Friday, September 17, 2010

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness FAQ and Tips

Recently, and by recently I mean 80 hours of gameplay ago, I started playing Disgaea for the first time. Several friends have been interested in my exploits lately as they've seen my steam message as "Disgaea" almost all day every day.

One, a veteran who enjoys comparing game strategies has constantly battered me with his questions, arguments, and tips. Another, who can't seem to play a single video game without following someone else' example, won't stop bugging me about classes.  So I have decided, why not make it all very simple and leave my own guide to some of the games mechanics?


Starting out, here are a few mock questions and answers from constantly revisited topics:

Q: What are monsters classes good for?
A: Not much early on from my experience. But they make amazing final units in the endgame and bonus content areas. Monsters have genuinely better unit stats then humanoids at the cost of having no weapon specialties. A good example would be that a Tier 1 Golem, has more base attack power than a melee damage humanoid class of later tiers. While a T1 Shade/Reaper has better intelligence than any mage or skull tier as another example. Monsters also learn their own specific racial skills to add to their inherited powers from earlier transmigrations, so;


A Chernobog, (the red shade unit) can inherit all the omega spells from a high level galaxy mage, and utilize all their power with their superior intelligence stat at only the small cost of shortened range.
A Succubus, can learn all the skills of a Mage or Priest, and function much like a Knight unit, with better racial skills.


Simple transmigrations like these, can make a very powerful ally in your team at little to no cost from you, but a bit of grinding.


Q: Should I use Prinnies at all?
A: Definitely, but only the higher tiers such as the pink general or the green king as they have the ability to counterattack. The best part is, if push comes to shove, you can stack muscle items on a prinny and throw it at enemies as a last grasp at victory.
Prinnies do amazing damage with the proper gear on them. A High level monster weapon, a Belt, a pair of shoes, and a pair of goggles with some attack or status professionals in them, will make a Prinny a force to be reckoned with.

Q: What is Flonne good for?
A: That's a great question, I sort of hate using her. Her stats dictate that she should, above other choices, be a caster. She has a very high base INT stat, and her other stats reflect a cross between mage and archer. If you want her to be damage, I say giver her a staff and a magic student, if you want her to be support, hand her a bow and a priest student.


Q: How often should I transmigrate?
A: I went by once per chapter, but that is probably very excessive for most people. I suggest whenever you feel enemies in your current chapter are too challenging.

Q: Hoggmeiser, Maderas, Thursday, can they be kept as useful characters?
A: I tried like hell to keep Hoggmeiser useful, but by the time I got Maderas, my party already had 10 primary units better, meaning I never used him, nor Thursday. Aside from Thursday, these Unique monsters have horrific transmigration costs. It's usually far easier to hunt down their races in the item world, and make them that way.

Q: What weapons should my unique units use?
A: Laharl is a sword unit, end of story. I prefer Axes with Etna because she never lacks SP for the skills making her rival Laharl's damage output throughout the game. We already covered Flonne. Gordon can be useful with Axes OR guns, but I never made proper use of him at all. I suggest simply going to the sea of gehenna with him and making him shoot the invincible enemies to unlock the EDF soldier class, then abandoning his useless ass. As for Jennifer, I chose the gun. It allowed her squishiness to not effect her damage output, and if enemies got to close she would still counterattack effectively. In the end, it is really up to you to decide how to raise your units.

Q: Are angels worth dumping 300 levels of grinding classes?
A: I wouldn't know, feel free to tell me sometime when you learn the answer.

Q: Best monster class?
A: For general use, dark knights. For support, Shades. If you want a supreme monster, you'll have to go DEEP into item worlds or play bonus areas to unlock the wyrm class. Killing 30 of them however, for fair mana pricing, will be a hell of a chore.

Q: Best grinding spots?
A: A lot of people suggest the jotunheim invincibility level but I have to disagree. My method is to go directly to Hoggmeiser's stage, and pick off the wall of meat for an easy level 5 average for your party. Then, go to the Writhing shadow stage in Blair Forest, and kill the dragon to go to around 20. From there if you have good gear, you can go directly to the nosferatu stage in Celestia to hit the high 40s.


That's about it. These are the topics that bring up the most debate with me and other players. It is of course, your decision as to whether you want to agree with me, but until otherwise stated, this is where I stand.

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