Out of MP items in first dungeon, what do?

[Shady_Milkman]

Topic. Bad game design? Where are the damn MP items?

[TeH FrUiTlOoPz^]

Farm mobs for MP items, although they're not common drops. You cannot always buy them from shops. Alternative is to return to town rest up, and return to the dungeon the next day. Assuming you're not on your final day of the mission.

[Mute]

If you put the mage archetype on the protagonist you can get MP back by stunning or killing things in overworld combat. Can take a while but you can get all your mana back for free that way. Obviously it works best when the enemies are at least 3 levels lower than you so you can just kill them.

Find the biggest group of easy enemies you can close to a checkpoint or cat, visit akademeia to make them respawn straight away, go kill them again.

[King of Scrubz]

No it is not bad game design. Persona 3, 4, and 5 were like that. You are meant to clear dungeons over several in-game days. MP Items are practically non existent in the early game. Maybe watch a lets play to get a feel for the flow of MP management.

[Rune]

You can always just run out of the dungeon and return fresh another day.

[lentinant]

Metaphor is actually much more lenient on MP than previous Atlus games. This particular dungeon can be easily handled by using Mage class, as your MP costs are still relatively low.

1. Set hero to Mage class.
   
2. Ensure you are higher level than red and white dogs, and can oneshot them without entering the combat.
   
3. In the area with a lot of dogs (lower floor of large elevator shaft), kill them all - Mage class makes you getting 1 MP per each killed dog.
   
4. Exit via spiral stairs.
   
5. Go back, see dogs respawned.
   
6. Repeat until at acceptable MP levels (you are going to restore 20-30 MP per "run" this way).

Later game has a lot of other options to replenish MP - food, passive abilities and equipment that restore MP, even some skills.

[IceBorg]

being challenging isn't "bad game design"

[SecondLeaseGamer]

This is common in Persona style games. MP is your only limiting factor in dungeons so you cant farm there infinitely in a single day... You'll get the ability to cook some food later than regens MP over time, and some class abilities that regenerate MP. Early on, you'll not be able to abuse things, but it'll come.

[Player Zer01]

i mean.... that is just bad game design. think about it, the main protag is a mage. the games story revolves around magic. the first area youre in is heavy on magic..... but mp potions arent a common thing??? that doesnt make sense in the slightest.

[Giganx]

Switch to Mage and keep killing and resetting blue enemies in the overworld. Mage gives you MP for killing stuff in overworld combat. That's the main way you get MP back.

[ThundraBoy]

Resource management is a big part of dungeon crawling in this game, git gud. You're also not necessarily meant to beat the story dungeons in one day if you cannot manage the above.

[Alice]

That's why they give you more than 10 days deadline, you and your follower need to leave dungeon and rest if run out of MP ( Don't waste MP items, you need save them for boss fights ), or you can equiped Mage archetype and kill low level enemy to recover MP for all your teamate.

[The Ultimate Might]

Originally posted by Shady_Milkman:

Topic. Bad game design? Where are the damn MP items?

Select a Thief, ambush, plunder magic, escape.
Repeat.
13 MP can be stolen from some monsters.
Equip 'Phantasmal Doll' if you have, it enables you to do 2 actions in a row. So a Thief can steal MP twice right away. Plunder Magic consumes 1 MP, so if a Thief can steal 9 MP, it will be (9 x 2 = 18) - (1 x 2) = 16 per ambush.
And don't forget to get MP replenish passives & items.
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Or select a Mage and do some overworld combats, do not ambush, it only gives 1 MP per monster, though.
But if there is a 'Trance Crystal' respawns monsters, you can just use a macro that hits 'Space Bar', it is going to be convenient. But some it will not work for some monsters like skeleton soldiers, because they charge towards a protagonist.
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Or you can just do some overworld combats as a Mage, when you reach the cat, go to the entrance and enter the dungeon again. Or just use 'Ariadne's Thread', it will send a protagonist back to the entrance, it's cheap and you can buy it easily in the town.
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You are gonna get many Magla Pills, use them.
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And a Masked Dancer also can get MP, not only a Mage.
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And I wanna share you how I used a macro nearby 'Trance Crystals'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQEHFX_Cp90

[The Ultimate Might]

You can buy 'Phantasmal Doll' after earning Brigitta's trust & support.

[Naijiro]

I usually just pace myself, don't be afraid to leave the dungeon and camp, starting out it can be a bit rough but as the game goes on you get more MP, it's just managing your resources really.

And as someone else said Phantasmal Doll is an amazing item, lets you attack twice in a row.

[Sage Pirotess]

Originally posted by Giganx:

Switch to Mage and keep killing and resetting blue enemies in the overworld. Mage gives you MP for killing stuff in overworld combat. That's the main way you get MP back.

Switch to mage, use it all game on overworld. Never run put of mp. No trash mob will attack you. Only boss fights.