How do titles work exactly?

[Mr. Manual]

I'm hip-deep in the game, but the game only grazes over titles briefly. It's not explained how to get them to change color or how to level them up.

[BlackRaider2012]

you mean titles that appear at the characters equipment screen? not the Support ones, right?

they level up, while in combat, to its current maximum level (10 in bronze, 15 in silver and 20 in gold) as long as you use it as a normal equiped item.

to evolve them from bronze to silver and to gold titles, you need to complete a certain condition related to each one of them, like progressing main story to a certain point or complete a secundary quest or find a certain number of a certain item or items or open all gold chests ingame and more ... there are a lot of them, I don't know all conditions needed for all titles.

there is only one title that is special in a way, Alisha as a title that can only be obtainable if you complete 100% her DLC, only after that this title is importable/usable in main story final saved game, by selecting the final DLC saved game.

[Simon]

Titles get some experience each time you level up. You can also go to certain inn and eat certain food that make you gain title experience. For example, the inn in marlind has the "doing at least 50 combo in a battle let you gain a little of title experience."

Each time the title level up, a new skill/boost is added. If not, it will increase effect of a current skill. For example, your title have +1 BG skill. If there are still slots, it may add another skill like +4% focus. If not, then maybe the + 1 BG will evolve into +2 BG.

Thats all, titles give you the effect you wanted only when you equip them. It is not like symphonia, where title will effect your stats when leveling up.

Yeah, alisha have a title only available in the DLC. And there is one missable title too. It is when you meet dezel the first time. If you choose to talk to Dezel first, you will get the title. If not, then you won't get it.

[Mr. Manual]

Originally posted by BlackRaider2012:

to evolve them from bronze to silver and to gold titles, you need to complete certain condition, like progressing main story to a certain point or complete a secundary quest or find a certain number of a certain item or items,open all gold chests ingame and more ... I don't know all conditions needed.

I see the need for a Steam Guide~! Maybe I'll get around to it someday once I finish playing the game.

[BlackRaider2012]

there are around 126 titles (42 for each character, including bronze, silver and gold titles) and with this meabe around 84 to 100 conditions (one for each diferent title evolution)

there is a thread here on steam with some of the conditions needed to evolve a certain title but its not complete.

by the way skits are important to, if you see a certain skit (see him while playing, not after buy it in kats village) that means a certain title evolved too. I know at least 2 titles you can gain like this

[Miraglyth]

Originally posted by BlackRaider2012:

there are around 126 titles (42 for each character, including bronze, silver and gold titles)

...what the heck are you talking about? Each character gets 6 titles, except Alisha who has 5 (one of which is from the DLC). You could split those into 3 levels each but that's still only 18/15 per character.

As titles level up, they gain either a new ability (most of which resemble bonus skills, though some are unique) or raise the proficiency of an existing ability.

The first 4 titles for all characters (including Alisha) are broadly the same: The first one focuses on Attack, the second on Focus and the third on Arte Attack. For seraphs these also allegedly place AI emphasis on martial artes, balance and seraphic artes respectively.

The fourth title for all characters is decent for tanks. It gives + to SC recovery when you evade, reduces the cost of quickstepping (up to 75%), increases the amount that enemies target you (up to 15%) and adds a capabilty against an enemy type unique to the character (e.g. crustacean for Rose) that is effectively that equipment skill (up to 3 stack, so 30%).

For all characters besides Alisha, the fifth title is the opposite and great for defense. It gives HP while defending (up to 20 per tic), reduces damage by a % when below 25% health (up to 45%, so almost halved damage) and reduces the rate enemies target you (up to 15% again). So if a fighter has the fourth title and a caster has the fifth, the enemies will target the fighter 50% more often than the caster. This title also adds a capability unique to each character, different to that of the fourth title. Lailah gets Dragon and 3 levels of that is 45% which is awesome IMO.

The sixth title I can't really explain. It prolongs status increases and adds another capability type again (nothing of note), but its main benefit is the reduction in item cooldown, up to 45%. I assume this only applies if that character used the item, but I guess it would be useful one one character for drop bottle spamming.

Alisha's fifth title (from the DLC) is really nice. It's unique in that it doesn't boost stats (every other title in the game levels to boost one stat by 20% and another by 12%) but it adds a native Pennetrayt, reduces damage from all five elements, has the under-25% damage reduction from the fourth title and the item cooldown reduction from everyone else's sixth title. I haven't maxed it yet but the Prima guide says it also halves SC consumption at level 20 but it misses out the damage reduction and item cooldown parts completely so I'm not sure how trustworthy that is.

[myarmor]

It is probably the total count including how those titles changes.
Example:
Shepherd
Grand Shepherd
...etc.

[Miraglyth]

Then it would be the 18 per character I said, not 42.

And how does 126 titles equate to 42 for each character? There would only be 3 characters if that was true lol.

There are 47 titles between all the characters (iirc that Dezel has 6), so if you multiply that by 3 you get 141 but that's kind of pointless because the bronze and silver ones are just level capped gold ones.

Also I think some titles start silver unless you can upgrade them before the character joins.

[BlackRaider2012]

Originally posted by Miraglyth:

Then it would be the 18 per character I said, not 42.

And how does 126 titles equate to 42 for each character? There would only be 3 characters if that was true lol.

There are 47 titles between all the characters (iirc that Dezel has 6), so if you multiply that by 3 you get 141 but that's kind of pointless because the bronze and silver ones are just level capped gold ones.

Also I think some titles start silver unless you can upgrade them before the character joins.

you are right on that lol I don't know where my head was when I did my calculations.

yes there are around 18 titles in total (6 bronze+ 6 silver + 6 gold) for each character ingame. 7 characters gives a total of 126 titles. Slightly less because of Alisha

as you said, in reallity, there are 6 titles per character, 42 in total, because silver and gold titles are just evolutions of previous rank title, bronze and silver respectivelly.

thanks for correcting me.

note: 7 characters, not 8, because Dezel and another character share the same titles. Miraglyth is right with Alisha too.

[Faint]

the titles give you an extra boost to your stats along with extra abilities like "+1 exp for killing this" or "resist that". The special moves you can get without ever switching a title. Leveling titles requires you to do certian things for certain characters or advance the story; an example of how to manually increase a titles from bronze to silver to gold would be how getting all the norms levels up Edna's Norm ruler title. Titles DO NOT change how Ai reacts, that is changed by the player in the menu strategy screen

[Miraglyth]

Originally posted by BlackRaider2012:

note: 7 characters, not 8, because Dezel and another character share the same titles.

We're both wrong here.

Dezel and Zaveid share the first three titles' names. They have the same effects just like the other seraphs, though one guide I saw said Dezel uniquely does not get BG +1 from raising it - if so they're a little different.

The fourth, fifth and sixth titles are named differently. From what I've seen they are the same in effect (as mentioned previously they're pretty much the same for all non-Alisha characters). Unlike the rest, it seems Dezel and Zaveid share enemy capabilities for these, for instance the fifth title gives + to crustaceans for both when it gives Edna + to beasts instead.

I've yet to see how the last three titles are shared. Some of Zaveid's title upgrades were from story and sub events that couldn't happen before he joined, so either Dezel's upgrades are separate and they're not linked, or they're linked and Dezel could never get them gold unless the upgrade is passed back on a NG+.

Similarly since some of the first three titles grow by story progress, Zaveid can never have them as bronze or silver. I believe his fourth title might always start silver as well; Dezel's fourth is the only missable title in the game, gained in Tintagel Ruins when he joins. I don't know if Zaveid's fourth title changes if you miss getting it for Dezel but I expect not.

Dezel has a permanent scenario skill that Zaveid does not, which is not caused by titles but the game displays their effects there so it's a bit misleading.

Originally posted by lunarvida:

Titles DO NOT change how Ai reacts, that is changed by the player in the menu strategy screen

This is a contentious point. Some people think the first three titles do affect which the AI does, i.e. the first makes them melee more and the third makes them cast more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1mnnmAxqo0

Others have speculated that it's the titles' effect on stats that affects the AI - that is, that if a seraph has more attack than arte attack they decide to use martial artes more to play up to their strengths.

I don't think it was ever really confirmed how it works though.