For the past couple years or so, DeNA has been a leader in the mobile RPG genre and many of its sub-genres. If you’ve got an iOS device, you should also be checking out the company’s most recent release, World of Demons, which takes place in ancient Japan and puts you in the shoes of a brave Samurai whose objective it is to save the once-friendly Yokai, monsters who have been corrupted by the Oni, or demons. There are various game modes and different types of battles, or Skirmishes, and tons of Yokai Minions you can collect and deploy (well, in theory) during those battles.
It wasn’t too long ago when we brought you a World of Demons strategy guide that covered a plethora of beginner tips for those who have just downloaded this game for their iPhone or iPad. But if those tips weren’t enough for you, we’ve got nine more in this new World of Demons strategy guide, where we shall be exploring the aforementioned game modes, as well as some features that we weren’t able to cover in the first guide. Read on if you need some help figuring things out in this deep and fascinating action RPG!
1. Log In Daily For Your Amulet Rewards
It’s highly advisable that you play World of Demons at least once per day, or even just log in for a few seconds or so to claim your rewards. One more reason why you should do this is the Daily Fortunes feature, which allows you to have the game read you your fortune. Now you may not pay much attention to the actual reading of your fortune, but believe it or not, this does have some bearing, in a way, on your Samurai’s fate when he’s fighting in Skirmishes. That’s because each fortune will correspond to an amulet reward, which you can redeem by tapping on the Gifts tab in the upper menu. Once you’re there, you can simply tap on the bottom of the screen to get your reward, though you’ll only have so much time to redeem the items — 99 days, to be exact. (Off the record, we don’t think there’s any way you’ll let those rewards expire, unless you stop playing for at least three months!)
The amulets in the game have different effects on your character, depending on their color and type. For example, the red War God amulets improve your character’s health, the blue Guardian Spirit amulets enhance their attack power, and the yellow Fortune amulets increase the amount of gold you can earn for defeating enemies and completing stages. The effect might not be that evident, but we strongly suggest that you use the amulet of your choice and equip it on your Samurai before you have them fight in a Skirmish.
2. Play The Special Skirmishes For Yourself
At first, all you’ll see available in the Skirmish tab are the different chapters in World of Demons’ “Way of the Warrior” story mode — these are the standard PvE battles where you take on three waves of Yokai and call upon the help of your Defenders and your Yokai Minions in order to defeat these bloodthirsty monsters. But as you level up, you will unlock new skirmish modes in the Way of the Demon tab. Let’s take a look at the different modes, or Special Skirmishes, you can take part in under this tab.
The Daily Skirmishes vary from day to day, and play out in the same way as your standard Skirmishes — three waves of Yokai, with each wave progressively tougher than the last. The main difference here would come in the form of the rewards you can receive, which will vary from day to day and on the type of Daily Skirmish. For example, Windy Thursday can reward you with materials which you can use when upgrading Wind Yokai Minions, though those won’t be the only rewards you will receive for completing a Daily Skirmish. For one, you’ll still have three level requirements that may vary from Skirmish to Skirmish!
Yokai Showdown is, as the game’s tutorial would explain when the mode is unlocked, a Skirmish where you take on other human players and their Yokai Minions — the mechanics, once again, are almost exactly the same, but you will get slightly better and rarer rewards than usual if you win a Skirmish in this mode! (Take note that in here, the first one who kills three opposing Yokai wins the Showdown!)
Lastly, Samurai Stronghold could serve as your best chance of unlocking more powerful Yokai Minions to add to your deck, though this also means you will likely have your hands full due to the difficulty involved! You will start out by recruiting two other human players, and once you’ve built your lineup, you can proceed on to the battles, which are essentially like an even tougher gauntlet, with a boss Yokai giving you big trouble in the fourth and final wave. We’ll touch a little more on this in a separate tip, so read on!
3. How To Handle The Samurai Stronghold
Yes, it is that daunting — the Samurai Stronghold is indeed a turbocharged version of the standard Skirmishes, and while you’ll have some help in the form of the two other players whose Samurai and Yokai Minions you’ll be borrowing, it still won’t be a walk in the park for the uninitiated, even in beginner difficulty. It’s also going to cost you a lot of Energy — 40 units for each attempt at completing this game mode!
When choosing Samurai to make up the rest of your team, it’s most advisable to choose those whose players are at a level a couple rungs higher than yours. As these Skirmishes aren’t real-time, you will be tasked to control these other Samurai, and you won’t be allowed to use them consecutively. Your best strategy here would be to start out with your weakest Samurai (most likely yours), followed by the second most powerful, then your most powerful/highest level. The waves get progressively harder, as we previously mentioned, so you want to save your best for the big boss fight!
For each wave in Samurai Stronghold, you’ll have two slots, instead of the usual one slot, for Defenders, which means extra help for you against those extra-tough Yokai enemies. So while you won’t be able to use the same main Samurai in consecutive waves, as they’ll be “resting” during the second wave, you will at least be able to utilize everyone in your team through the two-defender system in this game mode.
The last wave is where everything gets serious, as you’ll be encountering larger, more ferocious Yokai. This is where your Ultima skills may come in handy; aside from summoning Defenders at the right time, you’ll want to stay back and work on that perfect dodge so that you can set up your Ultima Attack. Your Ultima may not have been that important in the early goings, but if you took our advice back then, you should have more practice dodging and setting up the Ultima. Remember how it works in this game, as well as many others — defense is literally the best offense, as it helps set up your counter-attack!
4. Higher Difficulty Means Juicier Rewards
This one is something we should probably mention as a bonus tip, but we decided to include it anyway as a standalone tip. Although you may be doing a lot of grinding by replaying levels where you weren’t able to complete with flying colors, you should also take note of the higher difficulty levels, which could be a source of better and more useful rewards! Obviously, you shouldn’t be ignoring those new difficulty levels once they become available — they may be the same old battles, but they can reward you with better freebies once completed!
5. More On Enhancing And Forging Your Weapons
The Blacksmith tab is your go-to place if you want to improve your weapon, and, if you’ve got the materials, if you want to create, or forge a new one. Let’s first talk a little bit more about the enhancement process, and the materials needed in order to proceed with this step.
We mentioned Magatama Beads in brief in the beginner’s guide, and we did promise to talk about them in greater depth in our next guide. These are beads which are used in the enhancement recipe for your weapons, and you can earn them by winning Skirmishes — the harder the Skirmish is in general, the more likely you are to have a Magatama Bead or two as your victory reward. Spend the required number of beads and some coins, and you’re good to go! It’s just that easy to improve your existing weapons that way, though the process of acquiring beads can be quite a tough one at times. Using Magatama Beads to enhance a weapon increases its level and Attack rating, so keep those two stats in mind when choosing which weapons to enhance!
As for forging a new weapon, World of Demons will allow you to create a new one with free materials during the tutorial stage that discusses this feature. Just to set your expectations, it won’t be much of a weapon compared to the katana you start out with, but if you’re lucky enough to score some forging materials during your Skirmishes, you should definitely give the Forge option a try and see what you could end up with!
6. How To Summon New Yokai Minions
This is something you may have been waiting for in this guide, so why don’t we tackle it once and for all and tell you everything there is to know about summoning Yokai Minions?
First of all, the Soulstones you earn for completing Skirmish objectives are your currency for summoning Yokai Minions. Go to the Shrine Maiden tab, which you’ll find in the bottom menu, and you’ll have the option to summon one Yokai Minion for 150 Soulstones, or ten of them for 1,500 Soulstones — unfortunately, there don’t appear to be any bulk discounts in here. You will then receive a new minion (or minions) at random, with their power/rarity specified at the bottom of their introduction screen. We strongly recommend summoning 10 Yokai Minions once you can afford it — you just might be pleasantly surprised to see the variety in front of you once the minions have been summoned!
While you may have focused mainly on the Yokai Minions you got during the tutorial stages, you will obviously want to enhance those that are more powerful and rarer, as that’ll give you more of an edge in battle once you’ve got them in your deck. As usual, make sure you’re keeping the elemental hierarchy in mind, just as we had explained in the beginner’s guide!
7. Use You Duplicate Minions To Increase Level Limit
Each of your Yokai Minions has a specific level limit that dictates how far you can level them up to through enhancement. What can you do if they’re nearing that limit and you need to level them up even more so that you can keep up with things in the game?
Fortunately, that’s exactly what your duplicate Yokai Minions are for. It is possible to sacrifice minions of any kind in order to help your target minion level up. However, it’s an exact duplicate, regardless of level, that’s needed if you want to increase their level limit. Simply tap on the upper bar, tap on the Minions tab, then tap on the duplicate Minion you’d like to sacrifice in order to increase the target’s level limit. Easy-peasy!
8. Buy And Sell
The Peddler tab on the bottom menu (the one at the very right) directs you to the in-game shop (as designated by “Purchase”), where you can either buy wooden chests for 100 Affinity Stones each, take advantage of the special deals (you’ll need to pay real money in most cases), or sell materials you may no longer need, or may not need at the present. We don’t really recommend the latter option unless you’re really short of coins, as those items could come in very handy when you’re enhancing your Yokai Minions.
9. How Does The Beckoning Cat Work?
Last, but not the least, the Beckoning Cat option under Peddler allows you to buy any one of four available Beckoners with your Soulstones — you’re limited to a maximum of five for each, and depending on your needs, you can purchase Beckoners that improve your chances of earning experience points, enhancement materials/items, gold, or Yokai Minions when taking part in Skirmishes under the main campaign mode, Way of the Warrior. Personally, we’re more in favor of the option to summon Yokai Minions with your Soulstones, but since it’s relatively affordable to purchase one of these Beckoners, we see nothing wrong with purchasing a couple to ensure more lucrative Skirmishes!