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5 Essential Tips For Getting Started In Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD

Originally released on the 3DS in 2012, Bravely Default remains a deep and engaging fantasy RPG

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A princess-type character stands in front of the camera while wearing a large jewel necklace.
Image: Square Enix

Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD is a lengthy role-playing adventure with tons to do and plenty of features to keep track of. Luckily, the game does a decent job of keeping you updated on how its mechanics work and what to expect from your journey through this colorful world.

Use Brave to grind quickly

The player characters fight a pig-like creature.
Screenshot: Square Enix / Billy Givens / Kotaku
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The Brave feature allows you to use your turns in advance, leaving you with a negative amount of BP afterward. This makes it so that a character can’t attack for a few rounds due to the deficit, but it can also be an immensely useful tactic for grinding.

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By maxing out your Brave on each character during a standard enemy encounter, you can set up your attacks so that you slay every foe in a single turn with a bevy of attacks. This high-risk, high-reward tactic is ideal for helping you grind through fodder enemies, especially when using the battle speed multiplier to keep things moving at a rapid pace.

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Focus on support enemies first

Some fights will be straightforward, allowing you to focus on whichever foes you want to kill first. However, you’ll come across some battles with support enemies that can buff or heal other foes in the fight. In these cases, always focus your attention on the support enemy to make the battle go more smoothly. Nothing sucks worse than dishing out huge damage on a baddie just to see it get healed back up right after.

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Always be building something in Norende Village

Rebuilding Norende Village is one of the most important parts of your playthrough of Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD. By increasing your villagers and assigning them spots to build/work, you’ll be able to unlock new items, weapons, armor, spells, and more.

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A screenshot shows a project option to fix a collapsed bridge.
Screenshot: Square Enix / Billy Givens / Kotaku

Keep an eye on the village, regularly, to make sure all of your villagers are assigned to something. It takes a long time to upgrade everything, so you want to be making the most of every second.

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One thing that can be helpful to remember—especially early on when you have limited villagers and the time to rebuild something can be in excess of 10 hours—is that you can leave the game open overnight to help you work through the longer building processes. Even if your Nintendo Switch 2 goes to sleep, you’ll still be making progress due to the game continuing in real time as long as the game is active on the console.

Keep an eye on Tutorial Quests and Achievements

If you like getting free stuff, complete all of the Tutorial Quests and Achievements. Visit this menu frequently by clicking Right on the D-Pad and selecting the icon that looks like a bulletin board. When you complete a quest here, you’ll earn items or gear that can be extremely useful on your journey. A random recovery item here and there may not seem like much, but it adds up in a game that can be rather demanding at times.

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Play the game your way

Bravely Default offers a variety of difficulty options. These settings can change up the experience pretty wildly.. Whether you want a breezier playthrough, a normal challenge, or a brutal experience, there’s no wrong answer.

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A difficulty option lets the player adjust how frequently random fights occur.
Screenshot: Square Enix / Billy Givens / Kotaku

Also, make sure you’re taking advantage of the game’s battle speed and encounter rate toggles. You can speed up fights dramatically if you want to grind quickly, or you can increase/decrease how frequently you are taken into battle by foes. Adjust these on the fly for an experience that feels just right at that moment in your playthrough.

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With some fresh information at your fingertips, get out there and tackle Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD. It’s available now exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2.

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