Disgaea -Hour of Darkness

[PeteJ]

I've played it for about 10 hours now, and Laharl is level 17. I'm enjoying it and I can't remember the last time where I've put in so many hours in a single day. I'm still not really sure what I'm meant to be doing though, and I have mostly ignored the Item World up to now (done it twice up to level 10). Only Laharl and another similar character are able to deal much damage, the rest are fairly worthless. I have a cleric archer who is coming on quite well, but that angel is completely useless. Didn't realise everyone in a team attack gets the experience though, so I'll try to exploit that later.

Will taking the exams make my character level up quicker, or just effect the Council?

If a Geo square gives you 50xp, should my character be standing on it, or the enemy I kill?

I really like the game, but reading this thread again today has put me off somewhat. I don't understand most of the stuff!

[E. Randy Dupre]

Promotion exams only affect your actions at the council - mainly, they allow you to put more bills forwards. The option to transmigrate a character doesn't appear until they're a Rank 3, for example.

Geo Squares affect the unit standing on them, so if you want to make use of a 50%XP one, your attacking unit needs to be placed on it, not the enemy.

[Bassman]

I tried Item World and quit before I got killed off completely. Now the party are strengthening up nicely (and I have plenty of healin items) I may try again.

I have ordered the Strategy Guide now... from America. That ought to help, though of course GameFAQs have some good guides on their site. I think the sheer size of the game is somewhat daunting.

I am only up to Level 7, but I have more in my party than are allowed on the "board" at once and that after over 8 hours, so the points get spread out more. I have been trying to concentrate the points on the three weak magic users toward the end of last night's session, so I think they now have over 30 HP each.

[Saurian]

I cant stress enough how important Item World is if you want to be powerful. Right from the start you should get to work in there from time to time. The only way to get proper sick weapons is through Item World and levelling up existing weapons is seriously worth doing even if it's just 10 floors then exit.

Collect residents - you only need 1 of each of the 2 main stat boosters at 300lv max (armsmaster and statistition). I used to have them equipped on my strongest weapon and shared that around for each character I was levelling (one by one). The guides on gamefaqs are more than enough information to get everything out of the game, read about Residents, Power Levelling and Transmigration and you're sorted.

The way I got the illest weapon was by levelling rare and legend weapons and doing the Geo Panel puzzles and bosses in the Item World. Some are stolen from bosses or awarded via Geo Panel bonus, I went though loads of weapons till I got a legendary Excalibur, levelled that all the way and got a Cosmic Blade, levell that fully and got a Rare Cosmic blade, then a Legendary version of that and finally the Yo****suna which by this point you are a force.

[Bassman]

I managed to pick up a Rare (it said so) Amulet which I think will be a prime candidate for some levelling up. Now I am stronger I will try that.

I have a couple of imminent Level ups so I will go for those first in Vyer's Castle second area which I can now clear in about 5 minutes. I think some SP boosting items would be useful with the Clerics. My Red Mage with items has 58 SP I think and still only on Level 4 or thereabouts.

[Saurian]

Sweet!

Concentrate on your weapons tho - this will get you the best results early on in the game. You can level up anything: suppose you want to steal an item off a high level enemy? Level up the stealing item itself then use it, it increases the chance of successful steal. This tactics is wicked against harder bosses - just steal his weapon and armour and maul him!

[Bassman]

My initial problem with the Item World was that I was in serious danger of dying off by about the 6th Level which was why I abandoned it and went for some Levelling up instead.

[PeteJ]

How do you steel stuff off enemies? I've seen the item you can buy in the shop, is it just a case of equiping this item and attacking\ get attacked by an enemy?

Also, how do you level up residents? I have a few I've already collected, but don't know how to make them powerful...

Oh what the hell, one final question If you kill an enemy with a team combo, which character gets the mana? From what I understand everytime you kill an enemy you get mana which you can use in the council.

[Saurian]

Sorry man I dont remember about the mana - but the rest:

How do you steel stuff off enemies? I've seen the item you can buy in the shop, is it just a case of equiping this item and attacking\ get attacked by an enemy?

Yeah it's the item you get from the shop - stealing rate is linked to character level, if your character is no match for the enemy in terms of level the steal rate will be low. To counter this yo can level up the Stealing Hand or Bandit Hand you buy from the shop. The best thief class (Cosmic Pirate) has a superb steal rate - if you are going to get a very rare item of someone use this character class + a levelled Bandit Hand and you'll get it.

Also, how do you level up residents? I have a few I've already collected, but don't know how to make them powerful...

First of all go through your items and separate out the ones which have the residents you need. I suggest looking for Statistition first, once you find one go inside the item and defeat the Resident - it's level will double upon defeat and it can now be moved to another item or combined with another Resident of the same type. So find as many as you can in many items and beat them, add them all together until the reach lv 300 then equip them to the weapon you use to power up characters with (this will give +300% exp gain)

I use a sword to level up everyone - I made sure every character had Winged Slayer regardless of class. this was done by using a lv300 Armsmaster Resident and constantly slashing someone on an invincible stage until weapon mastery when up high enough. This can be done with every class, and I found it much faster to switch and learn sword, gain the required levels then switch back to the weapon you want the character to use. Mages were taking me ages to level b4 I started doing this.

[Bassman]

I was considering arming my clerics and mage with a weapon other than their staff, to see what effect it would have on their experience. Problem would be that their SP would reduce (one cleric (Lv 4) has 73 SP and my mage (Lv 5) has 63). Is it possible to add an SP modifier to any weapon.

I assume the Mana would be spread around between all combatants.

The way movement and combat works is useful, as I found out last night. You set the main characters for combat and use extra characters to place to be used in the combos and press Execute. Then click the circle for them to move back to where they were and then move them elsewhere for some combat. In theory you could use a strong character as an extra in a fight a number of times in a turn (at least I am pretty sure that is possible... must check today). There was a character I wanted to heal last night, so I put him in a combo position and executed the fight and then went back to a position where a cleric could heal.

[MartyG]

If a Geo square gives you 50xp, should my character be standing on it, or the enemy I kill?

For the Exp Geo multipliers, it's the enemy that has to be standing on them when you kill them to get the extra experience.

Regards
Marty

[Bassman]

Unless you are being attacked when you are standing on one I suppose.

[TheShend]

The way movement and combat works is useful, as I found out last night. You set the main characters for combat and use extra characters to place to be used in the combos and press Execute. Then click the circle for them to move back to where they were and then move them elsewhere for some combat. In theory you could use a strong character as an extra in a fight a number of times in a turn (at least I am pretty sure that is possible... must check today). There was a character I wanted to heal last night, so I put him in a combo position and executed the fight and then went back to a position where a cleric could heal.

There is a cheeky demo if you leave the game on the title screen.

It shows the cpu positioning the chrarcters all next to each other, around eight in all. The 2nd d00d would lift the 1st, then 3rd would lift the 2nd d00d, with 1st ontop of him and so on. Unitl it had a massive vertical circus trick going on. He would tell the bloke at the bottom to throw. 7 d00ds would be hurled, and then nexy guy at the bottom would be thrown and so.

I used this technique to reach a resident that was about 4 turns out of reach and maul him. I was well chuffed.

[Bassman]

Something else to try then and I must chack that demo. This game is going to make a serious dent in my life for a while I suspect.

[Saurian]

That's exactly what happened with me too - when I saw that demo I was like !!! Just being able to lift and throw adds so much to the game! That method changes the way you play completely.