Re: ALICE SWORD
Partner list looks more like this:
Gray: Heavyweight tank. Damage is mediocre but she can take a lot of hits. Guarding cuts damage to 25%. Just give her a big sword.
Red: Midweight, ECM expert, resists jamming. Has access to an all-in-one jammer. ECM is utter shit except for the one type she can't use.
Blue: Lightweight melee spike damage. The modest extra damage is not worth it for the massive squishiness.
Pink: Midweight ranged DPS. Defences aren't terrible. Generates tons of energy. Put her in the back with two guns and some +hit% gear
PC: Crummy stats but can use any gear except the unique Reika-only jammer. Which is crap anyway.
Basically Reika (Red) is awful for a variety of reasons I'm not going to go into at length. Blue (can't read her name) gets speed and some extra melee damage, but since speed is actually a defensive trait not a DPS trait in this game, Rabi (Gray) deals almost as much damage and takes less than half as much and therefore totally outclasses her. Heavy skirts, by the way, weigh the LEAST out of the the three types. Enjoy your massive HP, defense, and lower EN cost while saving 200 units of weight. Meris (Pink) is range DPS. She sucks at melee and generates lots of energy; since guns use less, put her at the back (accuracy down, evasion up, can't be hit by melee) with either two different-element rifles for mowing down bosses or a shotgun and rifle for mowing down everything else. Shotguns can be good against bosses too if you can hit their flunkies, since they have to waste a turn summoning reinforements one at a time.
-Levelling increases your allowed weight. This is way more important than a few stat points
-Speed and EN (energy regen) need to be balanced. Being fast won't let you take more attacks, but it will let you guard more aften. Your rate of attack is governed by your spare energy, not how frequently you act. This is why Rabi shits all over the supposed melee expert.
-Always upgrade the reactor before anything else. Everyone except Meris will need a high-output reactor. She may need one too.
-Bonus hit% visor/accessory are well worth it. You might want to skip the second visor because it's not much of an upgrade.
-Mobs need to be spiked down fast, because you cannot repair yourselves. Boss fights require DPS, which really means energy management and tactical guarding. It's best if you both guard at the same time since you don't know who's going to get targeted.
-The starting sword isn't a terrible weapon, being non-elemental. You can get the same damage per energy out of a bigger sword and then guard more often, though....but if the boss resists that element, you'll end up dealing the same damage for twice the cost.
-Use a shotgun at the start of a non-boss fight once and then finish them with single-target attacks. you'll run out of ammo otherwise. Feel free to empty it into a boss, though, unless it resists your shotgun damage type. You'll have plenty of energy left if you need to switch to melee. You only need one person with a shotgun.
-ECM is not much of a bother unless it's the energy-regen-screwing Soulcore Error. Rabi doesn't care about guarding a lot and Meris uses less energy and generates more, so yet again, they're not too bothered by it.
-You can't fit the best of everything, it will weigh too much. Ask yourself if you could use a low-output propulsion or whether you really need two weapons. Rabi is quite alright with just the biggest choppiest sword available (the fire ones, basically) since melee is great against mobs and she takes negligible damage when guarding to regen against a boss. Combine with the fact that she can wear a heavy skirt and she's very easy to outfit compared to the others.
-When buying equipment, save and then purchase. You can't see how much anything weighs until you own it, because hurr. You also don't know if your partner can use it until you find out she can't. Reika can wear heavy armor but not a heavy skirt, for example.
-You might need to repeat stages for drops, and also because some of the bosses only appear if you do a stage twice.
-Reika really sucks. Just as a reminder.
(Edited after finishing and reflecting.)
