Spoiler-free tips for Jinshin

[Victar]

Here are my spoiler-free tips for Jinshin, drawn from playing on the highest difficulty of Hard. Jinshin is overall not a terribly punishing game, but powered-up large enemies, enemy groups with a General, and boss battles can all be quite dangerous. As usual, there won't be any story spoilers or details about specific boss battles.

In the early game, bad status is extremely dangerous and the protections against it are limited. Eventually the player will acquire Healthy Beads, accessories that block all bad status. These are the most valuable accessories in the game and should be equipped 24/7.

The second most valuable accessory gives a bonus +50 SP at the start of any battle, which potentially allows a character to unleash their Kami Art on the first turn. (I recommend using this with a Kami Art like Demolishing Shock that debuffs enemy stats.) All other accessories are so-so at best. You'll want to keep the Swift Tabi equipped 24/7 just for convenience.

In Jinshin, the player does NOT have easy access to party-wide buffs, and only gradually gets access to magic that debuffs the enemy. There is no party-wide INT buff spell in the entire game - only abilities and a spell that buff an individual's INT!

There is one powerful workaround: the Arena eventually sells a consumable that buffs all of the party's stats one rank. Grinding Arena currency is tedious, though. I recommend saving a few of this consumable for emergencies. I also recommend the endgame crafted armor that makes party members immune to stat debuffs.

Since there won't always be enough turns to buff everyone, it's vital to keep enemies and bosses debuffed. In the early game, only Nasuno can debuff Speed, and only Makina can debuff INT. Eventually Nasuno learns an INT/DEF debuff. Once the party learns spells that can debuff INT and Speed, they will become core staples for a long time. (A spell that debuffs Attack is learned very early on, and Mikazuchi has an ability that debuffs Attack.)

What to buy from the Shop? First, be aware that the Shop in Jinshin does not have anything special. There are no  dungeons gated behind the shop, and gacha rolls only give equipment.

The very first Shop purchase I recommend is the special item that automatically recovers all MP after each battle. Not having to constantly restore the party's MP is a huge quality of life increase.

The second Shop purchase I recommend is the Aid Room option to drop stat boosters from regular encounters.

The third Shop purchase I recommend is all of the Aid Room upgrades to increase magic damage. Magic can exploit elemental weaknesses, debuff enemies or inflict bad status as well as damage, and cover a much wider area than physical attacks. Magic isn't balanced around wielding an upgraded weapon, and upgrade stones need to be saved for armor to keep the party alive. Attacking with magic also lets the player get by with a weak weapon that has a very good Kami Art.

After the Aid Room boost to magic damage is maxed out, it's a judgment call whether to purchase Aid Room boosts to physical damage. Raiden benefits from those boosts; everyone else is better off either attacking with magic or casting support spells/using items.

While Jinshin's postgame dungeon and true final boss do NOT require excessive level grinding, the postgame Secret Arena DOES. So, purchasing experience boosters from the Shop can be helpful in the postgame. Experience boosters are not worth it before the postgame, due to a soft level cap tied to whatever area the player is in.

The most efficient experience boosters to buy are the Aid Room ones for 200 Shop currency, not the more expensive "item" boosters for 300 Shop currency. The Aid Room boosters affect only silver enemies and pillar-summoned encounters, but those are the best things to grind on. Pillar-summoned encounters are the better choice because silver enemies are too tedious and annoying to kill. The fastest way to level in the postgame is to autobattle pillar-summoned encounters in the postgame dungeon.

Who should get stat boosters? I recommend Mikazuchi. The female party members have naturally high INT and don't really need more to hit hard with magic, or to survive enemy magic attacks. Nasuno and Raiden have naturally low INT and are designed to excel in other things. Nasuno is a fast (but very frail) support specialist who debuffs enemy Speed, while Raiden is a self-buffing tank and physical damage specialist (but very slow). Mikazuchi is naturally a balanced character, so he can easily become a very fast, very hard-hitting mage with enough stat boosters to tip the balance.

However, I still recommend giving any stat boosters that raise ONLY Strength to Raiden. Raiden is just THAT good at physical attacks.

A word on the formation system. Once you spend a couple minutes setting it up, you can ignore it for 99% of the game. In nearly all cases, the formation that reduces enemy damage by 20% is the best choice - it keeps the party alive, and it's almost never worth giving up one of Mikazuchi's battle turns to change.

The only exception is if the enemy is using a formation that the party's current formation is weak to. If you see an enemy formation then take a moment to make sure you're not in the 1% case where the wrong formation will get you killed.

A word on crafting. Crafted weapons can be nice, but they're only worth it if they have a good Kami Art (or if it's a stronger spear for Raiden). Crafted armor is more important to keep the party alive. Some armor crafting materials can be purchased from item shops; others have to be farmed from enemies. The monster catalog in the menu shows which enemies drop what materials, and where to find them. "Gathering Lantern" accessories help, as does the "Lucky Bell" item from the Shop. A very few Lucky Bells can be found in-game.

There is no spell or ability to steal. The "Beckoning Cat" accessory improves the odds of getting a rare drop, but keep in mind that crafting materials are usually common drops, not rare drops.

Item shops also sell upgrade stones in limited quantities. Buy them every time you reach a new item shop, or the home village expands.

Never sell upgraded items. Dissemble them instead, to get the upgrade stones back! Weapons won with regular tickets at the Shop often have a small upgrade, so tickets are potentially a bonus source of upgrade stones.

Are you trying to complete the monster catalog? Are you missing entries for silver or gold enemies? Each dungeon in Jinshin has exactly 1 type of silver and gold enemy in it. The catalog lists these enemies in the same order as the dungeons appear on the teleport list. Count down the catalog entries to the one you're missing, and look for them in the corresponding dungeon.

You can spend 10 Shop currency at a pillar to force an encounter with silver enemies, but the only way to see gold enemies is to keep fighting random encounters until they show up. Some dungeon enemies (usually large ones) only appear in the second half the dungeon.

When you first get the ability to fly, be warned that pretty much everywhere you're not expressly told to visit is full of high-level monsters that will one-shot the party. Here's a link to a map that shows how deadly each area is:

https://www.rpginsanity.com/forum/jinsh ... ld-map-15/