Fairyland Grinding in early game stages

Searinox119 · Post by **Searinox119** » Fri Jul 22, 2016 6:01 am

[quote="inkwarrior" post=5005]
You get less exp and sp on Easy.[/quote]
Not really. You get exact same rewards on both Easy and Normal, 150% of that on Hard and 200% on Expert.

[quote="MSG Commander" post=5011]
Also with Lucile, I found out that if she has an All Jewel and Counter Jewel, when she gets hit she will counterattack ALL enemies (so the same ought to apply if she has a weapon that targets all, in which case she could equip the Counter Jewel and Accelerator Jewel.)[/quote]
Said weapon is called Bear Claw. Unfortunately, it's found pretty late into the game, in the penultimate dungeon of the Normal End Route. And has no Swoon/Countdown, though that's fixable.

Post by **MSG Commander** » Fri Jul 22, 2016 8:12 am

In light of Nemomon's message that he almost skipped this thread, I've renamed the topic. I think the new title is more descriptive of what's actually inside, and may get more people to actually read it.

inkwarrior, if you have a better/different title you'd prefer me to use, let me know.

Post by **MSG Commander** » Fri Jul 22, 2016 9:14 am

Test Two: This time with an Accelerator Jewel instead of a Preemptive. (No actual spoilers in here, I just used them to help break up the sections)

Okay, this test was done right after completing Obscura Shrine (meaning, between here and the Normal End there are still a few good Jewels and weapons, that could make this strategy better still...)

Note: the weapon effects I have listed are simply the effects that I had. You may be able to get better effects or different effects if you plan properly, starting from the beginning of the game. Otherwise, a bit of weapon farming may yield better overall effects.

There may also be better Jewel combinations; these are simply the Jewels that I decided to equip (so if you do find something better, let me know!)

30-minute test with Accelerator Jewel (I was going to do 45 minutes, but 30 gave me all the data I needed - this approach is not as effective as using a Preemptive Jewel.)

Start: Level 45
End: Level 88

Party Setup

Why I chose these:

Lucile:
Call + Hit Me guarantees that the enemies will attack her, and that their attacks will heal her.
The Accelerator Jewel guarantees that she will have the first turn in battle (except when caught off-guard, so if that happens you will have to reset.)
The Counter Jewel, coupled with a weapon that has Countdown and Paralysis, gives her the chance of counterattacking and paralyzing or casting Countdown on any enemy who attacks her. (This part could be improved if you wait until Lucile has a Bear Claw, since that weapon targets all enemies - even when counterattacking.)
Placing Lucile in the front, and everyone else in the back, guarantees that when enemies attack Lucile with a "Column" attack, Lucile is the only one in that column (so everybody else never gets hit - with one exception.*)

Harvey:
Harvey's Broad Sword attacks all, and when coupled with the Target Jewel, his normal attack is guaranteed to hit. His Critical is important if and when you encounter metal monsters mixed in with the fairies. On the rare chance that his Swoon actually kills an enemy, I believe the Next Jewel has the chance of giving him a second attack (and hence, a second chance to use Swoon.)

Amelia:
Amelia's Dynamic Rod also attacks all, and with Confusion 76, it's very likely to land on every enemy, every time. (Not guaranteed obviously, but your chances are extremely high.) I gave her the Titan Jewel on the off chance it will attract Titan monsters (and more EXP), and the Thief Jewel to see if enemies will drop 2x weapons (when/if they do drop weapons). NOTE: Since the goal is to hit every enemy with either Swoon or Countdown (by means of using Bad Prayer), Titan enemies need not be feared!

Olivia:
Olivia's Death Scythe will occasionally cause countdown from 3 - and, since it's coupled with the All Jewel, that means that each turn she attacks, there's a chance of hitting one or more enemies with Countdown. I also gave her the Rare Jewel to increase the odds that enemies will drop rare weapons (and will see if using this and the Thief Jewel on Amelia net more weapon drops...)

Results:

On my first battle, I learned Death Slash, so I set up a Beat Combo for Lucile, with Hit Me, Call, and Death Slash. (Then I set up a third combo, with Hit Me, Call, and Bad Prayer, for targeting fairies in columns. Unfortunately, using all these in a combo causes Lucile to cast Countdown on herself, instead of the enemy...)

With one Accelerator Jewel and no Preemptive Jewels, Lucile gets the first turn in battle, but then you have to wait for all the fairies to cycle through multiple turns, before anyone else in your party gets to act. Fortunately, Call + Hit Me keeps them all attacking Lucile the whole time, and when her (quite low) Countdown effect does land on a counterattack, that fairy tends to die before Harvey gets his first turn. But, with Countdown at 26%, it doesn't land often enough to be reliable yet. It would probably be better if Lucile had a high Countdown effect, but I've never been interested in Countdown before, so I don't know what kind of levels you can get for that up to this point in the game.

So, there's a big tradeoff here vs. using a Preemptive - you've got a higher chance of winning every battle (since it's very, very rare that the fairies will still kill your entire party) but without the occasional preemptive strike, it takes a long, long time for anyone other than Lucile to get their first turn. (However, on occasion Lucile got hit with Countdown, and her Countdown reached 0 before all the fairies died, and then everyone else got killed.)

Regardless, one thing is certain - ONE Preemptive Jewel is a much better way to go than ONE Accelerator Jewel. Even if you have to reset the game 7 or 8 times in a row before you get a preemptive strike, the battles go a LOT faster when your entire party gets their first turn before the fairies. I suspect that equipping one Preemptive Jewel (on Harvey or Olivia), and equipping Accelerator Jewels on Lucile and Amelia, would yield better results - but the best way may be to equip multiple Preemptive Jewels, and skip the Accelerator Jewels altogether.

Also, I don't think giving Harvey a Next Jewel is a good idea. It didn't seem to make any difference at all.

* NOTE: There is one Fairy skill that will still hit everyone: Angst Gale. This will kill everyone but Lucile (but then you have no one left to attack with) so if they use that you'll probably want to reset and try for a new encounter.

CoarseDragon · Post by **CoarseDragon** » Sat Jul 23, 2016 1:41 am

My strategy was to use Dark Inferno plus Comet.

When Lucile learns Dark Inferno from either the Death Chimera in Elysium or Light Deity in Elysium you can pair that with Comet (Spell from Harvey) and grind any place - except Metal Regions. This has worked for me every time, except the Queen Fairy in Fairy Land. Dark Inferno can reduce HP to 1 and then Comet can kill all enemies. No special weapons are required.

Lucile needs 9 BG points to combo Dark Inferno and Comet. She also needs an Accelerator Jewel (that of course lets her go first). If you level up after the battle all combo points are restored. You could probably use almost any other hit all skill with Dark Inferno if you do not have 9 BG points.

You could also try to learn Dark Inferno from skill bags.

I think that's it - good luck all.

Post by **MSG Commander** » Sat Jul 23, 2016 5:27 am

Okay I've finished my third and final test of the original strategy. Here's my notes:

This was done immediately after Naihmee Village (Story Quest 66). Same basic strategy, but for this one I have an Accelerator Jewel and a Preemptive Jewel.

Same weapons as Test Two - but I changed the Jewels in the following manner:

Lucile - Counter + Accelerator
Harvey - Target + Preemptive
Amelia - Thief + Titan
Olivia - Rare + All

I also have 52 Luck Tablets going into this test, so whenever I think about it I'll try using some of those.

Preemptive strikes:

1. Yes
2. No
3. Yes
4. (On this battle I was actually caught off-guard, so I reset.)
5. No

(After battle no. 5, I just reset the game any time I did not get a preemptive strike. I had 20 minutes left on the "clock" and wanted to know how far I could get in that time if I only fought encounters that gave me the preemptive.)

Start Level 45
After battle 5, I was level 75.
20 minutes later (of only fighting the preemptive encounters) Lucile is level 137, Harvey 132, and Amelia and Olivia are 123 (more than high enough to continue on to the Normal End, clean up in the Battle Arena and quickly earn enough Coins to buy 4 or 5 Warehouse Keys BEFORE beating the Boss and going on to New Game+.)

(Note: when I was down to 15 minutes remaining, I changed to Expert Difficulty. Since the main strategy is to have all enemies attack/heal Lucile, and meanwhile hit each of them with Countdown, Expert Difficulty is not any harder than the other settings, and it nets much more EXP.)

Without the preemptive strike, the battles obviously take longer - but since Lucile has the Accelerator Jewel, most battles can still be won. However, if you only do the battles where you get a preemptive strike, then the Accelerator Jewel becomes unnecessary, meaning I could have given Lucile Counter + All, and given something different to Olivia. Also, I suspect that the Thief and Rare Jewels aren't really such good choices. I just don't know what else to use in their place.

P.S. Using Luck Tablets in these battles sucks. It's far better to have Olivia attack all enemies and hope to steal from them.

P.P.S. I had more fairies use Angst Gale this time around. (But fortunately they didn't kill Lucile, and her counterattack eventually cast Countdown on every single one, so Lucile went up about 8 levels, and learned Angst Gale, but everyone else was dead...) Also in one battle that included some kind of ogre with wings, one of the enemies wound up somehow killing Amelia and Olivia (guessing maybe someone used Random Shot?? I don't know.)

Anyway I know my notes from these tests are kind of unorganized but hopefully there's some good stuff in there.

I have to agree, at this point, that using the Preemptive Jewel as early as possible is an effective strategy for "quick, short-term" grinding - you know, just enough to give you an edge over the rest of the enemies leading up to Normal End. So, for grinding from level 40 or so, to level 100 or so, the original strategy would be my preferred method, though of course with a few more people willing to test out and give feedback, I think we could narrow down some of the weapon and effects and auxiliary jewels and make it that much more effective.

For long term grinding using the Call + Hit Me, plus Bad Prayer approach, I'd probably be more comfortable waiting until each party member has a weapon that targets all enemies, and equipping 2 or 3 Accelerator Jewels - but that would require more testing than I'm willing to do at this time.

Regardless, my hat's off to inkwarrior for coming up with this. (As a Premium player with the EXP Orb on Normal difficulty, I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate this into my location walkthrough, 'cause dang those Bosses are starting to take a LOOOOOONG TIME!!!!)

Post by **MSG Commander** » Sat Jul 23, 2016 5:51 am

The one question that remains in my mind, is this:

Can you get to Naimhee Village (and the Preemptive Jewel) by boat? As in, the moment you first get the boat? (Can you sail to that continent, and well Naihmee Village already be there?)

After all, Amelia learns Bad Prayer at level 30....

Post by **MSG Commander** » Sat Jul 23, 2016 8:38 am

UPDATE

I'm back to writing the location walkthrough, and since I'm writing for casual players on Normal difficulty, I went back to my level 45 save code and went to Grakka Abyss.

I'm using the Call + Hit Me beat combo, with the same weapons/jewels I used in my last test (and when I run into really strong monsters I also use Bad Prayer) and it's making the random encounters in here super easy!

Of course here I do have to have a supply of Charge potions, since I don't level up often enough to refill Lucile's BG that way.

inkwarrior · Post by **inkwarrior** » Sat Jul 23, 2016 10:08 am

[quote="MSG Commander" post=5019]The one question that remains in my mind, is this:

Can you get to Naimhee Village (and the Preemptive Jewel) by boat? As in, the moment you first get the boat? (Can you sail to that continent, and well Naihmee Village already be there?)

After all, Amelia learns Bad Prayer at level 30....

[/quote]

I'm late in answering, but I yes, I believe you can get to Naihmee by boat. I am not sure about the monster quality in the waters directly in front of it though (so it may or may not be a hazardous trip).

And I have no objections about the title change, but my battle strategy is not strictly limited to Fairyland. You can also do it in Deviland, also with the same limited success, but there are still certain mobs with Double Chomp that can kill your party (because that targets at random). Actually, now that I think about it, I have not thoroughly tested Level 200 or 300 isles, either... (where two of the Maid enemies may spawn rarely). But then again, you're usually not there to grind at either place but to capture skills (especially the maids), in which case this guide wouldn't really help for that purpose.

3beez · Post by **3beez** » Sat Jul 23, 2016 11:35 am

inkwarrior is correct. Naimhee is easily accessible as soon as you have the ship. And the water is fine. :cheer:

Post by **MSG Commander** » Sat Jul 23, 2016 12:13 pm

Sweet. Thank you inkwarrior and 3beez.

Update to my update: I just finished Grakka Abyss - at the "normal" levels for that area.

I HAD TO PUT THE DIFFICULTY ON EASY TO BEAT THE YOU-KNOW-WHO AT THE END OF THE ABYSS!!!!!!!!!!

So I've decided that it's silly not to take advantage of this strategy, to give myself that little boost in these stages. (Sometimes I have to do things the hard way, before I really understand the benefit of doing it the easy, smart way...) :whistle:

(I've also decided that, since I am going to work this into the walkthrough, that this is as good a time as any to restart the game, and revise the pages I've already finished. With the maps from Searinox, and the skill lists, magic lists, treasure lists, and enemy guide we already have published, the location walkthrough - well the part that I actually write up, anyway - seems more like a "supplement" at this point, more to just help fill in any missing gaps and, of course, to keep me busy

I think most the information people really want to know is already published in other pages or answered on the forum, so I guess I don't need to rush on the location walkthrough after all; just as long as I can do a little bit every day...)