Bravely Default is almost upon us, so that means classic, turn-based RPG goodness will grace your Nintendo 3DS. While we have to hold off on our review until the embargo lifts, I will share some helpful tips that will get you acquainted with Bravely Default's mechanics, as they're quite unique for an RPG.
Brave (almost) all the time
One of the major mechanics of combat is the ability to Brave and Default. Braving will allow you to stack up to four commands at a time, while Defaulting skips your character's turn, but also raises their defenses. The reason Braving is so important, especially early game, is that it allows you to dispatch most enemies without giving them a chance to hit you.
There is still slight risk involved. Since Braving stacks up four commands at a time, it also means if you don't kill your enemies in that turn, you'll have to wait four turns to act again. Obviously classes like Black Mages who rely on mana won't be best suited for this tactic, but Monk, one of the first classes you attain in the game is an extremely high DPS and high speed character that can absolutely wipe up enemies with their normal attacks.
Use the L & R buttons to Brave and Default
This is a minor tip, but it will decrease the time you have to navigate to the Brave and Default option in the battle menu, as you can simply tap either L or R to Brave or Default. You can even switch the buttons depending on your personal preference.
Encounter Rate
One of the best and surprising features of Bravely Default is its ability to change the encounter rate of monsters on the fly. From the Difficulty settings in the Config option, you can increase your encounter rate, essentially doubling it, or turn it off completely, allowing you to explore at your leisure. This feature is absolutely essential for grinding.
Jacking the slider all the way up while you're on the World Map will get you into a battle every few steps, which is perfect for leveling up both your character and Job level.
Auto Battle
Either I missed this tutorial somewhere near the beginning of the game or it just straight up doesn't tell you about it. Auto battling is the ultimate tool to leveling up quickly, especially if you put the first few tips in this article to use.
Auto battle is simple. You're first required to input commands for each character for a single turn. Then during the next turn (or next battle if you kill your enemies in a single turn) you can press Y and it will reuse the same tactics from the previous turn, over and over again. This will come in handy especially when grinding levels, and you don't want to keep keep Braving each turn. However, if you're seeing that your party is in trouble, you can just press the Y button again to get yourself out of a pinch.
Of course Auto battles are discouraged for Boss fights, as tactics have to be switched up completely.
Build up Norende ASAP
The demo of Bravely Default introduced us to a side quest which involved restoring a town, and building back up its various facilities. These facilities could then be leveled up which increased their inventory and allowed players to purchase better weapons, armor and consumables. However, restoring each facility took real time into account. The more people you streetpassed, the faster buildings were finished building.
Therefore stating to restore it ASAP can be tricky, especially for those who don't get a lot of Streetpasses in a given day. Not to mention, the person you Streetpass has to either have the full game or the demo. But there is a trick to getting more each day, and that is…
Collect Net Friends
If you either don't get enough Streetpasses each day, or your friends don't have the game, you can always collect a few Net friends every 24 hour period. It's not the greatest solution as you always get around 3 Net friends a day, but it's a start.
There is another added benefit to getting Net friends. Every friend who gets added into Norende can also be Summoned in battle, and since Net friends are random, you can get some really powerful allies that can help out during difficult battles. Each friend will be represented by a Power level and a color. Red power levels will do damage, while blue ones will offer a support skill or healing.
When hope is lost, Bravely Second!
If you're really struggling to beat a boss, and no matter what tactic you used, you end up getting your butt kicked, the answer is to cheat! What?! Blasphemy! Bravely Default has a built in 'cheat' system called Bravely Second, which allows you to interrupt an enemy's turn at will, and queue up a whole new set of commands.
Bravely Second however requires you to use Sleep Points, and the only way you get SP is by putting your 3DS to sleep, literally. By shutting your 3DS shut and having it on standby, it will accumulate 1 SP every 8 hours, which means if you don't play for a full 24 hours for example, you'll have the maximum amount saved up. In case that math was difficult, your max amount of SP allowed is 3.
