Rune Factory 4 Special from Marvelous and Xseed Games is out now on Nintendo Switch more than half a decade after the original debuted on Nintendo 3DS. Rune Factory 4 Special is not just a port and it includes various improvements and enhancements in addition to the new content and features offered on Nintendo Switch. The game is very relaxing and one of the more chilled out RPGs you will find on Nintendo Switch. Here are some tips to elevate your Rune Factory 4 Special experience further.
How leveling works in Rune Factory 4 Special
The more you do a specific thing, the more it levels up. This ranges from cooking to short sword skills to watering and farming. You have skills for everything from fire to fists and even sleeping and walking skills. Each of these skills raises a specific stat for your character.
How to level up easily in Rune Factory 4 Special early on
Get into a dungeon with an enemy spawn point that keeps shooting out enemies and keep dealing with every enemy that appears. There’s one area in the water ruins where tortoises and fish keep spawning. This is a good area to level up early on. Leaving and exiting an area also resets the enemies so use this to your advantage.
Making money quickly in Rune Factory 4 Special
Farming and cooking are the best ways to earn money (gold) quickly in the beginning of the game.
Focus on farming in Rune Factory 4 Special
Farming is one of the best ways to earn gold early on and to level up many skills. Pay attention to the tutorial and keep farming and buying more seeds because getting into the routine of farming early on will help you a lot in the long run in Rune Factory 4 Special.
The flow of time in Rune Factory 4 Special explained
In Rune Factory 4 Special, one minute of in-game time is one second of time in the real world. When you are talking to someone or in a menu, time stops.
Remember to save often in Rune Factory 4 Special
You can save either in your room at your diary or before dungeons and boss fights. Save often to avoid paying a heavy medical bill if you end up dying.
Recruiting party members in Rune Factory 4 Special
When you’re talking to someone in town, press L or R to bring up another dialogue option. Asking them to join you for an adventure will make some people join your party. Forte is a good pick for a party member early on and she is quite strong and helpful in the beginning of the game.
How to heal party members in Rune Factory 4 Special
Throw healing items or food on party members to heal them quickly.
Prepare for dungeons before heading in with useful items
Before going off into a dungeon, remember to carry healing items like cooked food, medicinal herbs, or potions.
Keep taking on more requests to help people in Rune Factory 4 Special
There’s a statue outside the castle that has requests from the townspeople for you. Keep doing requests when you can to make the people like you more and to earn valuable rewards like farming tools or weapons early on.
Interact with your diary in the room often for hints
If you’re ever confused about what to do next in the main story, go to your room and interact with your diary to get a tip on what to do next. If you don’t see a tip, just continue playing the game normally and doing your routine.
Keep your farm clean and tidy in Rune Factory 4 Special
Early on, farming is an easy way to earn gold. Your farm often has branches, tree stumps, stones, and ore randomly spawning. Make sure to clean this mess up so you can cultivate more crops or grow more flowers.
Talk to everyone in town in Rune Factory 4 Special
One of the best parts of Rune Factory 4 Special is the well written cast of characters. Unlike most RPGs where you run into repeated dialogue a few hours into the game, Rune Factory 4 Special has tons of dialogue that keeps changing as you become better friends with townspeople.
Gift people items to improve your friendship with them
While there is an overarching story, you also need to befriend and make people in town to get to know them better and to be able to take some of them along when you go into dungeons. Each person has his or her own likes and dislikes but almost all will happily accept your cooked items.
How to unlock fast travel in Rune Factory 4 Special
While you have an unlimited use travel rune that lets you immediately teleport back to town and then your room by pressing ZR, you can unlock the Airship for use at save points. This can be done through the Order Symbol. Once you pay for the airship license and acquire it, you can summon an airship at save points to travel to other dungeons or locations you have already been to. This is very useful because running to even the second dungeon takes a good amount of time.
Always equip new weapons and accessories you find
Despite starting out with basic equipment, defeating enemies and opening treasure chests will see you finding some nice equipment early on. Remember to not just store away these things but equip them by pressing + and then assigning equipment to the correct slots around your character.
How magic works in Rune Factory 4 Special
While you start out with a melee weapon, you unlock magic abilities early on. You can assign these to the X and Y face buttons. Magic uses up RP but is very useful against certain enemies that have a lot of armor like the turtles you fight a few hours into the game.
Get used to throwing things in Rune Factory 4 Special
While most RPGs have you open your storage to keep items for use later on, Rune Factory 4 lets you throw items. You can throw items into storage boxes, enemies, or people in town. Get used to this because you will need it for improving specific combat skills, healing party members, and gifting people items in town. You can also throw items on enemies to either tame them or damage them. Your throwing skill also increases your strength, vitality, and attack.
Keep chopping wood and hammering stones in Rune Factory 4 Special
Barring Prince/Princess Points that you use to perform various tasks (orders in the main castle room near Venti) as a prince/princess, you need lumber and stone material for various orders. Whenever you see branches or stones on the farm, make sure you chop or hammer them and store the materials you find. Stocking up on these resources early on will save you a lot of time later on when you have enough Prince/Princess Points for organizing a festival or increasing your item box and lack wood or stone materials.
Combat tips for Rune Factory 4 Special
Before you need to head into proper dungeons, there are passive enemies outside town. Spend a bit of time here getting used to the controls for combat. Remember to press R to evade or dash and attack with B when you just have the beginner’s weapons. The more you use a weapon, the higher its level so keep attacking anything you see outside town to practice combat.
Fishing is very important in Rune Factory 4 Special
You unlock fishing early on in the game and this is one of the most useful skills early on when coupled with cooking. You can either just catch and ship (sell) fish or cook (using the knife) sushi and then sell it or use this as gifts. Fishing is one of the best beginner’s method to earn gold quickly.
Don’t stress out over anything in Rune Factory 4 Special
Rune Factory 4 Special is a very relaxing game that lets you play at your own pace. This isn’t like Animal Crossing where you need to play daily or anything. Enjoy the experience and continue the main story when you feel like it.
Hopefully these tips help you in the early hours of Rune Factory 4 Special. We will have a full review of it in the near future.
