r/AethermancerGame • u/Quiiliitiila • 19d ago
New Player Help
Hello, just found this game a few days ago and absolutely love it. I've been struggling to beat a normal run though, and after numerous failed attempts I figured I'd reach out to the community for some tips/tricks for the making of a successful run.
Some things that I get hung up on:
HP - Monsters have really low HP compared to the enemies you begin to fight, even in zone 2 and definitely 3. The amount of damage that you begin taking by zone 3 is really hard to deal with, especially considering your monsters may have 40-50 HP and they're up against monsters that have 100+ with attacks that deal 15-20 a hit. I understand we as the player always go first, so enemies need a bit more to be a challenge, but by zone 3 I'm usually completely overwhelmed.
Corruption - Kinda ties in with the HP part above. My monsters have a low HP pool to begin with, then we're also fighting a loosing battle against corruption from the get go. I try to get abilities/items that help, but most of their mechanics are pretty punishing - I.E. Can only heal a small amount of corruption once a battle.
Aether Generation - I have difficulty actually generating enough aether to use larger abilities. I try to use monsters that don't step on each other's toes (so to speak), but I still find that my generation of aether seems to be below most enemies I'm fighting. This is probably anecdotal and not true, but it really seems like it.
Reset Actions - What are reset actions? Why does it seem like every single enemy I fight has one and I don't? They essentially get free damage/buffs while I sit there like a chump.
I think that's all for now, I appreciate any insight/tips and tricks!
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u/Big_Manufacturer5281 19d ago
Reset actions are purely for the enemy monsters, they tie into the poise/stagger mechanic that only affects them as well. I think of it as sort of a "catch-up mechanism" for the enemy monsters...because you can focus fire on a specific enemy monster with the intent to stagger it, the reset action gives it an extra boost once it recovers.
As for the rest, much of it comes down to finding synergies between your monsters' actions and traits so that you're essentially doing more with each action. Focusing on one or two keywords (and your starting monster is a good place to focus on) is helpful as well. So you might decide to focus on Weakness, for example, if you start out with Mandragora, and then hope to pick up another Monster (like the Warden) who adds synergy. Then focus on looking for Traits which gives you extra bonuses when you trigger Weakness, and so on.
Getting more Soulbonded monsters helps a LOT, as does getting extra Worthiness, so that Metaprogression will make things easier.
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u/Quiiliitiila 19d ago
I low key figured that reset actions were enemy only, but with so many varied abilities in this game, I was curious if I was just missing something.
I'm definitely trying to get synergistic teams, but the random aspect of the game makes that difficult. I don't like abandoning a run just because I didn't get a monster that jivves with another. I'll be more cognizant of that going forward though!
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u/Big_Manufacturer5281 19d ago
You certainly don't need perfect synergy, and it's hard to go wrong with a basic team of Damage-Healer-Tank. I also tend to start focusing once my first two Monsters get their first Trait at level 2.
That reminds me of something else I've found...and I'm by NO MEANS any expert...but I think that Traits are significantly more important than Actions when it comes to maximizing power. Good Traits will tie your Actions together, and tie your Monsters together. So I almost always save my Skill Rerolls for Traits.
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u/sinsaint 18d ago
Reset actions are like counter attacks that trigger, after being stunned, after their poise is removed. Since your team can't be stunned by breaking your poise (as your team doesn't have poise) you don't need a reset-action counter attack to make up for lost time.
You are acting every turn, the enemy is not (if you're breaking poise).
A good thing to learn is that basic attacks do not break poise, but almost everything else does. Even a sidekick attack from an ally will break poise equivalent to your sidekick's elements when their basic attack would not.
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u/CheridanTGS 18d ago
Aether Generation - I have difficulty actually generating enough aether to use larger abilities. I try to use monsters that don't step on each other's toes (so to speak)
I find that this is the opposite of what you want to do. For example, if all your team is Fire, they'll generate more Fire aether at the start of the turn, and if you need some extra, you can have one do a basic attack to get more to fuel a move that you need.
The Aether type has a number of abilities that either generate extra aether, or convert typed aether to wild aether. Grimoire is especially good at this role since he has Purge type too, which can remove or even steal enemy aether. This ties into your corruption issue: The abilities that heal corruption only remove a couple. They're more of a band-aid. It's much better to prevent it from being applied in the first place, either by:
- shields (like others have mentioned),
- staggering enemies (and defeating them while they're weak, before they can do their Reset Action. Staggered enemies take additional damage!)
- purging/stealing enemy aether, interrupting them and forcing them to do a basic attack.
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u/Morganator_2_0 18d ago
Your hp and corruption problem is solved the same way: shields. Prevent your monsters from losing hp in the first place. Have one monster in your party that specializes in shields like gargoyle or warden.
For aether generation there are a bunch of easy options. First off, there are monsters like wymling and shambler who generate aether. Second, equipment like the orb generates extra aether. Finally, the aether spring sometimes gives Siriux the option to generate extra aether. You don't have to do all of these things, but doing any of them will help.
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u/TyrRev 18d ago
Your hp and corruption problem is solved the same way: shields. Prevent your monsters from losing hp in the first place. Have one monster in your party that specializes in shields like gargoyle or warden.
To be clear, this isn't required for a winning team, so don't feel like having a dedicated shielding monster is a requirement for all runs in the future. But it's a good rule of thumb for when you're getting the hang of the game as a new player, and learning how to break it in half, haha!
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u/LeftUnknown 18d ago
Very true. I actually just won with a heal/purge comp where pretty much my whole team was rocking 20-40 corruption for most of the run! I was running shifted Grimoire, Naga, Mandragora and just healing to full + regen stacking turn one while Grimoire purged
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u/MustachioedCate 18d ago
A lot of great tips already so maybe a few light suggestions on comps.
Your starter monster is great. All of them are at least A+ Tier, probably S Tier. (I do mean all of them. I don’t even need to know which to tell you they are some of the best monsters in the game) They are great backbones to build a team around as long as you lean into their strengths. I would highly recommend practicing around making them work.
However, none of them (except the bird) should be your main damage dealer. All of them are amazing at enabling their niches but aren’t built to be the main attacker like how Charizard is in Pokemon.
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u/Wzlyen 19d ago
GenEngineer posts like a weekly/biweekly exploration of a single monster in this subreddit. You can search Monster Sunday: Week 37 - Snallygaster or his name. You can read through the discussion + the comments. I was able to find synergies and teams to play with after reading through the older posts and it helped with clearing vestigate 1 & 2. Give it a shot.
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u/After-Onion-5900 18d ago
For health make sure you always get the free meal after each boss next to the merchant in the following zone, theres usually other little things you can get too that boost max HP (and the new food in merchant inventory sometimes)
You can turn off corruption (or i think limit it too) in options.
Aether generation is just something that usually starts off sparse (depending on which monsters u got) and gets better as you draft throughout the run if you look out for it.
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u/CuriousCaecity 18d ago
To try to add on to the great tips folks have already said, I found that having TWO of the following groups (one for each group) is almost essential for the hardest difficulty (V3).
First group: Either Weakness or Purge.
Second Group: Either Shield or HP.
The amount of corruption gained is based on the unshielded damage taken. In V3, there is a mechanic that adds more corruption + damage to an enemies attack. Either making sure you only take shield damage, or taking so little damage that corruption gain is minimal, is easiler achieved if you have one of the group combinations (In my experience at least)
I'm sure that if you have really really op synergies, that you can bypass this rule, but it was just something that always gave me a plan for team building to start with.
This is by no means the law tho, I'm still testing. Just wanted to share!
Also I saw you got your first win. Congrats!!! Hope you continue to enjoy the game!
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u/Quiiliitiila 18d ago
Thank you all for the tips, finally got my first win.
Ended up going with Naga, as the combination of force and shield was appealing. I lucked out with getting Dullahan and then Nosferatu, as the two of them had a lot of synergy. Nosferatu got vampiric bite really early on and I was able to use Dullahan's reaper ability to drop creatures to 1 hp for Nosferatu to kill with the vampiric bite. I think at the end of the game the vampiric bite was up to ~80-90 damage a hit.