Tips for getting started in Heaven Burns Red

As a dedicated fan, I can’t help but express that a top-notch visual novel is one where the dialogues, narrative decisions, humor, and character interactions seamlessly intertwine. Heaven Burns Red exemplifies this perfection, and it doesn’t hurt that it boasts an outstanding soundtrack as well. To be completely honest, the album She Is Legend – reminiscent of Ruka’s former band by the same name – has captivated me for days, casting a spell I can’t seem to shake off. Among my favorites are “White Spell” and “Long Long Spell”.

My luck in the game hasn’t been the best.

Essentially, Heaven Burns Red is a lighthearted visual novel that unfolds within an intense backdrop. Despite the ominous red hue of the skies as humanity faces impending doom, nothing seems more urgent than debating delicious meal options at a college cafeteria.

As a passionate food enthusiast myself, I won’t be providing personal gastronomical recommendations – that’s a journey you must embark on yourself! However, I am here to share some valuable tips and tricks to help you along the way. By the way, don’t forget to keep my tier list handy for quick reference whenever you need it.

1 Tip 1: The endgame assembly

Par for the course for JRPGs, the characters are categorised into multiple classes. Among them are Attacker, Breaker, Blaster, Defender, Buffer, Debuffer and Healer. While initially, the system will have you believe that every class matters, the truth, however, is far from that. In reality, Debuffer and Buffer contribute the most weight to a team. Thus ideally, the future-proof setup includes one Attacker/Blaster and one Healer, with the rest of the slots housing debuffers and buffers.

You are set for modes where bigger numbers take precedence such as that of Score Attack and Skirmishes. Cornered by a nasty boss during your Dungeon or Clock Tower run? One of the slots can be swapped out for a Defender should the situation call for it.

2 Tip 2: Free time for fun

For certain days in a chapter, there’s a period of free time where you roam around campus and partake in activities. Should you miss it, rewinding to the latest free time is a matter of a simple click in the main menu.

The RPG normally bombards you with notifications to call you up for toiling in the fields of GP Arena and the sort. Here is where you need to dedicate this portion in one of the few facilities to up your personality traits (it can be checked in the main menu as well). Once a certain threshold of a trait (e.g. Eccentricity) is achieved, interactions with other characters dotted around the campus can be accessible, which is good for bonding and farming their shards.

Disabling the screen saver to engage in offline farming at GP Arena during your free time is a fantastic way to add excitement to routine tasks. Once you feel satisfied with your daily work, consider dedicating eight hours to offline farming.

3 Tip 3: Setting your progression priorities straight

As the difficulty spikes linearly moving forward, it is essential to toughen up your girls. “Flashback battle” is an early mode and uses Life Stones which you’re given an abundance of. For starters, you will want to focus on min-maxing earrings as those provide DP and INT increments. The former will make your girls more resilient while the latter increases the potency of their skills.

For overall output, rings deserve your attention as they raise STR and DEX, with STR being a stat paramount to attackers. However, the best of the best (6-star earrings) is only available from crafting. But that’s not to downplay the importance of farming for the lower-tier ones. Once you’ve acquired them, don’t skimp on fully upgrading them.

Likewise, Booster and Chips are paramount to a character’s performance. Aside from Mari’s shop, they can be looted from dungeons in the main story. Don’t splurge too much until after you are past Chapter 4 as by then, you will have access to the top-tier gear.

4 Tip 4: To run mono-team or to run mixed-team

The element affinity triangle is there, alright. Each of your girls is grouped into one of five elements, namely Fire, Thunder, Ice, Light, Dark, and Null. Down the road, you will also notice some fights that are easier to clear if you have the right team. Keep a neutral team that’s generally applicable everywhere from clearing story content and low-level farming.

In your spare time, create two or three diverse groups, such as an all-Ice team for instance. Currently in the Japanese version, it’s most profitable to strategize around Fire and Dark teams because they perform exceptionally well beyond their specific domains, enhancing their overall effectiveness.

5 Tip 5: Big numbers to go unga bunga

Mastering the art of Overdrive can make or break a game, which in essence is a time stop whose accumulation corresponds to the number of successful hits your party dealt to the enemy (Level 1 being denoted as pink, Level 2 as cyan and Level 3 as yellow). Upon activation, it will instantly grant you SP, amps up-skill damage, and provides upward of three free turns scaling on gauge percentage.

In critical situations like Score Attack or Skirmishes, it’s essential to focus your resources on a single powerful attack instead of spreading them out. When an enemy successfully resists an attack, that resistance doesn’t add to the bar. After you’ve depleted their Defense Points (DP), which leaves them stunned, this is when you should pile on as many debuffs as possible while your party is buffed up, effectively finishing them off.

In combat situations, the interplay between debuffs and buffs carries significant importance. Unlike what a story-focused adventure may lead you to think, it’s actually debuffs that last for just one turn, regardless of their type. Buffs, in contrast, can be used multiple times and their effects can accumulate.

6 Tip 6: Important upgrades you will regret missing

Upgrading characters is key to success. Chief among them is the introjection feature. This function lets you make an SS Memoria’s skill inheritable. So, let’s say you performed an Introjection on Yuka’s free SS Memoria – Shining Circuit Burst. If you’re equipping Cardinal Reverberations, you retain access to Shining Circuit Burst’s EX skill in your rotation. You acquire resources for this function from an endgame mode called Score Attack. Bonus: attempting Score Attack can give you recruitment tickets!

7 Tip 7: The SS Selector ticket and who to focus on

With how frequently banners come and go, naturally, the impulse to pull does too. Sadly, quartz income is not commensurate with that desire. Hence, foresight and frugality are your best friends here. The salt that intensifies the wound is that the pity count does not carry over to the next banner. Fortunately for us, there are a lot of bait banners that are pitfalls that can be avoided, unless your favourite is on there. As for the SS selector ticket bestowed upon you after the tutorial battle, refer to our tier list for clarity.

Tentatively, a collaboration event with one of Jun’s masterpieces, Angel Beats, is set to launch in the foreseeable future. Set aside some funds if you’re on this ride. However, in the future, they won’t tip the scale of balance anytime soon in the metagame.

8 Tip 8: Have fun, enjoy its banger tracks

Relax and pay attention to their updates. Make sure to always sign in when they’re distributing passes, or else you might end up in the same situation as me – constantly needing a few more passes.

At present, these are all the strategies we’ve gathered for Heaven Burns Red. If you’re keen on learning more about each character, feel free to check out our tier list specifically designed for Heaven Burns Red, where characters are ranked based on their significance or value.

2025-01-15 16:18