Pointers For Trophy Hunters ...

[EdVeal]

I wrapped up the platinum a few days back & thought I'd share a few points from the run given the limited time left. Can definitely be done quicker than I did (I sat through the cut scenes, for example - don't do that !) & it may well get easier towards the end of service, if they are a little more generous with the resources ...

 

Total: ~40-50 hours (48 hours for me, logged in on 13 days)
I. Story: ~15-20 hours 
II. Skirmishes: ~15-20 hours (grinding different missions; getting power level up to ~210 & collecting conches)
III. Sieges: ~5-10 hours (grinding the same mission; collecting Imperial Signatums to buy oils)

 

General:

> do not use any conches as you progress > needed for “Conchientious Collector” EDIT: confirmed below that these do not need to be in your inventory, can spend as you go

> do not sell / recycle any legendary or divine gear > needed for “Refined Tastes”

> do not craft items (other than once for “Made From Scratch”) > keep the resources for “Novice Jeweler”, “Novice Blacksmith” & “Novice Armorer”

> the last trophies needed will likely be 3 the enhancement ones above; the limiting factor for these are oils - there are 4 types of oil with increasing rarity, some will come naturally / as rewards but not enough - the end game is grinding raids for these - the more oils you can get as you go along will reduce that grind 

> daily missions are easy to complete in the course of going for the platinum; most tier rewards aren't useful (half are blank) but there are some rarer materials as well as 25x fossil oils at tier 12 - the BP from missions & orders accelerates moving up the tiers. Think I did the dailies each day I played & completed 1 weekly as well, once orders open up they are a pain to select & collect but usually have 6 easy ones to work through

> logging in daily also rewards oils; no effort required, there were 10x fossil on day 2 & 5x magic oil on day 3 (might change though), seemed to loop as well

> for daily / weekly missions & rewards requiring pure platinums; time seems most relevant - early game I found these were easiest to get from the final bosses of each cloister. Once your power level is 10-20 higher than the recommendation, they are common

> in the menu progress > achievements is useful to check the counts for conches & legendary equipment. The count under items > equipment seems off - I had more legendary gear there than in the achievements section, trophy popped at the same time as the in-game achievement 

> artifacts acquired from logins / tiers need appraising by pygmallion; go to the shop > trade > appraise – you should get some divine stuff this way for "Heirloom of the Gods", think the first actual divine drop / chest I got was ~75% through the story otherwise 

> inventory capacity will max out at some point – I sold the lower tier & power level gear for the conches but you might want to recycle to materials instead; I had way more conches than required by the end vs. enhancing & crafting requiring quite a lot of materials

> at some point you can use the quest board near where you spawn into the hub; no need to go to the objective marker

 

Combat:
> remap dodge from shoulder button to face, is easier when closer to attack
> run through levels as much as possible, keeping half an eye out for chests / conch crystals / hidden pockets
> target most annoying enemy (usually those that can stun you), mash strong attack & R2 a lot, perfect dodge if you can, jump here & there, next enemy, mash some more
> exception to the above are the dangling spider enemies / birds / eyeballs; you can jump to hit these but sometimes easier to shoot with charged bow / gun attacks
> obvious but use exploding barrels – especially those above floating platforms – look for the spectral bow pickups for these, much easier than trying to lock on with your own weapon
> stay up in the face of bosses, just mash them down – some will move around quickly, switch to a charged bow attack if they do, just be sure to release before taking a hit & then sprint up to them
> most boss minions disappear once the boss itself is beaten, can generally ignore them pretty safely

 

Weapons / Equipment / Power Level:
> the power level of your equipment is nearly always more important than the base stats & the enhancements - your total power level is based on the aggregate of the weapons / armour levels
> equipment drops / rewards will be close or above your current power level; after many missions I would just equip any new gear & kept increasing my power level that way
> the story missions do need a bit a gear management vs. end game but its minimal. Once you're through the story, your power level will likely be well above the recommendations of the skirmishes
> replaying prior missions will also provide gear around your current level, if the next story mission is too far ahead of your current level you can just replay a boss or something to get your gear level up (think the rewards / drops do cap at some point though, if you are way over-leveled)

> EDIT: the below equipment selections were how I went through, worked but likely sub-optimal; bows seem to be way better as a focus, please check AJ_-_808 and JKOROX posts below
> Light attack: bow / guns / rod – this is just to have a ranged option (there are different weapon sub-types to be aware of, particularly for bows; I favoured power & skewer to have more effective charged attacks, avoid scatter bows). Charged attack with a rod = healing; early game this can be quite useful
> Heavy attack: sword / hammer / axe – I was mashing this most, choice depended on whatever was highest level
> Left Spectral: shield / axe / hammer – shield is pretty handy here to just hold, particularly during the story missions – once you are above the recommended mission levels your health is never really at risk, at that point I liked the axe's sweep for groups
> Right Spectral: hammer / axe – also mashed the most, I like hammer here as its overhead focused on the same target as the normal heavy attack
> Armour: not much to say, just equip the highest level gear you have – will become quickly clear if there is a particularly negative enhancement (takes a while to read all the descriptives vs simply using the highest level & going into the next mission)
> Accessories: used the most versatile - didn't bother with individual resistances; went for those with Crit Hit bonuses or SP regen / recharge
> Elemental defence / attack: didn’t pay much attention after the story missions, during the skirmishes I’d usually do a load of missions in one cloister & might check before doing those 
> Coffin routes (unlocked later in the game): I chose Agavian class at the beginning - this gave me spirit siphon, which adds SP - worked well with spamming spectral attacks
> GP choices (later in the game): not sure it makes a huge difference or even how these differ by class but I went for critical hits (Keen Edge) & HP regen (Bloodlust)
> I never put a ranged weapon on the spectral attacks & avoided those with focused attacks as well (requires some aiming) – easier to just hold (for a shield) or mash

 

I. Story:
> self-explanatory; just work through the cloisters & missions as they open up
> skip the cut scenes; would normally not suggest this but it's a total waste of time - the plot is dire; disjointed, predictable, limited in scope, no sense of investment – the small payoffs that are present are far outweighed by utter guff
> think I replayed the first boss (Zenon) a couple of times to get pure platinums for daily missions / to obtain higher level weapons
> final boss is awful; annoying, spongy & tedious - best if you can get assistance. I did it solo & found the second half of the health bar went down far easier – I was getting through potions & revives way ahead of pace but seemed to still work out on the first try, not sure if this was the same for others though

 

II. Skirmishes / Story Add-On (power level 70-80 to 210):
> this is just a grind to collect conches, resources & to increase your power level to be able to do the lowest level siege
> after the story, each cloister will have additional paths spurring off, there are different types but non-skirmish missions will be too high level - theres loads of skirmishes that will continue opening up to plug away at

> there is a bit of extra story content under "Tower Of Babylon: Blockade Zone"; is something a bit different but the loop is the same
> this is when I used the conch & XP boosters I had acquired - keep item boosters though, they are more useful below

 

III. Sieges (power level 210+):
> short version; replay mission “Hall Of Ice/Fire: Onslaught I” over & over & over – maybe 20-30 times total - it'll be where the gold icon is flashing (was Volcanic when I did it but is Frozen now & rotates I believe)
> final stretch to get the enhancement trophies; grinding Imperial Signatums to trade for oils - each siege run rewards 10 of these (higher level sieges give slightly more but I didn't bother)
> Pygmallion trades Signatums for the oils; 2x for a Fossil oil, 4x for a Magic, 8x for a Holy & 40x for a Divine - i.e. you need to complete the siege 4 times for 1x divine oil
> I think the oil quantities needed are the same irrespective of the gear rarity however, the other resources differ - I enhanced rare gear as I would imagine enhancing divine would need rarer resources
> oil quantities for weapon & armour: 2+3+4 = 9 fossil oil (enhancements 1->3), 2+3+4 = 9 magic oil (enhancement 4->6), 2+3+4 = 9 holy oil (enhancement 7->9) & 1 divine (enhancement 10) 
> oil quantities for accessory: 8 magic oil (enhancement 1), 8 holy (enhancement 2) & 1 divine (enhancement 3) [might have the quantities wrong but it gives an idea of the grind needed]
> use any item boosters when doing the siege missions; enemies can drop oils during the combat, reducing the number of replays - I saw decent amounts of fossil, magic & holy - never got a divine oil drop though
> enhance one gear item at a time rather than all at once; probably obvious but you will get drops of the lower rarity oils while collecting enough Signatums for the higher rarity oils 
> should have plenty of the other necessary resources from across the skirmishes, daily logins, tiers, missions, orders & recycling any spare equipment at this point

 

 

 

Probably missing some obvious stuff or am plain wrong (!). This was just my experience as well - might find others had it entirely different.

Good luck if you're going for it - not a great game by any measure but fun enough for a week or two ...

Edited February 1, 2023 by EdVeal
Updates

[AJ_-_808]

Focus on energy regeneration for accessories/equipment modifiers 

 

Equip 2 (or could possible do 3) bows that have a charge attack

 

Charge both bows at the same time

 

Pick a target and release charged bows for obliteration

 

With the right setup, you can blow through sieges in about 5 minutes.

[JKOROX]

To further the point above, Bows are by far the best weapon in the game, it's optimal to run 3, 2 in spectral slots, 1 in heavy. (You can also run one in light attack as it's the fastest attack/dps in the game, personally I never have pressed light attack in this game after like the first few levels.

 

You'll notice all the builds at the top of the leaderboards run the exact same thing, 3 bows + light attack weapon that'd irrelevant + SP Regen.

 

Guns also work as a different alternative that I used for a bit, instead of charging them up fully you have to time your button release. Either way both do outrageous damage.

 

For reference I've never once died in this game and rarely if ever heal. Final boss was a breeze, charge 3 bows and slowly walk backwards, 0 healing needed. 

 

There are 3 types of spectral attacks for Bows, Spread is the worst (you want a tight grouping for the arrows so they obliterate your target), Rapid is fine, it'll shoot out a bunch in a row. The best ones are Recurve bows, they have Pierce, it's pretty much a shotgun spread that goes through enemies and for bigger baddies can hit multiple hitboxes as it goes through em.

 

Since I picked up Bows and figured out how they worked early on in the story I don't think I've seen anything below pure platinum, I'm currently ~150 power so I've done quite a bit.

 

Don't use melee, it sucks and will add on a lot of time.

Use range, preferably bows, you'll one hit most things in the game that aren't bosses.

Edited January 18, 2023 by JKOROX
Spelling

[TheBritishBaron]

I will add for the conches, you do not need to have 1 million on you for the trophy, you can spend them if you wanted to.

[NeuralPotato]

6 hours ago, TheBritishBaron said:

I will add for the conches, you do not need to have 1 million on you for the trophy, you can spend them if you wanted to.

 

I concur with this. I got my trophy at ~830k conches.

 

I'll also mention that I got lucky and got divine oil as drops from the siege 3 times (!) so it's possible.

[JKOROX]

I concur, just popped at 600k conches

[NeuralPotato]

Today the siege rotated to the third story ("Tower of Benben") in case you are looking for it. You either have to play through to the second area of the tower ("Duat") or wait until next week when it should rotate to one of the earlier areas.

[Maestro_Soran]

8 hours ago, NeuralPotato said:

Today the siege rotated to the third story ("Tower of Benben") in case you are looking for it. You either have to play through to the second area of the tower ("Duat") or wait until next week when it should rotate to one of the earlier areas.

Thank you for this. I've been trying to find some post online with a current location for the siege. I believe im still on the second story but will rush it tomorrow to unlock the third tower. Cheers.

[brentmorrow88]

@EdVeal Do you know if whether you Meld a weapon that has been Enhanced (to level 10 in my case) you lose the enhancements or they remain? Like its power level goes up to whatever, but the enhancements reset? Obviously I'm too worried about that happening to try it as enhancing takes forever.

[Achtie]

4 hours ago, brentmorrow88 said:

@EdVeal Do you know if whether you Meld a weapon that has been Enhanced (to level 10 in my case) you lose the enhancements or they remain? Like its power level goes up to whatever, but the enhancements reset? Obviously I'm too worried about that happening to try it as enhancing takes forever.

 

The enhancement remains on the item that will increase in power. The item that will be used to increase power will be destroyed.

[IntroPhenom]

On 1/15/2023 at 11:55 AM, AJ_-_808 said:

Focus on energy regeneration for accessories/equipment modifiers 

 

Equip 2 (or could possible do 3) bows that have a charge attack

 

Charge both bows at the same time

 

Pick a target and release charged bows for obliteration

 

With the right setup, you can blow through sieges in about 5 minutes.

 

This is my build of choice, which I refer to as a "dash" build. I run around perpetually and charge my two spectral bows constantly. My equipment immediately restores my SP, regains HP with each enemy hit and killed, and rewards me for dashing/hitting consecutive shots. I can hit almost everything on the screen at once. For my weapon assigned to the triangle button, which isn't used, I opt for something that has a nice passive effect, like an aura or extra damage or something.