Sword Art Online: Lost Song has a lot to take in. This is something that is true for those returning from SAO: Hollow Fragment as well as newcomers. The addition of free flight in the open areas, a full magic system, and more fluid combat mechanics can make this latest entry much more difficult than the last.
There are a lot of things to learn and a few of them are either mentioned really quickly or never mentioned at all. To that end, we’ve put together some useful tips and tricks for Sword Art Online: Lost Song that will make all the difference between surviving or seeing that dreaded game over screen.
Do Not Button Mash
One thing the game fails to mention to players at the beginning is the combo. You can actually chain a pretty powerful sequence of melee attacks, provided that you’re patient enough to wait between button presses. This is very useful in keeping an enemy stun-locked in order for you to quickly dispatch them. It also looks really cool, just in case winning wasn’t enough of a good reason for you.
In order to chain attacks in Sword Art Online: Lost Song you must wait for an attack to finish before pressing the next one. It’s a good thing that the window of opportunity is a couple of seconds long so you don’t have that panic of having to time it just right. Just wait for your character to stop swinging their weapon then press attack again. You can mix light and heavy attacks (Square and Triangle, respectively).
Don’t Use Skills You Don’t Care About
Experience and leveling up in Sword Art Online: Lost Song ties in with what you actively use. If you don’t use a skill, then it won’t level up. And if you don’t use a weapon type then your ability with it never increases. Seeing your character constantly learn skills may entice you into trying them all, but that comes at a cost.
Time spent using one ability is time that you lose leveling up another. For instance, there are magic attacks covering all of the major elements. Leveling them up requires a lot of dedication and if you try to use them all, your swordsmanship will suffer.
Keep the skill count to a manageable number where you’re able to play in the way you want and give each skill equal attention without it being so sparse that you’re not progressing as a warrior.
Grind Enemy XP Early On
As you progress, you’ll fight strong enough monsters and ‘players’ (NPCs labeled as bad players) to keep you leveling up and increasing your individual skills regularly. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case in the first few hours of Sword Art Online: Lost Song. For this reason, you’ll want to kill every monster you see repeatedly.
Instead of doing story stuff, just run around the open area of the first island (Woglinde, the Island of Meadows) and defeat the enemies you see non-stop. Mix up your skills so they all get experience which will in turn increase your attack and defense. But, most importantly, don’t stop fighting.
You’ll want to hit somewhere around level 150 before progressing the story, this will unlock useful magic skills and get your hp, mana, and stamina up to snuff early on. It will make a lot of difference once you start story related things.
Spam Your First Aid Spell Early On
Remember the whole “skills only level up if you use them” thing? Well, that applies to spells, as well. One of the most useful spells in the game is First Aid. It heals a portion of your HP in exchange for a reasonably low amount of MP (150 points). If you level it up, you can restore a lot more health than when you first start the spell.
Leveling it up is rather easy, simply cast it every single time you take damage. When you first start, it will only restore approximately 10% of your HP, but in time, you can bump that up to a third of your health, or even 50%. Naturally, as you reach higher levels of the spell, it will take longer to level up, but it is definitely worth the effort.
Head to Lisbeth’s Often
After you complete the first few story missions (which serve as a sort of tutorial) Agil will set up shop in Sky City Ryne (Sword Art Online: Lost Song’s hub world). Inside that shop, Lisbeth will set up her smithy where you can identify and enhance your weapons. More often than not, the weapons you find will be better than those you have equipped.
Constantly upgrading your attack power (and that of your party) is necessary for success and it honestly isn’t that difficult provided you remember to do so. You’ll constantly have a steady stream of materials to use, so put them to good use since they do nothing for you just sitting in your inventory.
Make Sure to Complete All “!” Interactions
When you head back to the central hub of Sword Art Online: Lost Song, you’ll see a lot of “!” locations on the map. These are character interactions. Some of them lead to boss fights, others lead to nothing more than a simple conversation and pretty images, but nearly all of them lead to rewards.
These include but are not limited to Yuld (money), costumes for Party Members, XP, and consumable items. You can never have too much of any of those things, so you may as well take the time to do them.
They also tend to lead up to Bond quests. These bring you closer to your party members and grant Trophies upon completion. Everyone loves to see a trophy pop.
Don’t Forget to Equip Your Party Members
Your party members use weapons, skills, and accessories just like you do. Their experience works the same, as well. Since that’s the case, you’ll want to fine-tune their setups. Having a party member have too many skills leads to them using every single one meaning they’ll level up slowly.
Every 10 levels or so, go into the Character menu and set the skills you want them to use, as well as their passive abilities. This will establish their focus and help you to set up a team dynamic.
Use Boss Fights to Level Up Your Magic
This tip is mainly for those who want to focus primarily on melee attacks but would like a strong magic backup just in case things get hairy. Boss fights are excellent situations where you can quickly level up your magic skills.
Bosses always have a lot of HP, which means you can use lots of attacks on them. Bosses in Sword Art Online: Lost Song will usually focus on their closest threat, meaning you can hang back and just cast while your party does the heavy lifting. You don’t need to get a kill with an ability to level it up, only do damage. And since most magic attacks use very little MP, you can cast them almost endlessly which will quickly raise their levels.
Pick two or three you really want to improve and you can easily raise their levels by 20 or more each in a single boss encounter. Not too shabby.
These tips should have you dominating the world of Svart Alfheim in no time. How have you been faring out there in the wild? Feel free to let us know in the comments below.
Published: Nov 22, 2015 05:13 pm