If you’re a fan of mobile RPGs, you’ll undoubtedly be familiar with DeNA, which has most recently released the tower defense game Fantasica. Another fairly new release for the company is World of Demons, an action RPG that is now available for iOS devices, and will be launched for Android devices later this year. The game is set in medieval Japan, and is described as a “high-quality hack-and-slash” title where you will take control of various Samurai and seek to liberate your land from the evil forces known as Oni, or demons, that have since corrupted the once-peaceful Yokai and influenced them to start attacking humans. You can enlist the assistance of other human players and your own Yokai Minions, who provide elemental buffs, attack spells, and other special skills that provide support for your character. There are also multiple game modes where you can earn various types of rewards that serve their own purpose in improving both your character and the effects of your Minions!
This is quite an in-depth title, much like you would expect from an action RPG from one of the companies best known for such games. But we’re going to start from the bottom as we usually do, as we present to you our World of Demons strategy guide for beginners. Join us as we bring you nine tips and tricks that you will definitely find useful if you’re just starting out and want to go beyond what you learned in the game’s tutorial stage.
1. Learning The Basics
World of Demons, as is stated in the game description, is an action RPG, and it initially puts you in control of the character Onimaru, a lone human character whose objective it is to save ancient Japan from Oni, or demons. Interestingly, you won’t be doing the hacking and the slashing in the game, as that’s going to be taken care of for you, all done automatically as your main responsibility, as it would seem at first, is to move your character around. But it’s more than just directing your character toward the possessed Yokai, or monsters, so that he can attack them. Instead, your main responsibility is to take care of the defense, which means timing your dodges impeccably so you could launch a good counter-attack. These counter-attacks are called Ultima attacks, which you can only pull off after a perfect dodge — swipe at just the right time, then trace the symbol so you can launch these attacks, which, of course, are more powerful than the standard ones.
You won’t be alone in the game, as you can enlist the assistance of a Defender, which is another human player’s character. This is going to cost you Affinity stones, which are one of the game’s main currencies — five of these will allow you to enlist a Defender, whom you can activate once their gauge on the left side of the Skirmish screen is filled up completely. You will also have Yokai Minions to assist you — the first three you’ll unlock during the tutorial stage are all basic characters whom you’ll battle early on, monsters that have been corrupted by the evil Oni and given a taste for human meat, as you’ll find out from their off-beat, oftentimes Gollum-esque dialogue before and after a Skirmish. However, they won’t actually show up on the battlefield — instead, they will grant you a special ability, spell, or buff, which can be activated, once again, after you’ve filled up their respective gauges.
2. Take Advantage Of Elemental Strengths
As the game will explain to you, there are five elements in World of Demons, and each of the Yokai (whether in demon form or as one of your minions) correspond to one of them. You’ll know the element of a Yokai simply by looking at it — a Kappa, for example, will have a bluish hue, which means it is an Ice element Yokai, while a Wanyudo is a fire Yokai, as inferred by its reddish color. This comes into play when it comes to the Yokai Minion cards in your deck, which can be played, as we mentioned above, once their gauge is completely full, in order to launch an ability or spell or activate a buff.
For the three basic elements, it’s as simple as rock-paper-scissors logic. Fire (red) beats Wind (green), Wind beats Ice (blue), and Ice beats Fire. Thunder (yellow) and Shadow (purple) “only cause additional damage to each other,” essentially cancelling each other out. In other words, you could employ a Thunder or Shadow Yokai, though playing a Thunder card will only cancel things out if it’s played against a Shadow enemy. They can, however, be used against other elements, just as long as you’re not playing a Yokai Minion card that is at an elemental disadvantage.
3. Make Sure To Claim Those Gifts And Rewards
World of Demons is a game that isn’t shy about giving freebies to players. Generally speaking, there are two main ways to do this, and the first is by going to the Gifts tab, which can be accessed in the top part of the main menu. These would normally include your daily login rewards, so if you see the Gifts tab lighting up, make sure to tap on it and redeem those goodies while you still can.
The Rewards tab, on the other hand, allows you to earn rewards (what else) based on the achievements you’ve pulled off in the game, such as logging in to the game for so many consecutive days, completing a certain number of Skirmishes, defeating a certain number of Yokai, etc. Interestingly, the folks at DeNA have gone with a rather unusual name for this feature — Results. That’s what you’ll want to tap on if you’re collecting your rewards for achievements. Similarly interestingly named is the Today’s Request tab, which is where you can collect your rewards for completing limited-time tasks — you’re only given a day to complete them, so be sure you’re not neglecting that tab as well, especially since the rewards are typically better! (Examples of Daily Requests include enhancing a Yokai Minion at least once, activating an Ultima attack at least twice, etc.)
4. Connect Your Game To Facebook
The game will warn you about this soon enough, and we might as well do the same. If you delete World of Demons from your mobile device, that will also wipe all your progress clean, forcing you to start from square one upon reinstalling — that’s the same tutorial stage, same Skirmishes you need to go through in the game’s campaign mode, right from the top like you never completed them previously. Fortunately, there is a way to make sure that does not happen, and that would simply involve connecting your game to Facebook. It’s a bit hard to find this in the game’s menus, but by going to Others then tapping on Transfer Data, you’ll be given the option to connect your game to Facebook and save your data so that way, you can access it even if you switch devices. More importantly, you won’t lose your progress in the event you uninstall the game for one reason or another, then reinstall it in hopes of continuing where you left off.
Additionally, you can access this via the intro screen by tapping on the Data Transfer tab at the bottom.
5. Complete All Three Skirmish Objectives For Maximum Rewards
Completing Skirmishes allows you to earn rewards which you can use in the recipes for your Yokai Minion enhancements, but it’s more than just that you can win once the battle is over and done with.
Each Skirmish beyond the tutorial stages will come with a set of three objectives, and you’ll need to meet at least one of these in order to successfully complete it. The most basic objective is to complete the Skirmish within the four-minute time limit — your reward for this would come in the form of Soul Stones, which are used to purchase Beckoning buffs at the Peddler’s store, among other things. The second objective would be to complete a Skirmish with a Defender, and this is as simple as choosing a Defender before heading off to battle — your reward here would be Affinity Stones, which, as mentioned earlier, are mainly used to enlist Defenders. You can also use Affinity Stones to revive your character, though this is not recommended, as one revive will cost you 50 of these stones. The third, and most difficult, is to take no more than a given amount of damage during a Skirmish, and that will reward you with coins, or the game’s common currency.
You won’t always complete all of those three objectives, but you should always try your best to do so! You can always return to a Skirmish where you weren’t able to complete all three, though if you replay these Skirmishes and complete the same objectives you aced the last time around, you won’t get the same rewards you previously did.
6. One Enemy At A Time
Those tutorial Skirmishes may seem easy enough, but once the kid gloves are off, you’ll find yourself up against more than one Yokai at once in many cases. Typically, a Skirmish consists of three waves, the first, where you take on some rather easy to defeat Yokai, the second, where the Yokai become a little tougher to polish off, and the third, where you face the boss Yokai, who is, of course, tougher than all those previous enemies. We’ll get to the bosses soon enough, but when it comes to the Yokai in the first two waves, your best bet is to focus fire, as they say, and work on one Yokai at a time. Remember that an enemy with only a tiny fraction of its HP is every bit as strong as one that has 100 percent health, so make sure you’re focusing your attacks on one Yokai, then on the next. You’ll last longer that way, and lose less HP, which you’ll often be needing a lot of when you’re up against the enemy boss in a Skirmish.
7. Should You Focus On Those Ultima Attacks?
We’re going to say it and address the proverbial elephant in the room — it is not easy to activate an Ultima. It takes a lot of practice, especially if you’re dealing with multiple enemies in a single wave, as you need to time your dodge in such a way that you completely avoid the enemy attack. Sometimes, it may sound much easier to just keep chasing after the Yokai and attacking them while they’re vulnerable and trying to get up, rather than hanging back and letting them make the first move so that you can evade them perfectly.
As we hinted at above, there are times when you do need to try for that perfect dodge and go for the Ultima attack, and those times would be whenever it is one of your daily Requests. At the moment, we haven’t seen a real need to do so other than for the daily Requests, because we’ve simply gotten better results with all-out offense. That would also mean your character will lose more hit points in the process, but even if you don’t complete that requirement in a Skirmish, you’re essentially losing out on a bit of gold (the game’s common currency in most cases.
8. Get A Defender Involved
Not only will enlisting a Defender help you out in a pinch, it will also allow you to complete one of the three objectives you are given at the start of a Skirmish. These are all human players, though just to set your expectations ahead of time, they wouldn’t be controlled by the players themselves, but rather by the game’s AI. Unfortunately, that means they won’t fight very smart, but at least you won’t be alone out there, especially when you’re facing multiple Yokai who are just impossible to evade all at once. That also means you shouldn’t rely exclusively on your Defender — normally, they’ll only be out there for about 10 seconds or so (depending on their level — they could last longer), and just like you shouldn’t expect them to last long, it would be too much to expect them to activate an Ultima. Still, you should take advantage of whatever help you get out there, even if it doesn’t seem like much!
9. Don’t Forget To Enhance Your Yokai Minions And Improve Your Weapons
As you complete more Skirmishes, you’ll find yourself facing more difficult challenges, and that means your weapons and Yokai Minions alike will need to catch up. Of course, you’ll be leveling up as well, which will grant you some perks and unlock some new features which we’ll be discussing in a later guide, but the main thing here is heading to the blacksmith and Yokai Minions screens respectively to enhance your weapons and Minions. You will need materials for both, and for the former, these materials — Magatama beads — can be earned by completing the Daily Skirmishes, which we will also be tackling at a later time. For the latter, the materials you’ll need for your enhancement recipes can be earned by completing achievements and Skirmishes. Enhancing your Yokai Minions strengthens their Yokai Arts — the abilities and buffs we’ve been referring to in this World of Demons guide — which means a more tangible effect when you use them against an enemy during a Skirmish!