Blue Dragon

Magic

• Characters you train as magic users will generally have more MP than they know what to do with. By the time you get to the middle of the second disc, you'll find yourself using spells like Flare like regular attacks.

• If, for some reason, you can't seem to keep MP, the Sword Master skill "Absorb MP" will heal your magic based on about 1/4 the amount of damage done to an enemy (although it will be less if the enemy has fewer HP than your attack). It's overpowered.

Jobs

• For the most part, your stats are dependent on your job, and certain jobs have skills that will import their greatest stat into another class. Assassins have Ninja Swiftness for AGI, Monks have Battle Essence for attack, Guardians have Sentinel Shield for defense, Support Magic has Magic Essence for Mag Attack, Barrier Magic has Magic Fence for Mag Def. Such skills can be invaluable while training such jobs as Generalist, or any other job that is rather lacking in a certain attribute.

• Consider unlocking Generalist for each character as soon as possible. This job, though mediocre in every single stat, allows one to equip additional skills as you rank up, as well as additional accessory spots. Depending on your playing style, your non-physical attacking characters will be fine with level 26.

• Barrier magic is balls. Although it may be worth investing in, as by level 50 you have access to an affordable skill that allows you to farm job experience (though not character experience) with low effort or even completely AFK (rubber bands on the control sticks). This can help you avoid grinding for good skills or ever being forced to use bad jobs in battles eg. generalist. Just be careful not to optimize the fun out of the game...

• Have each character have a primary job for the majority of the game that you can switch to in case things get rough. Again, each job has their own stat growth, so the highest level job will inevitably be the best for the job. Seriously, the only time I've ever had problems beating any non-sidequest bosses was due to my characters being in e.g. Generalist and a magic class for my attackers.

• Most jobs have ultimate skills as their last skill taught. Arguably, the best skills are Double Strike (ASN), and Double Magic (Support), since there are no real penalties for either (i.e. no reduction in damage).

Misc

• Pretty much everything you can see in the map is hiding something, ranging from bad (10 Gold) to awesome (+1 stat, healing, +100 exp, +SP for everyone).

• When an item comes up 'nothing', those get counted and there's a dude under the bridge in Jibral who gives you prizes for getting a certain number of 'nothings', good prizes too, decent accessories.

Builds

• Based on my experience the following builds are the game breakers of Blue Dragon:
  • A tank with high regular and magical defense, status ailment blocking, in the front row and with at least the following. This character will block pretty much every attack both magical and physical, and can just heal his or herself if necessary.
    • Double Attack
    • Absolute Counter Attack (Always counterattack)
    • Endure (damages magic after HP is depleted)
    • Total Guard (block any individual attack on anyone in the party)
    • Meditation
  • A magician with at least the following. The ultimate support character.
    • Double Magic
    • Support Magic
    • Black Magic
    • White Magic
    • Resurrection