Bravely Default 2 isn’t your average friendly Nintendo Switch JRPG. This little game can get absurdly complicated — and it gets hard right from the start. We’re a little late getting into this game, but there’s so much we wish we knew before diving in. As a proud JRPG maniac, the first Bravely Default (and Bravely Second) past by me, and I wasn’t going to make the same mistake again. But, as a totally new player to the series, this game is kicking my butt.
So what have I learned? The Job System is deep and complex. Learning what Jobs to rank up first with JP is very important — and all these terms might sound familiar to fans of Final Fantasy Tactics. The Job System in both games is actually strangely similar, and getting certain perks from your jobs is very important for your long-term survival. The game starts out pretty dang hard, but things get easier the further you get.
Now let’s break down some of the basics you really need to know while playing through the prologue and Chapter 1.
#1: Never stop foraging! Seriously. Just cut all the tall grass you can find. You won’t just find junk items. You’ll find useful drops. Foraging will help you find great loot. Getting random loot is strangely important in this game. And foraging will get you disposable weapons you can throw in combat. A must-have item.
#2: Equip double accessories for huge buffs. Accessories are cheap to purchase at the start of the game, and they all give you multiple additional bonuses. Characters can hold two of them too, so double-up and get twice the usual benefits. Equip double Star Pendants to give your healer double +Bonus Healing and +1000 Max HP.
#3: Counters are brutal. To defend against Counters, you can rank up the Ranger asterisks on everyone in your party. At a certain rank, you’ll auto-dodge counters.
#4: Counter counters with resistance stacking. Learning a boss counter can make your life easier — by stacking resistance, you can completely nullify certain types of damage. +1 Resist gives 50% damage protection. +2 Resist nullifies damage, and +3 Resist absorbs damage!
#5: Thief is a powerful early game job. Get Godspeed Strike!
#6: Don’t skip the Boat Adventures. It’s a weird little sleep mode bonus you can take advantage of, and sometimes you’ll get absurdly good items. Like, items that are positively game-breaking — like 50,000 XP orbs right at the start. If you’re lucky.
#7: You can grind for easy Job Points in the Prologue. While you have Sir Sloan in your party, you can kill a special enemy that gives huge XP / JP rewards. Go to northwest Halcyonia to find a unique enemy called Leannan Sith. Sir Sloan can defeat it solo. You just need to keep everyone alive when it dies so your party gets the XP / JP.
#8: Grinding for XP / JP is way faster on Easy difficulty. If you’re stuck and want to farm for more XP / JP, just lower the difficulty to Easy. You can lower / raise the difficulty at any time. Raise it back up for story progress to give yourself a challenge, but lower it while farming to ease up on the slog.
#9: Play lots of the card mini-game! The card mini-game can unlock some powerful rewards, including an entirely new optional job. It helps to start as early as possible!
