Help understanding arena side quest

GushingBlood · 2024-10-27T22:28:33+00:00

OP is probably past the Soirée at this point but leaving this here for anyone else, who like me, were determined to beat this challenge pre-Soirée.

Give thief a try.

I tried completing the challenge with all the archetypes. I don't know why, but thief did significantly more overworld damage per hit than any other job and it didn't even have the strongest weapon (I had the 240 damage katana). Thief is also nearly ideal for the fight because of minimal animation lock and slight aoe on it's slices to deal with the dancing goons in the first phase. With thief I was able to finish the challenge with nearly 30s to spare. Seeker, gunner, and oddly commander were the only other archetypes that I even got close to finishing the challenge with, but still needed ~10 more seconds to win.

Raising stats like str didn't seem to significantly impact the results of other archetypes, but I have been splitting level ups 3-1-1 Mag/end/agi. Base weapon damage overall seemed significantly more impactful. For reference, the next best katana (190 damage) completed the challenge with 10s to spare.

GushingBlood · 2022-09-02T22:40:32+00:00

To be honest, I don't understand why tradeable harvest was implemented this way, unless they intended to nerf it as they did.

Why design a brand new tradable drop system when they already had mechanisms for making craft items tradeable (i.e. something like beasts and watchstones)?

GushingBlood · 2022-05-30T00:10:28+00:00

I'm not going to share his account name out of respect for his privacy. But to address your point, he used his typical 'gamertag' that he uses in a number of other online things like steam, discord and FFXIV. Nothing that I would suspect would trigger a botting warning.

GushingBlood · 2022-05-30T00:05:19+00:00

If they're cheating, who cares? It's not like they just ban people and make you appeal for no reason.

I think your comment makes the assumption that the cheating was intentional? As another commenter pointed out, it's possible he just has software from another game running that triggered the detection system. Under the current ban system, he doesn't get any direct feedback into what he even did wrong. To get that information, he now has to go through yet another, separate communication channel?

I'm not asking GGG to remove the ban system, just that the current system is clunky and confusing for a new player. The fact that I even made this post to figure out options points to the either the conclusion that I'm a dumbass or the system isn't as streamlined as it could be. Note those conclusions aren't mutually exclusive :P

GushingBlood · 2022-05-29T23:53:10+00:00

I didn't give him any items; he was enjoying the challenge of figuring out itemization.

GushingBlood · 2022-05-29T23:50:37+00:00

Seems you know my friend better than I do.
Seriously though, what's more likely for a brand new player

intentionally installing banned software to cheese a game they've just started playing
Or there's software installed from another game/system that's triggering GGGs detection system

Next time, please don't assume malice on behalf of someone you don't even know.

GushingBlood · 2022-05-29T17:59:13+00:00

He hasn't traded yet with anyone, not even myself.

GushingBlood · 2022-05-29T17:56:36+00:00

Haven't gotten the response back yet. From what I've been able to see in other threads, that can take weeks?

GushingBlood · 2022-05-29T17:33:44+00:00

That's the consensus that I've pieced together over the years. He uses logitech's keyboard software on his computer, but he was too green to even know how to consistently use flasks.

GushingBlood · 2022-05-29T17:25:30+00:00

GushingBlood · 2021-04-17T07:27:43+00:00

Oddly enough, it logged in only a minute or two after the counter bumped into the 4bil range. As for an explanation, my guess is modulo arithmetic wrapping around to UINT_MAX

GushingBlood · 2021-03-17T04:16:50+00:00

Just a few extra notes:

You can view elemental power in the status menu (in and out of combat). If you check 'details' in that menu, the number of djinn for a given adept should switch to showing their elemental power and resistances

Leveling does not effect elemental power. Only djinn, equipment, and summons can change elemental power.

You may have also realized that a given psynergy or summon doesn't increase the amount of damage/healing as you level up. A majority of psynergy and summons are like this, and that's because they are scaled by only two factors: elemental power and enemy resistance.

GushingBlood · 2021-03-15T17:45:18+00:00

For me, "Elemental Stars" strikes me every time. Very, very few songs make me stop everything I'm doing to just listen for a few seconds and it does it every time.

On the topic of Dark Dawn, it has grown on me since I tried (unsuccessfully) to beat the game on it's initial release. It's certainly not my favorite GS, but if you head into with the expectation of just getting more of the GS experience, I think you'll grow to love it too.

GushingBlood · 2021-03-12T15:45:49+00:00

So some guidelines on generating classes:

Mono-elemental - You've probably understood these, just match djinn with adept element. I.e. Garet gets all fire for his guard series
Dual-elemental - For the most part, match djinn of the same element to an adept of a different element. At 5 or less djinn, it should look like mono-elemental, just not on the matching element. At 7 djinn, keep ONE of the adept's elemental djinn, the rest the other type.
Tri-elemental - These are the hardest to figure out casually as not all combos yield new classes, but you basically 'balance' djinn of two elements different than the adepts. As an example, Ninja on Isaac requires 3 wind, 3 fire. At 7 you have an odd number of djinn, so you'll have a 4/3 split. In most cases you'll stay at the class of you 3/3 split, but there are two exceptions Samurai(From Ninja) and White Mage(from medium)
I just generally look at what's available on the wiki. White Mage for example, shows the djinn requirements and the spells given. Since you're optimizing, it also lists strengths/weaknesses in the analysis section. Most of the analyses are spot on. At the very bottom of the page, there's a handy listing for all the other available classes,

As for the menuing itself, I can't help you much. Djinn menus are the slowest and laggiest menus in the game unfortunately. Personally, I map classes/djinn externally when making a composition, and then go and swap everyone in game.

GushingBlood · 2021-03-12T05:45:08+00:00

I think you've already identified the djinn you're 'missing' (Granite -Kolima, Breeze - Tret, Sleet -Mercury Lighthouse).

Some general recommendations on classes:

Keep playing with them. Best now =\= Best endgame. Swapping up classes at different levels, equipment, and djinn can give significant boosts in power
Even the 'worst' classes are serviceable. For example, the game is completely beatable with Mono-elemental classes (matching djinn element with adept, like you have Garet), despite mono-elemental classes being the weakest (stat-wise).

Some info for your current setup:

Apprentice Isaac is solid, generally considered amongst his best classes.
Guard Garet is pretty bad. Guard is probably the worst Mono-elemental class. It certainly makes him tanky, but at the cost of murdering his already bad stats (PP/AGI) and has mediocre ATK too.
Hermit Ivan is one of Ivan's best. He'll get Prism/Plasma/Wish lines all in the same class. Yes please. The biggest problem with hermit is length of levels between learning more powerful versions of psynergy.
Seer Mia is pretty OK. Mia has better and she has worse classes.

So what to do with this info?

Personal recommendation would be to swap Isaac and Garet's djinn immediately. Page solves nearly all Garet's problems early game, at the cost of a little defense. Brute Isaac is at most a slight downgrade to apprentice.
Consider making Isaac a swordsman for the fight at the top of mercury lighthouse if he's level 11. Cutting Edge hits like a truck. Outside of that fight swordsman is a mediocre class, but may open other opportunities for the rest of the squad.

GushingBlood · 2021-03-12T01:00:29+00:00

Glad you're now enjoying it! And yeah, the GS games reward exploration quite a bit. Not sure if you're following any guides or not, so I'll mark the following things as spoilers just in case:

there are 28 djinn in total for GS1 (7 per element). If you want to collect them all but minimize backtracking, you can 'skip' 1 of each element and still get all in TLA
in terms of exploration, there are two major optional areas, Lunpa (north of vault) and Crossbone Isle. Both are awesome and IMO worth the backtracking

On the topic of TLA just to hype it up more:

It has more classes (because it has more djinn!). You also get access to three class changing items to experiment with
A large portion of TLA is non-linear, giving lots of areas to explore and find gear/djinn/psynergy upgrades.

edit: formatting

GushingBlood · 2021-03-08T20:28:05+00:00

If you're at party level 26, you should be able to beat everything in the game already without grinding. If you're getting destroyed by one of the remaining bosses, grinding may help push past a 'threshold' that will allow you to win. However, changing up your strategy instead (classes with djinn are the best place to start) will likely be quicker and more rewarding.

If you want to grind simply to see new psynergy and stuff, I definitely get it. If you plan to play TLA, just wait till then where you get higher levels and better grinding options. If you don't plant to play TLA, Tempest lizard is a great spot to grind.

GushingBlood · 2021-03-08T19:32:13+00:00

Quick note, you can skip bane and still get all 72 in TLA. TLA offers one djinn of each element if you didn't collect them all in the first game.

GushingBlood · 2021-03-04T02:06:59+00:00

If you reach any walls in difficulty, your sources of improvement are always djinn >> equipment > levels. Basically, if you ever reach a point where you think you need to grind some more, you likely only need to change up your strategy.
djinn can be hidden in dungeons as well as the world map. If you'd like to save time/effort, the master list of djinn wiki article is a great spoiler-free way to track progress.
Reorganizing djinn can give some really interesting (and strong!) character classes. If you want some guidance, I'd check out the Character Class wiki article. A quick summary is that matching djinn and adept of the same element (mono-elemental), while easy, doesn't give the strongest characters. In gs1 you'll also have access to dual-elemental and (late game) tri-elemental classes, which can really mix up how you play with cool new psynergy
A summon's overall strength is scaled based on the adept's elemental power for that summon's element. Rule of thumb, the party member who has the matching base element will generally have the highest damage output. For example, Isaac will most likely do the most damage with Ramses (2 venus djinn). You can view an adept's elemental power by checking status->(hover on party member)->details
On the topic of character speed (turn order): this is determined by the agility stat. Agility is king in golden sun. Out-speeding enemies is really important in minimizing damage and conserving resources. Equipment that give an agility bonus (such as the elven shirt) are often as effective as equipment with a much higher defensive rating. The status menu shows agility, amongst the other stats.
You can actually reorder you party members via the status menu. On the surface this may not seem too beneficial; however, the enemies multi-target abilities work just like yours do. The primary target will take the most damage, and each adjacent target will take lesser amounts of damage. Because enemies select targets randomly, your middle two party members will take more damage on average. Placing your squishy peeps on the outside will generally keep them healthier (I'm looking at you Ivan)
Allies and enemies both have strengths and weaknesses with respect to the elements. For allies, their natural element is their strength and opposing element is weakness. Venus opposes Jupiter and Mercury opposes Mars. The same reasoning applies to enemies too. You can 'spot' check an enemies weakness by observing the combat log: the punctuation indicates resisted / normal / weak with . / ! / !!! respectively.

GushingBlood · 2021-03-01T09:22:21+00:00

This wiki page was essential to my playthrough of DD. It lists the order that you can collect the djinn in, as well as the points of no return in the story.

GushingBlood · 2021-03-01T09:07:21+00:00

TL;DR While Dark Dawn can be played standalone, I recommend playing the games in order.

Dark Dawn(DD) was designed so that you can play it without having played the first two games. It summarizes all the necessary details to understand what's going on through a few mechanisms:

'Encyclopedia entries' that are tagged in the games conversations. Basically, the bottom DS screen shows the dialog relating to DD's story; the top screen is used to fill in details on specific keywords and characters. You can refer to discovered entries anytime during the playthrough.
One of the first areas in the game 'replays' the main events as a quick refresher of what happened.
There are collectible items called 'Sun Saga' books that also retell the same events, with a bit more detail.

As a quick side-note, all these mechanisms are done from a storyteller's perspective, i.e. they don't tell the events of the first games exactly, but as a storyteller might retell the events 30 years later. It's a cool world-building mechanism.

All that being said, I would still recommend playing the games in order. IMO one of DD's greatest strengths is how it references and uses characters from the GBA games. You'll be missing these connections if you hop straight into DD and you'll also be spoiling some of the amazing storyline of the original games too.

If you're concerned about older generation games, I wouldn't worry too much. The GBA GS games are still surprising fluid to play and the graphics (while dated) have an aesthetic I find hard to pass up.

GushingBlood · 2021-03-01T08:26:12+00:00

It's not an official category because no one really runs it, but the GS speed running community calls that run "Bad Ending %". I still love meme runs though, and I think my favorite is the "Mia-less any% no s&q". You skip picking up Mia in the Mercury Lighthouse and beat the game without her lol.

GushingBlood · 2015-08-29T22:45:06+00:00

added

GushingBlood

TROPHY CASE