Floundering just past the end of the demo

[MindfulOcean]

I've played and beaten Persona games, but I'm having trouble understanding team comps in this game.

On Normal, making sure to fight all enemies, I'm near the end of the Cathedral and everyone is around Level 10. which is lower than what the guides say I should be at...by a lot. I have like 7? days left before the deadline, but I can't see how to grind (the humans and white wolves hit like trucks and move too quick before battle for me to be able to make sure they don't get turns), and the guides seem to recommend builds using spells from Archetypes I haven't unlocked for my teammates (saving points for when I know I need them).

Tentatively, I'm building the MC as a mage and the other two as physical attackers. I have current gear, but it seems way harder to get an "advantage" for battles because of how quick the enemies move and how slow you spam X. When you do hit weaknesses (which seem uncomfortably variable in my opinion in each group of enemies), they don't seem to want to stay down and often do damage and waste more of my precious MP.

The Cathedral is way harder than the earlier stuff I played in the demo. What am I doing wrong?

[steven]

It seems you are doing some things wrong, judging by your text.

One general advice : you can / should cut the dungeon in 2+ parts.

You do one part, earn some loots, level up, use MP, exit the dungeon, sell what you earned and buy better gears / potions, come back the next day, rinse and repeat until you finished it. It's not a shame to use multiple days for the first dungeon.

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* What do you mean "near the end of the dungeon" ? In front of the final boss ? Midway ?
Coz you are seriously under level, the last boss is near level 20, so you should be level 16-18 at the end (not sure ?).

I don't know how you can even beat a mini boss (not normal mobs) like the knights of the elevator or the explosive mobs.
You should have been dead before and blocked by progression, but i don't play on normal so maybe it's logic to kill higher level mobs with ease...

* For the levels, did you skipped everybattles ? Wtf... On normal, battles should not be a problem and XP should flow.
You should use enemies weaknesses to kill them fast or stun them before the battle to have free turns --> no more faster enemies if they are stun, and free turns if you hit weaknesses. Don't forget to dodge before being hit !

And no, enemies are not too quick, they do the same attack every X seconds with a sound and an animation giving you time to react : i call skill issue here if you can't dodge or run out of range !

You should have bought some intels to the dude giving intels on Cathedral enemies (weaks to light and fire).
And no, weaknesses are not "uncomfortably variable", each enemies has a set of weaknesses and resistances (or none of them). The game is to find them thx to the intels dude or by yourself.

* For the archetypes, your guide implie you did the dungeon later (maybe last day), so at this time, you had developed bonds, unlocked new classes, maybe did some side dungeons and bough new gears.
2 solutions :
- Ditch this guide and find one that match your situation (or just don't use guides and go blind)
- Follow the guide by unlocking whatever they are telling you on your remaining days, then come back to the dungeon.

Your Archetypes are not bad : Magical attacker like Mage / Healer on MC + 2 Physical Attacker like Knight on Hulk and Warrior / Brawler on Strolh :

- Build a Healer with Hama (light) and use skill inheritance in Akademeia to learn Bot (fire) OR build a Mage and inherit some heal or Hama. So you have heals and can hit weaknesses.
- Build a Knight on Hulkenberg (best def), give her the best def gears and make her taunt enemies or do some cheap damages (she is good only to do this lol).
- Build a Warrior or Brawler for damages, nothing more needed LOL
(Skill inheritance, Mage, Healer, Warrior, Brawler, Knight are unlocked before the dungeon)

* For the gears, did you bough some on the city before going in the dungeon or did you use only what you found on the Cathedral ?
If you can, go back to the city and buy better gear if available and have enough money.

* For the MP, if you run out of them, 2 solutions :
- You exit the dungeon and come back the next day with full HP and MP.
- You equip Mage with your main character and kill low level trash mobs in one or two hit (blue name, beatable without entering battle). Everyone earn 1 MP.
Kill them again and again until you have enough MP to go next section of the dungeon.
--> If you need 200 MP, you need to kill 200 enemies, it's long and tedious.