Tips to Get Started!

***"Hi... My name is Archie, Archie the Archwing, fierce predator of Avalon's Roaring Valley. Now I know many of you are just raring to go and explore this place, but let me tell you, tiny morsels... Avalon is not your backyard where you play games. This place means business and has many things that can quickly end your short-lived lives... me included, but I digress. I'm actually feeling nice and I think I'm going to give you little snacks some pointers to get started. Pay attention, or else I might bite off that useless head of yours to save the trouble for the other monsters. Got it? Good... Let's begin."***

## **Hit Points and Survival**

*"Ok, so first thing's first... It's a Archwing-eat-Human world when you're here on Avalon, so sometimes the Archwing (that's me) is going to eat you, and other times, you're going to run away from the Archwing (me, again!). It's good that you meals-to-be know their place... even if you are resilient things at times."*

***Summary:*** In The Legend of Legacy, there're a few things you need to know about combat... things that make the game a bit unconventional compared to most of its contemporaries:

- Hit Points actually fully replenish to their maximum at the end of a fight! Did you just win a battle with your crew bleeding to death but victorious? No need to fear! You'll be fully patched up as good as new for the next fight completely free of item use!

- When monsters manage to get the best of you and knock a character's HP to 0, you'll notice an added, red number popping up over the damage of the killing blow. This is what I like to call "Mortal Damage". This damage actually pierces into your character's Maximum HP value, and this provides two dangers: less HP to work with if you're deep into adventuring (thus making combat that much more risky), and the increasing danger of having a character actually die due to their Maximum HP dropping to 0. If this character death happens at any time, then you instantly are hit with a Game Over, so be forewarned!

- Fleeing from combat is also quite different from most games. Whereas most games just have you escape the battle and have you appear right where you were, the "Run Away" command in The Legend of Legacy goes above and beyond that. It's successful 100% of the time (barring you're in a boss fight), but there's a caveat: When you run? You run for the hills, or in this case, the entrance of the entire area. Annoying as it might be, it can be useful for leaving a place if you've done all that you wanted to do, or it can save your bacon if one or more of your party members are in danger of dropping to 0 HP! Never be ashamed to flee from a fight you feel you can't win.

- There are two ways to replenish your Maximum HP: go back to Initium and sleep at the Inn for the wonderful price of 0 St., or, if you have them handy, use a Sea Ointment, a somewhat rare consumable.

- If a character's KO'd in combat, this game does not have revival items. Instead, simply use a Healing Item that's equipped on a character, or cast a Water Charm like Healing Hands or Rejuvenation on them. The HP Regen effect of a Water-dominant field (more on this later) does not apply to a KO'd character, so they won't revive from it. Another method you can do is cast Phoenix's Grace, a Fire Charm that automatically resurrects a party member from KO as soon as it happens.

## **Weapons and Charms: Their Specialites**

*"Unlike such a proud predator such as myself, you little runts run around Avalon with little pointy sticks and whatnot to have a fighting chance against the dangers here, but all are not created equal. I'm not so saavy on how weapons work myself, as I got these beefy talons here on my forelegs, but each weapon, including your tiny, bare hands, can pull off pretty impressive things from what I can gather."*

**Fists**
+ Can cause Stun, ATK Down, MAG Down, and Confuse

+ Has Defensive and Counterhit Arts capable of Stunning

+ Very SP efficient, can tank well.

- Has no weapons, therefore doesn't need upgrades but is weak to attack

- No AoE type attacks

**Short Swords**

+ Loads of Variety in Arts

+ Can cause SPD Down, Instant-Kill, ATK Down, and Confuse

+ Has Defensive and Counterhit Arts

+ A real jack-of-all-trades weapon, capable of debuffs, tanking, and AoE

+ Useable by just about anyone effectively

- Loads of Variety in Arts, almost too much (Just HOW MANY 0SP Arts are there for this?!)

**Long Swords**

+ Can cause ATK Down

+ Has Defensive and Counterhit Arts

+ Great damage potential

+ Has AoE type attacks

- Limited debuff potential, almost being pure DPS

- Best weapon is a Fire relic, which is effectively has fully realized potential with Bianca.

**Axes**

+ Can cause Sleep, DEF Down, and Instant-Kill

+ Great damage potential

+ Has AoE type attacks

- Complete inability to tank

- Strong, but not very SP-efficient in Arts

**Spears**

+ Can cause Stun and DEF Down

+ Has AoE type attacks

- Very limited tanking ability

- Not overly SP-efficient

**Staves**

+ Can cause SPD Down, ATK Down, MAG Down, and Stun

+ Has Defensive and Counterhit Arts capable of stunning

+ Surprisingly versatile, allowing heavy Charm-focused characters to do physical damage, cast, and tank all at once

+ Only weapon with relics for all three elements

+ Allows Meurs to become quite the caster if carrying a Fire relic, Air relic, and a Water shard.

- Not the most powerful of weapons

- No AoE type attacks

**Bows**

+ Can cause Stun and DEF Down

+ Has a Counterhit Art, oddly enough

+ Has an Art that allows first strike at the cost of 1SP

+ Has AoE type attacks

+ Being ranged, it's a safe option against enemies with melee counters

- While it has a Counterhit move, it's not really for tanking.

- Not overly powerful

**Shields**

+ Can cause Stun and DEF Down

+ Has Defensive and Counterhit Arts

+ Highly SP-efficient

+ Has AoE type attacks

- Can attack, but definitely not its primary focus

- No elemental Relics of any sort

**Water Charms**

+ Only Element providing Healing Magic and Ailment Cures

+ Can cause MAG Down, Fire Res Up, and Ailment Res Up

**Air Charms**

+ Most basic attack spell causes ATT Down at great SP-efficiency

+ Strongest AoE Charm can cause Stun

+ Can cause ATT Down, Wind Res Up, Stun, Poison, Sleep, Fear, and Shield Nullification

**Fire Charms**

+ Can cause ATT Up, DEF Up, Ice Res UP, Sleep, Berserk, and Auto-Life

+ Mostly used for DPS

+ Berserker Rage + Fire-Dominant fields + High-damage Arts = GLORIOUS PAIN, upwards in the high thousands in damage

*\*All information given by Serenitys\_Cat on the GameFAQs boards!*

## **Affinities**

*"Every one of you is a special little snowflake in their own little way. Some of you have more meat on their bones, others don't even have enough meat to provide a little snack to one of High-Lady Merton's little chicks... Um, wait... That's not right. What I'm trying to say is you all have specialties in what you're good at, and what you should probably just avoid trying for your own good. Here's the gist of it..."*

**Meurs**

Attributes: HP, SP

Weapons/Items: Short Swords, Spears, Staves, Bows, Shields

Charms: Water, Air, Fire

**Bianca**

Attributes: None

Weapons/Items: Fists, Short Swords, Longswords, Axes, Spears, Staves, Bows, Shields,

Charms: Water, Air, Fire

**Liber**

Attributes: None

Weapons/Items: Fists, Short Swords, Axes, Bows, Healing Items

Charms: Water

**Garnet**

Attributes: HP

Weapons/Items: Fists, Short Swords, Long Swords, Spears, Bows, Shields

Charms: Water

**Owen**

Attributes: HP

Weapons/Items: Short Swords, Long Swords, Axes, Spears, Staves, Shields, Healing Items

Charms: Air

**Eloise**

Attributes: SP

Weapons/Items: Fists, Staves, Healing Items

Charms: Air, Fire

**Filmia**

Attributes: HP

Weapons/Items: Short Swords, Long Swords, Axes, Spears, Staves, Bows

Charms: Water

*"'But, Archie! What does this all mean?' If you gave me a chance to speak, you wouldn't have to ask that! Basically, let's take that guy with the weird hair, Meurs. The affinities in his attributes mean that he'll be more likely to improve with his hit points and skill points, whatever those are, at the end of battles. For weapons and items, that means he's more likely to get better ideas to beat things up like me with those specific weapons... ideas you snacks like to call Awakenings. Likewise, the charms relate to what elements they're good at learning. In his case, he's pretty damn good at all three, but don't tell him I said that. He'd probably get a big head or something. On second thought, do... It gives a bigger target to bite.At the same time, just because he's not good with an axe doesn't mean he can't learn things using it. You can do whatever you want, really. Just going against affinities means I'll have an easier time eating you."*

***Summary:*** Each character has their specialties in growth, and will improve quicker in them vs. things they are not specialized in. Don't let this scare you away though. Utility is never a bad thing, and who knows, maybe you can trigger an Awakening for a non-specialized element, giving you an extra method of doing what you have to in battle!

Healing Item affinities are a very handy thing to have on at least one party member. For example, Meurs only heals for 50 HP if he uses a Medicine Box on himself or an ally. Someone like Liber, who has an affinity for such things, actually doubles the effects, healing for 100 HP instead! Item healing's handy when Water Contracts are hard to keep.

## **Awakenings**

*"Awakenings? Yeah... I do that every morning when I wake up from my daily, beauty sleep... Wait. What do you mean--OH... THOSE Awakenings. So yeah. Like I was talking about before, there's a mechanic you meat bags call Awakenings, for one reason or another. Let's just put it this way... Some jackasses were wandering around my territory in the Valley while I was minding my own business, when suddenly, they started screaming at me as if they wanted a fight. So I humored them... I swooped down in all my feathered grandeur, knowing these small fries couldn't even scratch an itch on my rump. The fight as pretty uneventful, as their strikes felt like little gnats bumping against me... but then, it hit me. This little cocky kid with blonde hair showing off his midriff was punching with me with his fists, then suddenly? He got a... "glimmer" of sorts in his eyes and his scrawny little ass picked me up and threw me into the air. That... ticked me off. But before I could get my chance take out my anger, they ran like the wind. The hell!! Who said they could make me their training dummy for new combat ideas?! The worst part is... the little bastards keep coming back on occasion to do it again! Lilith knows what they're suddenly going to try next!"*

***Summary:*** Sometimes, you'll find that you're just entirely outclassed in a fight, usually in the case of a monster that has loads more HP than what you should be comfortable with, or they're capable of dealing heavy damage that can quickly overwhelm you. These dangerous situations bring out the best in you, with Awakenings of new Weapon Arts and Elemental Charms. One early situation in the game that you can take advantage of difficult fights is in the Roaring Valley, which is accessible as early as the time you can enter the Hidden Forest after the intro quest. You can find the Roaring Valley for free through the eastern exit in the East of the Ruins submap.

Here, you'll run into Archwings. In fact, it should be the very first monster you see, signified as a huge griffon's shadow on the ground. Just run up and touch it to initiate a fight. Early on, this fight may be very overwhelming, but that's ok. Get your tank and healer ready as needed, then attack the Archwing as much as you can. Due to the difficulty of the fight, you should be able to Awaken new Arts and Charms quite easily. Once satisfied, simply run away! Sure, you didn't win the battle, or get any boosts to your character's Attack, Guard, or Support base levels, but you get to keep all your newfound, Awakened Arts!

Keep in mind though. As you gain more Awakenings, they may start to taper off. So in that case? Go find bigger fish to fry! Just don't bite off more than you can chew... Also note that losing some battles are not a full Game Over. Unfortunately in this case, all Awakenings you've earned in that battle are forfeit.

## **The Elemental Scale, Contracts, Charms, and You**

*"Let me get this straight, snacks... I don't know how you do it, but you're a privileged bunch. It seems that some of you found these weird rocks that sing, which give you pieces of themselves. I kinda wish they'd just shut up, as they ruin my beauty sleep at night... And just what do these shards do? Well, create magic in the forms of Charms, of course. Me? I'm an Archwing. I don't have that gift, so consider yourselves fortunate. Either way, I was just flying around, watching some of you in the Valley fighting those Familiars there and getting quite amused how your spells kept farting out in uselessness, all in part to your foes contracting the elementals in the air. Eventually though, those adventurers gave those Familiars the boot and had no trouble reforming their contracts to lay out magical death on the remnants."*

***Summary:*** Contracts are one of the most complex parts of The Legend of Legacy's combat system, but also, one of the more interesting aspects.

The picture here indicates two things: The Elemental Scale on the left and control over Elemental Contracts on the right. For starters, the Elemental Scale shows a rough estimate of what the elemental saturation is as a whole on the battlefield, as well as which element is the most dominant, which has profound effects in combat. You can look into more detailed information into the saturation by holding the Y button before selecting your combat commands. Depending on which element is the most dominant, this is what can happen, for better or for worse:

**Water-Dominance:** All Charm-based damage output is halved, for friend and foe alike.

**Air-Dominance:** All Physical-based damage output is halved, for friend and foe alike.

**Fire-Dominance:** All Physical-based damage output is doubled, for friend and foe alike.

**Shadow-Dominance:** All Charm-based damage output is tripled, for friend and foe alike.

The elemental saturation on a battlefield can be affected in both passive and active ways. In the case of a passive change, there are the Spirit-Perches on the map, which form a bit of a baseline for a particular element. Also, starting a battle near a Spirit-Perch actually provides you an automatic Contract to its specific element. This can prove quite useful if you're in a randomly appearing Shadow Zone (more on that later!), which has 100% Shadow-Dominance. Having the passive element baseline from a Spirit-Perch can make life a lot easier in such a situation. The active method of changing the elemental saturation is the use of Contract Arts through the three Singing Shards you find during the first half of the game. Each Contract will cause the scale to fluctuate accordingly, and through proper utilization, you can set your preferred element to be dominant to gain its effect.

When casting a Contract, it provides two things: a passive benefit to the party (or enemies) at the end of each turn and the ability to cast the appropriate Charms linked to the elements you have a Contract with. The following are the benefits for having each particular Contract:

**Water-Control:** HP regeneration.

**Air-Control:** Increased SP regeneration.

**Fire-Control:** Improved chance of afflicting status effects and negative stat debuffs.

**Shadow-Control:** Not applicable. Only enemies have a Shadow Contract, and it provides no known effects.

Depending on the level of saturation, these effects are increased as well.

Finally, there's Charm casting. The importance of Contracts falls into play here, because without an appropriate Contract, you can't cast spells associated without it! What's worse, enemies capable of casting Charms have an advantage over you: they don't need Contracts to cast anything. As soon as they cast a Charm, they will yank the Contract over to their side, and if you're casting a Charm of the same element? It's going to fizzle out like a wet fart. The best way to prevent this? Know what enemies are capable of calling elementals to them for Charms and eliminate them first. This will provide unhindered casting for your characters. Another important thing is Contract Defense, in which you're preventing enemies from getting Field Dominance benefits. The best way to do this is have a slower character cast the Contract. If an enemy steals your Contract first, then you're going to take it right back, preventing them from getting the passive benefits! This is especially important in some boss fights, as a Water Contract on their side can heal them for 999 HP a turn, so beware!

## **Fast Money**

*"Ok, so I started to notice something lately, little snacks... and this is for your own good. Recently, there's been an alarmingly increasing occurence of Archwing Egg pilfering from our burrows in the Valley, and I know who's doing it. I got my eye on you! You think I'm bitey? How do you think our females feel? Just look at our bodies. All streamlined and extremely thin as a rail... As an Archwing, even -I- don't understand how an egg the size of a Spirit-Perch even comes out of our anatomy! It certainly doesn't do any favors for the High-Lady's figure... Forget I said that. The last thing I need is an angry Wanderlust turning my beak inside out. Just what the blazes do you want with our eggs? It's like you got a black market for them for a quick buck! At least you thieving bastards give the Nest Wardens a job to do!"*

***Summary:*** If there's one thing about The Legend of Legacy, money isn't exactly super easy to come by. You usually get bits and pieces of cash, known as St., from battles, as well as items found in searching nodes throughout the maps. If you want the best method of getting money though? It's raiding the Roaring Valley and Archwing Burrows for Archwing Eggs. This is a very lucrative, yet potentially dangerous endeavor though, depending on when you decide to do this.

Through an entire lap of the three maps of the Archwing Burrows and the the Scenic Ridge, you can earn yourself 12 Archwing Eggs from all the nests you can pilfer, with each one netting you 500 St, for a total of 6000 St per lap! The main danger of this depends on how well developed your party is. There are times when inspecting a nest will simply fork over an Archwing Egg, but sometimes, an Archwing shows up for a fight. Worse yet, sometimes, you don't get an Archwing. At times, you may get a Nest Warden, or even worse, a Wanderlust as your opponent. Nothing ventured, nothing gained though, I suppose. Plus, if you're strong enough to take on Nest Wardens and Wanderlusts? That just means more chances to get Awakenings for your Weapon Arts and Charms! Double win!

## **Requesting Shipments**

*"Being able to fly, I get better vision than you miserable land-walkers, and I've seen some pretty peculiar things. In particular, that little den of yours you call a town seems to have these big wooden constructs that float off on the open waters for hours at a time to Amelius-knows-where, only to come back loaded with all this shiny stuff on it. Wait... so THAT'S why you've been stealing our eggs. You enterprising, little fu--!"*

***The God-People have been so kind as to censor our potty-mouthed pigeon. He'll be back shortly after chastisement.''***

***Summary:*** Remember all that awesome dosh you've made through raiding Archwing nests for their eggs to sell? Here's one excellent thing you can use it on: ordering shipments from abroad. On the west side of Avalon, you can find a sailor on the docks who provides supply requests... for a price. After payment, your shipment of randomly selected goods arrive, depending on which ship you select to hire. The higher the investment, the larger the pool of items you can earn in a shipment, some of which are actually best-in-slot gear for some particular item classifications! Of course, the larger the list, the larger the chance of getting garbage in return too... but that's all for selling, to simply retry with a new shipment!

- **Cogs:** for 300 St. / ??? Real Time, reducing ??? minutes per game clear(?)

- **Caravels:** for 1000 St. / ??? Real Time, reducing ??? minutes per game clear(?)

- **Galleons:** for 5000 St. / 6hrs. Real Time, reducing 30 minutes per game clear(?)

Now, due to the game using Real Time for the shipments (even when your game's in sleep mode!), you CAN exploit this with some fiddling on the system clock, though I don't recommend it. Some players have reported that this can cause your precious Galleon get lost into the annals of time, never to be seen again, thus barring the use of this feature on your current playthough. You're better off finding things to explore and skills to Awaken in the meantime, or let it happen overnight while sleeping.

Also to note, Shipments take shorter to finish with every Game Clear you have under your belt. Just an FYI!