Early-to-mid game build and general tips: MC

[somedude212]

Since we have seven weeks until the game's release, I felt that I might as well start this to add to the type. Since the game gives you an option to respec your character after certain point, I will just stick the build to early-to mid game and maybe give some general tips.

So the MC has four skill tress: luminary, swordmastery, greatswords, and swords.

Early-to-mid game build advice:

1. You don't gain full access to all skills in Luminary until the mid-game. In fact, you actually lose access to this tree for quite some time after certain point in the story (don't worry, you will get all skill points back if you put them into this beforehand). While the guaranteed zone skill looks appealing at first, I would recommend against getting it early since it takes too many skill points to get at the beginning and 25MP cost is steep for that point. Plus, zones are used mainly for pep powers which you need other party members and some pep powers require those other party members to unlock certain skills. About the only skill I would recommend getting at the beginning section is the very fist one in the skill tree, which increases the possibility of getting into zone.

2. Swordmastery only becomes available once you spend sufficient points on greatswords or swords so for early-to-mid game, you will likely not have enough points to go much into this unless you grind excessively. And the most potent skills in this skill tree only become available once you put enough points into both swords and greatswords, which is again tedious for the early-to-mid game. Plus, it is better to spend points on luminary once all skills in that tree get unlocked.

3. Swords skill tree gives you skills standard to Dragon Quest series such as metal slash, flame slash, and falcon slash while giving bonus for equipping swords. Advancing enough into swords skill tree eventually unlocks an option to dual-wield, which can be useful. However, even with dual-yield, swords will almost always be outclassed by greatswords in terms of damage. Plus, many of those skills are situational, requiring certain enemy types and losing effectiveness depending on enemy resistance, and lack crowd-control. While you can do sword-and-shield style, many shields at the early part of the game are not very effective and the hero is plenty survivable without shield since he is one of the two characters who can equip heavy armors. About the only advantage I would say swords have over greatswords at the beginning is that they are cheaper and easier to upgrade using blacksmith. However, even if you are going for greatswords, do make sure to grab flame slash (the very fist skill in swords skill tree) as pep power Itemized-Kill with Erik's half-inch skill (stealing) pretty much guarantee you will steal an item, which is useful for getting rare drops in early-to-mid game.

4. Greatswords skill tree is the one I recommend you take at the beginning section of the game. Greatswords outclass swords in terms of damage and the skills you get tend to be more general purpose, such as swing attack that hits one group of enemies and charged slash skills which hit one enemy for massive damage. Advancing enough into greatswords skill tree eventually unlocks "super-charged slash" (hits one enemy 3 times as hard as normal attack - I don't know exactly how this skill will be called in English so I put it in parenthesis), which will remain useful from beginning to the very end for damage dealing with the MC. While you can't equip shields, the MC is pretty survivable without it and it is not until the late-game that you start getting shields with useful properties.

General Tips:

1. Once full luminary skill tree gets unlocked, you gain access to the standard hero skills in Dragon Quest games. Notably, on the left side, you will get Zap-family of spells and zone ability-up (increases the bonus you get for being in zone) while on the right side, you will get omniheal. Zap spells can be pretty powerful once you obtain "increase spell attack power" passive skills while omniheal (fully healing all party members) should be self-explanatory. You can also approach left and right sides of luminary skill tree from swords and greatswords trees respectively, which you can do if you want to avoid some less useful skills from luminary skill tree. For example, the MC has little-to-no need for "increasing healing power" passive since fullheal and omniheal, which you will likely use with the MC for healing, heal the target(s) fully anyway. And by this time, getting that guaranteed zone skill is highly recommended.

2. About the only skills I would recommend grabbing from swordmastery skill tree (outside of those needing to unlock dual-yielding and "super-charged slash") are those attack passives and sword dance. Sword dance can do what "super-charged slash" does at slightly cheaper cost to a single enemy and it's more effective than swing skill for a group of 3 or fewer enemies. Otherwise, you are better off with skills from other trees, i.e. Kazap generally deals better damage to all enemies and "super-charged slash" does better single-target damage.

[Ryan Fenton]

Decent overall advice - but I'd recommend against posting more of this until the game is actually out. It's a bit spoilery for folks that want to figure out strategy on their own.

It's probably enough just to let folks know not to worry too terribly about 'wasting' skill points, since there's a respec option you can take later on for cheap. And even that is still a partially spoilery.

[Aeiku]

Normally I'm not one to say this but, this isn't "spoilery" by any means other than the names, but without proper context it doesn't spoil making it irrelevant. Now if people want to figure out strategies and tactics for themselves they can just ignore the thread, it clearly says in the title "Early-to-mid game build and general tips".

[Ryan Fenton]

True - it's in the eye of the beholder. I've completely spoiled the game for myself watching folks play the Japanese version a while back - which is where I know how much this guide is giving away to read ahead of time.

Folks reading it, thinking it was a "hints for first time players" sort of advice might find themselves getting less out of the game, especially if this guide is expanded upon too early.

Not a huge deal, I agree - but it IS a lot like saying "Go get the magic flute 4 steps below the fountain" - you're saving folks from difficulty, but also the fun of overcoming that difficulty, behind the guise of a 'hey, it's just tips!" topic heading.

To explain further would be committing the same error.

[Ciupy]

Hmm,will the damage reduction from shields in the endgame trump the bonus damage you receive for wielding greatswords?
Because I usually play sword&board and I would like to know if this is viable in the endgame.

[LordBlade]

So how exactly does this whole zone and pep mechanic work?

[somedude212]

Originally posted by Ciupy:

Hmm,will the damage reduction from shields in the endgame trump the bonus damage you receive for wielding greatswords?
Because I usually play sword&board and I would like to know if this is viable in the endgame.

Shields in this game have a chance to block the damage outright with the endgame ones' having higher than earlier. Also, shields have other defensive properties such as decreasing damage from breaths and magic. Sword & board is totally viable in the endgame. You won't have to worry about crowd-control skills at least for the MC starting mid-game.

Originally posted by LordBlade:

So how exactly does this whole zone and pep mechanic work?

Your character has a chance to go into zone at the beginning of his/her turn. It's random but they are more likely to go into zone if they are damaged. Your character's portrait in battle will glow with blue light when this happens. Being in the zone gives increase to certain stats (the MC gets increase to attack and crit-rate but it can differ for others). There are skills in the skill tree that you can unlock that increases the rate at which characters go into zone or increase the stat bonus you get for being in the zone. The MC is the only one who can get the skill that lets him go into zone at will. Otherwise, you have to use very rare item(s) to do so.

When multiple characters in the active party are in zone at the same time, you can use a combination skill called pep power. Their effects vary greatly so experiment! Some of them require certain characters to have learned specific skills while others you can use by having a right combination of characters.

Zone status is removed if the character in question dies, uses a pep power, or spends few turns not using any pep power (the blue glow will start flickering to let you know that zone will wear off soon). As usual, the enemy skill Disruptive Wave will remove the zone status, along with other buffs. You can "keep" the characters in zone mode by substituting them out of the active party.

The best way to get multiple characters into zone is to go find an enemy that uses weak partywide attacks and do nothing but defend. After few turns, your characters will have received some damage and will likely go into zone. Sub them out for ones who haven't gone into zone yet and make sure none of them dies.

[Ryan Fenton]

Well, as long as we've established roughly the level of spoiler territory we want to be in, I'm cool.

Hmm... I wonder if running/failing to run count as a turn for the sake of losing zone status.

Like, if you're in flashing zone status, and you run, will you still be in flashing zone status at the start of the next fight?

Running is a rare tactic in 'normal' playthroughs - but for setting up low-level boss fights, speedruns and the like, it would be a crucial setup step.

In segmented runs, teleporting to low-level areas, getting hit by a slime, zone and running might be an entire segment as setup for a boss.

Does zone reset on resting at an inn?

[somedude212]

Nope, zone doesn't reset from running or resting at an inn.

[Ciupy]

Originally posted by somedude212:

Originally posted by Ciupy:

Hmm,will the damage reduction from shields in the endgame trump the bonus damage you receive for wielding greatswords?
Because I usually play sword&board and I would like to know if this is viable in the endgame.

Shields in this game have a chance to block the damage outright with the endgame ones' having higher than earlier. Also, shields have other defensive properties such as decreasing damage from breaths and magic. Sword & board is totally viable in the endgame. You won't have to worry about crowd-control skills at least for the MC starting mid-game.

Originally posted by LordBlade:

So how exactly does this whole zone and pep mechanic work?

Your character has a chance to go into zone at the beginning of his/her turn. It's random but they are more likely to go into zone if they are damaged. Your character's portrait in battle will glow with blue light when this happens. Being in the zone gives increase to certain stats (the MC gets increase to attack and crit-rate but it can differ for others). There are skills in the skill tree that you can unlock that increases the rate at which characters go into zone or increase the stat bonus you get for being in the zone. The MC is the only one who can get the skill that lets him go into zone at will. Otherwise, you have to use very rare item(s) to do so.

When multiple characters in the active party are in zone at the same time, you can use a combination skill called pep power. Their effects vary greatly so experiment! Some of them require certain characters to have learned specific skills while others you can use by having a right combination of characters.

Zone status is removed if the character in question dies, uses a pep power, or spends few turns not using any pep power (the blue glow will start flickering to let you know that zone will wear off soon). As usual, the enemy skill Disruptive Wave will remove the zone status, along with other buffs. You can "keep" the characters in zone mode by substituting them out of the active party.

The best way to get multiple characters into zone is to go find an enemy that uses weak partywide attacks and do nothing but defend. After few turns, your characters will have received some damage and will likely go into zone. Sub them out for ones who haven't gone into zone yet and make sure none of them dies.

Thank you very much for replying.

I only hope this game will sell well on Steam because from what I am seeing it seems like it's a great classic JRPG which we don't have much of these days,FFXV fiasco aside.