Early Class/Character guide for SoSW

Guide for the early game for characters and classes

Into

Ok so this guide is something of an early game compliation/thaughts. It will go over Characters and classes to an extent. This guide is written with the expectation that you are playing or have looked up info and are getting ready to play.

Also this guide does take info from a guide on gamefaqs.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/297303-saviors-of-sapphire-wings-and-stranger-of-sword-city/faqs/79203/introduction

Writted by Hentaicheg. So for a more indepth guide and walkthrough.... there you go.

Things to know

First off. I think this game is a gem. The people at "Experience" know how to put a good dungeon crawler together. I heavily suggest checking out thier other titles. They do change up how mechanics work in each of thier games so they dont give a cookie cutter feel.

That said. Game mechanics.

First off Classes and sub classes.
Each character can have a class and eventually a sub class. The MC can get a sub class equipped once you save a certain someone from the first town's quest line. The rest of the characters need to have achieved bond rank 5 in order to get this option. Forewarning, (and partially why this guide is being written) you cannot immediatly grind this out for everyone. Some characters will be quest locked from getting this.

Bond rank grinding
So Time to grind out those bond ranks and get those sub classes. Well this happens in multiple ways. First just fighting and the characters surviving and not getting crit on. Second, useing the unity powers. general good bonus plus a better one if it was gained by a specific character. Third, the grind option, having a meal with the character in your room. Feeding them thing they like, depending on the rank, will give a good chunk of bond xp. Some back and forth during the but the meal itself is what is improtant. Also each character has "favorite dishes" which are even more potent. Key takeaway here is this is what you will be doing for grinding. Keep in mind you can only eat 3 times before having to go work off the calories.

Before starting the grind.
Ok so now you want to spend some time and grind it up with the character you have. A couple of things to note and do before you hit it. First, as stated before, some characters cannot just be grinded up right away. In your party at this point that would be Rorone and Lumi. There is no harm grinding them as the game keeps track of the bond xp. I.e. If you grind them both up to the stop point, they continue to gain the bond xp so when you finally get past the stop they will still have all that xp available to rank up further. I will state when they get past the stop point for subclassing in their sections.
Second thing to note. Explore the first set of maps until you find the person who wrote the note. They have another character with them who joins you. So best to not grind till you get them.

Early grind point.
The spot i chose to grind out bond 5 was in the 2nd town. The first map has 2 close bait spots (a mechanic that is very well explained in the game before you get here). These spots are great seeming the game makes you work off the food. Rotating these 2 spot a total of 4 times each should nab you all of your eating points or atleast 2 of them. IF and i mean IF you have a surplus of bait and want tot try for some better gear. Toss down some D rank or better bait. Keep in mind the higher the bait the harder the encounter, but the potentially better rewards. The church of RNG is always watching.

Class strategy

Ok so before we get into actual characters lets talk a little about classes and class combos.

First .... at this point if you have go read the gamefaqs guide first few pages it covers a ton of good info on general game stuff and this sepcifically. As well as the guide writers person feeling on classes and party setup. The rest of this section will be written as if you did this.


Ok so you got some info on the classes. Hentaicheg has alot of good and truthful things. However my personal prefrence is a bit different.

First off i think each class has good benefit to be represented in the party as a while and given your prefrences and styles i suggest you come up with way to use the classes you like thematically.

That said, my prefrences are more hybrid style characters. Choosing sublasses that benefit as much as possible without alot of corssover. It is really a good no brainer to pick a sublass that sares a main stat with you primary class. Point is case main Healer sub Druid. What i like about it is less spreading of your attribute points, what i dont like is over half of the abilites you gat from the druid go to waste cause well your healing in combat/buffing. However thats only locked in on tougher encounter and boss fights, during grinding/exploration well its kinda just there unless you take unexpected damage. Pairing it with a Ranger however gives them combat utility.

Important. Don't care wizard/healer is kinda a real no brainer. mana heal for a wizard means non stop booms. Over extend well jsut swap mana with someone else or the main healer who has a ton.

What i am getting at, which suggested will be on the actual characters in this guide, is really play how you want. The only real ... no bad... but difficult choices in class combo is putting casting with melee. Can it be done ??? sure Will it give you option paralysis .... yes. Will it force you to forego sweet sweet damage in favor of utility on the front line? yes .... yes it will.

The MC

The guy, or gal, the myth the legend. The MC!

Right ok enough banter. This MC comes fully equipped with a special, unique?, class. The variant/valiant. Ok sorry i have to stop and say why didnt they name the class something better? Holy knight, Knight of the light, Templar, you know somehting that screams MC and awesome. But i digress.

The Valiant is a mix bag class that well pairs up with alot of classes well. Really good front line in your face. Sure it has party utility in it and yes you can build them as such. If you want to well read a differnet guide.

Sub classing the MC come quick and fast and makes you really really really want it on the rest.
My 2 top picks for a front line MC would be either Samurai or Paladin.

Why Samurai?
Ok just to note this is not getting rewritten for each front line character. Samurai give your duel wielding. More damage. Eventually (level 40) its duel wielding gets upgraded. 2 twohanders, 2hander and shield, anyone drooling yet? Downside you need to push Agi to 25 to get full damage on yoru 2nd weapon.
No i havent gotten that far, 40 that is, so i dont know if the Agi affect the shield at all.

Also line attack special attacks with no charge up.

Why Paladin?
Super defensive. Can protect the backlilne. rest of party with abilities. Just plain well nigh indestructable.

Why not fighter?????
Right so here is the issue with fighter. They get the rush line of special attacks. They require concentraiton. i.e. charge up for 1 round to unleash a 3+ multi hit attack. The Valiant gets a similar line that works the same but is targeted. So really the only benefit you get form it is getting counter attack....... woooo.

Saul

Ahh Saul the wanna be MC ...... the I want to be good but min maxers wont use me.

First character you pick up....quite literally once you step foot int he first map.


Atleast with him and every character you can freely customize them. However making him a front liner to start is best seeming well you only have a front line!

Unique buff
Each character brings a unique buff to the party Saul bring +20% accuracy for the party. Hit things more often ooooooor endure debuffing a bit more before you start swining on air.

People rate him kinda low becuase the only real difference form him to others is the unique buff.
Use him dont use him.... doesnt matter cause you can't get rid of him until most of the way through the 2nd town's questline.


Main class. Honestly its a real toss up for me on fighter or samurai here. early game samurai is jsut kinda squicsy and you dont have the avoid to rely on, but once you get yoru line attack he will make mincemeat of things so they cant attack. Fighter is more survivable, but their special attack is a charge up and hits randomly on the line.

Sub class
First of no stops if you really really really wanted to grind on the first towns area you could and get him his subclass, but its higly inefficant all around.

As far as class goes for it jsut pick the one you didnt grab for the main. boss fights or mob clearing will just be easier as such.

Eltha

All Eltha the (redacted spoiler jargon) wizard elf.


Unique skill
+20% mana!!! wooo hooo how awesome............ wait healer class gets mana heal skill.... why do i need this?



Yeah sadly i cant find a way to disagree with the fact this is the lamest unique skill when you think that your main mp guzzlers can be outfitted with mana regen

So why bother with her... well for one she HAS to be in your party for a certain section. 2. she is with you form the begining so until you get enough characters to swap people out she is there.. 3. Apparently later in the game she gets some cool story upgrade.



Main class
Well while you get her you only have a front line... having a wizard helps you "burn" thru the frist towns tougher opponents so its worth the squishyness

Sub class
Can be grinded right away. If you make her a Wizard jsut make the sub class the healer and let the game jsut explode itself because you dont run outa mana

Rorone

Ahh Rorone. Our midgit ... i mean mygmy drunken healer.



Unique skill
+20% HP! .... so unless you are just wanting the super difficult run why wouldnt you want her in your party???


Main class
She is portrayed as a healer.... make her a healer.... by this time you need an active healer. Did i mention healer?

Subclass
First off bond 5 ..... welcome to the suck. She doesnt qualify for bond 5 until you FINISH the 2nd's towns quest line and are ready to go to the 3rd town. keep that in mind.

However if you want the easy power stats class go Druid. If you want to giver her utility ...... give her alchemist or ranger.

Why Druid?
first off uses same main stat. gives your most of the exploration buffs. lets your "try" to charm things in combat. (not really my thing) gives your some other healing and curing spells.

Why Alchemist?
Gives your wittle healer a freaking gun! Combat medic baby! Gives you some debuffing and damaging spells to toss.... but gun.

Why not alchemist?
more stats to raise. looking at int ... more agi and some luck

Why ranger?
Giver her a bow and let her try to crit auto kill things when not healing. Plus .... more better loot skill.

Why not ranger?
more stats to raise. looking at agi and luck (for those sweet sweet auto kill crits)

Anything else well ..... you are more the likely putting her int he back for melee classes really arent goign to cut it.

Lumi

Ahh Lumi the Queen ***** princess holy that though art more important than .... ugh i get why this persona is in here just the meeting makes me wish i could just ignore her completely.


Unique skill
+20% damage reduction..... yeah you never leaving the party.


Main class
Ok given that her portait fits paladin and her defualt is paladin.... why not paladin?? Sadly there is a much later game reason why i kinda detest paladin on her. Paladins get a special passive skill chain that lets them peirce through foes, but you gotta wield spear like weapons. Guess what?? Apparently (through reading guides) her best weapon is a sword ..... *sigh* great planning on that. Other options are going any frontline class. keep in mine you really want a paladin somewhere int he frontline as a main or sub class. makes getting through boss fights so much easier.


Sub class
Riiiight here we go. She cannot get bond rank 5 until part way through the 3rd towns quest line soooo keep that in mind

Once you are able to get her to have a subclass its time to decide what to make her. For the purposes of this guide lets say you made her a Paladin.


So for Paladin their are a few good choices. Good picks are. Samurai, Fighter, Alchemist.

Why Samurai?
Just saying refer to the MC on the why written there

Why Fighter?
Counter attack, Charge up attacks. Honestly if you are going for super defense use then the counter attack should be worth its weight in gold.

Why Alchemist?
2 abilites form alchemist make it wonderful. Its a passive skill enchancement to armor and weapons. Plus some utility as well.

Further characters

Ok so at this point you can kind of get the idea. The main slow downs for subclassing if Rorone and Lumi. I do know there are more to join your ranks. Like the dwarf and another elf. It really depends on how much importance you put on the character passives. Some combinations of classes to loot at.



Main ranger sub alchemist. Good if you dont want to represent these classes elsewhere. Give the ranger more punch and utility plus building for crit chance base for aim and lets you choose to either go bow or gun.


Main alchemist sub healer. Nice if you really like the Alchemist class and their spells. Lets you go spam happy with a nice gun back up for weapon dmg.


Main melee sub alchemist. Somewhat covered on the Lumi section. Nice if you are trying to go a more purist style run and just buffing up the front line.


Main Samurai sub Ranger. The writer of the gamefaqs guide goes indepth into this set up. Seems like a good setup if you can manage it properly

If you like the Druid class i am sure just about any tag in with what the healer uses or healer for mana regen would be good