I recommend go to the glossary to see the boss info, what type of resistances they have, observe the whole map (since you can see what you have already encountered), then decide on your build. Furthermore, unlock more stuff is mandatory to get a move on since it will also unlock new symbols synergies.

Always aim for green symbol (at least 5 of them), then unlock every symbol you can. The game isn't that hard once you've figured out what to do.

If you think the hermit cave is hard wait until you go to the lab (that place is the place that bottleneck new players, requiring them to unlock new characters and gems to move on).

I don't know exactly HOW to progress when, after 1 round against the Jeweleater, I had 1 char left....a support. That's 1 friggin round with 4 lvl 2 chars and 3 active symbols only to be decimated in 1 round with no hope for recovery by the FIRST boss and I still need to do 2 more.
I'd have favored the game quick resolving it with a gameover screen the moment I reached the boss floor; better timemanagement for a fight I feel like I wouldn't even have completed with 6 lvl 3 chars

Originally posted by Overeagerdragon:

I don't know exactly HOW to progress when, after 1 round against the Jeweleater, I had 1 char left....a support. That's 1 friggin round with 4 lvl 2 chars and 3 active symbols only to be decimated in 1 round with no hope for recovery by the FIRST boss and I still need to do 2 more.
I'd have favored the game quick resolving it with a gameover screen the moment I reached the boss floor; better timemanagement for a fight I feel like I wouldn't even have completed with 6 lvl 3 chars

bruh then you're doing something wrong. Even if you have symbols if the team had no synergy then there's no point. Imagine putting a magic attacker in a physical team and vice versa or getting a magic symbol and have a physical DPS. You're still early in the game, you need more unlock.

Furthermore, the game has learning curve so if you think you can waltz in and beat everything you're dead wrong. It took me about almost 70 play hours to beat the first extra stage after finishing the game, and there are 3 more after that. This is like Dead Cells, if you do not have concrete knowledge about what to do against something you won't last.

Edit; Take a look at the glossary to know more about monsters and bosses stats and skills. Just a little bit of thinking will get you far in the game.

Just to give you an idea of my progress.... 50/78 Kingdom Grimoire and I usually hit the first boss with 4 lvl 2 chars, 2 Physical attack, 1 Magical attack with side-effect, 1 support (something inflicting burn or zap preferable but I'll take a healer if I can).

I usually focus Green and Forest firstmost and always have 2 shielding gems and a heal gem (usually 1 mana font and healpot too; just in case) the rest being used for attacks....

My last attempt on gemeater was Dia, Jade, Garnet, Gemska, Spessar (all lvl 2 except Dia).

First round? Gemeater uses Azure Breath + Emerald Breath (thanks combo for making double nuking possible btw)..... so how are you supposed to live through that ?? There's no amount of thinking that will save you from 500 party wide damage on the first round.....using a shield halves that but the remaining 250 damage is STILL enough to wipe all common lvl 2 units and then you're left with 2100HP to take down with 1.... maybe 2 party members.

Funny thing...when I DO get through the first floor boss....I usually make it to the final boss too (only to wipe there due to some esoteric mechanic (like double nuking thanks to the combo 1 infused Double action ability every boss has, Or an ability that makes an enemy summon creatures and gaining health upon death)

So if you're using Green, don't put upgraded units in your party. The extra Symbols you get from putting unupgraded units in your team gives you more HP than upgrading ever could. Makes you way tankier once that engine gets going.

Originally posted by Overeagerdragon:

Just to give you an idea of my progress.... 50/78 Kingdom Grimoire and I usually hit the first boss with 4 lvl 2 chars, 2 Physical attack, 1 Magical attack with side-effect, 1 support (something inflicting burn or zap preferable but I'll take a healer if I can).

I usually focus Green and Forest firstmost and always have 2 shielding gems and a heal gem (usually 1 mana font and healpot too; just in case) the rest being used for attacks....

My last attempt on gemeater was Dia, Jade, Garnet, Gemska, Spessar (all lvl 2 except Dia).

First round? Gemeater uses Azure Breath + Emerald Breath (thanks combo for making double nuking possible btw)..... so how are you supposed to live through that ?? There's no amount of thinking that will save you from 500 party wide damage on the first round.....using a shield halves that but the remaining 250 damage is STILL enough to wipe all common lvl 2 units and then you're left with 2100HP to take down with 1.... maybe 2 party members.

Funny thing...when I DO get through the first floor boss....I usually make it to the final boss too (only to wipe there due to some esoteric mechanic (like double nuking thanks to the combo 1 infused Double action ability every boss has, Or an ability that makes an enemy summon creatures and gaining health upon death)

Bruh, you put in a silver who is not level 2, what you expect? Further more, Garnet? Why the hell did you put her in there to face that boss? She's useless there unless you are in a burn team. You even use Gemska, who is not even good against a single target boss, what you expect?

Your team synergies are so bad no wonder you died. In the early game I would decide which team to build, full phys or full Magic. Then takes gems that boost that team damage. Your team damage is so split it so bad. You underestimate the synergies and only look at the rarity. A level 1 Dia is worse than a bronze level 2 tank lmao.

Edit: You may say Gemska skill trigger the damage when healing with Spessar, but that's so reliant on RNG why even try it. Just use a Freeze team against that boss and see what happened.

Edit 2: Forest is only good if you have a loop team, which you don't even have on the roster you mentioned, so the amount of damage seems good on paper but bad on execution.

And not just synergies, if you only look at synergies and forgot to look at the boss, you're still gonna get screwed (happened to me once with infinite AoE loop team facing the dragon boss). Build a team with the boss in mind and you will be fine. They even nerf the boss skill usage rate so you can't even fathom the amount of end-run bosses constant skills on the first few days of the game released.

To the original poster, I completely agree! I love this game, but it's only fun when RNG is in my favor, and i feel like most of the time, it ISN'T!

I think you are on Ancient Lab and not Hermit's Domain. You said that there are two bosses, and Ancient Lab is the map with two bosses. This is where most people get stuck until they figure out the game.

It sounds like you are on your way. You didn't mention building up to Rank 3 characters, and that's good. Rank 3 characters are a trap that are almost never worth trying for. I do disagree with the person who said they wouldn't take a Rank 1 Silver unit into the first boss fight, I have done that plenty of times, and it works out fine (especially if you already have Green). Just stick them in the back of the fight and they aren't likely to get hit.

I noticed that you mentioned building Forest. I do not believe Forest is worth the investment unless you are building a Truestrike team. I know that building Green leads into Forest, but it's better to just leave Forest alone unless it happens to fall into your lap. The four symbols that I look for first are: Blue, Shield, Green, and Chariot (ignore Chariot if you are building Truestrike). These defensive symbols can carry you pretty hard.

You might want to take a look at your team comp. You mention having 5 characters, with 4 damage dealers and one healer. I usually pick up a second healer when I'm around 4-5 characters. Most healers can only heal once every two turns. Having two makes a huge difference. Not to mention that Spessar cannot ever heal the characters in the 5th and 6th slots, which is a problem. I am into the post game, and I usually keep Sphene as one of my healers throughout entire runs. She's only a bronze, but at Rank 2 she heals for 100, and target's the lowest HP member. She's convenient too because of her Green symbol.

Originally posted by Overeagerdragon:

Gemeater uses Azure Breath + Emerald Breath (thanks combo for making double nuking possible btw)..... so how are you supposed to live through that ??

Assuming you have no defense at all, Emerald Breath does 50 damage to four random units (at most it can do 200 to one unit), and Azure Breath does 42 damage to two units. If you don't use a shield, then it is possible that you could lose one unit from this. If you use a shield, then there is not a single Rank 2 unit in the game that would die from this.

Disagree about Rank 3 being a trap, past a certain skill floor (symbols take priority to a point). Recent patch changes putting them at 500% base HP (was 400%) is enough of an incentive that if I have the opportunity to go Rank 3 on a Silver or Gold unit, and I'm at a Traveling Merchant with a lot of gold, I'll pursue it. Sometimes its possible to hit 1500+ gold, even 2000+ if gems broke well and you got a doubling pit at a good time.

Some units have skills that scale harder than double per rank. Alchemist Pinto comes to mind, increasing her Barrier targets 3->5->7 while still doubling the Barrier value per rank.

In general, I'm less high on healers unless its "overhealing", such as Barrier and other sources of damage prevention. I'd rather bring 2-3 gem slots worth of heal gems instead (aided by symbols and/or accessory effects), while running damage mitigators in the slots that would otherwise be healers.

Originally posted by Xuande:

Disagree about Rank 3 being a trap.

The only good time to make a Rank 3 is when you are at the end of a run with extra gold and a traveling merchant. Even then, it can be better just to flesh out your symbols further. Making a Rank 3 unit makes 1 character stronger; symbols help every character.

Most gold star units are awful and need buffs I agree, but you gotta admit sleepy koala with four digit health tanking the entire world is pretty funny, I go for one every time

I`d say some Rank3 are very powerful but the opportunity cost tends to be too high. Pretty nice if you luck out into one though.

Not a big fan of Healers instead.
Between the mitigation of the Symbols and the Perma-Shield, ~100 points heal every once in a while isn`t that great