Guides

@kijauni

(edited a bunch of stuff, I hope this is useful and not confusing)

Be very, very careful with which enemy pack you start.

In addition to making sure not to start on an enemy pack that has mage enemies that have an elemental advantage over your trainer, make note that if the first pack has:

• Mammertees
• Kelp Tenders
• Depins
• Corrosive Depins
• Relic Eels
• Cloud Chasers
• Mantarune
• Wave Sweeper

You should just reload/flee until you get an enemy formation that doesn't contain any of those.

*Exception: If it's only two enemies and you are feeling lucky, you can go for it. As long as it's not just your trainer that is getting attacked it's not a bad start. This is really luck-based, though.*

The first four are physical attackers that hit the hardest of all.

Relic Eels are physical attackers, too fast and that damage adds up, despite being survivable.

Cloud Chasers cast Disorient and regardless of elemental resistances, you really really don't want your trainer to get the status effect disoriented, it basically guarantees that you will get your entire party wiped out, because of all the damage output your enemies are still doing while your dragon goes berserk.

The Mantarune and Wave Sweeper are bosses and can be defeated if you have enough breath to keep Reflect on you for the whole battle (I think somewhere around and above 60 breath at the start of the battle should be enough, I haven't checked for sure), but if you start with no breath or too little breath, you just can't build enough with Scratch in time before Reflect runs out.

I am using a Beast that is Water element, has Scratch, Haste, Rally, Eliminate and Reflect, and it is less squishy than I expected, even without the Sap.

It can even defeat bosses if I make sure to always have enough breath, otherwise I run away.

So, on a starter pack that looks safe, I make sure to cast Haste.

If the starter pack only has any of the following in some combination:

• Maren Scout*
• Maren Wavesinger
• Relic Eel* + ***
• Abyss Striker ***
• Cloud Chaser**
• Golden Porpoise*
  

I cast Rally and start taking them down with Scratch, starting with the physical attackers.

*These are physical attackers, so if the pack has 3 or 2 of them + 1 Mage, I reload. If it's just one of them + 2 Mages, I fight them.

**If it's a pack that has 1 Cloud Chaser and 2 Golden Porpoise, or 2 Cloud Chasers and 1 Golden Porpoise, I still reload. Not worth it deciding if I should risk facing Shred or Disorient. However, if it's 1 Cloud Chaser and another, "easy" enemy, sometimes I do start with that, just making sure to take down the Cloud Chaser first.

***You can start against the pack that features 2 Abyss Strikers + 1 Relic Eel if your dragon is not weak to Shadow, but because they are both very fast enemies, you might lose too much health if they all decide to attack your dragon. Like, you should be able to defeat them, but you might end up with too little health for the next battle.

Those listed enemies can all be taken down with 3 Rallied Scratches, but all the other enemies will still have a sliver of health left if you do that.

So if I have a pack of two or three enemies that only (or mostly) has:

• Maren Ambushers
• Maren Warriors*
• Octoflyers
• Jeweled Octoflyers

*This one is a physical attacker, the rest are mages.

I use Scratch four times in a row, again starting with the physical attackers.


For all subsequent battles:

I make sure to always have at least half a full health bar and enough breath to cast Eliminate (35 breath), otherwise I reload.

You basically want to try to keep your health up for as long as you can. If you have many Health potions and you see an extra turn you can use them in, or you have Reflect up and lots and lots of Breath and only Mage enemies left, sure, that works too. It's not very time efficient, but if you have a good run and don't want to reload it might be worth it.

So, if the trainer has enough health and breath, I then start with Haste.

After that, if the enemy formation I'm facing contains 2 or more of any of the following:

• Mammertee
• Kelp Tender
• Depin

Then I go straight to Scratch + Eliminate those, because they cannot be Rally + Eliminated with the Beast's STRENGTH stat.

(Corrosive Depins can be Rally + Eliminated, but they often show up in combinations with the enemies that require Scratch + Eliminate, just to complicate things.)

If there is only like, one enemy left or so after that, I Scratch + Eliminate that one too, since that is 1 Breath point extra I'm getting, compared to casting Rally and then using Eliminate.

But, if there is only one of those three listed enemies in the pack in the enemy formation, I use the second turn to cast Rally and then start Eliminating the other enemies first, leaving the enemy with more health for last, with a Scratch + Eliminate.

(I try to always keep Haste active in regular, non-boss battles, so I always recast it as soon as it runs out. ...Unless I am certain that I can take out an enemy right then and there with an Eliminate, before it's their turn to attack. One less enemy in the field to deal with.)

Also, sometimes using Defend is helpful! If there is like, only one enemy left, and you know you will need exactly two turns to defeat it, and you see in the turn order on the left that it goes:

You
Enemy
You
You

It can be useful to instead use defend, wait for it to attack, and then use those 2 turns in a row to Scratch + Eliminate or Rally + Eliminate it comfortably.

Other things that might help:

* If the only physical attackers are something like, a Mammertee and a Relic Eel, and I have enough breath for Eliminate, and everything, I prefer to take out the Eel first because it attacks faster.

* In a pack full of mages, I always attack the Abyss Striker first, if there is one, because it has no elemental strength against my Water dragon, but it does move faster than the other mages and will get extra turns against me. In general, I try to leave the Water enemies for last, to take advantage of my dragon's element.

* The Octoflyer and the Maren Wavesinger are both Water mages, but for some reason it seems that of the two of them, only the Octoflyer casts Drown, which can slow you down, and it has a bit more health than the Maren, so I prefer to take out the Octoflyer first.

* Never let a Cloud Chaser attack if possible. One that has just Meditated on its last turn takes priority over all other enemies, if there's enough breath to Eliminate. Otherwise, just reload.

For Bosses, if I have 60 breath at the start of the battle, I use Haste, Scratch twice, and then cast Reflect. I use Scratch as long as Reflect is up, and then recast Reflect as soon as it disappears.

Sometime I'm feeling daring and start at around 50-55ish breath, and make sure to use Eliminate for the very last move when my last Reflect runs out and there's not enough breath for it but still enough for Eliminate. It's, uh, risky.

edit: I just checked: Against a Mantarune, I started with 50 breath and full health. By the time my last Reflect ran out, the boss still required 1 Scratch and 1 Eliminate. (I miscalculated and used Eliminate first, got hit, and then Scratched the boss, defeating it.) But! My trainer was able to survive a Congeal attack! Just barely, though. So the bare minimum breath to avoid getting hit at all is probably 55 breath or close to that?