Am i doing something wrong?

[Alexiel アレクシエル]

I wanted to play the game without a guide or the DLCs (at least 2 of them seem to be overpowered). Now the thing is, am i doing something wrong and/or should I restart?

The thing is : the few hours left of Day 1 I explored Luxerion (completed "Born from Chaos") until i ended up in the warrens, where the Meonektons gave me a pretty hard time , but i managed it. On day 2 then, i went to Yusnaan explored it, completed "Family Food" and the first " A Testing Propositing" . I also bought almost every Garb i found until that time. Since i had time to 6PM until the Yusnaan Event in the Industrial Area started, I went back to Luxerion , and catched 2 numbers.

Then, at 6PM,(with synthed Abilites, equipped the best acessoires, garbs and weapons i could buy/use) i went into the Industrial Area and.... well the monsters gave me a hard time. I managed to even beat the boss ( i had much more troubles with the monsters before him) . After the boss i dodged every Schrodinger ( i only can beat them using "overclock") grabbed the ID card and got back to safe streets.

Now my question is: Did I messed up and Luxerion was the first intended Main Quest? Should i restart? (I do not want a perfect run on the first time, doing it on NG+) Or am i on the "right" track and should go into the palace, but learn to guard perfectly everytime? Or is exploring the other 2 areas before doing the main quests the key? Doing the Industrial area was harder then all of Dark Souls, honestly. I welcome any advise, but please without Spoilers :)

[KarmaTheAlligator]

There is no intended first quest, you can do whatever you want. One thing you'll want to do is do as many sidequests and canvas of prayers as you can, as they raise your stats.

Since you've been to the Warrens, you should have gotten the Thundara from a chest there. That would have helped you immensly in the Industrial Area (yes, even against the Schrodingers).

Make sure you press whatever button it is to access Libra during fights (or look at the bestiary) to see how to stagger enemies. Staggering is the key to victory. Perfect timing for both attack and defence also helps (less so attack) but they're secondary to staggering.

[Alexiel アレクシエル]

First of all thanks for the Tips :)

Yeah you're right, i did get that Thundara, but haven't used it. I tired it before the area and after 2-3 uses my ATB was empty and it felt awkward doing nothing when all ATBs are empty. It felt so underwhelming when I used it i completly forgot about it, thanks. :) I guess i have to use it with a fast recovery garb / items?

About staggering, most of my skills have a E in staggering time, even when i use 2 ATBs with effective attacks, it almost staggers, but then i can't push it higher. I can barely hold it with my C-Move ( Attack) and if I have to guard during that time, the wave is gone completly. I tried using Buster Ruin but it's really slow. Should i try using "Area Sweep" (my only other A in stagger time) to maintain it, until i can Spam for example "Thunder" again? Guess that was my biggest Problem with the Desdemonas, i tried to use Thunder after their Charges (like Libra suggests) but only once i was able to stagger one.

[KarmaTheAlligator]

The trick is to use all your ATB with Thundara on one garb (using one that has at least 100 max ATB and starts with full ATB, which gives you 4 casts), then switch to regular Thunder (or any other spell, really, unless the enemy absorbs that element) on another garb. That keeps the stagger wave going, builds it up even, and allow your other garb to recharge ATB. Make sure you have equipment that increase ATB recovery/speed. That applies to every -ra spell.

The problem with a lot of the abilities (forget what the game tells you regarding stagger time, learn by using the abilities) in the game is that most of the time, mixing physical and magical attacks doesn't help as they seem to increase different stagger waves (at least that's how it looks to me: plenty of times I've used spells to get the wave to red, than had to switch to a physical attack and the wave went back to half yellow half red). It's usually one or the other to stagger (as in, try a physical attack, then a magic one, see which one does increase the wave, and stick with it). Take this with a grain of salt, this is based on my experience, not actual knowledge of the game's mechanics.

Try getting some Beat Down from the Desdemona (need to be staggered for it to drop), or go to Jagd Village in the Wildlands and buy the garbs there (the garbs in Canopus Farm are also good). Beat Down is one of the best staggering ability in the game, even without a spear.

[Alexiel アレクシエル]

Okay ! Thanks again for your help ;)

[Alexiel アレクシエル]

So, finally relazing this isn't a classical FF game I'm starting to understand stuff x) Essentially every random mob needs 110% attention, and special setup... Making may way through the palace, I stopped spamming moves and focus on perfect guards (using the Quiet Guardian Gard), up to a point where im almost only waiting, like against Skata'nes. I love challenging games, but i never expect LR to be that... brutal. Especially after 13 and 13-2. Like the Cyclops was a boss. Now it's everywhere >_>

[Yorien]

Originally posted by Alexiel:

So, finally relazing this isn't a classical FF game I'm starting to understand stuff x) Essentially every random mob needs 110% attention, and special setup... Making may way through the palace, I stopped spamming moves and focus on perfect guards (using the Quiet Guardian Gard), up to a point where im almost only waiting, like against Skata'nes. I love challenging games, but i never expect LR to be that... brutal. Especially after 13 and 13-2. Like the Cyclops was a boss. Now it's everywhere >_>

Enemies in LR actually have spawn locations insteand of their spawn being dependant on lightning's power; so you may easily move to a big monster spawn location (most of them actually share locations with much easier monsters) and get ripped to shreds in an instant.

You're doing nothing wrong, game actually expects you to fail several times while exploring, and slowly clearing parts of the game while avoiding the biggest threats until you feel ready to tackle them.

[NigelTheDude]

Originally posted by KarmaTheAlligator:

The trick is to use all your ATB with Thundara on one garb (using one that has at least 100 max ATB and starts with full ATB, which gives you 4 casts), then switch to regular Thunder (or any other spell, really, unless the enemy absorbs that element) on another garb. That keeps the stagger wave going, builds it up even, and allow your other garb to recharge ATB. Make sure you have equipment that increase ATB recovery/speed. That applies to every -ra spell.

The problem with a lot of the abilities (forget what the game tells you regarding stagger time, learn by using the abilities) in the game is that most of the time, mixing physical and magical attacks doesn't help as they seem to increase different stagger waves (at least that's how it looks to me: plenty of times I've used spells to get the wave to red, than had to switch to a physical attack and the wave went back to half yellow half red). It's usually one or the other to stagger (as in, try a physical attack, then a magic one, see which one does increase the wave, and stick with it). Take this with a grain of salt, this is based on my experience, not actual knowledge of the game's mechanics.

Try getting some Beat Down from the Desdemona (need to be staggered for it to drop), or go to Jagd Village in the Wildlands and buy the garbs there (the garbs in Canopus Farm are also good). Beat Down is one of the best staggering ability in the game, even without a spear.

What are the equipmernts that raise that? Rocking Cosmocrator right now but have a bunch of other schemata

[NigelTheDude]

Originally posted by Alexiel:

So, finally relazing this isn't a classical FF game I'm starting to understand stuff x) Essentially every random mob needs 110% attention, and special setup... Making may way through the palace, I stopped spamming moves and focus on perfect guards (using the Quiet Guardian Gard), up to a point where im almost only waiting, like against Skata'nes. I love challenging games, but i never expect LR to be that... brutal. Especially after 13 and 13-2. Like the Cyclops was a boss. Now it's everywhere >_>

I played on normal the first time and i failed miserably, i only got 7 or 8 side quests done and half of yusnaan and luxerion's main quest line, critters were just way too difficult. Now NG+ on easy is a breeze lol I don't even use my potions unless its a heavy boss fight.

[KarmaTheAlligator]

Originally posted by HaiHaiDesunee:

What are the equipmernts that raise that? Rocking Cosmocrator right now but have a bunch of other schemata

Blazefire Saber, Aegis Shield, Mog's Shield, to name but a few. Anything that gives extra ATB is good.

[Moridin]

To be honest the guide wants you to do yussnaan and wild lands stuff on day 1. There's a Garb you can get in dead dunes that comes with Deshell and deprotect that I like to dump thundara on. There's also the Nocturne one in a shop near Yussnaan's north station which will boost physical attack.

[bsweeney1979]

?

[Lord Ryuu]

Guys dont forget the most important source of damage....your weapon. Try and make species of monster go extinct (behemoth drops a +500 STR sword thats a really good first run weapon) and try and invest in the upgraded versions of Lightning's basic weapon. I think i got to the 3rd tier my first playthrough on the 360 and it had like 1500+ to STR and MAG (could be mistaken its been awhile ill have to dust off my strategy guide. Im a completionist. Sue me). The one thing i was able to get to but not complete is the 14th day where you unlock the dungeon that has the alpha versions of each monster. Its A) hellacious and B) much easier if you make the species go extinct in the field since you dont have to fight the alphas twice (you get the rewards no matter where you kill the alphas). Also, dont bother trying to make the puffball bastards go extinct.....theres like 1800 of them.

[Alexiel アレクシエル]

Ryuu, I know that you want to help, and thanks for that, but please i asked for spoilerfree advises..
At least set a warning. I know the game isn't "New" but..

Anyway thanks for the help of everyone. After Yusnaan (Day 2) i had no troubles so far, and even was able to complete Luxerion and the Dead Dunes on Day 3 (and about 20 Sidequests) .
And i might have blocked a cutscene for me ( only the LuxerionQuest cutscene played at 6 AM, but Yggdrasil has 4 "Fruits") :(

The Stats the Yusnaan Boss gave me were insane. Also running a Quiet Guardian with Deprotect,Deshell and Imperil was my key so far, helped me a lot.