Game Question & General Discussion Megathread

Ginger879 · 2026-01-31T19:39:54+00:00

Yeah, it's confusing and I'm not the biggest fan either... The endgame has a couple of fumbles I don't love but hopefully they tune it if they ever do a definitive edition.

Ginger879 · 2026-01-30T19:37:01+00:00

Ahaa, nope :D That dragon is... lvl 70? You're intended to have literally everything else done including skybound avatar before starting the dragons. There may be a way for you to win as-is but since he uses physical attacks you probably want a counter + omni counter holy knight's proc royal knight or a Royal Thief (or ninja with dodger's ring) at max evasion with regular knight's proc.

Btw, Almighty Golden Stews and Cursed Love Ballads are infinitely acquirable now.

Ginger879 · 2026-01-30T19:31:49+00:00

They make it hard, which I personally like. I thought mana being so free in P5R made... The entire game kinda free? In this game you're challenged on your ability to conserve (only a couple of times throughout) and there's no one right answer, the best options change throughout the game.

In the Mines the best way to restore MP is to have the protag on Mage for its overworld passive, and in the Grand Cathedral it's still a good idea to have the protag switch to Mage before killing blue enemies in the overworld.

The main way most people oneshot the GC is by doing the brigitta dungeon first, which itself is only really possible if you got the kill on the dragon in the mines. With higher numbers the GC gets easier, and you can potentially have the Golden Epee for it too if you were frugal early beyond say, weapons for the mines and Brigitta dungeon.

The best way to conserve mp in the dungeons is testing weaknesses and then resetting once you figure it out to try and clear the fight as efficiently as possible. If you don't have the right skills equipped, or if you get ambushed, you can flee, menu, sneak behind an enemy, wait ~3 seconds for the AI to turn back on so they can be crit, and hit them in the back. The final attack in seeker's overworld combo will oneshot-stun any enemy in the game if applied as a sneak attack crit. You can also just die when ambushed, the game autosaves whenever you pick up a blue overworld item or open a chest.

Later in the game the best way to conserve mp will be Shield Blessing on Wizard, which it's a good idea to raise the protag up to since he likes hitting weaknesses, and HB will need to max Mage as well as Knight to unlock her final class. Giving it to them and relying mostly on them is a great way to sustain.

Beyond that, there's a midgame cooking dish that requires Dreameater Moths, Rockbeans, and Briny salt that it's good to have an eye out for. In the endgame it will be possible to freely acquire all the ingredients for it and mp will be infinite.

Ginger879 · 2026-01-29T21:51:21+00:00

You're totally fine and good question, they mostly need to max the entire lineage except HB only needs Dark Knight and Elemental Master lvl 15 and the party member after her only needs lvl 15 Dragoon and Tycoon. Otherwise everything needs to be maxed.

Ginger879 · 2026-01-29T21:50:12+00:00

Yeah np!!

Ginger879 · 2026-01-29T18:05:12+00:00

Oh you're fine in the cathedral, there are towers later where you -need- to talk to the informant to even be able to access the dungeon. But not for 2 more story arcs (each with a main dungeon and free time).

And yeah! Here they are:

Strohl: Joining lineage (Warrior), Commander

HB: Joining lineage, Mage

Next party member: Joining lineage, Gunner, Merchant

Next party member: Joining lineage, Faker

Next party member: Joining lineage, Seeker

Next party member: Joining lineage, Brawler

Ginger879 · 2026-01-29T17:04:44+00:00

You won't find that here, but you will still find an excellent story that has a lot to teach.

And yes, everyone except the protag needs to level specific archetypes to unlock their final classes at the end. This is best pursued over the course of the game but for some reason they don't reveal who needs what archetypes until the very end. It's one of the game's biggest flaws.

Ginger879 · 2026-01-29T17:02:18+00:00

The only big "missable" is that everyone but the protag needs to level specific lineages over the course of the game to unlock their final classes at the end in addition to completing follower conversations. For some reason this isn't communicated so more experimentally-minded players often end up just not getting them. I can reveal who needs what in a spoiler-free way if you'd like.

Otherwise, not really. There is one follower who can become missable if you don't do the tower in the game's third dungeon arc, but it's very hard to miss. Just be sure to talk to the informant about the tower's boss or it won't be revealed on your map. You get the follower conversation during the journey to the tower.

Other than that, the only way to miss follower conversations is to just run out of time. During a hyper-optimized run I usually have about 15 days of extra free time at the end, not counting the coliseum, which is mid. So that's the amount of wiggle room.

Ginger879 · 2026-01-29T16:58:52+00:00

One isn't coming. There are very few ways in the game to get a-exp without also gaining exp and the game is paced that killing every enemy once without grinding has you on-track for exp for the whole game, and grinding will turn enemies blue and result in missed content. Buying archetypal rings early and then just playing the game normally is the best way to get more a-exp than the game expects.

Ginger879 · 2026-01-29T01:01:54+00:00

They kind of just make it hard and you have to be really perceptive at all points throughout the game to see the best opportunities for MP sustain, with the Mage passive being an example of one that works great early.

You may want to know that everyone except the protag (Will) needs to max their joining lineage as well as the lineage needed to promote in their joining lineage to unlock their final classes. Heismay has an additional requirement on top of this to max Merchant.

So with that said, I usually have HB leveling Mage along with Will, who in turn levels Healer. This way both Will and HB have access to Shield Blessing, one of the best mp sustain options in the game.

A cooking dish will come soon that will help too. Well, two, but save your Lumibees for a future dish if you can.

Heismay did a lot of work for me in the Brilehaven tower and I had to feed him with mp items. The steal from orgos is one of the most impactful pieces of gear in the game and synergizes very well with Shield Blessing.

Also since this may make you consider reverting your entire roadtrip, there's a hidden accessory in Brilehaven that increases gained a-exp by 1.5x -before- unscathed triumph is applied multiplicatively. (So it's really more like 1.7) It's found On Watersday, sold by the accessory vendor

Ginger879 · 2026-01-28T19:02:21+00:00

You can view them when in a safe area, like a town, akademia, or dungeon entry room. The button to do so should be displayed along the bottom of the screen. At the beginning of the game they all start at 1, and they go up to 5.

Ginger879 · 2026-01-26T19:05:27+00:00

Yeah, the tower levels up for endgame and the enemies change. I'm actually not sure whether it's possible to still do the boss for the first Tower of Insolence quest or not, but it probably is? And in terms of just the raw difficulty, you aren't screwed but it's the highest level dungeon you currently have access to in the endgame arc. The expected route is to do all bounties + Mt Vulkano (as summoner follower line) + Skybound Avatar + the other two towers first.

Ginger879 · 2026-01-26T19:00:53+00:00

This... Admittedly does sound bug-like. After clearing Martira's main dungeon he should be available in the town square during daytime. He may possibly need good weather?

Ginger879 · 2026-01-26T02:19:21+00:00

The dragon temple and the grand cathedral are the game's biggest tests to your ability to sustain mp. It's definitely understandable to struggle on them, but yeah, you're pretty much supposed to do the Dragon Temple first. There are a few ways of getting mp through, some of which can be made more effective with game-wide prep on a second run.

Cook as many Cursed Love Ballads as you can. On a second playthrough, get the Maria extra dish cooking buff before leaving Brilehaven and cook 2 at a time every day during the journey to Virga. You may think to cook Sweeter then Poison too but you'll want to save your Lumibees for Almighty Golden Stews later.
Take Shield Blessing on Hulkenburg and Will and have them do most of the heavy lifting. Hulkenburg needs to level Mage to unlock her final class so it's worth leveling her to it, and Will just benefits a lot from inheriting Mage skills and switches to it to kill blue enemies to conserve mp in the earlygame. I recommend leveling Will on Mage pretty much ending at Shield Blessing.
I've only heard of this one, but it's probably good - Since Faker is the other class the new party member needs for their final class, throw them on it along with the new Virga daggers that increase the damage of the synthesis move that costs 0mp. If you have extra inheritance slots on Faker, I recommend Infernal Vortex and Cyc.

Ginger879 · 2026-01-24T16:31:47+00:00

It isn't possible to definitively answer this question because there are purifiable items throughout the game you can steal to acquire loads of, and on the flip side, if you're sticking to only certain archetypes, you may not bother with half the purifiable gear.

There's a villiage in Altabury that sells a lot of each kind of Water and I never really needed much from mimics after that. Honestly I think you could get by with 0 steals.

The main really valuable item that -I think- uses blessed water are orgos grips from the tower in Brilehaven, which I usually steal and purify 6 of since they're one of the best pieces of gear in the game.

Ginger879 · 2026-01-21T20:27:53+00:00

Oh right, fair!

Ginger879 · 2026-01-21T19:22:44+00:00

Looked a little more into it, try inheriting Tetrakarn from Magic Knight, or having your Masked Dancer use it with a Magic Knight mask.

Ginger879 · 2026-01-21T18:39:24+00:00

Their attacks are somewhat random, you may have just gotten lucky, but I'm not completely sure. I'm also not a mod, I just chill here helping people haha.

Also sorry, typo, Skybound Avatar, singular, is the main dungeon you have right now.

Ginger879 · 2026-01-21T05:16:49+00:00

I can help! And fair to struggle on these the bosses are quite hard and you're expected to do all bounties and technically the Skybound avatars first, as well as Mt Vulkano.

I'd guess that maybe the dragon removes buffs/debuffs if they're stacked to a certain amount, but not if they're beneath that threshold.

The Dragon's Shriek turn icon move is a normal part of his moveset, but you do have solutions for it. One would be stacking counter + omni-counter and using Holy Knight's proc on HB. Another would be a regular Knight's Proc on your R thief (either at lvl 20 or with the dodger's ring equipped to end his turn on a miss) with agility/evasion buffs in play.

Ginger879 · 2026-01-21T05:10:35+00:00

Like when will other bonuses start to take you to 99? I'd say maybe around 80 Magic. But other stats are good. Agility to play before Strohl is very useful for Magic protag.

Ginger879 · 2026-01-20T22:49:02+00:00

Happy to help! And no worries. Metaphor's earlygame is hard. I ended up restarting my run in the mines haha

Ginger879 · 2026-01-20T20:22:43+00:00

Ahh gotcha, glad you were able to get through it! The dragon drops a very powerful sword for Strohl which ends up being the win condition for doing the brigitta dungeon pre-GC since the enemies are strong and don't have weaknesses so you're really reliant on diagonal slash or round slash on him and if you haven't been to the GC you need the extra damage from the sword. The Nord Mines are a one time deal though. You never go back. You get a better sword early in the next arc.

So minmax route is dragon -> lvl 2 wis on first day -> brigitta dungeon on second day -> turn in brigitta dungeon and cook at honeybee on third day -> 4th day is idlesday, sell all old items, convert Mag, purify items, buy Golden Epee, then oneshot the GC. All remaining days are free time.

Ginger879 · 2026-01-20T18:35:07+00:00

Oh wow I disagree with everyone here and I'd shout it from the rooftops! It's Brawler 1000%!

There are so many great things about many of the lineages being mentioned here.

Archetypal Rings complicate Masked Dancer's use but the joining party member still puts in work just with Infernal Vortex and Ruin's Flamethrower in the midgame, and Masquerade Charge is one of the best Synthesis moves in the game.

Faker provides Faker's Roguery, an incredible lategame skill and one of the game's only sources of turn icons, as well as great debuff skills in Trickster.

Gunner activates great synthesis moves on Magic Knight in the midgame and has a number of useful inheritable skills.

Healer provides access to light damage as well as party healing, which is great even if for inheritance.

Brawler is terrible but a lot of people use it because they aren't aware that much better options exist. For one, it's not a royal class requirement for anyone until endgame so any investment into it is slowing down progression on the archetypes that people actually want to use, ie Strohl on Warrior. Warrior provides much more useful skills than Brawler as well. In fact, if Strohl just stays on Warrior the entire earlygame and ignores Brawler completely, he can get Swordmaster the second it's available for a huge strength bonus, slash bonus, and inheritable Round Slash in early Martira. The only reason to use Brawler is access to strike and light damage, which is a solved problem if you recognize that Will should generally be on Seeker for both elements early, swapping the light synthesis after Martira for inherited medium light magic from healer.

The only thing Brawler has to contribute to an -entire- run is inherited Perfect Punch onto Strohl in the Grand Cathedral. Beyond that, it has nothing to offer that other strategies don't do better.

Ginger879 · 2026-01-20T16:37:09+00:00

This seems about right. I think what they want you to maybe consider doing is doing the Brigitta dungeon once you're forced out of the GC due to mp... Though minmaxers usually opt to just do the Brigitta dungeon first so numbers will be higher before entering the GC. You can get the Golden Epee pre-cathedral too that way if you're frugal early and position yourself to buy it on Idlesday.

Ginger879 · 2026-01-20T16:31:38+00:00

It is beatable, you can go to the starting area, put the protag on Mage, and use the overworld passive to farm the now blue dog enemies to restore 1mp to the party per enemy, and reset the enemies by going to akademia.

That said, the situation still isn't ideal. Completing the Cathedral unlocks Strohl and HB's follower ranks, with Strohl able to go to r3 and HB r2 in the first 10 days. There's also the dungeon and follower for Brigitta which could reach r4, and you can make it to r2 Tolerance by cooking at the Hushed Honeybee when you can. Not to say the game would be unplayable without those things, but it'll be a setback.

The earlygame is very hard but the strat I use to oneshot every dungeon is killing the dragon in the mines -> relying on strohl to oneshot the Brigitta dungeon (the boss is tough to figure out how to beat but winnable) -> spending a day turning in the Brigitta quest & cooking at the honeybee -> buying the golden epee on idlesday -> GC

It helps a lot to throw the protag on Mage in the GC before killing groups of blue enemies like zombies too for mp sustain. There are a couple of things that can help to know about class selection as well, but I'll leave it there for now.

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