This guide was written not to be a thorough walkthrough or a detailed strategy guide with in-depth advice on how to beat specific monsters, but as a quick good-to-know guide for new players. There are quite a few excellent in-depths guides to this game already, so if that's what you're looking for, I invite you to browse those instead. This guide simply offers some 100% spoiler-free pointers that new players will find handy to know, things you can discover as you play, but which aren't always obvious, and things the game doesn't tell you or doesn't explain well enough.

So new players, here are some things that'll answer some of the questions you have at the beginning. If you think of more questions, go ahead and ask and I'll update the FAQ!

Awesome introduction picture courtesy of Olaf the Merchant.

Q: Should I hire soldiers?
A: No. I know they're free, but seriously, no. The Leader restriction has been dropped for the PC version (on Xbox you could only field a very limited number of non-soldier units), so you can fill your ranks with Leaders, who are more interesting and powerful than freebie soldiers. You should never, ever hire soldiers, unless you're aiming for a speedrun or some meta-gaming strategy, since some soldiers can be very useful for this, but that is beyond the scope of this guide. For a regular game, no.

Q: Combat Arts or Mystic Arts?
A: Depends. Mystic Arts tend to hit large unions hard, but they lose their punch when used against small or single-unit groups. Combat Arts always hit a single unit, so they're better to use against bosses or other big, lone units. In your entire party, you should include a mix of both.

Q: Some Leaders have some flavour text under their portrait and some don't. What's the difference?
A: Those Leaders are special, and you should always hire them, even if you don't need them. They often provide quests and are worth taking along.

Q: I accidentally kicked a Leader out of my party. Is she gone forever?
A: Relax, she'll be available again, at the same place you hired her, after a few battles, usually 10.

Q: Someone just asked me if it was a okay to learn a set of skills. Can I let him?
A: Yes, always. In the PC version, you can turn certain arts off if you don't want characters to use them, which was impossible in the Xbox version, so there is never any reason to keep them from starting a new skill path, since you can always turn it off if you don't want them to use it.

Q: Someone just asked me if he should focus on combat, magic or balance. What do I choose?
A: This is more tricky. Some Leaders make the choice obvious if you look at the skill sets they have available to them, others don't. It's different for every Leader, so think carefully about it. If you do find you've made a wrong choice, you'll get the chance to choose again two more times, down the road, so don't sweat it too much.

Q: Someone just asked me for a weapon or an accessory. Should I give it to her?
A: No reason not to unless you're using the item yourself or think you'll need it later. Some of them have very strange requests, though. If you do say no, they'll ask again after a few battles, so don't worry.

Q: Someone just asked me to go find a certain component. Does it matter what I say?
A: Not to my knowledge. You can say yes or no, I don't think it changes anything apart from their response.

Q: Someone just claimed an item after a battle. Should I let him have it?
A: You can seize the item if you really need it yourself, but unless you do, let him or her take it, it means they need it to upgrade their weapon.

A: Someone just told me to head out and fight some monsters. What's that about?
Q: It means they had enough items to upgrade their weapon and did so. Now they want to try out their new toy, of course!

Q: How should I group my unions? Focused or balanced?
A: Focused is usually better, since it limits the scope of the randomness in their orders. Throwing a mix of characters together will mean they won't all be able to comply to your order, making the union less effective. I usually make sure every group has at least one healer so they're independent of other unions but that's personal preference. Bear in mind that all characters will learn a few new skill sets as your Battle Rank progresses.

Q: Does it matter if I group them according to which school of Mystic Art they use?
A: If at all possible, do so. Put Invokers with Invokers, Evokers with Evokers, Hexers with Hexers and so on. This will allow you to unlock Arcana, see below.

Q: How does my union/character limit increase?
A: It increases as you follow the main quest, to a maximum of 18 characters.

Q: Bigger unions or more, smaller unions?
A: Depends. Bigger unions will have more raw HP, but bear in mind that if the enemy uses Mystic arts, every unit in the union will get hit, meaning you'll soak up a lot of damage. I tend to go with big unions, but if you find yourself slaughtered by enemy Mystic Arts, try reducing union size.

Q: What are those unique attributes a Leader has?
A: The fourth attribute Leaders have (next to Strength, Intellect and Speed) is unique to them. David for instance, has an Authority score, and Rush has Bravery. Unfortunately, nobody knows what these attributes do. The game doesn't say, and no use for them has so far been discovered. It's suspected that they influence a Leader's ability to Reassess in battle or to make certain commands available, but the truth is nobody knows.

Q: Can I change my characters' equipment?
A: No, Rush only, at least, not without tweaking the .ini. If you do modify the .ini file, back it up first. There's plenty of tutorials out there, so get googling!

Q: What's the difference between Links and Chains?
A: Links mean the amount of monsters you've drawn into the current battle, Chains mean the amount of monsters you've fought in the current dungeon. Linking monsters together increases the chance of item drops, building big Chains increases the rate at which your characters grow.

Q: So I should get both as high as possible, right?
A: Not necessarily. Linking monsters makes your Battle Rank increase faster. As discussed before, if you let your Battle Rank get too high without letting your characters evolve enough, you might make the monsters too difficult. Mind, you'd have to really do it on purpose to drive BR up so high, but it's important to know. Linking is usually a good idea when item farming, but most of the time, you can just fight monsters one at a time.

Q: My Chain count just dropped to zero, but I haven't left the dungeon. What the Hell?
A: You were ambushed by an enemy. Letting an enemy touch you without drawing it into battle yourself gives it the first turn, lowers Morale and most importantly, resets your Chain count to zero. Never let enemies ambush you.

Q: I can't make sense of this whole formation business.
A: Neither can I. I just use the one that gives the biggest bonuses without reducing mobility but the whole system is very opaque and frankly, not all that important. Trident for a combat union and Pentacle for a Mystic union worked just fine through the entire game for me.

Q: How do characters grow?
A: They grow as they fight battles. They do not accrue XP as in most traditional JRPGs, but they evolve their stats gradually. Unlike on the Xbox, they do not grow when they're benched, so use them!

Q: How do they learn Arts?
A: The system is complex and would take too much time to explain, but the quick and dirty is that characters' skills evolve as they use them, so use skills instead of Attack whenever you can, unless you're saving up AP for a big wallop.

Q: How do they upgrade their weapons?
A: They have an Items tab on their profile. These are the items they need, though the game does not mention the number. Keep accumulating those. When they have enough, they'll automatically upgrade their weapons when they're in town.

Q: Are Bombs, Lotions and Charms worth it?
A: Not in my opinion, no.

Q: What does Deadlock mean?
A: Units who fight each other toe-to-toe enter a Deadlock state. This means that they've engaged each other and are locked in a fight to the death. Once units enter Deadlock, they will fight until one of them is destroyed.

Q: Can I break Deadlock?
A: Yes, but that will come at a very steep cost, since the enemy union will now be able to strike at your union's back, hitting them with a Raidlock or a Rear Assault. Both are to be avoided, see below.

Q: And what about those other things? Flank Attack, Rear Assault, Massive Strike?
A: When a union is locked in combat with one enemy and it is attacked by a second union, the second union will execute a Flank Attack, attacking the enemy from the side, lowering Morale and getting free shots in without the enemy able to retaliate. A third union joining the battle will attack from the other side and execute another Flank Attack. If a fourth union gangs up on them, they'll hit the enemy with a Rear Assault, getting even bigger morale bonuses. Finally, every additional unit that piles on will execute a Massive Strike, completely smashing Morale. Don't count on seeing this more than once or twice, since almost all unions (player and enemy), will be destroyed before the attacking unions had the chance to pile on.

Q: Okay, and what about Interference and Intercepted?
A: Interference and Intercepted also mean your union has engaged the enemy in Deadlock, but with a slight difference. In the case of Interference, your union intercepted an enemy who targeted one of your other unions. When the enemy does the same to you, you'll get the Intercepted! message. Both provide a morale bonus to the intercepting unit. Choosing formations with low mobility will lead to your unions being intercepted more often, which will screw up your battle plans and knock down Morale.

Q: What's a Raidlock?
A Raidlock is basically a forced Deadlock, when one union engages another union that tried to stay out of Deadlock. Usually this will happen to unions who are on standby or given orders to heal or attack from a distance. A union will also be Raidlocked if it broke Deadlock, unless it broke Deadlock to Deadlock another union, in which case it will be Rear Assaulted. A union getting Raidlocked will take serious damage, be unable to execute his planned orders (usually replacing them with standard Attack commands), and your entire army will take a blow to Morale. Getting your unions Raidlocked is to be avoided, but sometimes you'll have no choice.

Q: Should I send all my unions into battle?
A: Depends. Usually, yes, since enemy unions tend to outnumber you and unless you engage them, they'll Raidlock you, which is always a bad thing. However, when you're fighting a single foe, it's often a good idea to let a union or two hang back to heal or respond to any unexpected threats. It is especially important for enemies that can multi-deadlock, since they'll get a turn against every union that engages them, and if they have attacks that can hurt several unions, you'll be in for a world of hurt if they use two or three of those in a row.

Q: I didn't get the order I hoped for, and now I'm in trouble.
A: Bummer. Grouping your unions better might help, but even then, there's a randomness to the orders you get. Sometimes need a “Hang in there!” and get a “Get your HP up!”, which means you'll be forced to break Deadlock if you want to heal. It sucks but you'll need to adapt.

Q: What are these quick-time Triggers?
A: They are buttons you need to hit at the right time. Hitting one will make your next character bypass the enemy and move up in the queue. If you hit three or more in succession, the last attack in the queue will always be Critical, so it's a good idea to hit them as often as you can, especially since the last character to act will always Reassess the situation and switch to the most powerful attack she can perform, executing it with the Critical bonus.

Q: And what do Triggers do when I defend?
A: If you hit a trigger when defending, your character will Parry or Shield Bash (when blocking with weapon or shield respectively) or Counter (when dodging). A Parry blacks out the enemy unit, making it unable to take any more action that round, and a Shield Bash or Counter will deal enormous amounts of damage, usually destroying a non-boss union in one hit. The enemy, thankfully, cannot Parry, Counter or Shield Bash.

Q: What is Overkill good for?
A: Overkilled unions have a better chance of dropping more items. Don't go out of your way to get Overkills though, it's not worth the effort.

Q: A monster just Cursed me. What now?
A: Some monsters can cast Curse (mostly Spiritlord types, the big wings with horned skulls). Every unit in a Cursed union has a chance of falling over dead before it gets its action, which makes Curse a very dangerous status element. You can't cure it as such, but you can use the “Cure them even if it kills them!” command to have a friendly union kill the Cursed union and then resurrect them. It's important to know that Spiritlords can Multi-Deadlock, but only Curse on the first turn, so always engage them with only one union at first, to minimize the damage.

Q: A tried to give my union orders, but the game only lets me select “Botched – Can't Act”. What gives?
A: The union's leader is down. Some enemies can KO a single character, and if it's the leader, the union will become Botched, being unable to receive orders. The individual units will still act on their own, but they have a considerable chance of having their actions cancelled.

Q: My unions sometimes get Shocked, Frozen, Burned or Acid Burn. What does that mean?
A: Every elemental status effect sets the resistance to the appropriate element to zero. They also have secondary effects. Shocked = no critical trigger chances; Burned = always act last and may not defend; Acid Burn = defense against special attacks also set to zero; Frozen = No extra hits (the little numbers below the damage count).

Q: One of my unions has a fiery background. What's going on?
A: That union is ready to perform a special action. Usually, this is dependent on the Union Leader, but not always. These special actions are devastating to the enemy or tide-turning for you, and you should select them whenever you can. Examples are David's Gae Bolg attack or Rush' Omnistrike. Depending on the weapons and skills other Leaders have, they too will learn special arts as the game progresses. Bear in mind that in most cases, selecting a different target than the default one will stop the skill from being used.

Q: One of my unions just overrode their action and the word SYNERGY appeared on screen. Then the entire battlefield got blasted. What just happened?
A: You've unlocked an Arcana. Good on you! Arcana are unlocked when three or more units in the union use a Mystic Art of the same school, provided the union's leader uses one that is high enough in level. Arcana can completely wipe the battlefield clean of enemies, so make sure you unlock them.

Q: A big enemy just used a skill that took away all my AP and made my actions fizzle!
A: Yeah, they'll do that.

A: An enemy just used a skill called Overdrive and killed an entire union every time it had a turn. What is this bovine excrement?
Q: Overdrive is a horrible, horrible skill and shame on the developers for making it so broken (and only available to the enemy). It's cheap, unfair and just plain old lame, giving an enemy four or five actions per turn. The best thing you can do is pile on the enemy and hope it dies before it does too much damage.

Q: I just got into battle with a monster with a name in green text. What's this?
A: That's a rare monster. A lot of those will be too strong for you the first time you run into them, so save before taking them on. Some can only be defeated once, others will respawn from time to time after being defeated. You don't have to fight a rare monster right away, and as long as you don't defeat it, it'll stay in the dungeon's random monster table. It's important to note that almost all rare monsters can Multi-Deadlock up to three unions, so be careful and don't charge at them with all your unions at once.

Q: How do I make rare monsters spawn?
A: Leave and re-enter the dungeon. The mechanics are too complicated to explain, but roughly, it comes down to this: there are always three types of monster that spawn: two common types and then either a third common type or a single rare monster. So if you see three common types, then you know there's no rare monster. If you only see two, then there's one somewhere in the dungeon or area.

Q: The bartender just said things were boring in the world. What does that mean?
A: Bartenders give you leads on quests that are available. If they say everything is “calm” or “boring”, you've done all the quests that were available for now, so go ahead and continue another stage of the main quest. If you want to know where to go for that, go see David in Athlum.

Q: Someone has a red exclamation mark over his head instead of an ellipsis. Does he have something important to say?
A: Obviously.

Q: My party members also have red exclamation marks sometimes, what's that?
A: That means the party member is ready for another step towards his parameter bonus. Allies you get chummy with get a small boost to their abilities. For most, it takes about three !-chats, though some have quests that will grant their parameter bonus, and some require a special item. Always talk to allies who have a red !.

Q: How do I make those party exclamation marks appear?
A: Leaving and re-entering enough times can work, if not, go fight a few battles and re-enter.

Q: What's all this Mr. Diggs junk about?
A: Mr. Diggs is a 'funny' little robot that, well, digs. At digging points, he'll mine minerals and metals, at diving points, he'll pull up gemstones, and at felling points, he'll extract plant parts and juices. It's rather tedious, but he can extract some very rare items this way. Not Gemsteel though, sadly.

Q: Is it better to get items from monsters? Or in the field?
A: Try getting items in the field – from digs, disassembling, or treasure chests. Reason for this is when you find one, everyone in your party who needs one gets a copy of it. This doesn't happen when you win it as loot from a battle. It's probably a glitch, but I'm not complaining.

Q: Why are some areas on the World Map red and inaccessible?
A: They are battlefields, where you fought an important battle, but which you can't revisit because there's simply nothing interesting there anymore.

Q: What do character classes matter?
A: Not much. The class of the union leader influences what orders are available to you, in a very small way (only Paladins can use the Defend command, for instance), but apart from that, it's just a description of what the unit's general role in combat is.

Q: What Leaders do you recommend?
A: That would be spoiling. In the beginning, though, going with Sandy and McGrady is a good option. You can deactivate Rush' herbs skills and let McGrady heal with his Mystic Arts, which doesn't consume items. Definitely hire every Leader with text under his portrait you can, for the quests if nothing else.

Q: Are there points of no return?
A: Not as such. Until the very final end boss fight, you can always return. There are a few instances when quests become unavailable once you go past a certain stage, however. Minor spoilers, but be sure to check if you've done everything before you set foot in the city of Undelwalt, and again before you enter the Nagapur aqueducts.

Q: I have another question you didn't answer.
A: That's not really a question. But if you think other things should be included in this FAQ, definitely let me know and I'll add them!



Have fun playing Rush and Dave's Excellent Adventure!