Sea of Stars: Beginner Tips and Tricks
Sea of Stars is a delightful indie RPG and it’s finally dropped on consoles and PC! With fantastic art direction, some great mechanics and a moreish gameplay style, there’s plenty to see and do with this one.
The game itself can be completed in around 30 hours according to Sabotage Studio, but do expect that number to increase if you want to try and collect everything and complete every achievement this game has to offer.
Before you dive in, we’ve put together a handy beginner’s guide full of tips and tricks for making the most of your playthrough. As always, if you have your own tips or hints for players, do let us know in the comments below!
Combat Tips
Combat is the bread and butter of any RPG but in Sea of Stars, there’s an added element of interactivity that makes fights that much more rewarding. Although this is learned during the tutorial, timing your attacks and dodges can give you a slight edge in battle. The longer you play, the more you’ll become accustomed to the animations of your main characters. This will make timing your attacks easier.
Enemies can be tougher to scout, but some attacks have very obvious wind-ups. Be sure to time just before an enemy strikes. Likewise, be sure to switch up your magic and physical attacks while fighting too. It’s a good idea to save your MP until you start breaking enemy locks, especially in tougher fights.
What are enemy locks? Well, Sea of Stars includes combat “locks” which come in the form of symbols appearing over an enemy’s head, usually before a powerful attack against you. The orange orb signifies Zale’s fire, while the blue orb highlights Valere’s magic. The hammer is for blunt attacks (cast by Valere and another core party member (no spoilers here!)), while the sword signifies Zale’s physical attack.
Watch out for the countdown timers above enemies too. Whenever you’re facing a group, it’s a good idea to target the enemy that’s either winding up a big attack or is about to strike next. If enemies are grouped up together, you can also use some abilities to target multiple enemies at once, which is very useful.
On that same note, given enemies are just out in the open, don’t be afraid to run past them and avoid combat if you’re low on health or want to avoid the grind.
Don’t Be Afraid To Switch Characters
Although Sea of Stars starts with you choosing a predominant character to control, you’re not actually stuck with this choice. In the turn-based combat, you can use both characters anyway but traversing the world can be mixed up with either Zale or Valere in the driving seat.
When you reach a camp and rest for the night, approach your other main protagonist and you’ll be able to switch out on the fly.
Grab Lots Of Ingredients & Explore
Dotted throughout the various dungeons, pathways and at town vendors are a number of different vegetables and food items dotted around and obtained from enemies. It’s certainly worth grabbing as many ingredients as possible and start saving these up. Speak to every vendor in each town too as they’ll more often than not have new recipes for you to learn.
Furthermore, there are a number of different chests out in the wild, and some hold valuable items like gems and sapphires that you can then sell at vendors. This is massively helpful, as it’ll bolster out your gold reserves and help you acquire better equipment quicker.
With recipes and ingredients at hand, you can cook these meals at camp before resting up, which basically serve as this game’s version of potions and MP restoration.
Rainbow Conches
Throughout the world are a number of Rainbow Conches. Some of these can be found in blue chests with a conch sigil on the front, while others can be obtained out in the world by completing various side quests or activities. It’s worth collecting these because during the midway point of the game, there’s actually an NPC who collects them, offering up some pretty tasty rewards to make your life easier while playing.
Relics
Sea of Stars has a handy system that augments the difficulty and play-style to your liking through the use of Relics. These can be found throughout the game, with a good number found at different towns by speaking to vendors. These range from raising your defence or doubling your HP in battle. However, there are also some passive boosts included here, including faster sailing speed and visual cues to show if you’ve successfully blocked in combat or not.
While it’s not essential to playing, if you’re having a hard time with a particular boss or are trying to get through a dungeon without dying, these relics can be switched on or off via the menu and can be very handy.
Buy The Abacus!
One of the more useful items in the shops early on in the game comes in the form of the “Abacus”. This gold-styled accessory is incredibly useful and adds an extra layer of strategy to fights. Obtaining this means you can see the HP of different non-boss enemies in combat. Later on in the game, you’ll also be able to get hold of the “Eye of Yomara”, which is basically an upgraded version of this, allowing you to see boss HP as well.
Talk To Your Party Members In Camp
Circling back to the subject of camp to close things out, be sure to talk to all your party members when you rest throughout your adventure. Although this starts out with simple chit-chat, over time this actually expands to include useful information like secret locations and hints toward the game’s alternate ending!
So there we have it! Our tips and tricks for getting the most out of Sea of Stars early on in your adventure. If you have any additional tips or tricks we’ve missed out here, do be sure to comment below!