Dragon Quest 11

[Dinkin_Flicka]

At about 37 hours and cleared the first portion of act 2. Really digging the game, so glad to hear there is a ton of content endgame wise after you beat the game. Love going through and optomizing all of my characters.

 

[Dinkin_Flicka]

Been playing through the game on normal mode and kind of regretting it since it's been pretty easy and finally hit a boss that had a pretty big difficulty spike that gave me some problems. Gear has been getting really expensive so I haven't been outfitting each character as I've got them back in Act 2, and since it's been pretty easy I haven't been smartly carrying items in each characters inventory.

The boss at the end of the gold palace took me down to the wire. Pretty much everyone was out of MP and running low on health when I finally took it down. Had it gone a few more rounds I probably would have lost since I was out of recovery options.

 

[Dinkin_Flicka]

I must say that I'm super dissapointed when you finally unlock the flying "ship", and how it limits you to a handful of landing spots. One of my favorite things about fantasy JRPG's is finally unlocking some sort of air ship and then the world is yours. The level of freedom you get to roam to every nook and cranny on the map.

Navigating your ride feels great and world looks beautiful, you just can't get out and land. And the spots that you can land at are little pocket clearings that are essentially islands.

 

[MardyBum]

Been playing through the game on normal mode and kind of regretting it since it's been pretty easy and finally hit a boss that had a pretty big difficulty spike that gave me some problems. Gear has been getting really expensive so I haven't been outfitting each character as I've got them back in Act 2, and since it's been pretty easy I haven't been smartly carrying items in each characters inventory.

The boss at the end of the gold palace took me down to the wire. Pretty much everyone was out of MP and running low on health when I finally took it down. Had it gone a few more rounds I probably would have lost since I was out of recovery options.

Just picked it up, any tips besides starting on a harder difficulty?

 

[Dinkin_Flicka]

Just picked it up, any tips besides starting on a harder difficulty?

Feel free to try different builds. Pretty early on you unlock an ability at save spots to reset skill points under a specific tree. so if you don't like how great swords are going, you can switch.

Craft early and often along with reforging equipment up to +3. every time you craft an item you get perfectionist Pearl's for reforging. Fairly early on you get to a place called Hotto and the campsite outside has a vendor that sells the mats to make a feather hat. as long as the original craft is +1(which is easy to do), you can sell the item for more than the investment. this is a good way in the early game to stock up on Pearl's. A little bit later you can buy the Pearl's so don't spend to much time doing this. it's just a good option in the early game.

I only figured this out recently and felt dumb when I stumbled on it. When you open the area map, hit "X" to open the map options. At the bottom of the list has the option to look at all of the Sparkley Spots on the map. it tells what they are if you found them already, and shows the location of spots you haven't harvested yet.

I would look up a crafting recipie guide as well. There are so many and can be easy to miss if you don't check every nook and cranny. If you're playing on hard you're going to want access to the upgraded equipment. I don't remember the site I was using, but it sorted them chronologically, so it was nice to be able to keep up to date as I progressed the game.

 

[MardyBum]

As always, thanks @Dinkin_Flicka !

 

[MardyBum]

Went with reduced experience from easy fights and tougher enemies. I usually get bored if the fights are too easy. Don't mind the jrpg grind if the enemies are a challenge. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Dinkin_Flicka]

Finished up Act 2 this morning and just getting my bearings in Act 3 checking out all of my new recepies. A LOT of upgrades to work on. Going to be some serious farming coming up.

 

[Headkicktoleg]

Just beat the true final boss after completing all the post game content! WOO!

 

[Dinkin_Flicka]

Finally started the trials, working on #3 and going through them kind of slow as I unlock some of the end game equipment and work on some upgrades. I think I need to take some time and grind out some levels as well since it's not just about beating the bosses, but doing it in a limited amount of turns.

 

[UFCBlackbelt]

Finally started the trials, working on #3 and going through them kind of slow as I unlock some of the end game equipment and work on some upgrades. I think I need to take some time and grind out some levels as well since it's not just about beating the bosses, but doing it in a limited amount of turns.

I just got to Phnom nonm after getting the silver orb at the Eerie location (god what a bitch that thing was to kill). I have a playthrough where it's permadeath, strong monsters on. The only leeway I give myself is that every 10 levels I get one revive allowed (for the odd boss with a huge difficulty curve) I've already used both and I'm level 29 at the moment. I fought the bird monster for the silver orb and it was insane, I was reduced to about 10 hp with my main and all my members dead and managed to kill it through sheer endurance (let it drain all its mp). Ganna grind like crazy for the Mural Lady because she seems like a beast.

Been awesome though, don't know how much longer I have to go but I've been taking screenshots throughout the journey and its been a blast.

 

[Dinkin_Flicka]

I just got to Phnom nonm after getting the silver orb at the Eerie location (god what a bitch that thing was to kill). I have a playthrough where it's permadeath, strong monsters on. The only leeway I give myself is that every 10 levels I get one revive allowed (for the odd boss with a huge difficulty curve) I've already used both and I'm level 29 at the moment. I fought the bird monster for the silver orb and it was insane, I was reduced to about 10 hp with my main and all my members dead and managed to kill it through sheer endurance (let it drain all its mp). Ganna grind like crazy for the Mural Lady because she seems like a beast.

Been awesome though, don't know how much longer I have to go but I've been taking screenshots throughout the journey and its been a blast.

I made the mistake thinking I was "getting close to the end" a few times. Things start to feel like they're coming to an end working towards a finale, then BOOM.. Act 2. Then as Act 2 seems to be wrapping up to a close........ Surprise!!! Act 3!!

Good luck with the rest of the run. There have definitely been a few times where I felt a little over leveled for the general enemies, and get to the boss with get hit with a big difficulty spike.

 

[Total Immortal]

Man I bet you guys are lightyears ahead of me lol. I just left Gallopolis and got the 5th party member. I love the game so much, just haven't had much time to play it.

 

[Cantalope]

Finally got around to playing this. Right now I just got the sisters in my party and arrived at the Sultans town.

 

[Dinkin_Flicka]

At the 3rd trial boss and just getting wrecked. The combo of the knockdown and beguilement make it impossible to launch any kind of offensive trying to out muscle him. Was hoping I could upgrade some gear and levels, but still getting smashed with my old strategy.

I have a new strategy in mind but have been avoiding due to the amount of rare items needed to make the status blocking Catholicon Rings. At max level they block 50% of the status ailments I'm getting hit with, so equiping my team with 2 each should negate all of his ailments and allow me to burn him down.

I will say that the end game has me completely hooked. Gearing up characters with their uber gear and stats has always been my favorite part of RPG's and DQXI does a great job sending you all over the map gathering the required recipies, materials, progression based items to make it fun, but not super grindy.

*edit*

The grind for the mats wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be to make the Catholicon Rings since all of the items except the Red Wood could be purchased, and they were easy to farm from the Stump enemies in the First Forest.

Got all the items and leveled up the 8 rings to +3, only to find out that they don't protect from beguilement but they did at least stop the knockdown. Ended up winning the fight but didn't come in under the turn limit. Time for more upgrades.

 

[MardyBum]

Just about to collect the last you know what from Sniflheim, about how far through the game am I?

 

[Dinkin_Flicka]

Just about to collect the last you know what from Sniflheim, about how far through the game am I?

You're coming up on the end of Act 1. You're probably about a third of the way through the game. There is tons of end game stuff to do as well that tacks a significant amount of time if you want to gather the Uber equipment.

 

[MardyBum]

Lol, RD2 will have to wait until Dec.

 

[Headkicktoleg]

At the 3rd trial boss and just getting wrecked. The combo of the knockdown and beguilement make it impossible to launch any kind of offensive trying to out muscle him. Was hoping I could upgrade some gear and levels, but still getting smashed with my old strategy.

I have a new strategy in mind but have been avoiding due to the amount of rare items needed to make the status blocking Catholicon Rings. At max level they block 50% of the status ailments I'm getting hit with, so equiping my team with 2 each should negate all of his ailments and allow me to burn him down.

I will say that the end game has me completely hooked. Gearing up characters with their uber gear and stats has always been my favorite part of RPG's and DQXI does a great job sending you all over the map gathering the required recipies, materials, progression based items to make it fun, but not super grindy.

*edit*

The grind for the mats wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be to make the Catholicon Rings since all of the items except the Red Wood could be purchased, and they were easy to farm from the Stump enemies in the First Forest.

Got all the items and leveled up the 8 rings to +3, only to find out that they don't protect from beguilement but they did at least stop the knockdown. Ended up winning the fight but didn't come in under the turn limit. Time for more upgrades.

Snap crackle poof, a serina spell blocks all statuses for like 5 turns. Makes the fight a cakewalk.

 

[Dinkin_Flicka]

Snap crackle poof, a serina spell blocks all statuses for like 5 turns. Makes the fight a cakewalk.

I need to do a better job of saving Pep to begin a battle. Beat the 3rd Trial once I was better equiped and then took some time upgrading everyone to their character specific armor sets, upgraded weapons to the best available, and just some general leveling.

Went back to the 1st Trial to face off against the supped up boss to get the last 2 wishes. Got absolutly demolished in the second half of the fight. It was going good until the Boss Pepped up and started double dipping AoE attacks. No matter how much I tried to heal, it's crazy hard to stay on top of healing when both enemies get to attack twice, dealing dealing 200+ to the whole party.