[Guide] Tips for S Ranking

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KFCrispy
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Posts: 6174
Joined: Wed Jun 30, 2004 3:29 pm

[Guide] Tips for S Ranking

Post by KFCrispy »

After a 3 year break from making S Ranking videos, I picked up Tactics again and got back into the mix, covering about 8 more battles. I will try to get the videos uploaded this weekend!

I'm trying not to farm much to limit my EXP to make it easier to S Rank. but with limited farming comes major limits on Skill Points and cash. So I came up with some tips on how to save resources, especially in Skill Points.
  • One key enemy drop you might want to pay attention to is Berserker Belt, which can be dropped by Savage Frogs during Rene's recruitment quest (and these same frogs can be farmed much later in Mido Shallows). If you can manage to get 2 or more drops during that battle (remember that you can always Retry before the battle ends), you will be able to 1-shot enemies in many situations. Due to the Berserker Belt's accuracy reduction, you'll want to pair it with characters who can frequently use weapon rune attacks.
  • Staying on positive terrains enough times and gaining enough EXP during battle are generally important requirements for S Ranking. You might finish a battle "too quickly" and get an A, but if you try it again and sit on positive tiles a few extra turns, it might turn into an S. Certainly annoying and arbitrary, but that's how the system works.
  • As mentioned above, since EXP is an important factor for S Ranking, try not to over-level. But if you do have over-leveled characters, a way to gain a lot of EXP is to use low-level characters and have them focus on EXP gain in a safe way. Low-level mages can be very effective gaining EXP without hurting S Rank by using the Water Rune's lv 2 Kindness Drops on high-level characters and casting offensive spells from afar.
  • All special attacks and magic spells do not miss and cannot be counter-attacked, so the Bullseye and Sniper skills aren't needed in many cases. Special attacks also don't have a chance to crit, so the Critical skill isn't needed most of the time either!
  • The Extra Move skill is highly recommended, with Godspeed right behind. To me, it's pretty much a requirement to have Extra Move in order to be considered a good character. The exception is probably Flare. Extra Move will allow your team to easily finish turns on their positive terrain even if they can't attack the enemy with the terrain advantage.
  • Low-skill 1-handed swordsmen like Trishtan, Jewel, and Tal should just stick to riding Kangacorns with Kangacorn Runes. This makes them very Skill Point efficient because mounts don't use Battle Lust's effect, and spamming the Kangacorn Rune's Rush attack means you don't need accuracy. This also applies to the better 1-H Swordsmen early on, like Millay, Ameria, Keneth, and Jeremy, but once you can raise Battle Lust to A, these particular characters can also fight effectively while not mounted.
  • Extra Move Mages need a lot of work but they are worth the investment, as relying on short-ranged fighters in most situations is not a good strategy. I recommend focusing on 2 elements for each mage, Extra Move, Godspeed, and Jump. Boosting their magic stat makes them both cast faster and do more damage, so the Tome of Black Arts, Magic Hand, Magic Robe, and some S Rank equipment are all very good for them. I typically pair Fire with Lightning and Wind with Water. Late game you'll want to add a Wizard Rune. The Shredding spell from Wind lv 4 or Cyclone lv 3 is the best nuke spell because of it can be cast further away than similar Fire spells.
  • Buy a couple of each elemental robe from Chiepoo when they become available. Not only are these great for mages, making them pretty tanky early on, but Sigurd, Frederica, and several support characters can also use it to change their element. There are many points in the game where Blazing Wall and Heavenly Thunder will be really useful for hitting enemies (and chests!) across the map, so if you can change your mage's affinity element to something else, it makes it much easier to spam these element-specific spells that target all of the same elemental tile.
  • Kyril, Seneca, and Flare need Battle Lust and accuracy/crit skills, as they have limited high-damage options especially before level ~25.
  • The high skill Claw, Axe, Knife and Falcon Rune users can abuse their specialty runes with just Battle Lust and movement skills. I don't know if this is always the case, but Nalkul joined with the ability to use the Magic Sword level 3 skill immediately, Champo only needs a few levels, and Nalleo and Kika practically have infinite low-MP attacks. Sigurd kind of needs a Berserker Belt from Rene's Seeking Treasure Hunt Partners quest because oftentimes he will have to use his 1st skill (Clairvoyance), which offers amazing range but reduced damage.
  • If you want to buy equipment, you can be diligent and use the sell-for-full-price bug to get all your money back once you don't need it! But much of your good equipment is going to come from S Ranks and Treasure Hunting anyway.
  • The sell-for-full-price bug also applies to medals and items you can equip.
  • Once you max out Chiepoo's shop, you can buy Platinum Mail and Platinum Gauntlets, which are end-game shop items. You can turn almost any character into a tank for much of the game!
  • If you make it to Obel Ruins Level 5 and are using an emulator, you can save state in Level 4 and try to get Level 5 to load the stage with Goblin Overcoat, which is one of the best armors in the game for characters who wear light armor (Sigurd, Seneca, Flare, Wendel, and maybe Kika).
Wolkendrache
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Posts: 869
Joined: Sun May 18, 2014 2:43 pm

Re: [Guide] Tips for S Ranking

Post by Wolkendrache »

Great to see you continuing this!

Here’s the link to your other thread, containing the link to your video gallery:
http://suikosource.com/phpBB3/viewtopic ... dd61788729

This is a link to the older thread about S Ranks (containing more tips):
http://suikosource.com/phpBB3/viewtopic ... dd61788729

Thread about rank criteria and bonus items, containing a useful overview spreadsheet:
http://suikosource.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=5022

Another useful spreadsheet (must be logged in to download); no rank criteria but extended item list and S rank battle order recommendation:
http://suikosource.com/phpBB3/viewtopic ... 40&t=14329
"Within the four seas, all men are brothers" Shuihu Zhuan
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