Questions from a returning player

[Herasteane]

Hey there people!

Bought the game when it came out, played it quite alot, but then I stopped for... Damn... Ages.
I am returning to it, I've heard there as been lots of changes but everything is quite confused.

There's a new mode... Reconquer or what ever?
What does that implies? An endless campaign or just an alternate one where we just go on missions for a moment hunting titans?
Guns... I stopped the anime quite early... Pretty much when I stopped the game too, because of work.
Is there a way to unlock them? Do they change the gameplay alot?
From what I understand, its a logical evolution from the anime... Marley, etc...
Hunting titans with blades, on the harder missions, becomes quite hard, do the guns actually change that alot? From what I can get in the anime, they're the MP way to deal with rebels and what ever.

I don't mind any spoilers or anything, I'm just trying to understand how the game evolved and how to enjoy it most. I'm glad the difficulty got a up. I remember it being way too easy before I left, resuming the mission I left on now gets me alot more challenge.

Thank you all for the answers.

[Shiki]

If you have base game and dont buy DLC upgrade then there wont be much major changes. However if you decide to get Final Battle you will have access to all new stuff.
Most important changes are two new modes, one story mode(season 3 part 2 or something) and territory revocery. First one is just story where you play anime characters, not custom cuz..you know, dead. This will unlock guns and thunder spears(will get to that later). While story mode is pretty straight ahead, second thing can be bit more complex.

Basically you create your own squad and get on missions where you do usual stuff. The complex thing about this mode is that it lets you break skill points limit and unlock every possible skill in the game for any character, but you need to know how(so yes rank C can be as strong as Levi). While on missions you can unlock new characters for your squad and you want to get all of them. Every character has bound lvl, and some of them will unlock skills(There should be guide online how to get all skills so you dont have to lvl up every single character). To break skill limit up to 999 which basically allows you to equip all skills, you need to unlock new difficulty Eden. To do so you need to beat recovery mode on hardest difficulty you have unlocked(if its hard, you do hard first then inferno and then eden, you get the idea). While you can speedrun inferno just rush for main objective doesnt matter what rank, you cant do so with eden. The reason why is every time you clear new quest on eden difficulty you get X golden drops which break SP limit and you want to get as many as you can(ill link guide at the end).

About the guns, I dont think theyre stronger than swords, Id say its just preference(and tbh if you have all skills swords outclass guns with wings of freedom). If you have difficulties with clearing missions you should consider upgrading your current gear. While guns and swords are somewhat equal, thunder spears are straight up broken. Each time you clear green ! during battle you get thunder spear, you can shoot like 5 spears per use and they can pretty much oneshot anything(aside of bizarre cuz of their shield). If youre confused about spears you dont have to worry, new story mode explains it.

I know the way I explained it is bit chaotic and there should be guides that explain it better, but im too lazy to look for them and it takes less time for me to write most important info. If you dont understand something or have more specific questions feel free to add me so I can answer them directly.

link to how get as many golden drops as possible
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ve7Af-_LHs

[Herasteane]

Hey there, thanks alot for that huge answer! Learned quite alot.

Do you think buying the Final Battle DLC is worth it?
I'm not a gigantic fan. Discovered the show when it was on Netflix in my country, liked it quite alot, been following up how the arcs are going through the wiki but nothing more than that.

I'm curious of that DLC with the "territory recovery" being replayable or if its just one big campaign or anything?

[Shiki]

Final Battle is both territory recovery and continuation to story, its like big update to the game in form of DLC. Story part is straight ahead, you can finish it to unlock new stuff(fire arms, spear and characters), get better ranks or just forget about it, up to you. Territory is bit more grindy since you need to finish it more than once, and keep replaying missions to lvl up characters bond. You can also play both story and territory missions in coop, they tend to be challenging and have good rewards.

As for my opinion whether its worth it or not, if youre planning to stick to the game for a bit I'd say you should consider getting dlc, it unlocks cool features and makes every character viable to play(not only Levi/CaC), also new stuff to grind give a reason to play it, especially when theres noone to play coop with.