The Adventure Tavern of the Kingdom of Lingam: Alan and the Goddess of Time

This topic has 1 reply, 1 voice, and was last updated 1 month ago by VertVentus.

August 16, 2026 at 17:56 #47131

Participant

With nothing to do until Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, I’ve been using the “Gaminik” phone translation app to play “Lingam Tavern Story” early since after I beat Isekai Rondo: Otogi, although I got sidetracked by Alphadia F.

I finally beat the post-game on August 29th. I’m just missing some miscellaneous tasks for 100% (sell 500 of this category of dishes, 300,000G sales in a single day), 1 bookshelf for a recipe book, and 6 events for cooking specific food after enough story progress for your party members to chime in. I’m a little upset because I’ve been playing since July 28th?, and just yesterday they patched in faster movement speed and better teleport.

Blacksmith of the Sand Kingdom’s release schedule was 4/9/20 Japan > 10/7/20 North America > 1/7/21 Console. Lingam Tavern Story launched in 7/9/26 Japan, so you can expect a localization in January 2027. I’ll reply with a recipe list on launch.

Some performance issues include:

(Gaminik) The dialogue text overflows toward the right edge of the screen for poor visibility.
(Gaminik) The name of the speaker sometimes get included in the text.
(Gaminik) If my screen locks, it’s a cumbersome process of closing and reopening Gaminik’s hover bubble to even translate properly. Compared to Isekai Rondo: Otogi, I have to fight it a lot more, either instantly opening Lingam after enabling the translation or waiting like 5 seconds before opening Lingam.
There’s no game pad controller support.
Since it uses 3D models like Cross Tails, it’s liable to lag if it gets too hot. Like my Moto Edge being charged in its phone case while playing.
Can also restart to title screen if suspended in the background for only a short amount of time. The autosave does work for battles, but not fishing…
No text log to reread through text.
99 hours and 59 minutes play time cap.
There’s no repeat last action button like Exe-Create games nor cursor memory, so rescrolling to use my all-target skill is annoying. There is a general auto-battle AI setting like Show No Mercy, with much more nuance in which skills you can allow to auto, but will still sneak in normal attacks when I don’t want any used like Exe-Create’s Custom setting.

I didn’t like Marenian Tavern Story: Patty and the Hungry God, but somehow managed to beat it, cook all recipes, and grind the party to Lv. 99 (except Stella). I doubt I finished the post-game bosses, but at least there’s a lot of recipe overlap between Patty’s 660 to Alan’s 800. My dislikes included:

Decision paralysis between food for EXP gain and profit + hefty ingredient grind/EP skill grind (skill issue on my part I guess)
so-so plot/characters
equipment synthesis more restricted by 4 equipment slots than 6 featured in Rideon’s Mercenaries series, Blacksmith of the Sand Kingdom, and Cross Tails, where you can either set up 100% physical/magical immunity (Mercenaries) or 100% Guts and evasion stacking (Blacksmith/Cross Tails)

I couldn’t even finish the Switch port of Siela’s Adventure Bar Story since it was worse in every way and bored me.

Lingam Tavern Story is better than both Adventure and Marenian. I managed to get all the recipes, #720 was just given late, and almost missed 4 Runes in Port city’s weapon store. I still like Blacksmith/Cross Tails more due to greater item/unit customization and being able to earn EXP without a food middle man. My completionist/hoarder play-style tries to make the most out of each day (there’s no hard time limit, only a mild inconvenience of waiting up to 4 days for a rank up) from fishing or grinding enemy drops, but now that I’m Lv. 99, I’m skipping dungeons and fights now and hoarded 49 Skip Tickets, since there’s little incentive to be gathering/fighting. Lingam’s post-game is similar to Blacksmith’s, 3 dungeons and a boss rush mode, but it’s kinda whatever and doesn’t drop as many stat boosters.

There’s at least incentive to play some of Rideon’s previous games, like Marenian Tavern Story and Blacksmith of the Sand Kingdom.

Rideon References

Goddess Anselma and Sve are stated to be from the Ameilla Elf tribe. Adventure Bar Story apparently had Milija while Marenian Tavern Story had Bellatina.
Karren and Sve originated from the Southern Continent’s Muspelheim, the setting for Blacksmith of the Sand Kingdom.
Karren mentions Golden Branch Pavilion (Inn?) cooking with golden tools on the Southern Continent, which is Patty’s place in Marenian Tavern Story.

Lingam Gameplay Notes

Lingam Tavern Story has 4 equipment slots. The Jewel Soul Eater Longsword and Moonbow with +25% MP recovery via normal attacks is a godsend for prolonged dungeon crawling, Alan/Randy/Zentz can equip the former while Cheryl/Warren/Karren/Sve can equip the latter. The Feather Suit and Stealth Ring for bonus Agility can let you lap an enemy in turns due to its Conditional Turn Based timeline like the Trails series. Stealth Ring also nulls enemy ambushes, so you don’t get jumped. Eventually I pivoted to Drop Rate, Luck, and Gathering boosting gear to source ingredients more.
For combat, Alan’s All Stats +25% buff stacks with Cheryl’s ATK & MAT +25% and Randy/Warren’s AGL +35% buffs like Rideon’s other games, as they’re considered different buffs. Same goes for debuffs and Randy/Warren’s Weaken for All Stats -10%, but the issue with debuffs is that they have a chance of failure. Physical can crit but get guarded/parried, while magic can’t crit but doesn’t get guarded/parried (can still miss? unsuree), and criticals pierce the Guts effect some enemies may have. You also have a 4 person party this time, and you can swap mid-dungeon and mid-fight unlike Marenian.
Its mobile Jewel acquisition is the same rate as the CONSOLE versions of Marenian/Blacksmith: 1 Jewel for every 10 battles or 4 shop openings. This is terrible when the console versions remove In-App Purchases (130 Yen = 10 Jewels, 730 Yen = 60 Jewels, 1400 Yen = 125 Jewels, 2600 Yen for 260 Jewels, 6200 Yen = 700 Jewels), so you have to spam shop openings on a 2nd save file.
There’s at least 391 Jewels to spend, 180 on the shop upgrades. 40 for max customers (high priority), 40 for 6 dish slots each (3 base x 3 categories between main dish, side dish, and drinks, high priority), 20 for 100 quantity cap per dishes (10 base, but I typically don’t even sell more than 10 per opening), 60 for 999 ingredients cap (100 base, high priority), and 20 for 99 combat item capacity (10 base). There’s another 3 expansions x 10 Jewels = 30 Jewels you can spend for all 4 aspects of the farm (120 total = 300 total): fields, orchard, fish farm, ranch. You can also spend 5 Jewels x 7 characters (35 total = 335) to increase their max Fullness by +20 per, for 200 total, and make leveling easier. Then there’s various Rune Stones you can exchange for amount to 56 total (391), although I only spent 18 (EVA +100, LUC +100, Near-Death ATK +50% / MAT +50% / EVA +75% / AGL +50%, Steal Rate Up, Reduced Field Encounters). After that, you spend 5 Jewels on +3 ATK or 3 Jewels on +3 AGI on your damage dealer, up to 99 times each.
I used Recipe 148 (Cutlet on Rice = Bowl of Rice, Egg, Pork, Onion) to boost myself to Lv. 32 since all the ingredients is dropped by enemies in the very first dungeon (assuming 200 Fullness, 12 quantity per person is +3,780 EXP, the next party members join at Lv. 10, 26, 30, 32). Later, you’ll probably pivot to Beef Tongues, seafood dishes, and Rich Eggs & Spring Water for EXP. My rule is that if that batch of EXP (Max Fullness/Recipe Fullness rounded up x EXP) doesn’t guarantee a level anymore, I’d move on. For leveling past 32, Cromleck Bridge makes it much easier to grind Rich Eggs than Warlez Mountain through drops, except the latter has Spring Water gathering points. You can also visit Dozetford Village’s northwest house for Rich Eggs consistently. Lake Liandi’s final fishing spot is a source of Emperor Crabs and King Salmon, and you can only carry 99 fishing bait per dungeon trip. At this point, you’ll constantly get endgame ingredients that can yield 14k ~ 18k EXP a day for 1~2 levels up at minimum (assuming 200 Fullness).
They got rid of the EP system and made skill/spell acquisition purely level. Each character can equip 1 of 3 weapons (out of 6 total: 1 Hand Sword, 2 Hand Sword, Mace, Staff, Spear, Bow) and use store-bought books to learn weapon-specific abilities. Only 1 Hand Sword and Maces can use shields, so you may have full frontliners for the extra 2 rune slots. Bow gets a damage penalty up front (more enemy aggro), Spear doesn’t get one, and the other 4 types get a damage penalty in the back (less damage taken).
Leveling also matters because of a new tavern role system. You can have them assist in cooking to save ingredients, increase dish demand, improve sales by a %, draw in more customers, prevent fights from breaking out that lose customers (new text dialogue after opening, I got my first at Tavern Rank 4), or increase dishes sold. Each character specializes in certain categories and need Lv. ~27 for A rank, then Lv. 36 for S rank.
You can visit both 1 dungeon and 1 town per day, when I think you had to choose between them in Marenian.
Story got interesting at the end of Tavern Rank 3 when you do find the Goddess of Time, while Tavern Rank 5 has the opposing high-class Osborne restaurant sabotaging you by reducing the quantity of sold items in nearby general stores. This is thankfully only temporary until Rank 6.
You can bookmark a recipe (top right of icon) to move it to the top of the cooking list, then unbookmark it to return to its original numerical location. Helpful if trying to cook everything at least once like me. Then you can hit “Creative Cooking” to load all of its ingredients and just replace one for any direct upgrades, like Egg > Rich Egg > Dragon Egg, Salmon > King Salmon, Shrimp > General Shrimp, Crab > Emperor Crab, Seafood > DX Seafood, the works.
Sorting recipes by highest price also helps a lot, so you can go down the list and sell things with high demand and ingredients you have larger quantities of due to dungeons easily sourcing them.
One neat QoL about cooking is how processed ingredients can be made on the recipe screen, assuming you have it so. So let’s say I need Breadcrumbs, well I can make Bread right there, but I don’t have enough I pull another menu for Flour.
Rather than feeding Coco, you have to feed orphanage kids a certain amount of dishes too, with a random bonus to a certain category. Then you’ll need story progression to rank up (typically wait enough days and clear a dungeon boss), and rank ups only occur after opening up shop on Earth day (which is after, Fire, Water, and Wind days).
Marenian’s rune system had 2 slots maximum, and innate effects would fill one or both. You’d pay a fee to do so, but at least cheaper than Rideon’s Mercenaries series (and you don’t have to keep Earthquake spamming fights to reset the RNG pool of available effects). You’d also need an Aqua Regia to dismantle all effects off equipment AND it’d break the item you’re crafting. In Blacksmith of the Sand Kingdom, Cross Tails, and Lingam Tavern Story, equipment innately have a 3rd Unique effect slot, while you can fill in the remainder 2 slots with runes orb flexibly for free and without breaking your equipment. Lingam Tavern Story also lets you change out runes mid-dungeon, and uses Blacksmith’s elemental resist system, so +1 halves, +2 nulls, +3 absorbs IIRC, compared to Marenian Tavern Story splitting it into 25%s.

Best Team Comp

Breather text.

Once you get all 7 party members at Tavern Rank 6, then it’s time to figure out who to invest your EXP food into, as leveling up everyone evenly will require many ingredients. If leveling everyone equally to 99 for a trophy, it’s best left off in endgame when you can grind Dragon drops. Splurge your hoarded Exploration Tickets on the best ingredients (Spring Water, King Salmon) for profit instead?

Party	Alan	Cheryl	Randy	Warren	Zentz	Karren	Sve
Lv. 32 HP	381	280	414	347	447	314	247
Lv. 32 MP	119	174	101	156	83	137	192
Lv. 32 ATK	148	103	161	137	175	126	114
Lv. 32 DEF	121	110	146	133	159	99	88
Lv. 32 MAT	124	153	106	141	102	132	164
Lv. 32 MDF	126	145	107	134	98	116	156
Lv. 32 HIT	122	105	113	133	96	142	105
Lv. 32 EVA	108	99	90	128	81	138	117
Lv. 32 AGI	96	81	91	101	76	105	86
Lv. 32 LUC	71	37	33	29	37	41	25
1st Weapon	1H Sword	Mace	1H Sword	1H Sword	2H Sword	1H Sword	1H Sword
2nd Weapon	2H Sword	Staff	2H Sword	Staff	Mace	Spear	Staff
3rd Weapon	Spear	Bow	Mace	Bow	Spear	Bow	Bow

Lv. 99 Stats	Alan	Cheryl	Randy	Warren	Zentz	Karren	Sve
HP	980	710	1070	890	1160	800	620
MP	310	460	260	410	210	360	510
ATK	390	290	420	365	450	340	315
DEF	315	290	370	340	400	265	240
MAT	340	405	300	380	290	360	430
MDF	330	375	290	350	270	310	400
HIT	228	204	216	243	192	258	204
EVA	189	178	167	212	156	224	200
AGI	230	200	220	240	190	250	210
LUC	100	60	54	48	60	66	42

DPS: Alan due to +25% All Stats buff, Warren passive for +35% ATK/MAT & Omnimage, Zentz +3 Drunkenness? (Self +35% ATK & CRT +10%, takes like 3 turns of setup), Karren dual-wield for an extra +100% racial damage
Damage Amplification: [Buffs] Cheryl (Party ATK & MAT Up > Fire & Sve) [Debuffs] Zentz (Enemy DEF & MDF Down > 2-Hand & Staff), Weaken = Randy, Warren, Sve
Speed Control: [Buffs] Wind (+35% Column Randy, Warren, Sve), Sve (+25% All & EVA) [Debuffs] Alan (Leg Aim), Cheryl (Song), Bow (Cheryl, Warren, Sve), Earth (-35% Alan, Cheryl, Warren)
Healing: [All-Target] (Cheryl, Warren, Karren) [Single] (Cheryl, Sve)
Damage Mitigation: [Buffs] Karren (Wind) [Debuffs] Karren (ATK & MAT, Lv. 40 Earth & Fire), Weaken = Randy, Warren, Sve
Guts: Zentz (+25% Passive), Karren (+50% All), Iron Wall Ring (+35%), Guts Rune (+50%, farm 150 times, on armor & accessory slot)
Delay: Cheryl, Randy, Zentz (Mace) + Warren/Sve (Staff)

Unique active skills learn levels: Lv. 1, Lv. 5, Lv. 10, Lv. 20, Lv. 35, 55

Passives learn levels: Lv, 15, Lv. 25, Lv. 45

So far, Spells can be learned up to Lv. 30 (Karen) ~ Lv. 40 (Warren) ~ Lv. 42 (Zentz) ~ Lv. 48 (Randy) ~ Lv. 50 (Cheryl)~ Lv. 53 (Alan, Sve).

Weapon skills VI are purchased in the final village.

I’d say the best party is Cheryl, Warren, Sve, and Alan/Karren, more mages to bypass shield guard/parries and Alan/Karren are your best physical. You have too few slots for everything, but can compensate with equipment distribution.
I found out Near-Death (Stat) +% only draws from your base stats before equipment/runes/permanent stat boosters, so you need at least 100 base ATK/DEF/MAT/MDF, 133 HIT/EVA, and 50 AGI for it to be better than the flat additive stat runes (ATK/DEF/MAT/MDF +50, HIT/EVA +100, AGI +25). Same can probably be assumed of other buffs too. Optimized rune slots would be:
- 2/8 (Armor, Accessory): Guts +50% x2 (You just have to worry about physical crits and Poison, and while dying cleanses your buffs, it’s a minor setback.)
- 4/8 (All): Near-Death ATK/MAT +50% x4 (Lv. 99 ATK values are 290 ~ 450, so amounts to +145 ~ +225 ATK/MAT.)
- 2/8 (Weapon, Shield): Normal Attack MP Recovery 25%, Near-Death AGI +50%, +100% Racial Damage, Gather Boost II [Karren can double stack Racial Damage twice for better damage than Warren/Alan’s, before the weakness then critical modifier, but Alan’ll get more turns. 1H Swords also have 15% Critical rate, so if Karren dual wields those and instead goes for 2 Critical Rate +25% runes, then in theory she has 80% for a consistent double damage increase. Enemies in Lake Liandi and Smalt Sea Cave are pretty tough to auto-battle without evasion tanking, so I start a dungeon with a Gather Ring then swap to EVA Boots for the remainder fishing battles, or just manually fight from then on.]
- For the Cooking Effect, [Guts +50%] #115 (King Salmon), #234 (Gold Tuna) [Crit. Rate +25%] #272 (Dragon Meat), #282 (Dragon Mince)
- [2/4] Warren‘s passive enables him to be a good damage dealer either way, alongside his 2nd highest Speed. He has great utility by stealing items, seeing enemy info in battle, guaranteed fleeing (30 for trophy), Lv. 20 is a bonus drop rate on KO skill that pierces Guts, and Lv. 35 is the “Ignore” skill seen in Rideon’s Mercenaries/Cross Tail games, a physical attack that reduces elemental resistance by 1 for that attack, so it’ll be (super) effective or neutral, and he can Enchant physical attacks with every element. He got the 2nd damage spells while Alan & Randy & Zentz & Karren didn’t since they’re moreso physical attackers, and Lv. 45 Warren gets a passive for +25 elemental spell power. Although he doesn’t get the Lv. 50 3rd tier spells, the 2nd tier are still higher single-target for bossing, and the AI generally likes to use spells to avoid shield guards.
- [3/4] Sve‘s frail, slightly slow, and with a lackluster kit, but he compensates to keep your formation with his +25% AGI & EVA buff and he’s also the only other character with the Revive spell than Cheryl. He can buff his own MAT by +35%, give 25 MP to an ally, give 50% magic reflection to an ally, and turn an ally Invisible to avoid damage. He can turn 10% of damage taken into MP, reduces rate of enemy ambushes, and at Lv. 45 prevent taking critical damage, syngergizing well with the 100% Guts strategy. He gets the Lv. 50 Fire & Wind 3rd tier spells, Fire is stronger single-target while Wind is a horizontal row. Lv. 55 is a stronger all-target magic spell than Cheryl’s.[1/4] Cheryl‘s all-target ATK & MAT up saves time and enables mages like herself, can also heal, and lower enemy AGL. 2nd slowest though. Lv. 35 is a strong Void spell (240 Power) that pierces Guts. Cheryl and Warren get Lv. 40 Land Spear (Earth) to debuff ATK while Warren (& presumably Sve) gets Lv. 40 Flame Storm (Fire) to debuff MAT, to relieve debuff pressure off Karren exclusively. At Lv. 42, Cheryl learns Brave (single ally gets +35% ATK, MAT, and ACC) and Protection (single ally gets +35% DEF, MAT, EVA) to make Alan’s stat bloat better. She can also enable your tank defensively at Lv. 47 Aura (Element) by boosting their elemental resistance by 1, although not necessary through evasion/Guts stacking or Near-Death speedkilling. Then she gets the 3rd tier spells at Lv. 50, where Blizzard and Earthquake hit all enemies for weaker than the 1st tier spell while debuffing AGL and EVA respectively. Since magic can’t be shield guarded or parried, you’d prefer more mages than melee attackers despite their higher critical damage potential, but turn off the AI for Earthquake since they’ll use it and whiff against flying enemies. She has a passive to heal the party by 25% HP after battle, but it doesn’t work like some other passives so you can maintain 1~25% HP for Near-Death stat scaling.You’d like 1 out of 3 between Randy (parry aggro tank), Warren (party healing, damageless Steal), and Sve (single healing) to give the party AGL up and Weaken for enemy All Stats -10%, ideally the latter two for being the mages.
[4/4] Alan (All Stats +60%) is competitive with Karren (dual wield 2nd +100% Racial Damage), both are better than Randy (All Stats +10%) and Zentz (no 1 Hand Sword), since he can stat bloat (All Stats +25%), and that is a strategy typically good in Rideon games (Bless + whatever in Mercenaries, NG+ Lizard generics in Cross Tails). For bosses, I just need to maintain a 2H Sword on him for Guard Break & equip a staff on Cheryl/Warren/Sve for MDF debuffs due to missing Zentz. I could swap everyone to the same row initially for Tailwind’s +35% / item row buff’s +25%, but switching formation mid-fight resets the turn for anyone who switches row. So now that I dropped Karren for Sve, I can maintain my formation and EVA stack harder for a slightly worse AGI buff. Compared to Randy/Zentz tanking, Alan also has more MDF and EVA to reduce/avoid damage taken. Alan also has a +25% drop rate passive and highest LUC for more ingredients to level your party better. His Lv. 45 passive is Near-Death All Stats +35% to further stat bloat. Although ultimately a kind of jack-of-all-trades, he’s 3rd fastest compared to Randy in the middle (4th fastest/slowest) right behind him, Sve as 3rd slowest, and Zentz as slowest. Lv. 35 Alan gets Master Hit for a damage skill that never misses/gets guarded, Lv. 43 Alan getting an AoE Weaken and for some reason, learns Death at Lv. 53. His Lv. 55 skill is a fire horizontal row attack. While Randy (Wind), Zentz (Fire), and Karren (Water) are mono element for the 1st tier damage spell, Alan is dual element in 1st tier damage spells for Fire & Earth. In Phonix Volcano are Fire Spirits with 10% Reflect Physical, so Karren/Randy/Zentz all have a unique skill to deal with it (Karren’s is also AoE) while Alan doesn’t.
[4/4] Karren was initially the safest pick due to her exclusive all-target DEF/MDF up, ATK/MAT down de/buffs (chance of failure) and the +50% Guts skill for survival, as well as being the fastest with all-target healing. She also has Mug to attack & steal, which can be auto-battled (unlike Warren’s Steal, you need 100 for a trophy). She also has a passive for more pre-emptive attacks, to deal with encounters easier (Warlez Mountain has a Slyph that can do like 170 wind damage to a row, Lake Liandi enemies have sharks that Ignore and can 2HKO Cheryl’s 399 HP despite being +19 Lvs. and forcing me off auto battle a few times). Lv. 45 Dual-Wield lets her double/triple up on weapon-specific rune stones, like +50 ATK/MAT, Crit. Rate +25%, +25 Water spell potency, +50 Normal Attack power, 25% MP restore via normal attacks, +100% racial damage. But learning that you can put the Guts +50% rune on both your armor & accessory slot diminishes her value when you can tank everything but critical hits and poison damage. Lv. 55 is an instant death skill. Still, if not opting for Near-Death strats, she has the highest damage ceiling via 2 +100% racial bonuses on her two weapons & 3 (element) attack power +25 on her two weapons and accessory & Bunny Suit for +15% critical rate & 6th accessory rune being All Stats +25 for. This is how I got the 9999 damage trophy, hitting 40k damage on a Lv. 3 Slime.
Randy gets +10% All Stats at 100% HP. He can boost his own AGL by +50%, naturally has +25% parry rate and buff for +20% more, reduce damage taken to 1/4 until next turn (best with low AGI). His Lv. 45 passive lets him reduce single target physical damage to the party to 0 sometimes, but with the Evasion/Guts strategy, not as necessary. His Lv. 35 skill is a column attack with bonus drop rate on KO, but not good for bossing like Alan/Warren/Zentz. He gets Brave. Lv. 55 is the strongest single target skill at 240 Power.
Zentz would be a good pick for his his DEF & MDF debuff (damageless, so can setup for 9999 damage), but can be replaced by both a 2H Sword (DEF) or Staff (MDF); debuffs being chance based isn’t as reliable compared to buffs. Hits Guts passive is also nice, but obsolete and he’s the slowest. At Lv. 35, he can do a damage skill that procs based on his drunkness level out of 3, but that many turns of setup isn’t ideal when Alan/Cheryl/Warren/Sve can burst bosses down faster. He does get Protection, but Guts stacking is better. His Lv. 45 passive lets him follow-up normal attacks that drop an enemy into KO%, which kind of synergizes with his counterattack+50% passive. Lv. 55 gives the party physical reflect +25%.
In endgame chests, there’s a Staff Scroll V that should be given to Warren/Sve (Cheryl has Blizzard/Earthquake), since it’s an 85 Power all-target attack that converts MAT to physical damage, while the Sword Scroll V should be given to Alan/Karren, since it’s an 150 Power all-target attack (Zentz can’t equip 1H Swords entirely). Physical can still be guarded/parried, but allowing the AI to only use vertical column/horizontal row/all-target skills will streamline auto-battling.
- 1-Hand III = 150 Power, 11 MP, vertical column, bonus VS flying (Alan, Randy, Warren, Karren, Sve, shield access)
- 1-Hand V = 150 Power, 28 MP, all-target, no counterattacks
- 2-Hand III = 150 Power, 17 MP, horizontal row, no counterattacks (Alan, Randy, Zentz)
- Mace V (Rank 10 Village) = 95 Power, 18 MP, Earth all-target, 100% small delay, no counterattacks/phys reflect/flight immune, only other weapon type that can use shields; Cheryl, Randy, Zentz]
- Staff V = 85 Power, 20 MP, all-target, MAT vs DEF, cleanses buffs & no counters (Cheryl, Warren, Sve)
- Spear II = 90 Power, 8 MP, horizontal water attack (Alan, Zentz, Karren)
- Spear III = 160 Power, 13 MP, vertical colun, inflicts small delay, no counters
- Bow III = 160 Power, 15 MP, wind vertical column, debuff AGI -25%, no counters/reflect (Cheryl, Warren, Karren, Sve)
- Bow IV = 170 Power, 23 MP, horizontal row, no counters/reflect
- Bow VI = Arrow Rain (130P, 20MP) = all-target, no counters, phys reflect, shield guard
- Lv. 26 Zentz = 120 Power, 11 MP, horizontal row, bonus VS plant
- Lv. 35 Randy = 170 Power, 16 MP, vertical column attack, drop rate +25% for KOs, paralysis inflict
- Lv. 35 Karren = 170 Power, 21 MP, horizontal row attack, nullifies counters & reflect, 1H sword only
- Lv. 40 Water = 170 Power, 13 MP, water vertical column (Cheryl, Warren)
- Lv. 50 Water = 120 Power, 25 MP, all-target debuff AGI -25% (Cheryl)
- Lv. 50 Wind = 150 Power, 20 MP, horizontal row, bonus VS flying (Sve)
- Lv. 50 Earth = 130 Power, 22 MP, all enemies, debuff EVA -35% but ignores flying enemies (Cheryl)
- Lv. 55 Alan = 190 Power, 27 MP, horizontal fire row attack
- Lv. 55 Sve = 170 Power, 32 MP, magical phys-element all-target

Let me put into perspective the stat difference if optimized for Near-Death ATK +200% and AGI +50%, while accounting for buffs (Alan’s All Stats +25%, Cheryl’s ATK/MAT +25%, Sve’s EVA/AGI +25%, [Passives] Alan’s +35% All Stats, Randy’s +10% All Stats, Warren’s +35% ATK/MAT, Karren’s Dual Wield is sum of ATK/MAT then x 0.7, while sum of HIS is divided by 2. These values are before equipment stats/stat boosters, just bases amplified to their limit.

Lv. 99	Alan	Cheryl	Randy	Warren	Zentz	Karren	Sve
25% HP	245	178	268	223	290	200	155
MP	310	460	260	410	210	360	510
ATK	1502	943	1407	1314	1463	1105	1024
DEF	504	290	407	340	400	265	240
MAT	1309	1316	1005	1368	943	1170	1398
MDF	528	375	319	350	270	310	400
HIT	365	204	238	243	192	258	204
EVA	350	223	209	265	195	280	250
AGI	656	450	495	540	428	563	473
LUC	160	60	54	48	60	66	42

I could probably further optimize my ATK by using Near-Death All Stats +25% for +250% ATK and +50% DEF/MDF/HIT/EVA/AGI./LUC than +200% ATK and +100% AGI.

As you can see, Alan just has more raw stats than everyone (except HP, MP, MAT) including Randy and Zentz, and while Warren and Karren have less ATK and AGI, Warren has Ignore for +1 weakness tier and Karren has an additional +100% racial damage than probably compensates. I’ve already dumped all my stat boosters into Alan since I didn’t know about Dual Wield, and honestly nobody needs HP/DEF/MDF/EVA to guarantee Near-Death easier, so oh well.

The issue with Karren’s racial damage rears its head with the boss rush mode, since you can’t plan for all of them, and thus Alan has an advantage with raw stats as your primary physical and other 3 mages Warren, Cheryl, Sve. Alan also has a fire attack, which is good against the 3rd superboss halving physical (and you really want to burst him down in 3 hits with 4 Near-Death ATK/MAT+50%, 3 Near-Death All Stats+25%, 1 Guts+50%, and 1 Guts+50% via food, because his fire/wind magic can pierce evasion and Guts). Only issue is one of the golems being able to reflect physical/magical and kill one of your team, so ideally make every specced offensively. Also by this point you’ll get some rare items to resist all elements/ailments to leverage in tanking.

There’s certain store bought accessories that come with innate elemental resistance. With a +1 resistance armor, you can be immune on your B team of Karren/Alan, Randy, and Zentz while setting up Near-Death % HP. Your actual party will be using the weakest shield for best guard rate, weakest armor for lowest AGI penalty, and highest AGI boots, while your B team is weapon (HP +100, LUC +100), weakest shield for for guard rate (EVA +100, guard +25%), best evasion armor (Fire/Water/Wind/Earth Res +1, Guts +50%), then accessories (EVA +100, Guts +50%):

Resistance	Hat	Glove	Shoes
Fire	–	3rd (stat) > 1st [royal capital]	–
Water	2nd (dozetford fur hat, convenience)	–	2nd (stat, dozetford fur boots)
Wind	1st (stat, dozetford witch hat) > 3rd	–	–
Earth	–	2nd (dozetford brown globes, convenience)	1st (stat, dozetford brown shoes)

I choose 2 hats and 2 gloves, despite the Shoes being better for AGI, since it’s less menuing (convenience) to equip them, since the default listing is [hats > rare hats > gloves > rare gloves > shoes > rare shoes], and selling everything excess makes them closer to the top of the list.

Breather text.

Lv. 99 Grind

At Tavern Rank 9, you get access to Phonix Volcano and can finally farm Dragon Eggs/Meat/Tongues, the best leveling ingredients like in Marenian Tavern Story. Enter the 4th and final area, there should be 1-2 Dragons near the entrance, slay and screen transition out and back in to respawn enemies, until you get enough ingredients. On Normal with no Drop Rate +% (weapon, accessory slot rune), you get 1 Tongue, 5 Meat, and 2 Eggs per fight roughly. Later dungeons also let you Exploration Skip Ticket for Dragon Eggs, and then 100% ingredients is Drop Rate +35% runes.

#482 Dragon Tongue Steak = Mixed Salt, Dragon Tongue, Garlic = 4830 EXP
#168 Golden Seafood on Rice = Bowl of Rice, Gold Tuna, General Shrimp, Scallop = 4715 EXP (You can buy these at the Port City Shikim for some reason.)
#379 Full Moon Burger = Bread, Dragon Egg, Ketchup, Bacon = 2555 EXP (There are recipes using both Dragon Egg & Dragon Meat, #147 = 4050 EXP, #150 = ???, #198 = 2340 EXP, #201 = 3375 EXP, and while you would technically get more EXP using each ingredient, I ended up having like 300 Dragon Meat leftover and 0 Eggs & Tongues (after 100 Tongues, so ~200 Eggs and ~500 Meat), so I’d recommended using them instead.
156 Dragon on Rice = Bowl of Rice, Eastern-Style Sauce, Dragon Meat, Onion = 2345 EXP (Issue is that Brown Sauce uses Onion to craft it, so #325 Hashed Dragon = Brown Sauce, Dragon Meat, Onion, 2nd Mushroom = 2645 EXP is doubly wasteful unless you can buy Brown Sauce by itself. Once you’re done with the Tongues and their Mixed Salt, you can mince Dragon Meat into #489 Dragonburg at 3,245 EXP.

Next Lv.	0X	1X	2X	3X	4X	5X	6X	7X	8X	9X
X0	N/A	620	1,900	3,700	5,830	8,120	10,380	12,400	13,990	14,970
X1	100	720	2,050	3,900	6,050	8,350	10,590	12,580	14,120	15,030
X2	120	830	2,200	4,100	6,280	8,580	10,800	12,760	14,240	15,070
X3	160	940	2,400	4,300	6,510	8,800	11,020	12,930	14,360	15,110
X4	200	1,050	2,550	4,500	6,740	9,040	11,220	13,100	14,470	15,150
X5	250	1,180	2,730	4,730	6,970	9,270	11,430	13,260	14,570	15,170
X6	300	1,300	2,900	4,950	7,200	9,490	11,630	13,420	14,670	15,180
X7	380	1,450	3,100	5,160	7,430	9,720	11,830	13,570	14,750	15,190
X8	450	1,600	3,300	5,380	7,660	9,940	12,020	13,720	14,830	15,200
X9	540	1,750	3,500	5,600	7,890	10,160	12,200	13,860	14,900	0

∑EXP	0X	1X	2X	3X	4X	5X	6X	7X	8X	9X
X0	N/A	2,500	13,940	40,570	86,890	155,450	246,920	361,010	491,640	636,540
X1	0	3,120	15,840	44,270	92,720	163,570	257,300	372,440	505,630	651,510
X2	100	3,840	17,890	48,170	98,770	171,920	267,890	385,020	519,750	666,540
X3	220	4,670	20,090	52,270	105,050	180,500	278,690	397,780	533,990	681,610
X4	380	5,610	22,490	56,570	111,560	189,300	289,710	410,710	548,350	696,720
X5	580	6,660	25,040	61,070	118,300	198,340	301,540	423,810	562,820	711,870
X6	830	7,840	27,770	65,800	125,270	207,610	313,560	437,070	577,390	727,040
X7	1,130	9,140	30,670	70,750	132,470	217,100	325,760	450,490	592,060	742,220
X8	1,510	10,590	33,770	75,910	139,900	226,820	338,160	464,060	606,810	757,410
X9	1,960	12,190	37,070	81,290	147,560	236,760	349,380	477,780	621,640	772,610

Phonix Volcano has a recommended level of 46, which is 125,270 sum EXP and 7,200 next EXP, while the Lv. 99 sum EXP is 772,610.

(772,610 – 125,270 EXP) = 647,340 x 7 Party Members = 4,531,380 EXP ÷ [4830*1x + 2555*2x + 2345*5x =] 21,665x EXP per fight, x = 210 Dragon Tongues / 420 Eggs / 1050 Meat.

Alternatively, 4,531,380 EXP ÷ [4830*1x + 4050*2x + 3245*3x =] 22,665x EXP per fight.