Once we have chosen our first character (Shaw) the game will send us to the mission select menu, on your left side you will see your missions available in a rank classification, B, C, D and the number completed/available in the mission rank.
At the moment we will only have one available:
Some important comments before battling:
All the special attacks consume energy, that refill with time, so mix melee attacks and special attacks from time to time, if you ran out of energy, you will not be able to move for a few seconds, and that can be dangerous at Class B/C missions.
The notation for character level lists the Current level (Lvl X) followed by the fractional amount you are to the next level (y / z).
Class D > Lava Guardian
The Lava Ape at Class D has some different attacks: a charged run, some slams in front of him, throw a rock to a mid-range distance and sometimes some fire breathing. So once you get used to the controls you will be able to dodge him during his actions, the best place to attack is between his arms and legs.
Probably you will spend around 1-2 minutes in your first battles, and most likely you will earn 1 S-Rank classification on this fight.
And 10 Hero XP, that will level you up to Lvl 2.
After defeating the BOSS we will unlock our first achievement:
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Now we are back to the mission select menu with a new mission (Imperial Guardian), but before we proceed, let’s start the first grind for one of the hardest achievements of all the game. Now that you know how to fight, let's go back to Class D > Lava Guardian.
In this case, we will go to reduce his health to approximately 33% (but not kill it yet). Instead, we will wait until the time counter reaches 2:00 minutes remaining. After that kill it as soon as possible, this will warranty us 1 A-Rank classification.
We need to do this 4 more times and you will unlock after 15-16 minutes the following achievements:
After this 5 battles, our hero will be at Lvl 5 - 8/24.
The reason to do this at this time is for 2 general purposes
- Be at a descent level in the next missions.
- Unlock this achievement while is still the best time to do it as you have more control over the length of the battles.
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Class D > Imperial Guardian
The Steel Dragon is a T-Rex Berserker Boss, so he has a variety of short range to large range attacks, the best place to be is between his legs, trust me. when you find the correct spot, you will not take any damage from the short range attacks.
Defeating this BOSS will give us the following achievement:
Winning will provide us with +11 Hero XP.
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Class D > Beholder
The beholder is a mid-large range BOSS, the best place to be is behind him, or on a side of him, depending on the attack he is performing. He rarely at Class D uses the poison attack that temporarily protects his back.
Defeating this BOSS will give us the following achievement:
And will provide us with +12 Hero XP, now our hero will be at Lvl 6 - 7/30.
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Class D > The Butcher
The butcher is a heavy attack Boss, so he has a variety of short range to mid-range attacks, with some slam and worm attacks (pretty disgusting). The best place to be is at his back. If you are not quick enough, he is able to kill you in no time, but at our level that should be unlikely.
Defeating this BOSS will give us the following achievement:
And will provide us with +13 Hero XP.
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Class D > Steel Nightmare
We again face the Steel dragon, the mechanics are pretty much the same, but he might use his cannon ball attack more often than before.
Defeating this BOSS will give us the following achievements: (if you grind out the Hunting Ace achievement earlier and have been building up S-ranks)
HeroFinish missions and get 5 S-ratings
And will provide us with +14 Hero XP, now our hero will be at Lvl 7 - 4/36.
We will be prompted with an announcement, our companions are now available and we will get a new achievement:
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Grind time again. This will be the second time consuming part, but once it is done, the final run will be as smooth as possible.
For this grind, we will choose Class D > Steel Nightmare, because the mission gives the most XP to us in Class D.
The plan is to have everybody at level 10, At this moment our general stats are:
Shaw Lvl 7 (4/36)
Violet Lvl 1 (0/10)
Dorrit Lvl 1 (0/10)
At the moment your companions are not able to defeat the BOSS alone fast enough, so you will have to spend some quality time helping them to reach a level 10.
(Every time you go back to the mission select menu you have to choose again the Steel nightmare mission! if you have to choose the Class C > Human Challenger press and after the battle start to go back to the mission select menu). There is no "memory" in the menus to make the selection process quicker. The system always focuses to the newest mission or "highest" in the list.
After 4 battles our stats will be:
Shaw Lvl 8 (24/42)
Violet Lvl 5 (4/24)
Dorrit Lvl 5 (4/24)
Additionally, we will get this next achievement:
After 5 more battles our stats will be:
Shaw Lvl 10 (3/57) [If you chose a different character, she will be here instead of Shaw]
Violet Lvl 7 (20/36)
Dorrit Lvl 7 (20/36)
And depending if you chose Shaw, like I did, this will be the next achievement unlocking:
Finally, after 8 more battles our level stats will be:
Shaw Lvl 11 (58/65)
Violet Lvl 10 (5/57)
Dorrit Lvl 10 (5/57)
At this point, we will get the following achievements, (Violet and Dorrit are the last ones to unlock for me, but if you chose another character, Shaw will unlock instead now).
You can keep grinding until you reach Lvl 20, but since we are now at Lvl 10, we can complete C-Rank missions without a problem.
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Class C > Human Challenger
The first time we have to face another human BOSS, they have the same attack of our characters, so the strategy is to focus on one until it is dead and switch to the next one. Note that the enemy health bar represents the sum of the health of all the enemies rather than just a single character.
After winning we will get +17 Hero XP.
Shaw will be LVL 12 (10/73)
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Class C >????
Gianyvern is a "real" Dragon, his attack is based on his claws and his mouth, so be at his back always. With the level you are now, this fight is not going to be hard at all.
Defeating this BOSS will give us the following achievement:
And will provide us with +15 Hero XP.
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Class C > Destructive Earth
So we are facing again the Lava Ape, he has more health now, and he will perform fire attacks and ground slams more often, so be behind him often.
Defeating this BOSS will provide us with +16 Hero XP.
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Class C > Big Bully Rude
Again we face 2 human challengers, my only advice is to not try to use all your specials moves at the same time, save your energy or you will lose some time during the battle.
Defeating this BOSS will provide us with +19 Hero XP.
Violet will be Lvl 11 (15/65)
Dorrit will be Lvl 11 (15/65)
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Class C > Kill Everything
Fight the butcher again. This time he will be more savage so if you happen to have him in a corner or at the edge of the map, all the better. That's the best place to be with him. If he is running around, be aware of his right hand because he does a 360° attack.
Defeating this BOSS will provide us with +18 Hero XP.
Shaw will be Lvl 13 (5/82)
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Class C > The Evil Eye
The beholder fight again so almost the same strategy. Only need to be slightly more cautious of his movements.
Defeating this BOSS will provide us with +19 Hero XP.
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Class C > Bandit Rock
This time, we are facing 3 human challengers. Keep the same strategy of focusing on one opponent at a time if you are able to. Otherwise, avoid the damage as much as possible.
Defeating this BOSS will provide us with +23 Hero XP.
Violet will be Lvl 12 (10/73)
Dorrit will be Lvl 12 (10/73)
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Class C > Steel Ripper
The steel dragon once again. Use the same strategy as before: be between his legs and you should be able to defeat him without taking any damage if you do it correctly.
Defeating this BOSS will provide us with +21 Hero XP.
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Class C > Flames of Hell
Lava Ape approaching. This time he will introduce a new attack if he didn't already last time. It starts as a ground attack and finishes with a meteorite attack all around him. If you see a red circle on the floor next to your character, you will only have a second to react and dodge where the meteorite is going to strike.
Defeating this BOSS will provide us with +22 Hero XP.
Shaw will be Lvl 14 (9/92)
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Class C > Wandering Knight
We are facing 3 human challengers again. By now you should have figured out how to deal with them, just keep a look at your companion’s health.
Defeating this BOSS will provide us with +24 Hero XP.
Violet will be Lvl 13 (4/82)
Dorrit will be Lvl 13 (4/82)
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Class C > Savage Conqueror
The butcher is now in green and with a hammer. This is the hardest mission at Class C. Try to avoid his hammer always. He is still very powerful and can take down your health very quickly. Try to defeat him before he kills your companions as it can get very difficult without the rest of team.
Defeating this BOSS will provide us with +24 Hero XP.
Violet will be Lvl 13 (4/82)
Dorrit will be Lvl 13 (4/82)
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Class C > Dungeon Suffering
Mizuchi is sort of a worm/Corpser (GoW) thing, the best place I found to be attacking is right in front of his stomach. You might get hit sometimes, but at your level you will be more than capable of defeating him easily before you need to start to worry.
Defeating this BOSS will give us the following achievements:
MasterComplete 12 C-Grade missions
And will provide us with +25 Hero XP.
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With that done, we have only 5 more achievements to work towards. To get those, we're going to Grind the second of the hardest achievements. So let's head first to the Class B > Destructive Rock mission
Class B > Destructive Rock
The Lava Ape at this moment will be a real challenge for us. Keep in mind that your companions will very likely die, so when that happens dodge, attack, wait to get more energy, repeat. I defeated him at the first try at 3m, 35s with only 200 hp remaining.
Defeating this BOSS will provide us with +26 Hero XP.
Shaw will be Lvl 15 (15/102)
NOTE: If you are not able to defeat him at the first try, you can go back to grind the Class D > Steel Dragon, until you are Lvl 15 and thus able to proceed comfortably to next mission.
Also, if you happen to lose, that's okay. We will have to lose 10 times later, so don't be sad if that happens naturally.
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Class B > Bloody Mouth
The Steel Dragon again. The strategy is the same, only in this case, he will be more active and will run more often. Violet is likely going to die first. If Dorrit dies too, you will likely run out of time due the inability to do sufficient damage.
Defeating this BOSS will provide us with +27 Hero XP.
Violet will be Lvl 14 (24/92)
Dorrit will be Lvl 14 (24/92)
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Class B > Escaped Swordman
3 human challengers this time. It appears this is a copycat version of our current team, so we are very able to defeat them with not much trouble using a similar strategy to the past human challenger fights.
Defeating this BOSS will provide us with +24 Hero XP.
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So, here we are, the second hardest achievement of all.
Class B > Honor Killing
The purpose on this mission is to die, 10 times, so be at the range of his hammer always.
I picked this mission because when he does his charged attack with the left arm (he spins two times his hammer before smashing it), if it hit us, is almost an instant kill.
Do that 9 more times to unlock:
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Let's go for the final grinding part
In this case we have two options for the Class B achievement:
Class B > Bloody Mouth
Class B > Escaped Swordman
Taking in consideration that we have 3/10 B-Rank victories, we will go through Class B > Bloody Mouth for the next part of the achievement. if you chose the other mission, then you only need to consider the 3 Hero XP difference each time I said After "X" battles.
So even though we are grinding, please take note that Bloody Mouth might be still be hard for some people. Therefore, don't let your guard down. If your companions die before you hit his 2x life bars, you will likely need to restart the mission. Trust me, it is not easy to do it solo when he is almost unharmed.
Once you have managed to defeat him 2 times our general status will be:
Shaw will be Lvl 16 (18/112)
Violet will be Lvl 15 (10/102)
Dorrit will be Lvl 15 (10/102)
We will unlock now:
After 5 more victories we will unlock the next achievement:
With that done, we can go back to Class D > Steel Dragon until we reach Lvl 20 with all 3 characters to unlock the last 2 achievements. If your two other characters are strong enough, you can leave all the battling to them and only need to select the mission each time.
With that, you will have all the achievements and thanks for reading