#and dont get me started on the update that saints row 4 got with the release of the new sr

[littleporksausage]

It's even worse when the "new and improved" version not only looks worse stylistically (because in the pursuit of high definition all the artistic merit was left behind), but also sometimes work WORSE than the old game. The one and only thing that warrants most 'remasters' is the sad reality that not all old games will work on modern operating systems, and yet they can't even pull that off

I really dislike when tv which was originally made in low def with old cameras and had that comfy slightly blurred pre 2000s (or some 2000s lower budget stuff still had it) look continues for a while or gets remade and becomes all cold assed modern high def ewwieness.

[owlpilotingaspaceship]

Tips for People New to Fate/Grand Order

Been playing the Japanese Version since 2015 and thought I’d share some things I’ve learned/ would be awesome to know in advanced.

I’ll give this another check over in the morning x_x EDIT: made a few fixes and added a little more details to noble phantasms

I will NOT post spoilers for the main story, and I’ll keep spoilers for game mechanics, (ex. Boss fights), future servants, etc. to a minimum.  Can look up on the FGO wiki for more information regarding these.

If you love your account, Bind it.  Go to your room and do it.  This will protect your account and if you ever need to switch devices, just put in the code and password (and then once logged into the new device, go to your room again to generate another one since they are one time use).

If you love your servants and Craft Essences, lock the ones you use.  Select them and on the left of their profile will be a lock, if its blue click it, if its orange you are good.  On their small portraits should be a lock image on the left indicating they are locked.

Lingo-

CE = Craft Essence

NP = Noble Phantasm (ultimate move)

SERVANTS

--Keep at least 1 copy of every servant you get.  The biggest reasons for this are because of events and interludes.  It occurs more often than not that an event will give you bonuses (usually more item drops) for using particular servants.  Usually the higher star rating = better drop rate BUT dont count the lower stars because 

1. They are more common and easy to get

2. Events often come with event CEs that will grant you nice benefits, BUT will eat up your cost [see section on cost for info on what cost is]

Interludes can give you things like saint quartz and materials, more on this later.

--You can also have that servant eat copies of itself to make their noble phantasm (powerful/ultimate move) more powerful. Lower star servants are cheaper to level up and if you really like them, you can raise their level cap through “grail ascension” (palingenesis).  Grails are not a common item, and I would look to the wiki for more information.

Who you level is up to you.  The game is based around you who can get from the gacha, so everyone’s team composition will be varied. There are guaranteed servants from the story and 4 stars that can be obtained from events.  But things to keep in mind:

1. Mashu/Mash may not seem like much in the beginning, but she has 0 cost and her skill set down the road will probably come in handy (again depends on your team composition). Personally I can say that her costing 0 is VERY VERY useful and I still use her occasionally- esp events.

2. [see cost]

Keep in mind that when you get to higher levels it will be MUCH easier to level up servants.  I do suggest in the beginning focusing on a team that works for getting you through the story, and eventually, 1 of every class (but maybe not so much berserker in the beginning)and later look at adding different roles (ex. aoe np and single target np).  Experiment and see who works best together for you and your master level.

Also note that (inregards to should I re-roll)

When I started, people’s first servants were probably 3 stars (unless you rerolled/ were super lucky) so my first servant was Caesar who I leveled with Robin (gods his np used to be OP).  Though I started a few months after release and was able to get away with riding coattails through the first part of the main story (all hail Gil).  Point is, who you start with may or may not be in with you for the long haul in your main group- and thats ok, also your friends are important.

There will be events that will allow you to get 4 star servants by participating.  It does require effort though so the higher level you are and the higher level your main team of servants are, the easier it will be to obtain them.

My first event happened less than a month after I started and I ended up getting the servant, but not their special ascension items so I couldnt level them passed 40. Fixed that during the re-run though xD

Interludes- Interludes unlock as you progress through the story and raise your servant’s bond level.  They can grant you quartz, items, and some will make your servants (the one featured) more powerful.

MASTER LEVEL- AP, COST, FRIENDS

AP- is your energy which you spend to do missions.  you recover 1 every 5 minutes.  When you level, you will be given points that WILL carry over your cap if applicable.  You will not recover ap until your points are once again below your cap.  The cap increases with leveling, but not with each level and the same goes for friend points and cost.

COST- Cost limits what star rank servants and craft essences you can use for your level.  AS OF WRITING THIS THE CURRENT LEVEL CAP DOES NOT HAVE A COST HIGH ENOUGH TO SUPPORT A FULL TEAM OF 5 STAR SERVANTS AND 5 STAR CRAFT ESSENCES (and thats on the Japanese side which is about 2 years ahead). Ok with that out of the way.  This means that you will  need to use 3 star, and maybe lower, to have a complete team. while this isnt necessary, it will more than likely be helpful..  

costs:

* -- servant -- CE

1 -- 3 --  1

2 -- 4 --  3

3 -- 7 --  5

4 -- 12-- 9

5 -- 16 - 12

To give you an idea, at level 100 your cost cap is 98.

Max number of your servants on a team is 5 + 1 support who DOESNT count towards your cost cap.  Point is all the shiny 4 stars and 5 stars costs will add up, especially if you are lower level, so keep some lower star rank stuff (and Mashu/Mash) on hand.

my front row would change but for the longest time my back row consisted of (in this order)

Mashu/Mash, Hercules, and David -cost of my back row = 19

Ces- I usually gave Herc a 4 star and Mashu/Mash and David’s would change depending on need.  19+9 = 28

FRIENDShip is magical. seriously.- As stated above your friend limit cap will increase as you level, but not every level. and you will want friends.  You can find friends by:

1. using people’s servants as support and after the battle ends, send them a request.

2. tell a friend your friend code

3. tell the internet your friend code

Setup your support team- AND KEEP IT UPDATED.  If a servant or craft essence is on support you can still use them and best of all there is no cost limit so you can attach your best craft essences to them.  Got a better higher level servant? remember to add them to your support team to help out your friends. There an event going on? give your support servants the event craft essence and if applicable switch out servants to the event servants (up to you as sometimes a high level non-event servant can be more helpful than a low level event servant- but it really depends.  When I was low level I looked for servants that could help me through the battle, as a high level, my team is beefy enough that I can usually move my support to my back row and I look for who gives the biggest bonus).  Some people also enjoy trying out new servants (esp. if they are released without a way to try them out), so switching them temp. or otherwise can be fun too.

What friends do for you:  

1. If you use the support servants of your friends, you will be able to use that servant’s noble phantasm 

2. You gain more friend points by using their servants and by them using your servants. Friend points can be used in the friend gacha. -see GACHA

3. Because of the gacha, events, etc. Your friends will likely have different servants than you and this is to your benefit.  

What you can do for your friends:

1. keep support list updated

THE GACHA

tips:

Saving quartz for limited gachas is probably for the best.  (I would also argue if you really like a servant on rate up or need that class, BUT limited servants are well limited). 

single rolls are fine and dandy.. but really should be done with tickets.

a 30 quartz 10 roll guarantees that you get a 4 star something.  single rolls do not.

the rates on getting a 4/5 star servant are lower than craft essences...but both are about single digit percentage tiles if I recall correctly...either way its pretty low.  But patience is rewarded eventually. I have, in 2 years as f2p, drawn 9 5 stars and numerous 4 stars

New years is famous for its paid gacha.  You can buy quartz and use that to get a guaranteed 5? star.  NOTE: the bonus quartz you get from buying larger quantities is seen as FREE quartz NOT paid. 

rate up means that IF the gacha determines that you are to get a particular 4/5 star something. that it is more likely that it will be whatever the rate up is, not that there is an increased overall chance to get them.

When rate up a gacha occurs, sometimes the rate ups change though out the time the gacha is available, so be sure to check the rate up times.

The friend point gacha has a free daily spin.  Max of 3 star rank on things pulled, i.e. you cant get 4/5 star things from this gacha.

Also note worthy- there is a servant in the friend gacha that is probably about as rare as a 5 star... if not rarer, not sure if they will be in the gacha upon release or a later date, but if you pull a servant not in the ‘regular’ classes, then you are VERY lucky.  I can’t recommend trying to explicitly pull for this servant though...

taping your screen during a summoning will advance it to the results.  This also works when feeding exp cards.

The community currently has a term called “Getting spooked” this happens when you get a 4/5 star servant of the same class as the rate up servant, but end up getting a non-rate up servant.

Ex. I wanted Iburaki (4 star berserker) from a gacha where she was on rate up. I got Beowolf (4 star berserker).  I proceeded to amuse my fiance with my cries of agony. (For added salt this was my 2nd beowolf and my fiance has Iburaki.  For the record  am pretty happy with my collection of servants, I just like her design)

LEVELING SERVANTS

Fou-kun cards that give a bonus to hp and atk are cheaper to feed to your servants at lower levels.  On the same token it is possible to critical with only fou-kun cards so I recommend throwing some exp cards in the mix just in case since crits save you qp (esp higher levels)

SKILL-  In the beginning, dont worry about leveling skills.  Seriously.  Leveling skills takes a TON of qp and requires a variety of materials.  How much depends on the star rank of your servants.  To max out a 5 star’s skill set takes millions of qp.

ex. My Waver (Zhuge Liang) has maxed out skills and it took months to achieve this as he was my first 5 star that I got about 2 months after starting.  To max 1 of his skills was 54.5 million qp x 3 = 163.2 million qp total.

Qp can be earned fairly easily (esp higher levels) so its just a matter of time.  The real drain is materials, which is why I recommend only leveling the skills of servants you use.

Again, I recommend using your qp and materials to level your servants in the beginning and waiting on skills.

LEVEL INCREASING

3 star and below exp cards start seeing a decline in effectiveness around level 30, and esp once 50 is reached.

servants have a level cap that can be expanded 4 times by ascending them. You will need statues of the servants class and materials*  The amount and type varying on class and individual servant.  The overall level cap depends on star rank with a 5 star at 90 and 1 star ~60.  As mention earlier all servants can increase their level cap up to lv. 100 by using grails.

(classes such as ruler dont have their own class statues; Mashu/Mash ascends automatically with the Main story)

NOBLE PHANTASMS

Noble phantasms can be unleashed once you have 100% (or more) gauge.  Np level and charge are very different. In general Level increases the primary affect and charge increases the secondary affect.

For example Cu Chulainn’s Noble phantasm deals damage to a single target (primary) and has a chance of instantly Killing the opponent (Secondary). 

 Feeding him copies of himself will up the level of his np and increase the damage and his maximum charge*.  Charging his np gauge more in battle and/or using his noble phantasm directly after another noble phantasm (or two) will increase the charge.  The higher the charge, the more likely he is to instantly killing his opponent.  The additional charge that consecutive nps receive increases as follows:

 100% for 2nd position and 200% for 3rd position. 

The gauge can be charged to a maximum of 300%  and when put after 2 nps will be at 500%.  Note that the charge operates at a 100 benchmark so a charge of 150% will act as 100% and 298% will be 200%.  

*np 1 servant can charge to 100%, np 2 up to 200% and np 5 can go all the up to 300%.  Np level will go up by one with each copy fed, to a total of 5 (4 copies).

MISC.

utilize storage to declutter your inventory.  Not as much of a problem in the beginning.

Events will usually require you to have cleared the main story up to a certain point.  most common are the first and second areas.

Events have re-runs so dont stress too much if you were unable to get everything that you wanted.  Downside is you will have to wait another year. HOWEVER I would like to note that the Saber Lily, and collaboration events have NOT had a rerun.

Burning exp cards, craft essences, and servants of 1 or 2 star rank will give you a little bit of extra qp. 3 stars+ will give you mana prisims.  Do note that craft essence exp cards are rare and I’ve only seen them in a handful of events so i recommend using them to increase the level of your craft essences rather than burning them.

Burning 5 stars will give you a special item that once you have 10 you can use them to get a 5 star of your choosing from a list, and limited servants will appear on that list when they are available in the gacha.  BUT this mechanic is really for people who whale- spend money, usually large amounts- so they can put the extras/servants they dont want towards a servant they want.  Or for people who keep getting the same 5 stars.  5 stars are normally pretty rare.  In 2 years my fiance and I, free to play players, both individually have drawn about 9 5 stars.

Some servants (ex. cu chulainn lancers, stheno, more down the road, etc) Have noble phantasms, etc. that have a chance to instantly kill your opponent.  Be aware that enemy servants are SUPER resistant to it.  The odds of it happening are near astronomical, while it does happen, dont count on it.  Against just about any other opponent that is not a servant, it should happen infrequently. 

Bond points- 

unlock interludes

above level 5 they earn you rewards (quartz) and at level 10 grant you a servant specific craft essence.

There’s also a (very) late game mechanic that will utilize bond.  But if your favorite servants have bond 5+ they should be fine, but the more the better.

The main story (and free quests???) seem to give the most bond.  there are 2 craft essence that have been released in Japan that help increase bond gain a little, one will be given for free (if memory serves).  The other will be a limited craft essence from Da Vinci’s shop for mana prisims (NOT cheap).

Buy the tickets from Da vinci’s shop each time its refreshed.  Currently that might not be for awhile, but that should change in the future.

Da vinci’s shop refreshes with the same items, but sometimes will have limit craft essences and esp around new years more “bang for your buck” deals and bundles.

Just started and have time? dailys are good at getting your servants off the ground.  Farm for exp cards and throw in qp daily as necessary. dailys give more exp than the main missions and will give you exp cards as well.  You will gain a ton of ap through leveling, which again, wont start regenerating until you use it up.