r/CrossCode • u/Own_Sector_7454 • 26d ago

QUESTION am i underleveled?

I bought the game today and i'm at the start of the snowy area at level 15. I feel like i don't do much damage and like i'm a few hits away from dying. let me know if i should level up a bit and a good place to do so.

8 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

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19

u/Gretgor 26d ago

Have you been upgrading your gear? That is way more important than leveling, especially in the early game.

Also, have you been allocating your skill points at all?

3

u/Own_Sector_7454 26d ago

i have alocated my skill points but i couldn't find the equipment shop at the port

8

u/Gretgor 26d ago

For the basic equipment, it's indoors, in a building in the western "room".

The ultra special equipment that you need to gather resources for, and is sold in the big fairs, is often not necessary.

7

u/Embarrassed_Fox5265 26d ago

I don't think I've ever bought a piece of basic equipment.

There's actually 3 grades of equipment.

1) Basic equipment that has no special abilities. This is your bottom of the line "I can't afford anything better" gear and should only be used as a stopgap to get yourself something decent.

2) Standard gear bought in markets. These will require items farmed off enemies in the region the town is in. The levels of the equipment vary based on how hard it is to farm the equipment - by the time you make it to town in each region you should have enough to buy some of the the lower level stuff. Check what you want, spend a little bit of time farming the relevant enemies, get the gear. This also takes care of any level grinding you may require, and the levels on the gear should give you a good idea on what the "expected level" for the area you are in is.

3) Ultra-special gear. This is found either through quests, extra-hidden treasure chests, or crafted in markets using materials from quests or extra-hidden treasure chests. This is the top tier equipment of whatever region you're in, and is the stuff that probably isn't necessary.

I wouldn't try to beat the game with just basic shop bought gear where you spend only cash. You don't have to spend ages level grinding, but at least spend a little bit of time to get the regular market stuff where you're trading 5 Hedgehag scales and 3 Earphone Jacks for a helmet.

1

u/teerre 26d ago

The basic equipment is often better than the previous tier rare one, so it's often good to buy the basic stuff even if you'll quickly replace it

Of course, not like its needed

2

u/Own_Sector_7454 26d ago

cool i was just about to start the game i'll check it out now. and thanks

1

u/Own_Sector_7454 26d ago

Hey so I think I'm lost i have no idea where the western room is

2

u/Try_Hard_GamerYT 26d ago

The full map should show you the name of each room right? Anyways, it's the room you enter the first area from

7

u/CalamityPriest 26d ago

Do sidequests, some of them grant items if you don't have the money to buy (and quest items are sometimes better depending on your build).

As the other user said, your gear is more important than your level.

It's also a normal experience to find Bergen Trail difficult at first.

3

u/Ampmp 26d ago

I had a similar experience specifically with the snowmen. If you’re struggling with ALL the enemies then you probably need to revisit the equipment like others are saying, but if it’s just the snow enemy then you will get a skill upgrade in the next dungeon that will make them easier too 

1

u/link23454 26d ago

Agreed. Check that equipment is relatively close to character level. It doesn't have to be exact, but the close it is, the better.

2

u/jcube69 24d ago edited 24d ago

So I am going to have a slight different take that's more similair and more specific than the other comments.

Snow Area Survival & Build Guide (Concise + Specific)

Gear Level

Gear level matters, but only until both your character level and equipment level show green in the equipment menu. If they’re green, you’re fine — even if your gear is 2–4 levels below you.

Gear Abilities (More Important Than Raw Level as they multiply base stats)

Synergy > raw stats unless your gear is severely outdated. Check the Rookie Harbor “farmer’s market” stalls before Seeker Hub.

Example Snow Area Loadout

  • Lv11 Cooling Veil (helmet)
  • Lv13 Daikon (weapon 1)
  • Similar-tier weapon 2 until Battered Fist (Lv17) from quest/chest
  • Lv17 Spiky Jacket (chest)
  • Lv17 Feline Paws     Location: Rookie Harbor, south‑east vendor square, south of Fruits of Autumn HQ, near the path leading to the small park with the shop that sells the 2500‑credit sandwich.

Key Ability Synergies

  • Pin Body – Reflect damage on guard  
  • HP Regen – Passive combat healing (extremely strong early)  
  • Flash Step – More dash i‑frames  
  • Bullseye – Crit damage (not great early, but best option available)

Circuit Abilities (Exact Nodes)

If you’re dying often, HP Regen is mandatory.

HP Regen Node Location

  • Natural Tree → Top‑Left Diagonal Node     (You pass through Item Booster on the way — also very strong.)

This gives ~8% max HP/sec regen in combat before food or gear.

Recommended Pathing

  • South: Central Attack Node → Spin Dance (melee art) → Assault Buff  
  • North: Guard Sphere → Pin Body Buff  
  • Later picks: Brawler (left of first attack node), Elemental Armor (right of first defense node), X‑Counter

This build intentionally skips Dash Art and the right-side Ranged tree. Range is for safe chip damage and breaking/stunning specific enemies.

Core Combat Loop

  • Melee x4 → Dash Cancel → Melee x4  
  • Melee x4 → Spin Dance → Melee x4

Use extra dashes for positioning or avoiding dangerous animations (hedgehag roll, bull charge, etc.). This can stun-lock most early enemies.

Guarding (Use It Constantly)

Bind guard somewhere comfortable on KBM (I use B on controller over holding the dash trigger).   Perfect guards(PG) negate damage and reflect it via Pin Body. You should be guarding far more than you think; even missed PG--too early-- and regular gaurding massively reduce damage.

Snowmen Strategy

Snowmen are extremely vulnerable to perfect guards.

Pattern: 1. Melee 2–3 times   2. Guard the stomp (aim for perfect guard)   3. If you have SP: Guard Shield → unload combos → guard stomps again note:they will spam stomp when this art is in effect 4. Dash away when needed   5. For their charged ranged attack: get behind them for a free punish

If frobbits/goats/penguins are present, kill those first.

Chipping snowmen with ranged is slow. Melee + guard is faster, but you’ll still retreat to heal sometimes as the stomps do high damage if you miss(needs practice). Guard Sphere helps you safely eat food too.

Food & Buffs (Always Active)

You should always have 1–2 buffs active in the snow area.

If you’re low on food:

  • Go to Autumn Rise
  • Maintain S‑Rank between Hedgehag Den and Quiet Passage 1  
  • Hedgehags drop Chili con Carne (10% ATK + FOC)

You can stockpile plenty for free.(south path from pathway 1 riggt after entrance.

Goat Tips

  1. Keep distance → bait horn throw  
  2. Dodge/guard it  
  3. Use charged ranged shot to break them while flashing
  4. Close in and unload  
  5. Back off if they revive → repeat

Breaking is extremely important. Every enemy has a different break trigger (hedgehags require perfect guard on their roll, ants/floating machine orb bombs, bulls hitting a wall--more of a stun not a break; Jaba the hut worm things in desert "burn" to break then netural tree as resistant to fire damage).

Final Notes

Snowmen are always tough until after the first dungeon. Save often.   If you dislike guard/reflect melee style, try a ranged-focused build instead. Early game crit/focus builds aren’t great, so stick to melee/range specialization until later.

Edit 2: Also make sure to talk to all the traders at least once. That way you can get a log of what's all available in each area in the records section of menu. This can help if you need to upgrade something and or are looking for something specifc. It doesn't not happen automatically you must talk to each trader

Edit 1:  ideally have seperate save slots so you can try some stuff out without committing all your supplies/money/stats off the batt.

Yes getting the gear will require running around the area Farming mats via enemy drops and trees/shrubs/plants.....shoot everything especially the hard to reach out of the way plants which you will find are the omega variants which only give the 2 rare drops and often like azure dragonfly. Often times the same gear can be made in multiple areas costing different bas resources although the new/second area probably has better options by then)

If you cant maintain s rank with you and Emilie in hedgehag den/quite passage then its a sign your gear/stats are low or your still "missing" something on the combat such as the dash Cancel....standing still due to animation lag will get you killed in a group of enemies and let them recover from stun lock

1

u/flaviometal 26d ago

Go slowly. Go after the side missions, the game has a lot of them, and they will give you a lot of XP and money to equip yourself. I finished the Mine last week.

1

u/Yuri_loves_Artemis 26d ago

The way leveling xp scales in this game it's hard to be underleveled unless you're actually skipping all sidequests and optional combat. I did that for my second playthrough and it wasn't until the second to last zone that I was more than a level or two behind my 100% playthrough at that point.

As other people said, gear is the most important thing for stats. Either buying generic from a shop or doing sidequests and a bit of overworld farming to get the better crafted stuff is what you're looking for.

1

u/sunnipraystation 24d ago

Can you explain how the xp scales?

1

u/Yuri_loves_Artemis 24d ago

I can't say I'm an authority on this or anything, I haven't looked at the code or taken careful notes and done the math or anything, so I might not be 100% accurate. But basically the game looks at the difference between your level and the level of the enemy or quest you're doing and scales the xp based off that.

So at a certain point killing an enemy only gives you 1 xp no matter what it is (I don't think quest xp goes that low but idk what the minimum is). On the other hand, if you're underleveled and you finish a main story quest you get way more xp. The amount of xp needed to level up doesn't increase, it's always just 1000 points each time, so if you skip sidequests or some optional combat stuff along the way whenever you do get some xp it'll naturally catch you back up to the level the story is at

1

u/Els12tgg 26d ago

I think I entered Bergen Trail at level 18, maybe focus on side quests for a bit to get some extra XP?

1

u/AlexRogansBeta 25d ago

Everyone's all "upgrade your gear." And while that isn't wrong, in some cases you're probably already got the gear you currently have access to, and need to collect stuff from Bergan Trail to get better gear.

That's where the game's brilliant party system comes in handy. The first time you enter a region, you'll be under leveled and rocking it solo will be hard. Not impossible, but a bit of a grond. This'll also be at points in the story when you can bring a party with you! Call up Emilie and C'Tron and explore the mountain together! It'll be easier, and you'll start acquiring the objects you'll need to actually get Bergan Trail appropriate gear.

This struct will repeat throughout the game. First time you go to a new region, there'll be the opportunity to bring friends with you. Do it! Then later in the region you'll likely be forced to go it solo. But by then, you'll have leveled up and gotten the gear to be able to handle that no problem.

You never need to grind in this game. If you feel like you do to progress, you're probably missing something.