Disgaea

[Scarlet]

Disgaea is awesome and needs its own thread. So yeah, here it is.

I just recently bought this game (the DS version, to be precise), though, and consequently have a bunch of questions about it. I appreciate any advice you Disgaea veterans out there can give me.

First of all, I'm having major trouble beating that guy called Mid-Boss. It already took me six tries to beat him on his first appearance (because that overpowered wind mage standing on that x6 Enemy Boost square kept OHKOing all my guys), and I absolutely can't seem to beat him on his second appearance, in the fourth battle of the Blazing Core area. He (and all other enemies there as well, to be honest) OHKOs almost all my dudes while I already need to have between six and eight of my guys gang up on a single regular enemy just to take it down, despite their levels not being significantly higher than mine. Does my equipment suck? Am I using the wrong classes? The wrong strategy? Or is grinding the heck out of my characters really the only way to pound these guys to paste?

My team so far:

Laharl, Lv14 (uses swords)

Etna, Lv11 (uses spears)

Flonne, Lv8 (currently uses guns because I don't see the point in giving her staves when she doesn't have any offensive spells, and I didn't have a bow left to give to her)

Red Mage, Lv11 (uses staves)

Warrior, Lv11 (uses swords)

Cleric, Lv10 (uses bows)

Archer, Lv9 (uses bows)

Prinny, Lv7

Prinny, Lv5

Prinny, Lv8

Hoggmeiser, Lv13

I usually deploy everyone but the Lv5 Prinny.

Also, is there any trick to winning votes in the Dark Assembly that I'm not aware of? I know you can give the senators items from your bag to increase their favor towards you, but the bag simply can't hold enough items to get enough senators to give a positive vote, and it is difficult to prepare the right items to give to the senators because what they want seems to be totally random (I had two Common Swords with me, for example, and the same senator "Must Have!" one and "Does not want!" the other.)

[Integrity]

I've thought about trying Disgaea before, but didn't know where to start.

[Nanami Touko]

Raymond, my only advice to you is to grind, grind, and grind some more You totally should have gotten the PSP/PS2 version. Voice acting makes the game bearable

Seriously, this game is all about grinding. Have fun.

[Parrhesia]

Ditch the Prinnies. In my personal opinion, you'll want a Scout, and a Ronin or two. My memory's kinda hazy, but I think it changed in the port anyway...although it IS hard to go wrong with a level 10 Brawler and Warrior of both sexes. Ronin are godly melee fighters, and Scouts have guns, which kick the living shit out of bows (alas, realism). Suffice to say, those Prinnies don't cut the mustard, and later on neither will Hoggmeiser.

Item desire's, I think, based on rarity. Every Senator wants their specific rarity level, or something. Don't even bother trying to extract money from the greedy bastards.

Edited February 9, 2011 by Furetchen

[Scarlet]

You totally should have gotten the PSP/PS2 version. Voice acting makes the game bearable

I might have done that if it weren't for the fact that I own neither a PS2 nor a PSP. =/

Seriously, this game is all about grinding. Have fun.

Meh. Way to crush my hopes. D:

Do you have any advice on where to grind, then? I'm currently mostly just repeating the earlier storyline battles, as the itemworlds are pretty hard still.

And what exactly, other than kills and Bonus Exp, do you actually get Exp for? I don't think I've seen any of my guys level up from just damaging an enemy or using a buffing/healing spell yet.

@Furet: Ok, I'll try that. How do I unlock Scouts and Ronins, though? I can't select those yet.

And yeah, I tried the money thing first. I won't try it again. xD

[Haze]

You know, if you had that much trouble beating him on his first appearance you could have let the credit's roll(since losing to Midboss is it's own ending), started NG+ and gotten Pleinair(DS version exclusive to NG+), she's an immensely useful gun user.

Give your Cleric some Skull or Mage pupils, Masters can learn a Pupil's spells by standing next to them and casting it until it's level 1.

Flonne will also get an exclusive offense spell later, though really I don't recommend using Flonne at all, she's not that great outside of Power of Love.

Thieves are your friends - even though they're abysmal at combat in the first Disgaea. Some enemies are only as tough as their gear, if your thief swipes it, they're far less threatening. It's usually worth training at least one Thief. Thieves also have the longest throwing range in Disgaea 1(An ability traded away in Disgaea 2 for actual combat competence)

Speaking of gear that's probably your problem, go pass a bill for higher level gear, maybe level up your weapons a bit in the Item World. When gearing your troops, remember what their weapons use for damage:

Swords, Spears and Axes use Atk

Bows use Atk + Hit/2

Guns use Hit.

Staves use Atk for their physical attacks, but provide a lot of Int, also a higher stave level(mastery) increases the range and AOE of your spells(as does the level of spells)

Generally speaking, Bows are crap, especially in Disgaea 1, it's time to switch your Cleric over to a staff so she can keep out of danger and still heal/hurt.

Disgaea 1 didn't have a dedicated gunner class(excluding Pleinair), Thieves and Scouts could use them, but they were geared to utility with guns as a side thing incase they had to fight.

Armour is a no-go in Disgaea 1 so just rack up the damage with your gear. What's dead can't hurt you. Disgaea 2 added the Heavy Knight, a unit whose offensive capabilities were subpar, but whose defense and resistance were off the charts.

Also when gearing, look at your classes, you should see %ages next to stats. Those are aptitudes. Your Male Warrior should have a 100% in Attack and an 80% in Speed.

For argument's sake, let's say there was an item that gave +10 Atk and +10 Spd. He'd get the +10 Atk, but only get +8 Spd.

Conversely if there was a -10 Atk and -10 Spd item. He'd lose 10 Atk but only lose 8 Spd. This can be a handy trick, especially with Brawlers, who have a high Atk aptitude but an abysmal Def aptitude, making them perfect Belt users.

Finally, when in doubt: Grind. Grind. Grind.

(Also if I recall that level correctly, it's best to let them come to you so you can fight them one by one as opposed to you rushing in against them and getting mobbed.)

Edited February 9, 2011 by Haze

[Scarlet]

You know, if you had that much trouble beating him on his first appearance you could have let the credit's roll(since losing to Midboss is it's own ending), started NG+ and gotten Pleinair(DS version exclusive to NG+), she's an immensely useful gun user.

...oh, lol. I did get the credit roll, as well as the prompt whether I wanted to start a new game, but - not knowing about Pleinair - didn't see the point in doing so and just loaded my last save instead. Thanks for telling me though, if I lose to him another time, I may simply go for a New Game Plus.

What is kept in a New Game Plus? Characters, levels, skill levels, items, etc.?

Give your Cleric some Skull or Mage pupils, Masters can learn a Pupil's spells by standing next to them and casting it until it's level 1.

I know, my Laharl actually knows Fire (lol) and Heal (not much better, sadly). For some reason, however, I haven't thought of giving my Cleric a pupil for offensive spells yet. Thanks, I'll try that. That would also justify giving her staves instead of bows.

Thieves are your friends - even though they're abysmal at combat in the first Disgaea. Some enemies are only as tough as their gear, if your thief swipes it, they're far less threatening. It's usually worth training at least one Thief. Thieves also have the longest throwing range in Disgaea 1(An ability traded away in Disgaea 2 for actual combat competence)

So Thieves actually exist as a class? In that case, they're yet another class I still have to unlock. (And I wondered why trying to use a Stealing Hand with my Warrior gave me 0% success rates against everything)

Thanks for the advice! ^^

[Nanami Touko]

Meh. Way to crush my hopes. D:

Do you have any advice on where to grind, then? I'm currently mostly just repeating the earlier storyline battles, as the itemworlds are pretty hard still.

And what exactly, other than kills and Bonus Exp, do you actually get Exp for? I don't think I've seen any of my guys level up from just damaging an enemy or using a buffing/healing spell yet.

I was going to suggest using the item world, actually. And, you only get EXP from kills, buffing, Bonus EXP, and healing, although the EXP you get from buffing and healing is very small.

[Parrhesia]

@Furet: Ok, I'll try that. How do I unlock Scouts and Ronins, though? I can't select those yet.

And yeah, I tried the money thing first. I won't try it again. XD

Unless it's been changed since PS2, it's;

For Ronin, have a level 10 Female Warrior and a level 10 female Brawler.

For Scouts and Thieves, have a level 5 Brawler and a Level 5 Warrior. Either sex works, so you can get one on the way to having a RoNinja.

I forgot about Ninja. They're so fast, they occasionally actually DODGE. ...And they're good-looking. Same with Ronin but with males.

Edited February 9, 2011 by Furetchen

[Dr. Tarrasque]

I second the Scout suggestion. Their damage is based on hit so for more you can just stack glasses on them.

Look up the bonuses of Item World residents and go to the item world to level up items that have a good resident setup and isn't so difficult. For example, A gun or glasses with lots of Marksman points would be a good choice since you may end up finding the residents in the first 10 floors and create a weapon that'll be stronger up until a couple of store level ups through the Dark Assembly.

Keep an eye out for ways to rid yourself of bad Geo panel effects through throwing.

Capture monsters. You need to reduce their HP AND SP to have a good shot at catching them so wait till SP drops by letting them attack you and then try to bring back as many of your strong units into your spawn followed by throwing the monster into your spawn and hope your units dominate it. I've read monsters don't have as much potential as human classes but they're great temporary assistants for your humans.

As for grinding, I know there's one map in the game where all but 1 tile in the map are under an invincible Geo panel effect. What you do here is basically throw the catgirls into other catgirls/succubi to combine them and then throwing that strong enemy into the one panel that isn't invincible. Only combine all monsters if the unit you're trying to level up can do damage and I think you have better of damaging the enemy if it's a catgirl and not a succubi (basically, throw the enemies into a catgirl, not the succubi).

Oh and as for the Dark Assembly, you want to bribe the stronger ones into agreement more than the weaklings. I think that if a vote fails and you have to fight, you can throw enemies that are lower level than a supporter of yours into them to level up that supporter and get rid of the enemy (kill the ones you easily can, they won't be worth the throwing chain). Doing this repeatedly can get rid of some of the stronger opposition with a weak party... unless I remember this incorrectly.

Edited February 9, 2011 by Sirius

[Haze]

@Raymond: The only thing you'll lose in NG+ are major characters(ie. You won't have Flonne until you recruit her in Chapter 2 again).

[Scarlet]

@seph: Okay, I'll give the Item World another try then. I did beat it twice so far, but just barely. Like, "only Laharl surviving with 24 HP because he skipped all enemies on the 10th floor"-barely.

Then again, I did pick an Iron Lance and a Short Sword respectively (instead of the Common Lance and the Common Sword), so maybe I should just stick to the weaker weapons for the time being.

@Sirius: Whoa, I didn't know you can actually capture monsters; I don't think it's explained in-game. I'll definitely try that. ^^

I haven't seen such a map yet. Probably later in the game, then.

Thanks again, everyone. ^^

[IntegerZero]

Yeah, there is a lot to take in to this game. Also a lot of the game can be beaten with minor grinding , with excellent throwing chains. First Mid-Boss battle, for example, you chain throw to the geo-effect and get rid of it, and that significantly simplifies the fight.

Also, get Flonne a Star Mage pupil ASAP. The learn the all important ATK increasing spell (It stacks BTW), while giving you other nifty spells as well. A cleric won't hurt either for heal. To unlock Star Mages, you gotta train the three basic mage classes up to a certain level. 10 I think?

Also Ronins are God's gift with swords and axes. Ninjas are pretty sweet too. Thieves are always handy.

In Item World, scouts are essential. The can change the the geo-effects of the field once per map. It can turn the tides immensely. Also, if you want the bonus items, scouts are the way to go, since creating combo chains give you the biggest boost to the bonus meter.

That's all I can think of.

[Parrhesia]

To unlock Star Mages, you gotta train the three basic mage classes up to a certain level. 10 I think?

Five, unless they changed it for a port after the PS2 release. It's sound advice, but please...for the sake of mercy, use Skulls instead of Magi. Magi are so annoyingly-voiced it isn't true, and Knights aren't worth the pain.

[eclipse]

Learn to geo-chain. You can do a lot of hilarious things with it!

Also. . .Flonne was one of my best units in the game. IIRC, she gets slightly better movement, and I turned her into an offensive magic unit. Needless to say, those geo panels didn't stand a chance. . .

[ShinKuma]

Holy crap Disgaea DS? Been way too long since I played that game. I'm not sure what chapter you are on with this but, if you want to try to gain levels a little faster it's a map on chapter 5, I believe where most of the map is invincible. You will want to combine all the enemies together and throw them on the one none invicible spot. chip away at there health and hope that you have a team attack go off so more then one person will gain a nice level boost from that enemy. The best level grinding map is the Cave of Ordeals with the nine cyclops (or whatever they are called). Easy pickings for anyone with a good 3x3 skill e.g. Winged Slayer, Big Bang, any maxed out spell. Disgaea 1 Flonne is pretty great, also to note I believe you can get Zetta on the DS version of this game though that is something for later.

[Scarlet]

@eclipse: I've been doing that. ^_^

It seems to be the best way to fill up the bonus gauge. At least, I only got my bonus gauge above 2 by using this method so far.

I also noticed that all enemies seem to be damaged when I get rid of all geo panels of a map, even if they weren't standing on the geo panels themselves.

I have now passed Mid-Boss #2 and seen the map with all the invincibility squares. I did not use it to grind, though. There's no way any of my units can damage a level 100+ unit yet. :/

It's kind of hilarious, though. None of the bosses give me much trouble, but then Mid-Boss appears once again to ruin my fun. >_<

I'm probably underleveled again, right? Chapter 6, map 6. Enemies' average level seems to be 17.

Laharl, Lv20 (Swords; knows Fire, Heal and Magic Boost)

Etna, Lv14 (Spears)

Flonne, Lv10 (Guns)

Red Mage, Lv18 (Staves)

Warrior (male), Lv15 (Swords)

Cleric (female), Lv12 (Staves; knows Wind and Magic Boost)

Archer, Lv14 (Bows)

Scout, Lv8 (Guns)

Rogue, Lv9 (Guns)

Green Skull, Lv10 (Staves, Cleric's pupil)

Brawler (male), Lv15 (Fists)

Brawler (female), Lv9 (Fists)

Ninja, Lv1 (Fists) (lol, had no oppurtunity to grind with him yet)

Hoggmeiser, Lv13

That boss guy from chapter 5 that I can't recall the name of, Lv19

A bunch of underleveled Prinnies not worth mentioning

[ShinKuma]

Get a Ronin, give her an axe, then enjoy her epicness.

LOL at the fact that Flonne uses guns. Not a bad choice but like someone stated before get her a star mage/skull and she will be pretty great.

[Scarlet]

Will do that, but I need to get my new female warrior up to level 10 first.

I'm working on unlocking star mages. ^^

I am amazed at the epicness of brawlers. My male brawler has the same level as my male warrior but does nearly three times as much damage per strike. XD

I have some new questions.

How exactly does reincarnating a character via the Dark Assembly work? What do they keep? Can they change their class? When is reincarnating a character recommended?

Also, when creating new characters, does the "skill level" (good-for-nothing, incompetent, average, skilled, etc.) have any hidden effect that I'm not aware of? Because I honestly don't see the point in creating a Genius for 5000 mana just to get 10 additional stat points when I can have an incompetent character for only 10 mana, even if they only get one point. Unless the base stats do something that I'm not aware of?

[Furby]

I have some new questions.

How exactly does reincarnating a character via the Dark Assembly work? What do they keep? Can they change their class? When is reincarnating a character recommended?

Also, when creating new characters, does the "skill level" (good-for-nothing, incompetent, average, skilled, etc.) have any hidden effect that I'm not aware of? Because I honestly don't see the point in creating a Genius for 5000 mana just to get 10 additional stat points when I can have an incompetent character for only 10 mana, even if they only get one point. Unless the base stats do something that I'm not aware of?

Right now, it does nothing in particular. However, later, when your characters have been at a high level, reincarnation will net them a high amount of stat points, and Genius even more so.

[Momo]

I like Disgaea

[Haze]

Funnily enough, there's actually an in-universe justification for why Archers are so flat.

iirc it's that they devolved their breasts so they didn't get in the way of their archery.

Edited February 14, 2011 by Haze

[Scarlet]

Enemy levels go up way too fast. Kurtis and his dudes have an average level of 55 to 60 now, while my own dudes are still in the mid-30s mostly. o_O

Anyway, I have some more questions.

Could it be that the base stats upon creating a character determine the growth of those stats? Because it sure is a bit strange that my red mage (a good-for-nothing whose -5 base points I all took off resistance) has so little resistance compared to my other dudes, considering the 110% resistance aptitude and her absurdly high level (...in comparison to the rest of my party, at least).

For this reason, I'm thinking of having said red mage reincarnate into a genius star mage. She's Lv52 right now; would it be worth the 7500 points of Mana? An interitance rate of 95% sure sounds promising, too - however, there are some things I'd like to know beforehand.

- Learned skills are kept, right? So if she were to reincarnate into a star mage now, would she keep her fire spells and the ice spells her pupil taught her?

- Are there higher spell levels than Omega that I would miss out on if she were to reincarnate now?

- If I have the Dark Assembly increase her movement and/or counter attacks, would that be kept as well or would I need to hold a vote for that another time?

[Maklo]

I don't really know if base stats effect growths, but it should be kept in mind that base stats sort of carry on after reincarnations. I'm not really sure of all the

details, but whatever.

Also aptitude is only for how much armor/weapons increase your stat i.e. a mage with 110% in INT will recieve a higher bonus than some other class with

an aptitude of 80%(In their case they will actually get a smaller bonus than what the weapon normally gives).

When reincarnating you keep a certain percentage of the experience points you earned for that technique, so reincarnating into a genius will let you keep

95% of your experience. As long as that doesn't bring the level for that spell below level one then you'll keep it. Though it won't really matter in the long run

since after star mage there is prism mage and galaxy mage. Prism mages can use all three element whereas galaxy mages can use pretty much all

offensive magic.

As far as I remember omega is the highest, but onece again it won't matter cause of galaxy mages

Not so sure about the last question, but I would imagine you get to keep it.

[Esau of Isaac]

I always wanted to get into the deeper aspects of the game, but found it too difficult to really go for it. So it was pretty difficult for me, since a lot of the enemies seem to get up in levels really quick, like the devs were aware that most would just find the proper spot to powerlevel.

I've always liked the story, though. I'm sad that I don't have a PS3 to play Disgaea 3.