Quick Links

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is a side scroller Action RPG. This is the first of two games of the Eiyuden Chronicle series, which is meant to be a spiritual successor of Suikoden, a legendary JRPG series created by Yoshitaka Murayama and published by Konami.

Related: Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising - Link Attacks Explained

While the game takes its time to explain everything you need for your journey, there are always details that might not be that clear or things you’ll realize just by playing. That’s why we have gathered some useful tips and tricks for your initial hours.

The Signposts Are Your Friends

A Signpost at the entrance of the Great Forest.

A Signpost is basically a checkpoint you can find in different sections of every dungeon. This object has two roles: letting you fast travel to other Signposts you have found across the same dungeon and allowing you to save your game.

The latter is particularly useful because there’s no auto-save while you’re inside dungeons. This means you’ll be respawned to a previous point if you die and haven’t used a Signpost.

Fast travel is available from the very beginning of the game, whether you use Signposts or the map while in town. Use it to skip complete areas and reach your objectives easier.

Make Your Enemy Bounce!

Extra experience points won after making an enemy bounce.

Weirdly enough, there’s a mechanic that is never explicitly explained in the game — you’ll realize it by experimenting or just pure luck. When defeating any kind of enemy (except bosses), they will be thrown into the air for a brief moment depending on the move you used. If you continue hitting them, they’ll bounce until they reach the floor.

What’s the cool part about this (apart from using creatures like balls)? You’ll actually get more experience by making enemies bounce a couple of times. This might not be that useful for every minor enemy, like the initial slimes, but other ones, such as the ogre, will give some sweet points.

CJ has more friendly attacks to make the enemies bounce, while Garoo has strikes that leave them closer to the ground level.

Build Everything You Can

CJ speaking with Tatara, the blacksmith.

While playing Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising, one of the things you’ll be doing the most, at least during the initial hours, is helping the villagers reconstruct New Nevaeh. The town has suffered multiple building destructions due to the frequent earthquakes. That’s why you will meet a large array of characters that need resources for repairments or setting up new shops.

Having these buildings and shops will unlock new items and equipment that will be invaluable for your journey. Most of the places will be funded while doing unmissable Main Quests, but you’ll be able to level them during secondary ones.

If you want to know how to create a specific building, you can check the rest of our guides.

Upgrade Your Character’s Equipment

Armor Shop items screen.

Of course, if you’re playing a game with RPG elements, you’ll want to level up your character in any possible way. It’s only natural. Perhaps what’s not so obvious is the ways in which you can do that: upgrading your weapons and armor, altering them (grants new abilities), purchasing new accessories, resources, and items, and being able to craft most of what you need.

These are the most important buildings you’ll need to do the aforementioned actions:

  • Weapon Shop
  • Armor Shop
  • Accessory Shop
  • Bagmaker
  • Rune Shop
  • Lens Forge

Don’t Forget To Visit The Inn

A window explaining the features of the Inn.

During Main Quest 4, you’ll unlock the Inn while helping Rajiv. This will become your obligatory stop before jumping into any mission you have. The Inn is a place with special waters that will give you a unique bonus during your playtime. For instance, you can use the Empowering Waters and get a five percent bonus on your strength.

If you level up the Inn, you’ll unlock better versions of the already existing waters.

It’s worth knowing that you can’t have more than one active bonus at a time. Also, once you rest, the buff will go off. However, the bonus can last multiple quests and visits to dungeons, so it’s usually very useful.

Also, don’t forget to check your Stowpack before going into dungeons. You can’t change its items while in there.

The Bulletin Board Is Not That Friendly

A screen of the Bulletin Board, showing the available quests.

At the Plaza, you’ll have a Bulletin Board containing the available secondary missions that you can take at the moment. The quest information will be very much clear, telling you what NPC you should see, where they are, and the objective, among other valuable data.

However, you can’t really activate any quest from here. You might collect the necessary resources to complete one while defeating enemies and don’t receive the notification because you didn’t speak with the NPC. This is why the Bulletin Board is only a general guide; go and talk with everyone before going out for adventures.

It’s worth mentioning that, from time to time, there might be a secondary quest that is not listed on the board. You’ll need to find the NPC by chance.

Check Your Enemy Bubbles

An ogre with a sleeping text bubble.

While looking at enemies, you might notice they have a text bubble over their bodies. Apart from being a cute aesthetic detail, this is valuable intel for combat: you’ll know your enemy's status and what they are about to do by just looking at the bubble.

If they noticed you, there will be an exclamation mark. If they are searching for you, a question one or some eyes. Plus, you can find enemies sleeping, which will have the usual onomatopeia. Use the visual clues to your advance!

Many enemies also produce a red light right before doing an attack, although these can be charged ones and have a few seconds of delay.

Enemies Are Left Behind

The first enemy (a level 1 slime) you'll see in the Great Forest.

After visiting a dungeon for the first time, you’ll unlock it and be able to visit it all the times you want. In fact, you’ll travel across them multiple times when completing new quests (both main and secondary ones).

Fortunately, if you were having trouble with specific dungeons, it’s worth mentioning that its enemies will remain at their initial levels. In other words, the level 1 slimes of the Great Forest will continue to be level 1, no matter how many times you repeat the location. This is helpful for two reasons: you’ll get better at traveling through areas that were annoying or too difficult, and you’ll also have spots for farming that are easier than others.

The lack of level up also applies to bosses, but not always. They might get stronger for specific quests or when advancing in the main story.

Choose Simple Mode If It Get’s Overwhelming

A window explaining the basics of Simple Mode.

It could be said that Eiyuden Chronicle: Risings starts pretty simple. Your character only has a few moves (two attacks on the ground, one while in mid-air, and the Quick Step), and the enemies usually have only one attack and little health. However, as you keep advancing, you’ll unlock your other party members and find deadlier foes, with possible difficulty spikes here and there.

If you start dying too frequently or you just don’t enjoy the combat that much, you can always change the mode of the game to Simple Mode. As its name implies, it will make your life easier by making the combat more automatic, doing actions like immediate character swaps. A great mode for players who just want to enjoy the story.

For more info about Simple Mode and its differences from Normal Mode, please visit our guide.

Next: Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising - How To Defeat Hollow Plant