There are 14 Followers to seek out and befriend in Metaphor: ReFantazio and while seven of them are reserved for your party members, there are many non-battle members that will join your cause. Some of these are simple to unlock while others will require a bit more work. Neuras is the party’s Gauntlet Runner pilot who you will meet early in the adventure, keep reading to learn how to rank up Neuras and what abilities and Archetypes he unlocks.

Table of Contents¶

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Unlocking the Neuras Follower Bond¶

You’ll first meet Neuras as he comes riding into Grand Trad on your new Gauntlet Runner, the vehicle that will take your around Euchronia during the Tournament for the Throne. You’ll have to wait a while before you can unlock his Bond though, as you’ll need access to the free time in Martia starting 6/29 where the Providing a Spark Side Quest. It’s a simple Quest in nature, you’ll need to accept the Hatching a Plan Side Quest to unlock the way to Komero, a small village nearby. Travel there on the Gauntlet Runner and you’ll run into the person Neuras asked you to seek out, after which you’ll return to Neuras in the Gauntlet Runner and complete the quest, unlocking his Bond in the process.

This is worth completing as early as possible, as not only is the Gunner Archetype it unlocks very useful, but ranking that up is a requirement for one of More’s Quests, two birds with one stone as they say. The Gunner allows you to attack enemies at range on the field, this gives you much more safety when trying to strike up ambushes on the enemy.

Neuras Rank up Events and Abilities¶

There is a total of eight Rank Up events for Neuras and as mentioned above, all of them are optional (including unlocking the Bond). The table below will detail how to get each Rank for Neuras and the ability it unlocks.

Neuras Relic Locations¶

By looking at the table above, you can see that all of Neuras’ Bond Rank Ups are directly related to completing the Relic Search quests he gives you, which tasks you with heading to a labyrinth and retrieving the Relic within. This spans the entire game, as you’ll need access to these labyrinths, fortunately, Gallica will let you know at the entrance of one such labyrinth if a Relic is to be found there. The table below will show you where to find every Relic:

For the final quest, A Petty Thief, you must travel on the Gauntlet Runner to Jin’s Gauntlet Runner, just to the west of Grand Trad, this is during the final set of Free Days. Beware, although he may seem like it, Jin is no pushover as not only is he Level 65, but he has many skills that will lower your stats or cause debuffs, so look to use Synthesis Skills that hit hard, such as the Royal Sword skill from the Prince Archetype.

Rank 1 Ability - Gunner Archetype¶

The Gunner Archetype is fantastic due to being able to sit in the back row and deal pierce damage to your foes. This works even better on the Protagonist as it will give you a bow to use on the field, this allows you to keep your distance while you easily stun any foe for either an easy takedown or an ambush. Whenever you come across a Magla Crystal, consider switching to the Gunner Archetype to deal with it easily.

Rank 2 Abilities - Bombardier and Gunner Enlightenment¶

You’ll spend a lot of time on the Gauntlet Runner throughout Metaphor: ReFantazio and as such, you will encounter many battles on the deck. During these battles, Neuras will attack with the Runner’s guns to deal a % of damage that really adds up, especially against bosses.

Gunner Enlightenment works the same as the other Enlightenment abilities by decreasing the cost of MAG needed to study any of the Gunner Archetype. There are three Archetypes in this tree, and you’ll need to dip into it a few times to unlock some special Archetypes later in the adventure so decreasing that cost a little is a boon.

Rank 3 Ability - Gunner Archetype: Adept¶

The second Gunner Archetype, the Sniper, sees you swap out single target skills for multi-target skills, this is especially useful as you’ll often come across groups of birds or other enemies that are all weak to Pierce and being able to hit their Weakness all at once is useful. On top of this, you do gain access to the very powerful Bullet Barrage Synthesis Skill that deals severe damage while ignoring resistances, a skill that carry you through large parts of the adventure.

Rank 4 Ability - Scion’s Skill¶

Scion’s Skill is the first in the series of Scion abilities that grant you an extra Inheritance Slot. This is very useful for the Gunner as once you get access to the Sniper Archetype, you’ll lose access to single target skills so carrying one over like Hex Shot is very useful for those times when you’re fighting a boss weak to Pierce.

Rank 5 Abilities - Bombastic Bombardier and Gunner Veneration¶

As mentioned for the Bombardier ability, you’re going to spend a lot of time on the Gauntlet Runner and this will increase the damage even further. Late in the adventure, you’ll have some difficult optional encounters on the Runner and having Neuras deal a hefty amount of damage to begin with is incredibly useful.

Gunner Veneration is the upgrade to Gunner Enlightenment, further decreasing the cost of MAG to study these Archetypes, reducing the base Archetype to as little as just under 1,000. You’ll have a few characters dipping in and out of Gunner Archetypes and as always, every little helps.

Rank 6 Ability - Scion’s Merit¶

The second in the Scion’s series of abilities, this one will give you three Skill Inheritance slots for any Gunner Archetype. You can now add some useful support skills to your Gunner, making them an all-rounder not to be messed with.

Rank 7 Ability - Seedling Synergy¶

Although time is always precious, especially near the end of the adventure, you may find yourself with nothing to do while traveling on the Gauntlet Runner. This is where planting seeds help as you can plant Seeds that grant Archetype EXP items, along with getting a Gauntlet Shroom every harvest (needed for some of the better recipes). With the Seedling Synergy ability, then, you’ll get two items instead of one for every harvest.

Rank 8 Abilities - Gunner Archetype: Elite and Scion’s Essence¶

Once you max Neuras’ Bond, you’ll gain access to the Elite tier of the Gunner Archetype, the Dragoon. This Archetype will give you access to multi-hit elemental pierce attacks, very useful for obliterating large groups of enemies at once. More importantly, they get access to some very strong Synthesis Skills such as Draco Ray, which will deal severe Light damage to a target while ignoring resistances!

Scion’s Essence is the final Scion skill that increases your Skill Inheritance Slots. With four slots at your disposal, you can really customize the Dragoon to be a back-row powerhouse.

There you have it; all of Neuras’ Bonds and Abilities in Metaphor: ReFantazio. The Bombardier skills will make Gauntlet Runner battles easier but the main reason to rank this up is to get access to very powerful back-row Gunner Archetypes. Additionally, Heimsay will need to max Dragoon if you wish to unlock the Royal Thief Archetype.