Quest order and difficulty help

[Pantsinator]

I'm level 24, and I assume standard "Adventurer" is the right difficulty for me, because I need to combo strategically and often use potions in some boss fights, but I don't die unless I'm practicing something and screw up. I'm at the point int the game where my buddy hunt is done and the hardened team member just returned. I'm having two problems:

1) What the hell order am I supposed to do things in? Every article tells me to make sure I do side quests or else I will miss them, yet many are gated (by story, or sometimes by a guardian quest) but they don't tell you they're blocked or why, so I've spent a lot of times running into walls realizing I just can't progress.

2) These guardians are kicking my butt. There's an electric one in Dock Town which seems to be the lowest level one, 20 when I first encountered it, so I gave myself some electric-defense armor, set up a rogue+mage+fighter team and went in and performed combo city on him over and over again. I died a few times at level 20 unprepared, and just died twice at level 24 and I was totally prepared.

I'm really not struggling in other fights! I get the rock paper scissors and know how to pop barriers, parry, dodge counter, arrow flippity flip, and c-c-c-combo monster balls off. WTF. Am I supposed to be doing these later? Help!

[LoVeSuns]

Main quests are listed at the top and side quests are listed below them. So, generally, do the bottom quests before the main quests.

The guardians can be a real pain in the ass, especially since you can meet them way under-leveled. If you're level 24 going against a level 20 one, I feel like you should probably be able to beat it. It's possible you're not playing well enough, but I can't see your gameplay so I can't see why you're dying. Options include leveling up some more and coming back later and turning down the difficulty for this fight.

[Snake]

I do everything i can before i advance the next main story quest. then after i advance that main quest i repeat the process

[Zebedee]

The champions, to open routes in the crossroads, and things further into the crossroads can be run into when they're still over your level but no idea of how easy/hard they are at that difficulty.

There's no set order but my personal one is to watch for the 'there are quests here' on an area's world map icon and go grab those little quests before moving the story on. I tend to go to and from the lighthouse a fair bit, just because of the dialogue it opens up, as well as to explore the crossroads etc. as I'm doing it.

[WikiTora]

Do the quests from bottom to top. Talk to companions whenever you can, especially when you see a clock near their icons.
Collect statues for permanent bonuses.

[Pantsinator]

Alright so "git gud," is the answer on the guardians I guess. I watched some Nightmare let's plays and I didn't realize weak points were a thing and maybe I need to do more ranged stuff. I'll mix it up and maybe gear up better. I also find shopping/upgrading/enhancements kind of confusing (I can just enchant everything for free???).

As for the blocked missions, I don't think I'm crazy on this one. There's a "clear the blight from the crossroads" mission and there's just a giant freaking gate and nothing that can be done about it. The mission says it's active and there is 0 you can do about it. Ditto for wolf statues. Earlier in the game there were quest markers and the boat didn't show up to take you anywhere. Other quests clearly say, "Return here after blah blah is unlocked," but several seem blocked and don't tell you anything until you're running into a wall on the path where the quest marker is. At least next play through I map out an order of operationsI guess.

Another example is I have 3 guardians available, 20, 25, and 30 (unless they change) and there's no indication in the journal entry of which is doable or easiest, and then there are blocked crossroad quests based on guardian fights, and no indication in the quest's journal entry that I need do stab ogres in the eyeball to do it.

[Pantsinator]

Update: Now that I watched some high difficulty lets plays, I now know that I can just shoot arrows at weak points like a tiny child. I just dodged and shot arrows 7000 times right into guardians' eyes and buttholes and the fights were over in ~10 minutes.

I don't feel very particularly cool or tough, but it worked.

[Sentient_Toaster]

Aside from using weakpoints... are you collecting mementos to upgrade the Caretaker's Workshop (note: a lot of mementos are in shops) and thus allow upgrading your gear further and unlocking additional enchantments? And, at some point, you can add enchantments to not just gear, but your abilities.

[Pantsinator]

Originally posted by Sentient_Toaster:

Aside from using weakpoints... are you collecting mementos to upgrade the Caretaker's Workshop (note: a lot of mementos are in shops) and thus allow upgrading your gear further and unlocking additional enchantments? And, at some point, you can add enchantments to not just gear, but your abilities.

Yes, thank you, this was really important and was also a mechanic that I didn't quite understand, and it gave me a little edge. Making sure I was using a party that can trigger two detonators per recharge also helped a lot, and retooling my party to deal with strengths/weaknesses also helped. Like if it's a fire guy, getting Neve's ice cube system let me turn them into a snow cone.

I think both of my "complaints" are actually somewhat related. The quest I was having a problem were definitely not "locked out" but also not fully intended to be done in "act one." I do think they need difficulty and more consistent/clearer "blocked" notifications if progress can't be made. I still have one completely blocked quest on my list with no indication that it's blocked.

Anyway, I was rewarded with an absolutely AMAZING 🐺 lore dump, so I suffered a bit but it was worth it! And now I'm a way better player.