Any Disagea veterans on here? Just started Disgaea 1 and could use some tips.

[scorptatious]

So, after seeing HCBailly start an LP of Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness, I got interested and decided to download the game myself.

Loving the game so far. Although I'm kinda confused on a lot of the micromanagement aspects of the game. Item worlds? Assemblies? Rarity? What is this I don't even...

So yeah, I barely scraped by the first boss by throwing two prinnies to take out the annoying wind mage and the archer, and Mid-Boss himself did quite a number on my troops, and I beat him with only Laharl and Etna left.

So anywho, I was wondering if anyone could offer some tips for a Disgaea newbie. And please, no spoilers. Also, anything that doesn't involve using game breaking abilities would be nice too.

 

[Vegosiux]

Well. There's a level, I think about 15, where you have a "invincibility" geo effect active on the entire field except one square. You can abuse that a lot, by combining a few enemies to make an ultra powerful foe on that square, block it off with your characters (which will be invincible), for some massive XP. Provided you're willing to grind the uber-mob down point by point. Several times, so different characters get the kill XP. It's a level that's full of succubi and nekomata I believe.

It's not really "game breaking"; more a way to get lots of XP with no danger, but the trade-off is naturally that it takes a while.

Besides, even after you beat the story, Disgaea has a lot more to conquer, and you'll not be overleveled for any of that.

Oh, and learn to set up full clear combos. If I can, I ignore enemies altogether (unless they're a danger to a specialist or my own characters) and just nuke 'em all with a well placed combo chain.

 

[BoredRolePlayer]

So, after seeing HCBailly start an LP of Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness, I got interested and decided to download the game myself.

Loving the game so far. Although I'm kinda confused on a lot of the micromanagement aspects of the game. Item worlds? Assemblies? Rarity? What is this I don't even...

So yeah, I barely scraped by the first boss by throwing two prinnies to take out the annoying wind mage and the archer, and Mid-Boss himself did quite a number on my troops, and I beat him with only Laharl and Etna left.

So anywho, I was wondering if anyone could offer some tips for a Disgaea newbie. And please, no spoilers. Also, anything that doesn't involve using game breaking abilities would be nice too.

Get used to the micromanagement because to get through NG+ stuff it will be needed.
Make more troops besides what is given to you, they really suck to be honest.
Look up the best grinding spots in that game (I haven't played that since 2007 so I don't remember).
I mostly used humonoid based people.
Have a thief to steal stuff (not needed now though)
Big trick I don't remember how this works in D1 anymore but pick a mage/skull element and stick with that as your main one. Using that mage/skull make another one of a different element and use the mentor system to teach your main skull magic of that other element
i.e. if you make a red skull as your main use him to make a blue skull and have the red skull learn ice.
This way you will have each element for different fights.

 

[Launcelot111]

For upgrading equipment, going a few levels into the item world of a sword gives you better stats than buying a fancier sword. If you don't know, your weapons get better stats for each floor you fight through, although I think you can only leave on every tenth floor or something. The rarity of a weapon affects its base stats, but it has a longer item world, I think 100 floors for a legendary, 70 floors for a rare, and 30 floors for a common item.

When fighting a tough enemy, trying to combo your attacks is a good way to do more damage, for if you queue up all your attacks with Laharl at the end of the row and then execute all your actions, each successive attack will do more damage. I send every single person I can to at least do a basic attack before doing my big damage moves.

Beyond that, grinding is usually the answer if you find you're really having a hard time. The nekomata/succubus level that Vegosiux mentioned is a really good if tedious way to level up, but until you reach that point, just pick a level you like and play it a few more times.

 

[BoredRolePlayer]

For upgrading equipment, going a few levels into the item world of a sword gives you better stats than buying a fancier sword. If you don't know, your weapons get better stats for each floor you fight through, although I think you can only leave on every tenth floor or something. The rarity of a weapon affects its base stats, but it has a longer item world, I think 100 floors for a legendary, 70 floors for a rare, and 30 floors for a common item.

When fighting a tough enemy, trying to combo your attacks is a good way to do more damage, for if you queue up all your attacks with Laharl at the end of the row and then execute all your actions, each successive attack will do more damage. I send every single person I can to at least do a basic attack before doing my big damage moves.

Beyond that, grinding is usually the answer if you find you're really having a hard time. The nekomata/succubus level that Vegosiux mentioned is a really good if tedious way to level up, but until you reach that point, just pick a level you like and play it a few more times.

Don't forget if your leveling your weapons to kill the Item X (Item General and stuff like that). Also save residents of your items, that way you can transfer them to newer and better items.

 

[scorptatious]

So, after seeing HCBailly start an LP of Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness, I got interested and decided to download the game myself.

Loving the game so far. Although I'm kinda confused on a lot of the micromanagement aspects of the game. Item worlds? Assemblies? Rarity? What is this I don't even...

So yeah, I barely scraped by the first boss by throwing two prinnies to take out the annoying wind mage and the archer, and Mid-Boss himself did quite a number on my troops, and I beat him with only Laharl and Etna left.

So anywho, I was wondering if anyone could offer some tips for a Disgaea newbie. And please, no spoilers. Also, anything that doesn't involve using game breaking abilities would be nice too.

Get used to the micromanagement because to get through NG+ stuff it will be needed.
Make more troops besides what is given to you, they really suck to be honest.
Look up the best grinding spots in that game (I haven't played that since 2007 so I don't remember).
I mostly used humonoid based people.
Have a thief to steal stuff (not needed now though)
Big trick I don't remember how this works in D1 anymore but pick a mage/skull element and stick with that as your main one. Using that mage/skull make another one of a different element and use the mentor system to teach your main skull magic of that other element
i.e. if you make a red skull as your main use him to make a blue skull and have the red skull learn ice.
This way you will have each element for different fights.

So, how does the mentor system work? Is there an advantage to making new characters with Laharl over characters like Etna for example? I seem to notice that there's a higher chance for a team attack if one of the guys I made using Laharl was attacking while he's near.

Also, do certain characters need to reach a certain demon rank to transmigrate or just Laharl?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

-The Item World is, essentially, your best grinding spot. Choose any item and step right in. It's made up of a succession of randomly-generated levels. For every level you beat, the item's Lv. you're in goes up by 1 (meaning, stats increase). You can escape the Item World every 10 levels, or by using Mr. Gency's Exit, a special item that you occassionally find inside the Item World or as a prize at the end of the main missions. You can go back into the item any time you want, and pick up at the level where you last left off. Enemies toughen up for every level you beat too. Basically the Item World is there for you to grind a) your characters and b) the weapon you're in. You may also find "item world residents" inside any given item. Kill them (before the regular enemies do) and once you're out of the item, you'll be able to transfer their powers from one weapon to another. Something I liked doing was jumping into any item that had lots of residents inside, kill them all, transfer their powers to my cooler weapons and then discard the original thing.

-The Assembly is pretty straightforward. Pick a character, preferably someone with lots of Mana (which you get from killing enemies) and choose a motion, like increasing that character's jumping ability, or opening up a bonus world. Once you're in the Assembly, check out for the Senators with the highest levels and bribe them with items from your inventory (select the ones that they "Love!" or "Must Have!"). Once you've turned the higher level Senators to your side, choose Vote. Some propositions are harder to pass than others, but don't be frustrated by them, the Assembly is purely optional and I used it very little in my first playthrough. I used it a lot for Disgaea 2, because I got the feeling they made bribing even easier there.

TL;DR? Bottom line: use Item World for grinding, use the Assembly for bonus stuff. Both make the game considerably more richer and easier, but they're also equally optional.

 

[SaetonChapelle]

Item world. Item world item world item world.

I had a fighter class, equipped him with an ax, and I just kept leveling that dude up. By the first third of the game her was so powerful i only needed him to take down maps.

(Sadly I made my ninja so fast he started dodging my healing spells.....)

 

[aelreth]

Find an area that you can clear in less than 3 turns then start make the enemies tougher.

Start leveling those mages so you can get the galaxy mage. Then kill everything. To be honest you could probably grind out a 100 star mage in an afternoon (I would say a 150 star mage can clear the game). IIRC correctly you should most likely have a secondary project of having one mage reincarnate and get every single element and then do a final reincarnate to galaxy (or if you are really crazy send em through healer prior to it.)

 

[BoredRolePlayer]

So, after seeing HCBailly start an LP of Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness, I got interested and decided to download the game myself.

Loving the game so far. Although I'm kinda confused on a lot of the micromanagement aspects of the game. Item worlds? Assemblies? Rarity? What is this I don't even...

So yeah, I barely scraped by the first boss by throwing two prinnies to take out the annoying wind mage and the archer, and Mid-Boss himself did quite a number on my troops, and I beat him with only Laharl and Etna left.

So anywho, I was wondering if anyone could offer some tips for a Disgaea newbie. And please, no spoilers. Also, anything that doesn't involve using game breaking abilities would be nice too.

Get used to the micromanagement because to get through NG+ stuff it will be needed.
Make more troops besides what is given to you, they really suck to be honest.
Look up the best grinding spots in that game (I haven't played that since 2007 so I don't remember).
I mostly used humonoid based people.
Have a thief to steal stuff (not needed now though)
Big trick I don't remember how this works in D1 anymore but pick a mage/skull element and stick with that as your main one. Using that mage/skull make another one of a different element and use the mentor system to teach your main skull magic of that other element
i.e. if you make a red skull as your main use him to make a blue skull and have the red skull learn ice.
This way you will have each element for different fights.

So, how does the mentor system work? Is there an advantage to making new characters with Laharl over characters like Etna for example? I seem to notice that there's a higher chance for a team attack if one of the guys I made using Laharl was attacking while he's near.

Also, do certain characters need to reach a certain demon rank to transmigrate or just Laharl?

The mentor system (If memory serves correct) works like this
If you go to the dark assembly (or what ever the place you make more people is called) with a Red Skull and use him to make a Blue Skull that Blue Skull is now a student to your Red Skull. If you go to battle and bring out the Red Skull and move the Blue Skull next to him the Red Skull should have a listing of skills that the Blue Skull has as well (If you move either one so they are not side by side the Red Skull will lose those moves). These skills will be level 0, and if you keep using them he will soon get it to level 1 and then you can use it on his own with out the need of the Blue Skull having to be next to him.

The only advantage is Laharl will be the mentor of those demons and can learn moves from them, and a higher chance of team attacks with the demons he made. I honestly never use main story demons, they feel weaker over all for me :/.

I agree with the people here to use item word to grind, BUT save the item citizens they give your weapons bonuses and you can transfer them. It's a very useful thing to keep in mind, can even build EXP and HL gaining armor to make grinding easier. In the PSP version is is possible to max out a citizen really quickly who gives you a 300% EXP boost through a glitch.

 

[The Eupho Guy_v1legacy]

So, after seeing HCBailly start an LP of Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness, I got interested and decided to download the game myself.

Loving the game so far. Although I'm kinda confused on a lot of the micromanagement aspects of the game. Item worlds?
Assemblies? Rarity? What is this I don't even...

So yeah, I barely scraped by the first boss by throwing two prinnies to take out the annoying wind mage and the archer, and Mid-Boss himself did quite a number on my troops, and I beat him with only Laharl and Etna left.

So anywho, I was wondering if anyone could offer some tips for a Disgaea newbie. And please, no spoilers. Also, anything that doesn't involve using game breaking abilities would be nice too.

Just to explain a few things, (I hope this makes sense):

The Item World
The item world is a random multi-leveled dungeon that is used primarily to power up items. Weapons leveled in the item world will do more damage, restorative items will heal more, ect. The item world is presented as a series of battles, one map after the other. Every tenth floor is a boss floor, where there will be a special enemy, that will give a small stat boost after it is killed. You will also be given the choice of leaving the item world after a boss floor. Note that you don't actually have to fight all the enemies, on each map there is a special tile that will skip the floor, with no penalty. You can also leave at any time, if you use a particular item (Mr Gency's Exit)

The Dark Assembly
The Dark Assembly is essential to getting very far in Disgaea. As you defeat enemies, your characters gain mana. This mana can be used in the Dark Assembly to either create new characters or pass bills. Initially, there wont be very many options in the Dark Assembly. You can unlock more things to vote on by passing promotion exams, which are short combat challenges using only the one character. Some of the bills you can pass eventually are things like "Make Enemies Stronger/Weaker" or "More Expensive/Cheaper Items", which effects the stock in the shops.

Rarity
Rarity is a number between 0 and 255, that is assigned to each and every item. About the only thing it changes is the quality of the item. Items with a rarity value between 255 and 31 are classed as normal. Normal items have a maximum of 30 floors in the item world. Items between 30 and 8 are classed as Rare and will have better stats than its normal counterpart. Rare items have a maximum of 60 floors in the item world and the item's name will flash green. Items between 7 and 0 are classed as Legendary and will have better stats than its Rare counterpart. Legendary items have the deepest item worlds, consisting of 100 levels. Legendary item names flash gold.

Master/Student Relationship AKA Mentoring
When you create a new character, one of your current characters spends its mana to create the new character. The one that spent the mana becomes the master of the newly created character. The newly created character gives a few bonuses to its master; It can teach any skills it knows to its master (Which others have described) and it also boosts the stats of the master by 10% of the students base stats (Its stats without equipment).