Vagrant Story

• Analyze every enemy the first time you see it to get an idea of where to target/what to use. Using analyze isn't exactly intuitive though. Once successfully cast you must go to the status screen and use the shoulder buttons to view stats and weaknesses of the enemy you analyzed.

• Always pay attention to affinities/attack types. By the time it starts to make a difference, you should have the gems/spells necessary to adapt to any need.

• Along the same lines, always make sure that you have a blunt, edged and piercing weapon on you at all times. Because it seems like your base damage/accuracy is most dependent on attack type.

• Never chain more than 8 hits. You'll probably be missing every shot at that point, and your Risk starts going up exponentially.

• Offensive magic usually costs too much MP to be useful. At least on the first few playthroughs.

• Always try and keep yourself buffed, but remember you can only have one character buff (str/int/dex up/down) in place and one equipment modifier (prostasia/tarnish or any add an element to armor/weapon) in place at all times.

• Corollary to the above point: casting Herakles (adding str up) on yourself cancels out any negative stat effects (int/dex/str down)

• Changing equipment (includes adding/removing gems) nullifies any equipment bonus. But you cannot change equipment while you are effected by an equipment penalty.

• You can survive any death with the right reaction ability. Learn which attacks are of each element, and the timing on each of them. You may end up dying a few times. But until you figure the timing out, you may want to play defensively.

• If you find yourself in trouble because you can't deal any damage, start using raging ache (The chain ability that deals 10% of the difference between you max and current HP.)

• Play with the status notifications on. It's the easiest way to figure out the elemental affinity of any attack.

• Always try to combine weapons when possible, but don't commit unless there's an improvement. You never know when an older weapon will be needed to create something better. However, if you find yourself using weapons that are vastly inferior to what you find in chests, it may be time to start fresh with the better weapon.