Share your tips and tricks

[pristine20]

1. Dual wield is wonderful for casters. Staffs have innate +1 to magic range. You can use two staves to increase your heal power and range or opt for more power and less range with a rod. Unlike with melee where your skills don't use both weapons, there's really no "drawback" to dual wielding as a mage (besides the loss of a shield)

2. Demon Knight/Templar with Soul Armor, passives: versatile and know weakness and counter:absorb MP. Add a scythe and crit boosting items and this may be the strongest melee there is. I'm curious to see stronger options. This character can self buff on turn one and has a very good chance of OHKO 2 enemies per round after that (probably less effective on any customized difficulty with boosted enemy stats beyond very hard). It works well due to the scythe's innate crit damage boost+cleave.

Please note that you should avoid using basic attacks to keep your MP. It is better to use enraged blow which does 1.6X phys damage when you do not have enough MP to use corrupted/righteous blade. "Absorb MP" is optional but helps a lot to fuel the super MP attacks since late game has lots of sorcs spamming high cost, all map attacks. This setup is probably ultimately more effective than dual wielding because each crit with enraged blow both fuels your MP attacks and restores it's health cost when combined with renew from the turn 1 self buff.

3. This one may be controversial but due to the AI's prioritization of survivability, it is probably better to focus highly on maxing DPS to ensure that you kill preferrably at least 2 enemies per turn. It should be "easier" by using a support character to continually buff and use "quicken" on your best DPS. This leads to a scenario where the AI is constantly reviving/healing instead of DPSing you.

I used to prefer going defensive with max evasion but I found that after the new AI update, I'd spend so much effort to eliminate one enemy only to see a revival and heal to full lmao. This tends to lead to lots of battles of attrition that take super long vs just rushing.

Looking forward to gaining knowledge from others...

[Heau]

1. Don't forget to weight the loss of an accessory though. I think the magic range stuff is extremely appealing for some classes but when I tried DW rods for sorcerers or warmages, it didn't feel remotely as strong as I had anticipated.

2. I very, very much like dual wield scythe(strong grip) for Anadine instead since you get double crit bonus and it decreases the dependency on mana to score turn dealing 100% of the target's health. I wish there was a setup that would allow that with know weakness 1 & 2 since my way is overly reliant on Soul Armor which you only have one of and has repeatedly called for nerfs. Anyway, my Anadine currently kills 2 targets per turn even after self buff fades. She frequently overkills very hard, so much so that there's some wiggleroom for a swing miss if the other swing crits.

3. I've increased usage of Collect Bounty/Collect Pelt for killing blows and in the late game to time a kill before my Lich turns for reanimate. I've always prefered bursty setups though at very hard difficulty. Anyway, the use of the Collect skills was a severe change to my prior playstyle as well since it doesn't hit very hard so you need to be able to soften up enemies to critical range basically.


My favorites:
1. Sorcerer stacking (as main or off-spec). It works on a very large range of encounters/maps although it felt beyond awful in arena. It is slightly weaker since the res patch because enemy casters stay further away and have higher magic res so they tend to get resurrections off. I frequently run 3-4 (counting a non-sorcerer gambler paired with a lich as 2).

2. Evade skill and/or Evade Magic stacking. If all units in the party have the same counter, it severely reduces the range of abilities that opponents can use against you. I default to Evade Skill because of the many one-shot abilities at 24-36 base mana cost and because I tend to let enemies come to my starting position rather than push in to choke a spot with my tankier melees. You could also consider stacking on 5 units with the 6th unit just beeing Evade stacked to align with #5 rationale below.

3. Always bring a gambler to boss fights. Refreshing poisons and bleeds at 100% rather than praying for rng to reapply shortens it a ton.

4. In the Tunnel escape battle that follows the worm boss, bring only an assassin Kyrie stacked with move boots to swap position on the one tile width path to the left.

5. Bring one evasion-stacked unit deemed high priority by the AI goes a long way to improving group-whole defenses. I'm still unclear exactly how the AI selects targets but I saw DW main gauche assassin Reiner take 6-7 dodges a turn a number of times while on several occasions some of the opposing units could've gone after my ranged units instead. Can't escape bad rng streaks though so it may not be ideal on permadeath.

6. Pairing the mana-free Duelist's Flourish with a spec with a high mana cost burst ability for single weapon high attack melee is great. It gives you very strong options while pooling mana.

7. Use the Bziz as Pektite if you need an extra tanky frontline to block a choke yet can't afford to give up a RES damage dealer. I actually toyed with a Pektite that off-specced to get Defensive Hit at some point (forget the name of the tunneler beasts that have it) and it wasn't remotely as bad as I expected. It played a similar role as the Duelist for mana pooling turns which I struggle to find similar options for human casters.

Some are very niche. All I can think of that I haven't seen s

[Rynielz]

Yep, the Dual Wield mage is fantastic, still working on a Wizard/Vessel with that (+Economy), which I believe is the most expensive and painfull build, but definitely worth the effort. Never had the patience to do it yet..

1- On the same line as your first point : something I want to try to farm Patrols as fast as possible is x2 Gadgeteer as second class, to build up mana in the 1st turn on 2 DPS with Cleave+Boon (one is actually the Demon Knight/Templar, the other one is a Lord/Duelist) to take out 4 enemy at the 2nd turn.
Adding another Gadgeteer and a Princess, will allow to Double Cast Quicken in the 1st turn, or simply goes for 3 Gadgeteer and 3 high DPS, to take out 6 enemies asap.

2- Farm the "Highlands" map (9 monster enemies) for EXP, or AP at lower diff settings (130AP with a lvl40 party vs lvl24/35 enemies, previous maps have lower lvl enemies and just award 25AP).
I just dropped there a Demonic Leather (which you can use to craft the Arbiter Set), a Coronal Plume and a Lord Crest but I believe that rare drops are random, and can drop in every map, maybe 6Eyes or Conan can clarify this point.

3- Duelist with Mystic Shield.

4- This one is pretty obvious, but still : Sniper Shot on strong melee class, better one that do not need mana as main dmg source (like Duelist, again) to 1hit KO even some bosses (the Gelligh battle will be a walk in the park, if your position is favorable).

5- Teleport Other on melee class. Potentially enemy can lose up to 2 turn to go back in position, especially enemy tanks. if equipped in a char with high Evasion is super fun.

6- Peddler/Gadgeteer with Mana Expert/Smart Casting, equipped with Flash Knife and Throwing Gloves x2 superfast, with a TON of utilities.
Can use the best AoE Sleep freely with Smart Casting, saving your tanks/mages if enemies rush forward, pumping MP for final moves at 1st turn with Energizer gadget, 20MP at the cost of 8MP and so much more. Best. Support. Ever.

[6 Eyes Studio]

@Ryniel

Rare Drops: if you're running patrols, they are random w/r to where you are in the story.
Stealing and Poaching is a little different, but also tied to the story progression ultimately.

[Rynielz]

Originally posted by 6 Eyes Studio:

@Ryniel

Rare Drops: if you're running patrols, they are random w/r to where you are in the story.
Stealing and Poaching is a little different, but also tied to the story progression ultimately.

Thank you :)
I should start to use Poaching abilities more often then, feels like I'm missing some rare components.

[Conan The Librarian]

Originally posted by Ryniel:

Originally posted by 6 Eyes Studio:

@Ryniel

Rare Drops: if you're running patrols, they are random w/r to where you are in the story.
Stealing and Poaching is a little different, but also tied to the story progression ultimately.

Thank you :)
I should start to use Poaching abilities more often then, feels like I'm missing some rare components.

Agreed, in one of my files I was able to make 4 elemental shields pretty quickly because of poaching. Then I found out you can purchase them later on in the store :O

[Conan The Librarian]

As for the main topic, one small tip I'd share is about understanding how AP gains really work. Most people know about Vicarious Learning because it's stated quite clearly, but, people who didn't participate in a battle still get 50% of the regular AP gains to their main class. So, make sure to be purposeful on what main class you have equipped on your benched heroes because you can still make some good progress on them even when they're not being active. On that same note, if you have a hero who is only missing "like 50 AP from this one skill to unlock another class you really want", instead of taking them on the mission with that class, perhaps just leave them on the bench with that class equipped. Not that this is necessary, but it's just one more small way you can optimize your character developments.

Other thing is: Some people don't know you can enter the army management screen during the deployment phase of an encounter. This allows you to tailor your team's loadout of skills / equipment to the encounter at hand. If you want, you can look at what the enemy has, and make an informed decision. It's also quite handy in case you "forgot to do something" (like change classes, assign AP, etc) before starting the next level.

[RavenOfRazgriz]

Here's some of the setups and Abilities I found were most useful when playing with all the difficulty settings at maximum. I'll ignore some like Health Expert and Evasion Up that are more difficulty-specific, though, and focus on more adaptable strategies. These are the kinds of tips and strategies that are useful once the difficulty settings make blazing through battles via powerful aggressive setups no longer a viable tactic.

General:

1. Mystic Shield. It's the best Counter there is. Any unit with MP Costs < 10 can use Mystic Shield. This actually covers way more classes than one might expect, including some magic schools. Economy makes it even easier to wiggle in, but isn't essential. Every trigger of Mystic Shield essentially negates the opponent's turn. This mostly makes it better than Evade (X) and other defensive Counters, except in situations where the player starts surrounded and is going to be hit by multiple powerful Area Attacks on the first turn. (The second battle at the fourth Temple is a good example of such a time, and is one of the few instances where Evade Skill is probably the better choice.) It also doesn't rely on the whole team having it equipped, allowing other units more versatility.

2. [Absorb Element] Shield + Absorb MP. When your unit can Null or Absorb an Element, it still counts as an incoming attack. This means it triggers any relevant Counter - including Absorb MP. This allows for plays such as a Wizard "healing" a frontline unit via [Element], while also gifting them all the MP used to cast it - in turn allowing that unit to belt out a more consistent stream of Righteous Blades or other powerful techniques. Pre-deploy Party Formation allows the player to change what Element is being absorbed to best suit the encounter, meaning this can be a powerful way to maintain recursion while having a party of mostly damage dealers. (NOTE: I believe that Elemental Mastery still conflicts with this strategy, so take care when equipping it or using a Warmage as the "healer".)

3. Status, status, status. Particularly Fellblade and Plague Doctor. Having access to one (or both) of these skillsets is essential. They have a number of powerful techniques, but they share a key feature - combined access to Poison and Weaken status effects. Poison is a powerful way to "spread" attacks without losing focus-fire DPS - forcing the enemy to answer both the effect itself and the related damage. Weaken compliments by preventing heals, meaning stocky enemies or somewhat spread attacks to set up further plays won't be as easily wiped by Mass Heal or Recovery. Gunner's access to essentially map-wide Mute and Cripple is also vital - not only does it allow them to regulate the opponent's offense by Crippling units capable of Righteous Blade-like Skills, but it allows them to suppress the enemy healer directly. It doesn't matter how smart the AI is about it's recovery if techniques like these are used to not allow them to weigh it as a viable option in the first place.

Specific:

1. Druid Primary is excellent. Double Cast + Poison / Heal / Panacea can't be underestimated. Just don't forget to bring Economy. Add Staff for maximum effect. With Sorcerer secondary, a lot of powerful mix-and-match combinations are available, and with a good Mana Battery, Double Cast Lay Waste can punish weaker revival options while still furthering the game state, or push the AI into more widespread healing at the cost of only 1 Action. With Gambler Secondary, Poison -> Allure opens up, which can make a lot of battles outright irrelevant. Pile-On can also be Double Cast, both to continue their own status and as party support. Allure, Pile-On, and Quicken all also benefit from the Staff, making them deceptively versatile.

2. Fellblade secondary is excellent. The class itself is also excellent, don't get me wrong, but its fullest potential comes out when paired on a Maul or Scythe-wielding burst DPS unit, the kind that relies on attacks like Righteous Blade or Assassinate. Not just for its status options, but also because of its damage formulae. Fellblade is a great way to ensure physical attackers have options against physical tanks without needing to blow their high-MP payload too early, while also feeding them a Poison, Sleep, Blind, or Weaken for their trouble. Other classes like Duelist can also benefit from it, although in those casess it's usually better to Fellblade Primary and sub the Duelist or similar class. In general, though, Fellblade is an excellent skillset to round out any non-Dual Wielding melee unit.

3. Gunner + Mercenary. This is the last main combo that comes to mind that I'll list. Ranger and Knight can sometimes sub for Mercenary when needed, but Gunner should always be the primary in these situations. I mentioned Gunner's utility before, but combining it with Mercenary - which is also a Weapon Range skillset - takes it to another level. ATK Down and MND Down have obvious synergy with the long-range Cripple and Mute access, and while Slowing Bullet isn't something I found useful a lot - Stunning Strike certainly is. Precise Strike and Flash Strike are also surprisingly useful when backed by a gun, being able to take or set-up kill shots respectively, without much risk. On maps where tempo regulation is important, Ranger can come in over Mercenary and use Rooting Shot to divide the enemy's party in half. While Knight has it's One for All + Dual Wield memes, my main draw to it with Gunner is actually Heavy Hit - even bosses with special resistance to fractional damage will still take good damage from it. It's a great compliment to Poison and Bleed for taking down beefy boss enemies, allowing the player to conserve their MP for the finishing blow, for healing, or for dealing with adds. Speaking of MP, all the configurations listed become three times as obnoxious when paired with Mystic Shield, as only the Ranger's Sniper Shot conflicts with it.

[Rynielz]

Originally posted by Conan The Librarian:

... people who didn't participate in a battle still get 50% of the regular AP gains to their main class...

Oh boy, oh boy! 50%?! That's HUGE!!
So let's say I'm farming the map with 130AP gain, my benched chars will get 65AP on their main class?! Not mentioning Story Battles with over 200AP!!
Damn how did I not noticed that after 4 full playthroughs... It has to be a recent change, because I did see an increased AP gain for the benched chars in my last game compared to previous plays..

This is the real Number 1 Tip, hands down, very much appreciated Conan!

[Conan The Librarian]

Originally posted by Ryniel:

Originally posted by Conan The Librarian:

... people who didn't participate in a battle still get 50% of the regular AP gains to their main class...

Oh boy, oh boy! 50%?! That's HUGE!!
So let's say I'm farming the map with 130AP gain, my benched chars will get 65AP on their main class?! Not mentioning Story Battles with over 200AP!!
Damn how did I not noticed that after 4 full playthroughs... It has to be a recent change, because I did see an increased AP gain for the benched chars in my last game compared to previous plays..

This is the real Number 1 Tip, hands down, very much appreciated Conan!

Yup. Self-plug here, but you might wanna take a look at my guide for little tidbits like that https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=♥♥♥♥578363

[Heau]

Originally posted by Conan The Librarian:

Originally posted by Ryniel:

Thank you :)
I should start to use Poaching abilities more often then, feels like I'm missing some rare components.

Agreed, in one of my files I was able to make 4 elemental shields pretty quickly because of poaching. Then I found out you can purchase them later on in the store :O

Is there a compilation already of places to reliably farm mats from? I was all happy when I found I could farm dark cores from the orange Kawa in Devilsblood Ascent but I'm still relying on RNG for coronal plumes and demon & mythical leathers that seemed to be the furthest I could get before today's patch at least.

I think it's from collect pelt and not from steal although I farmed that like 2 very busy weeks ago so what do I know.

Also, Raven, your post is really enticing for a max difficulty playthrough. I've been debating for a while without trying just because I'm not a fan of one-hit shots in perma death settings. I think I had stumbled/noticed/theorycrafted all combos excepted maybe the druid/gambler poison spread synergy but never felt the appeal for the slower paced utility builds with buff/debuff management at very hard settings.

[Conan The Librarian]

Originally posted by avygeil123:

Is there a compilation already of places to reliably farm mats from? I was all happy when I found I could farm dark cores from the orange Kawa in Devilsblood Ascent but I'm still relying on RNG for coronal plumes and demon & mythical leathers that seemed to be the furthest I could get before today's patch at least.

I think it's from collect pelt and not from steal although I farmed that like 2 very busy weeks ago so what do I know.

Not that I am aware of, at least. Especially since things are in a fluid state of development, whoever would take on such a task would have to adjust it as the patches rolled by. That being said, if someone indeed does want to tackle that; hey, all power to ya for helpin' peeps out. ^_^

[Heau]

Originally posted by Conan The Librarian:

Originally posted by avygeil123:

Is there a compilation already of places to reliably farm mats from? I was all happy when I found I could farm dark cores from the orange Kawa in Devilsblood Ascent but I'm still relying on RNG for coronal plumes and demon & mythical leathers that seemed to be the furthest I could get before today's patch at least.

I think it's from collect pelt and not from steal although I farmed that like 2 very busy weeks ago so what do I know.

Not that I am aware of, at least. Especially since things are in a fluid state of development, whoever would take on such a task would have to adjust it as the patches rolled by. That being said, if someone indeed does want to tackle that; hey, all power to ya for helpin' peeps out. ^_^

It's always one of this things where I've grown so accustomed of it being done 90% automated scrapping game files that I haven't had enough good will to buckle through. I do unpaid overtime as a government employee when I feel the need to give back lol.

[pristine20]

^lmao. Great tips guys. Loving the community of this game! Keep 'em coming

[pristine20]

Originally posted by avygeil123:

1. Don't forget to weight the loss of an accessory though. I think the magic range stuff is extremely appealing for some classes but when I tried DW rods for sorcerers or warmages, it didn't feel remotely as strong as I had anticipated.

2. I very, very much like dual wield scythe(strong grip) for Anadine instead since you get double crit bonus and it decreases the dependency on mana to score turn dealing 100% of the target's health. I wish there was a setup that would allow that with know weakness 1 & 2 since my way is overly reliant on Soul Armor which you only have one of and has repeatedly called for nerfs. Anyway, my Anadine currently kills 2 targets per turn even after self buff fades. She frequently overkills very hard, so much so that there's some wiggleroom for a swing miss if the other swing crits.

3. I've increased usage of Collect Bounty/Collect Pelt for killing blows and in the late game to time a kill before my Lich turns for reanimate. I've always prefered bursty setups though at very hard difficulty. Anyway, the use of the Collect skills was a severe change to my prior playstyle as well since it doesn't hit very hard so you need to be able to soften up enemies to critical range basically.


My favorites:
1. Sorcerer stacking (as main or off-spec). It works on a very large range of encounters/maps although it felt beyond awful in arena. It is slightly weaker since the res patch because enemy casters stay further away and have higher magic res so they tend to get resurrections off. I frequently run 3-4 (counting a non-sorcerer gambler paired with a lich as 2).

2. Evade skill and/or Evade Magic stacking. If all units in the party have the same counter, it severely reduces the range of abilities that opponents can use against you. I default to Evade Skill because of the many one-shot abilities at 24-36 base mana cost and because I tend to let enemies come to my starting position rather than push in to choke a spot with my tankier melees. You could also consider stacking on 5 units with the 6th unit just beeing Evade stacked to align with #5 rationale below.

3. Always bring a gambler to boss fights. Refreshing poisons and bleeds at 100% rather than praying for rng to reapply shortens it a ton.

4. In the Tunnel escape battle that follows the worm boss, bring only an assassin Kyrie stacked with move boots to swap position on the one tile width path to the left.

5. Bring one evasion-stacked unit deemed high priority by the AI goes a long way to improving group-whole defenses. I'm still unclear exactly how the AI selects targets but I saw DW main gauche assassin Reiner take 6-7 dodges a turn a number of times while on several occasions some of the opposing units could've gone after my ranged units instead. Can't escape bad rng streaks though so it may not be ideal on permadeath.

6. Pairing the mana-free Duelist's Flourish with a spec with a high mana cost burst ability for single weapon high attack melee is great. It gives you very strong options while pooling mana.

7. Use the Bziz as Pektite if you need an extra tanky frontline to block a choke yet can't afford to give up a RES damage dealer. I actually toyed with a Pektite that off-specced to get Defensive Hit at some point (forget the name of the tunneler beasts that have it) and it wasn't remotely as bad as I expected. It played a similar role as the Duelist for mana pooling turns which I struggle to find similar options for human casters.

Some are very niche. All I can think of that I haven't seen s

Perhaps it depends on luck but DW didn't kill as reliably for me. Now to be fair, I used it early on before maxing the soul armor so that plays a huge part. how does dual wield really work anyway, does the extra weapon count as both a stat stick to boost your stats and an extra attack or just an extra attack? I'm starting to lean towards the latter. For starters, each of the different weapons is used to attack and will do differing damage depending on their strength rating despite the character having the same strength in my experience

If my theory is correct, attack's with 1.5X phys damage will be very competitive with dual wield especially when effects and crit come into play. I haven't tested anything though so could be way off.

[Conan The Librarian]

Originally posted by pristine20:

Perhaps it depends on luck but DW didn't kill as reliably for me. Now to be fair, I used it early on before maxing the soul armor so that plays a huge part. how does dual wield really work anyway, does the extra weapon count as both a stat stick to boost your stats and an extra attack or just an extra attack? I'm starting to lean towards the latter. For starters, each of the different weapons is used to attack and will do differing damage depending on their strength rating despite the character having the same strength in my experience

If my theory is correct, attack's with 1.5X phys damage will be very competitive with dual wield especially when effects and crit come into play. I haven't tested anything though so could be way off.

Pristine20-

I recommend the following threads which discuss DW. Hopefully they give you some insight.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/699170/discussions/0/1736589519996303272/

https://steamcommunity.com/app/699170/discussions/0/1742229167180966567/