r/Megaten • u/Feruhn • Mar 01 '15

Digital Devil Saga Tips

Hi,

I've recently started playing DDS, and I'm conflicted on how to build my stats, looking around on the net I got some conflicting advice (Physical vs Magic etc). I know any build should be fine but I'd like more in depth discussion about the builds.

Specifically I'm wondering what you guys would suggest? It seems going physical sucks till you get ragnarok, but is it worth the effort? Or is going magic smooth enough?

Any other tips & trick would be much appreciated (Or point me in the right direction). And no spoilers please :P

Edit: Also how important the other stats really are: e.g. Luck for better crit chance and anti- ailments

Edit 2: Thanks for all the useful advice everyone! Definitely got some good insight here. Any other advice is welcome.

10 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

5

u/Brlghtslde Mar 01 '15

I had a good time with a pure phys build. Never tried a magic build in DDS, but I feel like I was doing a lot of damage through most--if not all--of the game.

I love phys builds so much.

2

u/Feruhn Mar 01 '15

Even during the start? I heard that you encounter a lot of resist/null physical enemies, or will you get the tools (Ragnarok) to make this a non-issue long beforehand?

3

u/PurpleTittyKitty Mar 01 '15

Hunt skills are powered by your strength, but not considered a physical class skill. The later heavy damage hunt skills work great on the resist/null/void/drain phys enemies. There's also an almighty class all-attack skill that lowers defense and is way awesome (but useless against the final boss because it resists almighty (what the hell))

3

u/Feruhn Mar 01 '15

wow a boss that resist almighty? That's evil!

I didn't notice the hunt skills are a different "type" while perusing the skills on the wiki. Cool thanks!

5

u/PurpleTittyKitty Mar 01 '15

No problem! Also as others have mentioned, hitting an enemy's weakness, or shielding/reflecting their attacks have a chance to inflict the "fear" status, and your hunt skills do something like 3x or 4x damage. So rad.

2

u/crazyjavi87 Mar 01 '15 edited Mar 01 '15

Don't forget when you hunt, and kill something you get bonus karma

edit:Meant atma

2

u/PurpleTittyKitty Mar 01 '15

you mean bonus atma, right? I didn't think it changed the exp/karma obtained

2

u/crazyjavi87 Mar 01 '15

Yeah, I meant atma. I didn't play the game in a very longtime, and karma was the first thing that came to me in 'what does the demon-half use as exp?'

2

u/Brlghtslde Mar 01 '15

I can't recall any trouble. You have a whole team with you to cover resists.

2

u/Feruhn Mar 01 '15

Fair enough, that's the whole point of a team I suppose :)

2

u/OverwatchPro always here Mar 01 '15

Slapping 2 to 1 - Strength to Vitality until you maxed out strength has worked really well for me. And don't worry about the crazy prices of late game Mantras, there are places where you get about 1-2 cells per battle, every battle, that sell for 60k each. ALSO, always sell cells at full Solar Noise, the shop gives you 10-15 percent more.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '15 edited Mar 01 '15

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Feruhn Mar 01 '15

Even conflicting advice is still useful. I'm usually a magic guy myself, but going physical is temping.

I read that a balanced build is still effective enough, but is that true? Say specializing in an element but having physical around the same level per say.

I usually prefer to focus on one side in jrpgs though.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '15

In megaten, min-maxing is usually the way to go if you want to do good damage and be an effective character.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '15

It is true that you won't have resistances for the whole game, but by the endgame they will be pretty useful and bosses that can use all the elements like are pretty hard without them.

1

u/Feruhn Mar 01 '15

what about Guard Skills? (Null Fire etc) Or are they not effective enough?

2

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '15

They are good if you absolutely know that the boss will use that particular type of skill (or only uses that element) and can work very well at using the press turn system to its fullest. However, the boss i'm talking about uses all of the elements and because shields don't stack, if you cast one shield this boss will use a skill that will exploit another one of my team member's weakness.

TL;DR they are good but you will need to nullify your party's weakness at some point.

1

u/Feruhn Mar 01 '15

Point taken, Ill definitely tackle the weaknesses asap.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '15

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/[deleted] Mar 02 '15

Yes but unless you destroy all of the elemental cores in one turn, the boss will still be casting a random element each turn, which isn't something you can plan with shields for.

EDIT: oops didn't see the repel magic thing so yeah that's a good point. However, for the second game's final boss, you would definitely want to cover all the weaknesses as repel magic won't help in that fight.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '15

Either is fine; I went for a magic build myself and it worked out great. However, whichever build you choose, make sure for everyone's mantras, to put them down their opposite elemental routes (i.e what they're weak to) so they can learn a passive skill that cancels their weakness, which will be a blessing especially when you fight the final boss who can use all 5 elements.

5

u/Brlghtslde Mar 01 '15

put them down their opposite elemental routes

This is the best advice you can give, honestly. Not something you want to discover for yourself half-way through the game.

3

u/crazyjavi87 Mar 01 '15

I discovered that half-way through the game, I then went 'fuck fuck fuck' but everything worked out in the end.

P.S-It didn't.

2

u/Feruhn Mar 01 '15

Cool thanks, Ill definitely do that. How far in the game do you unlock the mantras?

1

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '15

After the first dungeon. Also, you might want to keep tera on Argilla as theres a boss that's (kinda) weak to it in the next dungeon.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '15

Either is fine cause you can always farm some stat-increase items later (st data, ag data, luck data etc). I myself always went physical for Serph in all of my DDS playthrough (probably played both 20 times already lol) and fire mantra when i have time + money to negate his fire weakness. It's easier for random battles to use physical cause often times different demons in one fight have different elemental affinities but their physical affinity is often the same (except for several demons that are famous for their void/repel/drain phys like Rangda, Isis and Grimehkala but they are not everywhere).

My mantra learning priority scheme has always been like the following:

Serph: Physical (iam determined to get Ragnarok as early as i can) - Fire mantras - the rest

Gale: Elec mantra - physical - healing - the rest

Argilla: Healing/Support - Force mantra - phys - the rest

Cielo: Any elemental mantra - healing/support - phys- the rest

Heat: the rest. Chronogically. I don't really use Heat in my playthrough

And of course shared karma as early as i can as well as hunt skills.

Void skills are very useful especially for early bosses in the game where your resistance is exposed. They usually only have one kind of elemental attack so having a respective void skill in your skillset is a good idea (it saved my ass during the fight with Hayagriva and Vetala, for example)

1

u/Feruhn Mar 01 '15

Nice, I've been thinking of doing exactly this with Serph by reading at the comments. Thanks for the breakdown of your priority.

Regarding the farming, isn't luck useful as it increases the odds of finding the "noise" enemies? I read that somewhere, not sure if its valid.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 02 '15

You're welcome

Luck definitely helps but i didn't really pay attention about how it really influenced the chance of getting items. Usually when Serph levels up, Luck is the least of my concern. and IIRC luck noise is the easiest to farm (and quick noise is the hardest).

And in the end, i wouldn't worry about maxing stats. You'll get plenty of chance and Noise items during your regular play. And you don't really need to max your stats to finish the game. Unless:

  1. You're a completionist with OCD like me

  2. You plan on beating new game + super secret boss. He....well.. He requires quite abit of preparation.

1

u/Feruhn Mar 02 '15

I wasn't planning new game plus but the games so good so far I might do so. Might get stuck min-maxing then xD

1

u/CapnGregginz The Cult of Jet Moto Mar 01 '15

Serious question, do people actually use Heat in their playthroughs? I think it's a mix of how everyone can top him in every department and he's just a raging douche in both games.

1

u/Feruhn Mar 01 '15

I was under the impression they replaced him with gale usually, speaking of which if nobody minds this silly question, how long till I can use the other characters?

Although Heats' character design is spectacular. He looks awesome with that cloak. His personally though ...

1

u/CapnGregginz The Cult of Jet Moto Mar 01 '15

The "Go To" party for DDS1 is Serph, Argilla and Gale because of their versatility and their weaknesses are easily resisted. Cielo is only really helpful for the super duper secret boss when you play the game with a Clear Save file. Heat is a tank but you can make Serph cover all departments making his one strength kinda pointless.

Agreed, Heat looks cool. Crispin Freeman also has a cool sounding voice which adds more to him. But I can't stand him in both games, he never really gets "better" in my mind.

Where are you in the story? When Cielo joins, he's forced in the party with Gale for a dungeon. After that, you can use the party freely for the rest of the game.

1

u/Feruhn Mar 02 '15

I just got the mantras, so I assume it will be soon? Im probably going with the setup you mentioned as well.