Earthlock: Festival of Magic

Partner Mechanic

Combat in this game is based on pairs. Each character gets certain bonuses with each other character, they are unlocked by fighting enough battles with that character as your partner.

As the pair fights, it charges the Super meter. Once it maxes out the meter begins to flash and the super meter becomes available to use to perform a more powerful form of the ability. However, depending on the bond level and the ability used, it's possible that only one of the pair will get to use the Super meter.

It’s a good idea to change partners each time a bond levels up. Not only does this improve your bond between each pair, but whenever a bond reaches level 1,3, or 5, both characters get a Talent Point (those are used for either improving your stats, or your active/passive abilities, depending on where they’re placed). Additionally, some specials require you to reach certain bond levels to use.

Ive and Gnart’s level 1 bond boosts the effect of their healing spells by 10%, which is fantastic for tough fights.

Ive and Amon’s level 2 bond boosts their steal chance by 15%. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be much worth stealing.

You can swap bond-partners mid-battle, but that will cost them some of their special meter. (So if you had Ive and Gnart’s special meter full, then swapped Gnart for Amon, then immediately back, Ive and Gnart’s special meter would be a little less than full.

The more enemies you fight at once, the more experience you get. It scales up quite dramatically. I believe the cap is 8 enemies in one battle.

Characters who are dead at the end of normal battles do not get XP. However, in boss battles, all characters get XP at the end even if they are dead.

You can only flee battles using Feign Death, which only becomes available after half your party is dead for real. Feign Death does not work on bosses, so do not even try.

In the early game, Gnart’s Regen ability can really help conserve your healing resources for the first few dungeons. When there’s only one enemy left, have your party members rest (and get any last stealing in) and use Gnart’s regen to heal up. A single enemy tends to not be able to out-damage Regen. The possible exception is if they have multi-target attacks.

After you out-level enemies enough, they’ll stop giving out any XP at all, so you can farm them for drops and steals without worrying about becoming overlevelled.

Bosses are your main source for Abilities and Talent Blueprints, and give a free Talent matching their blueprint when they die.

Bosses are difficult and the key to beating them tends to be figuring out what their gimmick is and defending against it.

UI Note: After you have acquired several abilities or ammo types, you might notice a pair of dots above the ability/ammo selection. You can use that to switch between the two sets of four. With mouse/keyboard controls, click on the dots or simply press the ability key (W by default) a second time to swap back and forth between sets.

Only Ive (Scout Stance) and Amon (Thief stance) can steal. Amon starts with Steal, Ive needs to unlock it as an ability.

Enemies tend to have multiple items to steal, usually 3-4. However most steals can appear as common drops from enemies as well, making the use of stealing questionable.

You always steal from lowest to highest value (rarity), so feel free to steal multiple times. If you miss a steal, or the enemy has nothing left to steal, the game will inform you of how many things are left to steal.

For regular enemies, it’s better to soften them up first and then steal so you can quickly finish them off. For bosses, stealing from them at the start is better because your party should be in the best shape. Bosses have more items, but getting the last ones can be tough without bonuses to your steal chance (Pairing Ive and Amon once their bond hits rank 2).

After unlocking the garden, each time you reach a save point, it’s probably a good idea to regularly revisit it and collect your harvest.

A watched plant never fruits. Harvesting tends to happen much more often if you wander around and do things or leave and return to the island than if you sit in the garden and wait.

It’s not the end after your plants reach level 3, they can mutate after certain conditions are met – usually advancing in the plot and/or having a recipe which requires an improved item. The mutation gives you new seeds to make more powerful plants. Plants have three variations: Minor, normal, and Magnum. For example, the Minor Lycrose plant only gives you Mild Lys petals, which are used for Healing Balm +, but once it mutates, it gives you Lycrose seeds which produces Lys Roses which can be used for the Kiss of Lys reviving item.

Uprooting a plant gives you a seed back to replant it, but naturally, it’ll start over from level 1 and will take time to be fully upgraded

You’ll want lots of Cores and Blank Talents, as they are key base components for Talent Crafting.