There are a lot of little things that make Granblue Fantasy: Relink a hard game. Some of them are rough mechanics, build challenges, to simply having to play more. These little quirks can make fighting rather difficult since there will be the occasional fight that results in failure. This becomes more true the further you get. As someone who overcame every challenge with AI I am here with a bunch of tips to make the overall experience a lot easier.
Top Tips To Overcome Granblue Fantasy: Relink
Beginner Tips
AI Is Extremely Good At Staying Alive
Unlike most experiences, the AI in Granblue Fantasy: Relink are more defensive. The four characters might struggle to match my overall power, but what they lack in power they more than make up for in defensive ability.
This distinction is important, as I got all the way to the level up quest on the highest difficulty with AI in the 3,000 PWR range. Even without crazy builds, well built characters, or really much of anything they held their own.
Given leveling can take a rather substantial investment, it’s great to level your main character before bothering with AI characters. Best of all, by the time you make it to Proud difficulty these resources will be so abundant they will be completed in no time.
Slow is Borderline Broken
The most powerful skill in Granblue Fantasy: Relink is the ability to slow enemies down. What makes it overpowered is incredibly simple. Once an enemy is no longer a threat, it’s a lot easier to deal substantial damage that will typically snowball into further stuns.
There were many bosses where I’d slow them down, do multiple attacks, link attack for another slow down, which with enough power will end their Overdrive and give you the break stun on top of this. Even without the full rotation it’s such an easy way to recover that it’s a must for every build.
Blocking is Basically a Panic Button
If you’re anything like me you look at dodge as the only defensive option. Best case you do it perfectly and are immune for a bit, most times you avoid taking any damage, and occasionally things just don’t work in my favor. However, Granblue Fantasy: Relink strongly encourages players to use the block.
Not only can it be canceled into, so if you’re using a skill, hold it down, and an enemy attacks you’ll immediately block it for no damage taken. It can also be great in situations where there is simply no other option. I would frequently use it for moves that were hard to gauge, as I’d either block it, or it would miss me.
Like dodging it isn’t an easy mode button. Eventually it will break, and once it breaks you’ll either die, or an upcoming attack will finish you off. Still, being able to mitigate a number of attacks that would otherwise kill me, or make it hard to avoid makes it a great skill to rely on.
Experienced Player Tips
Damage Cap, Tyranny, War Elemental, and Auto Revive are the Best Sigils
For anyone unsure how to build a character, Damage Cap, Tyranny, War Elemental, and Auto Revive are the best overall sigils in Granblue Fantasy: Relink. The reason for this is also pretty simple.
Damage cap ultimately determine how much damage is inflicted on an enemy. There is no point in having more attack if it isn’t possible to deal more damage.
Tyranny starts by costing a ton of HP for marginal attack gains, but the perk is extremely useful when fully investing in it. The loss of HP never increases, so there is no reason to not fully invest in it for the massive attack gain. Especially since the final weapon requires lower health to make the most of it.
War Elemental instantly allows players to do advantageous elemental damage to enemies. This simplifies trying to find an enemy weakness, building multiple characters, or trying to remember who is weak to what.
Auto Revive is a rather odd option. Unlike other defensive sigils, it has three extremely powerful bonuses. The first is dying with Auto Revive does not count as going critical for challenges. No more failing a challenge because you made a poor decision, or got unlucky. In addition to that, it retains any positive attributes you have at the time of death. This is perfect for any character that has a mechanic that has some start up time to it. Finally, at the highest level it’s frequent enough where you can play rather sloppy, and still get the win.
I’d also give an honorable mention to the Potion Hoarder. It’s an invaluable skill to have, especially in online games where heals are not guaranteed, but isn’t at the same level as I rarely found the additional potions made a difference. Something that is doubly true if you have Auto Revive.
Things Follow a Predetermined Rotation
While some people might frown on reloading saves, doing so can save a massive amount of time in Granblue Fantasy: Relink. This is because things like Transmutation, Transmarvel, and Over Mastery both have a “set” rotation. The reason I put it in quotes is because they’re all both random, and set in what their offerings are.
The way this works is pretty simple. Loading up the town will create a set rotation for each of these items. So if you use Transmarvel and it gives a Lucky Charge, followed by Overdrive Assassin, Attack, Stamina, and then Stun Power, it will always follow this exact rotation unless you successfully complete a quest.
The last bit is what makes this advice useful. Once you have, let’s say five Transmarvel stock, you can save, see what the rotation is, and determine if anything is worth investing in. If something is you can save at that point, or reload your save and redo the rotation until that point.
By utilizing this you can honestly save countless hours of grinding/bad pulls, something you’ll want to do because Transmarvel has unique sigils.’s unique sigils are borderline broken.
Character Sigils are Invaluable
By this point you probably realized the Knickknack Shack has character specific sigils for sale. Each of these are completely maxed out, typically offering an ability that enhances a specific play style, or vastly improves their overall ability. However, Transmarvel has a second character specific sigil, getting either has a second ability, and they’re always max level.
So in my case I got Id’s Versalis Foundation, which increases Versalis gauge gain by 25 percent, with a maxed out Tyranny. In some cases you’ll also get a specific sigil that has both character specific perks.
I happened to get one for Id, so it does the aforementioned gauge gain, plus a variety of bonuses when in Godmight mode. These perks are invaluable for certain builds/playstyles and well worth some cheese to get them without going crazy.
Endgame Players
SBA Stop Time
Skybound Arts freeze time to a specific moment. At first glance this probably sounds rather dumb. Who cares if you the clock doesn’t count another 20 or so seconds, as it likely won’t change your overall grand, and you’re right, it probably won’t. However, it can delay, and in some cases outright prevent awful things from happening.
The most notable example of this are damage checks. Many late game bosses have a move that will kill you if you fail to finish them in the time limit. Doing a Skybound Art during this move actually stops the countdown giving players another 20 or whatever seconds to kill the thing.
Even though Link Time, and Slow also help here, they’re not as reliable. Link Time requires everyone to do it at full gauge, something that won’t always happen when you need it. In addition to that, Slow is sometimes negated by last stand mechanics. I can tell you the final quest boss is impacted for like a second before it goes back to normal.
Along with that, and sometimes outright destroying an Overdrive, it can be used to make last stands even easier. Like I would use this when the final quest boss hits 15 percent, as that will trigger last stand unless it has another rotation to finish, which is sometimes enough to kill it before it even gets the chance. It’s seriously one of the easiest way to ensure victory, even if it makes the time leading up to it a bit harder.
Be Careful Changing Builds
When I first completed the final quest I did so in about 18 minutes. It was hard, though once I had the tactics down it was very doable. I eventually got the final weapon, powered it up, and got the time down to a more manageable 12 minute range. Eventually I added a critical hit boosting item, which brought the fight down to a far simpler 8 minute range.
The problem with doing the fight in 8 minutes is a lot of the rotations were very different. This doesn’t sound like a problem at first, though I lost a good five, or six times because my tactics would no longer work. My SBA would come at the wrong time, phases would happen differently, and it caused a lot of issues.
I did eventually figure it out, though it requires a bit more luck to win, so my advice is once you have something that works extremely well you might not want to change it.
