There are a lot of things to consider when to start a new RPG. These could be unlocking the best ending, amazing weapons or figuring out tactics early. At first Soul Hackers 2 works similar to how people approach simpler RPGs. There are up to six skills and they all reduce the enemies HP certain ways. However, long term, Soul Hackers 2 is a lot more complicated.
Affinities will quickly force players to change their tactic. Either by making certain skills completely unusable, to putting them in a situation where healing and other kinds of support is absolutely required. While this guide won’t cover all the nuances, it will give you a running start.
When Should You Change Your Demons?
Unlike armor, demons generally have some kind of advantage and disadvantage. They won’t always be an objectively superior option, so they need to be changed regularly. Knowing when can be difficult, especially once you start unlocking some of the better and iconic demons.
Our general rule of thumb is to look at how the average fight is advancing. Something like the Pixie, Poltergeist, Onmoraki and Hare of Inaba starting combo is good, until running into enemies like Mokoi. Since none of these characters have wind or poison damage, it’s impossible to do weakness damage to them. Later in the same dungeon Bicorns appear, which are only weak to poison. Instead of fighting an uphill battle, it’s best to bench demons that offer no benefit and start using those that are advantageous against these new foes. The follow will change over time, so it’s a constant consideration over strictly having every element and hoping for the best.
When to Delete Demons?
No matter how much you love the Jacks, Mara, Pixie or any other enemy Soul Hackers 2, there eventually comes a time when you need to make a choice. The best advice is to start by seeing which demons have given you an item.
Anything with the red icon to the left is a demon with every skill and item unlocked. These can safely be removed without having to worry about a negative consequence. The only downsides are these demons can be used for fusion without having to pay to acquire that demon (it will still work, just cost money) and the other thing to consider is how worthwhile leveling the demon is to your current objectives.
Even after obtaining every skill and item, these demons can be leveled. However, it’s at such a slow rate they will almost never be relevant again. This is why the demons pictured above skew towards the newer, with a lot of them joining at levels beyond where they’re currently at. For these reasons it’s often easier to just cut ties and add newer and more powerful demons to your party.
Anticipate and Manipulate Enemy Actions
Sometimes figuring out the best tactic can be a little obtuse. For example, when I first met Mokoi enemies I realized none of the five elements I had access to were a weakness of theirs. This limited my ability to stack powers and a devastating AoE after my turn. However, there are other ways to stop them.
One thing I notice is one of them always casts Tarunda, which is an attack down skill. In turn, if you cast Tarukaja, it will counter it. Instead of having an ally attack that turn, it was often better to just cast Tarukaja itself. By doing this, instead of having one Mokoi enemy debuff and another attack, one would debuff to remove Tarukaja and the other would do it again to ensure the debuff landed.
There is still some risk, as there is no guarantee one, much less two, Tarunda will be cast, but it’s a great strategy to consider forcing the AI to behave one way in situations where it isn’t better to out damage the enemy.
Prioritize Requests
As you progress through Soul Hackers 2, there will be various optional requests. A lot of these are merely supplemental to what you’re already doing. You unlock Central Line and Madam Ginko gives requests that take place at the Central Line, just like the Axis missions correspond with progressing through each characters section.
Not only is this a pragmatic way to progress, as you’ll likely complete most of the tasks without trying to, a lot of them will relate to venders. When a vender is helped, they will offer new resources or items. Often times these changes are minor, like Victor gives a slight discount on summon, but they can still add up a lot in the grand scheme of things.
Always Visit the COMP Smith before a major battle
Progressing through a dungeon generally means you’ll encounter new and more powerful enemies. For example, Central Line starts with Zhu Tun She, Koropokkur and Mermaid enemies and ends with stuff like Koppa Tengu, Zhen and Nozuchi. These minor changes can often result in specific drops, like Nozuchi has Snake Bristle, which unlocks an ATK+4 skill from the COMP Smith. These little boosts might not make or break the fight, but they can solve some issues in the long term.
You Can Save Before Tough Battles
It’s hard to tell how these battles will go down. Not only do they typically have demons you haven’t encountered, there is no telling how much of a disadvantage you’ll actually be in. Before worrying about whether or not you should engage these enemies, you can actually save before a lot of them. This way, if you do happen to lose, it won’t send you back a sizable amount and if it’s a close fight, in the perfect spot to try again.
Unlock Traesto As Soon As Possible
This is first skill Ringo can use and it’s invaluable in the long term. This is because of the aforementioned requests and COMP Smith visits, along with just hitting a point where it makes sense to rest before finishing a dungeon. It will save a lot of time and really has no disadvantages.
Sabbath Skills Are Some of the Best in the Game for Passive Allies
Every demon, no matter how strong or weak has some kind of purpose for your team. Sometimes it’s for the collection, other times an alternate who has access to certain skills, a dedicated healer or buffer and you get the point. This makes the skills you take something of a challenge. However, one of the most and least useful are Sabbath skills.
As the name suggests, Sabbath skills have a chance of occurring when that monster appears in a stack. Since stacks take from all of your demons, there is a chance Jack Frost, Loki, Fafnir, Ishtar or whatever will join you, even if they’re not being used by a summoner. What makes this important is these unequipped demons can have their Sabbath skills proc regardless. This is a great way to get free heals, buffs, skills or just additional damage.
Auto Battle Also Works as a Fast Forward
After a while or during some of the more intense six enemy fights, you’ll want things to move a lot faster. Even though there is no immediate way to do this, it actually turns out Auto Battle works as a fast forward. This is a great trick to speed up enemy turns and then disable for yours to maximize speed.
