Difficulty? (Chapter 1 Spoilers)

[yein]

I've accumulated about 10 or so hours of the game now, and I'm in Chapter 1 now. I've been enjoying the story, but the game seems unplayable for me, because I find that I don't do damage to most enemies, and they hit me for 100's while I only have 400 hp or so.

I myself fleeing from most battles, and the boss battles are somewhat difficult too, although I get through them. I sort of reached a stopping point in the game now though, where I'm currently in the Sky Bandit hideout, and the grunts alone do too much damage, and I often end up with everyone dying. It's quite frustrating as I can't really go back and upgrade now, but I'm not entirely sure what to do.

I missed out a lot of side quests because I wanted to go through them on a second playthrough but I've made plenty of saves in different places. How should I go about progressing to defeat the more difficult enemies?

[Reality]

Publicado originalmente por Choi Sooyoung:

What arts / quartz would be good to have? Not entirely sure how to get new crafts either, do they come with quartz?

Crafts are abilities gained from leveling up. You'll get them eventually, even gaining a second S-craft for some characters late in the game. Don't worry TOO much about them just yet, but feel free to experiment with what you do have.

Let's see, in Chapter 1, you can configure your characters to pick up Hell Gate, Aerial (and Lightning) and Stone Impact with a little experimenting. I had Estelle using Stone Impact and Schera using Aerial to really destroy enemy groups in Chapter 1. Joshua can be given enough Time Quartz to pick up Hell Gate as well. With enough Earth and Water Quartz, you can even pick up Revive and La Tear, to really save on healing. Try to take into account your characters' natural stats and their EP, because some characters do things more efficiently than others. Try to get Tear on most people (if not everyone) because even fighting characters can affect the turnflow with it. Throughout the game, I rarely had trouble with EP and spellcosts.

Notable Quartz? HP 2 is farmable before you can buy it, it's off the Wisdom enemy just outside of Bose. Beware, it hits somewhat hard (and leeches health) and can use Shadow Spear, which can KO you. It DOES drop Skull Bracelets too (immune to OHKO effects), and you can't buy those for a LONG time. You can pick up a Petrify Quartz from a job in Bose, which effects more things than you can expect... Petrify status will disable an enemy, and the next attack will defeat it instantly. Oh, and definitely use your Information and Eagle Vision Quartzes. They DO give you Mirage and Space credit for your lines, which in turn helps you unlock more spells.

Otherwise, just experiment with what you have (or could buy) and create things with it.

[Vandesdelca]

forgot to mention here are some good quartz to have.
action>time quartz>gives speed so a must on everyone
attack>fire quartz> gives as it says so give to your offensive characters (for me was joshua and estelle in the late game)
Ep cut/Ep gain>space/mirage quartz> these quartz should go on your casters and will help fix your ep issues
Other than these the rest of the slots should be filled in accordance with their respective characters to obtain the arts possible.
lastly be warned it is also impossible to get certain characters (lookin at your zane and agate) to get their elements most powerful arts so dont be discouraged when you are unable to get them on these two

[SchwartZero]

I'll definetly recommend to get some AOE spells when you get to Ruan in Chapter 2. Open as many of your characters slots as you can, try all sorts of combinations of quartz. Try to at least get Hell Gate and Aerial.

You will have no problem clearing most enemy mobs now.

[mdcpaladin]

Publicado originalmente por Choi Sooyoung:

Thanks for the replies, didn't expect so many in such a short time ;p

I can probably admit to actually ever opening 2 orbment slots, only to fit in the Information and HP quartz. I've always found arts to be not as effecient because EP runs out quite fast, and they often take a while to use, and sometimes I even die before I get off an attack. I've been getting experience of about +20 or +30 with the grunts and some monsters, and spent most of my mira getting new weapons for Estelle, Joshua and Schera at the start.

I'll probably go back to an old save, do some side quests and get some extra armour, although I'm not sure what shining poms are. What arts / quartz would be good to have? Not entirely sure how to get new crafts either, do they come with quartz?

more slots you open, more EP you have

[Erpy]

If even Estelle doesn't have more than 2 crafts, you're around level 7 or 8. That's way too low for that point in the game. Take some time to gain a few levels. They can really make a difference.

[ladynadiad]

Yeah, sounds very much like you could use both levels and a couple more slots being opened. Don't worry about anyone besides Joshua and Estelle right now, additional party members will come with enough to survive until they leave the party, all you may have to do is tweak what quartz they have a bit.

I agree with the suggestion to also farm for some HP2 quartz. More HP always helps and the best HP quartz is always a good one to have on everyone in your party and I also agree that everyone should have access to at least some healing spells because in a pinch you'll use everyone to heal at some point and Tear is a great spell for messing with enemy turns so they won't use that really powerful attack on a crit or strength up turn.

Action is also pretty much a given. Speed is always going to help because higher speed means more turns which means more chances to do damage to the monsters. All the hardest bosses will have insane amounts of speed, be fast at casting and have ways to debuff your speed.

For the third slot once you open it, go with either an attack 1 or defense 1 more than likely. I'd say attack on Joshua and defense on Estelle. Joshua is a bit better at attacking so take advantage of that and give him a boost. And your chapter 1 party has a lot of people with crappy defenses so having someone able to take a hit better will help. Right now I think overall you could use the stat boosts more than specific arts, though Aerial can be a nice one.

But pretty much you'll benefit from just simply trying to go and kill some monsters. Your level is at about the right point when you are no longer getting double digit XP per monster.

Also, the Sky Bandit HQ isn't a point where you are stuck if your levels are too low. You can go back to the airship for a free heal and once you've found the hostages, there is also a spot you can open up to get to Nebel Valley and it's a short trip to a hut where you can rest for free (also gets you a recipe). So at the very least, you can definitely try to get some levels from the monsters in Nebel Valley and in the HQ itself.

[[NGNS-SWE] ⚡ Quezkatolen ⚡]

Publicado originalmente por Choi Sooyoung:

Thanks for the replies, didn't expect so many in such a short time ;p

I can probably admit to actually ever opening 2 orbment slots, only to fit in the Information and HP quartz. I've always found arts to be not as effecient because EP runs out quite fast, and they often take a while to use, and sometimes I even die before I get off an attack. I've been getting experience of about +20 or +30 with the grunts and some monsters, and spent most of my mira getting new weapons for Estelle, Joshua and Schera at the start.

I'll probably go back to an old save, do some side quests and get some extra armour, although I'm not sure what shining poms are. What arts / quartz would be good to have? Not entirely sure how to get new crafts either, do they come with quartz?

here is a tip fight some, run back and heal at the town then next time your doing a mission or side-.quest run past most mobs so you dont waste EP.

[yein]

Thanks for all the replies, didn't expect so many. I was considering starting again so I can play through it properly without having troubles, as I missed plenty of side quests in Rolent and probably some hidden quests too, not sure at this point, but I probably will, and yeah, I have Joshua and Estelle at like level 8 right now and they get like 20 xp from the enemies.

[Erpy]

You're way underlevelled in that case. As a rule of thumb, try to fight each enemy you come across once and avoid them on subsequent runs through that field screen.

[cM.Yui]

farm sepith, get better quartz (earlier time quartz seems useful) especially the Hell Gate
when mobs too hard, use earth guard (temp solution)
Joshua Craft 'Flicker' is useful as it gives AT delay

[[NGNS-SWE] ⚡ Quezkatolen ⚡]

As I said, try and make sure you always have X and Y in the party.
What I mean is, always make sure someone has healing specc.
Always make sure someone got strong spells
Always make sure someone can do good physical damage (Joshua etc)
Black (Time Quartz) and Red (attack quartz) is good on Joshua etc.
And for me, I kept giving Estelle blue quartz for healing - and combined it with green or yellow gems depending what my other characters lacked - for ex the third member you get in your party has wind and fire spells, if I remember correctly so you dont need it on estelle etc.