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NanostrikeX
09-13-2010, 08:24 PM
The game can be pretty daunting when you first start out, so I've put a lot of what I've learned into some tips for first-timers!

Basic economics starting out:
Focus more on running the shop than dungeon crawling! Dungeon crawling detracts a LOT from shop time and can cripple you early in the game.

Some tips:

-Your Merchant level is the most important. As it goes up, you can expand the shop, get new decorations, and, most importantly, get newer, more expensive items at the Market and Guild! This helps your income and can help you equip adventurers.

-DO NOT ADVENTURE TOO MUCH! I cannot stress this one enough. One adventuring cycle is missing out on either 2 store hours or 1 store hour and a trip to the market/guild for restocking/fusions! Not to mention that you can miss out on crazes, orders, and market opportunities! Plus, most of the stuff you'll get from the early dungeons is garbage compared to what the guild will sell you with a decent Merchant Level! Maybe 1 or 2 trips a week just to progress would be idea, but more than that and you start taking a BIG financial hit.

-Sell cheaper stuff that you're not gonna make much profit on anyway for about 105% base price. This is very important. That extra 15 pix you could get from haggling on Walnut Bread isn't worth it! People will start to like you more (And will bring more money!), and you'll be scoring Just Combos since you never have to renegotiate a deal. Your Merchant Level will soar and your customers will start coming in with cash!

-Take ALL orders and buy EVERYTHING they sell. Buy for 70% base and they'll always accept.

-Never suggest expensive items early on. Give them a cheap item at 105% base. Like above, this makes them like you and preserves your Just Combo.

-Start buying the most expensive items (Best weapons, armors, ect. Usually the 1-per-week items that go out of stock!) from the guild and putting them out on shelves, particularly the display window slots. People will see them and come in. If they bring up one of those items, sell it to 'em, by all means! They'll never bring up something that was on display in the store unless they can afford it!

-For those big ticket items, the good sell spots to start at are 105% (Little Girl), 110% (Housewife), 115% (Old Man), 120% (Young Man), and 125% (Guildmaster). After a bit, you can start SLOWLY increasing that. But you'll be making a profit anyway, as you buy these from the Guild for less than base cost to begin with!

-If an item is Blue, subtract 50% from what you would sell it at. If it's Red, add 100% to what you would sell it at. Like before, if they pick it up from your in-store display, they will have enough money even after this multiplier.

-Along these lines, it's essential that you take Blue items off your shelves and try to stock Red ones whenever possible! You want to sell for a big gain, not a loss!

-Keep a big stock on-hand! You never know what people will come in asking for. Popular ones are Books, Foodstuffs, Treasures, Hats, Bracelets, and later, Rings. Keeping even cheap ones can get you a sale when requested and keep your Just Combo going, so always have at least 4 of every kind of item on-hand!

-Pay attention to the news. When an item is Increased in Value (Red), it'll usually STILL be less than base price in the market/guild! So you can buy up some and sell for 200% in your shops for a killing! If it's Decreased in Value (Blue),it'll be half price for sale too! So it can REALLY pay to stock up and sell it when it normalizes! I easily made 100k early on by buying up armor when it was devalued and waiting until it was in demand to sell!

-Act on crazes! If you get a new message of "Reading is reaching an all-time high among young girls!" act on it! If you don't know what they can afford, get the cheapest items, but if you have an idea of what they can afford, get an appropriate one. I recommend picking up at least 16, but 20 is usually an idea number!

Then proceed to stock every spot in your store with one during any hour slot besides night time. They will come in seeking the items and you'll make a killing! Even selling at 105% base price, you're buying at BELOW base price so you're making out like a bandit! And the Just Combos get HUGE.

I made close to 50k selling Alchemy in 10 Days books (8K Base Price, 5K at Market!) to Young Girls during a craze! One can only imagine what horrors these girls will do with their newfound alchemy skills, but it gained me 2 1/2 merchant levels in one time slot!


And a final note: Equipping adventurers... I'd focus on one adventurer at a time Keep one of whatever set of items you want to sell to your adventurer (Usually the best stuff the guild can offer, but might be Fusion Items) on hand (NOT on shelves). If they ask for that item, sell it to them for obscenely cheap so they'll be SURE to get it (500pix for a Demon Slayer for Louie made me cringe but was worth it!).

Once you get more items (As the guild will usually only have one per week of the best items!), put them on the shelves, especially the display windows. If an adventurer buys it, sell it for 105% by all means! And if someone else buys it...well, you're still selling the most expensive item possible to someone for 105% base price (Or more if you're feeling brave!), and keeping an extra with you in case an adventurer requests the item that was just sold.

Wasting time holding all of your best items for adventurers cripples you, though! Don't do it! Get one per adventurer you intend on using.

NanostrikeX
09-13-2010, 08:26 PM
Dungeoneering Basics:
IMO, the most fun parts of the game are the dungeon delves. Unfortunately, they're also the most time-consuming, resource-hogging, and risky parts! But I've learned a few things about it...

-First, realize that Adventurers are an INVESTMENT. If you want your adventurers equipped better, you'll often have to take a loss. In the early game, you may need to give Louie a 3,000pix Sword for him to be able to take on enemies, but he'll have nowhere near enough money to buy it! In times like this, you need to just take it as an investment. Sell it to 'em for 100pix so they'll be sure to get it.

-On that note, try to stick to one adventurer. Equip the others if you get a chance, and be sure to try them out (You just might find a new favorite!), but focus on one that you're best with and will be using the most!

-Try to get them to buy accessories! Boots, Necklaces, Bracelets...all are incredibly helpful. Charms boost Magic Resistance for characters like Louie and Elan while Bracelets boost defense for characters like Charme and Calliou. Often times just putting these out on display will get an adventurer to buy them, so always try to have some available, even if they're not the absolute best, as many adventurers (Notably Calliou) can start with 2 empty accessory slots!

-For low HP adventurers (Charme and Calliou come to mind early on), pick up the HP Max increasing medicines at the Market whenever you have the money and they aren't sold out! These give permanent HP Max increases of anywhere from 3 to 8, depending on the medicine. I'm sure there's an upper limit on the HP increases, but I've yet to hit it and having an extra 30-40 HP on a squishy adventurer early-game is a BIG help! This goes along with the "Focus on your best adventurer" part, because it's quite expensive to increase HP and it won't have much of an impact unless you focus all your HP increasing efforts on one Adventurer!

-I haven't used ALL the adventurers yet, but there are special things each one has, along with their strengths and weaknesses:

+Louie can block NON-MAGIC projectiles if he's facing them and not attacking. He also has a wide swing. Other than that, nothing really special. Good Defense, average attack and HP, poor Magic and Resistance. Good early-on, but if you don't get him some Magic Resistance gear, he'll be in trouble later

+Charme can dash, becoming briefly invulnerable at the start of the dash. She also has the invaluable Trap Sense. If you stand next to a trap and see an exclaimation above Charme's head, don't open that chest; it's trapped! Low HP and Defense, good attack, average resistance.

+Calliou gains SP from each attack he does. If he charges his normal attack, he can shoot a fireball that will also give him SP. He has good Magic and Resistance, but pathetic HP and Defense, so give him some HP boosts and high defense items like Bracelets. Use Magic on stronger enemies and groups and use your SP-restoring melee/fireball on weaker or isolated enemies!

+Elan is your heavy-hitter. He can dash (And ram enemies with it!) but can't change direction. He has short range but hard-hitting punches that can be combo'd by rapidly pressing the attack button. Very high attack, high HP, and decent defense, but low Resistance and Magic.

-Unlock the later dungeons as quick as you can. This can mean running the entire 15 floors of Jade Way in one run, if you so desire. The early dungeons have absolute garbage as their loot (Typically nothing better than Longswords!) and are largely a waste of time for anything besides Fusion Ingredients. The later dungeons not only have more and better Fusion ingredients, but better loot. You can often find rare, dungeon-only treasures and items as early as Amber Garden!

-Focus on ingredients. Most of the loot you find there will be garbage (Rusty swords, wooden helments) and even though ingredients don't have a lot of selling value, their use in Fusions is really the entire point for going into the dungeon!

-Keep a few fusion items. A lot of Rank 1 and Rank 2 Fusion items are used as ingredients in Rank 3 and higher Fusions!

dorn123
09-14-2010, 02:25 AM
Seems like you missed one thing that's important.

The cash limit for customers only applies when they ask you to recommend something.

So for adventurer's you can just put out expensive gear on the counters and then charge them full price for them.

The thing that I don't understand as a newb is how to not waste time going to town. I don't want to miss scenes but often if you check for them the town is just empty. The only way to not waste massive time on this seems to be cheating by saving and loading.

Also concrete info on how to get new adventurer's would be good.

aiyaka
09-14-2010, 02:42 AM
The thing that I don't understand as a newb is how to not waste time going to town. I don't want to miss scenes but often if you check for them the town is just empty. The only way to not waste massive time on this seems to be cheating by saving and loading.

Also concrete info on how to get new adventurer's would be good.

When there's an event, the location name will flash. So if say.. euria is in the square then when your at the town map the name plate for the square will pulse. Just watch for that and you won't waste time.

as for adventurer info: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1431543 <---this is the most helpful thread in this forum :)

NanostrikeX
09-14-2010, 05:07 AM
Seems like you missed one thing that's important.

The cash limit for customers only applies when they ask you to recommend something.

So for adventurer's you can just put out expensive gear on the counters and then charge them full price for them.

The thing that I don't understand as a newb is how to not waste time going to town. I don't want to miss scenes but often if you check for them the town is just empty. The only way to not waste massive time on this seems to be cheating by saving and loading.

Also concrete info on how to get new adventurer's would be good.

You won't "Miss" any scenes at all. When you're running around in town on errands, if a spot is flashing there's a scene. If not, there isn't. Eventually you'll see all the scenes. The only way you could "Miss" them is that certain ones only happen at night, so be sure to do some evening pickups/fusions at the guild every now and then.

Village Idiot
09-14-2010, 07:29 AM
Use them Vending Machines and keep them stocked up at all times.

Customers will purchase (sometimes the same customer can make multiple purchases) from the Vending Machines in addition to buying off shelf.

You will not be able to negotiate and will always sell for base value, but you will still make more money off sheer volume.

Ataru
09-14-2010, 09:05 AM
Nice thread and thanks for the tips, wish i had seen this earlier lol.

Sabotage101
09-14-2010, 09:24 AM
To re-iterate, vending machines always sell at base value regardless of the item currently selling for 50% or 200%. So, always pull your red items out of vending machines and stick them on the shelves. Don't worry about having them stocked with blue items. I typically keep 2 vending machines stocked with the items you can purchase unlimited amounts of to sell as much volume as possible while I have limited items or red items on the shelves for higher profits.

Many characters start out poor. If they're a new character and ask for a specific type of item even though you have a few of that variety on your shelf, you can assume they probably can't buy it because they can't afford it. Keep a cheap item of each variety on hand to train their wallets when they make requests. When they make their first order, keep their budget in mind and have medium priced items on hand that they can afford. The price of items they're buying off the shelves is a good indicator of their budget. Don't try to sell them two of your highest value items that are currently selling for 200% if you don't think they have the means to pay.

voidfox
09-14-2010, 11:54 AM
I thought you could purchase items for your adventurers and equip them before you head into a dungeon instead of waiting for them to purchase it?

Aerowind
09-14-2010, 12:03 PM
You can, but it takes inventory space, and as such, you can lose it if you die in a dungeon. It's always better for an Adventurer to own his own equipment.

voidfox
09-14-2010, 12:04 PM
You can, but it takes inventory space, and as such, you can lose it if you die in a dungeon. It's always better for an Adventurer to own his own equipment.

Right - that makes sense. *Stocks shelves up with gear*

StarlightGamer
09-18-2010, 10:02 AM
The second post touches on the HP Max medicines, but what about the other medicines? Are they permanent too? I'm talking about the Defense/Attack/Speed potions from fusion and the Secret Mix medicine. I initially assumed that the fusion medicine was temporary, but it would be pretty awesome if it did turn out to be permanent.

Also, there is an upper limit on the HP increases. It seems like you can get maybe 200-250 to your max HP per character with the market medicine. My Louie maxed out at 651 HP at level 99.

Edit: I used a Solid Concoction, and it raised my defense by 30. The fact that that wasn't reflected in my actual stats leads me to believe that isn't permanent. It would probably be overpowered if it was. The other Concoctions probably aren't permanent either. I haven't tried the Secret Mix yet, but those are rare and I need several more before I'll have extras after fusion, so it could take a while.

BlueLegion
09-18-2010, 10:46 AM
i found Tielle to be my favorite adventurer. charging her basic attack for 5 seconds can release an attack that pwns half of the screen. her skills are very very useful too

Warskullx
09-18-2010, 10:54 AM
Seems like you missed one thing that's important.

The cash limit for customers only applies when they ask you to recommend something.

So for adventurer's you can just put out expensive gear on the counters and then charge them full price for them.

The thing that I don't understand as a newb is how to not waste time going to town. I don't want to miss scenes but often if you check for them the town is just empty. The only way to not waste massive time on this seems to be cheating by saving and loading.

Also concrete info on how to get new adventurer's would be good.

No, what happens is they just won't pick up something outside their price range. You put a 30,000 piece of equipment out when everyone's budget is 10,000 and it won't sell. However, if you really want that adventurer to have that piece of equipment you can sell at a massive loss when you recommend it. Sometimes it is worth eating a 20,000 pic loss to get a good piece of equipment in their hand.

Dungeons don't start paying off until the 3rd one. The 1st/2nd dungeon will only make money on fusions and that is random.

Crazes seem to only trigger once per day.

Vending machines will sell items that aren't popular. You'll notice some items fly off the shelves others sit around and people don't buy them. For example, I am having trouble selling treasures, even in the window. People buy the treasures from the vending machines though.

Plank
09-20-2010, 06:00 PM
Thanks, I beat the game in 2 days using your tips, I went to the dungeon the first time and never went again. Relied on buying selling.

Defaultv1
09-20-2010, 06:54 PM
I don't understand the system of Customers liking you. I offered all my goods for 104% for the entire first week, and the heart icons from customers were scarce.

madgreyone
09-20-2010, 08:08 PM
Only one week? I haven't tracked how often I get hearts, but a rate of one per week per customer sounds about right for a first loop. Something too keep in mind is that hearts boost their budgets by way more than double. One heart can take a little girl from freaking out over a 2000pix hat to happily buying a red showcase silver armor for 22000. And hearts carry over into newgame+ too, day 11 or so on my fourth loop I filled an order from the guildmaster with four red treasures, netted a cool 1.4 mil in a single sale.

The hearts don't indicate happy with the price of the current sale, that is indicated by nearpins, just pins, and(maybe) the customers facial expressions. The hearts indicate that the customer has had enough good shopping experiences to bring along more money next time(increased customer budget).

Also, is anyone else selling at base instead of %104? most of the time I'm too lazy to adjust the price just to get an extra thousand or two.

hyperhopper
09-23-2010, 03:49 PM
whats the best table to vending machine ratio?