Spoiler Free Guide?

[DefNotJAM]

Does anyone know of a potential spoiler free guide I can use? I want to get an idea of where to be at power wise for specific areas (since the game doesn't really give indicators of what levels the monsters you fight are until after you catch them) but I don't want to look them up for fear of getting spoilers for story and whatnot

[TKailan]

Your Monsters keep 20% of theire Parants Stats when u synthesize them.
The goal is to keep them until u feel them lacking in Power. Then train a new Team.

At some Point u will reach the Middle and Upper Echolon of stages.
In the Middle Echolon u find Metal Slims in dedicatet spots with a low spawn chance. They give around 10 Battles worth of Exp.
And in the Upper Echolon there are Liquid Metal Slimes, giving around 25 Battles worth of Exp and King Metal Slime giving around 100 Battles worth.

[TKailan]

At the end of the Lower Echolon u should not synthesize bevor Lvl 20.
Middle to end of the Middle Echolon not bevor Lvl 40.
And finaly Upper Echolon not bevor Lvl 60.

[hawklaser]

Originally posted by DefNotJAM:

Does anyone know of a potential spoiler free guide I can use? I want to get an idea of where to be at power wise for specific areas (since the game doesn't really give indicators of what levels the monsters you fight are until after you catch them) but I don't want to look them up for fear of getting spoilers for story and whatnot

This is a bit hard to do, as there is a lot of power that isn't really tied directly to levels. Between stats from synthing and seeds, skill points, talents, and traits, there is a ton of variability. There are those that will synth up X tier monsters in the lower echelons that will struggle later on, and those that never get above C tier monsters and have no issues at all with the game. Also, in the higher echelons, some enemies can just be a royal pain if their strengths align against your weaknesses.

Bout the best advice anyone can give you on that, is if you are struggled with a boss or a new areas normal encounters, stop a moment to re-synth and re-level your main team to around the same level as it was. Lets you improve your talent sets, switch to a new monster potentially, and end up with higher overall stats if done well. Also, don't forget to use your consumable items in battle, they can make a huge difference.

The big trick is having a synergy between your traits, talents, stats, and resistances on your monsters and understanding how synthesis works so you don't end up weakening your monster overall.

The first half is easy, pairing things like Crack afficionado with Ultra Crafty Cracker or Crackmeister, having some of the anti-statuses or wards on monsters to cover weaknesses or make immunities (also they have some useful traits like Castslasher, autocadabra, and autorestora in addition to stat buffs), putting spell casting heavy talents on high wisdom monsters, and etc.

The second half, is you need to know that your synthed monsters stats is based on the parent monsters stats. 25% of the parents combined stats IIRC. So it is worth paying attention to the stats of both parents in addition to the outcome. You don't want to synth in a monster with only 50 strength with your main physical attacker that might have 600, as it might not get back to the same level without the usage of seeds.

As to when to synth, it changes throughout the game. Lv 12 & 25 are good early game target levels, mid game and beyond it depends on monster stats and what level you can get back to relatively quickly such as 41 (preferably one that awards skill points). Late game, you really have to pay attention to parent stats before synthing unless planning to farm up and use many seeds.

[Grug]

Originally posted by TKailan:

At the end of the Lower Echolon u should not synthesize bevor Lvl 20.
Middle to end of the Middle Echolon not bevor Lvl 40.
And finaly Upper Echolon not bevor Lvl 60.

Oh yeah? I've been synthesizing around level 30 in the middle echelon due to XP curve. What's the real reason to wait?

[hawklaser]

Originally posted by Grug:

Originally posted by TKailan:

At the end of the Lower Echolon u should not synthesize bevor Lvl 20.
Middle to end of the Middle Echolon not bevor Lvl 40.
And finaly Upper Echolon not bevor Lvl 60.

Oh yeah? I've been synthesizing around level 30 in the middle echelon due to XP curve. What's the real reason to wait?

In the 30's isn't a bad point to do a synthesis in the middle echelons. 40's a bit of overkill to wait for in the middle echelons imo, especially if been doing strong overall synths.

After the first synthesis (preferably at lv 12), the main reason to wait is for either a skill point level up, or getting enough stat gains to a have a net positive post synth. When to do it varies a bit based on ease of xp gain, and the individual monsters. Another reason to wait might be getting enough skill points to upgrade a talent.

When I do a fresh playthrough, I usually do a resynth of my team after each boss until about done with half the middle echelon. For the 2nd half of the middle echelon, I usually go every other boss for my main team, as I'm usually synthing monsters specifically to synth into my main team then, and takes a bit longer for reserves and paddock monsters to get enough levels for longer term stat gains. I usually don't have monsters hitting lv 50+ until doing Upper Fortitude, unless I happen to get a lucky liquid metal slime or metal king slime kill.