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captrory1

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An Exercise in Going "Hey! I Didn't Know That!" For Everyone Else.

 

 

 

Hello All,

 

I just bought Academagia a few days ago. I've been having a lot of fun playing it. But I could surely use some help. I've remade the same character three times, because I figure a bunch of things out each playthrough. I didn't even hit Midterms on the first try before deciding to start over. I even had some pretty good luck. But the sheer weight of everything I'd learned just in the small time I'd been playing crushed me.

 

 

I haven't found a good beginner's guide. If I hadn't read a Let's Play before buying the game I'd have had no idea what was going on, (or what the game was but that' neither here nor there) and would've gone through several games before even learning some things were possible.

 

 

I'd strongly like to avoid outright spoilers. But if the community would be kind enough to assemble a basic toolkit to help out starting players, it would be a great help.

 

I'm coming in very late in the game's life cycle. There have been so many updates I don't even know how good the information floating around is anymore. I read an article and go "I don't think it works that way anymore...".

 

Anyway~

 

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

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Ohh then once again.

 

- When you spend your points at gamestart keep in mind that attributes are important and at last for the first games set no attribute below 2.

- There many backgrounds that gives you Attribute + x they are bether then direct spend a Backgroundpoint in the Attribute

- Try to max your Study bevor the Midtherm Exam

- Study at the Venalicium Library is one of the best way to Study as it gives you also research Subskills what in return unlook one of the best skill training facilitys in the game. Best of all you have it right at the start.

- Unless you use the Modtools the Wiki is your friend if you have to look into something

http://academagia.wikia.com/wiki/Academagia_Wiki

- Religion have at Piety with cleans and Remake the best spell to temporary boost your attributes when needed

- Complet forget about your familiar in the first games and if you want to try out what you can do with a Familiar then take Zoology as class

- Revision have in my opinion the most usfull spells to get you trough difficult adventures with Revision of Skills and From Novice to Master

- Unless you want a clean record try to learn how many times you can skip class especial when nothing is teached (like trough the month when the exam is)

- Do the Adventure with Oan till the end as it gives Int and Insight.

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First, make sure you have downloaded the latest DLC from the forums and are using it. It has a lot of bug fixes, and a lot of new events.

 

Schwarzbart's right with all his advice, but here's another suggestion- for the part where he says to keep all your attributes at 2 or above, take backgrounds that boosts your attributes rather then directly boosting your attributes on the first screen. The Family of Crafters background, for instance, increases your Finesse- along with some craft skills. Much better result then just boosting your Finesse. (Also, you can probably get away with leaving your strength at 1. It isn't all that useful.)

 

 

For the first week of school, I generally start out with both corresponding to home once (so I have a start at getting money from my parents- though I often choose the Black Sheep background, so that isn't always the best idea), and if I'm in a collage that can win the merit competition (Aranaz, Mordivus, or Vernin), competing once or twice. That gives my collage a start in the merit competition. Whatever collage wins the competition gets some nice rewards, so if you have the time to keep your collage ahead, it's worth it. However, it's usually not even worth trying if you're in say, Avila- you simply don't have the numbers to successfully compete your way to the top.

 

I don't skip classes for the first month of school, generally. I attend all my classes like a good little student. In my spare time, I do the Adventure 'Request a Meeting with your Mentor'. Oan teaches you some new phemes and skills with every adventure, so it's really worthwhile to do. The continuing adventure, as Schwarzbart says, is great as well- you just have to have some befriend skill for the end.

 

I look around at my fellow students and decide who I want to become my first friend. Usually, you should just choose someone you have a high relationship with. You might have to use Gossip to increase your relationship with them a bit more, and then you need to Befriend them (chooses the Great Hall as a location!). If you successfully befriend them, you'll have started your own clique, and be on the start of the way to domination. Your friend skills get used instead of yours during an adventure if they have higher skills then you, so it's always good to have a collection of well-rounded friends. Just be sure they get along with each other first! (Gossip to raise relationships between your clique member and your new prospective joinie each time you want to invite someone to your clique.)

 

I start Studying at the V library right away, and try to boost all my classes to 10 as soon as possible. Doing this will likely get my Library Research high enough to unlock the school's three other libraries, where you'll go to train skills. It'll also unlock Match Wits with the Emperor Sphinx, which is probably the best place to learn skills once you have the Wits skill to always succeed on the rolls.

 

That's basically how I spend my first month. Studying, going to classes, adventuring with Oan, picking out my first friend or two and cliqueing up, and then doing some competing.

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First week I usualy get 1-2 Member for my Clique, do some easy adventure (i.e. the Adventure with Oan), increase Study and/or increase Religion if I already have some good way to train this.

 

Coresponding Home is no longer worth it in my opinion as you get parental Approval from getting a Study to 10.

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That really depends on your playstyle.

 

People tend to like the clique members who give them attribute boosts.

Emilia P gives a point of charm. Neta gives a point of charm. Silke gives a point of fitness. Alan gives a point of luck.

 

I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but attribute points are nothing to sneeze at.

 

I personally recommend grabbing clique members that take different classes from you. Let's say you're an intelligence focused Mordivus with your Revision. How about grabbing one of the kids in Avila or Hedi that's studying both Astrology and Glamour with good luck and charm? Then you'll have high astrology and glamour skills for adventures as well as your high revision skill.

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The Sphinx can be found at Filing 9 or Library Knowledge 10.

 

In the first week, I personally get a headstart on Merit, but as Mikka said, the 3 colleges that almost always win are Aranaz, Vernin and Morvidus. The third is more of a random factor though.

 

Don't skip classes almost at all in the first few months as they do still teach things. Near the exams, you rarely learn something.

 

Do complete Oan's adventure as soon as possible. It gives quite a lot of information, locations and easy skill checks.

 

The 6th finger spell lasts quite a lot and you can pile phemes on it.

 

Watch your backgrounds. If you pick the -1 point rivalry and get Phillipe or Joana, it's a pretty much endgame for a low Fitness character.

 

Save a lot and in different slots. It's amazing how you can miss the fact that you got detention and ended up deprived of your earned illegal goods.

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  • 1 month later...

In character creation, make sure to grab the History: Descended from Heroes backgrounds, it unlocks the Temple of Iuducia, which in turn unlocks Cleanse and Remake, which is by far the most usefull spell ingame. It can easily boost all your attributes to 20!
Family: The Secret Heritage is the Background for Gates, so if you want to train that, make sure you have it. In General you should spent maybe two Background points in the Attribute section (to further boost some of them), be sure to get Black Sheep/Traitors and Rivalry, they give precious background point without too many drawbacks.

 

If you want to play with Familiar, get both the Astrology and Zoology class (Astrology gives you Calculate the Familiar Equation, which is definitely the easiest and fastest way to raise your Bond. Just make sure you use The Familiars Gift (not to be confused with Gift of the Familiar) after you leveled Familiar Kinship and Field Medicine to 10).

 

In general, you dont need to visit Incantation class (I'll explain why later), but make sure to Befriend Ana Flavia Bessa if you dont.

I usually only use the Befriend the first week. Get to know Ausdauer Mollers first, her ability makes succeeding with Befriend 33% more like, dont forget setting The Great Hall (10%) as the location. Using that method, you can Befriend pretty much all the Attribute-Friends (Neta, Silke, Emilia P.) in the first week (just dont forget Vettor Conta, he unlocks Planning which unlocks a bonus to Intelligence and Insight), make sure to Befriend Zoe Mellis too, she unlocks the best study method. Spend the rest of the first weekend training Planning (to 3) and Theory of Incantation (which is unlocked by Ana Flavia Bessa) once.

After your Friendship-Week is over, train Religion at the Temple of Iuducia, Work the Looms (or Fields) will give you the necessary money. Once you have Religion at ten (start of week 3) you use Pray for Money, while using Cleanse and Remake to complete Adventures. Once you have 900 Pims, you can Pay the Tuition for Esteban Contus school of Incantation, which will allow you - with the help of Selective Focus (unlocked by Concentration at nine, you should train that before using Esteban Contus) - to level Incantation to ten in just four days.


After that do whatever you want, just make sure to use Zoe Mellis study ability (Use Notes) every week and to use Selective focus to train hard skills.

Of course, you dont have to follow any of this, its just what I doduring the first month as I found that it allows me to easily get all the Magic skills (including Mastery and Gates) to ten before Midterm and lets me do most of the adventures at the same time.

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  • 1 year later...

Hey there,

I know I'm pretty late to the party, but I'm (hopefully) finally getting around to my first FULL Playthrough (started several over the... well "last years" I guess, but never really finished one :/). And since I want to be prepared this time around I naturally checked out this thread and the little 'starter guide' here by Cyx seems really cool, but ... what I don't get:

what do I need Incantation for so badly?

Does Incantation help me level everything else once it's at 10?

Thanks in advance for any informations :)

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Incantation is one of the magic skills that's very often called on, both during adventures or during random events, I highly recommend being enrolled in the class. The only really efficient way to train it is to cough up 900 Pims to pay tuition for Esteban Contu's School of Incantation, which is both costly and possibly a pain to actually do if you're unlucky enough to never run into Theory of Incantation until after mid-terms even though you picked the Apprenticeship: Local Wizard background.

 

->[Lie] Why of course that's a completely hypothetical scenario, why did you think otherwise?

 

Anyway, if there's anything else you're curious about feel free to ask.

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what do I need Incantation for so badly?

 

Incantation is one the most recurrent skill in Random event and Adventure like many magic skill ( Revision, Negation and Glammour mostly) but is very handy since it can be raised very fast trough a special ability.

You only need ''theory of incantation'' at 1 to unlock the ''pay tution'' ability if you have 900 pims you can use the ability to unlock the ''Study at Esteban School '' Abilty which will raise all your incantation subskill by 1 each which outmatch every other way to raise Incantation even taking the class.

 

Does Incantation help me level everything else once it's at 10?

 

 

 

Nope.

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A lot of RE's and Adventures only offer an option if you have a certain minimum amount of skill in the relevant area. I usually go for the key to the vanishing dorm and other RE increasing items/people, so once I get incantation, revision, negation or glamour up to the 4-5 level I generally get a free boost to one or the other of them most weeks without needing to train (gut feel, I haven't measured it).

 

I tend not to befriend many students (I've been trying to put adventures on the wiki and it messes up the estimated DC checks as they help you out) but Zoe Melis is awesome as a study-buddy, I need to see if Milena Montors is still nerfed although you can't keep them both in the same clique. I note that unless you want a lot of specific clique-mates it doesn't matter if your preferred target has cliqued up - you can join their clique and grab a freebie or two.

 

There are some handy low-level skills that boost stats (complete:planning 4, ambush:danger sense 4, and war 2 all give boosts) but I'd suggest just making sure you have 2 or more in all stats when you start.

 

When starting I tend to use study at the venelicium (sp?) to unlock research stats and get some early study in, then I go for the library of the mantle of stars, use that library to train up a few basic skills and get an adventure or two done, then try to unlock the library of longshade before graduating to the sphinx, using easy adventures to bootstrap myself out of the multiple skill-step mudpit caused by low stats.

 

The wiki is found at http://academagia.wikia.com/wiki/Academagia_Wiki by the way.

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Learn From Mistakes is unlocked at Planning 2, Goose Bumps is from Danger Sense 3. Other things you'll want are Athletics 8 (Well Toned), Traps 10 (Trap Cunning), Acrobatics 3 (Athletic), Theory of Arithmetic 10 (Mind for Numbers), and if you're enrolled in Dialectic/Glamour/Music/Negation/Revision/Zoology, you'll want to study up to study level 10 ASAP since all of their respective Study Mastery abilities hand out an attribute point as well.

 

Yeah, I really like my attributes. Whatever gave you the idea?

 

Lastly, do not start the game without at least 2 Fitness. It is a terrible, terrible idea to do otherwise and I swear you will hate yourself if you try.

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Learn From Mistakes is unlocked at Planning 2, Goose Bumps is from Danger Sense 3. Other things you'll want are Athletics 8 (Well Toned), Traps 10 (Trap Cunning), Acrobatics 3 (Athletic), Theory of Arithmetic 10 (Mind for Numbers), and if you're enrolled in Dialectic/Glamour/Music/Negation/Revision/Zoology, you'll want to study up to study level 10 ASAP since all of their respective Study Mastery abilities hand out an attribute point as well.

 

Yeah, I really like my attributes. Whatever gave you the idea?

 

Lastly, do not start the game without at least 2 Fitness. It is a terrible, terrible idea to do otherwise and I swear you will hate yourself if you try.

 

Particularly if you chose the background friendships...actually bitter hatred and got joanna.

 

Hmm, I'll have to update my notes on the level errors, thanks.

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Also something to look out for are spells/actions that last until you next rest. There's tons of abilities to deal with Stress/Vitality that don't involve resting, and once you have them you need never rest ever again. Sparkling Fields (Stars 3 - Analogue, Glamour, Snow, Stars Phemes, no roll) is a very nice spell for that reason, and if you train up Numerology a successful (and lucky) Fire Spread can give you Radiant Presence, which is likewise awesome.

 

Incidentally, both Stars and Numerology belong to Astrology, both can be trained quickly in the Library of the Mantle of Stars, and Numerology 11 and 13 also both have attribute points waiting for you. Getting Numerology above 10 takes some effort, but not much if you have From Novice To Master or Intense Focus.

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I think I played a roleplay with a character with 1 Fitness once, didn't I? Ceyn? Or did he have two? I just know it involved everyday trips to the Infirmary, courtesy of dear Joana.

 

You can get through a game with 1 Fitness (though it may very well make you cry), but don't couple it with the rivalry background. You never know who you'll get, and if you get Phillipe or Joana, it's over. It's just over.

 

Magic skills- all of them- are very important for adventures. Honestly, I'm not too big on taking Incantation (as there's a location where you can learn it very well), and Astrology also has a location where you can learn it very well. Negation now also has a location where you can learn it, hurray! So I would say definitely take Revision and Glamour, as so far they don't have locations dedicated just to learning them.

 

(The forbidden pillars- Mastery and Gates and a bit of that Sync thrown in- are rarely asked for, so you can safely ignore them if you so choose.)

 

Some of us (like myself) like to only take classes that give you an attribute point at the end. Attribute points are nice, and you'll want to push your attributes as high as possible. Doing adventures is of course a good way to get them; almost all adventures reward you with an attribute point, and the ones that don't usually reward you with a nice item or location. When starting off, do only adventures that are blue, basically. Actually, that's generally good advice period, though sometimes you can't make it.

 

Also, when building your character? The omen that gives you a 5% success chance is very, very nice. You'll come across an event with only purples, choose randomly, and suddenly SUCCEED. Great fun!

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Oh WoW you guys are active :D

 

I was just about to start fiddeling with my backgrounds - I copied all of the ones that give attribute boni into a word file to have a better overview - and I was gone go for 2 at least in every one, via backgrounds, maybe strength 1 if I wanted something badly.

 

But I guess I'll have to replan anyways, cause I wasn't gone take Incantation ... or any real Magic Class (as I just notice looking at my list *cough*) tried to select the ones that give attribute boni or work well together (i.e. are needed for the college) so I ended up with Arithmetic, Calligraphy, Music, Astrology, Botany and Geometry (was gone be Avila).

 

Gosh, all this information. Thanks a lot guys! I'll go change my plan accordingly :)

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I basically changed everything around now to

Morvidus: Revision, Zoology, Glamour, Negation, Music, Dialectic (for the stury attribute boni)

Planning on getting all the attribute-boosting clique members (Vincent might be difficult since he's from Vernin?)

 

Still juggling the background though *g* I need more points!

 

 

I have 3 questions though:

1. Cyx tactic with the temple of Iudocia works just as well with Arcadius's temple (unlocked by Music - Voice 2 or the background Deed: A Singer's Gift) and making pims by working the fields, right?

2. everybody here would probably cringe if I even consider taking

Deed: Negated (+1 Point) - +15% Chance of Failure for any Spell, +2 Relationship with Joana Lio y Rossollo, +2 Relationship with Ana Flavia Bessa ?

3. If I'm in Morvidus myself are my chances on getting on the bad sides of the bullies there lowered?

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