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Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key improves upon many of its predecessors' beloved systems and mechanics while introducing many new ones that will help you prevail in Alchemy and combat encounters. As its title implies, the Secret Key plays a significant role in the trilogy's finale, rewarding you for exploration and experimentation.
The Secret Key is a unique item that Ryza Synthesizes relatively early in the game, allowing her to forge other Keys from Monsters and Landmarks and call upon their power during combat or improve her Alchemy. This feature is incredibly deep and rewarding and will give you access to many rare resources and actions, meaning you should not sleep on it if you want to get the most out of the gameplay.
Secret Key Overview
As you naturally progress through the story of Ryza 3, Ryza will Synthesize the Secret Key, and it isn't until a little while after that that you learn of its properties. The Secret Key can produce additional Keys from the Monsters Ryza and her friends encounter and most of the Landmarks they uncover as they explore new regions.
These Keys will have unique Effects and Elemental properties, allowing you to use them during combat encounters to apply buffs or can be used in Alchemy to raise an Item's quality, unlock additional properties, or help create entirely new Items. We will cover everything you need to know about utilizing the Secret Key in combat, Alchemy, and as you explore the massive regions in the game in the sections below!
Secret Key: Combat Tips
When it comes to utilizing the Secret Key to its full potential during combat encounters, you can get caught up in what Monsters you should be turning into Keys and which ones you should use your new Secret Key abilities on to give yourself an edge in the fight. However, the answer is more straightforward than you might expect.
In short, you should turn whatever Monster that catches your eye into a Key. While the stronger the Monster, the better your Key will be, what ultimately matters is having a wide range of Keys on hand, as they will allow you to open specific Chests and doors, improve your Alchemy, or overcome formidable enemies.
Turning Your Enemy's Power Into Keys
While you don't actually turn the Monster itself into a Key, you will harness its power into one, allowing you to use it in battle to give yourself a significant boost. To do this, you will need to open your Core Charge (CC) Menu during an encounter by pressing Square (PlayStation), then press L1 to open the Key Creation menu.
On this menu, you will see the percentage of the likely hood you will succeed at making a Key from your target and how many Keys you can still make. Like your Basket, Keys have a set limit you can make when exploring the open world, with the default limit being five. Once you make five Keys, you must head back to your Atelier to be able to make more. Please note that you can carry far more than five Keys. You just cannot make more than five when exploring.
After successfully creating a Key from your target, it will be added to your Keyring for use in combat, Alchemy, or other things in the world that we will touch on later. As mentioned earlier, we recommend trying to create a Key from just about every Monster, especially the more formidable ones, such as Mini-Bosses.
Using Keys Against Enemies
With Keys in your possession, you can utilize them in combat by opening your Core Charge (CC) Menu with Square, then pressing R1 to open the Key Modification page. Once here, you will see your Keyring with all available Keys and the Effects they will give you. These Effects can range from temporarily raising all your Stats to giving you infinite AP for a limited time and practically anything between and beyond.
If you couldn't tell, these Keys are extremely powerful and can easily allow you to deal well over 7,000 Damage on a formidable foe. There are tons of different Keys and Effects, allowing you to collect the ones that fit your playstyle while also encouraging you to step outside your comfort zone to experiment and dominate your enemies.
Secret Key: Alchemy Tips
In addition to using the Keys you obtain from Landmarks or Monsters to rack up damage in combat, you can also use them in your Alchemy, allowing you to raise your Item's Quality, add additional Effects to them, or even help Synthesize new Items. However, there are several layers to this that you must be mindful of or risk getting unnecessarily frustrated when trying to figure out the nuances of your Keys.
For Starters, when you unlock the ability to use Keys in Alchemy, you will have to add the required Materials first and will then press Triangle (PlayStation) to pull up your Keyring. Not all Keys will be available for Alchemy, but the ones that are will have very specific requirements to use and get the most out of that you should strive to hit.
The Key's Conditions And Effects
When selecting a Key to use in Alchemy, look on the left-hand side of the screen to see what its Conditions are and the Effects they will offer you. If the Key only meets one Condition, and its Effect is something like "Fire Increase - S," we strongly recommend not using it. However, if the Effect is "Element Value Up," then you should hop on that if you are trying to make something that requires lots of Elemental Nodes to be filled up and the Key's Element matches it.
The Conditions you have to meet to earn the Key's Effects will vary, with some being as simple as the Item being of the Fire Element or requiring Ore as a Material. If you see a Key that has three Conditions that are Wind, Motif: Ore, and Common Rarity, you can find the Recipe that best suits it to meet all three Conditions and get all of its Effects.
Always keep track of what the Key needs for its Conditions and if what you're trying to make meets those Conditions or not. If they don't - or the benefits aren't that great - you should choose a different Key or move on to another Item for the time being. Do not waste Keys on Items that won't benefit from them, as you can almost always find a better purpose for that Key.
Secret Key Overworld Tips
Lastly, you can also use Keys you have obtained from Landmarks or Monsters to open specific barriers or Chests found throughout each region. Opening these Supply Points and Gates will require specific Keys, which we will cover more extensively in the sections below.
Supply Points
Supply Points are the small, Diamond-shaped Chests that require Keys to open. Your Key must have an Adventure Stat to get the items from within these Supply Points. When creating a Key, you can ensure you have better odds of receiving one with an Adventure Effect by looking at the percentages of the possible Effects in the upper left side of the screen. If the percentage for an Adventure Effect is high, you will likely receive a Key with one, allowing you to open the Supply Point.
Opening the Supply Point will net you a variety of Materials that can range from common to rare, so it's best to open them whenever you come across them and have a Key that meets their needs. Just remember that you will need a Key with at least one Adventure Effect to open them.
Gates
Gates, on the other hand, are a tad trickier than their Supply Point counterpart. These are the large, colored, translucent walls you will come across blocking off cave entrances, doorways, and more, that will have loads of Materials and Chests behind them. To get through these, you must acquire a Key of a specific Elemental Type. From there, the Key will also need to have at least one node of that Element Type and will also - in some cases - need an Adventure Effect.
Not all Gates are opened the same way. Some will require an Adventure Effect, while others won't. And they don't necessarily go out of their way to tell you what you lack to open them. However, for the most part, Gates will only require you to have a Key of its Element with at least one node (the large number to the left of the Elemental Symbols) to open. If that doesn't work, you may need more than one node or an Adventure Effect to open it.