Another Eden - Chrono Cross collab

[cashew]

So, I've finally finished the Persona Collab #1 and am holding off on completing Collab #2 due to my team still being relatively low level. I figured I'd start opening some parts of Chrono Cross collab and... Holy Shit! Chrono Cross collab characters are even more useful than the Tales characters! So this is a follow-up to the previous post on new player experience and I've got to re-assess a few things. Without further ado, the Chrono Cross collab thoughts.

Now, as I've mentioned before, Another Eden's creators are experienced developers from the Chrono Trigger project. As such, a Chrono Cross collaboration/crossover is not only completely appropriate but also expected. It's more of a surprise how long it took to get one, but here we are and, lo, it is easily one of the best collabs. Its only drawback is that the full completion of the collab requires unlocking Chapter 25 in the main story, but you'll still get access to the characters as guest party members for the time being.

The Chrono Cross Collab opens up after chapter 13, at the same time as the Persona and Tales collabs. However, I would recommend getting the Persona collab #1 done first so you can have a high level Joker to push through the story mode faster. Joker's free AoE Valor Chant (and Joker's auto 5-star status, thus higher max levels) will allow him to hard carry a low level team through this level 30 collab event. Also highly recommend progressing the Tales collab until Yuri joins as a guest party member to make things easier.

So, first, the characters you'll get and why you want them.

Chrono Cross characters uses the "element" system. These are orbs that you can pick up through the collab story mode and attach to the Chrono Cross characters. The orbs are versatile skills that come in different types of elemental magic, thus allowing the characters to access more skills than their innate skill board skills. This is especially useful for Harle and Serge, who have more dependence on the elements than Kid. Anyway, onto the specifics of each character.

Serge:
Serge is unlocked as a guest at 4-stars regardless of the path you pick. (Chrono Cross collab has a new game+ system.) Serge will join the party as a 4-star permanently after completing the story mode and his 5-star mode unlocks after you get the upgrade tome via the points progression. No boss fights necessary. He is an extremely flexible character whose DPS changes depends on the element orb equipped on the first slot. This means Serge effectively can fit into any element team. Furthermore, Serge is a dual-zone setter. That is, he sets a slash-magic zone, give +30% to all slash and magic skills, including healing. In addition, Serge has an even cheaper base 1000hp heal than Morgana, that can ramp up to 2500hp if he builds up enough power stacks.

In short, Serge replaces both Morgana and Cress. You'll probably still want Morgana on hand for other support reasons, however, since you'll want Serge to focus his turns on dealing damage and ramping up his power stacks instead of healing the team. However, Cress is now completely replaceable as Serge is the superior unit. You may still want Cress to fill out the slash team front-line, but the priority has dropped due to Serge being less grindy.

Kid:
Kid is unlocked as a guest if you pick the Kid-path in the collab. She's a katana wielding unit that deals tons of fire DPS with support skills offered via the element system. Kid is also capable of stealing, which is an awesome skill, as it makes farming for materials an itty bitty faster. Not much faster, mind, but an itty bitty faster. So Kid is a unit that is good out of the gate, even if you don't pick up any element orbs, but since she can use them, she can provide some versatility beyond just damage. Finally, Kid joins your team permanently as a 4-star after you finish the story doing her path, with 5-star upgrade item coming via the reward path. I recommend doing the Kid-path first, since she has far more synergy with your other collab units.

Harle:
Harle is unlocked as a 4-star guest (who upgrades to 5-star like the previous two) if you pick the Harle-path in the collab. She's a staff wielding mage unit that primarily deals fire/shadow magic damage. She can also cast 600hp regen (max: 1200hp regen) and gives magic resistance (base +30%, max +60%) out of the gate. Since her regen skill isn't dependent on magic stats, this is very helpful when the team has their INT stat debuffed. However, if you picked Kid, she's locked out until you start a new game+. I still recommend going with Kid first, since there are other sources of healing and magic resistance (Milla/Morgana/Serge), so her role is less critical. But, she's worth getting once you have a good supply of element orbs, as she gets a bonus using the element skills that Serge and Kid don't get. Once you get the "Holy Wind" orb (guaranteed drop for doing the Harle-path), Harle effectively becomes your new Bivette, but with even more effective healing.

In short, all three characters are very much worth getting. Playing through the story twice is a pain, but so, so worth it.

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In addition to getting great character units, you can also get some great items. First, there's a feeding mini-game that allows you to earn a +30% XP badge and a +1000HP badge. These badges are very helpful when trying to level up new characters, or just as a new player trying to keep up with the power creep. Completing the max level (feed 100x) rewards you with a chant script, which is a very rare drop that can be used to upgrade certain 4-star characters to 5-star.

So, Team Chrono Cross is not only easy to get to 5-star (no boss fights, just grinding up growth stars), they're also great end-game units while providing plenty of early game support (as 4-star guest party members). I still recommend getting Joker from the Persona 5 collab first, as his free AoE makes mana management much, much easier. With Serge's dual slash-magic stance, it reduces the pressure on using slash units (and reduces the pressure of buying tons and tons of swords).

However, because of Chrono Cross Collab, the calculus for the order to 5-star Tales Collab characters change, as Cress is far less attractive now that Serge is here. Instead, I would recommend Yuri and Milla, since Milla's Shimmer Spin is still a very cheap sustain skill and she can take turns with Serge without denting the DPS too much. In terms of building mono-element teams...

...after completing Persona 5 Collab #2, you'll get Violet who can deal earth-slashing damage. So by rotating Yuri-Violet-Kid, you can easily shift the rest of the DPS line-up's element choice (Milla's element follows the team, Serge and Harle can change elements based on the element orb slotted).

In short, the order of collab priority (as of version 2.11.200) is as follows:

1. Unlock Persona 5 Collab #1. Get Morgana and Joker as guest party members.

2. Unlock Tales Collab. Get Yuri and Cress as guest party members.

3. Get Joker's level 60 weapon from the treasure collection sidequest when doing the Persona 5 story dungeon.

4. Grab Morgana's level 60 weapon right before final boss in the Persona 5 story dungeon.

5. Complete Persona 5 Collab #1, get Morgana and Joker as permanent 5-star units.

6. Start Chrono Cross collab. Pick Kid-path to get Kid and Serge as guest party members. Use 5-star Joker to AoE your way through the story dungeon. Use 5-star Morgana to keep your low level characters alive.

7. Continue in Chrono Cross collab until you get to the feeding mini-game. Complete the first three levels for +30%XP and +1000HP badge.

8. Go back and do more Tales collab to unlock Milla as guest party member (continue until you get Yuri back as a guest). Use +30%XP and +1000HP badges to get your lower level characters up to snuff.

9. Continue Chrono Cross collab until you reach the final floor in the Dreamslip Tower of Time (right before final boss).

10. Return to Tales collab and unlock Citadel of Time. Don't bother with the Citadel unless you've reached level 40 with all your characters or the trash mobs will one-shot your party.

11. Finish Chrono Cross collab story mode and get Serge and Kid as 4-star permanent party members. (Boss hint: carry single target damage and assign someone on team Chrono Cross with the "Purify" skill. Or bring Krervo with "Release" to remove debuffs. Do not attack the arms!)

12. Finish Tales collab story mode and get Yuri and Milla as 4-star permanent party members. (Also Cress and Velvet, but they're of lower priority.)

13. Open Citadel Ruins' Wind dungeon. Defeating the boss will give you the item needed to unlock Yuri's 5-star state. Leave the dungeon for completion until after Level 50 (preferably closer to 55).

14. Complete Chrono Cross collab new game+ Harle-path. Get Harle at 4-stars.

15. Open and complete Persona 5 Collab #2 (recommended level 50). Get Violet as permanent 5-star party member.

16. Complete Tales collab Citadel Ruins Wind boss to unlock Yuri's 5-star state.

17. Farm Chrono Cross dungeons for growth stars and grind levels. Use Joker's VC to quickly kill trash mobs. Unlock at least Serge's 5-star. Get Harle leveled up so she can replace Morgana during boss fights.

18. Unlock main-story up to at least Chapter 25. Complete Chrono Cross sub-event quests and unlock all Prismatic weapon/armor.

19. Grind dreamcolors in Tales collab dungeon to level up your 5-star units and grind Yuri's shadow rank. (Farm ingredients for cooking to shift things up a bit.) Grab best gear available from cooking quest + Prismatic equipment quest.

20. Unlock second boss in Tales' Citadel Ruins. Choose the Water boss to unlock Milla's 5-star state.

21. Farm Chrono Cross dungeon for growth stars and get the rest of Team Chrono Cross to 5-stars.

Congrats, you have an end-game worthy team. Time to go grind up light/shadow for end-game or finish those side-stories and unlock more characters.