General reference guide (up to Flussheim)

General reference on stuff that can be done and when they can be done.

Link, because making tables on Steam guides is a chore and a half...

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Yap25KVY_HTQQnI-OLDS17p7yOMQQow9u1ODgBahbns/edit?usp=sharing

Don't worry too much if you don't unlock some stuff immediately. For example, Neutralizer Y requires you to synth Neutralizer R several times, which you will unlock naturally eventually, but probably not while at Parched Plains. It's technically available, though...

Note that 'gather' and 'obtain' doesn't include obtaining items from shops. They must be gathered from harvest points, destroying rocks, hitting trees, or defeating monsters.

World Map

Parched Plains

Prepping for the future

At this point, [Iron Sand Catalyst] and [Bomb] are nice to synth to waste time.

You'll need (Metal)x40 to progress through the story eventually, and [Iron Sand Catalyst] is the easiest to get large quantities of.

Spirit Stones and Spirit Stone Shards are also (Metal), so keep as many of these around as you can.

Neutralizer

Really useful. Try to get desirable traits on these instead of directly onto the items you want to synth. Once you get a trait onto a Neutralizer, they are easy to transfer to anything else. You'll then have spares in case you want to transfer them to more items or combine traits.

Bombs

[Bomb] are useful for battle, and even crappy ones are useful for harvesting. It'll stop being useful for battles soon, but it'll stay useful for destroying rocks until the end of the game.

After using [Bomb] 5 times and destroying about 10 rocks, you'll be able to craft [Mining Bomb].

Don't worry too much about making good bombs, but try your best with what you have. When you're done with the area, make the best [Mining Bomb] you can.

Aim for Destruction Up traits on it, using [General Catalyst] to transfer traits before you have enough proficiency.

You can keep the trait for future use by transferring it to Neutralizer R. You can then make more by looping Neutralizer R -> Pure Oil -> Neutralizer R. You'll be able to make Pure Oil soon, so keep at least one of your neutralizers.

Over time, as you start getting better traits, you can add them to your neutralizer and combine the traits easily through the same loop. Keep Destruction and Critical traits for your bombs.

Destruction Up w/ Destruction Up+ = Big Destruction
Destruction Up+ w/ Destruction Up++ = Intense Destruction
Big Destruction w/ Intense Destruction = Ultimate Destruction
Many traits have the same kind of build up.

Angel Ribbon

Decent accessory. Make if you want to, but it will be replaced eventually.

You can start gathering traits for All Stat Enhance to eventually get to Well Rounded Power, though. So start keeping the traits on a Neutralizer, looping with Pure Oil, and add new traits as you go along. You'll have a few spares, probably, which you can use for your Angel Ribbon.
Just go Neutralizer -> (Cloth) or [Leather] -> Angel Ribbon

You want to combine them in such a way:
Any two stats enhance/boost can be combined.
So ATK Enhance + DEF Enhance = ATK DEF Enhance

Any two double stats enhance/boost can be combined.
So ATK DEF Enhance + ATK SPD Enhance = All Stat Enhance

All Stat Enhance + All Stat Boost = All Stat Super Enhance
All Stat Super Enhance + All Stat Boost = Well Rounded Power

Other

Craft whatever you can for the exp... but typically you'll want to prioritize equipment.

• Explorer's Lantern
  
• Pickax

are nice to have for now.

Faave Hills

NPCs at night

Some NPCs disappear at night. Mechen should be the first time you encounter this... probably...

Anyways, don't panic if a quest NPC isn't where the map says they should be. Just rest 'till morning.

Luring the cow for the letter of recommendation

I once saw someone asking where to place the hay for this in the discussion forum.

From the Town Outskirts Campfire, go west following the road until the turn. Then look to the south and there should be a glowing spot.

Pure Oil

As I've mentioned before, you can use these to loop with Neutralizer R. If you haven't unlocked it by the end of this area, I recommend using Idea Points to unlock it.

Spare Backpack

You should get it around this point. Really useful to have.

Traveler's Grove

Fox Trek costume

You get a costume here that increases movement speed. Pretty handy. Keep your exploring to a minimum until you get it, unless you did the bad ending trick, in which case you can skip this unless you like the way it looks or just want to collect costumes.

After you get the letter of recommendation from Aurelie, do whatever until the next day and walk around the town. You'll trigger an event near the inn and she'll give you the costume.

Knuckle Guard

Nice accessory. Good up to the exam, but you'll probably want to resynth it later on when you have better materials. In the meantime, you can create temporary ones and get some proficiency while you're at it.

Other maps before Flussheim

Flussheim

Luis

Go to the tavern and you'll meet her. She sells the very useful [Neutralizer Revolution!]

She also shows up in later towns, but you have to meet her here first before she does.

Precision Instrument Set

Buy from Mea's Shop. Really good furniture.

Ship-building

The hints you require are from Mea (Mea's shop), Escha (fountain), Kai (Shanty street, harbor), and Logy (Blacksmith shop).

When it's time to synth the furnace, press start on the synthing screen to access the recipe.

For the (Metal) items, Iron Sand Catalyst is the best to synth; or you can go gather Spirit Stone and its shards, but you'll have to go back to Parched Plains for this.

If you don't have enough (Hidden Power), you can gather Evihibrow in White Fog Forest.

If you're missing anything else, Flussheim has a lot of shops...
You should have enough for what you need unless you rushed through the game.
You can get most stuff from Luis for cheap. Check there first.

After you get on the ship to Claudel Prairie, Firis will remember about getting a letter of recommendation from Ren. Make sure to go back for it. You should also get the Alchemist's Dress costume around this time.

Special Nutrients

You should have these by now...
You can use them to get better materials while gathering. You don't have the ability to refill use counts yet (Sophie gives you a furniture for this after the exam), so save and reload when farming for traits.

Distilled Water -> Neutralizer B

Very useful item. Used for many things, and can be used as material for itself, a very useful property. Hay can also be used as material for itself, but it's not as useful.

Anyways, you can start making 999 quality distilled water now.

Just loop Distilled Water and add as many Quality Up traits as you can, aiming for:
Super Quality
Pro Perfection
Quality Up++

Just keep using itself as material and you'll get more and more quality, until you reach 999.
You can then create Distilled Water with 1 desired trait + Super Quality + Pro Perfection to make 999 quality with a desired trait.

If your desired trait is on a material that can't be used for Distilled Water, you can go:
Neutralizer -> Pure Oil -> Distilled Water

If you don't have Quality Up++ (can't remember if it's available at this point), don't worry, you can still make 999 quality, it'll just take more loops.

Use Zettel as catalyst with Alchemist's Dress on for transferring traits.

With 999 quality Distilled Water, you can then make 999 quality Neutralizer B. You don't even need to transfer quality traits! So you can have Neutralizer B with 3 desirable traits, which can be used for most bombs.

999 Quality other stuff

After you have 999 quality Distilled Water, make some other stuff with 999 quality.

I recommend Zettel, Pure Oil, Reactive Catalyst, Hay
You can't transfer from (Water) to Hay easily, but the same looping trick can be used to get 999 quality.

Making your bombs

Basically, keep looping until you have 999 quality Distilled Water.

Now make Distilled Water with Ultimate Destruction + Super Quality + Pro Perfection
Another with Intense Destruction + Super Quality + Pro Perfection
Another with Single Bonus + Super Quality + Pro Perfection

Remember, to transfer traits into Distilled Water, you can go
Material -> Neutralizer -> Distilled Water

The quality traits will push the quality back up to 999 even with lesser quality materials.
The cutoff is 540 if you have both Super Quality and Pro Perfection.

Once you have the three Distilled Water with one trait each, you can transfer them to Neutralizer B, which is a material for probably every bomb you can make at this point.

Knuckle Guard, Gunade Ring

Distilled Water -> Pure Oil -> Ingot (Metal)

Distilled Water -> Neutralizer, Water -> Tanning Fluid
Neutralizer + Tanning Fluid -> Leather -> Cloth

Distilled Water -> Core Crystal (Gem)

Go as far as you want with how powerful you want them to be.

Beyond Flussheim

Might do more in the future... if I get bored enough. I actually wanted to stop about one hour into writing all this, but sunk cost fallacy made me continue up until Flussheim, which seemed like a nice place to stop.

Well... with the synthing you can do in Flussheim, you should be able to beat even Sophie on Hard difficulty, so there's not much to say...

Credits

http://omoteura.com

I use this site for reference. This guide is largely based on stuff from there...

[Shadow0x9]

I realise this is an old post, but wanted to thank you all the same. much appreciated!

[Lanosa]

I found the cow in the Forgotten Flower Garden. And nothing about a glowing circle like in the place you can put the hay, but just a cow there.