Things I wish I knew when I started playing

[Rock]

The game is not very challenging, and it is very easy to mess up your playing experience. A lot of guides tell you about how to power level, but this is a very bad idea as the game easily becomes boring. This is what I would recommend for any new player:

1. Always play on cruel. All the other difficulty settings are pushovers. The AI is actually smarter at the cruel setting, so it definitely improves game play. You can start at Very Hard for a couple missions if you want an easy experience while learning the game, but cruel is a much better experience with better AI.

2. Do NOT equip Experience masteries. Yearning and Supporter are probably ok if you want to get your lower level characters caught up, but don't put on any mastery that helps your developed guys grow quicker. The Experience curve gets messed up and the game becomes way too easy (even at cruel). Its a better play experience if you don't have inflated experience. Also be very careful about repeating any missions. If your experience level is higher than the recommended experience level for a mission, the mission is probably going to be too easy. I made the mistake of using Experience masteries early on and it really ruined the game for me.

[BokehBot]

Are you using challenge mode to boost enemy's up to your level?

I'm also avoiding Experience masteries (except catch up ones to equal everyone's level). But for the purposes that if I get so far in level, enemies will be equal to me and thus also be far in level, while my gear remains way too level.

[Rock]

No, I didn't know about Challenge Mode. Thanks for the heads up!!!

Yeah gear is an issue too. I've basically just ignored my gear for the last dozen missions. Its a good way to avoid getting to OP.

[BokehBot]

Yeah, definitely try out challenge mode. I super agree you will out level content fast without it on. Luckily I found it after only a few missions. I now use the setting in options to always play with it on.

[TimHanks]

@rock

Originally posted by Rock:

No, I didn't know about Challenge Mode. Thanks for the heads up!!!

Yeah gear is an issue too. I've basically just ignored my gear for the last dozen missions. Its a good way to avoid getting to OP.

How far are you into the game? A lot of the earlier missions were really easy for me and things didn't start becoming more challenging until lvl 30 or so. I've been playing on hard and it's been a breeze so far, since I'm also overleveled. But it's only recently that enemies are becoming more deadly and I'm dealing with more debuffs.

[Rock]

I just started with the Tigers. I've heard its supposed to get tougher near the end of chapter 3.

[TimHanks]

Yeah that sounds about right. I wouldn't be surprised if you end up turning the difficulty down or having to grind a bit more. I'm only a little bit ahead of you and there's been 1 or 2 missions I can think of that caught me off guard.

[Rock]

I haven't ground yet. Just made the mistake of equipping exp masteries. I though Challenge mode made grinding mostly irrelevant?

[TimHanks]

I wouldn't know since I don't play using Challenge Mode You might be right.

[Noble Ten]

What you were looking for was challenge mode.. Glad you found it... Its fun when fighting beast maps.. they all come with random things such as blowing up on death, poison gas. just to keep things interesting. Well I say fun, but poison gas is annoying.......

Tho you can use it on first time story, but can if you repeat the level afterwards.

[Vynder]

Any advice regarding the side missions from the stores in shooter streets? Outlevelled them, but seems I have to do them to level up my company's reputation.

[Rock]

I took the side mission right away. Downside was that you can't recruit the gray yasha if you do that (but I think that was fixed in a recent patch). I recently had a violent mission I hadn't played yet that I was able to complete 4 side missions in. If you take them right away you are less likely to be outlevelling them because the appear when the relevant normal mission maps appear. For missions like collecting skins, you can just wait until a more difficult mission in the area appears to complete it. You don't need to go back to an earlier mission.

[joxertm22]

Those two suggestions are a joke.

1. Play any difficulty you want except violent cases - play those on hard (repeatable missions with purple color) because some bosses won't appear on normal or lower difficulty. Cruel difficulty is relevant only for some mission achievement whatnot - otherwise you don't get any absolutely amazing reward, no true ending, no mastery sets locked behind it, no thousands of valkyria coins, nothing useable except... dunno... bragging rights?

2. Do equip experience masteries - on Heixing and Heixing alone. You don't have to use his XP passed to companions mastery board all the time, but your tamed beasts and robots will say thanks when you do (mission 6 blue, rince repeat with challenge mode on).

Now some actual "wish I knew".

- Set the company policy on 50% mastery drop chance. All other options are crap.

- Sell useless white and green items. Blue, purple and red keep to break on workbench later. You need those components. Do it till level 35 then sell everything.

- Do not grind anything before you get all possible companions (basically, until you get Leton). Oh, you desperately need some mastery and a boss who can drop it is on that certain map so... Look, it'll drop anyway after some more missions completed.

- The game has heal on bleeding mastery. Build Albus around it. Anything bleeding put on his mastery board.

- Sion is your major DPS (except you'll want to make him tank in the last violent case) so treat him like every glass cannon adc in LoL.

- Irene is a bad team player. Solo her.

- Play Anne as witch with Witch's Jealousy till you get Ray. Once you get Ray, set her Grafitti and then get creative with Anne's masteries.

- Speaking of Ray, every time you start the mission turn on her equal exchange toggle (why isn't it always on by default?) and make sure she kills as much trashmobs as she can. Items you might get are superrare drops or not obtainable any other way. But as she is past Heixing as some others, no real use of this hint as "wish I knew when I started", right?

- You can't change the first district. You can however set the second and later 3 more. The best starter choice is the third row (districts that reward you 4+4+4 blue or better items every 5 missions).

- Don't pile up that cash. Use it. Buy a better ring, a potion, an extractor, an ingredient needed for a sidequest or crafting. More missions you unlock, better loot you'll receive and more cash you'll get by selling to stores.

[OG.UA SAPUTRA]

Originally posted by joxertm22:

Those two suggestions are a joke.

1. Play any difficulty you want except violent cases - play those on hard (repeatable missions with purple color) because some bosses won't appear on normal or lower difficulty. Cruel difficulty is relevant only for some mission achievement whatnot - otherwise you don't get any absolutely amazing reward, no true ending, no mastery sets locked behind it, no thousands of valkyria coins, nothing useable except... dunno... bragging rights?

2. Do equip experience masteries - on Heixing and Heixing alone. You don't have to use his XP passed to companions mastery board all the time, but your tamed beasts and robots will say thanks when you do (mission 6 blue, rince repeat with challenge mode on).

Now some actual "wish I knew".

- Set the company policy on 50% mastery drop chance. All other options are crap.

- Sell useless white and green items. Blue, purple and red keep to break on workbench later. You need those components. Do it till level 35 then sell everything.

- Do not grind anything before you get all possible companions (basically, until you get Leton). Oh, you desperately need some mastery and a boss who can drop it is on that certain map so... Look, it'll drop anyway after some more missions completed.

- The game has heal on bleeding mastery. Build Albus around it. Anything bleeding put on his mastery board.

- Sion is your major DPS (except you'll want to make him tank in the last violent case) so treat him like every glass cannon adc in LoL.

- Irene is a bad team player. Solo her.

- Play Anne as witch with Witch's Jealousy till you get Ray. Once you get Ray, set her Grafitti and then get creative with Anne's masteries.

- Speaking of Ray, every time you start the mission turn on her equal exchange toggle (why isn't it always on by default?) and make sure she kills as much trashmobs as she can. Items you might get are superrare drops or not obtainable any other way. But as she is past Heixing as some others, no real use of this hint as "wish I knew when I started", right?

- You can't change the first district. You can however set the second and later 3 more. The best starter choice is the third row (districts that reward you 4+4+4 blue or better items every 5 missions).

- Don't pile up that cash. Use it. Buy a better ring, a potion, an extractor, an ingredient needed for a sidequest or crafting. More missions you unlock, better loot you'll receive and more cash you'll get by selling to stores.

just got this and have some question

How to you resolve the jean quest about meeting wind district trouble shooter ? I cant seem to get out of daddy bartender's bar

Should i just keep playing the story ? I just beat marco at pugi shopping

How easy will training manual come by ? Tbh i think its a bs mechanic for a singleplayer game as it makes me just want to google the meta masteries and be done with it, not experimenting different builds

How can i recruit more ? albus mention that he could rent a troubleshooter but nobody wants to join because its a small company. even after the 4th story mission its just Albus and Sion with VPHDs

You mention that sion is dps but it seems that he is just a fly compared to the NPCs. I mean, my sion running around farting fizzles while Heixing litterally soloed 8 enemy on 1 turn

[Rock]

I'm basically playing the exact opposite as joxer says we "should" be playing. I think his suggestions are the joke.

You can't do the trouble shooter mission for a while. It takes a bit before you can get out of the bar. As part of the story you will eventually go to shooter street. You can meet him at that point.

The manuals are a weird mechanic. They give out a lot of free manuals during updates to help compensate, but I'm not sure if you get them if you are joining now. I suspect people who have owned the game longer have gotten a lot more manuals. Hopefully you'll get more free. Otherwise, that might be a good use off all extra cash you get. I ended up using a guide and planning out changes to manage the manual usage.

You will get more members as the story progresses.

The Heixing you are playing with is level 20+, compared to your early Sion. Sion gets super powerful as you fill out his mastery sets. My level 27 Sion was doing 8000+ damage to each enemy in his attack zone. Frequently taking out 4 or 5 enemies at a time.

[OG.UA SAPUTRA]

Originally posted by Rock:

I'm basically playing the exact opposite as joxer says we "should" be playing. I think his suggestions are the joke.

You can't do the trouble shooter mission for a while. It takes a bit before you can get out of the bar. As part of the story you will eventually go to shooter street. You can meet him at that point.

The manuals are a weird mechanic. They give out a lot of free manuals during updates to help compensate, but I'm not sure if you get them if you are joining now. I suspect people who have owned the game longer have gotten a lot more manuals. Hopefully you'll get more free. Otherwise, that might be a good use off all extra cash you get. I ended up using a guide and planning out changes to manage the manual usage.

You will get more members as the story progresses.

The Heixing you are playing with is level 20+, compared to your early Sion. Sion gets super powerful as you fill out his mastery sets. My level 27 Sion was doing 8000+ damage to each enemy in his attack zone. Frequently taking out 4 or 5 enemies at a time.

What so manual come from the devs ??? Okay...

When should i worry about gear ? Just snacthed irene and im still holding with my starter gear and a few loot

And is it worth to buy weapon from the dealer ? With my workers scrapping for peanuts i have some money to splurge on equips