Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne

General

- You will die a lot, save all you can.

- You can only recruit demons that are your level or below. You can't talk to some, like blobs, without special skills.

- Being prepared and having the right skills/resistances is more important than raw power, especially against bosses.

- Some demons will evolve when they have learned all their skills. Some demons can only be gained through evolution.

- Always try to fight bosses on New Kagutsuchi, they will be at their weakest.

- The hardest part of Hard difficulty are the first few non-random fights. Don't be too discouraged if you die over and over again to these. They just suck.

Character Development

- Get Analyze ASAP, but don't worry about keeping it all game, eventually you'll get items that can replicate the effect.

- The main character's best skills are physical in late game, but magic in early-mid game. Choose one or the other and stick with it.

- Once you delete a skill, you can never get it back.

- Focus is the best physical skill in the game.

- The best magatama in the game gives you +10 to all your stats, if you want to plan accordingly.

Demon/Skill Choice

- Keep the pixie you get at the very beginning of the game. I think that you can fuse her into other stuff, so long as you keep that other stuff. Just make sure you remember what she ends up as.

- Buffs and debuffs are incredibly useful, especially Fog Breath, War Cry, and Sukukaja.

- Try to have a dedicated healer with Mana Refill or Mana Drain.

- Instant kill spells are useless, elemental light/dark are not.

- You can change the moveset of a soon-to-be-fused monster by canceling out of the fusion screen and re-selecting its parents.

Endgame

- There are like six endings, you poor bastard.

- The Amala Network is an optional dungeon. If you finish it before going into final dungeon, it will lock you into the "true" ending.