Getting my ass kicked in Act 3

[MobiusBlack]

So I am wondering if I am missing an essential pictos or something for survivability like the one that extends damage past 9999? Everything is either one shotting me or two shotting me or I barely do any damage. Act 2 went smooth as silk for me lol

[GodMan]

limit break picto cannot be skipped. As long as you do the storyline you'll get it

[MobiusBlack]

Originally posted by GodMan:

limit break picto cannot be skipped. As long as you do the storyline you'll get it

No I got that, I mean if there is another essential picto like that that I am missing. Because my guys barely do damage to enemies in the new areas.

[zefyris]

Do the main story first, you're attempting content that has various different required levels right now, while the main story is supposed to be played first

As for major pictos that you may be missing that reallly make a difference on every character, well, there's mostly Cheater, that can be looted on Sprong (if you do not know what is Sprong, it's the giant monster standing in the sea).

[Veylox]

You'll get extremely strong pictos the more of act 3 you clear, to the point where you'll roflstomp the entire game. You still have to start somewhere though, so your first fights might feel tough.

[MobiusBlack]

Originally posted by zefyris:

Do the main story first, you're attempting content that has various different required levels right now, while the main story is supposed to be played first

As for major pictos that you may be missing that reallly make a difference on every character, well, there's mostly Cheater, that can be looted on Sprong.

So I should continue the story and fight you know who? I thought I was meant to explore before that. Thanks for clarifying.

[MobiusBlack]

Originally posted by Veylox:

You'll get extremely strong pictos the more of act 3 you clear, to the point where you'll roflstomp the entire game. You still have to start somewhere though, so your first fights might feel tough.

Any recommendations on where I should go? hit a wall with the tower in the third level and everywhere else that I have tried so far I do chip damage lol

[Penjamin]

Originally posted by MobiusBlack:

Originally posted by zefyris:

Do the main story first, you're attempting content that has various different required levels right now, while the main story is supposed to be played first

As for major pictos that you may be missing that reallly make a difference on every character, well, there's mostly Cheater, that can be looted on Sprong.

So I should continue the story and fight you know who? I thought I was meant to explore before that. Thanks for clarifying.

Yes the rest of the game outside of the main story is harder content from the main story. It is meant to be done after. After you finish the story you will still be able to go back and do that stuff later.

[zefyris]

Originally posted by MobiusBlack:

Originally posted by zefyris:

Do the main story first, you're attempting content that has various different required levels right now, while the main story is supposed to be played first

As for major pictos that you may be missing that reallly make a difference on every character, well, there's mostly Cheater, that can be looted on Sprong.

So I should continue the story and fight you know who? I thought I was meant to explore before that. Thanks for clarifying.

yes, as a general indicator, the remaining main story zones drop weapon enhancements that allow to upgrade up to 19 max. Almost every optional zone opened in Act 3 are dropping the weapon upgrade for lvl 32 max.

Loot level is tied to the monster levels in the zone. If you become strong enough to kill what drop upgrades to 32, you will kill everything in the story area without the enemy ever getting a turn.

[GodMan]

Defeat the big guy first and later just scour the continent for easier targets. Definately do the mountains first if you havent already, the rest is your choice. Cheater picto is mildly easy to get and you'll need it for most builds.

[lolli.23824]

You get a Picto to exceed 9999 damage cap from the story when finishing Act 2. If you win 4 fights with that, you can activate this nas Lumina for all other characters (only 5 points cost).
Then you want to get the "Medalum" Sword for Maelle - either by winning the Tournament sidequest in "Gestral Village" or by sucessfully beating Golgra, the Queen. (Golgra is much harder).
For me at least, i noticed that only Maelle will be extremly overpowered in a short time. Verso will be real strong too, if you get his knife that immediately starts with Rank S.
For endless Lumina Points farming, search for the place "Renoirs Drafts" when you can Fly and swim with Esqie. (Warning - be at least lvl 70)
And you could activate Luminas like "30% damage until you get hit" or "30% more damage, but can't be healed". Go fully offensive - no healing. I know it sounds really horrifying, but it helps alot. I struggled a long time too, until i changed from healing and defending to straight up attacking and damage.
Good luck.

[Veylox]

Originally posted by MobiusBlack:

Originally posted by Veylox:

You'll get extremely strong pictos the more of act 3 you clear, to the point where you'll roflstomp the entire game. You still have to start somewhere though, so your first fights might feel tough.

Any recommendations on where I should go? hit a wall with the tower in the third level and everywhere else that I have tried so far I do chip damage lol

Main story is definitely your level, or generally any content that doesn't have the red "danger" sign on it. If you want main story to stay relevant in terms of difficulty, do it now, not later.

You could also just try killing an optional boss that's above your level as long as you're confident you can learn its moves, some of them are fairly easy. Don't sleep on random mobs on the world map either, they all protect pictos and weapon upgrades.

I think your party members' relationship levels should be on the easier side of act 3 too, so you can start by clearing those.

Then there's the sprong debate. He's hard to kill, but guards a picto that will make your entire team twice as strong.

Don't forget you can also loot entire maps without fighting. dark shores are extremely tough, so is renoir's draft or the flying manor, but they all hide really strong goodies that aren't really locked behind forced fights

[KombatKaine]

Originally posted by MobiusBlack:

So I am wondering if I am missing an essential pictos or something for survivability like the one that extends damage past 9999? Everything is either one shotting me or two shotting me or I barely do any damage. Act 2 went smooth as silk for me lol

the picto that allows you to surpass 9999 damage comes from beating the story. as far as getting 1 shot, thats kind of the point of the game. the game is built around dodging/parrying all attacks, so the damage you take doesnt really matter. learning the attack patterns and timings are what matter.
that said, depending on the difficulty you're playing on, you have options.

1. build defensively. you dont HAVE to play glass cannon. most weapons scale on Vitality, Defense, or both. dumping your stats into those can help with 1 shots, as well as boost damage when using those weapons. also pictos. the actual pictos you have equipped dont really matter. you can equip all the ones that give the stats you want, rather than the effect, since the effect can be applied as a lumina instead.

2. grind to overlevel things. imo this removes the challenge, and thus the fun, but its still an option. if your struggling, go to previous areas or wander the map to grind out more levels, stats, pictos, etc. until you feel comfortable returning to where you were.

3. try different builds. using party members and abilities that work together is much better than just having 3 party members that do their own thing and dont benefit from one another.

my build as an example:
Lune: my support/healer. Rebirth and Revitalization for healing/rezzing. Terraquake (or something like that) to increase the break damage enemies take. typhoon for passive damage and healing. Immolation and Wildfire to applie burn stacks. The picto that allows 2 turns in a row, but reduces damage, so she can stack more burn, or heal and burn in 1 turn.

Maelle: my primary damage, playing around Burning Canvas (deals more damage per stack of burn). i take the ability that swaps me into virtuous stance when hitting a burning enemy. Pyrolese to stack tons of burn. The picto that applies double burn.

Sciel: my break damage dealer, with backup healing. Grim Harvest for off healing. taking any abilities that stack break, so when i get into twilight state, i can break enemies in 1-2 hits.

[Baron01]

It really depends how much time you spent doing side content before you finished Act 2. You might need to grind some levels to be viable for those "danger" areas.

You also need to rework your skills, Pictos and LUmina setups as "Painted Power" completely changes the game. Just one example, multi-hit skills were absolute king in early game but once you get the damage limit broken, the game changes and skills you have not used might be new hits.

There are some crucial Pictos that you can get from the side content that opens in Act 3. These Pictors bring next level of power for your characters: Cheater, Energy Master or pretty much any "Charging" Pictos dealing with gradient charges.

You want to spend some time re-arranging your party, skill, weapon, Pictos and Lumina setups for the end-game, that is what Act 3 is. You also want to spend time at camp increasing your relationship with your party members to get their gradient attacks. You need to do the same for Esquie to be able to visit all areas. Finally, you want to re-visit some of the previously dangerous areas as you level up to see if you are now safe to do them. I farmed a lot some enemy packs in the open world that gave good rewards, such as catalysts to upgrade weapons, early after entering Act 3. When I was done with the farming, I got quite a few levels and upgraded weapons, which allowed me to visit any previously dangerous areas on the map with a few exceptions of late game areas such as Renoir's Draft.

When you grow in power in Act 3, go check Dark Shores south of the starting area and see if you can clear it. This is one of the best spots to farm in Act 3 early as long as you can safely defeat enemies in this area. They give great experience and drop catalysts to upgrade your weapons all the way to level 32.

[a passerby]

My recommendation for Act 3 progression is this:

1) Do all relationship quests and max them out
2) Beat Sprong
3) Either complete main story or do 1-2 zones like Crimson Forest, Sinister Cave, Falling leaves
4) Do everything else. If you need to level, just do the endless tower

The areas that you should probably only visit after main story are frozen heart, chosen path, dark shores, sky island, endless night sanctuary, and dark gestral arena. You can do this early, but you will be way too overleveled when you return to lumiere.

The areas that you shouldn't even bother doing until completing the main story would be flying manor, sunless cliffs, painting workshop, renoir's drafts, and the abyss.

[BahamaLlama]

Originally posted by MobiusBlack:

Originally posted by Veylox:

You'll get extremely strong pictos the more of act 3 you clear, to the point where you'll roflstomp the entire game. You still have to start somewhere though, so your first fights might feel tough.

Any recommendations on where I should go? hit a wall with the tower in the third level and everywhere else that I have tried so far I do chip damage lol

Have you gone back to camp and spoken to everyone to get their friendships up? If not, excluding going to the end-game zone, I'd do Maelle's, Lune's and Monoco's story first.

Frozen Heart is usually a good place to go for some good levels and some okay Picto's.
Also, go to the flying islands that gain you access to new places as well, since you've unlocked flying.

Also, as someone said, Sprong (The big dude in the water) gives you the Picto "Cheater" which allows you to have a second turn.

You should also consider getting your weapons above level 20 or higher, and once you do, changing your attributes to whatever boosts your weapons damage. If it's something like A in luck and B in Def, then get luck to 99 first, then do Def, then either do Agility if you want more turns, or do Vitality if you want more health to survive more.

If you don't mind using 3rd party tools, a good website to use is the interactive map. It shows you where you can get all the Picto's and such. It'll help you with working out what build you want to do on what character etc.

If not, then, just go to each place you know you haven't visited yet. Sadly, Act 3's progression is basically enemies 1 shotting you until you learn to parry/dodge their abilities, until eventually you start 1 shotting them. It doesn't take "too" much to get to that point, but, it does take understanding all of the systems and syncing them together properly.