• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Bravely Default |OT| For the Americas

The patience of some people who have posted here! I hope that means you haven't neglected other jobs, the game really doesn't expect you to have jobs beyond level 8 or 9 at that point in the game, but does expect you to have a variety of abilities to choose from. I guess that's what you are using abilink for though (I never messed with it so I don't know how it works).

If you want to improve your healing try using Salve Maker, if you haven't. Innate healing lore doubles the effects of restorative items and magic without needing to use an ability slot.

The attack pattern for that fight is also pretty simple, I believe. Once you get that figured out it shouldn't be too hard, just make sure you keep your HP up. Heal big after Energy Burst, and as long as your HP is high Bone Crush should do little to no damage. He favors Energy Burst after Battle Thirst IIRC so you can default across the board after that to reduce damage taken. Those are about the only three attacks he uses.
I found it pretty easy to grind out. I Will try your strategy, though I wish I had some abilinks still.
 
Back into playing this after a few months off with other stuff, just got to level 5 but I think I'm over levelled. Abused the Merchant Hurt/Heal trick to get lots of money and bought the Growth Egg, now I'm up to chapter 5 and I'm like level 85 :/
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Back into playing this after a few months off with other stuff, just got to level 5 but I think I'm over levelled. Abused the Merchant Hurt/Heal trick to get lots of money and bought the Growth Egg, now I'm up to chapter 5 and I'm like level 85 :/

Don't worry, the side quest bosses in chapter 7 and 8 and the final boss are still a threat to a max level party. Especially some of those chapter 8 battles.
 
Am I playing this game wrong?

I don't want to risk spoilers by reading through the thread, so I hope this isn't too annoying.

I'm still in Chapter 1. Just got the Thief asterisk. My party is about level 15. Mook battles are so easy they may as not even be there, but boss battles are so long and sloggy that I have to be doing something wrong.

For example, the battle against the thief and his bodyguard. Tiz is a knight with a Longsword (best thing available, and I have the Norende weapons shop at level 3) and (I think) bronze armor. The enemies couldn't do more than 1hp of damage to him, However, even with Stomp or attacks with Two Handed, he couldn't do more than about 15hp damage to them. And they each had 5000hp. That battle was looooong, and neither side could do much damage to the other. My most powerful attacks are Aero or level 1 black magic, which would do about 150hp of damage.

Do tents ever show up? Phoenix Downs and Ethers are redonkulously expensive.
 
Am I playing this game wrong? Phoenix Downs and Ethers are redonkulously expensive.

Tents do not exist. Money becomes less of an issue especially after your next asterisk fight.

Are you taking advantage of brave chains, or are you playing it like a conventional JRPG with one command per turn?
 

RiggyRob

Member
Am I playing this game wrong?

I don't want to risk spoilers by reading through the thread, so I hope this isn't too annoying.

I'm still in Chapter 1. Just got the Thief asterisk. My party is about level 15. Mook battles are so easy they may as not even be there, but boss battles are so long and sloggy that I have to be doing something wrong.

For example, the battle against the thief and his bodyguard. Tiz is a knight with a Longsword (best thing available, and I have the Norende weapons shop at level 3) and (I think) bronze armor. The enemies couldn't do more than 1hp of damage to him, However, even with Stomp or attacks with Two Handed, he couldn't do more than about 15hp damage to them. And they each had 5000hp. That battle was looooong, and neither side could do much damage to the other. My most powerful attacks are Aero or level 1 black magic, which would do about 150hp of damage.

Do tents ever show up? Phoenix Downs and Ethers are redonkulously expensive.

Tents don't exist, so just use the inn when you have to. Try changing your strategy such as Braving/Defaulting more or using buffs and debuffs.
 

graywords

Member
Tiz is a knight with a Longsword (best thing available, and I have the Norende weapons shop at level 3) and (I think) bronze armor. The enemies couldn't do more than 1hp of damage to him, However, even with Stomp or attacks with Two Handed, he couldn't do more than about 15hp damage to them.

That does seem kind of low. If you haven't already, maybe equipping the 2-handed job ability and removing your shield might increase damage output a bit? At the cost of a bit of defense, of course.

I know there were times that I could have improved my setups greatly if I had thought to set up all my job abilities properly. Otherwise, perhaps grind a few levels? The other advice about Braving/Defaulting etc is sound as well.
 
I should have been clearer regarding Braving. Yeah, I do it all the time in mook fights, but hardly ever in boss fights unless I need to buff or heal up.

graywords, you have a point there. He has Two Hands but I don't think I ever took his shield off. That'd be a pretty silly oversight on my part.
 

graywords

Member
I should have been clearer regarding Braving. Yeah, I do it all the time in mook fights, but hardly ever in boss fights unless I need to buff or heal up.

graywords, you have a point there. He has Two Hands but I don't think I ever took his shield off. That'd be a pretty silly oversight on my part.

Yeah, I've made the same mistake. You'll know it's set up properly if your P.attack shoots up when you remove the shield. Otherwise, the proper job ability might not have been equipped.

I usually kept Two-Handed up on pretty much everyone who was using a weapon, but it can get really confusing once you get to grinding job levels, since you are constantly switching equipment and jobs. Often I'd wonder why someone was so weak, then realize I hadn't switched on their Two-Handed yet. Oops!
 
Argh! Those effin' dragons that are part of that sidequest. @$&#@&_=$! I thought leveling up a little and getting into the Spiritualist job would give me an advantage but nope, just prolonged the inevitable. Have to say it's a nice surprise to see they can override elemental immunities and buffs from equipment though. Inconvenient certainly,but a nice shake up from the FF games. I just said screw it and went past it currently at
the light pillar fighting Alternis

I know there's a post above saying it's about ability setups more than level grinding, so what are some good serious I should try when I get a chance?
 
Damn, no high level folks want to be my friend? :-(

Argh! Those effin' dragons that are part of that sidequest. @$&#@&_=$! I thought leveling up a little and getting into the Spiritualist job would give me an advantage but nope, just prolonged the inevitable. Have to say it's a nice surprise to see they can override elemental immunities and buffs from equipment though. Inconvenient certainly,but a nice shake up from the FF games. I just said screw it and went past it currently at
the light pillar fighting Alternis

I know there's a post above saying it's about ability setups more than level grinding, so what are some good serious I should try when I get a chance?
All of the dragons except for Jabberwock get slaughtered by poison.
 
Damn, no high level folks want to be my friend? :-(


All of the dragons except for Jabberwock get slaughtered by poison.

Thanks will give it a try when I can.

So I'm now in Chapter 5 and I'm noticing all those blue markers:

i noticed the one near Caldisla were the White Mage/Monk pair. I almost beat them, but then the Monk decided to keep blowing up with Invigorate killing my party. Do these battles serve a purpose beyond bonus dialog/extra experience and JP I should know about before I try again? Like do they carry super rare equipment worth stealing or do characters already proficient in those jobs get extra benefits or something?
 

Labadal

Member
Thanks will give it a try when I can.

So I'm now in Chapter 5 and I'm noticing all those blue markers:

i noticed the one near Caldisla were the White Mage/Monk pair. I almost beat them, but then the Monk decided to keep blowing up with Invigorate killing my party. Do these battles serve a purpose beyond bonus dialog/extra experience and JP I should know about before I try again? Like do they carry super rare equipment worth stealing or do characters already proficient in those jobs get extra benefits or something?

The side battles in chapter 7 are important if you wish to steal great equipment from the bosses.
 
Here is my setup right now, and I welcome any criticisms/suggestions:

Tiz:
Vampire/Time Mage

No Equipment

Natural Talent
Knuckle Lore
Rise from Dead
See You in Hell
Status Ailment Amp

Agnes
Ritualist/White Mage

Double Rods

Rise from Dead
Slow World
Gloom
Soul Mates

Ringabel
Dark Night/Spell Sword

Night Emperor

Gloom
Rise from Dead
See You in Hell
Sword Magic Amp
Two-Handed

Edea
Knight/Salve Maker

Two Bloody Shields

Dual Shields
Buff Up
Default Guard
Slow and Steady

Explanation:
I beat level 99 Goldie with this team, and here was the basic strategy:
1) Use Tiz to Regen/Reraise Edea just in case.
2) Default with Agnes.
3) Rage with Ringabel.
4) Default with Edea.

Goldie will summon his fish buddies, and then Slow World kicks in. Why Slow World? It effectively gives 2 turns for Rise from Dead to kick in, and makes the fight more manageable from a damage standpoint in general so Regen and Buff Up can tick more.

Anyway, so the entire enemy side will be at -1 BP, Edea and Agnes will be at 1 BP (+1 from Default, +1 from the new turn, and -1 from Slow World), and Tiz and Ringabel will have negative BP. I use the Ritualist spell that hits everyone with negative BP for big damage, and this does about 8,000 damage across the screen when I do this. This is enough to kill Ringabel and Tiz, but not the enemy summons. Ringabel and Tiz both activate See You in Hell, which hits for 9999 to all enemies each - ~30,000 damage to all enemies for 1 BP. Not bad, eh?

Then Rise from Dead kicks in, bringing Ringabel and Tiz back. As long as one of them comes back, no worries: you only need ~15,000 to kill Goldie's summons. Goldie will pretty much do nothing but summon more buddies, though it will sometimes use the mass confusion spell. I put confusion protection items on Edea and Agnes, because my first time with this team Agnes got confused and successfully ran from the fight when he was below 100K HP! Blah! Ringabel and Tiz don't need confuse protection because you can just nuke them.

Every 7-8 turns, Ringabel and Tiz will be at 0BP again - I just use them as free damage before sacrificing them again to Agnes. Both of them do about 7000 AoE damage per BP. While I can put Drain on Ringabel to keep him healthy, it would just be a waste of BP in this fight.

The general idea is to make Edea as tanky and resilient as possible so I don't have an accidental wipe with her death.

Any suggestions on how to improve my team would be greatly appreciated, so long as they don't deviate from the general strategy. I'm not interested in cheesing fights with Stillness/Hasten World/Jump or anything like that.

I use Time Mage abilities instead of Salve Maker to put up Regen and Reraise because I don't want Edea's BP to fall below 0 at the start of a fight. I have White Mage on Agnes because I think Dispel is a 100% necessary ability in this game, and putting Red Mage on her doesn't seem very purposeful since I have Tiz on status effect duty, and it has nothing good to offer spell-wise compared to White Mage if you aren't looking at status effects. Salve Maker is on Edea because of the free team resurrection, and it probably has other benefits - I just started using the combination last night.

My only real grievance with the team is that I wish I had a place to put Thief abilities so I can steal in chapter 7 (I will probably get rid of Time Magic for a while or something), and I wish that I could fit Memento in there on Ringabel for MP healing. The latter one is definitely not doable without a huge damage sacrifice, though.

Also: do HP critical abilities trigger when you are resurrected into critical range?


See You in Hell is the greatest thing ever, good lord.
It really is good.


Would any kind soul be willing to add me to their friends list for abilink goodness?
5258-0329-2611
Can't you friend by ID these days? If so, add Karsticles. I just finished mastering all classes last night. :)
 
I can't believe the guy with the most posts here just got the game two days ago!

But anyway, at the rate I'm going I'll finish Norende before hitting chapter 5, haha
 

RiggyRob

Member
I can't believe the guy with the most posts here just got the game two days ago!

But anyway, at the rate I'm going I'll finish Norende before hitting chapter 5, haha

How do you find those kind of stats out?

I see you adding to your 10,000 post count, I'm onto you.
 

RDreamer

Member
After a very loooooooong break I picked the game up again. Now I'm stuck on Chaugmar, the fire temple boss. I can survive the big attack when he switches form, but then he basically kills 2 of my characters the next turn before I can heal. I can't seem to get in a big attack on him.
 

Labadal

Member
After a very loooooooong break I picked the game up again. Now I'm stuck on Chaugmar, the fire temple boss. I can survive the big attack when he switches form, but then he basically kills 2 of my characters the next turn before I can heal. I can't seem to get in a big attack on him.

Be sure to defend every turn until it unleashes its attack. Then it is time to heal and attack.
 

RDreamer

Member
Be sure to defend every turn until it unleashes its attack. Then it is time to heal and attack.

I was doing that. The problem was that i would try to heal everyone with my healers and attack with my attackers on the one turn after he unleashes the attack. He'd get 2 attacks in and kill off my attackers (or healers) and I'd just be fucked either way.

Solution was that I had to put a ton of speed on one healer to make sure they went before him every turn, then prioritize getting up in health so I didn't miss the big attack window.
 

RiggyRob

Member
So I have a lvl 99 invader in my village who hits for 9999. My party is level 7. Is there anything I can do?
fb0.jpg
 
Alright, I updated my GAF profile with my 3DS friend code:
3265-5578-1441

I HAVE ALL CLASSES MAXED

So if anyone wants a boost, or wants to try something out before grinding it, add me up. I am playing daily, so the connection will be made soon. Just do me a favor and forward me a nemesis in return. :)

I finished getting the -aja spells today. I need to figure out a way to survive Berserk, because Satan is just destroying me with that stupid status effect. The fight is otherwise pretty easy.

So I have a lvl 99 invader in my village who hits for 9999. My party is level 7. Is there anything I can do?
It happens. Just let him chill there for now. Nemeses don't hurt your village.
 

Waikis

Member
Alright, I updated my GAF profile with my 3DS friend code:
3265-5578-1441

I HAVE ALL CLASSES MAXED

So if anyone wants a boost, or wants to try something out before grinding it, add me up. I am playing daily, so the connection will be made soon. Just do me a favor and forward me a nemesis in return. :)

I finished getting the -aja spells today. I need to figure out a way to survive Berserk, because Satan is just destroying me with that stupid status effect. The fight is otherwise pretty easy.


It happens. Just let him chill there for now. Nemeses don't hurt your village.
You need to add me as well karst, 5258-0329-2611. Thanks a lot bud!
 
All shops level 6 and just hit Twilight Ruins (got all chapter 1 sidequests), Tiz using the Iron Pole instead of knuckles is hilarious.
 
Ok now everything is level 8 and I'm about to enter the Underflow, having your tank attack via compounding is a nice strategy.

Edit: easy Chaugmar strat, get the Salve-Maker class, level it up to level 4 for Attack Item Amp, buy 34+ Fulmen Shards, and go to town
 
I've been pushing through the game quite a bit this week. I finished up the Chapter 3 sidequests (Swordmaster and Ninja fights were pretty easy compared to some earlier bosses), and I'm currently in the engine room.

Performer and Salve-maker have been excellent jobs to mix in, and I'm enjoying using both of them. I really enjoy experimenting around with different setups and trying different combos of main job and secondary abilities.
 
I am running a Slow World + Rise from Dead + See You in Hell team, and I would like to have some way to generate extra BP for the team. Revival is an attractive option if it procs on death since I am dying constantly, but it might only proc at critical HP.

If that doesn't work, do others have ideas?

My team is:
Monk/Vampire
Pirate/Freelancer
Dark Knight/Spell Sword
Knight/Salve Maker
 

Labadal

Member
I am running a Slow World + Rise from Dead + See You in Hell team, and I would like to have some way to generate extra BP for the team. Revival is an attractive option if it procs on death since I am dying constantly, but it might only proc at critical HP.

If that doesn't work, do others have ideas?

My team is:
Monk/Vampire
Pirate/Freelancer
Dark Knight/Spell Sword
Knight/Salve Maker

Only thing I can think of off the top of my head are abilities that rais BP when you evade attacks or get hit with negative status ailments.
 
Alright, I updated my GAF profile with my 3DS friend code:
3265-5578-1441

I HAVE ALL CLASSES MAXED

So if anyone wants a boost, or wants to try something out before grinding it, add me up. I am playing daily, so the connection will be made soon. Just do me a favor and forward me a nemesis in return. :)

I finished getting the -aja spells today. I need to figure out a way to survive Berserk, because Satan is just destroying me with that stupid status effect. The fight is otherwise pretty easy.


It happens. Just let him chill there for now. Nemeses don't hurt your village.


Thanks, added you, mine is 3110-3908-1365. I just haven't really dabbled in Nemeses yet.

Anyway, still in Chapter 5 and I need some advice where to take my party, specifically Agnes.

My party so far:

Tiz- Support character
Mastered Knight, Red Mage, Salve Maker
Currently Ninja with Compounding (With Attack Item Amp, Revival, and Healing Lore)

Ringabel- Beefy tank character
Mastered Monk, Thief, Pirate
Currently Templar with Martial Arts (with Adrenaline, Knuckle Lore, HP 30% up)

Edea- Versatile Fighter
Mastered Knight, Spellfencer, Swordmaster
Currently Templar with Sword Magic (with Slow and Steady, HP 10% up, Sword Magic Amp, and Counter)

Agnes- Healer
Mastered White Mage, Summoner, Spiritualist
Currently Spiritualist with White magic (with Conservation of Life, Summon Substitute, and a Self Healing) yeah that last one needs to change. I had her as a Summoner/White Mage for a while which was great, but I don't want to get rid of those great Spiritualism moves, but I feel like doing the side quests seems like a waste with someone who's mastered their job already.
 

demidar

Member
Turn Agnes into a Red Mage? That way you'll still have access to some white magic, get some black magic and Red Mage skills are useful for generating BP. White magic healing is not dependent on anything besides Healing Lore or Holy One so you should be able to set her up as something else like an offensive support (Pirate, Vampire or Invoker or whatever counterpart to Spiritmaster is) or a different kind of support like Time Mage or Performer. It might also be worth leveling up Black Mage for the Group Casting skill (always cast spells party-wide, 3 slots), so you can can Shell, Protect, Haste, Veil, Quick, Reraise, Regen, Dispel, Arise and all the status effect spells at once. But you might have to sacrifice Spiritualism for any experimentation.

You could always start leveling Freelancer.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
I'd use Salve Maker as your healer instead of a secondary ability on a support character, one of the best things about the job is that you get Healing Lore as the innate skill. IMO that makes it the best healer job in the game. With Epic Group Cast you will never need to spend MP on healing again because the Blessed Shield can fully restore the entire party, without you can still rely on it for good ST healing throughout the entire game.

If you want Tiz to keep that support aspect you could go with Performer instead, which seems to be a somewhat underrated job/ability, and you don't lose much in having it as a secondary ability.

I'd also consider Dark Knight, probably for Edea since it combos beautifully with Spell Sword (Drain). Without a doubt the most powerful offensive job in the game.
 

HorseMmeat

Neo Member
Alright, I updated my GAF profile with my 3DS friend code:
3265-5578-1441

I HAVE ALL CLASSES MAXED

So if anyone wants a boost, or wants to try something out before grinding it, add me up. I am playing daily, so the connection will be made soon. Just do me a favor and forward me a nemesis in return. :)

I finished getting the -aja spells today. I need to figure out a way to survive Berserk, because Satan is just destroying me with that stupid status effect. The fight is otherwise pretty easy.


It happens. Just let him chill there for now. Nemeses don't hurt your village.


I just added you. My friend code is: Horse - 5412-9922-2779
 
Adding you both right now.

The 9999 def bosses are lame. It destroys 99% of the strategies out there. Even my Pirate hits for 1 with Amped Strike. Is there something I can be doing besides flat damage moves like Phoenix Flight and Minus Strike?

Also, what great MP regen moves are there besides Memento and Steady MP regen? Memento turns out to be crap because it won't effect dead characters, which means group attacks that kill 3/4 of your team don't effect anyone but the one living character.

Also, the 9999 def bosses only take 1 damage from See You in Hell. Very disappointing that my strategy has to be thrown away because SE can't find interesting ways to make the Nemeses challenging. Satan and JP Turtle Dove were still cake thanks to Giant's Elixir + White Wind. A tank with White Wind is so good.

Seriously though, I think the highest attack power you can get in the game is 2,400 with a single attack, and that is nowhere near 9999 def to inflict serious damage. What is one supposed to do? Turtle Dove was 9999 def and mdef. The Giant's Elixir strategy was so goddamn boring, even though it was very effective.
 
Turn Agnes into a Red Mage? That way you'll still have access to some white magic, get some black magic and Red Mage skills are useful for generating BP. White magic healing is not dependent on anything besides Healing Lore or Holy One so you should be able to set her up as something else like an offensive support (Pirate, Vampire or Invoker or whatever counterpart to Spiritmaster is) or a different kind of support like Time Mage or Performer. It might also be worth leveling up Black Mage for the Group Casting skill (always cast spells party-wide, 3 slots), so you can can Shell, Protect, Haste, Veil, Quick, Reraise, Regen, Dispel, Arise and all the status effect spells at once. But you might have to sacrifice Spiritualism for any experimentation.

You could always start leveling Freelancer.

I'd use Salve Maker as your healer instead of a secondary ability on a support character, one of the best things about the job is that you get Healing Lore as the innate skill. IMO that makes it the best healer job in the game. With Epic Group Cast you will never need to spend MP on healing again because the Blessed Shield can fully restore the entire party, without you can still rely on it for good ST healing throughout the entire game.

If you want Tiz to keep that support aspect you could go with Performer instead, which seems to be a somewhat underrated job/ability, and you don't lose much in having it as a secondary ability.

I'd also consider Dark Knight, probably for Edea since it combos beautifully with Spell Sword (Drain). Without a doubt the most powerful offensive job in the game.

Thanks for the ideas, will definitely try some of those!
 

Syntsui

Member
Just finished the demo, had a blast! I will start the main game now, anything I should be aware of?

How will the Norende village building work now? Do I have to add people on the internet and they will be working on the village automatically?

Also, any missable I should be aware? Should I play with a guide?
 
Just finished the demo, had a blast! I will start the main game now, anything I should be aware of?

How will the Norende village building work now? Do I have to add people on the internet and they will be working on the village automatically?

Also, any missable I should be aware? Should I play with a guide?
Nothing is missable.
 
These dragons are really annoying. I guess I might just move on with the main story for now, because I don't want to just get completely frustrated at the optional fights. It sucks to be pretty far along in a fight and feeling like you're doing well, and then just get a couple of unlucky hits and the party is wiped out.
 
These dragons are really annoying. I guess I might just move on with the main story for now, because I don't want to just get completely frustrated at the optional fights. It sucks to be pretty far along in a fight and feeling like you're doing well, and then just get a couple of unlucky hits and the party is wiped out.
All of the dragons save for Jabberwocky are very, very susceptible to poison. If you are having trouble, poison the dragon and then play defensive. Lots of healing and Defaulting. I found them all to be easy.
 

Labadal

Member
These dragons are really annoying. I guess I might just move on with the main story for now, because I don't want to just get completely frustrated at the optional fights. It sucks to be pretty far along in a fight and feeling like you're doing well, and then just get a couple of unlucky hits and the party is wiped out.

If you want, you can cheese them with the ninja jobs. Dragon's breath counts as physical attacks. You could fight all the dragons without getting hit if your characters are fast enough.
 
Top Bottom