Tips I haven't seen anyone post: Read on Rainy Nights and The Shiroku Pub

#1Paradox_KnightPosted 1/21/2013 3:15:51 PM
So here's the TL;DR:

Read books on rainy nights, they give you extra stat bonuses.

And the Shiroku Pub is a good place for dual stat boosts and extra stat boost on rainy nights. Especially good when you have all four customers since you get to choose which stat to upgrade (Always Diligence + from left to right seat: Courage, Knowledge, Expression or Understanding).

PS. Reading a book whole seems to give more Social Stat points then it should.

(More details in the larger post below)

Oh... And I need some help to figure out something about Gardening.

It seems as though Gardening alone with the Justice Arcana provides more Social Link points then if I go Gardening with both the Justice and Hierophant Arcana. Might be my imagination, but I tried it during one week and it took 2 Gardening Sessions with Justice alone to be able to go Rank Up while it took me 3 Gardening Sessions with both Justice and Hierophant to Rank Up Justice... Need a helping hand to confirm this.
Made on 18/03/2012 due to recent games
#2Paradox_Knight(Topic Creator)Posted 1/21/2013 3:17:37 PM
(PS. Yes, I wrote this one before writing the TL;DR version but thought this was too big to digest for most. So here it is, in the second post.)

I've been following three different guides as reference while mainly following KADFC general path until recently and went branching off of what he's been doing for personal optimization here for more free time later to play around.

It also occurs to me, he tends not to set book reading on rainy nights and shuffling around some of the Arcanas or other night time activities to accommodate early stat boosts isn't very difficult.

I don't come on the board often so I don't know if it's common knowledge, but I did a quick search and just couldn't find anyone marking this (Searched: "Rain", "Read", and "Shiroku Pub", browsed through a few pages of results), nor did I spot any clear reference of this in any of the guides. Including the book guide.

So yeah. If you want to try and go for a perfect round on your first play through or just want some faster stat boosts. Here's a few tips.

Read books during rainy nights. You'll get some MAJOR bonuses. (Catching Bugs for example gives Great Diligence bonuses)

The Punk Way for example, a book that increases your Knowledge and greatly increases your Expression for example will always Greatly Increase your Knowledge every time you read it during a rainy night. Also, using Zoelius' guide and using KADFC's as well for reference for the stat gain. The boost you get from reading a whole book is much larger then, say, 3 or 5 points as per Zoelius's guide.

To test this, I first got to Expression lv 4 which you get at 53 points and from there counted the amount of regular Expression up, using the cat outside of Dojima's house for that increase, an estimated +3 regular point gain.

Now, getting from Expression lv 4 to Expression lv 5 requires 32 points (85+ Points for lv 5 Expression). It took me the complete reading of The Punk Way and 7 normal Expression Up to go from lv 4 to lv 5. 7 increases equals 21 points. As such The Punk Way increased my Expression by 14 points minimum. For reference sake. I first got to lv 4 via regular Expression upgrade then immediately went to read Ch 1 to 4 of The Punk Way on regular days. After finishing the book, I then went to get the 7 Expression upgrades. You get slightly more then 3 points per day of reading The Punk Way, so books pay off a lot on top of the bonuses you get on rainy nights.

Also, I've noticed many books that consistently gives me Great increases on rainy nights. Again according to Zoelius' guide. Comparing it to the available data at hand, Great increases would be a theoretical +5 point gain. So The Punk Way on 4 rainy nights would give +20 Knowledge Points on top of the final payout at the end with a yet unknown amount of Knowledge Points and (estimated) 14 or 15 Expression Points.

These extra boosts early makes increasing some skills less of a hassle.

Next, Shiroku Pub. If you read the TL;DR version, it's pretty much the same info. You have four customers and these four customers will raise 1 of the other 4 social stats. From the left seat to the right seat they are: Courage, Knowledge, Expression, Understanding.

When they're all here, you get to choose which. And on rainy nights, you get double boosts to those (but singular Diligence). So Shiroku Pub is a good alternative to bump Diligence up alongside other stats (on rainy nights that's an estimated +6 points to Courage, Knowledge, Expression or Understanding).

And... there's also gardening which I think gives more Social Link points to Justice if you go maintain the garden with only Justice. Bit iffy on that so take that last advice with a grain of salt. Still useful for that dual stat boost and social link point gain.
Made on 18/03/2012 due to recent games
#3Paradox_Knight(Topic Creator)Posted 1/21/2013 3:22:33 PM
Out of curiosity. Any other tips any of you might think of that you've never seen posted anywhere?

I for one know that I never see any talk about the cat outside of Dojima's place for the Expression/Understanding boost. Though that's understandable. For Expression you could just go for the Sun (Drama club, don't know about music club but I think Music club one also increases Understanding).

Or that in some dates you can go out to eat at Aiya's for a Great Courage Boost which would be the equivalent of eating bad food in the fridge. It's not free compared to eating the rotten food, but the Courage points increase should be the same (+5), but eating at Aiya's also counts as one more time eating there to get the book "The Ramen Way" earlier. (If you follow KADFC's guide, I believe the first time the guide tells you to eat rotten food, you can instead go out to Aiya's to eat Courage increasing food. If you can spare the money, it would actually be more beneficial to go eat there, unless someone suddenly finds that there's more variation to the point increase then just the regular boost +3 and great boost +5... Outside of the books of course who seem to operate in a different way.)

Anything else that I think of seems like it'd be a rerun of some advice some people out there are already actively giving out.
Made on 18/03/2012 due to recent games
#4TluhdatsiPosted 1/21/2013 3:41:34 PM
I think it's Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday that you can get the Courage-boosting food at Aiya. Then, you can work at the hospital for a Courage boost on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

By the way, that Courage boost from working at the hospital is increased if you've read 100 Ghost Stories. The book's description doesn't mention this, but you'll see the bonus next time you work at the hospital.
#5Paradox_Knight(Topic Creator)Posted 1/21/2013 4:10:03 PM
It's true that the 100 Ghost Stories doesn't actively say it doubles your courage gain from working at the Hospital as a Janitor.

But it is hinted at. The man in front of the book store does make mention of how he goes to visit someone at the hospital and he feels more courageous after having read the 100 Ghost Stories and when you finish reading the book, it just outright tells you that you get more courage from working at the hospital then.

KADFC's guide also makes allusion to that as he lists a Courage x2 gain when going to work at the Hospital, this is listed after he's finished reading 100 Ghost Stories.

That book though doesn't increase any other Courage Gain.


Expert Study Methods only affects Studying (at home or at the library)
English Made Easy only affects the Translating job
Office Work manual only affects making envelopes. Etc etc.

Honestly, personally, outside of the Expert Study Methods and 100 Ghost Stories, I'd say keep the other books that improves stat gain to way later after you've finished Hyperspeed Reading.

Those jobs are singular in their purpose. Money and singular stat boost, they provide no other benefits.

Expression gain can be found by working at the Shiroku Pub, the cat outside of Dojima's place as a last measure for dual stat gain or the Sun Arcana. I'd actually suggest pushing away some earlier S.links to instead focus on the S.links that have dual roles, barring Strength of course as Strength Arcana kept low provides you with some books.

My suggestion would be to move away some of your active party's S.links for later and make do without the benefit you have from those S.links, instead moving in some Temperance for Understanding and bumping up Temperance and the Sun Arcana for Expression increase.

Devil is at night so that doesn't get in the way much thankfully.

If you always work at optimizing the social stat gain, you can free yourself a few evenings and days with enough ease. It just requires some patience and diligence and a tiny bit of luck with the RNG when dealing with studying at home early in the game when you have little to do in the evening.
Made on 18/03/2012 due to recent games