If you want to bring real change to the Kingdom of Euchronia, you’re going to need trustworthy allies at your side, and there are 14 of them for you to track down and befriend. While you won’t find every Bond is simple to unlock, Hulkenberg’s will be gained automatically as part of the story. You’ll unlock this Bond during the first major story dungeon and she’s an ally who will bring many pros to the team. Keep reading to learn how to rank up Hulkenberg and what abilities and Archetypes she unlocks.

Table of Contents¶

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Unlocking the Hulkenberg Follower Bond¶

You’ll get your first glimpse of Hulkenberg during the opening, but it won’t be until you start Metaphor: ReFantazio’s first major story operation in Grand Trad that she will join. After the events at the King’s funeral, you’ll give chase into the Grand Regalith Cathedral and, not long after, you’ll fight a boss encounter in the Mausoleum. During this encounter, Hulkenberg will Awaken and you’ll retreat to the Hushed Honeybee Inn, where you will form a Bond with Hulkenberg.

After this first Rank, all of the other seven ranks are entirely optional, meaning you’ll need to go out of your way (which you should). Unlike Strohl’s Bond, there are no Quests to complete as you rank her up, but you will need to ensure you have Wisdom Rank 4 by the time you get to her Rank 7 event, which is usually around the time spent on the Virga Islands. Four of Hulkenberg’s events are also on the Gauntlet Runner, so remember to talk to her when traveling.

Hulkenberg Rank up Events and Abilities¶

There is a total of eight Rank Up events for Hulkenberg and as mentioned above, beyond the first rank, all of them are optional. The table below will detail how to get each Rank for Hulkenberg and the ability it unlocks.

While Hulkenberg’s Bond may seem like one of the simpler Bonds to rank up, you will have to remember to spend time when traveling on the Gauntlet Runner (to a labyrinth for example) to progress four ranks of hers. Aside from this, you will need to ensure you have Wisdom Rank 4 for Bond Rank 7, this is a large investment and if you’ve not been diligent in raising your Royal Virtues, you may find this to be a bit of a block.

Rank 1 Ability - Knight Archetype¶

Hulkenberg being the very symbol of a Knight is only right that her Archetype Tree be that of the Knight. As you may expect by the name, this Tree focuses on classes that boast excellent defensive skills and ways to taunt your foes, ensuring they focus single-target attacks on your Knight (most of the time, anyway) rather than hitting the entire party. The first of these Archetypes, the Knight itself, is one you’ll want in your party almost at all times and will be your main method of dealing Pierce damage for quite some time.

Rank 2 Abilities - Knight Enlightenment and Guard Duty¶

MAG is a precious resource in Metaphor: ReFantazio, used to unlock Archetypes for any of your characters, along with skills you may wish to inherit (you only need to do this once, however) so any ability that saves you some MAG is a great one, and this ability will make it so any Archetype in the Knight Tree costs less to study.

Guard Duty is exclusive to Hulkenberg and staying true to her role as a Knight, will see her jump in front of the Protagonist if his weakness is about to be struck. There’s only a chance this will happen, but it can sometimes be the difference between life and death and a good reason why you want to keep Hulkenberg in the more defensive Archetypes (for the most part).

Rank 3 Ability - Knight Archetype: Adept¶

This will unlock the second Knight Tree Archetype, the Magic Knight, and as you may expect from the name of this Archetype, you’re going to need to spend some time in the Mage Archetype if you wish to Study this one. This will give the Knight access to some useful support skills such as Mediline that will offer weak recovery for all allies in the front row. You’ll get access to Leap Thrust, a very useful Synthesis Ability that will deal heavy damage and lower an enemy’s defense for 3 turns!

Rank 4 Ability - Scion’s Skill¶

This is the first of the Scion series of skills that will increase how many skills you can inherit on the Knight Archetypes to two skills. It may not seem a lot, but being able to carry over any skill from any Archetype in the game is something that shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Rank 5 Abilities - Knight Veneration and Battle Aura¶

This is the upgrade to Knight Enlightenment and as such, significantly decreases the MAG cost to study any Knight Archetype. With this ability, the base Archetype costs very little to unlock while the higher-tier Archetypes become a bit more manageable (still expect just under 20,000 MAG for the Elite Archetypes however).

Once you have recruited more than four party members, you’ll have to leave some in reserve (although you can swap them in at the cost of half a turn) where they will get less EXP than the normal rate. This makes Battle Aura very useful, then, as it will increase the rate at which Hulkenberg will gain EXP in the reserves, so try to keep Hulkenberg in your main party until you get at least this ability.

Rank 6 Abilities - Scion’s Merit and Battle Hypnosis¶

Scion’s Merit is the second Scion ability that increases how many skills you can inherit on the Knight Archetypes to 3. Seeing as there are plenty of useful abilities you may wish for Hulkenberg to carry over in her role as protector (such as giving her more support skills), this is very useful.

Battle Hypnosis is the upgrade to Battle Aura from the previous rank where Hulkenberg will now gain EXP at the same rate as the main battle party, even if she’s in your reserves. This makes it much easier to prevent characters from becoming underleveled, especially when you have a large party to deal with.

Rank 7 Ability - Knight Archetype: Elite¶

Unlike Strohl, Hulkenberg’s Knight Archetype: Elite will actually unlock two advanced Knight Archetypes, the Paladin and the Dark Knight. The Paladin is more defense-focused, allowing you to counter physical attacks and the addition of healing abilities. More importantly, Rank 20 gets you the incredibly useful Revitalise 3 skill that recovers significant MP every turn!

The Dark Knight, on the other hand, is more focused on offense and instead of countering physical attacks, it will gain the ability to counter magical attacks. Flawless is another important support ability, granting you the effects of Heat Riser (Attack/Defence/Hit/Evasion) at the start of battle.

Rank 8 Abilities - Scion’s Essence, Special Guard Duty, and Grand Fantasy¶

Scion’s Essence is the final Scion ability, bringing you up to four skills you can inherit on Knight Archetypes. Special Guard Duty will see that more often than not, Hulkenberg will take an attack that would inflict a weakness on the Protagonist, this is much more reliable than the previous version of the ability.

Grand Fantasy will remain a mystery to you until the events on 9/23, where you’ll then gain access to the Royal Archetypes, for which Hulkenberg’s will be the Royal Knight. Alongside Heimsay, Hulkenberg’s Royal Archetype is the toughest to unlock, requiring you to max Paladin, and hit Rank 15 on both the Dark Knight and Elemental Master Archetypes. It’s well worth it though, this Archetype will ensure ailments will only last a single turn, increases your chances of countering any non-Almighty skill and will see that using your provoke skill does not use up a Turn Icon!

There you have it; all of Hulkenberg’s Bonds and Abilities in Metaphor: ReFantazio. While you can have Hulkenberg take on any Archetype, keeping her in both the Knight and Mage Archetype Trees are the way to go if you want to gain access to her excellent exclusive Archetype at the end of the adventure.