186
  
• 8 Scale Pans, Right = Decorative Cake (86) + Strawberry Crepe (45) + Iron Pickaxe (29) + Mokyun Doll (26) = 186
  
• 10 Scale Pans, Left (Combat) = Decorative Cake (86) + Tea Leaves (78) + Mochi Rolled in Bean Jam (59) + Hot Chocolate (49) + Pie Dough (12) = 284
  
• 10 Scale Pans, Right (Combat) = Red Bean Jam (66) + Large Water-filled Bottle (60) + Jam Roll (58) + Crystal Pickaxe (56) + Soft-Serve Ice Cream (44) = 284
  
• 10 Scale Pans, Left (EXP/Gold) = Daimond (85) + Sirpphae (65) + Mochi Rolled in Bean Jam (59) + Attack Power Card (32) + Cream Puff (28) = 269
  
• 10 Scale Pans, Right) (EXP/Gold) = Pure White Garment (70) + The Book of Karon (68) + Chocolate Pie (63) + Jam Roll (58) + Camping Set (10) = 269
  
• Post-Script, Left, 2 Upgraded (Combat) = [Dew from the World Tree (29) + Pie Dough (12) Upgraded] + Primordial Fragment (92) + Mochi Rolled in Bean Jam (59) + Egg on Bread (18) = 210
  
• Post-Script, Right, 2 Upgraded (Combat) = [Cream Puff (28) + Camping Set (10) Upgraded] + Pure White Garment (70) + Jam Roll (58) + Soft-Serve Ice Cream (44) = 210
  
• Post-Script, Left, 3 Upgraded (EXP/Gold) = [The Book of Karon (68) + Mammon's Feet (28) + Egg on Bread (18) Upgraded] + Daimond (85) + Mochi Rolled in Bean Jam (59) = 258
  
• Post-Script, Right, 2 Upgraded (EXP/Gold) = [Soft-Serve Ice Cream (44) + Pie Dough (12) Upgraded] + Primordial Fragment (92) + Sirpphae (65) + Tozupa (45) = 258

You get the 9th Scale Pan in a chest right before the lab and 10th via gacha almost immediately after entering, so not much point in making a set for 9 scale pans. The first Primordial Fragment will also be from post-script gacha.

Getting inflicted with an ailment can also be in your favor with Drunken Fist, then in post-script with Junkie (magic/agility) and the Bread? to give yourself Poison. At 100 Resistance, Poison lasts for 220 seconds.

[nesoukefka]

Originally posted by StephanFS:

Yeah, I did your strategy and it worked. But it doesn't work now on Chapter 8 since the game throws all fair challenge out of the window. I'm dropping this piece of ♥♥♥♥ if this keeps going, because the amount of ♥♥♥♥ this game throws at you at NORMAL shows how ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ unfair this chapter is.

The first half of this Chapter is indeed a difficulty spike, that highway section is annoying mainly due to some ennemies being annoying, the Tanks does contact damage which is unusual in this game, the Bug like robot can sometime drop an unblockeable mine while they are on you, the flying Missile are weird as the missile themselve are blockeable but the explosion isn't, and sometime the explosion's hitbox is active for some frame after the animation is done, which is weird, only way to save your progress is backtrack to Tokyo through the Teleporter and most annoying of all are the mini-bosses for some reason this is the only instances of mini-bosses being place in area filled with ennemies, my best advice for this is try to identify at what spot the mini-boss fight triggers and try to kill as many mobs as you can with the Double Crossbow before triggering the fight, as you really don't want to engage this fights with tons of mobs getting in your way. The boss fight at the end of this section against 3 Black Mechs can also be rough but at least there's a save before it.

However through the GROW tree you should start getting some powerfull Possession, Whirlwind is a pretty good one, once you get use to aim it (best way is to do a back step with Kirihide and immediatly throw the Possession, it's projectile will land right where you were before the Back Step), the Sword Waltz is also a good one, need sometime to aim it properly but it deal good damage for that point and being Holy Elemental it's usefull against the third mini-boss and the 3 mech fight boss, you may not have enough ST to use them with Demon Rage tough, but you can still use it with Full Burst, Energy Drain and also Eliminate to remove projectile from the screen.

Again tough you can still use Berserk with elemental weapon of corresponding weakness, this generally kills mob very fast before they get the time to do much, Cicada Shell will make you able to survive 1 Extra Hit and you can refresh Cicada Shell by just exiting a screen, you could also use Berserk and Cicada Shell first and if you lose the Cicada Shell disable proceed normally, if going the Physical Route make sure you use the Berserk and Sylpheed Possession skill to buff your attack and speed, without Berserk tough your best source of damage are Possessions and Staves which scales with magic and are actually stronger at that point due to Magic scaling better than Strength overall.

For Stat distribution, honnestly the Defense stat is useless to me, even putting all point in it I found it to not do much, so I would advice to ignore it and just keep your armor and shield up to date, if you want a defensive HP is more important, so if you want some safety I would advice increasing HP until the Soft Cap, then increase SPD until you can get you gross weight with your weapons under 50 (you can check that stat in the Statut Screen), then go all out in STR and MAG if you wanna go the Berserk route (if you go full Berserk route you can even ignore HP and fully go into STR and MAG which is generally what I do, but not recommended for newcomer), if you wanna go the Possession + Staves route you can ignore Strength and dump everything on Magic, which might be the safest way to go actually, Luck is only if you want to grind but if your goal is just to progress I advice ignoring it.

Also to maximize your DPS with normal attack, seal of the Jump Slash skill, activate the Auto Rapid Fire KARON skill and always attack while pressing the up direction, the character attack faster that way.

[AsceticG]

Play the arena challenges. They hide so much good stuff there.

[cutie.]

this has to be bait.
no real gaming enjoyer would write this.

[Dingo]

I'm still very early on and none of this makes any sense, I think against my better judgement I am going to forge ahead without using any types of build guides or special set ups. I will just grind a lot and hope that in conjunction with what I learn from progressing will get me through.

[Xhoas]

Originally posted by StephanFS:

Originally posted by VertVentus:

I only felt like the Rispadar Soldiers were overtuned when I played that chapter on Normal, but you can burst them and the healers with Circle of Disaster or Random Shots. Weapons with low Handling have higher ST gain, which pairs nicely with multi-hits like Sky Sword and Air Blade to amass ST quickly.

You are very much rewarded for grinding out equip masteries and the 5 Formulas from silver/gold chests per chapter (2 weapons, 1 shield/armor/accessory), in turn Force to develop Growth, which made my first Normal playthrough and my current Hell playthrough at Ch. 7 relatively easy outside the former's first post-script boss and latter's early game. If not opting to grind, you can at least prioritize

• Wrestler to increase knockback + Herculean Power for attack speed + Berserk possession skill for physical damage
  
• Great Sorcerer Staff/Magical Staff + Magician for pelting them safely from afar with fire magical damage (Urugut is mostly Water enemies, Magical Staff can hit far horizontally if aimed upward with Jump Slash disabled)
  
• Turtle Shield to up your defense
  
• Passive damage with Lollipop and Angel
  
• Energy Drain to heal tank by spamming cheap possession skills (the Water/Earth one) or Eliminate to remove all bullets on-screen

Before post-game, it felt like magic staves generally just outpaced physical weapons in damage if not using the Berserk Karon skill (3x damage but OHKO), except if the terrain blocks the projectile when 3 range melee weapons can hit through walls, so you could try pivoting to magic. You just won't gain ST unless the staff makes contact.

I only started to pay attention to Libra until the end of my first playthrough, but what I used for Hell:

• Apples from the King's Castle (54) + Soft-Serve Ice Cream (44) + The Book of Karon: Vol 36 (Travel) (68) = 166
  
• Crystal Pickaxe (56) + Strawberry Crepe (45) + Sirpphae (65) = 166

If you don't have that apple, replace it with a Jam Roll (Rispadar Bakery) then swap its position with the Crystal Pickaxe. I think you get that apple with Small Metals within that chapter.
Decent survival, extended duration for possession buffs/followers (33.33 seconds +64%, 50 seconds +50% respectively), and increased EXP/gold gain (+7.5%, +25% respectively). Once you get the Scale Pan at the end of the chapter, I pivoted toward:

• Apples from the King's Castle (54) + Strawberry Crepe (45) + Soft-Serve Ice Cream (44) + Chocolate Chip Cookie (43) = 186
  
• Pure White Garment (70) + Large Water-filled Bottle (60) + Crystal Pickaxe (56) = 186

Better buffs but removing the increased EXP/gold.

One thing you can do in Chapter 6 is infinitely farm Magic Crystals by mastering gear within the Radamantus boss fight but intentionally dying to retry, which'll retain the Magic Crystals but reset your gear to their pre-mastered states (go into the fight with them almost mastered and equipped). You only get 104+40=144 Magic Crystals, so you'd have to farm 267 of them to use every Karon skill simultaneously.
You're not even at the hardest part of the game: the second half of Chapter 7 where Karon is missing so you can only rely on attack items like the Torch Bow or (Double) Crossbow, all while hoarding your Throwing Knives for the optional boss behind the barrier in Rispadar.
Later you can stack Darkness (possession skills take HP but deal more damage) + Demon Rage (2x cost, 2x damage) + Full Burst (uses all ST, 1% damage per ST consumed) and kill things pretty easily.

Yeah, I did your strategy and it worked. But it doesn't work now on Chapter 8 since the game throws all fair challenge out of the window. I'm dropping this piece of ♥♥♥♥ if this keeps going, because the amount of ♥♥♥♥ this game throws at you at NORMAL shows how ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ unfair this chapter is.

Same here man. The game was kind of mindless fun in the first chapters, and you didn't need this novel sized info to win on normal...

[BROLY 32]

Finished the game on Impossible and the big essays I see in here are filled with completely useless information.
If you're playing on normal: spell pause + use a cheap spell, lvl 1 light is most reliable + energy drain.
Put your points in hp and defense up to your current level and rest in attack and magic.

It's a difficult game but the lower difficulties give you a lot of freedom to force your way through the battles if you're not willing to learn the enemy patterns.

[Casual Bern]

So honestly, if playing hard or lower, after you get energy drain any player who knows what they're doing at all should no longer be dying or even low on life at any point. Low SP spell (Usually the lowest light tier spell because the entire light tree is kinda bad except for it) + energy drain should make it impossible to die because you actually get spell pause. The only enemies its possible to die to at that point are ones which do rapid fire punches that kill you easily through super armor, like the optional golems at the end of ch 6, arachneas during the annoying part in ch 7 (when you don't have access to this combo), and the punchy mechs midway/near the end of ch 8.

Playing on impossible or the one under it makes this a bit more annoying to pull off with the lack of spell pause but everything is certainly still possible as long as your timing is good enough.

[The Mighty Salmon]

Finished a long time ago, but the game mecanism make it easier in harder difficulty after a while beacause the player has an higer lv and way more skilltree motes.
Also there is a skillcap in this game making the game unplayable for the people who has to play in normal diffuculty.