The 5 things to know for conquering campaign

I have seen a lot of posts lately that put high emphasis on gearing up your characters, but this is only one aspect that will help you be successful in this game. The others are all just as important, some easier to get than others. I wanted to take a few minutes to break down what these things are, and show you that they all have an important role to play in the "Grand Scheme".

Gear - it is commonly believed that this is the key to victory, and while that is certainly true, it is only part of the whole. Gear pieces provide a variety of stat boosts for your characters, and the higher level they become, the better the bonus. So it is recommended that you always try to get these as high as you can. Ranks 1 & 2 only require tier 1 materials for your respective affinity. Ranks 3 & 4 will need both tier 1 & 2 materials. This is where it will get harder to gear up, because the last 6 ranks all have the need for tier 3 materials. These materials can be hard to obtain, in campaign they are in chapters 7 & 8, and in the timed events you will see them in node 4 & 5. If you are having trouble obtaining these tier 3 materials, you should improve your capabilities in another aspect and try again.

Level - Probably the easiest thing to know in game is that your player level determines the max level any of your characters can obtain. This process gets much slower the higher level you become, so it is only a thing that will improve little after a point. You do not need to emphasis trying to achieve the max level(currently 70), because the level you are only determines the maximum of other upgrades you can have, things like skill ranks and gear ranks. u/TiltedLibra pointed out that I forgot to mention that leveling up will increase your stats, so there is a reason to want to hit level 70, at least eventually.

Rank - also known as stars, because as you rank up a character you get another star added to the profile. you increase this by "farming" fragments. each increase in rank will require more and more shards for the next. once you have hit rank 5 with a character you will be able to farm more shards and unlock the "Legendary" powers of the character. with each rank you unlock your character will receive a stat boost, which is indicated by the modifier increasing and your stats recalculating based on this new number, as well as the possibility to unlock new skills.

Skills - you will improve your skills with various emotional spectrum energy. starting with the green will power. each skill has a max of between 8 or 9 ranks. these require more and more energy as you increase them. you also will have to level up your character to obtain the highest levels, as each skill has a character level associated with what it can have as the highest skill level possible. ex: in order to get skill level 8 on the first skill you will need to be level 58 to have that option. because you have to decide where you will spend the energy, among the characters you use, you will not have to usually wait to power up skills due to a level requirement often. skills provide increases in damage or additional effects depending on what skill level they are. so make sure you upgrade them as you can.

Tactics & Synergy - The unseen characteristic. this is very important as good tactics and strong synergy will allow a team that has underpowered gear and skills and levels and ranks to potentially out preform what another team of the same caliber can do. this can vary from team to team. it is important that you consider these when determining what team you build, and what you upgrade. with proper management of tactics and synergy you will find it much easier to face opponents who otherwise could obliterate your team. If you ever find yourself having a question about this topic, the reddit is a great wealth of player knowledge and experience to tap in to. a great place to start looking for information on any given character are the Doombawkz - Insight and Discussion, these will break down a characters capabilities and team synergies and tactics recommended for the character. if you cannot find an insight on a character you want, be patient as he is always coming out with more, or just ask the reddit community for help.

In conclusion, it is important that you raise all of these capabilities for each of your team members, as well as improving yourself as a player with knowledge of tactics and synergy. If you find yourself struggling to beat a timed event or boss in campaign, the simple answer is "improve your gear", but it is far more complex than that, as each of these factors will have an impact on your teams performance. it is also good to note that of these the gear, level and rank will factor into the power level displayed for your character, while skill ranks and tactics/synergy will not affect it, so don't get discouraged just because someone is stronger than you, it may be an artificial inflation of their true power because they have focused on only the 3 that raise power level, and do not have high skill levels or a good understanding of tactics and synergy.

I hope this helps, and as always, enjoy.

Primary Post with links to other topics:

OgreBarberian, math is your friend