I am looking for some guidance

[Pudimflam]

Hey everyone

 

Just started getting into this series, loving it so far, and I am looking for some guidance from the people who managed to platinum this game. Currently my party is in its 50s (Sora is level 53, Goofy 51 and Donald 50), finished sealing all the keyholes besides the last world (after the second visit to hollow bastion)  and I have a couple of questions on where should I go now. To give some background I am currently playing on normal (just enjoying the experience, ignoring both the speedster and unchanging armor trophy). What I would like to know is: 

 

In order to gather the necessary materials to synthesize all the items should I just wait to get Sora to level 90 since he gains the lucky strike ability? 

 

I used the Bambi summon in order to get the rarer drops. Does equipping lucky strike on Donald and Goofy affect the drop rates when they are not on the field?

 

Do you guys find any use for the guard mechanic? I have tried several time to use but I just prefer to roll dodge.

 

Why do people hate Donald so much? He saved my ass numerous times ( I am not sure if it is relevant or not but in the beginning of the game i chose the sword and sacrificed the shield if I am not mistaken)

 

I went back to the Hades cup in order to try and finish it, currently battling the Cerberus again. Tried Sephiroth but was completely wrecked, I also tried Kurt Ziza but did not manage to do it, the mechanics weren't difficult but it was a pretty long fight. Maybe I am playing to aggressive? What level do you recommend for me to start tackling these optional bosses?

 

How doable is to combine the speedster, unchanging armor and not using a continue on beginner?

 

Thank you! ?

 

 

 

 

[Dragon-Archon]

9 minutes ago, Pudimflam said:

In order to gather the necessary materials to synthesize all the items should I just wait to get Sora to level 90 since he gains the lucky strike ability?

No, don't wait until you're level 90. Actively start collecting once you hit post-game.

 

10 minutes ago, Pudimflam said:

I used the Bambi summon in order to get the rarer drops. Does equipping lucky strike on Donald and Goofy affect the drop rates when they are not on the field?

From personal experience it doesn't seem to work if they're not in the active party.

 

11 minutes ago, Pudimflam said:

Do you guys find any use for the guard mechanic? I have tried several time to use but I just prefer to roll dodge.

I prefer dodging over blocking too, but blocking certainly has its uses. You can get bonus exp (called Tech EXP in the game) for blocking specific attacks and effectively countering them, such as Ice Titan's icicles, Opposite Armour's main body orb, or Ansem's charge during the second fight (which also ends the charge).

 

13 minutes ago, Pudimflam said:

Why do people hate Donald so much? He saved my ass numerous times ( I am not sure if it is relevant or not but in the beginning of the game i chose the sword and sacrificed the shield if I am not mistaken)

Because he uses up all his mp on offensive spells, even when the settings are set to using healing magic and he rarely heals. He also burns through healing items within the first few minutes, effectively wasting them. Besides that, he's not even useful as a meat shield.

 

16 minutes ago, Pudimflam said:

I went back to the Hades cup in order to try and finish it, currently battling the Cerberus again. Tried Sephiroth but was completely wrecked, I also tried Kurt Ziza but did not manage to do it, the mechanics weren't difficult but it was a pretty long fight. Maybe I am playing to aggressive? What level do you recommend for me to start tackling these optional bosses?

If it's your first time, level 70+ would be good to start. I recommend to do them in this order: Ice Titan -> Kurt Zisa -> Phantom -> Sephiroth -> Unknown/Mystery Man.

 

18 minutes ago, Pudimflam said:

How doable is to combine the speedster, unchanging armor and not using a continue on beginner?

Very doable, if you need some help, check this Speedster + Unchanging Armour speedrun:

 

Have fun with the game.

[Lagoon Aris]

The grind to level 99 is pretty long, if you do it before grinding the synthesis items. I did all the end game trophies on easy, so it might be a bit different but I grinded all the synthesis first and reached about level 70 with it that way. That was about the level where I managed to defeat Kurt Ziza as well. The other bosses I didn't do until I was in the 90's level and Sephiroth I didn't defeat prior to lv 99. Getting to level 99 after the synthesis grind was pretty lenghty and really boring. I think, doing the level grind first will 1. lengthen your playtime unnecessary and 2. kill your fun in the game a lot more than it will do the other way around.

 

The guard mechanic I didn't use a lot. Dodge was more helpful, since you don't get any damage at all. Combining it with Aero is always a safer bet than guarding imo.

 

Donald is hated so much because he may be able to save your ass numerous times but if you played the game often enough, the numer of times he saved you is nothing compared to the number of times he is low on MP and can't do anything or he straight out dies multiple times during a boss fight. I'm currently in my proud walkthrough and I don't rely on Donald at all since he even dies at simple heartless fights. 

 

Speedster, Unchanging Armor and no continue on Beginner is doable. Although it might be a bit close with the Speedster trophy if you don't want to be under leveld during the final bosses. I did the Unchanging Armor and No continue both on Beginner. The Speedster trophy I did with the 100-hour grind method. (This method is explained in the trophy guide on this site here). I got up to about 75 hours while grinding out all other trophies and simply left the console on for the remaining hours to beat the boss again. But I did this for my first run where I wanted to enjoy the story. In a second run where you can skip all cutscenes it should give you a lot more time to use for leveling while still keeping the timer below 15 hours.

[AfiqMohd86]

It's been a long time since I've obtained platinum for this game. So some info might not be that accurate so sorry in advance.

 

Start gathering materials as early as you can because you'll be earning exp points and levelling up at the same time.

I never used Bambi summon (I never really understood this summon plus the lucky strike mechanic, there are bits of info here and there in forums).

I prefer to use the dodge roll over guard mechanic unless certain situations such as the ice titan's icicle projectiles. Guarding certain attacks grants exp points. You'll be rolling around a lot during optional bosses fights. 

Never had issues with Donald. On Proud mode, I never rely on other characters so much.

For the optional bosses, around level 80-90+ with decent equipment and accessories. Skilled players can do this at much lower levels though.

The speedster, unchanging armor and not using a continue on beginner trophies can be obtained in 1 playthrough - I did that during my playthrough.

[supertrunksman]

The only big challenge I found with the Speedster, unchanging armor, and no continue run was the final area.  Basically 4 boss fights in a row with no saves between. Died to #4 my first try, and had to go back and do 1-3 again, and then played super safe on final boss.

[Terra]

I tried to do it all but with fighting Ansem, I grew frustrated with dying so I ended up using a continue to beat the game to get Unchanging Armor and then reloaded my previous save and did it again to get the No Continue trophy with my equipped armor. I'm glad they removed the equipment trophy in future titles. It made beginner mode feel like Proud mode!