Three years following its successful launch and ongoing run in Japan, SINoALICE has finally been made available globally for both Android and iOS players. The game is developed by Pokelabo, the same company that brought us Symphogear XD, produced by Square Enix, and directed by Yoko Taro, known for his work on the Drakengard and NieR series of games.
While it is easy to say that every RPG is unique in its own right, SINoALICE stands out as far as being unconventional is concerned. From its dark fantasy theme right down to its core mechanics and features, SINoALICE will definitely offer a unique experience even to veteran RPG enthusiasts.
There are still some familiar features and game modes in SINoALICE that experienced players will easily be accustomed to and auto battle is accessible early on. The premise and narrative it offers may already serve as a treat for players who value a game’s lore over other things and its unique gameplay provides sufficient levels of challenges that can test each player’s wits and strategic capacity.
SINoALICE takes place in the Library, which is a place between fantasy and reality that contains the stories of the world. With female characters based on popular fictional books and stories, each one aims to revive and reconnect with the authors of their book. To progress and complete the story they desire, however, blood must be spilled as each character must kill all other characters.
There are definitely a lot of information and features in SINoALICE that every new player needs to pick up and understand early on and truthfully enough, it can seem overwhelming even if you are an experienced or even a veteran gamer. With its deviation from standard and conventional RPGs, paying close attention to the tutorial and in-game instructions may not suffice to bring players to speed with understanding every bit of mechanic in the game.
In some case, it may feel like an information overload on the first playthrough although you will still make good progress as the initial battles are designed to be easy. Whether you find yourself stuck in a particular challenge or simply looking for more efficient ways to increase your points and progress fast through your quests, then check out our SINoALICE beginner’s guide below. We have come up with a bunch of useful tips, cheats and strategies to jumpstart your adventure!
1. How To Reroll For More SR Or S-Grade Weapons In SINoALICE
Unlike conventional gacha RPGs where you pull and collect units or heroes randomly, SINoALICE is centered around the weapons that you can summon through the Grimoire, and characters in the story serve as vessels for these weapons. Before even starting your journey as you dive into the dark and bizarre world of SINoALICE, you will be greeted with a free 11x summon to arm your hero with weapons that boost your points or power.
Unlike all other summons you will have in your adventure, this will be the most critical as you can choose to reroll as many times as you want until you chance upon a pull that you can consider as satisfactory at the very least. After revealing the weapons you can obtain, you can easily tap the “Summon Another Grimoire” button at the lower left side of the screen.
Typically, you will notice 3 lightly colored books with each 11x pull and these are the SR or S-grade weapons. Some players consider going for more weapons that unlock jobs and while these are common for SR-grade weapons, some S-grade weapons can unlock jobs as well. For others, going for more weapons of the same type in your first pull work better as each job has a specialized weapon so having more weapons of the type your preferred job uses will be more beneficial.
Another option is go for pulls that have more SR or S-grade weapons in them. Keep in mind that the minimum number of rare pulls in the first pull is 3 but there is always a chance of earning more. The rationale behind this is that you will also need SR and S-grade weapons as sub-weapons so even if they may not be the type that your character specializes in using, they can still help boost your points.
If you have accidentally accepted the pull but still want to go for a reroll, you will have to clear the game data and cache if you are on Android or uninstall and reinstall the game if you are playing on iOS. We would like to point out that rerolling is not at all necessary for you to make progress, especially on the early part of the game and, truthfully enough, some players actually consider it to be more exciting and challenging to go with whichever weapons they obtain from their first set of pulls. To have an advantage, however, and consequently save you more time later in the game, rerolling is an important instrument to take advantage of.
2. Focus On Progressing Through The Main Story
RPGs typically provide a story within which the reasons or drive for you push forward with your journey are introduced and developed. Though SINoALICE does not exhibit flashy cutscenes, the textual narrative that it presents as you progress through certain stages of the main story provides a deeper understanding of each character’s background and dark history.
Beyond the actual story, though, chapters in SINoALICE’s main story serve as your initial source of the most important resources you need to obtain and strengthen your weapons, gears, and characters. To start off, weapons, armor, upgrade materials, as well as nightmares are common drops from the story stages. EXP, gold, and mastery points are also obtained from each battle.
As gold serves as the basic currency, you will never run out of a need for it. EXP is needed to rank up your account and each rank you achieve increases the maximum cost limit of the weapons you can equip, effectively increasing your capacity to equip more weapons and have higher points or power. Mastery points are necessary to level up your chosen job.
Completing each stage for the first time rewards you with Twilight Crystals, which is a premium currency you need to summon more weapons or purchase premium items. If you manage to complete all 3 objectives in a stage for the first time as well, you will be rewarded with even more Twilight Crystals. As such, make it a point to check all 3 objectives before you engage the stage. The initial levels are very easy so you are expected to breeze through most of it with ease, regardless of your chosen character job and the weapons you have equipped.
At the pre-battle screen, you can swipe to the right to see the 3 story missions you have to clear to obtain more Twilight Crystals. You can tap and hold on the boss icon as well to see its details, particularly its strengths and weaknesses. Although you can easily beat the earlier stages of the story, it will eventually become important to see what you will be going up against so if at some point you start experiencing difficulties clearing a level, then this is something to look into and prepare for.
3. Choose The Character Job That Suits Your Preferences And Play Style
Like all other RPGs, the perennial question of which character or job is best prevails in SINoALICE as well. While some sources may provide a tier list addressing this concern as much as others do so for weapons, there are actually no better or worse characters or jobs. At the very least, jobs you unlock via the grimoire gacha will prove to be a bit stronger than those you unlock for free in your adventure as the stat and skill bonuses per level gained is better. Just the same, it all boils down to what you are more comfortable with, especially given the different battle scenarios in the game.
To start off, your first decision point is whether to have your main setup focused on DPS or support. For DPS, the available jobs are the Breaker, Crusher, Gunner, and Paladin. Although each of these classes specialize in using the sword, hammer, bow and gun, and polearm respectively; they can equip and use all these weapons in battle. The support classes are the Cleric, Minstrel, Sorcerer, and Mage. They specialize on using the staff, instrument, tome, and orb respectively and can likewise equip and use all these types of weapons.
You will get to choose a job at the start of your adventure and will most likely obtain more from the grimoire gacha later. If you still find it a challenge to choose from among the jobs in your collection, it is a good idea to consider one based on the most dominant weapon type currently in your inventory. As this may change over time as well, consider the traits of each weapon type, most especially at the hands of jobs that specialize in using them.
Swords inflict single target physical damage while hammers can deal physical damage to 1 or 2 enemies. Bows and guns are the same and deal magical damage to a single target while polearms deal magical damage to 1 or 2 enemies. The staff can provide healing to allies and the instrument can provide a variety of buffs to 2 allies. Tomes can inflict debuffs on enemies while orbs deal multi-target magical damage. Note that on top of these basic ability types, some weapons may have a variety of added effects.
There are also 3 different elements available in the game that follow the proverbial “rock-paper-scissors” of determining advantages and disadvantages in combat. While characters and jobs do not necessarily have these elements, weapons and enemy nightmares are subject to elemental affinities so considering a good mix of weapons with different elements can impact the outcome of battle.
The 3 elements in SINoALICE are fire, water, and wind. Fire is strong against wind but is weak against water. Water is strong against fire and weak against wind. Wind is strong against water but is weak against fire. At the gear screen, the number of weapons per element you have equipped can be seen at the details of your set. Be sure to at least have one of each element for general purposes although later on, some battles may require you to have more of a particular element.
There is a limit to the number of weapons you can equip and use in battle as well as the ones you can use on your sub-grid. Each weapon has a set cost and the maximum cost of weapons you can carry is dependent on your rank, which is why you should take advantage of the overabundant AP you will have early on and the infinite purification to replenish it that is available until rank 20.
You can easily see the number of weapons you can equip on the main grid as well as the cost you are using relative to the cap at the gear menu. Clicking the “Recommended” button auto equips gears based on your preferences but later on, manually choosing the main gears will be the recommended option.
4. Be Selective When Upgrading Gears
As we mentioned earlier, weapons, armor, and nightmares you can equip on your hero all follow the same rarity grade system. For weapons, there are only 3 rarity grades for the ones that can be equipped with SR being the highest and A being the lowest. As far as SR-grade weapons are concerned, investing in them should be of utmost priority.
At this point, you should already know that from among the SR-grade weapons you have, the types that you character’s job specializes on should be of utmost priority. There are weapons that are exclusively used as upgrade materials denoted by the EXP indicator on the upper right side of their icon. You can also use other weapons as materials but it is best to consider consuming the EXP weapons first. Once you have maxed out your SR weapons and still have plenty of upgrade materials, then that would be the time to consider upgrading lower tier weapons.
The same concept of upgrading applies to both armor and nightmare and the these two types of gears are a little harder to obtain and farm, you should still consider saving resources for higher grade tiers of both. In truth, focusing on upgrading weapons should suffice to give you enough strength to plow through most of the early PvE content so you should wait until you secure an armor piece or a nightmare worth upgrading before you invest in them.
SINoALICE makes it worth getting duplicates of weapons and nightmares you already have as you can use duplicates to Limit Break them. Under the Limit Break option of the Upgrade and Sell menu at the bottom of the screen, you can sacrifice up to 4 duplicates to increase the level cap of a weapon or nightmare. Each dupe sacrificed increases the max level by 5 and also increases the cap of skill level by 1.
Once a weapon, armor, or nightmare has reached its maximum level, you can evolve them to the next rarity level using evolution materials. There are different dungeon-like game modes available throughout the week where you can farm evolution materials to evolve weapons and armors. Each one caters to a unique element in the case of weapons and a separate dungeon is available for armors. Evolution materials for nightmares are much harder to obtain and are currently only available through the medal exchange.
5. Remember To Level Up And Upgrade Jobs That You Use
Relative to upgrades and enhancements of weapons, armors, and nightmares, it is important to strengthen your hero as well, more specifically, the job you selected to use. We mentioned earlier that despite SINoALICE not having any tier lists for characters and jobs, the ones you unlock from securing weapons at the grimoire gacha typically offer better stat and skill bonuses per level. As such, if you are still using the character and job you selected at the start of your adventure, you may want to consider checking your roster of jobs and choose another, preferably from the gacha.
As each battle you engage in earns you mastery points, you will need to consume these as these points basically serve as EXP that can level up the job rank. Note that each rank up offers a bonus that can be categorized under 2 types. The first one is a class bonus that only applies to the job you are spending mastery points on and the latter applies to all classes or jobs. In this sense, you should prioritize levelling up the job you are using but still consider investing mastery points on other jobs as the common stat bonuses will benefit you just the same.
Similar to weapons and nightmares, you can also limit break jobs and boost their level cap. Instead of duplicates however, the required materials are arcana specific to the character and job, which can be obtained through natural progression in the story mode, some special events, or through the medal exchange feature. It can only be done once and will increase the level cap from 10 to 12.
6. Join A Guild As Soon As You Can
Another reason to push through the main story is that you need to clear chapter 3 to unlock the guild faction in SINoALICE. Whether or not you have played other online RPGs before, chances are that you are already familiar with player groups systems although it may be called differently. Guilds, alliances, factions, or any similarly-themed player groups will always have benefits with no drawbacks, which is why whenever a feature is available in a game, it is always best to align yourself with one.
The PvP aspect of SINoALICE, which is the colosseum, can only be accessed if you are a member of a guild. Beyond being accessible only if you have joined a guild for 24 hours, another unique element of the colosseum is its’ very time-limited availability each day. Depending on the guild, you will only be able to partake for 20 minutes so be sure to take not of its availability at the upper right side of the main screen. While it is easier to plow through most of SINoALICE’s PvE content with a DPS main job, healers and support jobs will always find it easier to join a guild.
Decision as to which guild wins a match is based on damage dealt and as the gameplay sides heavily on team strategy and teamwork, you should be prepared to prove your worth to your chosen guild as early as your first participation in the colosseum. Do note that you will not be able to change your main gears as well as your sub ones 30 minutes prior to the start of a match.
If you feel that you are not among the 5 strongest members of the guild, you might as well switch to a support job as you will automatically be considered for the rear side in combat, given the strongest 5 members are automatically deployed to the front lines to serve as the main damage-dealers.
Beyond the colosseum, your guild will also serve as a great source of players whom you can engage co-op battles with. Although you can add friends outside of the members of your guild, chances are that if you join an active one, more will be available to join you on story or event missions you have already cleared. It is important to note that clearing a co-op battle is among the daily missions that you should strive to complete regularly.
7. Accomplish Missions For Extra Rewards
On top of the outright rewards you receive from completing battles, more can actually be earned through the missions in the game that you can access via its icon at the lower right side of the main screen. There are main missions, daily missions, and event missions. Each tab contains a list of objectives that either relate to the usual activities you should engage in as you play the game or limited ones that arise for a limited period within an event.
The main missions actually relate to achievements or milestones that you reach as an indicator of your overall progress in the game. These typically offer one-time rewards but are usually more valuable than the daily mission rewards and become harder to accomplish as you progress further. There are only a few objectives to clear under the daily missions but the colosseum participation, as well as the co-op mode mission makes it difficult for some to fully accomplish.
Note that clearing all daily mission objectives will reward you with a cleaning ticket, which is a very valuable item that can replenish your AP past rank 20. Event missions can only be accomplished within a certain period of time but also provides rewards that can be difficult to obtain anywhere else.
8. Take Advantage Of Various Events
Most game modes in SINoALICE fall within the story icon at the bottom of the screen. Within it, though, you can access not just the main story, but co-op mode and various events as well. Some events are available all the time while others are available only on specific days of the week, specific hours within the day, or for a limited-period of time. As the game is loaded with tons of events, discussing each one in detail will take too long for a beginner’s guide. In any case, clicking on each banner within the events section can give you simple summary of what the event is about and the potential rewards you can earn from it.
Outside of battles, some events that you should work towards taking advantage of is the Running Start Event and Rookies’ Path. The Running Start Event can actually be viewed under the “Event” tab of missions and has no indicated time limit. Various SR-grade weapons along with other valuable rewards can be earned by completing each objective so be sure to browse through the list of accomplishable feats and push to clear each one of them.
On the home screen, you can access the Rookes’ Path event and it contains 18 missions you need to achieve to earn various valuable rewards. These objectives all relate to the usual activities you engage in as you play the game and serves as a guide as well for you to be able to explore all of the game’s features. Missions may only be shown one at a time but you can complete some missions you have not yet viewed and they will automatically appear cleared once you have accomplished the prior objective.
There are certainly a lot more details to grind through in the unique fantasy world of SINoALICE but for now, this is where we will end our beginner’s guide. We certainly hope that you picked up a lot of learnings from our guide and that you enjoyed reading it as well. If you have played SINoALICE a bit extensively and have your very own tips or tricks you want to share with us, do not hesitate to do so and let us know about them in the comment area!