Hard Mode really is hard

[Lightsout21]

I just started the new game+ and keep seeing the game over screen. If I link more than 2 monsters, it's pretty much game over each time. Can any pros give me some tips? I am about to go into the catacombs.

[Tommy]

hard mode guide in guide section

[SenMithrarin85]

Originally posted by Lightsout21:

I just started the new game+ and keep seeing the game over screen. If I link more than 2 monsters, it's pretty much game over each time. Can any pros give me some tips? I am about to go into the catacombs.

Don't chain. Use larger unions for better HP and defence and expect battles that were hard on your 1st playthrough to be hell.

[PinkPаптҥэя]

I found hard mode to be quite tough in the first third of the New Game+, as long as the party members have no means to revive unions. In that phase of the game one has to be careful, how many enemies to engage at once.
I'm currently near the end of my fourth playthrough and my experience is as follows:
- Make sure you have enough good healers in your party (either Combat guy with herbs or Mystic guy with Restore, but not Combat w/Restore)
- Don't try to combine hard mode and a low BR run, you need building stats early in the game for hard mode. Otherwise it's simply not fun, which should be the aim of playing games.

After some of your members can revive you can go low on encounters to minimize your BR gain.
As soon as you have 15 or 18 members in your party, I recommend grinding some 3000+ landworms in 'Wisdom's Echo' Quest, which will boost your stats immensely. After that, hard mode will feel like normal mode...!

[Lightsout21]

Yeah that's my problem. Rush is the only one that has a revive, so if his union dies im done

[PinkPаптҥэя]

If you haven't already, you can also hire Faye in Celapaleis. She is quite a decent fighter and has vivification from the start. She's available after entering the catacombs.

[Zloth]

Did you use your vast wealth and left over stuff to buy Rush a super weapon? And maybe some super accessories, too? Hard mode starts out seriously hard but, as soon as the crafting shop opens up, that all changes. Suddenly it becomes a game of trying to keep Rush from destroying everything before the other characters get a chance to use their skills!

I'm not sure I understand how you got so far with only one revive? The characters with herbs (David, Blocter, Baulson) should shoot up like rockets thanks to all the many healing opportunities that hard mode provides. Heck, you'll probably see people getting Frost Tincture by the half way point!

And the nice thing about hard mode is you get to actually use things like Frost Tincture and Cyclone Cream because you've got the money to pay for them now. Explosives really come into their own - their a bit like hexes only nothing can stop them happening and they happen early in the round so you aren't putting a silence on something that's already had its turn. You can even use Shards... sparingly.

[Misfiring]

Originally posted by pinkpanther:

If you haven't already, you can also hire Faye in Celapaleis. She is quite a decent fighter and has vivification from the start. She's available after entering the catacombs.

Nice tip, I almost forgot I used to do that in the past when I haven't master the game. Feya is incredibly useful early game and having dual-wield axes she is excellent in combat as well.