[Alchemist Code] Yauras, we hardly knew ye
EggyToast
Jersey CityRegistered User regular
Jersey CityRegistered User regular
The Alchemist Code is a mobile tactics game from GUMI, who also make a handful of other popular games. This game was published initially about 2 years ago in Japan, under the name "For Whom The Alchemist Exists" which honestly doesn't make much sense to me, but anyway! What makes Alchemist Code different from other mobile RPG/tactics games?
1. Final Fantasy Tactics style gameplay, with height, range, ranged units, melee units, and so forth to keep maps interesting
2. A Job system, where each unit has 3 different jobs and can mix and match abilities from other jobs for some unique character builds
3. A smooth leveling system that, while grindy, is uniform -- no P2Win to get a unit in a certain configuration
What makes it fun?
1. Regular content updates (weekly) and a robust story mode
2. Actually HARD content, which requires close attention to map layouts, elemental affinities
3. F2P friendly, with generous drop rates and most units are farmable (eventually...)
And, of course, good character art, 3D models that are attractive, and great animations.
What's more, there are regular collaborations! April 2018 has been a month-long collaboration with Fate/stay night, and there are other collabs done in Japan such as Disgaea, Fullmetal Alchemist, and FFXV.
So what's up with the story?
Long ago, some people used the magical element called Alchemy and did the usual "angering of the gods" thing, who countered and blew those guys up. Artifacts and elements from that time are fought over now and peace is countered with schemes and threats of war, and blah blah blah. Bad people are looking for things for bad reasons, and good guys are trying to prevent it.
Logi: The typical white knight
Dias: Logi's adopted brother, he has dark hair so obvs he's associated with the dark element
Edgar: A thunder element Gunner in a neighboring steampunk country
These characters can "summon" other units and help them fight. Sound familiar?
Gameplay
As mentioned, a square-based tactics game, each unit and job has a move and jump associated with it. The usual RPG stats apply -- physical attack and defense, magic attack and defense -- and positioning and movement plays a big factor into success. Units, and their jobs, have different abilities and can either do pure damage or apply status effects (and interestingly, many enemies can have statues applied, even Charm, on hard maps). Height gives you a damage boost, and elemental advantage also give a damage boost (with the opposite also true).
Pulling a unit gets you the unit, of course, but pulling a duplicate gives you "soul shards," letting you Limit Break that unit. Higher limit breaks let you unlock other jobs, up to 3 per unit, and also equip more Gear -- the equivalent of weapons, armors, and accessories.
Leveling your units is a mix of both Experience, earned during battle and via special common items, as well as leveling their jobs, using a variety of different "equipment" items that are farmable or purchaseable. Mastering a job not only gets you the "best stats" for that job, but it also gives the unit a generic stat boost across all of their jobs.
Are others on PA playing? Want to play? Give it a shot? My IGN is EggyToast, obviously.
1. Final Fantasy Tactics style gameplay, with height, range, ranged units, melee units, and so forth to keep maps interesting
2. A Job system, where each unit has 3 different jobs and can mix and match abilities from other jobs for some unique character builds
3. A smooth leveling system that, while grindy, is uniform -- no P2Win to get a unit in a certain configuration
What makes it fun?
1. Regular content updates (weekly) and a robust story mode
2. Actually HARD content, which requires close attention to map layouts, elemental affinities
3. F2P friendly, with generous drop rates and most units are farmable (eventually...)
And, of course, good character art, 3D models that are attractive, and great animations.
What's more, there are regular collaborations! April 2018 has been a month-long collaboration with Fate/stay night, and there are other collabs done in Japan such as Disgaea, Fullmetal Alchemist, and FFXV.
So what's up with the story?
Long ago, some people used the magical element called Alchemy and did the usual "angering of the gods" thing, who countered and blew those guys up. Artifacts and elements from that time are fought over now and peace is countered with schemes and threats of war, and blah blah blah. Bad people are looking for things for bad reasons, and good guys are trying to prevent it.
Logi: The typical white knight
Dias: Logi's adopted brother, he has dark hair so obvs he's associated with the dark element
Edgar: A thunder element Gunner in a neighboring steampunk country
These characters can "summon" other units and help them fight. Sound familiar?
Gameplay
As mentioned, a square-based tactics game, each unit and job has a move and jump associated with it. The usual RPG stats apply -- physical attack and defense, magic attack and defense -- and positioning and movement plays a big factor into success. Units, and their jobs, have different abilities and can either do pure damage or apply status effects (and interestingly, many enemies can have statues applied, even Charm, on hard maps). Height gives you a damage boost, and elemental advantage also give a damage boost (with the opposite also true).
Pulling a unit gets you the unit, of course, but pulling a duplicate gives you "soul shards," letting you Limit Break that unit. Higher limit breaks let you unlock other jobs, up to 3 per unit, and also equip more Gear -- the equivalent of weapons, armors, and accessories.
Leveling your units is a mix of both Experience, earned during battle and via special common items, as well as leveling their jobs, using a variety of different "equipment" items that are farmable or purchaseable. Mastering a job not only gets you the "best stats" for that job, but it also gives the unit a generic stat boost across all of their jobs.
Are others on PA playing? Want to play? Give it a shot? My IGN is EggyToast, obviously.
|| Flickr — || PSN: EggyToast
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https://alchemistcode.com/
A database site based on datamining the game:
http://www.alchemistcodedb.com/
It's available on iOS and Android (both Google Play and Amazon Appstore).
And there's multiplayer, too, which is real multiplayer! And also takes a fair amount of time because of that.
One of the things I really like about the game is that trying hard content isn't a penalty to players -- retreating, or losing, only costs you 10% of the "AP" to do a level. So, want to try out that 40 AP level? Go for it! If you fail terribly, or give up, you only lose 4 AP.
I'll post my friend ID when I get out of work
EDIT: Okay my friend ID is IKHJTIAD, with Gilgamesh as my mercenary for the foreseeable future
Reroll for some red units if you can stomach it, but I didn't and it's been fine. The game is VERY generous with energy (AP) so you can basically play as much as you like.
In general, the game has what seems like a lot of pieces to keep track of, but most of it you can ignore since it will guide you for leveling jobs and the like.
Play multi player for evolution mats and job tokens as they are half AP and you get multi coins for buying goodies.
Every week there is a new banner with a step up, starting at only 500 gems for a 10 unit pull. Do that for sure. Otherwise every three days you get a free unit pull. Spending more gems on pulls pushes you into whale territory.
On a related note, I just got Kanshou and Bakuya so now I feel compelled to actually make sure I can max out Archer even if he's not super good
As for rerolling, it's not a super quick reroll unfortunately, I rerolled for the collab units but it requires you go through the tutorial and then finish the first five maps as well, it took kind of a long time and I really only did it because I'm a big FSN fan
I am glad one of the starting units has Throw Rock as their only skill.
PROGRESS!
So now is a good time to ask I guess, how does Enhance Equipment even work?
For example, Gilgamesh's outfit has base stats like +10 PATK, +6 AGI, and +6 jewels obtained. If you enhance it to max, those stats go up to +16, +10, and +9, so although you only gain a few points, those points can help if they're in the right stats.
I tend to enhance equipment when there's an AGI bonus, since that affects speed until next turn. Otherwise, it's very expensive from a Zeni/gil perspective, and often the boosts aren't that worthwhile (goddess statues for example).
If you happen to enhance equipment before you're at max job level, you still get a stat boost but it's erased when you level up the job. You get some of the materials back but it's generally just not worth it.
Almost managed both with no deaths, but I can probably go back before the event is done and clean up those missions for the Dark and Light shards later
Next up, trying to get EX+ 4 done five times! (Probably by getting carried and paying for revives)
Also story spoilers up to Chapter 1 Episode 5 so far
I will say, one of the things I like about the game is the shard system. Although it feels like it sucks because you need to pull dupes in order to level up units, the unit pool isn't THAT big and the jobs aren't THAT necessary such that the elemental and rainbow shards are generally enough to get unique or special units up to a good spot. I've got something like 104 rainbow shards at present so I could get pretty much any unit up there, if I wanted to. Of course, they're also like FF Elixirs in that regard.
So now I've gotta do it the "Hard" way, getting co-op carries for 3-5 GoB shards per run.
I'm done with the event, although I may still run another EX4+ just for the mana apples.
Also did a, strictly speaking, dumb thing and did the shard draw again but it spat out 5 Gilgamesh shards which was enough to get him to 75 with the thunder shards I got from the EX stages. Now I got Overdrive and he has like 600 PAtk
Still need to go farm a few Archer coats to master Archer's first job, but otherwise I think I got pretty much what I wanted unless I stumble into more Fate units next week which, without a 500 gem 10 draw, seems unlikely
Doing pretty okay for having started three days ago
I'm having fun with the new event. Map 3 is a PIA since the main enemy has a HUGE HP pool and drops your units down to 1hp, with a mission requirement of "no heals" and "no deaths," but I have enough snipers that I was able to wrap it up. Also, map 4 is best done with Logi and Dias as Soldiers, for the extra +1 move (there's no damage on the map).
I'm hearing some bad things for the EX map so I'll have to see. Maybe take a day to see what strategies come out against it. Currently it seems like double support + white nuker is the way to go.
Fuck, yeah, map 3 is really giving me a rough time
I almost managed to do it without healing, but the last two Archers that pop up fucked me
I still don't have much unit depth though either
EDIT: Haha, okay, if you have units 3 and 4 in your lineup outspeed her, and then move away, she'll never engage and just sit there and die; then you can finish the stage at a leisurely pace with full health
So I could, if I ran this maybe 30-40 times, farm up everything I need for Anastasia's Dark Cavalier+ job
Watched a video of someone clear EX+ with only a level 4 Gilgamesh and three Chronomancers
But all I have is Rahu with no limit breaks, so I think that might be outside my capabilities currently
EDIT: Oh shit @EggyToast there is actually a two person co-op mission for this, we should totally run that at some point before the event is up, that'd be a way more fun way to farm Anastasia's gear
Also what's up with Zeke's sword, is it just not in game yet?
Got Magnus and Elizabeth for 5* characters, and a 4* two handed sword dude that seems kinda beastly. Elizabeth has gotten a lot of use. Magnus seems ok, though the height restrictions are tough with his gun because I always seem to start below the enemy. Still, game seems alright.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
I assume the two handed sword dude is Zangetsu? If so he's basically considered a "carry" long term, and you can basically just set him up with support units and let him sleep through maps by himself; he's also farmable, which is important
I need to get five Fate Stay/Night EX+3 runs in before it ends
Elizabeth has haunted my pulls but yes, professors are surprisingly useful. She gets other support jobs too so yeah, all around useful, especially considering that status effects can be brutal in both directions (and many enemies are susceptible).
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Nope, just a collab that's going for a few more days
And I'm getting the current multi issue where it always fails to join room, I guess private rooms might still work so I gotta try to organize something soon. I've got a baller 75 Gil who can hurt the Water units in EX+3 real bad at least.
EDIT: Hot damn, was actually able to clear the solo EX+3, mostly by virtue of my Gilgamesh being able to do like 2000+ damage to everything on the map. Didn't get no deaths, but I did get the Storch Ritter shards from bringing Archer along, and I got the Rainbow Soul Shards from not using a continue. With the milestone that was enough to bring Storch Ritter to 4*.
What are all these tickets for?
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
So this game has a shitload of tickets
Apples are XP that you can pump into characters, "Equipment" is the slots that you fill to level up your job level, "Gear" is pieces of gear that can be equipped to the slots above equipment and can be leveled up and ranked up independently, and there are also tickets whose names I can't remember that just give you shards of gear and/or characters
If you've played Galaxy of Heroes or Marvel Strike Force, there's a very similar setup for characters where you need to collect shards to rank up characters, and fill out their equipment sheet multiple times to power them up
EDIT: Also Vettel is pretty decent, and is newly farmable, so once you get far enough in the story you can get 3 Vettel shards per day from Hard mode quests.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
http://www.alchemistcodedb.com/quest/qe-st-ha-010028
It is kind of annoying that there are now 3 Yomis in the game.
Level 76 now
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
http://www.alchemistcodedb.com/quest/qe-st-ha-010019
So you'll be able to limit break him over time
He's a decent glass cannon right now who gets better later
Overall the rates for 5-star units is pretty good. The job system does mean that dupes have a good use, although it can be annoying when some units are best with their third job. But yeah, even though there's a bucketload of 5-star units already, I've managed to get at least one copy of most of them.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Literally too much stuff to list, so here's the link
https://facebook.com/notes/the-alchemist-code/5-million-downloads-worldwide-celebration/429841200831827/
One of the most noteworthy parts is double story mission drops which includes soul shards. So make sure you're doing your Hards daily for those shards. Might take this chance to get more Logi shards too since he's the only good protagonist.