Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore beginner’s guide

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore is here on the Switch, and a lot of us will be coming to it for the first time.

If you missed out on it when it was released on the Wii U, you might be a little confused by some of the game’s quirks. Here are the concepts and tips we wish knew when we started playing.

Save often

There’s no autosave feature in Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore, and the game will only prompt you to save after major story milestones. The rest of the time, you’ll have to save manually by hitting Y, selecting System, and then Save.

It’s easy to get caught up in the flow of fights and forget about saving. This is a sure way to lose hours of progress. Like we did. More than once.

At the very least, remember to save before and after big fights, and after you pick up new skills.

Combat is all about Sessions

You have two ways to deal damage during combat. You can attack with your weapon normally (just hit the bad guy with your sword), or use a skill that you learned from your Mirage. Whenever possible, attack with a skill.

Atlus/Nintendo via Polygon

Every enemy you face in the Idolasphere will have resistances and weaknesses to the game’s 10 types of damage. The offensive skills you learn from your Mirage deal one of those types of damage.

While you’re selecting the skill you want to attack with, a green exclamation point will appear over any enemy weak to that type of damage. When you hit an enemy with one of those skills, you’ll trigger a Session — think of these like combos. Sessions let other teammates (and, later, NPCs) hop in after your attack and deal extra damage.

All those attacks add up to huge amounts of damage. Trigger them as often as possible.

Vary your skills

You’ll earn a lot of skills as you play Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore. (And, to be clear, skills are more like attack actions than a more traditional video game skill.) Those skills fall into four groups: Command (attacks), Session (reaction combos), Passive (stat boosts), and Extra (special attacks).

Each of your cast of heroes can only have six skills in each of those categories. For the first couple hours of the game, you won’t have to make any decisions. But when you earn your seventh skill in any category, you’ll have to either swap one out, or discard the new skill.

Since Sessions are so important, you’ll want a variety of skills that deal multiple kinds of damage — having six different fire attacks won’t do you any good if the enemy is immune. Make sure you’re not doubling up on one type of damage at the expense of another.

Complete Side Stories to earn new skills

Each new Mirage Master you add to your team and some of the NPCs you meet will have a Side Story — a simple mission or missions dedicated to them. Completing these Side Stories will earn you skills and abilities.

Atlus/Nintendo via Polygon

Side Stories tend not to be dangerous or difficult, so complete them when they become available. If you don’t want to drop what you’re doing, there’s an intermission between each story chapter that’s a great time to clean up your to-do list.

You can only have one Side Story or Request (a fetch-type side quest for an NPC) active at a time. You have to fully complete a Side Story — including performing the Unity you earn — before you take on anything new. If you do take on a new one, the previous Side Story will reset, and you’ll lose progress.

You don’t have to fight every enemy

While you’re running around the Idolasphere, Itsuki will have his sword at the ready. Hitting enemies before they trigger a battle will stun them, giving you the chance to attack first in combat. The other option, though, is to just run around them while they’re stunned.

You don’t have to fight every enemy. Having the option to skip over fights will save you a ton of time, especially when you’re revisiting earlier levels, or you’re just in a hurry.