Returning player, some quick questions

[Nuai]

Hello! i quit around 1 and a half year ago and is now back. I used to play braver/hunter on my main but wish to switch class on it as it got boring. Here are some questions i hope i can get answers on..

- how to aquire rings?

- is saiki still the best armor set? if not how do i aquire the new set?

- what are some good starter weapons and 13* i can get my hands on in the beginning?

- i have lots of tri boosts, exp boosts and rare drop rate boosts. Where should these be used now?

- what do people do to level up these days? Eq's and what more if they are not active right now?

- i got lots of spellstones, pyroxenes, fragments and ores. What do i do with them now?

- Lets say i want to start crafting, what do people usually aim for in crafting and use to level it up? I see there are gathering areas in the game so what's up with those?

Hope im not asking too much, but returning after a year+ break is really overwhelming

[Nyansan]

Hello! i quit around 1 and a half year ago and is now back. I used to play braver/hunter on my main but wish to switch class on it as it got boring. Here are some questions i hope i can get answers on..

- how to aquire rings?

- is saiki still the best armor set? if not how do i aquire the new set?

- what are some good starter weapons and 13* i can get my hands on in the beginning?

- i have lots of tri boosts, exp boosts and rare drop rate boosts. Where should these be used now?

- what do people do to level up these days? Eq's and what more if they are not active right now?

- i got lots of spellstones, pyroxenes, fragments and ores. What do i do with them now?

- Lets say i want to start crafting, what do people usually aim for in crafting and use to level it up? I see there are gathering areas in the game so what's up with those?

Hope im not asking too much, but returning after a year+ break is really overwhelming

1. You acquire rings by doing gathering. Once you have the materials trade them in at the npc in Franca's cafe
2. Saiki is no longer top tier, though for their stats they still are quite efficient as mid tier units and can be bought at visiphone quite easily. As for current top tier units, 12* units such as Izane and Union are top especially if you play as a melee character and need the extra rings
3. Starter weapons that are good are revolucio and aura, although zeinesis is the top tier one now and is currently on collect file rotation.
4. Exp boosts on featured limited quest (4th option), rare drop and tri when farming collect file stuff
5. Limited / Featured quest
6. idk, trash the pyroxenes maybe and save space?
7. Crafting is pretty much dead now save for timed abilities and farming lambda grinders via Zieg COs

[Cadfael]

- how to aquire rings?

You will need to go into free fields and find gathering points which you can see on your minimap, and mine for special minerals. It is usually a good idea to fish first to build up the fever meter, then when you get a fever, mine for the minerals you need.

- what are some good starter weapons and 13* i can get my hands on in the beginning?

Crafted red weapons are decent as early game equipment, but you can also find Nox weapons from a bunch of boss enemies to tide you over until you find a 13*. You may want to try for the Revolucio set of weapons because they aren't dependent on any EQs to find.

- i have lots of tri boosts, exp boosts and rare drop rate boosts. Where should these be used now?

Probably the most useful places to use exp boosters would be the level up limited quests, EQs like TD3 or TD4 with lots of enemies, or on very hard advance quests. Running those in a party will increase the exp you get. In addition to affecting drop rates, RDR boosts also increase the rate at which your collection files fill up. It's best to have those running pretty much constantly, especially if you're running an area with enemies that can drop items on your collection file. Triboosts are up to you. They stack with RDR boosters for filling CFs, so you could use them for that purpose. Or you could hold onto them until a boost week.

- what do people do to level up these days? Eq's and what more if they are not active right now?

Very hard advance quests, mostly, but you can also run the daily limited level-up quest, which has boosted exp rates.

- i got lots of spellstones, pyroxenes, fragments and ores. What do i do with them now?

Stare at them wistfully. They've been replaced by newer stones that drop from the base defense EQs, Falz and PD EQs, and the new ESCA Phantom God guy EQ.

- Lets say i want to start crafting, what do people usually aim for in crafting and use to level it up? I see there are gathering areas in the game so what's up with those?

For the most part you should be able to find someone with the recipe you're looking to craft, but if you really want to level them up yourself, you can either do the daily craft (which uses no materials but you also don't get any items, and is pretty much there only there to level up your crafting in certain areas), or craft PAs/techs/weapons that are useful for your class. Actual crafting requires materials which you can obtain by desynthesizing weapons, units, or PA/tech discs.

[TehCubey]

Regarding gathering/rings: Like Cadfael said, the best way to maximize your gathering output is to fish until you have a fever, then mine during the fever. Use materials you gather that way to buy a ring at the cafe.
Of course you should first check what materials the ring you want requires and gather in an appropriate area.

Regarding units: saiki is decent. Austere rear+arm and whatever 12* you can get your hands on is very good and blows it out of the water. It also blows out of the water most 12* unit combos, unless you have a full izane set or really need those extra ring slots.

Do note that 10-12* weapons as well as 10-11* units can be traded without a pass now, so you can easily buy them from the visiphone.

Regarding weapons: red weapons are outdated now. Grab CFs for 13*s from Koffie. Until you get a 13*, use an NT Nox Weapon.

Boosts: EQs, bonus key missions.

Levelling up: the fourth option from the daily quest, but especially the bonus key missions give very good experience (so make sure to boost the gains!) Other than that, AQ is still relevant.

Spellstones, pyroxene, etc: useless. You can exchange them for weapon badges at ridiculously bad rates, so unless Sega introduces new content that makes them relevant again, they just take space in your storage.

Crafting: PAs/techniques and timed abilities. Maybe special unit affixes if you use saiki. Everything else is useless now.

[Nuai]

Thank you all so much, really helped me get going!