Order to approach dungeon missions...

[Ghostlight]

I'm new at this. What's the best strategy when picking which missions to emark on? Keep grinding apprentice till I make some decent characters? Stick with the Ruins as long as I can? I am not exactly sure how it is working. What is the number beside each area? If I keep going to the Ruins that number seems to be increasing, does this mean I will eventually lose the ability to go to "easy" Ruins missions completely? How would I raise new chars if I had to and that happened? Or can I grind easy missions till all my chars are level 6? Should I let the trinket rewards dictate where I go and just roll with it?

Thanks!

[Chuckie]

Find out for yourself.
That's a big part of the fun in these kind of games.

[Ghostlight]

Well I've stuck to the Ruins thus far but I stepped into the Cove once and got my ass handed to me. :)

[Enfild]

What mode did you choose? Radiant, I assume?

[Ghostlight]

Yes

[Chuckie]

Originally posted by Ghostlight:

Well I've stuck to the Ruins thus far but I stepped into the Cove once and got my ass handed to me. :)

That's part of the experience. Observe, learn from it.
There is not a certain order to play the regions etc, but they all have some different challenges because there are different enemies.
Also, retreat and abandon the missions before everything goes south. That's part of the challenge: to know when to cut your losses and just run.

[Lucid]

Best overall strategy for a newcomer - launching fresh stagecoach meat at dungeons to work out what each of the classes can do and what abilities you wish you had to face enemies. As you understand the different enemy compositions in each area, you can start building sensible parties to tackle those challenges. There are guides if you want specific strategies for each area, but just experiment. It's very difficult to go completely broke sending level 0 heroes at apprentice dungeons unless you're party wiping every single time. You can usually make up the cost of the provisions in one or two battles, and heroes are free.

Stick to apprentice level dungeons in each area. Even though your heroes level up, the level itself doesn't make them stronger. What makes the difference is upgraded equipment and skills. Your heroes will quickly outlevel your ability to gear them up, and throwing undergeared heroes at veteran and champion level dungeons will get them slaughtered.

Basicaly you need to learn what all the classes can do and how they can synergise. You can read a lot about it in guides/wikis, but it takes practice before you will be able to put together a proper party and make the right choices.

[Ghostlight]

I think the main thing I am worried about is will I hit the point where I no longer get offered Apprentice dungeons? i.e. is the game continually pushing me up in dungeon difficulty and I need to keep up with it, or will Apprentice ones *always* be choosable? How does the game decide what to offer me? My average Roster level?

And again what's that number in each embark area that is slowing increasing? I'm kind of fine with discovering everything else but I don't want to "break" my estate via bad embark choices.

[Stal Hamarr]

You will still get apprentice dungeons even when your roster will be mostly made of level 5-6 heroes. Of course you won't have the same choice selection, because there will be dungeons of all levels, but I always see 1 or 2 apprentice dungeons per week.

The number increases by 1 whenever you fill the progression bar for that dungeon. When it goes up by 1, you unlock the next boss.

[Lucid]

As above, you don't have to worry about running out or missions. The game is actually very forgiving in the hamlet. I think the only way to actually ruin your game is if you play Stygian mode where there is a limited amount of hero deaths and weeks allowed. You can keep running apprentice dungeons as long as you like.

[Enfild]

You can grind apprentice dungeons until lvl4, but this way you will learn mostly nothing. And payment isnt that good, so advance in higher dungeons as soon as posible. You will probably lose some heroes, but if you grind to max posible level and then go in higher dungeons you probably still lose, so what the point in grinding?
Jump in veteran as soon as you have lvl 3 dudes with green or better equip.

[jerryjohnson]

Originally posted by Shizu:

You will still get apprentice dungeons even when your roster will be mostly made of level 5-6 heroes. Of course you won't have the same choice selection, because there will be dungeons of all levels, but I always see 1 or 2 apprentice dungeons per week.

The number increases by 1 whenever you fill the progression bar for that dungeon. When it goes up by 1, you unlock the next boss.

Till what lvl can the dungeons go?

[Yal]

Originally posted by Devils taste:

Originally posted by Shizu:

You will still get apprentice dungeons even when your roster will be mostly made of level 5-6 heroes. Of course you won't have the same choice selection, because there will be dungeons of all levels, but I always see 1 or 2 apprentice dungeons per week.

The number increases by 1 whenever you fill the progression bar for that dungeon. When it goes up by 1, you unlock the next boss.

Till what lvl can the dungeons go?

IIRC every area has 2 bosses, each is fought 3 times (Apprentice, Veteran, Champion), so dungeons can go up to lv.6. The bosses have the same weaknesses, but generally bring a few new tricks to the table on harder difficulties (like a summoner boss summoning more diverse enemies).

The majority of Curios you find can be opened safely with the right supply item, btw, and this guarantees a positive outcome (and generally give you a better outcome than a normal positive outcome). Bringing an Antiquarian adds bonus loot from both curios and battles, but they're not good at fighting.

[No One]

They start at level 1, so they go up to level 7.