User:OpenStars/Guides/Quality of Life Tips
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What is this?
QoL ("Quality of Life") refers to solutions that are not necessary to win, but may just make your life easier.:-)
This guide, as a loose agglomeration of topics that touch on QoL, has elements useful to both min/maxers and casuals who just want to have fun!:-)
Where to find help
If you are a newer player or visitor to this site, make sure to check out the AE Content Roadmap guide. Most extreme game basics are covered by the in-game tutorial (that you can read later if you missed it when it first popped up, via Records->Manual), and while some foundational topics such as Battle_Mechanics and Damage_Formula and an end-game tier list useful also for newer players to learn team-building concepts from are covered in great depth on the English wiki, others are not covered nearly as deeply here as in Japanese wikis (use Google Translate?). e.g. anothereden.game-info.wiki has things like pictorial guides and battle tips and explanation of coloration of quest markers; anaden-yakata.jp has a more comprehensive listing of status effects and locations where characters appear in-game; altema has detailed descriptions of manifest battling, their own tier list, and so on. English translations of some of these pages are available at English translation, including a rating of superbosses and tips to watch out for to beat them.
There are also the AE Subreddit and AE Discord Server communities, and resources shared on them (in e.g. the Reddit FAQ and pinned posts in the Discord's #guides channel), as well as a thriving population of video content creators hosted on various sharing websites.
Dictionary
Phrases used on this page:
- AD = Another_Dungeon
- AF = Another Force
- VC = Valor Chants
- Preemptive = an earlier battle phase, before normal attacks
- Grasta = a type of equipment that unlocks at Main Story Chapter 48 (prior to that you can't even equip one even if you have it already)
- F2P = "Free to Play"
See also this more comprehensive glossary.
Dungeon running / Farming efficiency
A few characters offer extreme QoL improvements that you may consider worth seeking out ASAP in your game - with several being free and extremely capable. None of these are mandatory, nor necessarily ideally suited to each particular situation, but notable instead for their general utility across a wide variety of circumstances.
It is also possible to fashion your own QoL solutions, using grastas and gear that you farm during the game - e.g. life grastas such as Cup of Invincibility to heal HP & MP after victory in battle or HP/MP restore to quickly recover from the back row, or MP Consumption reduction reducing up-front costs, attack grastas to boost all-enemies damage or Normal Attack to All Targets to convert single-target into all-enemies type, a Falcon Badge or Grasta to make skills become Preemptive, etc. - though this manually curated list is offered as an early start on what aspects may be helpful to pay attention to.
| Character(s) | Type | Mob-clearing Effect | Other |
|---|---|---|---|
 Null |
Battle Start passive skill lowers the MP consumption of all party members -100% (1st turn only), providing the ultimate variety in whoever you want to bring along and whatever skills you want them to use, to do...whatever |  Earth Pierce | |
| Null |
Battle End passive skill restores 15% HP and MP to all party members after victory in battle, even when she is in the back row; can be used along with MP reduction techniques to provide a 0- or low-MP solution that works even when plowing through bosses regardless of how many turns used |  Earth Slash | |
| Null |
requires grinding to unlock this free character in the Timetwisted_Maze minigame and then further to collect his Detonators (although you may also get useful gear along the way); after which his 500k fixed damage for 0 mp cost (ignore target defense, 1st turn only) basically eliminates the need to ever have to think about who to bring to a dungeon for this purpose ever again, since he can handle pretty much any common mob (prior to the release of Main Story part 3) |  Wind Blunt | |
 Water |
Preemptive 0-mp high-damage attack (first 3 turns only, with decreasing effect) |  Water | |
 Earth Blunt |
Preemptive 0-mp high-damage attack (can be used up to 3 times, with only slightly decreasing effect), requires additional hammer/fists equipped characters in the party for maximum effect |  Earth Blunt | |
 Pierce  Fire Slash |
the 0-mp solution available earliest with no grinding, his 1 More passive ability allows any attack to hit all enemies a second time whenever any one is present with a weakness (guaranteed in Snake Liver Damaku AD); also be sure to take full advantage of another PSR character's Baton Pass when using his VC to power it up half again, or alternately his Slash also powers up half again when he is at maximum HP, so despite not being a 0-mp solution is cheap enough to last an entire normal dungeon and still have some leftover for a boss battle using AF, and then recharge the gauge again immediately during a subsequent AD run | highly versatile offering high multi-hitting (so AF-charging)  Pierce  Fire Slash  Null | |
| Null |
available as a free character unlockable after Main Story chapter 44, her VC reduces party MP consumption by -90% (1 turn), requiring speedy character to set up prior to attackers | Null | |
 Fire Blunt |
0-mp high-damage attack, boosting AF recharging +15%, for all allies attacking prior to him, but significantly slows down every battle => unquestionably the worst QoL solution, an example of what to avoid |  Fire Blunt |
MANY older solutions exist such as Kikyo AS, Tiramisu's fixed damage, using gacha characters' VC attacks, the auto-attack setups that require grastas to implement, and the complicated setup for the Chrono Cross characters using their Elements (requires farming to find specific ones). These described in this helpful Reddit post [1].
Unique skills
Technically most skills in the game are "unique", but some far more so than others:-). Even there, the Characters page handles many of those situations, but there are just a few that stand out even more worth mentioning...
| Character(s) | Effect |
|---|---|
| can steal useful items -> many players go to extreme lengths to allow her to do this before the enemies all die, e.g. giving her a Preemptive attack and high SPD to make sure she steals from common battles >>spoiler<<semi-spoiler note: it seems she may not remain unique in this manner forever... | |
| steals just like Kid, unfortunately still not preemptive and has some strong magic, blunt and slash attacks as well as an obscenely high mystical arte move which provide nice buffs as well | |
| can swap out enemy resistance, converting it into weakness others like Eva can punch right through resistance, but he literally changes the strategies that work, for all allies | |
| can dynamically alter her own attack to match an enemy's weakpoint while in battle others can do similarly outside of battle, e.g. the Chrono Cross crossover chars using their Elements, or others inside of battle but depend on matching a deployed zone | |
| can revive teammate while she is active and stay at the frontline with passive skill Blood Contract. Blood Contract can be automatically gain if she starts the battle on the frontline or using skill Walpurgisnacht while non of the teammate has Blood Contract. | |
| Others | Do you think more should be added? Then add them! |
MP reduction
This Reddit post [2] discusses several ways to reduce MP usage, mainly for usage during farming but can also be useful in some boss fights (e.g. use Mana's VC, Focus or Conservation Armor from the auction, etc.), and in particular a way to allow Kid to use Infinite Steal.
Enemy encounters
Only available currently with Grasta Ores. You can use one Ore to lower the encounter rate, or if you prefer, a different one to raise it.
Some tricks:
- maybe put both on a character that you always bring everywhere (to maximize end-of-dungeon rewards) that has two forms that allow swapping between them (Clarte? Azami?) and then swap between the character style to get the one you need in any given situation
- -or- put on characters whose name starts with "A" (Aisha?) and thus are easy to find in the UI
Battle order gimmicking
Preemptive attacking
Hehe, win before enemies even get a turn!:-)
EoT attacking
Useful to hit an HP stopper...and THEN win.:-)
Control speed
Set up buffs/debuffs prior to a strong attack by using SPD-altering gear (Weapons, Armor, Badges, or Grasta).
Options to lower SPD include Indomitable_Weapons_and_Armor_Set (& the weapons raise PWR) or the "Heavy Duty" Badge.
To raise SPD the The_Lost_Tome_and_the_Silver_Unfading_Flower (Auction) offers a Falcon_Weapons_Set and the Chrono Cross Symphony the Prismatic_Weapon_Set, but a bit later the Song_of_Sword_and_Wings_of_Lost_Paradise opens the ability to farm as many Lunar_Weapons_and_Armor_Set as you desire.
Keep in mind the effect of RNG±10% on Speed, so e.g. to guarantee going slower than a character with SPD=300 a SPD value of 245 would be needed (or vice versa).
Domestique (Grasta sharing)
A really great feature to enhance abilities and stats is that grasta worn by a certain character can enhance all characters in your party if they have the same personality traits (see first page stats board or respective Wiki-pages) or the same weapon type needed by this grasta. This is commonly known by the derogative terms "Grasta mule" or "Grasta Slave".
How does it work ?
The abilities of any T3 grasta and many T2 grasta upgraded with dormant ore will enhance any party member sharing the same personality traits or weapon types of the character wearing this grasta. For example a "dormant" "Enhance damage if max HP (staff/glutton)" will enhance all party members' damage who are either "staff" / have the personality type "glutton".
The good thing is that you don't need to waste a dormant and reversion ore for trial and error. If you select the dormant ore, the text in the description box on the left side will already change. The text will indicate, that the enhancement affects all party members with the same character traits as the bearer.
Tips:
As it doesn't matter, if the grasta holder is in front or reserve, you might use weak characters in reserve to carry those grasta.
It makes sense to use someone with persobality traits of more than one main character, so that grasta for multiple "mains" can be used if needed.
Some examples are: Strawdummy for Tsubame AS (or other eastern characters), Nagi NS/AS/ES for Flamelapis. As some of our unloved 3* characters have interesting trait/weapon combinations, those receive a usefulness as well.
Who to pick next?
As you pick characters to upgrade, the first rule for a new player to remember is that the free chars are more than sufficient to do the vast majority of the game's content, except the most recent end-game optional superboss battles (so pick waifu/husbando over all else:-P?). Follow the AE Content Roadmap guide through the various side-stories and Symphonies that will unlock progressively better free characters that unlike in other gacha games, stand up extremely well against the backdrop of older gacha ones.
That said, one generally-accepted suggestion is to prioritize characters that you will bring to battle often, over those you'll use only a few times (even if doing so cheeses those few fights). Thus, perhaps personal preference > QoL > general utility > DPS, even for many/most min/maxers of the game. Over time the Meta changes though (and since there is no agreement on what that is, that will not be discussed here, though see Wiki Tier List and External Tier Lists and SDE recommendations as a few examples if you like). For more in-depth discussion of these topics see e.g. this outdated guide, although note that e.g. zone setters are less necessary than they once were, now that you can deploy (some of) them via grastas.
Some universally accepted features of the game to keep in mind:
- This is a Team-based game -> individual raw power never beats out the Power of Friendship!:-)
- this is true to such an extreme extent that e.g. "singers" who may not even attack at all and who lock themselves up into uninterruptable and uncontrollable songs can be some of the most useful & desirable characters in the game, perhaps not ideal for every fight, but offering extreme general utility to most situations
- Buffs/Debuffs -> use them, especially the more generalizable ones - e.g. Type > a specific element like Fire, and Physical > a specific attack for like Slash; and stat buffing/debuffing works in so very many different types of situations
- Some characters can change the element of their attack, e.g. to match a deployed zone (don't let the enemy deploy one and resist or even absorb their attacks!!), or free Serge can be configured prior to battle, or Milla offers a Shimmer Spin - EoT attack based on the most-used element type each turn in battle, etc.
- Although not necessary to win, especially at end-game, newer players can especially benefit from flash zone - a rare zone that if you have it can outright cheese all of the oldest superbosses, and even for harder fights substantially eases the burden of setting up your characters to do damage when it is over. Read more at Flash_Strike_Stance.
- Pay attention to roles you need filled - e.g. all enemies vs. single target or random, offensive vs. defensive, etc. The same character may fulfill different roles in different battles under different circumstances. Hence there is no single best gear or best skill set-up for a character, e.g. you may want to swap out a different weapon & armor for speed control. Exception: Pain or Poison grasta is almost always the best choice for a DPS role - yet even there, the Ores you will need to swap out depending on using AF, number of enemies, length of battle, etc. - see also the Reddit FAQ (link may not take you directly to the relevant section on a mobile device).
- Don't expect a single team to do everything for you. If such exists (and occasionally it does), it is extremely hard to get (especially for F2P), and may not last for long as Power Creep continues ever onwards and enemy difficulty rises to match.
- Don't forget that elemental attacks inherently do more damage than non-elemental ones, yet those are also more likely to be resisted, so earlier in the game you can move faster through the Main Story if you focus on the free non-elemental attackers (including Serge), while you try to build up your various elemental, attack type, and other teams.
Some additional team-buidling tips (e.g. when to use Violet's Sword Dance vs. Combo Attack, and when to aim for team synergy vs. not, etc.).
Setting zones/stances
Zones/stances may be either helpful or harmful to winning a particular fight (or portion of one), as these field effects - affecting both your party and enemies - raise damage of their form while lowering damage of the opposing form, and alter the AF gain from skills. Naively deploying a zone of the same form (either element or attack type) prior to a strong attack by the enemy using that form may get you killed! Also you may be able to recharge AF much more quickly outside of a zone than inside of one, e.g. the free character Joker's Triple Burst hitting weakness would charge AF ~3 times more quickly outside than inside of a zone. However, proper use of a zone can be an integral part of many strategies throughout the game. Read Zones and AF Charging for more details. (As you read, note that sometimes inside the game these are called "stances", while other times especially Armor that enhances damage when inside the awakened version they are called "another zones", but both words "zone" and "stance" refer to the same concept.)
These may be deployed either from skills or VCs, which may be added via support grastas that anyone could equip, or innate to only certain characters. Some are only offered by non-free gacha characters, while many basic elemental or attack type ones or even hybrid ones are offered by free characters e.g. Serge's "Double Strike Stance: Magic Slash". Also Sevyn is a mixture of both, with his 3★ or 4★ needing to be pulled from Dreams (though he's extremely common -> free-adjacent?), but his 5★ form is not available that way and instead only unlockable late in the game gated behind a story quest. Characters that innately deploy these are listed for each form on the Zones page, and the Characters page filters also works for these.
Note that zones do not change the actual number of hits to moves, only the AF charging. Thus, the Break status still only receives the boost for the first hit in a multi-hit attack.
Free stuff
It's nowhere near complete, but here is a page listing some Free_Weapons_and_Armor and Badges and VC grastas (those not awarded at the Cat Shrine) in the game. On the other hand, just about everything in the game is technically "free", depending on how much time you want to spend grinding for it.
Damage mitigation
There are many Defensive as well as Offensive options to handle the game's challenges. e.g. Zones can help here (or harm), or healing may work - if you can survive the hits, or Hold Ground helps if you cannot, etc.
Stat debuffs
One form that is both particularly notable especially for being often overlooked by new players is PWR and INT debuffs. What looks like a small number ends up making a big change in the amount of damage your party receives, far in excess of other forms (e.g. -25% PWR debuffing may work as well as +50% Type resistance).
Highlighted example with Kid:
Kid's Z-Steal isn't just useful for stealing, since it both buffs your party's PWR, INT, & SPD, while also reducing non-fixed damage by an enormous amount by lowering PWR & INT by that same amount, while also slowing it down. It does require learning how to piano in AF, which many newer players do not enjoy, but doing it for one even if not all characters is often considered worth it.
- Easy way: use Fortune 2-3 times first, then Z-Steal and maybe something else just before that to avoid its super long animation time from messing up your battle as much (her Fortune skill raises critical rate of all allies by +100% as well as stacking her Power Levels)
- after 2 uses of Fortune, Heat Shot would do 840% x mod damage plus lower physical resist -70%, or Red Needle instead would do randomly 364-611% x mod damage plus simultaneously both lower Fire resistance -70% and raise allies' Fire attacks by +70%
- or after 3 uses these amounts rise to 1000% and -80% for Heat Shot, or 420-705% and -80% and +80% for Red Needle
- Harder way: ensure critical attacks (e.g. by equipping Prismatic Dagger and Rainbow Ring), then use her basic Katana Swing to both charge up AF (which Fortune does not do) and raise Power Levels, although only +2 rather than +3 upon each use so needing 4 uses to reach maximum (and not offering party Critical rate buff in the meantime that Fortune does offer). Unlike a skill though, the basic attack button cannot be moved, so this is incompatible with spamming a single or few buttons in AF, and is considered the hardest type of pianoing to reach over and hit that button, just for her but then nobody else.
- Even easier way: just use free Starky's Starburst instead until you have a need to do more:-)
Lowering enemy damage to zero
It is possible to exploit the Chrono Cross Elements system to lower damage all the way to zero, using these entirely free characters (though requires grinding through that Symphony story many times to get all those that you need). This works for Type/elemental damage and null-element magical (better thought of as "all-element"), and via a different configuration, null physical as well. These end up being longer stalling fights due to the need to build up their Power Levels first, but offer the advantage to obtain extremely powerful Manifest (even True!) weapons very early in the game, long before unlocking grastas. Read more details in this guide [3].
Others
Update time
As we all know, the update process is painfully slow most times - no regard how fast your internet connection is. Although mentioned in the "easter life session 2023" that in future WFS will stop the ingame update, this process is still active.
You can quicken up the first part of the ingame update process with this workaround (works for IOS, other systems not tested):
- Use the button that allows you to switch to another (hehe, nice twist here) active app
- just select AE - you will see a faster update process for about 0.7%. Repeat until the update is coming in big chunks.
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