TIPS AND TRICKS (How to Win)

[Xyphaan]

Just a Little Advice to those who are stuck. Make sure you are making weapons that match the wanted stats of a customer. i worked on one location at a time till all customers were maxed out, then moved on to other areas. try to max out all customers in one level before moving to new shop. the main and secondary stats are all that really matter, I've sold weapons for a butt load wile two of they're stats were close to zero. Take time to level up your smiths, it is very worth it. buying the new equipment is also very worth it as they increase you smiths stats for that stat wile they use it. I never bothered with challenges and rarely did requests except for celebrity requests. When you hire new smiths remember to get the more expensive ones, they will have higher max stats (celebrity smiths are the best). A higher class weapon does not mean better prices, if you can not reach an untold minimum stat it will be worth a lot less than a lower class weapon with the same stats. Keep your smiths elated, it is a great boost to anything they do.


It is annoiying to copy/paste new info here so just keep an eye out for my posts here.
They will expand/add to info here, and explain many other things.

[Xyphaan]

Originally posted by omgimahero:

I am stuck trying to advance to hillbilly hollow. I have everything researched, all heroes max level in all areas but I still cant move on to hillbilly hollow. I have also completed one celebrity forge and it still doesnt unlock hillbilly hollo. Please help

Hillbilly hollow is unlocked when you finish one of the objectives. I think its one of the ones where you have to get multiple heroes to maximum level.
If you have done all of the objectives, and no more are given, and you still dont have hillbilly hollow, then i think its a glitch.
The game should tell you that your objective is to go to the next shop.

[Xyphaan]

Originally posted by dreizehnX:

Thanks a lot for your tips. I have played a bit of the 2nd shop but had to realize that I will run out of money, so I have loaded a savegame from shop #1. Now I have 1 smith at level 5 and the others close to level 5.
Do you recommend to change their profession? It seems quite important to unlock the newer professions but I don't know if it is necessary yet. What do you think?

This is not a simple answer.
Changing profession will allow you to unlock better professions down the line, but your smiths will usually be weaker until they reach the same level in thier new profession.
Also, each additional level in any skill (smithing, merchant, explorer) will increase your smiths salary, so be carefull.

[Xyphaan]

Originally posted by FroBodine:

Originally posted by Xyphe:

Smiths only cost more if they continue to level up, so when they hit level 5 in thier first profession keep them there for a wile. remember that explorer and merchant levels also make thier salary go up.

How do I stop my smiths from leveling up, please? And, what do you mean "their first profession"? Is a profession their proficiency, e.g. attack, speed, accuracy? If not, what is their profession, and how do you get more professions?

I'm still early in the game, still in the first workshop (I assume you can buy better workshops).

Thanks!

By profession I mean thier job (metalworker, enchanter, etc)
Smiths gain experiance in anything they do. the only way to stop them from leveling up is to have them do nothing or get them to the maximum level in a skill.
I.E. if you get a smith to level 5 in thier first job, they can not gain more exp until you change thier job.
Maximum level for both merchant and explorer skills is set at 15.
You should not be even close to a level 15 merchant or explorer until near the end of the game. If you do have a high level merchant or explorer skill early in the game it can quickly drain your $tarch through salaries.
There should be a prompt to go to "Hillbilly Hollow". I suggest you stay in the level 1 shop until you get to around $50,000 so you have a good start at the new shop.

[Xyphaan]

I would like to apologize for not responding to questions sooner.
I will attempt to post more frequently.

[FroBodine]

So, is it better to use different smiths as a merchant and explorer, instead of using just one guy to sell everything, and one guy to always explore? I thought it was good to keep using the same guy as a merchant, so you can level up and get better merchant bonuses when selling.

Should I be spreading out who I use to sell and explore to keep their levels in check?

[Xyphaan]

I personaly try to spread levels evenly.
Although having 1 smith at level 15 will allow you to keep salaries down by maxing one smith so they cant level up anymore.
I haven't tested or even looked for evidence for it, but I think the higher a level the more salary it adds.

[Xyphaan]

I am having trouble coming up with topics to expand upon.

If you have an issue or curiousity you wish to me to explain in more detail please let me know here and I will work on it.

[compking86]

One tip I have from playing the game a 2nd time. When boosting weapons, it seems best to save the boosting for when the weapon is near completion, like 90%. The random events seem much more punishing if you boost your weapons at low %. I think the random events remove a percentage of what stats the weapon has. Therefore, if you have already boosted, that obviously will mean a larger penalty. Also it may just be coincidence, but I seem to get fewer random events if I boost late than I do if I boost early. Most random events are negative from my experience. Yes there are positive ones, but the positive ones are not good enough to counter the number of bad ones you get.

If you max out all the heroes in an area, be careful when going to a new area. The odds are your fame will be very high from maxxing the heroes in the previous area, and that can push you to the point where your co-owner asks for his cut. If he asks for his cut at the same time you pay your smiths that can really hit your $tarch hard. Especially considering you also want to upgrade your shop and hire new smiths when you enter a new area. You can make weapons for heroes that have already been maxxed to get money without pushing your fame even higher. You may want to do that some before swapping to the next area in order to have a buffer of $tarch to prevent problems. Also I suggest saving before swapping to a new area in case you find out you don't have enough $tarch, because then you could just load the earlier save and get more money before moving again.

[HardRock]

I dont understand, what's the point in giving your smiths advanced professions like inventor?

They are still working with only one weapon stat at a time. There is no reason to have ultra-expensive universal worker, because he just cant use all his skills at once. Am I wrong?

[UsualRandom]

Originally posted by NeonSelf:

I dont understand, what's the point in giving your smiths advanced professions like inventor?

They are still working with only one weapon stat at a time. There is no reason to have ultra-expensive universal worker, because he just cant use all his skills at once. Am I wrong?

huh, never thought about that. welp, looks like I wasted starch

[compking86]

Originally posted by NeonSelf:

I dont understand, what's the point in giving your smiths advanced professions like inventor?

They are still working with only one weapon stat at a time. There is no reason to have ultra-expensive universal worker, because he just cant use all his skills at once. Am I wrong?

I still think it is worthwhile. The higher rank smithing professions have higher stats when maxxed out, which will give your weapons themselves higher stats. Also, I personally like to move my smiths around so that I can focus more on the primary stat, followed by the secondary stat. I may take note of some of my smith's stats and list them here just so you can see how high the stats go if you level them up.

[compking86]

I opened the game and wrote down the 4 stats for all 10 of my smiths so I could show them to you. I only included the base stats, meaning any extra stats you get from sending a smith off to explore or sell or whatever are not included in these numbers.

Attack Speed Accuracy Magic
380 330 286 259
586 598 751 660
507 497 516 658
541 486 440 431
567 498 448 439
651 669 853 748
654 605 604 769
508 646 556 471
331 328 403 324
652 593 555 560

Some of those smiths have had well over 1000 in one stat or another when the exploring boost is added in.

As you can see each smith has their own strong points even with multiple jobs leveled, but moving the smiths around based on the stats needed on an item is worthwhile. If you only look at primary stat, Attack items benefit most from Smiths 7, 10, 6, 2, then 5. Speed items benefit most from smiths 6, 8, 7, 2, then 10. Accuracy items benefit most from smiths 6, 2, 7, 8, then 10. Magic items benefit most from smiths 7, 6, 2, 3, then 10. You may notice that because the smiths are leveled differently, that smiths 6, 7, 2, and 10 are in the top 5 for all 4 stats, 8 is only in the top 5 on 2 of the stats, and 5 and 3 are only in the top 5 for a single stat each. Because of their poor leveling, 3 of the smiths are too low on stats to use for primary stat at all: 1, 4, and 9. I believe those are the only 3 smiths I have not maxxed either Master Smith or Virtuoso on.

The stats I listed were based on a smith's "best" job. Generally to find a smith's "best" job you just have to check its highest tier jobs, and its highest tier maxxed jobs. Even though Master Smith has the highest stats, it cannot boost ANY items, therefore having all your smiths as Master Smith would be a poor choice, Virtuoso I believe has the highest stat boosts of any job if it is maxxed out.

I have debated making a "perfect" save with all smiths maxxed on all jobs to determine which smiths have the highest stats, but I don't know if I would have the patience to do that. Smiths 6 and 7 are both legendary smiths, and both are leveled up quite far in the smithing trees, but both are not maxxed yet.

[compking86]

These are the notes I made for myself as I was maxxing out ALL smithing jobs on ALL the smiths in the game. I noted the stats WITHOUT bonuses from exploration, selling, or shop upgrades (rug, wallpaper, statue, plant, and wall hanging). Because those bonuses are all percentage based, you can figure how they would effect these numbers anyway. I totalled all 4 stats for every smith so I could quickly see which ones had the highest average stat. The stats are in order of Attack, Speed, Accuracy, Magic. I decided to re-order the notes to be in the same order as the Journal in the game. At the end is a listing of which smiths seemed like good options to me for an "ideal" group. I personally decided to make Tony Starch my Virtuoso, and all the others Master Smith. The stats listed here are with the smith assigned as master smith, with all smithing job levels maxxed. If you compare, lets say, Tony Starch to Kura Fuman, you will see that your choice of smiths can make a big difference. Tony Starch is 878-1000 in base stats, Kura Fuman is 643-757 in base stats. That is almost a difference of 100% vs 75%

I was inspired to do this because of a guide when this game first came out that is no longer available. The guide also had a list of the cost of each smith with EVERYTHING maxxed, not just smithing levels, but also explorer and merchant levels. So far I have only maxxed smithing levels on all smiths.

Normal Smiths

Laura Craft
832 764 704 688 = 2988

Bulk Bogan
638 783 700 638 = 2759

Russet Peters
755 771 933 824 = 3283

Batato
827 759 704 688 = 2978

Ann Chanter
753 930 837 753 = 3273

Arthur Isan
721 735 891 786 = 3133

Iggy Ironspud
688 704 844 743 = 2979

Volundr Smith
748 704 704 832 = 2988

Broomhead
663 818 734 668 = 2883

Colonel Stache
961 878 804 793 = 3436

Dee Signer
822 753 694 688 = 2957

Dorin
722 729 883 778 = 3112

Firi Wildrose
745 698 697 828 = 2968

Hobo Billy
690 702 846 737 = 2975

Kenny McCorny
904 827 759 747 = 3237

King
817 1017 915 824 = 3573

Kitty Chant
868 804 803 961 = 3436

Kura Fuman
683 645 643 757 = 2728

Loh Kee
942 853 774 763 = 3332

Morphie
942 861 860 1052 = 3715

Brotato
756 773 959 843 = 3331

Potanto
755 769 956 845 = 3325

Potatom
764 956 850 755 = 3325

Ronald Buck
763 959 853 756 = 3331

Vick Asso
828 750 698 692 = 2968

Voui Lutton
960 875 801 795 = 3431

Winnie Stonebell
761 716 711 859 = 3047

Trisha
739 917 825 749 = 3230

Lt. Sanders
948 855 773 756 = 3332


Legendary Smiths

Okazaki Masamune
798 810 993 872 = 3473

Heisenberger
797 742 740 890 = 3169

Tony Starch
878 1100 986 887 = 3851

Nikola Taterla
790 805 992 881 = 3468

Haepharion
900 803 740 725 = 3168

Total Rank
Tony Starch 3851 speed 1 accuracy 3 magic 4
Morphie 3715 magic 1 attack 4
King 3573 speed 2
Okazaki Masamune 3473 accuracy 1
Nikola Taterla 3468 accuracy 2
Colonel Stache 3436 attack 1
Kitty Chant 3436 magic 2
Voui Lutton 3431 attack 2
Lt. Sanders 3332 attack 3
Loh Kee 3332 attack 4

Ronald Buck 3331 speed 3
Heisenberger 3169 magic 3

[Gower]

Why do I need to max out heroes? What will it do? I thought it just unlocked more tickets or something

[Forsaken]

All the posts are old so I have no idea if you are still following this thread but I'll try my luck anyway.

I have worries about legendary smiths. I took a year break from the game and I started playing again today, I think I'm in 2nd chapter. I noticed that I maxed out all heroes and my save was when a legendary hero asked for a weapon, his name was something like Kukukumber. I gave him the weapon he requested but I didn't unlock any legendary smiths. I already have Okazaki Masamune from first map I believe but after maxing out all heroes and completing all legendary hero quests on 2nd map I didn't get any legendary smith to talk to me or show up while trying to hire them.

So basically I'm wondering if these legendary smiths show up once per map, or if they also show up on other maps. Like for example if I max out all heroes on previous maps, do I have the chance to unlock all the other legendary smiths on the very last map?

I'm worried that I'll lose my chance to hire a legendary smith from map 2 if I move on to the 3rd map. Can you please give more information aobut this? This achievement completionist would seriously appreciate it.

I hope you see this.

Either way thanks for your informative post.