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Good Ways to Level Up

AuthorMessage
Ensign
Jul 08, 2019
22
What is a good and efficient way to level up? I am a level 40 Buccaneer and I just got into MooShu earlier today. The first enemies I encountered that were not in the sky were level 40 as well and had 2000 health each. I definitely need to gain some levels before I can even attempt to make my way into MooShu. Any ideas on efficient ways to gain some levels?
Community Leader
Do the storyline quests. You're at level 40, which is very overleveled for just starting Mooshu. All of my characters, which have been slightly overleveled, entered Mooshu at level 38 or so and did just fine. (Fwiw, the game seems to expect that you enter Mooshu at around level 35-36, since there's a promotion quest for a companion at level 37 that requires you to have multiple skyways in Mooshu unlocked).

As for how you can succeed in Mooshu, there are a couple of things. Make sure your main companions (for a buck this would generally be Toro, Pete, Barnabus, maybe Rat and Bonnie) are around 3 levels below your pirate at all times.

When training your companions, prioritize giving them multiple ranks of talents like relentless, bladestorm, vengeance strike, first strike, and riposte. I know a lot of people that struggle with PvE have a tendency to give one rank of each possible epic to their companions. A unit like Pete with blade 2 and relentless 2, plus however many vengeance strikes you can give him will crush your foes. For the normal stat talents, prioritize tough, rough, accurate, and either dodgy or your unit's main stat.

Also, make sure you use your strength buffs (and El Toro's buff) effectively, as they are one of your best ways to get good chains. Even though the enemies you run into will have as much or more health than your units, these buffs will let you do massive damage every round, while your enemies struggle to get 1-2 hits on your team.
Writer, Editor, Administrator, and Pirate PvP guy at FinalBastion

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Ensign
Jul 08, 2019
22
Thank you. The problem was that I was just using whatever companions had the highest attack power. I have changed up my mains and am now cruising through MooShu pretty well. By the way, How could I boost El Toro's attack? He is promoted and I am using him, Peter Quint, and Moomori. Should I exchange Moomori for someone else like Barnabus, or should I use Kobe when he gets promoted at level 46? Or should I just keep it the way it is?
Dread Pirate
May 27, 2009
2131
I agree with Matthew -- you are at exactly the right level for where you are, so you should just keep moving through the story quests. Although, going back for any side quests that give you additional companions wouldn't go amiss -- having more team members to use or assign to tasks like Sailing or Scavenging is very helpful.

Community Leader
instinctHelios on Jul 29, 2019 wrote:
Thank you. The problem was that I was just using whatever companions had the highest attack power. I have changed up my mains and am now cruising through MooShu pretty well. By the way, How could I boost El Toro's attack? He is promoted and I am using him, Peter Quint, and Moomori. Should I exchange Moomori for someone else like Barnabus, or should I use Kobe when he gets promoted at level 46? Or should I just keep it the way it is?
Kobe and Barnabus will overshadow Takedo Moomori once they reach his level, so I would replace Moomori with either of those two (I don't think there's a huge difference in quality between the two). Once you use El Toro's Espirit buff, he becomes very good at defeating melee enemies that have talents like first strike and vengeance strike (many of the buccaneer class enemies in Mooshu have these talents). I'd tend to focus Toro on those enemies, which will enable his riposte chains.

As a side note, Toro generally won't have the same damage output as a buffed Peter Quint. Pete will always be your best "beater" companion, while Toro is there to buff your Pete (and other units) as well as be a good anti-melee unit. Buffing his damage output can be done most effectively by giving him as much Tough, Rough, Accurate, and Dodgy as possible. These will ensure that he can win melee exchanges.
Writer, Editor, Administrator, and Pirate PvP guy at FinalBastion

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Gunner's Mate
Sep 04, 2018
268
Matthew525011 on Jul 30, 2019 wrote:
Kobe and Barnabus will overshadow Takedo Moomori once they reach his level, so I would replace Moomori with either of those two (I don't think there's a huge difference in quality between the two). Once you use El Toro's Espirit buff, he becomes very good at defeating melee enemies that have talents like first strike and vengeance strike (many of the buccaneer class enemies in Mooshu have these talents). I'd tend to focus Toro on those enemies, which will enable his riposte chains.

As a side note, Toro generally won't have the same damage output as a buffed Peter Quint. Pete will always be your best "beater" companion, while Toro is there to buff your Pete (and other units) as well as be a good anti-melee unit. Buffing his damage output can be done most effectively by giving him as much Tough, Rough, Accurate, and Dodgy as possible. These will ensure that he can win melee exchanges.
El Toro really isn't that good, definitely not worth using in my book. In worlds higher than Mooshu everything is bound to be hitting you even if your dodge is upwards of 200. El Toro's buff really isn't that great and he doesn't have a guaranteed critical hit card, which means often enough he will miss and do nothing during his turn, or he will hit once and then do nothing. He boosts to agility so a buccaneer shouldn't be buffing him with anything, well not unless they have a chickens buff card. I'd highly suggest using Bonnie Anne over El Toro any day. Bonnie Anne will easily out kill El Toro. Her scatter shot makes everything easy to hit even when using Old Scratch. Train her overwatch to three and everything approaching will be accuracy reduced by 50% for a few turns. El Toro isn't so bad in group play, he is just a one trick pony in that the only reason to even select him is for his buff card, certainly don't take him for his reliability or attacks or health. I'd rather train up health than dodge on any companion, swashbucklers don't need dodge they need health. Whatever is hitting you with a dodge of 170 most likely is still going to be hitting you with a dodge of 200, so might as well have health to be able to take those hits with.
Community Leader
Takhethis on Jul 31, 2019 wrote:
El Toro really isn't that good, definitely not worth using in my book. In worlds higher than Mooshu everything is bound to be hitting you even if your dodge is upwards of 200. El Toro's buff really isn't that great and he doesn't have a guaranteed critical hit card, which means often enough he will miss and do nothing during his turn, or he will hit once and then do nothing. He boosts to agility so a buccaneer shouldn't be buffing him with anything, well not unless they have a chickens buff card. I'd highly suggest using Bonnie Anne over El Toro any day. Bonnie Anne will easily out kill El Toro. Her scatter shot makes everything easy to hit even when using Old Scratch. Train her overwatch to three and everything approaching will be accuracy reduced by 50% for a few turns. El Toro isn't so bad in group play, he is just a one trick pony in that the only reason to even select him is for his buff card, certainly don't take him for his reliability or attacks or health. I'd rather train up health than dodge on any companion, swashbucklers don't need dodge they need health. Whatever is hitting you with a dodge of 170 most likely is still going to be hitting you with a dodge of 200, so might as well have health to be able to take those hits with.
1. El Toro is an excellent companion in any world. I used him on all my melee characters while questing, and his buff functioned excellently. It guarantees that you will rarely to never miss (using Bonnie only guarantees that units her scatterblast hits will be missed, which is rarely all enemies in a fight). It also gives you very good chances to dodge, especially when paired with the reduces that buccaneers have. Even without using reduces, I find that I dodge significantly more often than I don't while using Toro's buff. The only exception is buccaneer enemies with Tide 2+, and even then, Espirit prevents them from shredding you.

2. I understand that he's buffed by agility. That's why I suggested the OP have his Toro focus on buccaneer or other melee enemies that will have lower agility and/or talents like first strike and vengeance strike. Engaging with these enemies while you have an spirit on will allow Toro to get multiple First Strikes and/or Ripostes of his own off. This in turn increases his chances of getting Relentlesses (more hits landed = more chances to get a Relent) and maximizes his damage output

3. I told the OP to train up Tough (health), Rough (damage), Accuracy, and Dodgy on his swashbuckler units. I agree that all units should have Tough.

Bonnie is certainly worth considering, but there's a major downside to her. On a large map, you'll often be the one charging your enemies after you buff up on rounds 1-2. Bonnie's 4 base movement means that she'll lag behind the other units that buccs use. These units will either have 5-6 movement (in the case of El Toro or Contessa) or will have a charge (Barnabus and Pete). Oftentimes, they'll end the fight before your Bonnie even had a chance to do anything.
Writer, Editor, Administrator, and Pirate PvP guy at FinalBastion

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Ensign
Jul 08, 2019
22
Matthew525011 on Jul 31, 2019 wrote:
1. El Toro is an excellent companion in any world. I used him on all my melee characters while questing, and his buff functioned excellently. It guarantees that you will rarely to never miss (using Bonnie only guarantees that units her scatterblast hits will be missed, which is rarely all enemies in a fight). It also gives you very good chances to dodge, especially when paired with the reduces that buccaneers have. Even without using reduces, I find that I dodge significantly more often than I don't while using Toro's buff. The only exception is buccaneer enemies with Tide 2+, and even then, Espirit prevents them from shredding you.

2. I understand that he's buffed by agility. That's why I suggested the OP have his Toro focus on buccaneer or other melee enemies that will have lower agility and/or talents like first strike and vengeance strike. Engaging with these enemies while you have an spirit on will allow Toro to get multiple First Strikes and/or Ripostes of his own off. This in turn increases his chances of getting Relentlesses (more hits landed = more chances to get a Relent) and maximizes his damage output

3. I told the OP to train up Tough (health), Rough (damage), Accuracy, and Dodgy on his swashbuckler units. I agree that all units should have Tough.

Bonnie is certainly worth considering, but there's a major downside to her. On a large map, you'll often be the one charging your enemies after you buff up on rounds 1-2. Bonnie's 4 base movement means that she'll lag behind the other units that buccs use. These units will either have 5-6 movement (in the case of El Toro or Contessa) or will have a charge (Barnabus and Pete). Oftentimes, they'll end the fight before your Bonnie even had a chance to do anything.
Currently I am using Toro, Pete (just got him promoted for the last time), and Monkey King. Is this a good loadout? I might switch to the Inoshsishi bandit instead of Monkey though. Tell me what you think.
Community Leader
instinctHelios on Aug 1, 2019 wrote:
Currently I am using Toro, Pete (just got him promoted for the last time), and Monkey King. Is this a good loadout? I might switch to the Inoshsishi bandit instead of Monkey though. Tell me what you think.
I'm not a huge fan of Monkey King, since once your other companions reach his level, he becomes very lackluster. He has no guaranteed attacks and no relentless, making his damage output pretty mediocre, particularly when compared to Kobe. If you want to use a swash as your third unit, I'd use Kobe since he's significantly better, particularly after his final promo. If you want another buck, I'd use Barnabus (fwiw, I used Barnabus as my third unit). Either Kobe or Barnabus are excellent third choices (Ratbeard and Bonnie are also fine units, but are slightly worse imo)
Writer, Editor, Administrator, and Pirate PvP guy at FinalBastion

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Ensign
Oct 11, 2019
1
Make sure that you do some side quests including the main storyline quests. Side quests can be boring, yes, but in the long run, they really help!
Make sure your companions are a decent level.
Prepare yourself for ship battles!

Happy hunting,
Jack, Level 8 Swashbuckler
Gunner's Mate
Feb 06, 2018
234
Do side quests. It may be tiresome, but I gained an entire level just doing side quests. And you are over-leveled for MooShu.
Fair Taryn Lewis level 23 going on 24 musketeer
Nautical level 19