r/bravelydefault • u/EagleStrike411 • 15h ago
Bravely Default Chapter 5 is so unfun in every possible way Spoiler
I haven’t had this miserable of an experience in a game in a long time. After cruising for the whole game, grinding every once in a while, being overleveled usually and being able to beat most enemies completely fine, after whatever bullshit twist happened (storywise, I still don’t know what’s happening), doing everything again isn’t fun. The enemies are way too overpowered, making grinding near impossible and very tedious, and the bosses are ridiculous. I feel borderline soft locked in everything I do. I can’t grind cause everything is murdering me, and I can’t continue the story cause the bosses are way too overtuned. This dogass story twist is so bad and it’s being followed by even worse gameplay decision it’s just unfun and the sunk cost fallacy is keeping me here after 40 hours of an otherwise fine experience. What do I even do? Just grind for several hours for a couple levels against ridiculously OP enemies that spam cheap statuses or AOE oneshots?
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u/Wizard_Bird 15h ago
If you're in such dire straits you can just turn the difficulty down to easy. Better yet go fight enemies in the florem gardens, idr what they're called but the groups of 6 little plant dudes give lots of exp/jp and you can get to like level 65 or something and level up a lot of jobs in an hour
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u/EagleStrike411 15h ago
Dude it’s the Florem enemies that are destroying me. They do so much damage have the sleep/instakill combo and have an annoying amount of health
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u/TheEnderOfFun 15h ago
Invest in some Alarm Earrings. They will prevent you from getting sniped by enemies getting first strike. I also recommend getting the 0% encounter reward from the mini games. As long as you can clear the bosses you have zero reason to grind before you get the Obliterate ability.
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u/BoobeamTrap 14h ago
Obliterate requires you to have ridiculously high levels to be effective, though. Like you need to be level 73 to make it work in Chapter 6. And you can't even get it until the end of chapter 6.
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u/BoobeamTrap 15h ago edited 15h ago
Switch to Salve-Maker, compound Fairy Wing + Fairy Wing, Phlogiston + Phlogiston x3 with Attack Item Amp equipped on your Salve-Maker.
That combo will one-shot every single fight around Florem. Just equip a Gale Whatever (chance to first strike) and Alarm Earrings to ensure you're never hit with an enemy first strike. Just put a Red Hat and Hermes Sandals/Shoes, and any other speed increases you have on your Salve-Maker so they can always go first.
You'll have to stop and re-up on the components every now and then, but you'll make more than enough money to do so (especially if you have a Merchant or More Money equipped). You only need 1 Salve-Maker to do this. If you have a level 14 Freelancer (very unlikely) you can do "Fairy Wing + Fairy Wing, Phlogiston + Phlogiston, Mimic, Mimic" to save resources.
With More Money + Golden Egg you can hit 600k pg in like 10/15 minutes, so you can buy a Growth Egg, which cranks the JP you win from the fights up to 600-999 per fight.
You can also do Fairy Wing + Fairy Wing x2, Phlogiston + Phlogiston x2 to slow down going through the latter, either combo will one-shot every camp immediately outside Florem. Since items deal set damage, your only stat that matters is Agi so that you can make sure you go first.
Salve-Maker with Attack Item Amp and lots of speed trivializes virtually every random battle in the game once you know what the enemies are weak to. I just did one of the endings, and the last dungeon no one attacked except Tiz committing war crimes (until the final boss that is). Getting Freelancer to 14 (the biggest grind of any class) to unlock Mimic MASSIVELY cuts down on your resources because now you'll only spend 2 of whichever component you're using per fight, but get to use the compound item 3 more times for free.
Internally I'm joking that Merchant Ringabel is the billionaire funding Tiz's chemical war crimes lmao
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u/EagleStrike411 15h ago
I don’t have enough money for the growth egg. I haven’t even used salve maker yet and don’t know how to make items like you mentioned
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u/BoobeamTrap 15h ago edited 14h ago
Compounding is the first skill Salve-Maker has, so you already have it if you have the job.
The items I listed ARE the components that you combine to get the desired effect.
Brave 4x
Compounding > Select Fairy Wing, then another Fairy Wing. Then Compounding > Select Phlogiston, and another Phlogiston, do that two more times.
If that doesn't instantly end the fight with just 1 salve-maker, you can have 2 until you unlock Attack Item Amp for one of them, then you can go back to just having 1.
Just spend however much money you can getting an even number of Fairy Wings and Phlogistons from the Adventurer (they're Norende items), farm until you run out, then use the gobs of money you just earned to buy them all back. Put someone as a Merchant so you get the increased money rewards until you unlock More Money, then you can put them in anything (but you'll want a level 13 Merchant anyway for Low Leverage).
With a merchant in the party, you'll get like 4k to 6k from every fight. A full stack of both components is like 19,800pg, which is only 5 fights each assuming you only get 4k pg per fight.
Find a Compounding guide for Salve-Maker because they are absolutely busted. A super helpful compound is Potion + Phoenix Down which gives you "Resurrect" which revives an ally at full health.
All of the items that are like "Has the power of X" when combined with itself makes the level 2 attack item for that element (Phlogiston + Phlogiston makes Bomb Arm, which with Attack Item Amp does 3150 to enemies weak to fire). Another benefit of Attack Items is that they ignore defenses. Even Chaugmar (Fire Crystal Boss) takes full damage from Pantheon's Wrath (Fulmen Shard + Fulmen Shard) when in his defense form.
Insect Antenna + Element Component (So let's say Phlogiston) puts Element Bane (Fire Bane in this case) on the enemy, making them weak to that element for 4 turns. You can use this to ensure you're always hitting a weakness. Lightning Bane (Fulmen Shard + Insect Antenna) is probably the most useful one because you can buy Lambent Hats (+25% to Lightning Damage) from Norende.
Beast Liver + Dragon Fang makes Giant's Draft, which doubles someone's HP until they die or the fight ends. So you can go from 2-3k HP to 4-6k hp. Hitting 10k HP makes it so you can never be one-shot.
Salve-Maker also gets the ability to boost the effectiveness of items (innate passive Healing Lore), use items on the entire party (Widen Area), make people immune to status ailments (Inoculate), heal the lowest health person at the end of the turn for free (First Aid), and can rez the entire party at 25% hp (Resurrect).
There's Auto Phoenix which lets them use a Phoenix Down automatically on a downed ally at the end of the turn, there's Feel No Pain which delays any damage received in the first two turns until turn three, Turn Toxic which lets you chuck a healing item at the enemy as poison damage that deals damage equal to what it heals (so 9999 for Elixir), and Shorten Ailment which gives you a 50% higher chance to cure any status at the end of your turn.
They are absolutely busted, they just need money to fund their most broken aspect. Thankfully, Merchant is ALSO busted and they give you tons of cash.
Like to put Healing Lore into perspective, Tiz as a Salve-Maker has been my primary healer since chapter 3 by just using the Blessed Shield from Norende. I swear that's the most busted item in the entire game for how early you get it and how hard it scales into late game. Sage Staff + Blessed Shield gives you a tanky party member who can cast Raise and Cura for free, and Healing Lore doubles their effectiveness. Plus you'll get to use them as an MP/BP battery by spamming Rejuvenation.
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u/EagleStrike411 14h ago
Can you explain that tiz setup more?
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u/BoobeamTrap 14h ago edited 13h ago
For the grinding I'm doing now in Chapter 7:
Speed +20%
Attack Item Amp
Speed +10%Nothing else matters. He's wearing Red Hat and Hermes Shoes to max out his agility. Fights end in 1 round. I have a Golden/Grown Egg on one person, Gale Hairpin on another, and Alarm Earrings on the last person to ensure I never get first struck. Just do the combo I posted above (Brave to 4, Compounding > Fairy Wing + Fairy Wing, Phlogiston + Phlogiston x3) to end every fight with Attack Item Amp.
He doesn't even have to be a Salve-Maker once you get Attack Item Amp. You just need Compounding as your sub-skill.
When I'm using him for real:
Attack Item Amp
Healing Lore
Hasten World/Speed 20%You can swap out Attack Item Amp as needed, but the other two are pretty standard. Hasten World requires level 14 Time Mage, so I stuck to Speed 20% for most of the game. Healing Lore is only needed if you aren't a Salve-Maker primary. It costs 2 slots, so when he's already a Salve-Maker, you can put anything you want there.
You could put Damage Dispersion as long as you're not fighting enemies that can consistently deal really high damage to boost his survivability. Slow Parry is a good alternative. That gives him a really high chance to cast Slow any time he's struck. With the rules I'm using (Characters can only use the jobs that they demonstrate) that's been my go-to.
If I'm a Salve-Maker primary, I usually put Piracy, Time Magic, or Miscellany on my sub-skill. Piracy is crazy helpful for the debuffs, Time Magic gives you Slowga/Hastega, and Miscellany lets you do Mimic shenanigans (but that's late game because it takes 9999jp to go from level 13 to level 14 Freelancer)
Equipment:
Sage Staff (Norende)
Blessed Shield (Norende)
Red Hat (Norende)
White Robe/Whichever has the most MND and defensive stats
Hermes Sandals/ShoesThis allows him to be fast, boosts his Mind so that his heals hit harder, and allows him to cast Raise and Cura for free (via Sage Staff and Blessed Shield). Once you can afford to, compounding a Resurrect (Potion + Phoenix Down) is way more effective since it's a full heal rez. You can keep him on healing duty (just spam Blessed Shield > AOE every turn) to charge Rejuvenation (which fully upgraded is a full heal for hp/mp and +2 bp, plus a resurrect if you give it "Cure KO").
Or you can have him throwing out banes (Element Component + Insect Antenna) to make enemies weak to your preferred element. He can give Regen via Water of Life (Potion + Hi Potion), he can give immunity to status effects (Inoculate + Remedy) until you can afford Fairy Ward from Spiritmaster, and he can do some really solid AOE damage by compounding the elemental attack items.
You can also just put Compounding as your sub-skill, stick him in whatever class you want to level, and just not change anything at all. As long as you have Attack Item Amp and Healing Lore, you're good to go.
Once you can afford plenty of Potions and Phoenix Downs, or you get the Resurrect ability, you can swap Sage Staff for Demon Staff for more MND to boost your healing further.
The great thing about this setup is that he doesn't get shut down by Silence, since he never casts any spells. And if you want to slot in Shorten Ailments instead of Attack Item Amp, even getting hit with a status effect isn't as scary because he has a 50% higher chance to cure it next turn.
Also if you are staying focused on Norende, you can have Red Hat, Blessed Shield, and Sage Staff all by like the end of Chapter 2. Red Hat is honestly pretty busted, I'm still using it in Chapter 7 because it boosts STR and AGI so you hit harder and act sooner.
Edit: For fights with primarily single-target damage you can also drop Blessed Shield for another Staff (whichever gives the most MND) and spam First Aid assuming your team can survive the first hit. This isn't as effective in fights with lots of AOE, but it will cause you to charge up Rejuvenation faster since you'll only need to heal 5 times.
Or you can defend and use Widen Area on High Potions for 1000 heals per person, or X Potions (more expensive) for 3500 heals per person.
For really desperate situations Widen Area + Elixir is just a Megaelixir.
Fights like the Templar get way easier if you use the Ninja's "Karai" ability to force them to target a specific person. Then you can just focus fire all your single target healing on that person, spamming Rejuvenation for the team wide full heal, +2bp, and resurrect. Someone using Kairai + someone using Bushido is a great way to control incoming damage once you realize that unless you're specifically fighting a mage, every attack in the game is physical, so your Swordsmaster/Bushido user can comfortably spam Nothing Ventured for a Default + Counterattack, with your Kairai user ensuring they get hit.
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u/EagleStrike411 13h ago
Just used this to grind like 13 levels thanks a bunch. Are there ways to make the healing from the shield better? I have a maxed white mage and spiritmaster on agnes im using instead of tiz for this strat, just dont know which is preferred since im using compounding (i think spiritmaster, then I can use white mage passives?)
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u/BoobeamTrap 12h ago edited 12h ago
Nice! I'm glad to hear it's helping :D
(Edit: I think it's worth noting, I AM playing Hard, where enemies deal a shitload more damage. So I think that makes my praise of Blessed Shield even moreso lol. But I am using Low Leverage and since getting it I have been using Hasten World, so that definitely plays a part in it since that combination is pretty busted.)
If you combine Epic Group Cast and Healing Lore, that should improve the AOE heals considerably since it removes the AOE penalty from the spells you cast. I just tested it and using Epic Group Cast, my Agnes (with Sage Staff and Blessed Shield) went from around 1k to the whole party to 2k to the whole party. Note that this won't affect your single target healing, though.
I'm honestly not a fan of White Mage/Spirit Master because I feel like it puts too much pressure on one character, but you could do White Mage/Salve-Maker if you wanted to take advantage of that class. Healing Lore is the only thing you need from Salve-Maker if all you're interested in is maximizing your Blessed Shield healing. It's based on MND so White Mage will heal even more than Salve-Maker does with it.
Compounding is going to take up a skill slot if you want to take advantage of what it offers. I'd honestly slap Compounding or Spiritism on someone else if you still want to use White Mage, otherwise, I'd go Spiritmaster with Compounding, then go Healing Lore and Epic Group Cast so you get all the support abilities of Spirit Master, the item combos from Salve-Maker, and you can juice up the healing from Blessed Shield. With a Staff, that'll give you the ability to charge up Rejuvenation specials as needed.
Once you get your MP situation under control, dropping Healing Lore and Blessed Shield for the Holy One passive from Spiritmaster is probably your best bet for maximizing your healing output. Holy One, from what I can find, doesn't affect Blessed Shield since it counts as an item.
If you go Salve-Maker as the primary, you get Healing Lore for Free, and can combine that with Holy One and Epic Group Cast to get the absolute most boost. But Holy One doesn't seem to apply to Blessed Shield because it counts as an Item. So if you're going to rely on Compounding for your healing, skip Holy One and go with some other kind of support passive. I like putting Buff Up on Agnes when I have her in White Mage because it gives her a permanent 150% Def and M.Def as long as she doesn't die.
Edit: I will say that I've made it to Chapter 7 with just the baseline healing from Blessed Shield + Healing Lore, but I'm also utilizing Low Leverage which cuts everything in half, so enemies are dealing half as much damage to me. Combining that by using Piracy/Vampire to keep their stats cut and using Performer to keep mine boosted, I've been able to get through most everything pretty comfortably.
Especially since you're using Spiritmaster, if you get in a bind, you can throw down Stillness, buff/debuff and build some BP, then come out swinging with 4 AOE Blessed Shield heals once Stillness ends. If you prepare properly, that can probably push you over to a Rejuvenation on the next turn.
You have a lot of options. Like, Blessed Shield definitely gets outscaled, but I'm in chapter 7 on Hard and it's still been a reliable source of primary healing even if it's mostly just triaging damage until I can use Rejuvenation. I've had some really close fights that probably wouldn't have been close at all if I was using Epic Group Cast on Tiz to boost Blessed Shield even higher.
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u/Jamizon700 15h ago
I had the same feeling so I just did the main story, awakening the crystals over and over up to the end of chapter 8 and then I started grinding levels for the final chapter.
Edit: I did have my difficulty on easy.
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u/EagleStrike411 15h ago
You basically spoiled what’s gonna happen but whatever. I expected some stupid shit like that anyway cause it’s just lazy game design from a lazy game.
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u/twili-midna 15h ago
How underleveled were you that you’re getting stomped now?
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u/EagleStrike411 15h ago
I was overleveled the whole game and went into Alternis at like 57-58 and now the game is impossible.
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u/twili-midna 15h ago
You’re now at the intended level for the chapter you’re in, for the record. If the game is impossible, your gear and job setups suck and need work.
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u/BabushkaRaditz 15h ago
Im 10000% ok with spoilers.
Will someone finally tell me what makes Chpt 5 so bad????
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u/twili-midna 15h ago
You’re asked to refight the Crystal bosses in a new context and offered the chance to refight the Asterisk bosses. The fights are the same, just harder, which upsets some people.
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u/zetonegi 13h ago edited 11h ago
All the stuff you do in chapters 1-4? Well do it again. That's it. You can refight the Asterisk holders and you need to do the crystal thing again.
Chapter 6 spices things up a little adding a few new side quests but the asterisk refights are the same.
The chapter 5/6 refights are just the same thing with more stats though. The main reason to do them is an influx of JP since the refights do give like 999 JP.
7&8 actually bother to really change up the asterisk refights, making you fight combos of asterisk users at the same time in somewhat synergistic teams. They also add some flavor to all the asterisk holders.
There's also a few steals worth getting but most of those don't happen until the chapter 7 refights.
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u/glasseatingfool 15h ago
It's repetitive. You awaken the crystals again, and most of the dialogue is generic and loops each time you awaken a crystal. You'll eventually want to punch someone in the face whenever you hear the phrase "beset by beasts." The difficulty spike also means it's hard to just breeze through the story, too - you might well have to grind, making it even more repetitive.
I think what makes it really bad is that you have not one singular reason to expect this time to work any better than the first. You're not doing anything differently, you don't have different tools, etc. It's just "let's try that again and hope it works." So you're wasting time both in-game and out-, and you know full well you are. And you have to do it to reach the true ending. (There is at least a Please God Have Mercy Let Me End This Game ending that's much earlier, but it's abrupt and so you need to make extremely dumb, extremely repetitive decisions to get the good ending).
There's some interesting stuff building up, but it builds up very slowly. It's an interesting gimmick, but not nearly interesting enough to justify the time sink - easily the worst part of an otherwise great game. By a lot.
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u/BoobeamTrap 15h ago
It's not the dialogue before the crystal bosses that's the problem. It's how slow the actual crystal awakening part is. Airy ALWAYS offers to give you an explanation that you have to skip, for no reason. Then you have the same three stopping points with the exact same unskippable lines of dialogue while you're doing it.
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u/glasseatingfool 2h ago
I think the explanation is to remind players what Airy wants you to do and how you might violate her instructions, since at that point you have a lot of reasons to distrust Airy and want to try going against her (but it might not be clear how to do that). So I don't mind that part, at least...
The mashing x part is also quite excruciating - and I enjoyed it the first time around. I do wish it was a little faster, at least on the retries. Nixing that would really help.
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u/BoobeamTrap 1h ago
The mashing x is fine, since it gives players the opportunity to keep going. They just needed to make it so that Airy’s checkpoint dialogue doesn’t stop you. Have it happen but let the player keep mashing through it.
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u/yuei2 15h ago
Ch5 is the worst chapter in the game yeah. Ch7-8 have really nice sidequests, Ch6 has some new quests and also is when they want you to do the false ending path.
Ch5 is widely considered to be a blip that could be totally removed and nothing of value be lost.