Jump to content

 

Best method for 4 Terminal Chain and Arena Level grinding


lifeexpectancy
 Share

Recommended Posts

This is a wall of text. Abbreviated version is in post 2.

 

A lot of people have had trouble linking four terminals (both here and in other gaming forums I've read with threads asking for help) so I thought I'd post this. If you follow this simple guide, you won't waste too much time grinding levels in the arena and can get on with the game until a point when there is minimal grinding for Colored Hexes necessary.

 

Play the game normally until you reach Chapter 10. By the time you get there, you should have a good amount of the RED colored hexes built up, probably in the range of 40-60 of them. I personally had around 45 and I'd traded 15 of them in for energy stations, meaning I had 60ish RED colored hexes in chapter 10.

 

If you find yourself struggling prior to chapter 10 (most likely in the first 2 or 3 chapters), grind a LITTLE bit in the arena to get strong enough to defeat your problem areas. A lot of people have troulbes with the Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 bosses. For Chapter 2 make sure you use Metal Coated bullets with your MACHINE gunner so you scratch his defenses up as fast as possible, using the available covers to your advantage. Don't forget to try to set up your first 3 resonance charges in your first 3 moves during the fight, so that hopefully you can squeeze in a Tri-Attack early on to get him down to a manageable level. For Chaper 3's boss use the environment to your advantage and take out the 2 smaller enemies asap, then focus your attention on the big guy. Make sure one of your two pistol users takes out the oil resevoir thing that he uses to recharge his health asap or this fight is nearly impossible. I believe I used hollow point rounds with my machine gunner too on the big guy.

 

After Chapter 3 it's smooth sailing to Chapter 10 for the most part once you've mastered the combat system. I actually did 10 fights at each level for levels 1-10 in the arena, so I had a pretty decent level to tackle the rest. That said, at the start of Chapter 10 my character's levels were only in the 50's and even that is only because I was working on the 1000 bomb throws, rotating it between chars, which added 15-20 levels onto each character. My main machine gunner was level 33ish in machine guns and my two pistol users were 21 and 24 in pistols by the end of chapter 10. It doesn't take a crazy high level to get this far.

 

Once you've done all the missions in Chapter 10, trade in 5 red hexes for a red energy station and head to level 5 using the elevator from level 4 up on the top-right side of the map as you're leaving Ebel. I say red hexes here because that's MORE than likely the one you'll have a considerable amount of, as it starts dropping early in the game. If you have a crap load more of another, possibly the light green one which I had quite a few of, then feel free to grab that color energy station and use it. There is an item drops x 2 and a RARE item drops x 2 terminal on level 5. Place the red energy station near them and connect red hexes from the energy station to the two terminals (should only take one if you put the energy station between and right below them). Then connect the energy station all the way to the elevator with red hexes. Take the elevator back to level 4.

 

Now, plaster the area immediately around the elevator on level 4 with the rest of your red energy hexes until those 2 terminals activate back on level 5. A message pops up when they do, don't worry.

 

Roam this area near the level 5 elevator (still on level 4 mind you) where your glowing red hexes are and you will more often than not run into groups of enemies that have Gold Mimics, Wrecking Balls, and/or humanoid enemies "something" Mask. The MASK guys are the ones that drop what we want now, which is the STRAIGHT LINE COLORED LIGHT BLUE HEXES. We'll be farming approximately 75-80 of these. We will ultimately be using these blue colored hexes to link those same 2 terminals on level 5 with the item drop x 1.5 terminal on level 4, the experience x 1.5 terminal on level 6, and the all terminal effects x 2 terminal which is also on level 6. It will take a total of 293 hexes turned blue with all 5 terminals connected for all 5 of them to activate. If you're JUST going for the achievement, feel free and leave out the Item drops x 2 terminal on level 5 so you don't have to grind as many, but by linking the other 4 other than that one, you'll not only get the 4 terminal achievement but also link those 4 termianls to the arena, giving you the 1.5x exp and 2x terminal effects, for a total of 3x exp for arena grinding (this part is included in the arena grinding guide). We're basically killing 2 birds with one stone here. Leaving out that one terminal only reduces your need by 30 lit hexes, which is 7.5 of the light blue hex lines we're grinding. That's only another 4 or 5 fights, tops, so why not just link all 5?

 

**Important*** if you don't get the humanoid enemies with MASK in their name, leave the fight. If you do, kill them first then kill the leader. Don't bother with any of the other enemies as they don't drop the hexes we want anyway and will only slow you down. I was getting 2 of the blue hexes almost every fight, and occassionally 1 or 3. It took less than an hour for all my blue hex farming.

 

Once you have 75-80 straight blue colored hexes, I suggest 80 to be safe (which gives you 320 total hexes, so some room for error in placing them), start by building off of the item drop x 1.5 terminal on the bottom of level 4. Earlier on in the game you have to activate this terminal as part of a main story quest and it was covered by a light blue hex so you should already have a light blue hex to build off of. If not, you'll need to farm 5 more light blue hexes and place a light blue energy station to start building off of.

 

Connect the 1.5x item drop terminal on level 4 with the elevator to level 6, the elevator to level 5, and the arena. Then head up to level 6 and continue connecting to the all terminal effects x 2 terminal, and the exp x 1.5 terminal. Then head back to level 4 and up to level 5. Overwrite your red hexes with the light blue and connect to your two terminals here (item drop x 2 and rare item drop x 2). You may have to dismantle the red energy station you placed if it's blocking your path to those two terminals. If you placed it where I did you won't have to dismantle it. Finish off by placing the rest of your hexes wherever you see fit to light up the rest of the 293 required hexes. Bingo, achievement unlocked for 4 terminal chain as well as arena set up for grinding those levels!

 

At this point I would suggest progressing to Chapter 11 and staying there at the arena BEFORE doing the duel on the rainy bridge long enough to grind up Zephyr's machine gun against the arena level 20 gold blob. The reason for doing Zephyr now is that the other two are gone temporarily so you don't have to press B to skip them every round, you can just absent mindedly hit the A button to start each attack while watching a movie. At the beginning of Chapter 12, Vashyron is alone as well so that's the best time to level him with this method before you complete the chapter 12 main story mission. Then at the END of Chapter 13 after the 1st of the two story missions, before triggering the scene for the 2nd story mission, you can exit to the world map with just Leanne in your party to grind her machine guns on the gold blob too. Granted you can grind with all 3 members in your party rather than these 3 times, but it's easier with just the one as you don't have to skip the other two characters' turns. Don't forget to equip your EXP trainer accessory from chapter 9 (feed the dog quest, take doll to weapon shop guy in Ebel), as well as an auto trigger. Just have him duel wield a pistol to take out the other two blobs and then you can just sit there and push A in front of the gold blob with the machine gun equipped, letting the timer run out and he'll fire. I took his machine guns from level 15 to level 30 in about 10-15 minutes, and am currently grinding him up as I type this. The gold blob method was not my idea and I don't take any credit for it.

Edited by lifeexpectancy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Abbreviated version:

 

1. Don't grind any levels or farm hexes until Chapter 10 unless absolutely necessary

 

2. In Chapter 10, grab an energy station of your most abundant color (red or green)

 

3. Take the level 4 elevator that goes to level 5

 

4. Place energy station and use colored hexes to activate the side by side terminals for Item x 2 and Rare item x 2, and connect them to the elevator back to level 4

 

5. On level 4 place enough colored hexes connecting from the elevator so the two terminals on level 5 activate

 

6. Stay on level 4, on the glowing hexes you just activated, and run circles farming the "MASK" humanoid enemies for 80 light blue straight line colored hexes, equip your Lucky Charm trinket on your character while you do this for extra items. Doubt it helps with hexes since I think they're rare drops but I had it on and got 2 light blue hexes almost every fight.

 

7. Activate the Item x 1.5 terminal on level 4 and connect it to the Arena, the elevator to level 5, and the elevator to level 6

 

8. On level 5 continue your light blue line from the elevator to connect to the item x 2 and rare item x 2 terminals

 

9. On level 6 continue your light blue line from the elevator to connect to Exp x 1.5 and Terminal Effects x 2 terminals

 

10. Continue placing light blue lines on levels 4, 5, and 6 to fullfill the 293 hex requirement for all 5 terminals to activate

 

Now your achievement unlocks and you have an arena with Item x 7, Rare item x 4, and Exp x 3 effects in place!

 

**extra note** put the barrel magazine or the +12 magazine on your machine gun while farming the golden blob. It speeds it up. You don't need all the extra scopes for higher charge speed. I dropped my charge speed from 170+ down to 133 in order to add the +12 magazine and saw a huge increase in exp speed.

Edited by lifeexpectancy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 6 months later...

10. Continue placing light blue lines on levels 4, 5, and 6 to fullfill the 293 hex requirement for all 5 terminals to activate

I used the method detailed in this thread and it worked pretty well. However, the requirement to activate all 5 terminals is 373 hexes, not 293. This ups the requirement to 94 blue hexes if you do it perfectly (not sure if you can). I had to farm 95 of them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
  • Create New...