Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
Blackbelt Bobman
Jul 17, 2004

I don't need friends! I've been
manipulatin' you since the start!
All so I can something,
something X-Blade!


Pollyanna posted:

Do merc missions count bonus skills as the total of a bonus skill's level across all mercs, or as the number of mercs who have X bonus skill?

Total number of blades with those skills, each skill cuts off like 10% of the time of the mission. Level doesn't matter for bonuses, only if a required skill specifies a certain level.

Edit: I just did a mission with only one bonus skill and it took off 20% so maybe there are diminishing returns?

Blackbelt Bobman fucked around with this message at 23:14 on Jan 1, 2018

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Pollyanna
Mar 5, 2005

Milk's on them.


bizarre deformity posted:

Total number of blades with those skills, each skill cuts off like 10% of the time of the mission. Level doesn't matter for bonuses, only if a required skill specifies a certain level.

Wow, so it's even less useful than I thought. Does that mean I get less out of a mission with 3 Botany, 0 Production Mastery vs. 1 Botany, 1 Production Mastery? And that small amount of time reduction is disappointing.

Tae
Oct 24, 2010

Hello? Can you hear me? ...Perhaps if I shout? AAAAAAAAAH!
The top half is requirement of even starting the mission, so levels still matter. The bottom is just more for convenience and why popping common blades is still important.

Blackbelt Bobman
Jul 17, 2004

I don't need friends! I've been
manipulatin' you since the start!
All so I can something,
something X-Blade!


Pollyanna posted:

Wow, so it's even less useful than I thought. Does that mean I get less out of a mission with 3 Botany, 0 Production Mastery vs. 1 Botany, 1 Production Mastery? And that small amount of time reduction is disappointing.

No, I think each of the bonus skills are weighed equally.

Also just got Dagas, woot moving up in the world.

Tae
Oct 24, 2010

Hello? Can you hear me? ...Perhaps if I shout? AAAAAAAAAH!
Dagas is one of the few blades that completely change once you do his side quests.

Pollyanna
Mar 5, 2005

Milk's on them.


Doing the Uncover the Truth sidequest and I'm amazed at how much this feels like a loving chore. Most of the sidequests in this game have been grindy and lovely, actually.

bizarre deformity posted:

No, I think each of the bonus skills are weighed equally.

Also just got Dagas, woot moving up in the world.

Hmmm. Is there any reason I should shoot for more than one in each level? e.g is 2/1/1 on the bonus levels better than 1/1/1? I'm having a hard time understanding how they work if my assumption is incorrect.

IcePhoenix
Sep 18, 2005

Take me to your Shida

Pollyanna posted:

Doing the Uncover the Truth sidequest and I'm amazed at how much this feels like a loving chore. Most of the sidequests in this game have been grindy and lovely, actually.


Hmmm. Is there any reason I should shoot for more than one in each level? e.g is 2/1/1 on the bonus levels better than 1/1/1? I'm having a hard time understanding how they work if my assumption is incorrect.

When he's talking about levels he means the level of that individual blade's skill ie: Botany level 1 or level 2, not one blade with botany vs two blades with botany

Blackbelt Bobman
Jul 17, 2004

I don't need friends! I've been
manipulatin' you since the start!
All so I can something,
something X-Blade!


Yeah I thought you mean if the Blade's skill is level 2 or 3, like the levels used to field skill checks, not having multiple blades with the same skill. Yes, you want to stack multiple blades with the same skill to increase the time reduction.

Pollyanna
Mar 5, 2005

Milk's on them.


bizarre deformity posted:

Yeah I thought you mean if the Blade's skill is level 2 or 3, like the levels used to field skill checks, not having multiple blades with the same skill. Yes, you want to stack multiple blades with the same skill to increase the time reduction.

Okay, I getcha. So one blade with level 5 Botany still counts as just 1 Botany point in that regard? No way to cheese up to 4+ bonus skills in merc missions by bringing along only a few Blades with high levels in those bonus skills? It's a counter of "Blades with X skill", not "total skill level of X skill"?

Blackbelt Bobman
Jul 17, 2004

I don't need friends! I've been
manipulatin' you since the start!
All so I can something,
something X-Blade!


Pollyanna posted:

Okay, I getcha. So one blade with level 5 Botany still counts as just 1 Botany point in that regard? No way to cheese up to 4+ bonus skills in merc missions by bringing along only a few Blades with high levels in those bonus skills? It's a counter of "Blades with X skill", not "total skill level of X skill"?

Correct. Which is why it's good to have a variety of common blades with skills.

Edit: Nia's luck is over 500, hopefully I'll get at least a couple more rare blades today! Boosters don't affect your chances of getting rare blades, do they? Or influence the element of the rare blade?

Blackbelt Bobman fucked around with this message at 23:45 on Jan 1, 2018

Meowywitch
Jan 14, 2010

I have like 100 generic blades but I still cannot do Ursula's Vocal Lesson 4 merc mission because I never managed to pull an Earth Animal

It really sucks.

Pollyanna
Mar 5, 2005

Milk's on them.


bizarre deformity posted:

Correct. Which is why it's good to have a variety of common blades with skills.

Groaaaan. There goes my plan for short missions. Sad to hear there's an upper limit to that.

Silver Falcon
Dec 5, 2005

Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and barbecue your own drumsticks!

I've been gunning hard trying to get Zenobia on Five because I read that combo is supposed to be busted good? Got a different DPS blade on them just now- my first rare Blade of Ch 9 in fact: Kos-mos!

She looks nifty? I know nothing about the game she's from but she looks fun and she's one of only three(?) Light Blades you can get in the entire game so I'm happy about that. Now I just need Zenobia to come home...

Pollyanna posted:

Why is Floren's line when you feed him Snow Dumplings so hilarious? And what's an easier way of building trust than forcefeeding your Blades? :gonk:

I went aaaaaages after summoning Floren thinking he's a girl... until I was selecting Blades for a merc mission that required male Blades and hovering over Floren added one to the counter. :psyduck: Oookay. He's still super cute, but NPCs invariably call him a girl.

Centzon Totochtin
Jan 2, 2009
I'm about an hour into chapter 5 and here's my current rare blade distribution

Rex
-Gorg
-Boreas
-Roc
-Dagas

Nia
-Godfrey
-Vale
-Perceval
-Agate
-Ursula

4th character
-Floren
-Nim

Unused cores
-Vess
-Kasandra
-Wulfric

I have a pretty good idea of who the 5th character is going to be and don't really plan on using them. I'd prefer to use 4th over Tora because I hate Tiger Tiger. What's the best blade load-out with what I have (I want to focus more on fusion combos than driver combos)? Not sure how many overdrive modules I have and I don't know how to check (I only recall picking up one)

Tae
Oct 24, 2010

Hello? Can you hear me? ...Perhaps if I shout? AAAAAAAAAH!

Silver Falcon posted:

I've been gunning hard trying to get Zenobia on Five because I read that combo is supposed to be busted good? Got a different DPS blade on them just now- my first rare Blade of Ch 9 in fact: Kos-mos!

She looks nifty? I know nothing about the game she's from but she looks fun and she's one of only three(?) Light Blades you can get in the entire game so I'm happy about that. Now I just need Zenobia to come home...


I went aaaaaages after summoning Floren thinking he's a girl... until I was selecting Blades for a merc mission that required male Blades and hovering over Floren added one to the counter. :psyduck: Oookay. He's still super cute, but NPCs invariably call him a girl.

Blades themselves become less important outside of ones with Orb Master. The mechanics of timing invincibility is far more important honestly.

Floren is a boy pretending to be a girl to get favors and free stuff. You even see it in his intro. That's his gimmick.

Pollyanna
Mar 5, 2005

Milk's on them.


Tae posted:

Floren is a boy pretending to be a girl to get favors and free stuff. You even see it in his intro. That's his gimmick.

Which quite honestly pisses me off, but it's apparently par for the course in anime.

Meowywitch
Jan 14, 2010

I don't think Floren's manipulative personality has anything to do with his looks

Or perhaps I'm naive

Pollyanna
Mar 5, 2005

Milk's on them.


Yeah on the other hand, I've been under the impression that it's actually just Floren being Floren, using his charm to his advantage, rather than some transphobic bullshit. If it's really as Tae says and it's stated as such in later cutscenes with him then that's real disappointing, I figured we'd be better than that by now.

IcePhoenix
Sep 18, 2005

Take me to your Shida

I just got the heart2heart in Tantal between Mythra and Zeke and I think it's my favorite one yet.

Electric Phantasm
Apr 7, 2011

YOSPOS

So Chapter 4 and just realized I could release blades. What kind of Blades should I keep?

Silver Falcon
Dec 5, 2005

Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and barbecue your own drumsticks!

Tae posted:

Blades themselves become less important outside of ones with Orb Master. The mechanics of timing invincibility is far more important honestly.

Floren is a boy pretending to be a girl to get favors and free stuff. You even see it in his intro. That's his gimmick.

I got from his intro that he's manipulative and uses his cute looks to get what he wants. I didn't pick up anything from his intro to suggest that he pretends to be a girl.

Black Balloon
Dec 28, 2008

The literal grumpiest



The end of Floren's quest has him correcting people calling him "miss". It's not trying to be transphobic or anything, it's just some anime bullshit.

Reiterpallasch
Nov 3, 2010



Fun Shoe

Centzon Totochtin posted:

I'm about an hour into chapter 5 and here's my current rare blade distribution

semiserious comedy option: play as nia, main vale as your attacker, and mash out low level specials. vale is an ether attacker, nia's driver arts with a megalance are ether-based. stacking the +300% damage buff from using specials with the Back Attack Up and Arts Plus blade arts with nia's +100% damage from behind megalance art is, uh, obscene

Reiterpallasch
Nov 3, 2010



Fun Shoe
in general, if you guys are tired of playing as will-it-blend (yes) crit rex, save your game and give sheba + vale + herald/kos-mos nia a try, it's hilarious how fast she can melt things. then reload your save because she's still not better than what rex gets for free.

Pierson
Oct 31, 2004



College Slice
Being able to do crazy stuff like that just makes me sad how hard it is to do much blade switching.

Someone suggested the best way to do it without needing to grind overdrive protocols/4star affinity charts as just getting every rare core and releasing/regaining them one by one until they're all on the character you want, which sounds excruciating but what can you do I guess.

U-DO Burger
Nov 12, 2007




Holy poo poo smashing enemies just competely defrangs them. I just crushed a giant level 110 squid by smashing it over and over :stare:

DLC Inc
Jun 1, 2011

Centzon Totochtin posted:

I'm about an hour into chapter 5 and here's my current rare blade distribution

Unused cores
-Wulfric


what the gently caress

Centzon Totochtin
Jan 2, 2009
Why, what did I do wrong

But Rocks Hurt Head
Jun 30, 2003

by Hand Knit
Pillbug
Dude put Wulfric on Rex already. He has three of the most commonly used field skills, deals loads of damage, and his heart to hearts / quest are hilarious.

But Rocks Hurt Head
Jun 30, 2003

by Hand Knit
Pillbug
Also, I'm finally into Chapter 8 and I was worried for a brief moment that they were going to half-rear end the Xeno part of this game but thankfully we have gone fully off the rails. The whole sequence that closes out Ch 7 is perfect anime nonsense and now I'm wandering around the post-apocalyptic city like I'm in a SMT game and it's lovely.

Reiterpallasch
Nov 3, 2010



Fun Shoe
his damage output is...ok, and five is probably better with a megalance than rex is. can't argue with the other two, though.

Tae
Oct 24, 2010

Hello? Can you hear me? ...Perhaps if I shout? AAAAAAAAAH!
Wulfric is fine, but as the game goes on later, you really want a smash/launch/topple/break weapon blade, or at worst an Orb Master. I usually just send him on merc missions to level up super strength to pass field checks.

Centzon Totochtin
Jan 2, 2009
I mean, I'd love to experiment with blades and stuff but the game doesn't really allow you to do that due to autosaving before you resonate and having a huge barrier to swapping blades between characters

Tae
Oct 24, 2010

Hello? Can you hear me? ...Perhaps if I shout? AAAAAAAAAH!
Blades are stats, as far as move sets and effects, they're the same no matter what for each character. Every single lancer plays the same, every single axe plays the same (though each character has vastly different movesets for their versions of weapons).

So if you happen upon a unique from a sidequest, look up their weapon and see where their movesets would fit best.

But honestly, don't try to min-max for story.

Reiterpallasch
Nov 3, 2010



Fun Shoe
there's elemental/party building considerations, too. newt would basically be the best tank in the game (at least at not dying) but she's pretty useless instead for most players because she's a fire evade tank.

Evil Fluffy
Jul 13, 2009

Scholars are some of the most pompous and pedantic people I've ever had the joy of meeting.

But Rocks Hurt Head posted:

Dude put Wulfric on Rex already. He has three of the most commonly used field skills, deals loads of damage, and his heart to hearts / quest are hilarious.

You can survive fine without it. Wulfric fits on the 5th member better in the long run. Rex isn't in need of a spear tbh.

Pierson posted:

Being able to do crazy stuff like that just makes me sad how hard it is to do much blade switching.

Someone suggested the best way to do it without needing to grind overdrive protocols/4star affinity charts as just getting every rare core and releasing/regaining them one by one until they're all on the character you want, which sounds excruciating but what can you do I guess.

It would probably be faster to max out the charts of 4 star common blades for extra overdrives (if that actually works).

DACK FAYDEN
Feb 25, 2013

Bear Witness

Reiterpallasch posted:

there's elemental/party building considerations, too. newt would basically be the best tank in the game (at least at not dying) but she's pretty useless instead for most players because she's a fire evade tank.
hey man fire evade tanks are great there's...

...man that really sucks for Newt.

Blackbelt Bobman
Jul 17, 2004

I don't need friends! I've been
manipulatin' you since the start!
All so I can something,
something X-Blade!


Like why would they even bother making a second fire tank when the mandatory story one is so good? There are plenty of other unused elements they could have used for a tank.

IcePhoenix
Sep 18, 2005

Take me to your Shida

Evil Fluffy posted:

(if that actually works).

eh? I don't know what this means.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Pollyanna
Mar 5, 2005

Milk's on them.


bizarre deformity posted:

Like why would they even bother making a second fire tank when the mandatory story one is so good? There are plenty of other unused elements they could have used for a tank.

Someone post that image of the hilariously lopsided weapon/element distribution among the unique blades.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply