Bravely Default II - True sequel to the best FF since XII - February 26th

[Delargey]

Yeah, I've pretty much sacked them off unless they offer decent rewards.

It's all about getting the job classes for me.

[Retroguy]

5 hours ago, sprite said:

This is addictive and annoying.

 

The side quests are dire.  I’ve just had to go take some bloke his lunch in a dungeon from a town, gone back for a flask to the quest giver, gone to the bloke who needs a fork so back to the quest giver, then the bloke, and finally cash back into the quest giver. 
 

Hmph

God yeah- I did that one yesterday and it was like the game was trolling me. What I don’t understand is that the reward for these side quests is often totally pointless, like a tiny amount of gil. You get more than that as a random reward when you’re cutting the grass with your sword. What’s the point?? Quests like that don’t build the world either.

[sprite]

42 minutes ago, Retroguy said:

God yeah- I did that one yesterday and it was like the game was trolling me. What I don’t understand is that the reward for these side quests is often totally pointless, like a tiny amount of gil. You get more than that as a random reward when you’re cutting the grass with your sword. What’s the point?? Quests like that don’t build the world either.

Some of them do give a fairly decent JP orb. I think that one may have after all that  

 

I had another couple of boss fights, one of which I really struggled with.  Guess it’s time to grind.  It’s a bit unbalanced though as enemies on the map run away from me.

[Sane]

Yeah most of the side quests are just time wasters. If the reward isn't really interesting I don't bother. I defeated the 4th boss yesterday, she almost got me but I pulled through with everyone alive. Haven't died so far, also not done any grinding. 

[BadgerFarmer]

You shouldn't need to grind for levels, not if the enemies are running away from you. More for JP if you think it would be worth having a particular skill for a boss.

 

Using the ship exploration thing when you're not playing is worth it for extra JP and XP orbs too.

 

Once you're into the second area and unlock one of the first jobs there, there's a fairly solid tactic for quite a few of the bosses after.

Spoiler

Have one character a minstrel and get them to do the party defence buff skill 3 times straight off, then repeat as soon as they're active again. Or the magic defence one for some bosses. Have another character with white magic for healing. It gives you more room to breathe.

 

[sprite]

8 minutes ago, BadgerFarmer said:

You shouldn't need to grind for levels, not if the enemies are running away from you. More for JP if you think it would be worth having a particular skill for a boss.

 

Using the ship exploration thing when you're not playing is worth it for extra JP and XP orbs too.

 

Once you're into the second area and unlock one of the first jobs there, there's a fairly solid tactic for quite a few of the bosses after.

  Hide contents

Have one character a minstrel and get them to do the party defence buff skill 3 times straight off, then repeat as soon as they're active again. Or the magic defence one for some bosses. Have another character with white magic for healing. It gives you more room to breathe.

 

Yeah I’ve been doing this.

 

I struggled with 

 

Spoiler

Bernard.  Just getting enough damage onto him without him healing it back, it was such a slog, but I made it.  Grinding some JP now before the inevitable next showdown  

 

[sprite]

So I used the fish as monster bait and spent a couple of episodes of Buffy (yay, Disney plus) chaining battles with sea monsters.  Level 20 now, the next boss was much more palatable, and I’ve maxed out a few more job classes.  Woohoo!

 

Clocked about 12 hours now and I’m off to a new town it seems  

[Hitcher]

1 hour ago, sprite said:

spent a couple of episodes of Buffy (yay, Disney plus)

Shame on you. 

[Sane]

I'm going to quit this now. I feel like I'm just going through the motions, I'm not really having any fun. Too bad . 

[sprite]

8 hours ago, Hitcher said:

Shame on you. 

You... you don’t like Buffy?

[Hitcher]

9 minutes ago, sprite said:

You... you don’t like Buffy?

I love Buffy but would never watch the abomination that is the HD remasters.

[sprite]

16 minutes ago, Hitcher said:

I love Buffy but would never watch the abomination that is the HD remasters.

Ooooh. Yeah they’re pretty comical but I’m honestly not that fussed about stuff like that for things I watch over and over. I have the originals on DVD so I get my cool points  

[Treble]

Completed after just shy of 80 hours, and I really liked this one. The spread of abilities over loads of jobs (classes) might be controversial, I dunno, especially as they only unlock when you beat enemies that – ideally – need their own abilities to defeat! It also means you don’t get to fully play with builds until 3/4ths of the way through the game. Could you with having an ‘international’ version that unlocks the classes from the off, like Final Fantasy X.

 

Anyhoo, here’s a quick guide to get the best out of the jobs. Maybe of particular use to @theredstar who I sold it to! Mild spoilers as it explains which classes are available in the later game. Also, I didn’t bother unlocking a couple of optional classes so haven’t commented on them.

 

A full list of classes and their descriptions is here: https://www.nintendo-insider.com/bravely-default-ii-jobs-list-specialties-abilities-and-tips/ 

My tips aren't definitive by any means, and I bet the likes of @sprite could do better!

 

It’s worth starting with this note: you’re best served with fighting jobs (physical) and element-based magics for the first half of the game. In the third quarter, you’ll do most damage with Dark, and then in the final quarter, Light.

 

General Job Tier List

This excludes the ‘Abilities’ they unlock, which I’ll come to in a bit:

 

Spoiler

 

TOP TIER

White Mage

Black Mage

Bard

Shieldmaster

Pictomancer

Monk

Arcanist

Phantom

 

MID-TIER

Spiritmaster

Bastion

Red Mage

Vanguard

Ranger

Oracle

Dragoon

 

LOW-TIER

Beastmaster

Swordmaster

Freelancer

Thief

Berserker

Dragoon

 

 

Now the thing is, even the cruddier jobs have a LOT of value in most cases as they unlock ABILITIES. Once unlocked, Abilities can be used by any job you choose, i.e. if you unlock REVENGE as a Red Mage, it can be used on a build that’s a pure fighter e.g. Phantom/Monk.

 

Below are the Abilities you’ll lust after, and their classes.

 

NOTE: I only managed to get most classes to level 12, not 15, as this would take hundreds of hours. So I’m basing this on the standard unlocks only. The ones marked with 💯 are useful to all,  🤓 are specifically recommended equipping on wizard types, the ones with ☠️ recommended for fighters.

 

Spoiler

 

🤓 Beastmaster : Lv. 10 : MP Saver – Reduces MP consumption by 20%.

💯 Ranger : Lv. 6 : Counter-Savvy - The user is always able to evade physical counter abilities

☠️ Shieldmaster : Lv. 12 : The Gift of Wisdom – Donates 33% of the user’s max. MP to a target.

☠️ Pictomancer : Lv. 9 : Sub-Job BP Saver – The BP cost of using sub-job abilities is reduced by one.

🤓 Pictomancer : Lv. 12 : Convert MP – Taking damage will cause the user’s MP to be restored by a proportional amount.

🤓 Oracle: Lv. 10 : Noble Sacrifice – When the user is knocked unconscious, any unconscious allies will be revived with full HP.

🤓 Arcanist : Lv. 10 : MP Regen – MP is restored by 5% at the end of each turn.

☠️ Bastion : Lv. 12 : BP Limit Up – Increases BP limit by one, allowing up to four BP to be accumulated.

💯 Freelancer : Lv. 7 : Self-Healing – Cures poison, blindness and silence when battle ends.

☠️ Swordmaster : Lv. 3: Counter – 50% chance of answering any physical attack with a counterattack.

☠️ Red Mage : Lv. 8 : Revenge – Roughly 25% chance of the user’s BP increasing by one when attacked.

 

 

Recommended builds

These are what I found to be the most useful combos overall. It’ll take a while to get here, but definitely worth doing:

 

FIGHTER: by far the best choice for always kicking-out that high DP is – surprisingly – the MONK. Not only will they unlock an early physical strike that deals fire damage (Firebird), but they have also loads of attacks that consume HP instead of MP to use. Most crucially, they have ‘Lv. 11: Pressure Point – Perform a powerful physical attack on a target that ignores physical defence and Default status.’ This is a monster, as it operates like Ryu’s fireball, does high damage, consumes BP (the points you accrue by defaulting) disregards Default AND scales as you gain XP.

 

It’s crucial you get your Monk to Lv. 9 Pictomancer to unlock ‘Sub-Job BP Saver’. This means they basically get to use Pressure Point for free, as a regular attack.

 

The Monk class pairs decently enough with Phantom (Ninja, basically, where your EVADE stat goes through the roof) or even one of the buff/debuff classes (Pictomancer or Bard specifically). They also do ok as Ranger or Dragoon, but operate best with the perk Lv.3 : Bare-knuckle Brawler where you carry no weapons, so…

 

ATTACK FIGHTER BUILD

Spoiler

 

(Early game)

MAIN-JOB: FREELANCER (for EXAMINE and JP UP)

SUB-JOB: MONK

(Late game)

MAIN-JOB: PHANTOM

SUB-JOB: MONK

 

 

Or

 

SUPPORT FIGHTER BUILD

Spoiler

 

(early game)

MAIN-JOB: BARD

SUB-JOB: MONK

(mid-game)

MAIN-JOB: PICTOMANCER

SUB-JOB: MONK

 

 

If you want a weapons-based warrior, Monk is not likely to feature (as it depends on carrying no weapons) nor is Shieldmaster (as you want to carry dual shields, ideally). The two best classes for flat-out weapons damage are RANGER, who focus on bows and creature-specific attacks (e.g. plants, insects, beasts, spirits etc.), PHANTOM, which pairs nicely when you equip daggers and want to avoid enemies that focus on physical hits, and HELLBLADE which summons ethereal weapons that attack at intervals, allowing you to default (block) and still be dealing damage.

 

DRAGOON I found disappointing. The best move is the very first you unlock – Jump – which takes you off the field of play for a turn (and thus can’t receive damage) until you come crashing down on the enemy. The rest of that class either has buffs/debuffs that I didn’t find very effective, or attacks that had moderate effect for very high HP or MP cost. You might do better with it, though.

 

BERSERKER didn’t give me much I was impressed with, either, especially as the ‘berserk’ mode (deal more damage but you can’t control which move to use) was rarely anything but a massive PITA, and frequently lost me fights.

 

SWORDMASTER I can’t recommend on any level. I found nothing it provided to be any more use that standard Ranger moves, and the ‘stances’ system wasteful and time-consuming. That said, you’re gonna be stuck using it as your main job for a bit as you’ll really, REALLY want to get Swordmaster : Lv. 3: Counter – 50% chance of answering any physical attack with a counterattack.

 

WARRIOR BUILD:

Spoiler

 

(early game)

MAIN-JOB: FREELANCER

SUB-JOB: VANGUARD

(mid-game)

MAIN-JOB: HELLBLADE

SUB-JOB: RANGER

 

 

It’s much easier to recommend regular Mage jobs. Get one character to WHITE MAGE lv.12 asap, ditto BLACK MAGE. Do it over two separate characters at first, so their MP isn’t depleted quite as fast, then get both to master RED MAGE as their second ‘Speciality’ is ‘CHAINSPELL’ where the spell you select is cast twice at no extra cost (!)

 

Quite a few classes pair well with the basic black ‘n’ white, but later on both ARCANIST (Dark-based attacks) and SPIRITMASTER (Light-based) will be essential. Along the road, you’ll also want to skill them up to Beastmaster lv.10 , Pictomancer lv.12 and/or Arcanist lv.10 regardless, as these give them MP-saving perks they’ll desperately need.

 

HEALING WIZARD BUILD:

Spoiler

 

(early game)

MAIN-JOB: WHITE MAGE

SUB-JOB: FREELANCER

(mid-game)

MAIN-JOB: RED MAGE or BARD

SUB-JOB: WHITE MAGE

(late-game)

MAIN-JOB: WHITE MAGE (or RED if you’re facing a boss)

SUB-JOB: SPIRITMASTER (if main is RED. If not, WHITE)

 

 

ATTACKING WIZARD BUILD:

Spoiler

 

(early game)

MAIN-JOB: BLACK MAGE

SUB-JOB: FREELANCER or WHITE MAGE (as backup)

(late-game)

MAIN-JOB: RED MAGE

SUB-JOB: ARCANIST

 

 

I’d recommend always having two spellcasters with their stats all skewed towards high MP and MP buffs (and definitely wearing equipment that gives them Silence immunity!) This leaves them vulnerable so, in this game, you absolutely have to have a TANK.

 

SHIELDMASTER is really the only job to consider for this, at least in a main-job capacity. Right from the second quarter you’ll be constantly bombarded, and even with grinding you’re never more than a glass cannon without a protector. Equip them with the ‘Dual Shields’ perk and armour that provides high magic & physical defence, and you’ll be using far fewer of them ol’ Phoenix Downs.

 

BASTION is a decent-enough MP-based substitution (casting Rampart, Bulwark and the like) but doesn’t rock-up until late game. Until that arrives, using VANGUARD is ok (as it has a couple of decent ‘shield whacker’ attacks) but pairing with a buff/debuff class can be a good option - if you only have one in your team, pick the BARD class as all the early unlocks in particular are very useful to boost things like evasion.

 

TANK BUILD

Spoiler

 

(early game)

MAIN-JOB: SHIELDMASTER 

SUB-JOB: VANGUARD

(mid-game)

MAIN-JOB: SHIELDMASTER 

SUB-JOB: BASTION

(late-game)

MAIN-JOB: SHIELDMASTER 

SUB-JOB: BARD or PICTOMANCER

 

 

Play around and see what works for you, but I’d definitely recommend these baseline tips:

 

• Don’t worry about cash. You’ll always end up with more than you need.
• Stock up on Phoenix Down, Mini-Ether & Ether, and Magnifying Glass. You don’t want to rely on having a Freelancer in your party so you can scan enemies, so buy dozens of the latter (they’re very cheap)
• Always start a fight by defaulting each character. If your BP is zero, enemies can chain you without interruption.
• Master White and Black mage classes as an absolute priority. 
• Sub-jobs receive little-to-no job points, so to move up through the classes, make sure the one you want to improve in is set as your main.
• As soon as able, make sure you are using the ‘set sail’ option in towns. These most often give you JP (job point) boosts which are invaluable. 
• When grinding, try and use the 'bait' items that grant multiple fights in a row e.g. beast flesh, insect nectar (or whatever they’re called). Each consecutive fight gives you an XP multiplier.

And that’s about it for a sketch on what you can put together!

 

 

 

 

[Delargey]

A boring, but useful, tool against bosses is poison. Most bosses are effected by it and it will continuely wear them down while you build up BP or heal your crew.

[Paulando]

Nice post @Treble. I put a few hours into this after I loved Bravely Second, but I found it pretty dull really so gave up. I’ll give your post a full read and digest as I’d love to get into it properly. I just found the battles really dull, I dunno?

[Treble]

41 minutes ago, Delargey said:

A boring, but useful, tool against bosses is poison. Most bosses are effected by it and it will continuely wear them down while you build up BP or heal your crew.

 

Against bosses? Maybe I was unlucky, but I cast it on multiple occasions but most were immune (or had a high enough Luck stat to evade it, I guess?)

[Treble]

17 minutes ago, Paulando said:

Nice post @Treble. I put a few hours into this after I loved Bravely Second, but I found it pretty dull really so gave up. I’ll give your post a full read and digest as I’d love to get into it properly. I just found the battles really dull, I dunno?

 

It's a really Marmite experience, for sure. It's an RPG about the battles rather than the journey, and visually they are pretty much the same each time. I felt it was more like a puzzle game based on a rock, paper, scissors system, than anything.

[Delargey]

1 hour ago, Treble said:

 

Against bosses? Maybe I was unlucky, but I cast it on multiple occasions but most were immune (or had a high enough Luck stat to evade it, I guess?)

 

Yep- I think a few are immune (it should prompt for those at are?). It can take a while to land. 

 

I had black magic with dual cast would use my BP to get 8 casts and that normally got them.

 

It's definitely useful on the early bosses but it felt a but cheap at times and took some of the tactics out for me.

 

[Keyboard Koala]

Good to see the series getting the sales it rightly deserves.

 

 

My go-to JRPG series these days.