Hit level 50 in Granblue Fantasy

granblue fantasy four-sky bladeNo, PartymePlox, I am not dead. So sorry to disappoint you. :-p I just haven’t played anything in the past two weeks that isn’t a mobile game or a browser game, and as I mentioned before I find them quite boring to write about. Especially for games like Granblue Fantasy where posts by higher-level players are so full of jargon like MLB (baseball?) and ‘mats’ and ‘pools’ and so on and so forth, even a fellow player like me can only take so much. Still, for lack of anything better to write about, and so people don’t think this blog is dead, here goes nothing:

I reached level 50 in Granblue Fantasy. The first 30 levels fly really quickly as they tend do to in this sort of game. The next 10 levels, not so quickly but not too slowly either. 40-50 was a chore. It didn’t take that long but it was a slog because only my main character was getting EXP. All the other party members were just sitting there kind of watching me.

More stuff to grind for, whee.

More stuff to grind for, whee.

See, I’ve reached a point in the game where all my characters’ levels are capped and they need items known as Champion Merits to keep leveling up. Champion Merits are hard for weaker players to get (meanwhile higher-leveled ones constantly whine about having too many. I hate those guys) but I heard after level 50 I could get into certain raids where the boss dropped them “like candy.” So I worked hard, patiently grinding story mission after event battle after story mission, finally reached 50 and then… nada. Nothing. Not a hair nor hide of a Proto-Bahamut raid. Mr. Bahamut? Mr. Bahaaamuuut? Nope, no sign. ………..not even sure how to feel. Well he’ll show up when he’s ready.

Luckily I’m enjoying the rest of the game apart from that little hold up. I got lucky and picked up some useful units and weapons from the lottery at the end of May. With a nice dark weapon from the current event and the addition of Yuri and Vaseraga to my team, even the Extreme light Vacheron doesn’t stand a chance against me. Ahh, I remember the days when even “Normal” battles were a slog, and now I’m soloing Hard summons (okay not all of them) and beating Extreme bosses, so sweet.

This is my dark team, btw:

granblue fantasy kina dark teamAnd this is my dark weapon pool:

granblue fantasy weapon poolAnd my summons for what they’re worth. Anubis is actually really useful, because that boost to critical triggers more often than not. It’s especially sweet during a Charge attack, where it makes mincemeat of the Extreme boss’s overdrive.

granblue dark summonsI also have decent water (Silva is just plain awesome) and wind teams and crappy everything else. Of course the veterans will go on about how hard it is to fill a dark weapon pool and blah blah Bahamut blah Unknown weapons blah blah Omega, etc etc. Just ignore everybody and play how you like, is my ninja way. In a random game like this you have to do your best with what the game gives you, and what I’ve been given so far is good dark weapons, so I’m sticking with them.

granblue fantasy hard yggdrasilHaving come this far and spent the better part of a month on Grindblue Fantasy, I think I’m qualified to make a recommendation about whether to play it or not to potential players.

First, it really is all about grinding. You really will have to do the same things over and over and over again to get anywhere. Events, casino, trials, it’s all the same thing. Even the story quests and free quests all boil down to fighting the same monsters several times in a row. If that’s not your sort of thing, don’t even bother.

granblue main page bSecondly, getting strong is a long-term prospect. Unless you’re willing to plow several months of work into the game or pay a lot of money, don’t expect to be soloing or even MVPing Omega and higher raids for a long time to come. I suppose that isn’t news to anyone familiar with MMORPGs, but it’s taken me a while to wrap my head around the concept. If I poured the same amount of time into most ‘regular’ RPGs, I’d be long done plus post-game content plus bonus content and everything. “I’m working so hard and I’m not getting anywhere. What is wrong with this game?” Nothing, that’s just the way it’s designed.

If you can look past those two issues – or if that’s the exactly the kind of thing you’re looking for, welcome aboard! Despite the slowness and the grind, I can clearly feel my party getting stronger by the day. That’s what keeps me playing because I just love that sense-of-growth feeling in games. That’s the only thing you play Granblue Fantasy for anyway, since the story is not that good (plus the translation quality is so spotty) and there’s nothing else to do in the game. Grind, get a little stronger, grind better mobs, get a little stronger, and on and on.

The key is to pace yourself so you don’t burn out. And I should really take my own advice, but first I want to grind out all the rewards from this Tales event, especially that cool-looking katana, THEN I’ll pace myself. So another 3 days of Granblue and then I’ll get on to those games I’ve been meaning to start all along. Uh, probably. See you sometime this month. Uh, maybe.

12 thoughts on “Hit level 50 in Granblue Fantasy

  1. PartyMePlox! says:

    Finally! Some news about you πŸ™‚ . I was missing you already! γŠγ‹γˆγ‚Š!

    Very very very well written. You write so good, that I almost feel tempted to play it… almost ;(

    Various topic to discuss:

    – I love when you say “nada”! I am spanish and that made me happy πŸ™‚
    – Notepad? Inefficient much? Who knows you? xD (I actually use it like you :))
    – Ninja way? You remind me of someone: https://www.tehvidya.com/dragon-shadow-spell-update/#comment-105122

    That everything for now! Don’t Stop Writing Please! Even two letters from you (in an article, not in comments -_-”) make me (and many more) happy!

    γ‚γ‚ŠγŒγ¨γ†γ€€γ”γ–γ„γΎγ™οΌ

    • Kina says:

      I love Notepad, it’s so casual and easy to use, like a real notepad. Who wants to spend all that time opening MS Word, waiting for it to load, adjusting the window etc etc when Notepad does it so easily? Best program ever.
      I’m kind of busy these days so I might not post as often as you’d like, but I’ll try and keep the blog updated from time to time.

  2. teasel says:

    getting into a proto bahamut is really hard because since the reward are so good, as soon as one open the raid, it get filled in less than a minute so it’s really hard to see one appear naturaly

    so what most people do is scout twitter using this site

    http://www.tweetdeck.twitter.net

    then search for Lv100 γƒ—γƒ­γƒˆγƒγƒγƒ γƒΌγƒˆ, as soon as you see one appear quickly paste the raid code and select your summon, it get filled so quickly than even losing some time on the summon select screen can potentialy lock you out

    sadly while it takes level 50 in order to join other people bahamut raid, you can’t start your own until you are level 80 (i’ve been playing since april and i’m still rank 73 so it’s not happening soon) it might be a chore because you are forced to use twitter and wait for one to appear but unfortunately this is the easiest way to do it

    also every bahamut fight, bahamut will drop rusted weapons, these are used for a lot of stuff but most importantly if you gather 4 of them and use a bahamut horn on them (which also drop from the raid albeit quite rarely) they turn into bahamut weapon which give specific buff to character of specific races, the weapon are the following

    Dagger = 20% attack to human
    Spear = 20% attack to erun
    Axe = 20% attack to draph
    Gun = 20% attack harvin
    Sword = 10% attack and hp to human and draph
    Staff = 10% attack and hp to erun and harvins

    most people usualy get the dagger because human make for the 75% of characters but you might want to pick something else based on your party (i use the spear for example) some character are considered having no race so every bahamut weapon work with them, the MC for example is considered like that

    • Kina says:

      I have three rusty daggers! I got two from Angel halos and one from the Baha I joined just now. (Edit: Oh wait, one is a sword) I’m a bit reluctant to sign up for Twitter just because of a game but I suppose I could always make a throwaway account once I have that fourth dagger. Thanks for the info!

    • Thomas says:

      Sadly if you try to use TweetDeck every tweet comes in around 28 seconds and you cannot copy-paste from my experience. The party is always full. Something tells me that even if i got in, it would be over by the time the raid loaded.

      I’d love to hear some possible other solutions, but until then I guess I’m leveling up more to start my own raids.

      • Kina says:

        I’ll give you the four solutions that worked for me:

        1. Forget TweetDeck and use the RaidFinder instead: http://gbf-raidfinder.aikats.us/
        I never signed up for Twitter and I hate camping for raids, but RaidFinder works wonders, plus it’s click-to-copy to boot! Use the big blue plus sign on the bottom right corner to add the raids you want to the watch list and enjoy! You can even set a sound notification for your chosen raids so you can tab out and do other stuff while you wait.

        2. Use Viramate or another copy-paste extension in Chrome to quickly enter raid IDs and join. Copying an ID THEN going to the raid join screen THEN joining is an extra step that delays you unnecessarily. For that matter you can also use Viramate to put your preferred summon front and center so you don’t waste time on the summon screen.

        3. You can find several Proto Bahamut raids on the regular in-game raid list during popular Japanese strike times, mainly 8PM – 12PM JST. Almost all the Proto Bahamut raids I’ve ever done were found this way because they’re much easier to join, probably because everyone is busy camping Twitter instead. If you find one with fewer than 25 people in it already you should definitely try to join.

        4. Join a guild with powerful members that regularly host Proto-Bahamut raids and join them. If you can bring a Holy Saber or a Bishop to the table you’ll be helping a lot.

        These tips won’t solve all your problems but they helped me so they might help you. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

        • Thomas says:

          Thanks so much for all the tips, you’re a damn saint.

          Haven’t tried any of these yet but I am doing so as we speak, much obliged.

          • Kina says:

            Keep trying all means, something’s bound to work out.
            If you’re doing PBaha for the Merits, yah you ain’t got a choice (extra tip, don’t waste merits on characters you won’t use).
            But if it’s for a horn, I didn’t get one till level 80 and I still survived. Don’t burn out over it.

        • Thomas says:

          Okay, I’ve used these methods, especially the raidfinder, and it works like a charm. I’ve been in around 10 raids now got the poverty horn and plenty of rusties. From what you say though, the horn isn’t gonna happen a lot is it? i have already completely upgraded and uncapped a bow, but I don’t know if I wan’t to create a Bahamut bow or go for the saber or dagger.

          The whole Bahamut weapon thing was a long term goal for me, and now that I can raid, I’m not really sure where to go from here.

          Thanks for all the help as well.

          • Kina says:

            Great! A horn in just 10 raids is very lucky. Don’t use me as a standard though, I am extremely grind-averse and hate camping for raids, even on RaidFinder.

            Which weapon to go for depends a lot on your party, but the best characters tend to be human, erune or draph so the dagger (human + erune when upgraded) and the sword (human + draph when upgraded) see the most action. If you have even one rusty sword or dagger, grind casino for steel bricks and use them for uncapping. AFAIK almost no one uses a Bahamut bow + it has terrible synergy with most grids.

          • Thomas says:

            Thanks for that, I actually meant the first horn was the 100% drop you get for your first Bahamut raid. On the note of upgrading though, I forgot about the bricks and I already have the sword at least uncapped once, so I’ll probably wait for that.

            This has been very educational.

          • Kina says:

            You’re welcome!

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