KH3D About the Drop system and the Ability Link

[Alex*Sora*89 23]

Well, hello there, fellow Keyblade Masters! It's Alex*Sora*89 here. I'll describe my help-seeking situation as briefly as I can, but not before a little disclaimer: if there's any thread like this, then I'm sorry but I had little-to-no-clue there ever was one in the first place. I mean, I checked.

 

Here's the summary: as it happened in my Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep saved games (as in, game sessions), I've done the same in Kingdom Hearts 3D - namely, beating the final bosses without actually unlocking the abilities, only to start unlocking the stuff in the postgame. I rushed through the final phase of the game as soon as I got to the second-to-last save point in The World That Never Was (Verge Of Chaos) and stopped playing after saving the "clear save data" (at 4 AM. That's how addicting the game is). To clarify, the stuff like EXP Walker, Once More, Second Chance and the like isn't something I equipped early in Birth By Sleep, if only because I had no clue about how to do it. After the BBS endgame, I finally started understanding how Command Melding works. In my playthrough of KH3D, more or less, the same happened. However, there's a lot of stuff that's even trickier than it used to be in BBS, hence this very thread (current status: level 33 Riku at the time of this writing, for those curious).

 

1) First things first, the Drop Gauge. That's the one problem I have with the game which I would like to solve. I don't mean the Drop mechanic by itself, but the way it is forced on us. What does the number written on it mean? Like, "1.0", "1.1", et cetera. I went nuts as soon as I found out there was a "Drop-Me-Never" command among the abilities in Drak Quack's Ability Link grid, only to be disappointed upon said command's nature as an item. So, is there an ability meant to freeze the gauge, or to slow it down considerably? Or maybe a command similar to the Drop-Me-Not and Drop-Me-Never ones, only working as a Magic command (akin to, say, Cure compared to Potions or the newly-introduced Esuna compared to Panacea)? Because the fact players can also Drop back and forth at will doesn't solve the problem with each characters' playtime being reduced to what ultimately amounts to a glorified timed mission, let alone the effect of dropping during boss battles.

 

2) The second question concerning the Drop system is more or less a paranoia-related issue. Does the Drop counter (number of Drops so far) seen at the top of the Save/Load screen (as well as at the top of the main menu itself) have any unfortunate side effects I'm unaware of? Maybe side effects triggered as soon as the Drop count reaches a certain number? Or is it there just to mess with players just as it is messing with me? If - as I hope it is the case - that Drop count is just there to screw with me, then I'd feel less nervous about Dropping deliberately (41 drops with a Clear Saved Data game file at the time of this writing).

 

3) The Ability Link system. By now, I've gotten the hang of how it works, but I'm afraid I can't say the same about using it to unlock more stuff. I think a list of each Spirit's ingredients (without the need of any recipe), its abilities and commands would come in handy, especially when it comes to unlocking Support abilities (the ones in the center row and that don't need any Spirits in the party) or the aforementioned anti-dropping Command (or, even better, Ability) I'm hoping for. By now you can guess that, to me, once I get rid of forced Drops, the rest of the game's difficulty courve would just go downhill.

 

4) Given my questions about the Ability Link, there's the fact that Spirits need to be created in the first place. Some of them, like Ryu Dragon, have really neat abilities (Superglide in Ryu Dragon's case) but happen to need really rare ingredients. So the question is, pure and simple, provided I have to go and look for some of these ingredients, which one is the fastest way for gathering everything I need for any given Spirit (with information concerning which world, which enemies and which moves are needed for each ingredient, provided anyone who answers this knows enough not to need doing any further research, as I don't like to bother others generally)? As you can guess, I haven't unlocked Ryu Dragon yet.

 

5) About the abilities, I've managed to unlock Once More before even knowing which not-unlocked-yet Spirit has Second Chance in its Ability Link grid. But I managed to equip Once More anyway and dared to challenge the-bonus-boss-of-Fountain-Plaza-who-I-am-not-gonna-spoil, hoping that no forced Drop would get in my way when fighting such a hard and long boss fight (unsurprisingly - yet contrary to what I feared - the boss killed me first instead, anyway), which prompted me to ask: wasn't Once More supposed to be an upgrade for Second Chance, and therefore requiring the latter to be equipped? Because it seems Once More has the same features as Second Chance, but it also supports combos. I always thought that Second Chance shielded the player from 1-hit-KO attacks, while Once More provided the additional insurance against combos and nothing else. Am I missing something?

 

... and I guess this is it. Sorry for bothering you with these questions, especially given I could have worded them in a more laconic way. If it's okay with you, we might use this thread to do some brainstorming for any eventual Drop-and-Ability-Link section of KH13's upcoming KH3D guide.

 

Going to sleep now, as it's 2.15 AM here in Italy. *drop*

 

*Drop results*

 

*choose a bonus: Drop decelerator*

 

*starts playing as Riku*

 

Hi there, it's Alex*Riku*89 here. I have to ask... oh, nevermind. Looks like Alex*Sora*89 did it first. See ya!

Edited August 1, 2012 by Alex*Sora*89

[Decimo 243]

1) The number on the drop gauge is the speed at which it drops, and there are no commands similar to the Drop-Me-Not/Drop-Me-Never items.

2) Not as far as I know.

 

And pfff, that's a nice way to finish a post.

[Alex*Sora*89 23]

Well, yeah, I ended the post that way in order to make up for the wall of text that other users had to read. Glad it worked.

 

Anyway... if anyone can answer my questions, well, that would help a lot.

[Smithee 327]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6dtasEqpLM

[Zanzetsuken 66]

Well the Drop speed goes higher due to negative-status effects. I noticed that if I teleport from World to world, the Drop speed resets. I'll have to double check on this though,

 

The Drop Counter in the menu is quite strange. I really haven't seen it much in action but it changes so it could be how many Drop points you've gained by normal battle?

 

If you need to unlock more abilities, change the dispositions of the Dream Eaters by nudging or stroking them in the right spot.

 

As for all the ingredients, I would say travel through the worlds, get a pretty high Drop speed and fight, upgrade the Moogle shop or do the Special Portals. Hopefully a list will come up soon!

 

I'm sure that Once More is keeping 1 HP after a series of Combos whilst Second Chance is keeping at least 1 HP after devastating damage. You don't really need Second Chance to be equipped with Once More but it is way better if you do.

[Alex*Sora*89 23]

Thanks for your answers, Zanzetsuken. Some of those were tips I wasn't aware of.

 

As for Alan Smithee... what? I don't get it (unless it's a joke on "Drop").

[Smithee 327]

Thanks for your answers, Zanzetsuken. Some of those were tips I wasn't aware of.

 

As for Alan Smithee... what? I don't get it (unless it's a joke on "Drop").

 

It is.

Edited August 1, 2012 by Alan Smithee

[Alex*Sora*89 23]

Kind-of bump for this thread. If anyone has answers... well, feel free to share.

 

Also, @ Alan: thanks. Now I'll be deathly afraid of jumping off the towers of Notre Dame for the rest of my life.

[Spectrum of Life 188]

1.) You can permanently get rid of them, but I think it's a late game or NG+ feature.

2.) Unless the secret ending has any special requirements, no.

4.) There hasn't been much research done with the Synthesis and item-dropping system, mainly because the 3DS is region-locked (Importing consoles is abominably expensive and homebrew has yet to develop on the system) and few-to-no english speakers have been able to play it until now.

Speaking from my experience, there isn't really a way to get (Good) Spirits quickly, and the highest level ones require you to complete the special link portals. If you go out of your way to finish those, the mid-to-top tier dream eaters shouldn't be too far out of reach. I got the K.O. Kabuto by Notre Dame. The only other thing I can say that might apply is to beat Nightmares that are the same species as the one you want.

5.) One more and second chance have always been completely separate. One more just happens to be more useful. I wanted to eat my 3DS until I got it. Wretched elephants

Edited August 4, 2012 by Spectrum of Life

[Alex*Sora*89 23]

Bump, also because I'd like to ask someone among the staff to move this thread to the new "ask for help" section, created after the thread itself. I'd ask the staff myself if only I knew how.

 

@ Spectrum Of Life:

 

First things first, thanks for your help. And I'm serious about it, really - it's surprisingly helpful, with "surprisingly" written in the good meaning of the word (as in "more than expected").

 

Your first answer is what I've been waiting for ever since the first drop! :-) And the second is something I've hoped for, as well. So far, I've dropped as rarely as possible, that is, only when the game forced me to do so, and I adapted my playthrough based on that (basically, I've looked for every treasure chest I could find while also advancing in each world). Knowing there's nothing to freak out about is always nice.

 

As for your final answer (cue "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" jokes), maybe it is my turn to help now! :-) If you're still looking for Once More, I got mine thanks to a Drak Quack. If you need to create the weird goose in question, then you'll need three Wondrous Fantasies and four Vibrant Fancies. Also, Drak Quack has a few more useful things in its ability link grid, so you won't have to worry about "what's in your way" while unlocking your way to the ability in question. I hope I've been at least half as helpful as you've been to me! ;-)

 

[EDIT: I just created an Escarglow; and coincidentally - no kidding - this guy's the one with Second Chance! Keep it in mind!]

Edited August 5, 2012 by Alex*Sora*89