I never actually checked the stats for those weapons (I just glanced at the "important items" for sale) so I didn't realize they were not up to the standards of other weapons in terms of power. The power boost of Enchant does sound nice, though I haven't really levelled up any of my Arts except for Shulk's Shield because I don't know what will be useful later on. If there are guides to the other characters like there is for Melia, I will look into those after I get the seventh character.
I guess there are pros and cons to the weapons so I'll give it some thought during my next play session. The next time I post in this thread I will probably mention what I decided on and if that had any impact on how I found the subsequent battles.
Okay so I just got 7th. This character seems extremely broken. Am I wrong?
I don't know who to replace, I'm rocking Shulk/Dunban/Melia right now. I feel Melia is good but she falls over so quickly if I don't babysit her so I'll probably replace her.
About how far am until the end? I'm level 53 and about 35 hours in, I feel like I'm kind of rushing through it compared to some people in here. I did a bunch of quests for a while but they started to feel extremely tedious with WoW like stuff. Maybe I should go back and do them if I'm really close to the end.
Melia is fine to replace if you're not controlling her, as the AI is pretty bad with her. 7th can tank or dps, depending on gem/armor/arts setup. If Dunban is staying, then look to choose damage arts and armor with +Agility and +Haste.
You're fine with level. The main thing from this point on is to remember which mobs have spike damage when you topple them, and which ones have spike if you don't.
- The menu doesn't load up as fast/instant I'd like it to be, there's like a second or two delay when loading up the character equipment and arts/skills screen
- Sometimes when there are a bunch of enemies, it's hard to keep track with what's going on due to too much clutter on screen (HP, character portraits, a light show extraordaire from flashy attacks, and all these status effects to and from enemies)
- I wish there was some sort of quest tracking, since some areas are pretty damn huge
Those are my gripes after 12 hours of play, but those are minor to me and I can overlook them since the game is great all around. I guess I should list some pros too:
+ What a bunch of jokahz (surprisingly, the British accents are p. good)
+ I like the art style and the world presented
+ Graphics are actually really good for a Wii game
+ Even though there's a lot of things on screen during battle, it's surprisingly easy to get into and has a lot of depth with side strikes, back stab damage, etc.
Anyway, is the Initial Tension skill worth it? I already have Agility maxed on Shulk, and I don't have that Unbeatable skill people are talking about. Another question, of the two which is better to prioritize when you can't max both, Haste or Double Attack? Since I only have IV/V gems at the area of the game I'm at
(in the Mechon Factory on that leads to their capital, just passed Mechonis Field)
I can't do both.
I really wish Melia's AI wasn't retarded. I like her a lot but not enough to not play as Shulk, he's my dude.
I never actually checked the stats for those weapons (I just glanced at the "important items" for sale) so I didn't realize they were not up to the standards of other weapons in terms of power. The power boost of Enchant does sound nice, though I haven't really levelled up any of my Arts except for Shulk's Shield because I don't know what will be useful later on. If there are guides to the other characters like there is for Melia, I will look into those after I get the seventh character.
I guess there are pros and cons to the weapons so I'll give it some thought during my next play session. The next time I post in this thread I will probably mention what I decided on and if that had any impact on how I found the subsequent battles.
I don't really think it's necessary because it's hard to screw up your characters when leveling up their arts, but I might do a quick "tutorial" type thing for each character later since several people have brought that up. Nothing near as detailed as the Melia one (I think Zornica has done them for each character but they aren't in English). I'll basically just go over each character's strengths and based on your playstyle and preferred characters you can determine what arts you want to use. Most characters can be set up in a variety of ways so I don't really want to say "do this" when a different setup might suit your playstyle better. Get what I'm saying?
But like I said, it's difficult, if not impossible, to really mess up with arts. AP is technically unlimited, and even if you dump a "lot" of points into arts early on that you decide you don't want, you'll end up realizing what you "wasted" was negligible. 4000 AP might seem like a lot a third of the way through the game. But once you reach some of the later areas you can get that in 10-20 minutes, without trying. In fact, I've current got tens of thousands of AP stockpiled on some characters (over 100 thousand on two characters) because I'm only leveling arts I know I want to use. That's plenty to go around for experimentation if you're on a first playthrough.
Okay so I just got 7th. This character seems extremely broken. Am I wrong?
I don't know who to replace, I'm rocking Shulk/Dunban/Melia right now. I feel Melia is good but she falls over so quickly if I don't babysit her so I'll probably replace her.
About how far am until the end? I'm level 53 and about 35 hours in, I feel like I'm kind of rushing through it compared to some people in here. I did a bunch of quests for a while but they started to feel extremely tedious with WoW like stuff. Maybe I should go back and do them if I'm really close to the end.
Anyway, is the Initial Tension skill worth it? I already have Agility maxed on Shulk, and I don't have that Unbeatable skill people are talking about. Another question, of the two which is better to prioritize when you can't max both, Haste or Double Attack? Since I only have IV/V gems at the area of the game I'm at
(in the Mechon Factory on that leads to their capital, just passed Mechonis Field)
I can't do both.
I really wish Melia's AI wasn't retarded. I like her a lot but not enough to not play as Shulk, he's my dude.
I don't think initial tension is worth it since you can get high tension immediately with battle start affinity. Then max tension with burst affinity.
I'd go with double attack over haste in most situations, in part because double attack is likely to have a higher percentage and activate frequently enough it would outdo haste.
Good to get a subscription here now anyway, assuming you have that enabled. No doubt this thread is going to the OT graveyard (community) soon.
Edit: Ah damn it. Fighting Magestic Mordred at level 65. Was doing well, had him at about half HP. Then Dunban had to go and dodge Titan Stamp, which resulted in no vision and an instant KO for my other two party members. Then the thing had to go and use the big flame thrower attack which KOed Dunban.
That's probably my biggest complaint about the game now - visions are only for the aggro target, if an AoE attack is going to kill someone else, you won't know until after the fact.
Edit2: Victory! Beat it at level 65, Shulk, Dunban, 7th. And I did it without "cheating" and standing on the top ledge so it couldn't use Titan Stamp. Going to say that's better than my relatively low level wins against Reckless Godwin and Cellar Bugworm.
I'm at about 35 hours now, level 36, in Makna Forest.
In my last update I had just gotten Melia but hadn't used her in a battle yet. Last night I played around with her, and I can see her being awesome later on but she wasn't doing it for me. Her buffs and nukes are great but controlling her was just... boring. I've always preferred physical characters over "mage" types in games, so that probably has a lot to do with it.
I got Riki and he, on the other hand, is great fun to use. He also started off with a stroke of luck; it just so happens that he gets 2 awesome agility buffs via Skill Links (from Sharla and someone else), so at the moment he has more agility than even Dunban. Most of his own skill tree is... rather odd, but I do like the daytime buffs. In any case, his arts more than make up for his weird skill tree.
I spent the last hour of gameplay exploring Makna Forest and killing every monster in sight while trying different team combos. The AI really seems to struggle with Melia, Riki and Shulk. It does well with Reyn and Dunban (thank god, because I hate tanking). Because of this, my favorite team was Riki, Reyn and Dunban, as we were absolutely tearing through every enemy we came across.
That all ground to a halt when I took on Breezy Zolos (level 37 unique mob) and he slapped our shit before we could get him to less than half HP. I tried 5 times with different team setups and failed every time. The party I thought was strongest (Riki, Reyn & Dunban) actually did the worst of them all. I tried using Sharla with Reyn and Dunban but that also failed; I had no idea how useless Sharla is when she overheats (I had never controlled her before). Of all my tries, the most successful team was Riki, Reyn and Shulk. We got it down to a sliver of HP and then it did an AoE that killed us all. I had to call it a night after that one, lol. The only character I didn't try using was Melia. I'll give it a shot with her tonight, because it's worth a try at this point.
The silver lining of my failures was that they let me isolate my weaknesses. Riki, Reyn and Dunban are a great team for normal enemies because all three of those characters do a ton of damage. However, against a strong monster they aren't so great because the team lacks utility, which is why I had to switch Dunban out for Shulk. So now it comes down to whether I have the AI control Shulk or Riki, and it's a difficult decision. Shulk has amazing utility (his Monado arts
Shield
and
Speed
have saved my ass on many occasions) but the AI does not react fast enough. Riki can do a fuckton of damage but the AI keeps using his best arts (the from-behind ones) while Riki isn't behind the fucking enemy. It does the same shit with Shulk's backslash. -_-
TL;DR -- Who is better in the hands of the AI: Shulk or Riki? Or I guess I should put it: which character sucks less in the hands of the AI?
Riki IMO, less positional attacks you have to watch fail because the NPCs never want to move. I had both as AI and got way more annoyed by Shulk than Riki. If I had a nickel for every time I heard him yell BACKSLASH while standing in front/to the side of an enemy I would of ended that game a very rich man.
I played Riki far differently than you, though. I had him just cycling between his debuffs (only positioning attacks I had on the bar were the 2 default ones but that wasn't his purpose) and then healing when needed. That said, my entire strategy revolved around spending as much time in chain attacks as I could which meant I rarely had to deal with the AI.
Edit: Ah damn it. Fighting Magestic Mordred at level 65. Was doing well, had him at about half HP. Then Dunban had to go and dodge Titan Stamp, which resulted in no vision and an instant KO for my other two party members. Then the thing had to go and use the big flame thrower attack which KOed Dunban.
That's probably my biggest complaint about the game now - visions are only for the aggro target, if an AoE attack is going to kill someone else, you won't know until after the fact.
Edit2: Victory! Beat it at level 65, Shulk, Dunban, 7th. And I did it without "cheating" and standing on the top ledge so it couldn't use Titan Stamp. Going to say that's better than my relatively low level wins against Reckless Godwin and Cellar Bugworm.
Any chance you could post/PM your gem/armor/skill setup for that fight? I'm at 67 trying to down him, but haven't had much success. This second playthrough was going so well, too. Mainly I want to know how you managed to keep healing up through that fight at that level without Sharla, and who you controlled.
And yeah, that stupid non-vision thing for an AoE is one of the few flaws in the battle system.
Is this that horse-type boss in Makna? He's one of the first instances of Spike Damage, and if you aren't set up to Seal/Mind Blast/Topple-lock, you'll end up killing yourself in no time. Definitely one of those mobs that makes you go back and read the tutorial pop-up really carefully.
to complete two more quests. Nice troll guys! Anyway I get my team geared up and ready to fight. My team is all level 92 and consists of
Shulk, Sharla, and Dunban
and I'm all set for a rather long, knock-down, drag-out battle. It starts and my team is wiffing away and it isn't looking good. I get the guy down to about 95% health when my chain attack pops. Backslash, break, topple, daze, headshot...INSTANT KILL! I was not prepared for the fight to last less than 30 seconds!
One thing I hate about this game is the load times. I once loaded a game and immediately got attacked by an enemy that was right next to me. I couldnt attack it for ten seconds because the attack menu wasn't loaded yet.
One thing I hate about this game is the load times. I once loaded a game and immediately got attacked by an enemy that was right next to me. I couldnt attack it for ten seconds because the attack menu wasn't loaded yet.
One thing I hate about this game is the load times. I once loaded a game and immediately got attacked by an enemy that was right next to me. I couldnt attack it for ten seconds because the attack menu wasn't loaded yet.
Yep that quest seems to be unlock at 2000 reputation and having done 2 quests (
Fixing a Broken Door and The wilted flower
which combined get you 800 of that 2000). But yeah its down to the fact pretty much anything in that village gives you a tonne of reputation so its easy to go over the mark is why people get mistaken. Plus the whole quest unlocks sometimes working on nonsensical hidden numbers, other times working on completed quest x and y and registered NPC z...
Riki won't use Lurgy (at all?) or (art learned at lv 43)
Burnimate
if single target or the positional attacks properly. The former two are a real shame since slapping on passive damage is a beautiful thing to do but I guess you can assign different arts in the place of all of those. There are lots of rather interesting ones to choose from though.
Shulk will spam Modado buster (eating the talent gauge) and kill himself with Battle Soul (or whatever its called so you might want to take that off, shame you can't do the same with the Modado arts...) trying to build it back quickly. Get light heal up to scratch then make up for poor positioning with sheer art level is probably your best hope (I'm about halfway through the game not touched any Monado arts but got Light Heal, Basckslash, Slit Edge and Air Slash up to max intermediate and lots of AP spare).
I always assumed that riki will not use his AOEs outside of tantrum on single targets, but that's not true. He'll only use them if there are no other cooldowns available.
This becomes a problem because the cooldown on Freezinate with his day or night cooldown reduction is like 2 seconds, but it will happen from time to time.
Shulk is a great AI character. Will start off most fights by casting armour or enchant and will try and flank whenever possible.
The best ai is the two tank characters. They will not stop tanking unless the MC dies. Most other characters will stop attacking if you go into low tension and try to meander around the monster to cheer you up.
Any chance you could post/PM your gem/armor/skill setup for that fight? I'm at 67 trying to down him, but haven't had much success. This second playthrough was going so well, too. Mainly I want to know how you managed to keep healing up through that fight at that level without Sharla, and who you controlled.
And yeah, that stupid non-vision thing for an AoE is one of the few flaws in the battle system.
I controlled Shulk for full control of Monado arts.
Armor/gems: (Major Character Spoilers) http://i.minus.com/ibkLSuxFiJLU9B.jpg
(Yeah, Shulk looks silly with the swimware armor, but I don't have Alcyone armor for him yet).
Key skill links for Shulk:
Lightweight Expert (Dunban)
Against the Odds (Reyn)
Bodybuilder (Reyn)
Always Ready (Sharla)
High Speed (Melia)
Dunban:
Friendship Heals (Shulk)
Chain of Friendship (Shulk)
Ultimate Teamwork (Shulk)
Wall of Muscle (Reyn)
Against the Odds (Reyn)
High Speed (Melia)
7th:
High Speed (Melia)
Palace Guard (Melia)
Unyeilding Heart (Melia)
Always Ready (Sharla)
Resilient Warrior (Shulk)
Friendship Heals (Shulk)
Against the Odds (Reyn)
Critical Drain (Dunban)
Overwhelming (Dunban)
Plus I had things like "Like Sun" from Riki and "Battle Character" from Reyn and other less important links here and there (158 total coins to spend).
You want high affinity between party members to improve chances of chains, that way you can deal more damage and heal more after each chain (IIRC?).
The strategy that worked for me was to open up with
Monado Armor
, which I have at like level 8) right before I attacked him, so his flamethrower attack damage was minimized as much as possible. That also lowers the blaze damage. Shulk has all those blaze resist gems, and the other two both have auras they'll (hopefully!) use that will remove the blaze debuffs.
After that just focus on using light heal whenever possible, and chain attacking as often as possible. It's not a bad idea to try to keep
Armor
up for as much of the fight as possible that way you won't get screwed by a no-vision Titan Stamp or flamethrower. You want to removed Crazed when it uses that near the end, so use Purge or have some other type of Aura Seal ready.
Wasn't a clean fight, there were some fallen comrades and I lost 7th near the end and since I couldn't immediately find them, I just finished it off with Shulk and Dunban.
I don't really think it's necessary because it's hard to screw up your characters when leveling up their arts, but I might do a quick "tutorial" type thing for each character later since several people have brought that up. Nothing near as detailed as the Melia one (I think Zornica has done them for each character but they aren't in English). I'll basically just go over each character's strengths and based on your playstyle and preferred characters you can determine what arts you want to use. Most characters can be set up in a variety of ways so I don't really want to say "do this" when a different setup might suit your playstyle better. Get what I'm saying?
But like I said, it's difficult, if not impossible, to really mess up with arts. AP is technically unlimited, and even if you dump a "lot" of points into arts early on that you decide you don't want, you'll end up realizing what you "wasted" was negligible. 4000 AP might seem like a lot a third of the way through the game. But once you reach some of the later areas you can get that in 10-20 minutes, without trying. In fact, I've current got tens of thousands of AP stockpiled on some characters (over 100 thousand on two characters) because I'm only leveling arts I know I want to use. That's plenty to go around for experimentation if you're on a first playthrough.
Thanks for this post. I don't really need a guide to each character for strategy; I only had trouble wrapping my head around Melia at first because I wasn't using her correctly. Arts were my biggest concern because I didn't want to pour my AP into skills that would end up being inefficient but this information definitely puts me at ease for this. I found
a Bolt Summon book for Melia back in the High Entia Tomb that maxes out that Art
so I've started pouring some more AP there as well as boosting the AP of some other Arts that are in my regular character rotation. Shulk and Melia are still the most fun to play in my opinion, and they play quite differently as well. I'm still waiting on
the rest of the Advanced books
and the few I do have
basically Shulk's Monado skills and that Summon for Melia
have pretty high AP costs for the upper levels. Good to know that won't be an issue as I press forward!
Speaking of which, I am at level 56 and 77 hours in now with my party heading deeper into
Sword Valley
. I ended up not buying the new weapons and haven't really suffered as a result thanks to Melia's Arts and Shulk's Monado. I didn't get too far but I just had an extremely satisfying play session during which I (pretty major spoilers)
finally defeated Mumkhar. Since the game frequently stops a boss fight before the boss' health is depleted, I got to learn that this meant the boss would live to fight another day. So when Mumkhar was blasted to the point where there was literally no yellow in the health bar and I still got to land a final blow, I knew it was the end for him. I had mixed feelings about how they were going about the death of Mumkharthe whole "good guys refuse to kill bad guy which leads to bad guy causing his own death" felt pretty weird to be introduced with Metal Face at this point especially since he was established as a traitor. But I think the visual spectacle of his death and its unheroic nature ("not like this!") were still a fitting end to the character. I definitely feel like I've accomplished something big now that he's blown to bits. I also love the music they play in those dramatic parts.
I posted yesterday that I thought
"Fiora" was a lock for the final character
, but now that I saw
Shulk's vision in which she dies... again
I'm beginning to think instead that it could be
Lorithia if she and Alvis are indeed on the "good" side. She's the only other character at this point who matters and hasn't joined my party as a guest, and the (second) death of Fiora would give the party a stronger motivation to defeat the golden Mechon.
I'm not sure what to think anymore, which I suppose is a good thing.
I feel like with
the death of the villain to whom the characters are most emotionally connected
the plot is definitely heading towards
the final confrontation
and yet it also seems
a little too early in terms of where I am in the game level-wise and there's a whole area empty on the Affinity Chart
. I really hope the story doesn't lose steam here or stretch itself too thin; anybody who's beaten the game have any thoughts on where I am in terms of progress and whether or not my plot fears are unfounded (sans spoilers of course)?
1) I see these weird things scattered here and there. There's a storehouse in Tephra Cave that I need a key to get into, a Hode hideout (a hodeout) in Makna Forest that's fenced off, and old King Agni's grave in Makna Forest. Probably even more than that. Whenever I examine any of these, messages pop up suggesting I need to do something to get access to them. How am I supposed to get into those areas? Do I get items from quests or something?
2) Mid-game-ish
Working on rebuilding Colony 6. I'm doing that quest where the writer guy has to build up his courage, and I have to go to either Satorl Marsh or the Ether Mines to protect him. But that's all the game tells me and I'm not really sure what to do. I go to those places, then what? Do I find him there? Because he isn't there. Do I have to meet him somewhere in the colony first, and then escort him? This mission is confusing.
To answer your first question, there are quests that will give you items that you need to get into other areas.
There will be a quest involving King Agni's Tomb in Alcamoth and one that gets you into the Hode Lair in Frontier Village. You either have to build up your affinity with the areas or progress further in the story to complete them—I'm not sure which is the trigger but I was able to get into both a couple sessions ago. I assume the same holds true for the storage room in Tephra Cave, but I haven't unlocked the quest for that yet. Finding those areas now will make those quests easier when you have to find your way back.
As for your second question, I was a little confused as to what to do at that point as well.
The next time you encounter him will be in the relevant area; it's not an escort mission, but similar to a "Surprise Quest" without the notification.
If you want to know more:
I found him when I was doing another Colony 6 quest in a secret area in Ether Mines (you may or may not have found it already) and he wanted me to kill a unique monster. If I'm remembering correctly, the exclamation point wasn't displayed on the map, which made that part a little tricky. But that could just be my faulty memory, since I reached that part a while ago. I don't know if he legitimately appears in either area (i.e. if my visit to the Ether Mines spawned him there and if you go to Satorl Marsh he is found in that area) or if I just happened to stumble upon the solution. Either way, that quest is a little vague.
So I hit the 40 hour mark and am supposed to head through some mountain pass but im trying to do all the timed side quests and I just feel burned out now. But I heard the first point of no return for side quests is coming and I dont want to lose all that experience. Im at lv 46 now, should I just continue with the game?
1) I see these weird things scattered here and there. There's a storehouse in Tephra Cave that I need a key to get into, a Hode hideout (a hodeout) in Makna Forest that's fenced off, and old King Agni's grave in Makna Forest. Probably even more than that. Whenever I examine any of these, messages pop up suggesting I need to do something to get access to them. How am I supposed to get into those areas? Do I get items from quests or something?
2) Mid-game-ish
Working on rebuilding Colony 6. I'm doing that quest where the writer guy has to build up his courage, and I have to go to either Satorl Marsh or the Ether Mines to protect him. But that's all the game tells me and I'm not really sure what to do. I go to those places, then what? Do I find him there? Because he isn't there. Do I have to meet him somewhere in the colony first, and then escort him? This mission is confusing.
Thanks for this post. I don't really need a guide to each character for strategy; I only had trouble wrapping my head around Melia at first because I wasn't using her correctly. Arts were my biggest concern because I didn't want to pour my AP into skills that would end up being inefficient but this information definitely puts me at ease for this. I found
a Bolt Summon book for Melia back in the High Entia Tomb that maxes out that Art
so I've started pouring some more AP there as well as boosting the AP of some other Arts that are in my regular character rotation. Shulk and Melia are still the most fun to play in my opinion, and they play quite differently as well. I'm still waiting on
the rest of the Advanced books
and the few I do have
basically Shulk's Monado skills and that Summon for Melia
have pretty high AP costs for the upper levels. Good to know that won't be an issue as I press forward!
Speaking of which, I am at level 56 and 77 hours in now with my party heading deeper into
Sword Valley
. I ended up not buying the new weapons and haven't really suffered as a result thanks to Melia's Arts and Shulk's Monado. I didn't get too far but I just had an extremely satisfying play session during which I (pretty major spoilers)
finally defeated Mumkhar. Since the game frequently stops a boss fight before the boss' health is depleted, I got to learn that this meant the boss would live to fight another day. So when Mumkhar was blasted to the point where there was literally no yellow in the health bar and I still got to land a final blow, I knew it was the end for him. I had mixed feelings about how they were going about the death of Mumkhar—the whole "good guys refuse to kill bad guy which leads to bad guy causing his own death" felt pretty weird to be introduced with Metal Face at this point especially since he was established as a traitor. But I think the visual spectacle of his death and its unheroic nature ("not like this!") were still a fitting end to the character. I definitely feel like I've accomplished something big now that he's blown to bits. I also love the music they play in those dramatic parts.
I posted yesterday that I thought
"Fiora" was a lock for the final character
, but now that I saw
Shulk's vision in which she dies... again
I'm beginning to think instead that it could be
Lorithia if she and Alvis are indeed on the "good" side. She's the only other character at this point who matters and hasn't joined my party as a guest, and the (second) death of Fiora would give the party a stronger motivation to defeat the golden Mechon.
I'm not sure what to think anymore, which I suppose is a good thing.
I feel like with
the death of the villain to whom the characters are most emotionally connected
the plot is definitely heading towards
the final confrontation
and yet it also seems
a little too early in terms of where I am in the game level-wise and there's a whole area empty on the Affinity Chart
. I really hope the story doesn't lose steam here or stretch itself too thin; anybody who's beaten the game have any thoughts on where I am in terms of progress and whether or not my plot fears are unfounded (sans spoilers of course)?
So I hit the 40 hour mark and am supposed to head through some mountain pass but im trying to do all the timed side quests and I just feel burned out now. But I heard the first point of no return for side quests is coming and I dont want to lose all that experience. Im at of 46 now, should I just continue with the game?
I'm decently ahead of you and those timed quests still haven't expired. I'd atleast progress the plot a decent bit and then focus on sidequests again. I actually felt burned out around that area as well, to the point where I ran past a lot of enemies which caused me to be underleveled, but I regained my composure and caught up level wise when I hit a good stopping point for more quests.
1) I see these weird things scattered here and there. There's a storehouse in Tephra Cave that I need a key to get into, a Hode hideout (a hodeout) in Makna Forest that's fenced off, and old King Agni's grave in Makna Forest. Probably even more than that. Whenever I examine any of these, messages pop up suggesting I need to do something to get access to them. How am I supposed to get into those areas? Do I get items from quests or something?
2) Mid-game-ish
Working on rebuilding Colony 6. I'm doing that quest where the writer guy has to build up his courage, and I have to go to either Satorl Marsh or the Ether Mines to protect him. But that's all the game tells me and I'm not really sure what to do. I go to those places, then what? Do I find him there? Because he isn't there. Do I have to meet him somewhere in the colony first, and then escort him? This mission is confusing.
As for your second question, I was a little confused as to what to do at that point as well.
The next time you encounter him will be in the relevant area; it's not an escort mission, but similar to a "Surprise Quest" without the notification.
If you want to know more:
I found him when I was doing another Colony 6 quest in a secret area in Ether Mines (you may or may not have found it already) and he wanted me to kill a unique monster. If I'm remembering correctly, the exclamation point wasn't displayed on the map, which made that part a little tricky. But that could just be my faulty memory, since I reached that part a while ago. I don't know if he legitimately appears in either area (i.e. if my visit to the Ether Mines spawned him there and if you go to Satorl Marsh he is found in that area) or if I just happened to stumble upon the solution. Either way, that quest is a little vague.
Yeah, he doesn't have an exclamation mark at all, which is kind of weird. Not sure where he is in the Marsh as I found him in the Mines, but if you're looking for him there, he's in the Glowmoss Lake Secret Area near Test Pit 2. He'll want you to defeat a ~Level 22 (I think... don't really remember what level it was, as it was a while since I did this quest) Unique enemy that should be right next to him by the water's edge (and should pretty much automatically aggro you as soon as you walk in if it's there), so if you don't see it, just reload the area or whatever until it appears.
So I hit the 40 hour mark and am supposed to head through some mountain pass but im trying to do all the timed side quests and I just feel burned out now. But I heard the first point of no return for side quests is coming and I dont want to lose all that experience. Im at lv 46 now, should I just continue with the game?
Hmmm... the game has been quite well-paced so farperhaps my concern is unfounded. But I am a little skeptical story-wise if
the major antagonist with the closest ties to the protagonist gets taken out this close to the halfway mark. But like I said, game-wise it does feel rather early...
I'm admittedly not expecting a groundbreaking narrative here, so we'll see where this goes.
I thought I made a mental note of that, as it seemed rather odd. I wonder if it was an oversight or if it has something to do with
him potentially spawning where you go
or some combination of the two. As for
where or if he spawns in the Marsh, I seem to recall there being a unique enemy in the general area of Exile Fortress that is this far unaccounted for quest-wise. It is possible that he spawns near that one if he appears in the Marsh at all.
Also, a quick tip I remembered for those who are looking for NPCs in
Alcamoth
; I discovered this by accident and thought it might help some.
Do you know the red teleporters that your characters can't use? A lot of NPCs will emerge from them at whatever time of day they become active as listed on the Affinity Chart! Very handy to find multiple NPCs or ones who wonder far during the day.
. There might be a similar trick for the other areas, but I haven't tried it.
I have a quick question I'm hoping someone who is further than me will be able to answer without spoiling too much.
Going by how every side quest I get at
Alcamoth
is timed, I'm going to go out on a limb and say some shit goes down there at some point which makes all the quests inaccessible. If I'm right, does this mean I also need to get every item and heart to heart from there as soon as possible or I'll be locked out of those too?
I have a quick question I'm hoping someone who is further than me will be able to answer without spoiling too much.
Going by how every side quest I get at
Alcamoth
is timed, I'm going to go out on a limb and say some shit goes down there at some point which makes all the quests inaccessible. If I'm right, does this mean I also need to get every item and heart to heart from there as soon as possible or I'll be locked out of those too?
Hmmm... the game has been quite well-paced so farperhaps my concern is unfounded. But I am a little skeptical story-wise if
the major antagonist with the closest ties to the protagonist gets taken out this close to the halfway mark. But like I said, game-wise it does feel rather early...
I'm admittedly not expecting a groundbreaking narrative here, so we'll see where this goes.
The second half of the story moves a lot faster than the first half. I don't really like to say that any specific point is the halfway mark because it's completely dependant on how you play. In general, the rest of the areas from where you are will be more linear with fewer quests, and more cutscenes.
So I'm doing a second playthrough and I'm completing every quest. Pretty tough btw, as I can't find some items. Any tips on finding (an easier way)
- Beneign crickets in Makna Forest (nighttime?)
- Monster Egg in Makna Forest
- Venemous Lizards in Makna Forest
I did found out an easy way to boost your affinity between party members: just fight the elemental enemies like 40 of them and you go up two levels. Burst affinity's EVERYWHERE.
So I'm doing a second playthrough and I'm completing every quest. Pretty tough btw, as I can't find some items. Any tips on finding (an easier way)
- Beneign crickets in Makna Forest (nighttime?)
- Monster Egg in Makna Forest
- Venemous Lizards in Makna Forest
I did found out an easy way to boost your affinity between party members: just fight the elemental enemies like 40 of them and you go up two levels. Burst affinity's EVERYWHERE.
You can trade for crickets and lizards I think. The monster egg is a red item near twisted tree gate, you have to go around the watering hole to get to it.
I'm about 8 hours in so far at the Bionis' knee at lv. 17 and am I supposed to do every single side quest at Colony 9 before I continue? I did like 85% of them.
I'm about 8 hours in so far at the Bionis' knee at lv. 17 and am I supposed to do every single side quest at Colony 9 before I continue? I did like 85% of them.
I'm usually underleveled in games because I like to rush through but I don't feel like having to do late game grinding to make up for it so I'm just accept every quest I can and do them. You seem to get sooo much more exp from quests than just fighting.
It's a great character, best character in the game IMO. Set up right, and you can't lose against most enemies because they will heal themselves as quick as they take damage. I think they basically soloed multiple story bosses for me on my first playthrough.
I mean, that character:
1) Is one of the best damage dealers in the game
2) Can tank moderately well. Dodges almost as well as Dunban with decent defense and HP to take damage when necessary
3) Is completely self-reliant. Not only can you make them self-heal through skills and skill links, but they also have an art that removes debuffs while adding regen.
4) Does everything under AI control, so unlike someone like Melia you don't have to babysit them to make them worthwhile.
The biggest threat is spike damage, because they'll kill themselves so quickly!
I'm usually underleveled in games because I like to rush through but I don't feel like having to do late game grinding to make up for it so I'm just accept every quest I can and do them. You seem to get sooo much more exp from quests than just fighting.
Unless you're using a guide or a quest list, you probably haven't done THAT many. A lot won't open up until later parts of the story. Still, if you do every quest possible, you will definitely end up overleveled to the point the game will be a breeze. Fighting unique/named enemies is also very good experience. They give a ton of exp, AP, and SP.
And no, you don't have to do them all at any given point. You can return to any area instantly with quicktravel (that and a lot of other useful tips are in the OP). There are some timed quests though (you'll come across some shortly) that will expire once you reach certain points in the story or do certain things.
Thanks for that link cb. I'd been trying to use a character other than Shulk, so that when I warned him of a vision the Monado gauge would be auto-filled. Combined with reviving people, it did prevent me from getting many chain attacks in after the initial one. Looks like I need to gift some items for affinity and work on gems a bit. Have mostly III/IV gems, not so many V.
Thanks for that link cb. I'd been trying to use a character other than Shulk, so that when I warned him of a vision the Monado gauge would be auto-filled. Combined with reviving people, it did prevent me from getting many chain attacks in after the initial one. Looks like I need to gift some items for affinity and work on gems a bit. Have mostly III/IV gems, not so many V.
You can grind affinity on unique monsters with spike effects that lower tension or add effects that can be cured by other party members (like sleep, topple, etc). It's far faster than collecting gifts. The one I used before was the sleep spike unique in Eryth Sea (level 87?), but some have also recommended the lower level ether unique in the lava cave. You would probably want to collect some very weak weapons for that though, since you're so much higher level than it is.
There are others, but I don't remember any off the top of my head.
And a lot of my IV and the few V gems were crafted to Megaheat, which is worth mentioning.
Spoilers in there, so dont click unless you have all 7 characters.
Also the Final Cross attack from the 7th character is so fucking OP. A huge mutliple hits AOE attack that can topple monsters? This makes farming groups so easy. Like that group of lvl 92 lizards in Tephra Cave. I just go there, spam all my AOE attacks on them, save and reload to make them respawn.
Dunban's Soaring Tempest + Shulk Stream Edge/Monado Buster + 7th's Final Cross/Double Wind/Cannon Drone = lol monsters groups. I can even do two chain attacks in a row with so many AOE hits and chain links.
