Quick Links
Tales of Arise is the 17th mainline entrance to the Tales Of series and takes place in the sprawling world of Dahna. Tales of Arise is an enormous game with many things to do, including its action-packed combat, Artes system, and overall side activities.
Tales Of Arise: Beyond The Dawn - FAQ Guide
Tales of Arise's Beyond the Dawn DLC has sparked many questions regarding its plot, new character, and more, and we have all the answers for them!While everything may seem a bit overwhelming, Tales of Arise does an excellent job at slowly introducing new mechanics and systems so that it all feels manageable and you can fully comprehend what's happening. However, a few things are easy to overlook or can swiftly fall through the cracks that will help you out drastically in your journey, especially if you dove straight into the Beyond the Dawn expansion!
Updated November 11, 2023, by Seth Parmer: Tales of Arise has received its first expansion, giving us the wonderful opportunity of reuniting with our beloved party one year after the events of the base game. While Beyond the Dawn has many new things to get excited about, nothing much has changed on the gameplay side, allowing us to update our original Beginner's Tips guide to help newcomers diving into the series or game for the first time due to the DLC!
How To Heal Your Party In Tales Of Arise: Beyond The Dawn
Like most RPGs, keeping you and your teammates' health in check is one of the most critical aspects to prevailing in most battles, especially against bosses and the more formidable foes. In Tales of Arise, there are several ways to heal your party, all requiring different resources that are all finite.
Remember Your Healers
Without getting into spoiler territory, there are two available healers for your party who can perform in-battle Healing Artes that can revive downed allies, heal teammates over time, or replenish a large portion of their health.
However, this method comes at the cost of Cure Points (CP), a pool your team shares that allows them to perform many things in combat and specific situations outside of battle.
Cure Points allow some members to cast buffs, heal, or traverse the overworld in unique ways to access gated off rooms/pathways. CP is replenishable with potions, resting, and eating specific meals.
Have Potions On Hand
Another method of healing comes from the classic form of Potions. Many different Potions are available that can heal you and your party to varying degrees. Whether you need to heal an individual member of your squad or the entire team or bring someone back from the brink of death, there is a Potion available for every situation.
However, Healing Potions are finite and will cost a decent amount of Gald to purchase a large quantity of, especially the more potent ones. The good news, though, is you will find Healing Potions throughout your journey and can come into money quickly by doing many of the game's surrounding activities.
Recovering Outside Of Combat
The final healing method is easily missable but incredibly essential to note as it can save you resources and Gald in the long run. When you're outside combat, you can expend some of your CP to heal either 80 percent of your HP or all of your HP, allowing you to save your Healing Potions strictly for in-combat situations.
To do this, open the Party Menu, look to the left, and press the corresponding button next to the "Recovery" prompt (Triangle on PlayStation, Y on Xbox). From there, select the healing method you want/need. The Recovery method will also show you how much CP it will cost and how much health it will replenish overall.
If you find yourself outside combat and need to heal your squad before the next battle, consider this method before burning through multiple Potions. However, remember that CP is how your teammates buff and heal the party, so only use this if you can spare the CP (which you will have plenty of in the latter portions of the game).
Exploration
Exploring the vast world is crucial for any RPG, and Tales of Arise is no different. There are many things to see and do in Dahna, all of which are worth your while and will typically reward you with Gald, Experience, and Combat Points to help you and your team stay ahead of the competition.
The most important aspect of exploring Tales of Arise's vast world is accessing the game's many secret areas, which often contain unique items that help aid you in your adventures. Things such as permanent Stat upgrades, materials to craft Accessories, better armor and weapons, etc., are all obtainable by exploring the overworld to its fullest.
Some areas are only accessible by spending some of your CP to remove an obstacle blocking the path, which always contains a valuable item. Take your time in Dahna and explore every nook and cranny you can. It will help you out more than you know in the long run.
Switching Party Members And Targets In Combat
One of the more unique aspects of Tales of Arise's combat system is your ability to hop freely between any of your party members when in battle, allowing you to cast an ability, jump to another character, and continue your offense with combos/Artes. However, this feature may not be apparent or obvious to some players.
To switch to a different party member, hold down L1 on PlayStation or LB on Xbox and use the D-pad to choose which party member you want to take control of with their corresponding directional input.
Switching Targets
With a similar method, you can lock onto a different target by holding down L1 or LB and moving the left analog stick to select a new target. This is useful for prioritizing minions that may get summoned during a boss fight or eliminating the more annoying Zeugles before focusing on the others.
How To Swap Characters Mid-Battle
In addition to changing the character you control in battle, you can also Swap 'inactive' characters with currently active party members. For example, if your primary party consists of Alphen, Shionne, Rinwell, and Law, Kisara and Dohalim will be 'inactive' but can still perform Boost Abilities and Mystic Artes.
If you need to Swap an inactive character in place of a currently active one, you can quickly perform this by holding down L2 (PlayStation) or LT (Xbox), then holding the directional input of the character you want to bring into the battle.
After this, let go of the L2 and D-Pad inputs, then hold the directional input of the character you want swapped to replace them with the previously selected inactive character.
This is particularly useful if you realize your enemy is weak to your sub-characters Arte Sets or if someone gets KO'd in battle. You can Swap any KO'd character with an inactive one but cannot replace an active character with a KO'd one who is currently inactive.
Don't Forget The Sub-Quests
Sub-Quests are an essential part of Tales of Arise and should not be ignored for any reason whatsoever, as they will help you out substantially in the long run. There are 70 Sub-Quests in the game, all of which have different rewards worth your time and effort.
A large majority of Sub-Quests in Tales of Arise have you battle an Elite Monster, which will reward you with an Astral Flower that permanently increases your CP gauge. You will also receive Gald, Experience, Skill Points, items, and sometimes even equipment or Artes.
Doing every Sub-Quest readily available to you is an excellent method for getting stronger and staying ahead of the skill curve of the game. However, please note that you can accept Sub-Quests way ahead of your skill level, which must be completed much later in your playthrough.
Artes: How They Work
Artes are your primary abilities in Tales of Arise and can be chained into standard attacks to create combos and expose your opponent's weaknesses. There are many Artes to learn and obtain in the game, all of which add their own unique wrinkle into how you approach combat encounters and combo strings.
There are three ways you will obtain Artes in Tales of Arise. One way is through experimentation, another via the Skill Panel, and the last through the game's natural progression.
Each of these methods is important in its own right, but the one that may trip newcomers up is unlocking new Artes or upgrading them by experimenting with them.
Examples Of Unlocking New Artes
There are many examples of this, and many Artes are unlocked by using others twice in quick succession.
Say, for example, you have an Arte that allows you to cast Concentrate on yourself, which buffs your Penetration Stat by 30 percent for a limited time during combat. That Arte, on its own, is beneficial to the caster and to the caster only, which isn't necessarily bad, but it can be much better.
Casting the Concentrate Arte twice in a row will unlock the Arte's Sub-Trait "Concentrate All," turning it into a full-party buff rather than a solo buff for the person casting it.
Furthermore, each Arte keeps a counter on how many times you used it; some will unlock a wholly new Arte by passing a specific threshold of uses or grow astronomically in strength over time, so it's crucial to equip and try every Arte you can!
Earning Combat Points
Combat Points are separate from the game's Skill Points and Cure Points, making things slightly confusing when you see them as a reward or on the post-battle screen. Nonetheless, Combat Points are an essential aspect of Tales of Arise, and you should completely understand the concept to better your characters and play.
Combat Points are primarily earned based on your performance in battle and will scale depending on your overall execution and efficiency in combat. These Combat Points will grant you Skill Points and Arte Proficiency, so performing well in every encounter is crucial.
Many factors will affect the Combat Points acquired after an encounter and directly determine your post-battle rewards. Below are the positive and negative factors that impact your Combat Points.
Positive Factors
- Defeating Strong or Rare Zeugles/Bosses
- Finishing the encounter with a Mystic Arte
-
Using Boost Strikes and Boost Attacks
- Downing enemies with Boost Attacks rewards more Combat Points
- Fighting multiple enemies at once
- Landing high combos
- Completing the battle quickly
Negative Factors
- Losing the battle
- Getting KO'd
- Consuming items
- Taking too long to finish the encounter
Cooking: Feed Your Team Before You Go
Cooking meals for your party is an excellent way to grant temporary buffs to you and your party that go a long way to help you in your travels. There are 44 Recipes to discover in Tales of Arise, all of which contain unique buffs that can be enhanced depending on who you choose to prepare them.
Recipes can offer buffs that increase Experience gained in battle, replenish CP after an encounter, make enemies drop more items, create a higher chance of gathering rare materials when mining, and much more.
You will learn new recipes by doing Sub-Quests, exploring and opening chests, and progressing through the main story of Tales of Arise.
When To Cook Specific Recipes
Some characters also have Skills in their Skill Panel that give them buffs when full, which helps give them a slight edge in battle. Never underestimate the bonuses of eating; always prepare a meal before setting off on your journey.
Additionally, suppose you are about to enter a heavily guarded area with many combat encounters. In that case, we recommend eating a meal that contains combat-focused buffs, such as earning more EXP, enemies dropping more items, or having your CP replenished slightly after each encounter.
However, if you are exploring a new area, perhaps having buffs that focus on gathering more materials, increasing the chance of finding rare materials, etc., is more suitable.
Obtaining Bonuses For Beyond The Dawn
Beyond the Dawn is the latest expansion for Tales of Arise, following the story of Nazamil, bringing our beloved party back together one last time after a year of being apart.
If you're looking to kick this expansion off with a bang, completing the Main Story of Tales of Arise before dipping your toes in the new DLC will grant you excellent rewards depending on what you did in the base version of the game.
So, if you plan on diving headfirst into the DLC without completing the Main Story, perhaps these rewards will persuade you to rethink that and play through one of the best JRPGs in recent years.
Beyond The Dawn Follows The Same Formula
While Beyond the Dawn still possesses the same exhilarating combat system in the base version of Tales of Arise, nothing new or groundbreaking has been implemented regarding the overall systems and mechanics of the game, meaning everything outlined above is applied 1:1 to the new expansion.
On the one hand, this is fine as Tales of Arise has one of the best gameplay loops in an Action JRPG to date, but it's also a bit underwhelming as there are no new Artes, mechanics, or systems to learn. If you've familiarized yourself with the base game, nothing will surprise you or catch you off guard.
If you have yet to get into the rhythm of the game or dove head first into the expansion without playing through the Main Story, then all the sections above will supply you with all the information you need to become proficient in all the systems and mechanics in Beyond the Dawn and the base version of Tales of Arise!