It is no doubt that Metaphor: ReFantazio is a huge game, so it is easy to get overwhelmed while playing the early hours. There are plenty of things to do and with the time limits, you might not know exactly what to do on any given day. This page will help you by sharing some general tips and tricks that will help you throughout the entire game.

Save Your Game Often¶

The number one rule of any RPG (or game) is to save often, as you never really know what’s going to happen next. This is even more true with Metaphor, as the day-to-day stuff can prove to be a little taxing on the brain. The game offers a total of 16 in-game save slots, so make sure you use them before decisions that can affect some stats or maybe even affect trophies/achievements. There are a few things in the game that are missable, so that makes the numerous save slots even more important.

Resetting Battles¶

One extremely useful thing that Metaphor offers is the ability to reset any battle you’re doing back to the beginning. So, if you’re fighting a boss and things aren’t going too well, simply hit the designated button to start the battle over again. This allows you to use the knowledge from the previous battle, like weaknesses and knowing which skills the enemies have, to your advantage.

Flow of the Game¶

One of the more overwhelming things in Metaphor is knowing what to do and when to do them. This is especially true when you see the various deadlines throughout the game. You could always do what you want and save the story fights for last, but it might be better to follow a general guideline throughout the game. One great order to do things is as follows:

• Side quests and optional dungeons first
• Story dungeon in as few days as possible
• Rest of free time can be spend on Followers first, then Royal Virtues

Rank Up Your Bonds¶

One of the most important aspects of the game are your Bonds with your Followers. Not only can these make more Archetypes available to your party members, but they will also offer a variety of different passive skills that are extremely helpful throughout the game. As an example, ranking up Maria’s Bond to level 4 will make it so any dishes cooked on the gauntlet runner will not take up a time slot.

Whenever you’re on the field, pressing left on the directional pad will bring up the Followers list, so if you see a yellow marker by them, you’re able to do a rank up event. Also, the answers given during a rank up event do not matter with leveling them up, unlike they do with Persona, since they always level up. Giving the best answers will only net you some MAG during those events.

Don’t Neglect the Royal Virtues¶

If you don’t have any Bonds to level during your free time, then don’t forget about improve your Royal Virtues. There are plenty of instances where you’ll need one of them at a certain level in order to interact with your Followers. There are plenty of activities throughout the cities that will help you level up the Royal Virtues. You can also get some boosts to these by doing side quests.

Get the Merchant Archetype¶

There are plenty of different Archetypes in the game, which function basically like job classes for your characters. One of the best ones to get as soon as possible is the Merchant Archetype, which is gotten from the tall woman at the Igniter Shop in Grand Trad (requires doing an optional dungeon that can be challenging early on). Getting this on your protagonist is even better, as he gets a passive skill that affects the overworld in some manner for each of the Archetypes. For the Merchant, he will get a passive skill that grants you money every time you stun or defeat an enemy on the overworld. Merchants also get a passive skill as they rank up, which can improve the drop rate of items from enemies.

Replenishing MP Without Items¶

It’s no doubt that one of the hardest parts of the game, especially early on, is managing your characters’ MP pools. Normally, you only get items to replenish this resource, but there is another way to get MP back. That’s with the Mage Archetype, as the protagonist gets a passive skill (similar to the Merchant tip above) that replenishes the party’s MP whenever he stuns or defeats an enemy on the field, without going into Squad Battle. It’s very slow, but this is a great way to save your items for when you need them, like in boss battles.

Experiment with Archetypes¶

While it might be a good idea to stick to one Archetype until you master it, things might be better off for you if you get a few abilities from one Archetype, then switch to another. This is especially useful in the beginning of the game, due to the ability to inherit skills and wanting to target a variety of weaknesses. That’s not saying that mastering Archetypes isn’t also useful, as you get access to better skills, plus you gain a permanent stat boost for mastering an Archetype.

Wait for Cooking¶

You gain the ability to cook meals while traveling on your gauntlet runner, but doing do takes up a time slot that you could use for something else. It’s best to wait on cooking meals until you reach Rank 4 of Maria’s Bond, as that will make it so it doesn’t take up a time slot. Getting her Bond to Rank 7 will allow you to get an extra dish free, so you get two every time you cook one, but that’s just extra so wait for Rank 4.

Stealing is Useful¶

When you get your fourth party member, you will unlock the Thief Archetype. As its name suggests, one of the skills it gets is Steal, which allows you to snag items from enemies in battle. This skill only goes after the item in the rare slot, so if an enemy doesn’t have one there, then you don’t need to bother. Steal is extremely useful throughout the game, as bosses and the more formidable enemies usually have a strong piece of equipment that you either cannot buy yet, or can’t purchase at all.