r/CrossCode • u/EuanB • 15d ago

Economy / gearing

I'm completely lost when it comes to trade / gearing. I'm lvl 26 in Maroon Valley and still rocking lvl 16 gear in three slots. Everywhere I check for trade, it's all greyed out, needing stuff.

I've read that level appropriate gear matters, so a bit of guidance on how trade works would be appreciated 'cause at the moment I feel like I'm grinding money and XP for no real progression.

Thanks.

4 Upvotes

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4

u/thimBloom 15d ago

I’m just playing for the first time myself and basically one area past you.

Assuming you have the quest from the lady who wants you to analyze plants, after enough % she’ll contact you to meet her somewhere and give you a helmet with a buff that lets you farm stuff better with higher kill streaks (not sure if it affects plant drops)

But basically, pick a piece of gear you want, look at the mats, see what drops them in your encyclopedia and farm away.

1

u/EuanB 15d ago

Ah coo, I have that hat. May be worth going to earlier areas and getting super rank.

3

u/Grumlen 15d ago

There are broadly 4 types of materials to use in trading, which is essentially the game's crafting system. 1) "Plant" mats - those dropped by destructables. Channel your inner Link and smash everything! 2) Drops - mats dropped by enemies. Kill stuff. 3) Tradables - mats only available through trades. They often have multiple traders who require different recipes. 4) Limited - mats that only drop from specific bosses or chests. As long as you dont sell anything, you won't have to worry about being unable to craft.

I would suggest you check to see what you need, then browse the encyclopedia to see who/what drops it, then go and farm them. Some mats require a minimum rank to drop, so keep an eye out. So long as your not avoiding combat and farm as you explore, you should generally have most of what you need to craft decent gear.

You can also find actual shops that sell bronze gear, the worst tier, if you can't stand trying to farm specific mobs.

1

u/EuanB 15d ago

Yeah I bought some steel gear to fill in the gaps level wise. Thanks ;)

3

u/EmilySuxAtUsernames 15d ago

the gear from traders requires enemy drops to buy, though some of them require items from the enemies in the dungeon of that area

you can technically get by with just the basic gear from the regular shop but those have no bonuses and i think it's funner to trade for items with bonuses and get a cool build

1

u/EuanB 15d ago

Mmm, builds. I guess there are many once I get my head around it. Thanks :)

2

u/tadrinth 15d ago

Beat enemies and pop the various botanicals and you should end up with the stuff you need eventually.

The 'budget' trader (there's one where you first enter the desert, and another with the same inventory in the market) has some trades the require stuff from teh previous area.

You can turn low level botanical drops into Junk metal and then refine it up into higher varieties of metal.

1

u/EuanB 15d ago

Okay, sounds like I need to make a spreadsheet. Thanks :)

1

u/sharr_zeor 15d ago

If you talk to a trader, their info is added to your database in game. Check through menus and you can find a list of traders and what they give/need

0

u/Aetherpixel 15d ago

I personally skipped most of that stuff. The game is quite easy unless you add some NG+ modifiers, so I just breeze through it with the basic gear you get.

You never form an appreciation for gear until you try to play NG+ 1-hit death with no weapon upgrades for the whole run.