Are enemies supposed to be hitting this hard?

[Fiona Kaenbyou]

So I'm sitting around level 40 having just made it to the Sea of Tranquility, and I'm starting to wonder if I'm somehow playing the game wrong because enemies just seem to hit for ungodly amounts of damage all the time. Even starting encounters with an Attack- Command I'm getting fights where one or two enemies target the same character and they die instantly from full health. Obviously this happens to the front row more often, but my back row gets pummelled pretty hard as well. I got through the whole climb up Youkai Mountain by setting the rest of the party to defend and build SP while Sumireko chipped away at random encounters with the rocket launcher, but that doesn't seem like the intended strategy.

Am I supposed to be throwing around buff spells in normal encounters? Boss fights honestly feel much more stable because I'm familiar enough with SMT to stack everything I can to +/-3. In comparison I'm very anxious about MP conservation in random fights, which is why I've been trying to rely on SP Commands instead. Should I just bite the bullet and start casting Not!Rakukaja turn 1? Or is there some other form of damage mitigation I missed?

[Mistiry Shak]

Yeah, enemies are supposed to hit that hard. What I recommend is actually just accepting that sometimes your party members will take the fall during regular combat and have a reserve member (so not in your combat party) with Animus and Himediusa/Himedisol to take the MP cost so your main party doesn't have to and you can top up after any fight that goes awry. That way you can conserve party MP for going on the offensive.

EDIT (because I wasn't satisfied with leaving it at that): By the way, there's no shame in letting your party fall or getting a game over. It sounds like your party may have low VIT and INT stats overall. See if you can fuse a Sleeper that has those stats high. If you've been running the same party for a while, also try fusing a new Sleeper or Sacrificing some newer Sleepers from dungeons to bring them up to around Sumireko's level.

EDIT 2: Another small note is that you're playing rocket tag here. It sounds like you're currently playing really defensively, which is letting enemies have plenty of chances to pummel you. You have to play a game of "take them out before they can take me out". See if that approach helps!

[Maxwell644]

Im pretty sure enemys get bonus resistances/damage if theres a level gap, you cant realy stop this easily for Sumireko besides backrow/defend when you know some enemys have her weakness. I ended up just hijacking enemys at some points 20~ levels over her and that let me one shot most encounters or at least close to it.

[Mistiry Shak]

Originally posted by Maxwell644:

Im pretty sure enemys get bonus resistances/damage if theres a level gap, you cant realy stop this easily for Sumireko besides backrow/defend when you know some enemys have her weakness. I ended up just hijacking enemys at some points 20~ levels over her and that let me one shot most encounters or at least close to it.

Dev has confirmed this isn't the case, and even if it was, 40 is actually the exact same level as the enemies encountered in this area.

[Fiona Kaenbyou]

Originally posted by Mistiry Shak:

Yeah, enemies are supposed to hit that hard. What I recommend is actually just accepting that sometimes your party members will take the fall during regular combat and have a reserve member (so not in your combat party) with Animus and Himediusa/Himedisol to take the MP cost so your main party doesn't have to and you can top up after any fight that goes awry. That way you can conserve party MP for going on the offensive.

I've got several Sleepers on standby on healing duty, yeah. It's not that I can't pull through these fights when someone dies, because usually I can - it's the fact that a dead Sumireko means restarting the dungeon with a hefty XP loss. I almost wish the game gave you a flat game over instead so I didn't have to mentally debate over how much progress is worth losing a level >.>

I've already been prioritising Sleepers at the highest levels I can summon who also have good VIT/INT stats, then stuffing them with as many single target elemental spells as I can for maximum coverage (with the exception of one back row character with the party buffs + Dekaja).

Part of why I wasn't sure if this was the proper strategy was a line of dialogue from an NPC (it was a kappa so I think it was in Genbu Ravine?) saying that a proper party needs a healer, a buffer and a tank. Healing and buffing I can handle, but tanking simply does not seem to be a viable strategy in this game.

The only idea I can think of for that is to have a backrow character with high defensive stats spam Cover on a frontliner with cranked up ATK/MAG, but I'm not entirely convinced that's a viable strategy? In boss fights especially I feel like you'd lose out in the action economy.

[ShinkuTear]

'Tanking simply doesn't seem to be viable in this game' is correct, because unless you use the Easy Grimoire and/or have full buffs stacked... it largely isn't. Bosses and FOEs, if you know they only use specific damage types, can be heavily mitigated by having someone with Resist/Null/Absorb to those types and the Cover skill.

The highest VIT/INT Sleepers I've found would take maaaaaybe 1 more hit before dying than others, high VIT/INT isn't particularly significant for survival, you benefit more from a good affinity set, like Keine.

If you are properly leveled for an area, majority of your characters should be dying in no less than 3 Unresisted hits from higher offense enemies, enough bulk to largely ensure no one gets killed before you have a chance to react and heal. If you start seeing 2 Hit kills from Unresisted damage, you should consider figuring out a way to sit and level grind, maybe returning to the previous area?

Boss fights, you can generally stack +DEF, +EVA, and -ATK buffs and debuffs to mitigate damage enough to solve defensive issues.

[Fiona Kaenbyou]

Originally posted by ShinkuTear:

If you are properly leveled for an area, majority of your characters should be dying in no less than 3 Unresisted hits from higher offense enemies, enough bulk to largely ensure no one gets killed before you have a chance to react and heal. If you start seeing 2 Hit kills from Unresisted damage, you should consider figuring out a way to sit and level grind, maybe returning to the previous area?

3 is about where I am, yeah. I was mostly anxious because that means every turn has a nonzero chance of Sumireko getting ganked from full HP. I assume this is just a possibility I have to live with? :V

I think maybe the crux of the problem is just that I've not been considering enemy attacks very much. Because random encounters can have a variety of elements I ended up turning off my brain with regards to learning what spells particular enemies cast, which means I'm not having characters block when there's a potential weakness to hit. I might want to go back to the drawing board for my party composition and pay attention to weaknesses rather than raw VIT/INT (looking at YOU, Junko!!)

Thanks for all the advice so far! It's given me a lot to think about!

[Fiona Kaenbyou]

So based on what I've collected so far, I think my plan when I go back to the game is something like this:

1. Revamp Sumireko's moveset so that she's a pure support instead of a magical attacker. Give her all 3 buff spells, Himediusa, phys/mag reflect, and Dekaja. (Medisol probably won't be necessary since First Aid Kits are already full heals and are easily farmable as early as Eientei.)

2. Since she won't be attacking anyway, equip her with the Trumpet Gun from the Abandoned Mansion to buff the rest of the party.

3. Dedicate every other party member to having full elemental coverage so they can always hit a weakness. 7 elements means I can cover everything and have one slot spare for either an AoE or some sort of spicy spellcard option.

During fights everyone else picks off whatever weaknesses they can. Sumireko reacts based on the situation - she can heal if people are bleeding, reflect whichever damage type is most troublesome, stack buffs during boss fights, or just block if she needs to conserve MP. (In particular the reflect spells seem ABSURDLY powerful if you have enough agility to act first, since they block ALL attacks for a turn rather than just the first one.)

Does this all seem solid, at least for where I currently am? I'm imagining endgame/postgame is its own flavour of horrifying once Almighty damage starts showing up.

[ShinkuTear]

Your idea sounds solid enough :)

There's a steam guide that lists just about every enemy in a given area, as well as their affinities and skills, which has made my Mage Sumireko quite potent.

I gave my Sumireko all 5 single target elemental spells, Himedi, Hideluo, and an All Enemy target spell that I change around by what area I'm doing. The past 3 areas I've been through have not had any enemies with resistance to Ice, so Hicalausa and Hicalasol have torn the enemies apart, enabling lazy offense and easy level grinding.

[I love the lag]

As long as you're not using the lunatic grimoire a high agi Sumireko with a gun or super effective damage and another sleeper doing the same can usually mop one enemy unit and in a two-or-three enemy squad that's a big difference. If you go the other way to the beast realm first the damage is even more stark.

Don't forget you can cancel most non-ambush encounters with the danmaku minigame by picking on something with an easier pattern, and there's an SP ability that takes the whole bar but just cancels an enemy turn. If you only take two enemy encounters or easy threes you should be able to make it pretty far- and you can always magic fabric if you're in trouble.

The assault rifle is a really good weapon because a ridiculous number of enemies are weak to gun and there's no built-in reflect in this game. If you can afford the rocket launcher (cups a bunch of times) it does non-pierce but is still quite effective at getting encounters under thresholds.

Sometimes ambush encounters will just focus down Sumireko and you'll die, though.