As soon as you begin the game, you will be thrown into a tutorial mission immediately after viewing a CG. This mission covers the core basic gameplay this game has to offer, which is placing units onto set positions on the map. Your goal is to use these units to defend against a horde of monsters and prevent them from passing through your troops.
After a couple basic missions, you will be shown through the affection/approval menu. You can come back here later, but for now just view one of the units and then immediately leave.
Continue to repeat the story missions. During a mission, you will obtain drops from certain units you kill. You can obtain bonuses for fulfilling certain conditions. For now, what you need to know is that you can obtain useful units by collecting at least one of each drop from a mission map. The reward depends on the map and not all maps will give a reward for collecting every drop from the map. The important thing is that you should be collecting units that will be important to you for the life of the game.
By the time you get to level 4, you will be rewarded with Gold Valkyrie Carrie. Then you will be shown a tutorial on how to add a unit to your deployment group. You will be going through these menus often, so do pay attention! After you add Carrie to your line-up, you should change your title. Your current title provides a bonus HP +10% to your prince. The other titles will provide either a bonus ATK +5%, HP +20%, or Ally ATK/DEF +3%. At later levels, titles can possibly change the outcome of a mission so make sure you check back every couple of levels and change your title accordingly.
Now that you have changed your title, lets add the following units:
Gold Rogue Kyuteri: aigisgot
Gold Heavy Armour Berenice: aigiscomic
Gold Archer Claire: dokidokiminami
Go back and add them to the deployment group.
Continue to repeat story missions and try to unlock the rewards.
Lets cover some important aspects about missions:
You will gain a star for the following:
- Complete the mission
- No units killed (Force a unit to retreat if it's close to dying)
- Kill all enemies
You can only 3-star clear a mission if you obtain all 3 stars in one session. You will not 3-star clear if you obtain each star in separate sessions.
Most missions will reward you with a Sacred Crystal for obtaining a 3-star clear.
When you reach level 5, you will unlock the Tutorial Missions. Each of these mission will consume 1 stamina point.
Here are the rewards for 3-star clearing each mission:
Tutorial Missions
Mission 1: Rean (Silver Heavy)
Mission 2: Christopher (Silver Healer)
Mission 3: Daniela (Silver Archer)
Mission 4: Valerie (Silver Mage)
Mission 5: Calliope (Silver Witch)
Mission 6: Phyllis (Silver Soldier)
Mission 7: Katie (Gold Soldier)
Now that you have completed the tutorial missions, change your line-up to the following:
Phyllis (Silver Soldier)
Soma, Daniela (Silver Archer)
Arisa, Ruka, Christopher (Silver Healer)
Valerie (Silver Mage)
Calliope (Silver Witch)
Carrie (Gold Valkyrie)
Rean and/or Berenice (Silver/Gold Heavy Armor)
Claire (Gold Archer)
Katie (Gold Soldier)
With 3 slots left, you can use fill up those slots with units of your choosing. You will be using these units for the life of the game so do not eat these units unless you can obtain a much better unit.
Onto the next set of missions. These missions will use units from your deployment group and can be difficult for new players. It can also be discouraging because you will only get a reward if you get a 3-star clear for each mission. Every stamina used is important!
*** The following may change in future updates ***
Emergency Missions
Mission 1: Cecily (Silver Rogue)
Mission 2: Elaine (Silver Valkyrie)
Mission 3: Nenya (Silver Witch)
Mission 4: Cloris (Gold Witch)*
*Do not attempt this mission until you have progressed further into the game. It is quite difficult for new players with low level starting units.
By the time you complete Mission 3 of the Emergency Missions, you should at least be level 8. At this point you will be mostly doing story missions.
About unit classes:
Soldier:
Soldiers are all around melee units that are pivotal to your line-up. They are balanced units that do not excel offensively or defensively, but they are great early deployment units because of their low cost. These units will block 2 or 3 enemies and are great at stopping goblin rushes. Good soldier units will have the Reinforcement skill. When this skill is used, it will replenish your sortie points. Soldiers with this skill are great assets because they will make missions less difficult. The ability to deploy high cost units sooner because of Reinforcement is not to be underestimated. Never again will you have to wait endlessly to deploy a mage when a horde of red gargoyles is flying through your map.
Rogue:
i dont have much experience with rogues. anyone care to provide some insight about them?
Valkyrie:
Valkyries are on par with soldiers. They perform a similar role in providing you with sortie costs through kills. Every kill performed by this unit will grant a sortie point. something about magic resistance, damage vs certain enemies
Heavy Armor:
Heavy Armors are the tank units of this game. At a moderately high cost, they provide better tanking ability than soldiers. When a soldier's value during a mission is lowered as time progresses, force the soldier to retreat and immediately replace them with a Heavy Armor or a better unit. These units will block 3 or 4 enemies.
Archer:
Archers are ranged units. Their low cost allows them to be deployed early and their range allows them to weaken or kill enemies before they can attack a melee unit. They are great support units because of their ability to provide cover fire. Archers will attack flying units with higher priority.
Witch:
Witches are ranged caster units. Witches are similar to archers, but they have a lower attack range. They will cast an ice shard on a single target. The target will then be inflicted with a short slow debuff. Witches are great against gargoyles. If you are having trouble with gargoyle rushes, then witches will be necessary to complete a mission. Witches will attack flying units with higher priority.
Mage:
Mages are ranged caster units. They will cast a fire blast on a target for high damage. Enemies in the proximity of the blast will take lowered damage. This is useful against horde rushes as well as gargoyle rushes. The only downside is that mages have a high sortie cost. It is necessary to have a soldier deployed early if you want to bring out a mage soon. Mages will attack flying units with higher priority.
Healer:
Healers are healers. What more can be said? Well, positioning is important. A CC'd healer will reduce your reliance on more healers because of the increased casting range, but make sure your units are capable enough to kill enemies without making it a burden on the healer and other units. Healers will heal lower HP units with higher priority (percentage based)
Here are a couple advices that you should keep in mind:
The greatest mistakes will always be the things you do early in the game. Take your time. Play smarter. Be efficient. Be patient. Ask questions before you do something you will inevitably regret.
Never eat your silver units unless you are sure you don't need it. It will only lead into regret. Silver units may not seem great because people tend to think higher grade is better, but these units are actually hard to come by.
You should at least keep 2 mages and 2 witches. These will definitely be important for later missions when red gargoyles become more frequent.
Soldiers and Valkyries are important during the start of a mission. You can get by without them, but these unit classes will make it easier for you to 3-star clear missions. Without them, you are effectively playing a harder mode!
Always get your healers to level 50 before CC'ing them.
If you are going to feed friendship items to a character, always go all-in. A unit with 50% or 100% affection will always be a lot better than multiple units stuck at 20~30%.
Be patient! Best advice I can offer. The joy of this game (for me) is seeing your units become powerful. You will also realize how good units can become later on in the game if you build them up well.
It takes 15,600 experience to get a Silver unit from level 10 to 50. This will require at least 34 silver fairies (almost 2 days worth of stamina) and 34 level 10 bronze units. Plan accordingly and you will never have to do an early CC that you will regret.