Any tips for kinda early on?

[Holyblades]

I am getting near the pyramid and getting kinda wrecked. I had it on the hardest difficulty and was starting to have some issues and dropped it to normal but still get pounded in some normal fights when enemies crit. Must I just level a bit more?

[Durgha]

Armor called the cat suit can drop in the Ibis area from the vampire cats. It looks ridiculous but has much higher defense than anything available at that point in the game. Any class can wear it too.

I got lucky with two drops just wandering around exploring. If you're struggling with taking high damage then farming at least one suit could help a bit.

[Damoncord]

I think we're gonna need some more information, 1 what is your party made up of class wise? What levels are they? What type of gear do you have? Did you get a good personality when you created them, or are you using an accessory to change personalities?

[djevans]

Keep it on hard haha - you need to be level 15+ for this area. Also make sure to upgrade your equipment. Pyramid is pretty tough for early game. If you don't have any money there is a secret in the basement of the pyramid you can sell for $6000+ gold but i'd get it later because it releases a curse and makes the pyramid harder.

[Damoncord]

Originally posted by djevans:

Keep it on hard haha - you need to be level 15+ for this area. Also make sure to upgrade your equipment. Pyramid is pretty tough for early game. If you don't have any money there is a secret in the basement of the pyramid you can sell for $6000+ gold but i'd get it later because it releases a curse and makes the pyramid harder.

Add in the fact that magic doesn't work in the basement and it can be really hard down there if you're already having issues.

[GespenstKAF]

Originally posted by Damoncord:

Originally posted by djevans:

Keep it on hard haha - you need to be level 15+ for this area. Also make sure to upgrade your equipment. Pyramid is pretty tough for early game. If you don't have any money there is a secret in the basement of the pyramid you can sell for $6000+ gold but i'd get it later because it releases a curse and makes the pyramid harder.

Add in the fact that magic doesn't work in the basement and it can be really hard down there if you're already having issues.

Having a Monster Wrangler with Soothing Song and Emergency Groom is a good idea, as these combat healing abilities are not prevented by the anti-spell effect in the basement

[Ghin]

I'd suggest buying all the gear upgrades from the shop in Ibis before doing the pyramid. There isn't much in there in terms of gear rewards that make the Ibis items obsolete. Buying a sleep protection accessory can help because most of the enemies use sleep. Also you can buy a bazillion medicinal herbs to heal between fights if you want.

[Holyblades]

Originally posted by GespenstKAF:

Originally posted by Damoncord:

Add in the fact that magic doesn't work in the basement and it can be really hard down there if you're already having issues.

Having a Monster Wrangler with Soothing Song and Emergency Groom is a good idea, as these combat healing abilities are not prevented by the anti-spell effect in the basement

I'm not able to swap jobs yet though, correct? Also is there any other way to get decent money at this stage of the game? Enemies barely drop anything and the price of stuff is insanely high compared to what you get from these encounters.

[FreshMint]

Originally posted by Travisk1982:

Originally posted by GespenstKAF:

Having a Monster Wrangler with Soothing Song and Emergency Groom is a good idea, as these combat healing abilities are not prevented by the anti-spell effect in the basement

I'm not able to swap jobs yet though, correct?

You can always recruit one instead, but I wouldn't say it's worth it if you're at the pyramid unless you're below level 10 or something.

[Durgha]

Gold amounts vary widely based on the type of monster. The lootbag enemies in the Pyramid are probably worth the most for the part of the game you're in. They only spawn in the dungeon though, not outside in the desert. I vaguely remember them being weak to wind.

Free gear like the thorn whip (for mages) and edged boomerang (for everyone else) are relatively powerful mini medal rewards that should be available by this point. If you got the whip but sold it then another can be farmed from the Pyramid frogs.

The third monster arena rank in Ibis rewards a beastly whip. It's good enough to use all the way up through the class change dungeon. You can also buy these from the rip-off merchant in Asham but it's a huge waste of gold so don't.

If you're struggling for gold or levels it might help to head back to the second-to-last room in the Underground Lake. There's an altar there that restores HP and MP so grinding is painless. If you have a thief in the party then you'll be getting seeds from some of the monsters too.

[Holyblades]

I didn't even go all the way into the underground lake. I'll head back there now. Is this also for a side quest?

[Durgha]

Originally posted by Travisk1982:

I didn't even go all the way into the underground lake. I'll head back there now. Is this also for a side quest?

Oh. Yes, there's a whole dungeon out there that's missable. That explains why the difficulty spike must seem so high.

If you walk due north of Romaria you'll find Khoryv, and then a little north of that is Norvik. Without getting into spoilers, head west from there down the peninsula covered in trees. Near the tip you'll find a dungeon and a giant tree. The tree is a town. Check it out. Then explore the dungeon. Along the way is a secret spot with a friendly monster.

[Node]

I remember in the old Dragon Warrior 3 you had to go out there and wake the village from the fairies to advance. But it seems that in this version you can basically just skip that entire section... not sure why that is. In fact my first play I also completely missed the skyfell tower.... Why are they even there?

[Melodia]

Originally posted by Node:

I remember in the old Dragon Warrior 3 you had to go out there and wake the village from the fairies to advance. But it seems that in this version you can basically just skip that entire section... not sure why that is. In fact my first play I also completely missed the skyfell tower.... Why are they even there?

Why not? What's wrong with stuff being optional?

[Durgha]

I missed Skyfell too and went to the Underground Lake much lower level than intended. It wasn't until 15 hours into the game I realized we can zoom back to dungeons not just towns. By the time I cleared the tower, all the monsters were fleeing even on Draconian.

[shoobers]

Originally posted by Melodia:

Originally posted by Node:

I remember in the old Dragon Warrior 3 you had to go out there and wake the village from the fairies to advance. But it seems that in this version you can basically just skip that entire section... not sure why that is. In fact my first play I also completely missed the skyfell tower.... Why are they even there?

Why not? What's wrong with stuff being optional?

You could skip Kandar/Robbin Hood and Noaniels/Norvik in the NES version with nothing lost.