Please read : You will grind A LOT in the early game

How much?
Each battle typically took 20 seconds. Multiply it by 200-400 (depending on your goal).

Why?
Gym took you 1 hour in game time, but gives you 10~30 in a single stat and a few extras (based on your tamer level and gym upgrade).
"battle training" aka fighting an enemy give you up to 20~26 in every stat and doesn't pass time.

Additionally, fighting a higher level opponent gives you higher stat bonus.
There is a hidden stat buff depending on your digimon's level.

Fighting a seadramon with a rookie carries your stat all the way to 3k, but with mega it will only carry your stat to roughly 1500-ish.
Don't let digivolution stage fool you. In this game, stat is everything.

Paladin got beaten down fast by 2 rookies.

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A rookie digivolves into champion after 4 days of age.
A champion digivolves into ultimate after 7 days of age.

You will spend your time "grinding" aka repeatedly fighting the same enemy over and over and over, until your stat gain is maxed or until your digimon reaches ultimate stage. After that it's an easy breeze.

Watch the cutscene, play the tutorial, and then pick your digi-egg.
Whichever digi-egg you choose is up to your personal preference, however some of them will make your life easier.

To give you an expert advice, it will be easier to play any rookie and/or champion with "Dark Spirit" move. It's overwhelmingly powerful move that hits 3 times.

To finish the game, you will want a mega/ultra partner with buffs. Otherwise it's gonna be a painful trip. Buff stacks with plugins (the equivalent of offense/defense disk of Digimon World) and carries your stat above 9,999 cap.

Burning Heart gives you +60% str
Muscle Charge gives you +40% str and stamina
Upgrade gives you +40% of everything, in a really short duration. Generally not very helpful unless you have 1 partner buff nonstop or it's a very short fight farming random monsters.

Wisdom and speed can be helpful, but not a necessity. For most people it's a choice between 3 buffs above. Having buff is a must.

It's also easier if your digimon can take training failure since you don't worry about the toilet.

If you will play with two specific digimons for the entirety of the game, would you plan ahead instead of leaving it to chance?
If yes, do use Grindosaur's website. Otherwise you can random for an even harder HMFG challenge.

https://www.grindosaur.com/en/games/digimon-world-next-order/digimon
https://www.grindosaur.com/en/games/digimon-world-next-order/moves

For reference, my partner of choice is
(R) Botamon -> Black Agumon -> Black Wargreymon
(L) Yuramon -> Auroramon -> Gran Kuwagamon

On the left side of Jijimon's house there's a reddish black box.
It functions as online hub where you can do online PvP and exchange network points.

But for now, go to presents tab, claim the third option. You will get 2 sets of mini chips. Immediately feed them to both your partner. Spam the left click (A button) to skip the feeding animation.

Leave Omnimon/Paladin digivolution item for now because you need inventory space.
Talk to Koromon for items and reload if you didn't get an auto pilot.

Talk to Tanemon for meat and immediately leave Floatia.
You can beat the first two fights with 2 baby digimons. However for every single fight after that, you need the DEFEND tamer skill.


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DEFEND is the most powerful skill in this game because it reduces damage your partner receive by 90%, allowing you to fight much stronger opponents and gain stats. Until then, you can't fight anything.

The entirety of HMFG relies on you timing your defend order correctly.
Because every step you take is 1 tamer experience (is not accrued until you return to town), during your first day you will be recruiting digimons to the city, collecting food/material.

If your partner can wait until 2.59AM before sleeping like mine, even better, because you accrue more experience this way.

Familiarize yourself with places where items spawn. The forest path and cave entrance is an excellent place for collectibles if you can dodge enemy monsters. Oily fruit, cobb fruit, and fighty fungus is worth 250 bits when sold.

Your first day checklist should be :

• collect at least 5 green digistalks, 1 cheerful apple, and 1 salty fruit
  
• recruit Tentomon, Palmon, Kuwagamon, and Wormmon
  
• fish a digicarp

Always delay your partners sleep whenever possible. After you almost reach their breaking point (3 hours) use auto pilot. Trigger Jijimon's cutscene to go to Power Plant #2.
If you didn't get to next tamer level, reload.

Claim your Omnimon and Paladin digivolve item now. Sell to Tentomon and your excess ingredients aswell.

Buy at least 30 small MP discs, have at least 1 auto pilot, portable potties if your digimon needs 0 training failure, and everything else buy HP discs.

Go to Power Plant #2, see cutscene, reenter map and fight Goblinmons.
Never engage more than one. Lure them. Save between fights.

Whenever Goblinmon raises his club or crouches with weapons lowered, DEFEND otherwise it's a 1 hit kill. The spin attack is AoE.
Don't bother commanding your partners to attack because at this stage, battle is won by collecting 150 order points, simultaneously press L + R button, and use a combine attack.


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If you made it, congrats.
Your first fight is not an indicator of how tough this game is, believe me it will get considerably easier over time.

Fight Goblinmon until your STR reaches 380-400 where it will gain only 17-20.
Always collect materials whenever you walk by, with more STA you can carry more materials.

Keep fighting even if your digimon is tired.
We can deal with the consequences much later but for now we want high stats because accruing stat after ultimate is much harder.


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Fight Black Gabumon until your STR reaches 550 and then use auto pilot.

Jijimon will tell you to find Taomon. Your next destination is Logic Volcano.
Go to Server Desert, talk to Veemon if you haven't, go to Hallowed Hall. Always pick Corianders (red grass) whenever they appear because it's 1500 bits when sold.


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Skip Garudamon as of now but fight Geremons along the way.
Your next target is Black Garurumon (level 7). Go back and forth between Garurumon and Logic Volcano. Do NOT sell or use any rotten meat/hunk of meat, you will need 20 of each to recruit digimons.

Keep fighting Black Garurumon until you reach 800-ish STR. Whenever Garurumon crouches, DEFEND, whenever ice appear, DEFEND. At some point you will be able to take them with 10 damage.
You should reach tamer level 3 roughly at this point, your second tamer skill should be the 5 TP cost increase stat gain cap from battle from +20 to +24 to hasten the grind.

After that, with roughly 3 hours left, go to Logic Volcano.
Fight and recruit Birdramon, fight and recruit Meramon, fight and recruit Kyubimon. The left Kyubimon is the real one. Talk to Taomon. And then use auto pilot. Recruit Biyomon. Go to power plant #2, plant seed. We're done with our second day.

Optional : fatigue management
Fatigue reduces lifespan and when it's accrued over 100, your partner will lose hapiness and bond. Not an issue whatsoever, because we will make up for it later and rookies gain stat considerably higher than any other digivolution stage.

But, if you do hate pushing your digimon way over the limit, Logic Volcano has vending machine that sells hot water. If you have enough money for recovery items, hot water reduces 20 fatigue for 200 bits per pop.

Talk to Koromon, pray that you get an auto pilot (but you can buy them now so if you don't, it's OK).
Sell the collectibles you don't need, repurchase recovery items.

Save 1k bits. Talk to Birdramon. Travel to Server Desert.
Go to Server Cemetery. Go to StepStep. This time, fight Psychemons. Compared to the level 7 Garurumon, Psychemons are cakewalk.


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Psychemon will carry your stat to roughly 1.4k-ish. Collect materials whenever you walk by. Memorize the spots where Coriander grow in Stepstep, because they can be sold for 1500 bit each.

After Psychemon, then it's the dreaded, beastly level 21 Black Garurumon.
This is how my stats look when I first beat Garurumon. With this stats, his Spin Attack deals north of 2k damage.

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You need around 2k STA to reduce Spin Attack to negligible, 2 digit damage.
Otherwise, play very defensively like you did with your first Goblinmon. If you are struggling too much, wait until it's 16:00. Geremon will spawn and carry your STA to 2k for your troubles. However, Geremon doesn't train your STR. Again, do NOT sell any rotten meat or hunk of meat as you will need 20 of each to recruit some digimons.


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Your stat goal from Garurumon should be around 1,800 STR, 2,300 STA, and 6,000 HP. Garurumon can carry you to 2,400 speed, but generally if you don't gain STR or STA, go somewhere else. And that somewhere else is MOD Cape.

My last Garurumon fight.

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At this point, most online guide will point you to Seadramon.
However, he is incredibly tanky. He hits very hard like Garurumon and debuffs you with slow and paralysis. What people forget is we did Seadramon with plugins, which is not accessible to our HMFG run.

So instead of going left to MOD Ship 3.0, took the right turn and spend your sweet time fighting Black Agumons until your STR reaches 2,300. Try to pick them one by one.


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Seadramon's hardest attack is Waterfall. Whenever he does it, he gives audio cue. Avoid the clumped Seadramon pair, instead just pick the single ones and ran forth between MOD Ship 3.0 cabin and Inlet Cape.

The last thing we do for the day is going back to power plant #2, trigger a cutscene. Sleep in power plant #2, harvest materials, and finally use auto pilot.

I start the 3rd day with 885 STR and ended with 2,600+.

Himari will tell us to go to Logic Volcano, so that's the first thing we do in the morning while our partner is not hampered with fatigue buff. Trigger the cutscene, return to town.

After a day, the "town" which is just a village, really, will literally become a town. Until then, it's Seadramon again until you have around 3,500 STR. You can still gain STA until 3,900.


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After Seadramon, most people will point out WaruSeadramon.
However, to fight WaruSeadramon we need to recruit DemiDevimon, and to recruit DemiDevimon, we need to beat Vikemon, which is not possible for us (yet).

So instead of WaruSeadramon, we will go to MOD Ship and fight Saberdramon until you have at least have one best meat. You will need 20 rotten meat, hunk of meat, and best meat each.


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You can farm Saberdramons for SPD and best meat, but there's one final alternative.
Fight level 35 Hagurumon in Faculty Ex Machina's East Coast for STR, and more importantly, they drop DEF plugin S.


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Believe me, you WILL need those DEF plugins.
After we get our DEF plugin S, we will use them against level 35 Orange WarGrowlmons. It will be the only ultimate we can possibly farm as rookie.

With plugins, the only attack attack WarGrowlmon has that is threatening enough is Anti Attack Field. Whenever WarGrowlmon emits circular blue aura and raises both hands, DEFEND otherwise it's from 1,000+ damage with plugins to 5,000+ criticals without.
Give the plugin to whoever WarGrowlmon is targeting.


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Whoever said it's not possible, has never done it. However, the fight is pretty long, around 5-6 finishers, and might cost you a lot of HP discs even with defend.

As rookie, War Growlmon will carry our STR/STA to 8,000 range.
As champion, the limit is around 5,900 STR and 6,500 STA.

You will still fight WarGrowlmons for stat even as champions, so whether it's worth it or not is entirely up to you to decide.

As an expert advice, you can pick the tamer skills to increase OP generation rate faster and perfect defend to make it easier. Or, you can fight Saberdramons for best meat as you need 20 of them and they are pretty rare.

Final rookie stats :

After our digimon partners become champion, our priorities shifted.

With the ability to block digivolution path, if the last unblocked is unmet, we can make our partner stay as champion and farm stats as long as we need.

The only constraint is lifespan, which is reduced by being fatigued, injured, or unhappy - and we did all of that when they are rookies.

Therefore, we need to make up for the lost lifespan by not abusing our partner excessively and feed them Phantom Nectar Sake whenever we can. I will call them "Sake" from now on.

But to get both Dojo and Sake, we need to complete chapter 1.

Before doing so, go to Veemon, and look at the upgrades.
The necessary ones are :

• Digivolution Dojo : level 2 to block digivolution path and GranKuwagamon
  
• Item Shop : level 3 for Bancho Leomon, level 4 for master tent, level 5 for super recovery
  
• Sender : level 2 for Wizardmon
  
• Restaurant : level 2 for Ikkakumon and Seraphimon
  
• Hospital : level 2 for MagnaAngemon
  
• Warehouse : level 2 for MegaGargomon
  
• Field : level 2 for Sukamon
  
• Lab : level 5 for a lot of digimons
  
• Transporter (end game) : extends time limit, has no use before post game

It is logically better to upgrade the Sender first, because it unlocks several travel position and make everything else faster. After that, if you aim for specific digivolution, your next goal should be Dojo. Usually you will have everything to upgrade Sender, but you need DigiGreatwood for Dojo.

DigiGreatwood can be obtained as early as power plant #2 by save scumming, but there's plentiful of them in Bony Resort. But for now, you will want to complete chapter 1 ASAP.

Take digikoi, digicrucian, and digifry, 1 of each.
Fly to MOD cape via Birddramon and recruit Seadramon in MOD Ship 1.0. Go to MOD Ship 2.0 and talk to Zudomon, enter the cabin and talk to DemiDevimon.

Use auto pilot, fly to server desert, talk to Greymon, fight and recruit Garudamon. Go to server cemetery oasis, now you can access dead end town. Fight Machinedramon. Before entering the portal, talk to Angemon.

Enter Floatia, trigger more cutscene. You need 25 prosperity to complete chapter 1.

Fly to logic volcano, talk and recruit Gumdramon. Just outside Garbage Pile (still in Fire Wall area), take Magma Lozenge for Greymon. Enter Garbage Pile. Fight and recruit Hackmon. Take a slight detour to Hidden Red House because that's the only place you can get firewood reliably.

Use auto pilot and fly to server desert again. Recruit Greymon, go to dead end town, recruit Angemon. You should have 25 prosperity by now. Go to Stepstep, fight Machinedramon again.

You have just completed chapter 1.

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Fight East Coast WarGrowlmon until 5,800/6,400 because the one in Control Center hits harder with Delete Program.


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The ControlCenter WarGrowlmon can train you until 5,900/6,700.
After that, sadly, we can't train our STR/STA further, until chapter 4. We need around 7k to 8k STR/STA for post game. So this is where you want champion stat at a minimum.


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However, you can train SPD and WIS from BlackWereGarurumon in Night Church, Bony Resort.
I have yet hit the stat cap before my partners digivolve. If anyone can inform me I would be grateful.

Final champion stats :

To access Ohguino, talk to GrapLeomon (the guy standing next to level 21 Black Garurumons), talk to Gargomon in tower road, return to GrapLeomon.
You can now access Ohguino Wastelands

Fight and recruit Agumon, talk to Leomon. To continue down Leomon's quest path, you need :

• 20 rotten meat to recruit Goblinmon, easiest to farm from Geremon in dead end town
  
• 20 hunk of meat to recruit Gaomon, you should have plenty from Garurumon, Sharmamon can drop them
  
• 20 best meat to recruit Tyranomon, you can get them easily from Saberdramon in MOD Ship Flag
  
• talk to Lilymon in Rosemon's palace
  
• fight and recruit Vegiemon and then recruit Lilymon

At this point, if you are still missing any meat (most likely best meat because it's the rarest), you don't have to force yourself to re-schedule visiting all other areas, you can plant them in farm and deal with other areas.

Because more importantly, buy 99 File Sodas from Rosemon Palace vending machine, because that machine has 1/10 chance to get Phantom Nectar.


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Never feed directly but use the camp and cook them into Sake. Anything you cook or buy from restaurant feed both your partner with same effect. Sell the file sodas back or cook them into fatigue-curing food.

Unless you are lucky that you find Rotting Melon behind Vikemon's desk in Captain Cabin, or DigiSnakeHead from level 30 Taomon (in the same area), Sake will be the only life extending food that you have.

After you recruit all 5 digimons, return to Leomon to continue the quest line :

• fight and recruit Ogremon, return to Leomon
  
• fight and recruit Woodmon, return to Leomon again
  
• fight and recruit HerculesKabuterimon
  
• fight and recruit Rosemon
  
• pick Rosemon's pillow
  
• give Rosemon's pillow to Antylamon to recruit him
  
• return to Leomon for the last time to recruit him (finally)

This concludes Ohguino Wastelands.

The storyline will take us to Bony Resort at chapter 3.
However there's plenty of reasons to rush Bony Resort earlier. Probably the most urgent is 10 DigiGreatwood for level 2 Dojo. You can get DigiGreatwood much earlier from power plant #2 but it's save scummy and not worth it when there's plentiful of them in Bony Resort.

Another reason is, you need 55 prosperity to clear chapter 2. Bony Resort has a lof of recruitable digimon. And another one, if you are a perfectionist, the BlackWereGarurumon in Night Church will train your SPD/WIS to 7,200+

Bony Resort is an annoying area where it takes forever to get everywhere and the road is as long and inefficient as US government spending. Press and hold the B button (right mouse click) to run whenever.

To make the most out of your first visit, make sure you visit Bony Resort *early* and take the circular path outward, talk to Weregarurumon and Wizardmon (requires Sender lv 2 that you probably already have). The path ends at Pink Stone House. Talk to Piedmon and Myotismon.

You can't start Piedmon's quest after 16:00 (henceforth, visit early).
Play hide and seek with Piedmon, your first destination is just outside Red Room. Use autopilot, and fly to Bony Resort to make things faster, this time, take the circular path inward.

Before entering the corpseway in the middle, talk to ToyAgumon, go to Green Room, recruit Monzaemon, recruit Toy Agumon. Make sure you also talk to the tree with a protruding sword for Piedmon's second hiding place.

Enter Corpseway and recruit Terriermon and Lopmon.
The correct answers are "Bone Resort", "Four Horns", "Terriermon".

Enter Graveyard, fight and recruit SkullGreymon in the Graveyard.
Talk and recruit Mamemon.

Enter Night Church, and talk to the piano to recruit Piedmon.

Don't bother returning to WereGarurumon as of now but instead, go to Logic Volcano, fight Turuiemon, and recruit both WereGarurumon and Myotismon at the same time.

To recruit Boltmon, you need both Myotismon and WereGarurumon.
To recruit Ophanimon, you need lab level 5.

The main story will take us to Faulty ex Machina and MOD cape.

While we're in Faulty ex machina, after talking to Himari, we need to make sure we've talked to Guardromon. After cutscene, enter the portal.

Your next destination is now MOD Cape. If you haven't talked to DemiDevimon or Zudomon (like me), you might want to fly to MOD Cape Hinterlands. After talking to Kouta, enter the portal back again.

If you have reached 55 prosperity, the main story will lead you to Faulty Ex Machina, again.
If you are still not hitting the stat cap from WarGrowlmon this is an excellent time to push your stats to limit.

Also, while we're here, we might want to retrace a few steps, fight and recruit Vikemon and then recruit MarineAngemon. MarineAngemon will ask you to find his missing item, the first one is in in the same area, near the door to Captain's Cabin. The second one is next to Vikemon's desk. The third one is near BlackGatomon in 3.0 cabin, the last one is in Captain's Cabin, near the door to 3.0 cabin. Return to MarineAngemon for a rather hilarious response and recruit him.

If you have completed those, these are your checklists :

• Talk to Guardromon (already done when talking to Rikka)
  
• Talk to Hagurumon and recruit him, bridge is lowered
  
• Return to Guardromon and recruit him
  
• Talk and recruit Nanimon and Sukamon in the drainage
  
• Go back to control center (where Hagurumon is) and lower the bridge to boulder island
  
• Talk to Rapidmon
  
• Find Rapidmon's cell phone
  
• Fight and recruit MachGaogamon
  
• Return Rapidmon's cell phone
  
• MetalMamemon needs level 4 lab
  
• Fix the cable

After you're done with everything, go back to town, continue along the story line, recruit Datamon, and finish chapter 2 by going to tower road, fight Titamon.

There's only one real reason to go to Absolute Zero as champion, and that is Seraphimon. Seraphimon's food is the best stat raiser in this game.

The fruit basket raises your HP/MP by 500, and everything else by 50. It costs 10,000.

Recruiting Seraphimon is very easy.
Talk to Ikkakumon, go to dead end town, recruit Seraphimon, and then return to Ikkakumon (later).

However, to unlock him, you need restaurant level 2, a lot of bits, and minimum stat gain from BlackWereGarurumon. The two last requirements fulfill one another since you get 6,000 bits from WereGarurumon after each fight.

I did everything efficiently, and still not hit the stat cap from WereGarurumon.

However, if you do fulfill all three condition, or you just don't care about WIS and SPD, while we're in Absolute Zero we might as well talk and recruit Gabumon (requires Garurumon), talk to Gomamon to trigger his quest, enter the Sanctuary and then fight and recruit GaoGamon.

The first 2 chapters consist of 70%+ of the game, chapter 3 is just a short walk around Nigh Plains, and a trip to Bony Resort. Chapter 4 is even shorter.

To beat the game, you need 100 city prosperity. If you haven't reached 100, usually it means that you have yet meet some requirement condition. Lab is the building that lets you recruit the most amount of digimon, but it took a lot of materials.

Having 100 city prosperity will allow you to access the last area in the game, Infinite Cauldron.
If you manage to lock your partner at champion level, this is where you will top your stats to 8,000-9,000 range by fighting Datamon and Platinum Numemons.

Otherwise, as ultimates, this is as good as you can get from Platinum Numemon.
Note that if you do farm Platinum Numemon, you need buffs, like Muscle Charge. Otherwise, his laser will tear up 14k life without defend. With muscle charge it's 1k at most, unblocked.


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This stat is sufficient enough for the final boss. His ultimate still whack you hard, 25k+ without defend, 2.5k with.
But only marginally sufficient for post game.


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If your partner has these astonishingly high stats, with A LOT of life left due to Sake feeding, it means only one thing : you have beaten the Hard Mode, First Generation (HMFG) challenge.

Congrats!

Thanks to Mr. Wolfy for compiling the best training spots that I use during my normal playthrough!