PixlBit

Well I figured something out yesterday but it wasn't really explained in the manual.

But first one of the things that is explained is that any party member can equip any weapon or two weapons or a weapon and a shield. Strangely you can even equip a shield if you are carrying a bow.

You learn new abilities from repeating the same action over and over. Each weapon starts with one action and that action becomes stronger with use and sometimes leads to an "Awakening" in which you get a new ability for that weapon. This seems to occur randomly and in the case of my bow user has never happened. Sharpshooter has remained sharpshooter but it has become more powerful.

Even using your fist causes awakenings. I tried using my bare fist for all three of my characters over and over. Two of them got a roundhouse kick (I think) awakening after I used it enough and the third got nothing.

This is the most important thing I've discovered. When you find a Singing Shard equip it on your fastest party member. The Singing Shard alone will cause your party to regen a little every turn but once you find Whispering Shards they will grant various elemental abilities to the party member who has one on.

Whispering Shards are only active after the Singing Shard has been used and must match the Element of the Singing Shard. In my case I have the Water Contract Singing Shard and  4 Water Element Whispering Shards. They are Water Shield, Purify, Bubble Launcher and Hailstorm. I have Water Shield and Hailstorm equpped. Water Shield protects all allies and Hailstorm hits all enemies for pretty decent damage.

Apparently you can learn elemental abilities permanently with use.

Battles are mostly easy but it is also very easy to run into an ambush or have to battle a powerful mini boss before you are ready. My advice is to take it slow, power up those attacks, keep your SP full and do not run around dungeons like a chicken with it's head cut off.

Search everywhere and don't be afraid to run back to the village if you are getting pummelled. 

If you die in battle you come back to life at the end of the battle with an HP impedement that can only be fixed by resting at the inn, finding an NPC who will let you rest or recently I found an ointment that restores some of your lost HP. 

Hire ships to go out in search of items. This is a cool way to get weapons, armour and items not found in the store. There are 3 levels of ships you can hire (at least for me). The Cog is the cheapest at 300 St but it also delivers the weakest results. I've been hiring the Caravel for 1000 St and it brings back some pretty useful shit.

Well my ship just came in so it's time to see what they brought me. More later.

 Pandas on Parade.