Source
r/LoveNikki•
lavlights

Prioritize crafting or story?

Questions

I’m a pretty new player and I feel super conflicted about whether I should focus on getting through the story chapters first or spending stamina to craft some of the suits I really like. On one hand, stopping to craft suits I like is really fun and it’s nice to expand my wardrobe, which is a measly 6% right now. On the other hand, I feel like the sooner I get through story chapters, the sooner my options open up. Plus, they give diamonds too, which is always appreciated. I’m currently in the middle of chapter 10 for maiden and chapter 9 for princess, yet I’m already level 42 because I spent my first month or two without a clue on what I was doing :(

If anyone has advice or wants to share how they personally approached this, I’d love to hear some input!

Posted Jun 25, 2021, 6:03 AM UTC

2521
Yeri__LNv8 lvl 99 I need more Cloud, not less!•

Yes, doing the chapters first is the most efficient way but it's not the most fun way. For me it felt great when I finally allowed myself to craft a few suits I want but soon after I was back to the chapters, then I had another break and so on. I'd say focus 90% of your attention and recourses on the chapters but allow yourself to craft from time to time.

Another thing - there are a lot of super nice suits that can just be bought with gold. You can farm 2x gold chapters on the weekend so that you can buy more suits from the shop.

47
lavlightsOP•

Thank you for the advice! I think that’s probably a good solution to prevent me from just grinding all the time on chapters while still making good progress. I never really paid attention to the 2x drops for gold, but now that you mention it, that would definitely help me get some of the suits in the shop that I’ve been eyeing.

7
Aurinne•

What I did was mainly (although not completely) focus on chapters (I worked on Vol 2 at the same time as Vol 1 as soon as I was able). This is an advantage because many suits and Dreamweavers require items from chapters you mightn't have unlocked yet, and there are even a few events that sometimes require farming certain chapters (although these aren't common).

By working on chapters, you are forced to craft suits and parts of suits, and these suits get better in the latter chapters. Go to the Gallery and when you try to search for a suit change to the "by source" tab and choose the "Stage Bonus Design" category. These are all the suits that you craft all or part of while completing chapters. None of them cost diamonds.

If you go to the chapter target suits page of the fandom wiki, will show you exactly what you need to craft to pass each stage. Whenever you hit a slow patch in the chapters (e.g. waiting for princess drops or more SCs), you can farm for some of these in advance. You can either find the suit in the Gallery (remember to Type in Title Case) and click on "how to gain" for each item to see their recipes, pop the suit/items into Momo's crafting guide (just deselect the items you don't need) or look the items up on Nikki's Info to see which items you'll need. (Note that this sub also has a good chapter target suits page in the resources.)

Personally, I recommend evolving all the princess suits as you work through the chapters. Princess evo suits are fantastic because they cost nothing except stamina (and SCs especially are precious while completing chapters) and you'll get diamonds on completion. They're an easy way to increase your wardrobe and also have some useful items for passing stages - there are some that I'm still using, after two years of playing, when completing the newest chapters or for events like the Dawn Front/Daybreak War we just had.The Princess evolution suits have their own category in the Gallery, too, if you want to browse them (just be aware the Association or reconstruction evolution suits also have categories there).

It's also worthwhile to start working on your Dreamweavers if you're not already. These can get you more stam, diamonds and suit items. Start with Orlando (useful umbrella DW helps with lots of stages), Lunar (beautiful blossoming tree) and Yvette (bunny DW is great for passing stages and a hair item you receive while completing her spell book is necessary for finishing Orlando & Lunar's later ones). Dreamweavers may sometimes use stam or SCs, so you should generally prioritise chapters when you can't spare any.

I don't mean that you CAN'T work on other suits as well. You should play the way you enjoy. However, many suits either require lots of SCs for recipes/dye or lots of diamonds. I'd advise saving most of your SCs to get through chapters. I'd also advise holding off crafting expensive diamond suits for two reasons. The first is that it can be pretty disappointing if an event comes and you can't get s suit you love from it because you've been using your diamonds for crafting (the crafting suits will always be there). The other, most important, reason is that it takes a while to really understand what kind of suits will be most useful for you. I can name three or four suits off the top of my head that I crafted in my first five months of playing - for quite a few thousands of diamonds - that I NEVER use now. And only one that I do. And it's not because they're bad suits, they're great suits! But they don't suit the way I style and I was just attracted to them because they looked pretty or flashy or impressive somehow.

If you do want to craft something, there should be quite a few threads if you search this sub that list "free" (diamond-free) suits. There are some really nice ones that you can craft on the side.

Well, these are all just my recommendations and suggestions. Others have also given you some good ways to approach the game. There's no single "right" way or "smartest" way, it's really just a perspective for you to consider from someone who's honed this approach on two accounts (here and on the Japanese server), so that you can choose what's best for you.

EDIT: Another crafting option to consider is farming for Star Sea on the side - for instance, on the weekends when there are x2 drops and coins for certain chapters. Star Sea has items that are top scoring for many chapters. It has an "upgraded" version that will eventually come to our server and is free once you've crafted the current version. It is also required for passing Nikki's Dreamweaver (which we should also get in the future). The recipes are expensive, but if you take your time crafting Star Sea on the side then there's no hurry to get the recipes yet.

14
Turtwig5310Nikki•

This.

4
lavlightsOP•

First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to write this. I feel like you addressed every small thing I was wondering about, despite my question being quite broad. (also THANK YOU for saying that I have to use caps for searching in the gallery - I literally thought the function was just broken this whole time)

Star coins are pretty much the only thing holding back my progress atm - the amount of dyes I need far exceed my star coin earnings so it's usually what I need to wait on before finishing chapters. I only joined an Association about a week ago, so I haven't been building up a stock of dyes from there either. During this downtime is when I usually get distracted and start working on other suits I like, but then I can't finish them because they ALSO need star coins for recipes/dyes. I think I will start farming for suits in advance while I wait to get more star coins, like you said! That will hopefully keep me on track.

I haven't crafted any suits that use diamonds yet since I've been reading up on hell events and I really like the look of True Road! I've squandered many, many diamonds already from making very rookie mistakes like pulling in the diamond Room of Mystery pavilion, accidentally pulling in the furniture pavilions, etc. so I'm trying to be much more careful now haha.

How long would you say it takes to complete Star Sea? I've heard of it, but I wasn't too keen on crafting it because I think it looks rather outdated for my tastes. I didn't know it had an updated version though! The idea of a "lifetime" suit is pretty daunting to me considering how my commitment to crafting even just normal suits is very shaky haha, but it sounds like a good longterm goal to work towards.

1
Aurinne•

Ooh, I'm glad it was helpful (and yes, I also thought the Gallery suit search was broken for ages - which reminds me, you don't need to type the whole suit name, either, it'll search for part of the name/word provided you capitalise the letters that would be capitalised in the full title; and the search in free dressing and wardrobe aren't picky about capitals). And yes, most of us have unwittingly wasted diamonds in the early stages!

I can see why someone would ignore Star Sea. It doesn't even give you a diamond reward. BUT the reward is a dress you need for crafting another lifetime (Minstrel of Time) AND the upgraded version will reward you with diamonds whenever it comes. It's the easiest lifetime to complete, so it's a good way to ease yourself in, and you don't have to be in any hurry.

It's hard for me to say exactly how long Star Sea will take, since you may also get some drops from the pavs. Lifetimes (except for Stunning Beauty) only use princess drops, which slows the crafting considerably compared to other crafting. The more standard lifetimes (Icewind Warchant, White Blossom, Minstrel of Time) take around 3 months of daily farming. Star Sea should be quicker than that because it generally requires fewer of each item and the few that it needs an extra amounts of (hair and dress items) can be farmed from two princess stages. (The exception is the red riding hood hair from ch 1, so that should be a priority to farm so that it doesn't hold you up).

As a fairly rough estimate for lifetimes, look at the item you need the most of and assume it'll take you around the same number of days to farm, perhaps a little longer if unlucky with drops. But many of the items for Star Sea you'll farm more quickly. If you mainly farm Star Sea on the weekends it will, of course, be longer. My attitude towards lifetimes is to think of them as a regular task rather than a crafting project and to not think too much about them in the early stages.

One other thing to note about crafting lifetimes is that you'll need to evolve all of the princess drops and that requires gold. It's a good idea to keep track while you're farming and evolve as you go, rather than try to evolve everything at once when you've finished farming. The other advantage to evolving as you go is that it gives you lots of little mini milestones/achievements along the way, which makes the long farming time seem a little more rewarding.

(Honestly, I just think it's good to get Star Sea out of the way! Once you get to later chapters there may be other suits that grab your attention, but Star Sea is one you can craft with only chapters 1-7 completed, plus it will help pass stages later. Lifetimes are always valuable for styling battles.)

I hope that was a bit helpful. Even though I couldn't give an exact answer, hopefully there's enough for you to decide how you'll proceed. 😃

1
TrampNamedOlene•

I'm lvl 95, nearly 50% wardrobe.

The way I find works best for me is to get through all chapters asap for the diamonds (plus you do get forced to craft parts of suits and some whole suits anyway, and you get more parts just from the levels themselves).

Then I've gone back to evolve all princess stage suits - takes the longest time, but gives more diamonds and doesn't cost anything apart from daily stamina.

Currently I want to up my wardrobe count, so I'm doing the most tedious thing- recolouring all princess chapter suits. 😐

I have several lifetime suits as well, but unless everything else is done I'm not doing recolours on them anytime soon lol.

The actual chapter suits - I'm going to tackle them after I finish the princess recolours - because they take SO MUCH gold and starry coin 😭, and I use gold frequently for the mystery pavilion and to get items to decompose for extra diamonds etc.

I prioritize diamonds for events - for me, I go to Nikki's Info (amazing website) and check every suit for 'top scoring items'. If there is a particularly good item in the suit, or several - the suit becomes a priority over others. 🤔 Top scoring items help you land higher in Stylist Arena, which means more starry coin and diamonds! 🥳 And give you higher scores in chapters.

Also, if you see a suit be very versatile in competition over time, and you can get it for free - it's usually worth it. Or save your diamonds for them if they're from an event (idk if you want to spend money in the game, if yes - buying versatile/top scoring suits is also a good idea). Once again - the higher you score in competition - MORE DIAMONDS! 😆

Sorry this got a bit sidetracked about suits and not just chapters, but I hope it's useful to you! 🤗🥰

6
lavlightsOP•

Yes, I definitely want to get through the chapters fast so I can build up my diamonds! I’m open to spending money for diamonds later on when I have a better grasp of the game, but I’m hesitant to do so right now because I feel like I haven’t made the best use of my diamonds so far by spending it randomly 😭

I recently found Nikki’s Info and I think it’s the best thing to happen to me in this game lol It totally saved me in the Stylist Arena and let me win most of the time despite having nothing special in my wardrobe. Is there a section specifically to see what are top scoring items? Or do you just go through every suit listed?

My issue is that I usually finish gathering the materials I need to craft a story suit, but then I have to wait for star coins so in the meantime I start working on other suits I like. Those suits end up half finished at best because I don’t want to spend star coins on recipes, and then my focus switches back to story suits and I forget about them. Basically, I’m very scatterbrained 😩

Someone else recommended that I look ahead at what I need for future chapter suits, and I think that will help me stay on track!

Thank you for all the insight!

2
TrampNamedOlene•

Oh don't you worry, I've been playing over 2 years now and for a majority of the time I had no idea what was best, or even good as far as suits or strategies. 😅 Have fun, it takes time, trial and error. 🤗

If you do want to spend, I'd recommend the monthly card - $4.99, gives u 60 diamonds per day for 30 days! I used to spend randomly on events, now I watch ViviGaming on youtube to see what events could come next and see if I care to save diamonds for it! 🤗

Regarding Nikkis Info, here's a link with all top scoring items:

https://ln.nikkis.info/top/

You can look for the most top scoring, I personally care about Stylist arena a lot, so I check if an item is top scoring there ('SA' is the abbreviation). 😊 Some items are super top scoring, and I make a note of which suits they are a part of - and if i see the suit/part and it's affordable, or I can craft it easily - I do it! Alternatively, when a suit is in a current event, you can type it's name plus nikki info and have a look at all the items - if it has a star next to it, it's a top scoring item, and if you click it and scroll to the bottom - it will tell you exactly where it's top scoring (chapters, SA, commission request). I do this for suits I'm not too sure if I should bother for lol. 😅

I finish every SA season in top 1-2% players, so the diamonds/coin payout is good. 🥰

There is also a way you can upload your existing wardrobe on nikkis info and when you go to the stylist arena section it will show you which of your items are best scoring for each category. 🤗 Warning tho - took me several hours to figure this out, following a youtube guide, plus googling lots - absolutely worth it, but so cumbersome for computer illiterates like myself. 😂😭 ViviGaming on youtube helps a lot with info.

Once again, have fun figuring things out! ❤🥰You'll look back on yourself and think 'I can't believe I did that' and maybe have a chuckle. It's only a game after all.

Good luck and you're super welcome! 🦋❤

1
Ivory_Uri•

I personally get all chapters done, then get all side suits done, then evolve suits. Then I can go back n recolour if I want, work on lifetime suits, and crafting suits ❤️

5
Used-You8763•

Look at the gallery and find out yourself. When I first started playing, what I really wanted was to finish the chapters, cause I have a SERIOUS problem with doing just half of things lol but later I found out about lifetime suits and my goal became having Icewind Warchant and White Blossom. Like, I wanted other cool suits, like chapters 19 fireball jutsu suit, but I HAD to have White Blossom first. So, it's up to you.

4
Used-You8763•

One more thing, when I was short in Star Coins (mainly the only thing that prevented me from rushing throught chapter) I made a spreadsheet with recipes and dyes I needed. I would always buy recipes and then dyes if I had resources to spare. The dyes I used to buy from assn shop. Right now I'm sitting on 5k Star Coins with every recipe available bought, while I have only half the suits from assn, but I don't regret doing it, I don't really care about those suits anyway, and was desperate to finish the chapters. I was done with Icewind Warchant in my birthday, I got SO happy with the coincidence.

2
lavlightsOP•

I also have an issue with completing suits halfway and then one thing or another causes me to abandon it, which is usually my lack of star coins haha. That's incredible that you have 5k star coins now! I literally have 3 atm LOL the chapter suits have been brutal lately with requiring me to dye items. I joined an association only like a week ago since I didn't know you could buy dyes there, and it has been SO helpful because my association currency builds up way faster compared to star coins.

Those suits are absolutely beautiful! For sure I want to complete them at some point, though I think it's pretty far off for me haha. Other than chapter suits, I'm trying to do Moonchaser and Sea Tea Party right now because not only do I like their aesthetics, I really want to get the poses which I have none of.

1
DizzyListenV0 •

I too switch back and forth! I only have about 24% wardrobe but I get tired of only doing the chapters. So once in a while I take a break and instead craft or evolve suits I really like. I also quite like the SC, so new suits are fun to play with for me! And then I'll eventually switch back to the chapters.

3
lavlightsOP•

Yes, I’ve pretty much single-mindedly been focused on trying to blaze through the chapters as fast as I can with the idea that I could relax and craft whatever I want after I’m done, but then it hit me that it would probably take me months to reach that point. 24% wardrobe is already amazing in my eyes! I hope I can reach that point in the future hehe

2
lilianamrxMoth to Fire•

I'm level 41, been playing for a little over a month now. I'm finishing Royal Elegance for Chapter 11 atm. Personally I always switch back and forth since what's the point of playing a game if you aren't enjoying it? For me I wanted to expand my wardrobe with things I liked, and sometimes it'd even help me pass chapter stages cause I'd have more things to score with! Right now, I just need dyes to finish the ch.11 suit so I'm afking and waiting on my weekly 130 star coins while I work on Yellowed Pages with my stamina meanwhile (beautiful hair).

2
lavlightsOP•

That’s definitely a good point! I’ve been sticking to just crafting the bare minimum to pass stages when there are beautiful suits just waiting for my attention. I think my biggest bottleneck is actually star coins, which I can never seem to get enough of...I always need it to buy dyes for chapter suits so I never have any left over to buy new recipes 😔 that’s definitely my fault for completely ignoring the stylist arena for weeks until I realized it’s necessary haha. Yellowed Pages is so gorgeous! Definitely on my to-do list now.

2
lilianamrxMoth to Fire•

I totally ignored the arena at first too haha and I regret it. But honestly taking breaks to do evolution suits (which cost nothing but stam) or make things you like actually helps ease up on the star coin costs since you tackle the chapters slower. You can also use association coins to buy dyes instead but I personally don’t do it because star coins build up so fast if you just don’t splurge for a few weeks, and I REALLY want the Roaring Rivers - Epic hair which is beautiful and similar to Yellowed Pages. So if you don’t like the association suits you can spend your coin there too.

3
NewAnimeMe•

I would definitely go for the chapters next because they give you diamonds, especially if you're doing the earlier chapters. The reason you need diamonds is for events, which will also help you to expand your wardrobe. After you're done your chapters, then you can craft, since sometimes you need certain chapters finished in order to craft certain suits (especially if it's a lifetime). This is just my opinion, it's your choice though! :D

2
Nobody285•

A lot of clothes need materials from chapter 2 or last chapters from volume 1, so you should prioritize story

1
rococo_co•

story first because some events are chapter-gated

1