Metaphor: ReFantazio beginner tips and tricks

Beginner tips and tricks for Metaphor: ReFantazio to help you out

Metaphor ReFantazio / Atlus

Metaphor: ReFantazio has very similar gameplay to the Persona series, so if you’re a fan of those games you may think you know everything going into Metaphor, but that’s not necessarily the case. While there are plenty of similarities, Metaphor has plenty of unique mechanics that could catch you out if you’re not paying attention, which is why we’re here to help.

We’ve put together this guide to let you know the little tips and tricks that can make a big difference as you progress the story, giving you a much smoother experience.

Physical and Magical damage are different

Metaphor: ReFantazio / Atlus

Something that often catches people out in the distinction between physical and magical attacks. The game can make it seem like the three types of weapon damage – Slash, Pierce, and Smash – are always physical, while elemental damage is always magical, but this isn’t the case. While they’re not super common, you can have attacks that deal physical elemental damage or magical weapon damage.

Make sure you read the description of your skills carefully as it will specify which one the attack will inflict.

Visit Coronation Rock regularly

Coronation Rock / Atlus

In the race for the throne, Coronation Rocks appear in every major location showing the faces of the leading candidates. You may think this is just a bit of flavor for the world, but not so, as every day it will build up MAG for you to claim based on your popularity. You don’t need to visit every day as any unclaimed MAG will carry over, but you should remember to check in with it every now and then to get a helpful boost towards unlocking Archetypes.

Check the next Archetype’s requirements

Persona Master / Atlus

When you unlock an Archetype, you’ll get a preview of what the next tier of Archetype in that tier requires before you can unlock it. Most of them will require you to reach a certain rank with one of your followers and to reach a certain level in a completely different Archetype. Knowing what these are ahead of time will let you plan ahead, build up your party’s repertoire, and progress the relationships that are most important to your setup.

If you want to peek ahead at what every Archetype in the game will require, check out our guide to every Archetype in Metaphor: ReFantazio.

Invest in secondary Archetypes ASAP for inherited skills

Every time you get a new party member, don’t just sit around grinding out their starting Archetype before unlocking any new ones. Even at the lowest relationship rank, every Archetype will have one slot for inherited skills – skills you can carry over from other unlocked Archetypes. These are extremely useful for buffs, heals, and weakness coverage, so pick one for each party member to invest in immediately to expand their repertoire.

Prioritize your social links

Metaphor: ReFantazio / Atlus

You were probably going to do this anyway, but it’s worth emphasizing for everyone, social links are the most important side-content in the game in two key ways. Firstly, they offer a wealth of story content, letting you get a deeper look at every character as you build your relationships with them. Even if that doesn’t appeal, then from a mechanical perspective, ranking up your relationships is how you unlock the full potential of their associated Archetypes, as well as get cool bonuses like discounts in shops or occasional help in battle.

We have a full guide for all follower conversation answers in Metaphor: ReFantazio too, if you want to maximize the bonuses you can get from them.

Waste enemy turns with Blocks, Repels, and Dodges

Metaphor: ReFantazio / Atlus

Metaphor has a unique turn system compared to the Persona games. Rather than one action per character, both your team and the enemy team start off with a fixed number of turn icons – usually one per party member, though most bosses break these rules.

If you exploit enemy weaknesses or land critical hits you get extra turn icons, letting you attack many times in a single turn, however, what you might not know is that there are ways to loose these too. If your attack misses or is blocked, you will lose two turn icons instead of one, and if your attack is repelled then you’ll lose four – usually ending your turn instantly.

This is bad, but it goes the other way too, and if you invest in nullifying attacks or focus on evasion, you can drain the enemy’s turn icons very quickly, greatly reducing the amount of damage they can do.

Do side dungeons and requests first

Metaphor: ReFantazio / Atlus

When you have a main mission to complete, you’ll often be able to explore the map and grab a bunch of side missions at the same time – most of which will unlock side dungeons for you to explore. While in Persona it’s recommended to get the main dungeons out of the way ASAP, the opposite is true in Metaphor.

Doing the side dungeons first gives you a significant advantage for the main dungeon. The EXP you gain from them will cause you to out-level most of the enemies in the main dungeon, letting you defeat them in the overworld rather than engaging in a squad battle. By doing this, you can avoid using MP which is a resource you can’t easily restore while in a dungeon, which in turn lets you stay in a dungeon longer, meaning you waste fewer in-game days completing it.

Train your Royal Virtues in the newest town

Royal Virtues / Atlus

Where Persona has Social Stats, Metaphor has Royal Virtues, which are entirely the same in all but name; you’ll need them to overcome stat checks that lock you out of certain scenes with your followers and a few other optional objectives. Training them usually uses up one of your precious time slots, so you need to get the most out of that time, which is why you should always visit the most recent town you’ve reached to do it.

As you progress through the story, each new town you reach will give you more points towards training your Virtues than the last, which means if you’re still training in the starter towns you’re wasting a lot of time.

Activities are different depending on the time of day

Metaphor: ReFantazio / Atlus

Each day you’ll have two time slots, one in the afternoon and one at night, and there will always be something exclusive to one of those periods. Some followers will only want to meet at night, some Royal Virtue training spots will only be usable during the day, and most notably, magic shops are only ever open at night. When you’re looking for stuff to do, make sure you double-check the maps at different times of day to see what’s around.

Buy Igniters to round out your weakness coverage

Brigitta / Atlus

For most people in the world of Metaphor, Igniters are what unlock the ability to use magic. Your party is unique in this aspect as Archetypes allow them to use magic without Igniters, however, that doesn’t mean they can’t be useful. Your Archetypes will only have abilities that cover so many elemental or weapon damage types, and you don’t want to be caught out with an enemy that only has one weakness that you can’t exploit.

Instead, go to magic and/or Igniter shops to buy accessories that unlock specific elemental abilities to make sure there’s nothing you can’t cover.