User blog:KKytes/Third Arc for Newbies: A Simple Guide by a Simple Summoner

Hullo, everyone!

So, Third Arc, also known as the "Sealed Gods of Discord", was added to the Brave Frontier Global server on September 28, 2016, and its about to reach its 1st anniversary! **Insert Cheering Here**

Third Arc is probably one of the most challenging parts of the game thus far, especially during the start of it all, when you first click on the "Summoner's Home" button be it by accident or on purpose, right after you finish beating Karna Masta in Menon. Suddenly, you're thrusted into the bleak, machine filled wasteland known as "Bectas". You see a new GUI screen and are introduced to the new mechanics of Summoning Arts and the like.

This guide is made to (hopefully) help the souls who are having trouble starting out. Think of it as a "Beginner's Guide to Bectas".

The Summoner
Third Arc gives you the Summoner, a versatile unit who functions as the main character in Third Arc. It can equip Leader Skill Spheres, increase its own parameters, change its element, change its weapon, equip Extra Skills, and change its appearance.

Leader Skill Spheres
The Summoner acts as the leader of your squad in Third Arc, but does not have a leader skill at first. You need to equip  a Leader Skill Sphere, or a LS Sphere for short, to activate a leader skill for your squad. This Sphere is not like the ones you usually use for normal units to equip. It is exclusive to the summoner only. There is a wide roster of LS Spheres which grant their own respective Leader Skills. LS Spheres need to be crafted, and as you progress through the Third Arc's storyline, you get access to better LS Spheres. LS Spheres can be crafted in the Town menu by clicking on the "LS Sphere" building.

Parameters
If normal units can use Imps to increase their parameters, the Summoner uses "SP" to increase theirs. This SP can be obtained by leveling up your summoner, as well as from quests. These SP can be spent on improving the summoner in the Parameters menu, found by selecting the "Summoner" button in the bottom menu, then by pressing the "Parameters" button. You can use SP to improve your unit's total HP, total Attack, total Defense, total Recovery, Spark Damage, BBAtk Damage, BC & HC Droprate, and Ailment Resistance.

Summoning Arts
Your Summoner has the ability to change its own element, and each element gains its own EXP. This EXP helps level up your Summoning Arts for that specific element only. Leveling up your Summoning Arts help you get stronger by letting you summon higher star units, boosting their parameters, boosting their buffs, and allowing them to use their SBB and UBBs. You can find a chart showing each element and the amount of EXP they each have by selecting your Summoner in the home screen and pressing the "Summoning Arts" button in the upper right.

Weapons
Weapons are what grants your Summoner its buff pool. Your roster of weapons grows larger the farther you progress in the game, and as of now there are a total of 19 possible weapons that can be used. The weapon you use gains Weapon EXP the more you use it. This EXP helps you get stronger by letting you use SBBs and UBBs, granting new Weapon Skills for that weapon, and allows access to EX skills which can be equipped by any weapon. Aside from this, weapons also help boost your summoner's parameters by a certain amount. This boost grows stronger the more you level up your weapon. You can find a list of unlocked weapons as well as how much EXP they each have by selecting the "Su mmoner" button at the bottom right corner of the home screen, then pressing the Weapons button.

Appearance
This section is self explanatory. The Summoner can change its gender and hairstyle, and its GUI is found by selecting the Summoner unit in the main screen, then by pressing the "Manage Appearance" button in the upper right corner. You get the choice between being a Male or Female character at the start, but you can change it later at the cost of three gems.

Bectas: Map Analysis
Bectas is divided into seven main areas, with an included extra dungeon, giving a total of eight areas for you to fight and visit. Just like the past quests in both Grand Gaia and Ishgria, expect each level to have a difficulty curb, as well as a certain gimmick. In Bectas' case, however, the gimmick is the reoccurring machine theme, seen in the new enemies you face, the bosses, and the boss of the world literally being called the "Divine Machine".

Grinding
Third Arc's main mechanic of Summoning Arts entails a TON of grinding to get strong. Each level provides a certain amount of Summoner EXP, SP, Summoning Arts EXP, and Weapons EXP. A comprehensive list of the amount of Summoner EXP, SP, Summoning Arts EXP, and Weapons EXP are found in the Bectas page of the Wikia, which I will post a link to at the end of the article. However, for ease of access, here's a small list of the best grinding spots per area.

Iron District: Feeling Resistance (Bring something against paralysis) OR Battle Playbook

Selza Arsenal: Incoming Iron (4 boss units. Feeling Resistance grants more Summoner EXP though. Be very careful not to get overwhelmed!) OR Weapons Loaded

Demolished Site: Broken Machines (Reis has lots of damage potential. Be careful!) OR Iron Mountain (Deal with the Lich first, and bring curse resists.)

Tech City Mersas: Souless City OR Path of Extinction

Information Tower: Tower of Knowledge OR Data Overload (Impal inflicts weak and curse)

Zoldas Mountain: Bit of a difficulty spike if you're not ready. Extreme Development is doable for grinding, but bring status null.

Elevated Station: Ancient Wings (Best)

Units
Here is a list of units per element that work well in Third Arc. All of these units exist at 5* evolutions.

In Bectas, considering you're starting out,  a damage management buff is an absolute must. This includes standard 50% damage mitigation, defense boosts, elemental damage reductions, and attack/defense down debuffs. Following that is health related buffs as well as BC management buffs. In my opinion, the units who prove most beneficial in their respective element are as follows:

Fire: Berdette (Attack/Defense down, Hitcount buff, Defense relative to Attack boost), Golzo (Burst BC boost, Burst HP boost, BCoT, Adds Fire and Thunder Elements to Attack)

Water: Sera (Free unit! Burst BC boost, Burst HP boost, and Ailment Cleanse), Averus (Random ailment infliction [surprisingly helpful], HP when attacking, mitigation), Soleil (Burst HP, Ailment Cleanse, BC on Hit, HP on Hit. Does not attack.)

Earth: Lin (Free unit! HoT, BCoT, Status Ailment Negation), Dolk (Stat cleanse, Mitigation, Defense Boost), Leona (Chance of Attack/Defense Down, Chance of Attack/Defense down on attack, adds Water, Earth elements to attack)

Lightning: Pamela (Defense Boost, Defense relative to Attack, BC & HC droprate boost), Lafiel (Mitigation, BC on Spark)

Light: Layla (Burst HP boost, Ailment Cleanse, HoT, BC when hit, HP when hit), Krantz (Mitigation, Ailment Cleanse, Light/Dark Elements added to attack), Astall (Chance of Attack/Defense down on attack, adds Light, Dark elements to attack, BC & HC droprate boost)

Dark: Laberd (Mitigation, Defense Boost, BC when hit), Eclise (Burst HP boost, Burst BC boost, Ailment Negation, Light/Dark Elements added to attack, Atk/Def/Rec Negations), Zeal (BCoT, BC on Spark, BC Efficacy)



1. Items are your friends.
You're starting out, and have very little buffs at your disposal. It's important to stock up on items such as revives, cures, and fujins. You could also opt for some Angel Idols, Elemental Stones (for mono type teams), and Attack/Defense Potions.

2. Get some good friend leads.
Considering that the Third Arc's been out for almost a year now, you can expect that there are many players who are active in it. Most likely, some of your friends are already high leveled with good gear. There's nothing wrong with using them as friend leads to breeze past hard parts of the game.

3. Guard and Mitigate
Guarding and Mitigating are incredibly important in Third Arc. Even simple defense up buffs will do. Surviving longer is key.

I hope this post helped! Sorry if it's a bit all over the place; just trying to get into the whole "blog making" thing.

Stay safe, and happy summoning! (ovo)/