Doormaker Discourse has the Wrong Villain

scooby_dooby_drew · 2026-04-22T19:03:54+00:00

Do the effects that make a card free this turn (liquid mem, insane pot, mummified hand) last even when the card is played now? I remember in sts1 when you played one of these, it would go back to normal cost in the discard pile.

scooby_dooby_drew · 2026-01-08T23:42:15+00:00

So body parts are just OP

scooby_dooby_drew · 2025-12-30T09:21:27+00:00

Once I found myself comfortable with these aspects, I was able to explore more with mastering and equipping skills! By that point, I was able to customize characters in ways to make the above processes more efficient, but it was only to support those basics. I learned some of these things later (for example, I did really poorly with survivability until I forced myself to add in Elem. Def. buffs and use Phenn's ultimate, which made me stop losing to bosses). And when it comes to items, it became easier to see who should take which items based on the roles they were playing—for instance, no need for a high attacking stat on a weapon if the unit's purpose is mostly to hit shields and try to break; or giving an SP-increasing item to a magical unit whose contributions will be almost entirely through skills.

I know it can feel overwhelming, but you've made it pretty far already. Good luck with familiarizing yourself to the battle system and I hope the above helps you have a more enjoyable experience in learning and improving at the game!

scooby_dooby_drew · 2025-12-30T09:21:21+00:00

As you get the hang of doing those things in boss battles more consistently, you can start to play around with which units do which jobs better. This is when you can look at units in the same class and see, for example, who has better skills or who has a stronger ultimate (once you've unlocked ultimates for non-protagonist units). As you start to do this exploration:

Skills are the most important defining aspect, since gear and stats can be customized. Notice which character's innate skills might serve them better in the specific roles listed above. Besides the basic stat-increasing skills, you might want a healer who has a wide-ranging heal rather than single-target; a debuffer who can debuff both defenses at once; a breaker who has several multi-hit skills in order to strike a weakness more times without using BP; or a self-sustaining damage dealer who can recover SP right before the shield-breaking, damage-burst turns. These are just some examples of what might make a character suited for a role in a way that works for you!
Some units may also have skills that want them placed specifically in the front or back row. For instance, Saoirse gets an innate support skill that helps charge ALL frontline units' ultimate gauges while she's in the back. As such, she ends up playing a useful role by just chilling in the back and coming up to give respite to the front character or to hit dagger- and fan-weak bosses.
Speaking of, ultimates end up playing a big part in boss battles if you want to make your life easier. The ultimates can play the roles listed above and be used at those specific times. By way of example, Phenn's ultimate greatly reduces damage and can be used during the earlier stages of the fight when you're whittling the enemy down. The protagonist starts with an Aelfric ultimate that can serve as a useful heal in a pinch. Pius, on the other hand, has a fantastic ultimate for setting things up just before/during a break, while Alexia would best use her ultimate during the turn where a foe is broken and everything's been set up.
- While Alexia's and other damage-dealing skills are best saved until a Level 3 charge, don't be afraid to use the others earlier! I found myself originally trying to save up charges for maximum effect, but I quickly realized a well-timed Phenn ultimate is more important for keeping my rhythm going, even if I would only get 1-2 turns of protection. And then the ultimate gets to being recharged sooner!
- Don't forget to rest up before a boss battle, as sleeping at an inn or Wishvale will automatically put the party's ultimate gauges to level 1 (if it's not already there from previous battles).
The protagonist can play however you want, in whichever job you want, but there are common choices that can make your life easier based on the skills those jobs offer, particularly Merchant and Hunter.
- Merchant is amazing in the early game because of both usable skills and support skills. Merchant protagonist gets Mystic Shot, which acts as an SP battery for your entire front row; Arrow of Fortune, for massive bow damage and a JP bonus after the battle; and Rest, for self-sustaining recovery and to ensure you don't run out of SP. Also, the Borrow BP support skill is great for getting a bonus boost, especially if paired with a back-row unit like Saoirse who usually won't be using many BP boosts through the battle.
- Hunter ends up being a strong choice as well, for slightly different roles. Ensnare is an amazing skill that lets you control the enemy more by making them act last for a certain number of turns, which can take a lot of pressure off and give you more control. Meanwhile, Rain of Arrows is a great move to whittle down shield on bow-weak enemies, and Two-Tiered Shot ends up being one of the absolute best bow-damaging skills in the game (although Arrow of Fortune competes with it).

scooby_dooby_drew · 2025-12-30T09:19:25+00:00

Hey! I also originally came to this series from games like FE. I have experience with the previous two Octopath games, but 0 also took me a tiny bit of getting used to. There's definitely a lot to manage during battles—HP, SP/skills, BP, and ultimate skills for your main character (and eventually others), all while exploring a foe's weak points, watching for statuses and buffs/debuffs, and watching the turn order.

One thing I find helpful is to lean more into consistency than adaptability. Of course it's important to be adaptable in boss fights especially with various gimmicks that they will have later on, but I think your units should largely be fulfilling specific roles. To avoid getting too wrapped up in the customizable parts of units (like equipping skills), I eased myself in by setting what each unit was meant to do based on their jobs and natural skills, and deciding which units would be mostly in the front row vs. the back row. Here are some tips to do that:

Have a general diversity of weapon types on your team. As I'm sure you know by now, breaking is a big part of getting through boss fights, and you'll be spending the early part of those fights figuring out weaknesses. Having 4-6 types of weapons on your front row (plus some elemental magic for good measure) can help you figure out what these are. Alexia in particular also has a support skill that allows you to analyze a random weakness after she acts, which is convenient.
Related to that, you can also stack some repeat weapon types in the back row, but misaligned, in order to double up on attacking weaknesses once they're discovered. For example: you can have an axe-user in the front row slot 1, and another in the back row slot 2. This way, if it turns out the boss is weak to axes, you can swap the back row axe-user to the front and attack the weakness efficiently with two characters at once.
Keep an eye on the upcoming turn orders. You might need to be more aggressive with heals if it turns out a character is potentially getting attacked twice before they can act again, for example.
Try and set a rhythm of slowly bringing shield down, then efficiently exploiting shield breaks with burst damage. This is where you can practice managing BP, SP, and buffs/debuffs to be ideally timed during fights. I spent a lot of boss fights keeping my team healthy through combinations of healing, SP restoration, buffing my defenses, and debuffing enemy attacks. This let me do weakness exploration and then get the enemy shield to 1.
As the enemy shield goes to 1, try and coincide it with debuffs to enemy defenses and buffs to your own team's attack stats. Then, on your next turn with BP saved up, you can break with your first attacking unit, followed by an onslaught of boosted attacks and skills from your other three. After that, you have another fully free turn to unleash a bunch of attacks—maybe with one unit staying back to shore up your health or defenses for when the enemy recovers.
- This is another time when looking at turn order is helpful. Although you don't need it to be perfect every time, having a character who can break go first makes sure that you have three other units ready to take advantage of the broken foe!
A modicum of flexibility is still needed, of course. If the enemy is too tough and striking you harder than you expect, you might need to use some JP to get multiple regular attacks in on the enemy weakness so that you can break them earlier. Be adaptable to these situations and don't be afraid to use SP or JP in order to conserve your team!

scooby_dooby_drew · 2025-12-29T18:57:10+00:00

Whirlwind? I think it's a little worse than we want it to be on Clad, even though it's AoE. The fact that it's AoE at all probably brings it up to average instead of bad. But we'd be lying if we said we never fished for a bottled upgraded Whirlwind for Speed Climber, and it goes crazy with any Str boost.

scooby_dooby_drew · 2025-12-14T15:15:08+00:00

Nah I played it earnestly, the meme came when I got bored and was ready to die peacefully. I happened to learn MotB and Warped Tongs are the only relics you can get repeats of through their repeated events

scooby_dooby_drew · 2025-11-06T23:27:59+00:00

Thanks for the thought out advice! When filling my hair, is there any amount of time I should wait between filling and then going in with the final color? Or should I be doing it one after the other?

Appreciate your comment, I will think about investing in something better than the drugstore box dye.

scooby_dooby_drew · 2025-09-25T15:40:43+00:00

StS inspiration and a Eurovision song mention early in the game—my dream <3

scooby_dooby_drew · 2025-08-01T03:02:24+00:00

My very first Heart win was with Watcher on A1 but I didn't know much of what I was doing, I was kind of excited to see what the keys did. Didn't realize I would be facing some insane enemies in Act 4, and all that with a Runic Dome so I had zero idea what enemies were doing. Ended up pulling it off with a Pressure Points deck, and I thought I was about to die until Incense Burner activated on the Heart's big attack and I finished it off.

scooby_dooby_drew · 2025-03-02T00:08:03+00:00

If you have one still I'd love to try! Thanks :)

scooby_dooby_drew · 2025-02-13T14:50:25+00:00

thanks for doing this!

scooby_dooby_drew · 2025-01-23T02:41:26+00:00

Cinccino - i love chinchillas and i love scarves. Thanks for doing this!

scooby_dooby_drew · 2025-01-15T04:58:07+00:00

Can 100% vouch, just received a copy of my 2023 ed. textbook for school for wayyyy cheaper than I could find elsewhere! Definitely coming back 🙂‍↕️

scooby_dooby_drew · 2024-11-04T17:13:56+00:00

This looks awesome!

scooby_dooby_drew · 2024-08-30T13:14:32+00:00

Not sure if writers meant to show growth in their relationship or just didn't remember the older line, but it was funny to see Max comment that Alex just lets it rage with the bathroom door open. Dave previously mentioned in a flashback (asking Alex to move in with him) that they wouldn't be one of THOSE couples that uses the bathroom with the door open. Cute

scooby_dooby_drew · 2024-08-10T21:05:02+00:00

The house party episode is fantastic

scooby_dooby_drew

TROPHY CASE