Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes: tips and tricks to know before you play

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes / 505 Games

Eiyuden Chronicle may be a throwback-style JRPG, but that doesn’t mean it’s stuck in the past. With a unique battle system, over a hundred playable characters, and a whole bunch of fun secrets in store, you’ll have plenty to keep yourself busy. However, whether you’re in a fight or exploring the world, there are some things to keep in mind if you want everything to run smoothly.

We’ll tell you our tips and tricks to help you make the most of your time with Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes.

You should (almost) always Auto-battle

Using Auto makes battles go much quicker / 505 Games

If you’re finding Eiyuden’s regular enemy encounters slow or tedious, it’s probably because you’re trying to manually complete every fight, when the combat system isn’t really designed for that. The system can be very engaging in the big boss battles – which is when you should manually take control – but for the random encounters in the world, you can let everything run on Auto.

Control your party’s behavior

You have complete control over how your allies behave in battle / 505 Games

When in an Auto battle, party members will behave according to a chart that you can fully customize in the menu. Here you can tell them what attacks to prioritize, when to conserve resources like SP and MP, and when to unleash their strongest attacks. With this, you can ensure that you don’t get caught out with an empty MP bar when a tough fight comes around that you need to manually play.

Stock up on items regularly

Your party can freely use items in combat when on Auto / 505 Games

A well-built party should be able to cover things like healing, curing, and stat boosts within their movesets, but you don’t always have time to wait for your healer’s turn to come around in a battle. For that, make sure you’re stocked up on items, especially HP and MP restoration items.

Always double-check how many you have before a boss encounter, as characters on Auto can use healing items in your inventory if they need it (and you haven't told them not to)

Party formation is important

Putting everyone in the perfect position can make all the difference / 505 Games

Your party has six slots for active combatants, and it’s important to know the differences that each slot holds.

Each character has an attack range shown on their stats page, and this is the biggest factor in determining where to place them:

• Short-ranged characters can only attack when in the front row, and they can only attack the enemy’s front row. If you place them in the back row, they will be unable to attack.
• Medium-ranged characters can attack two rows in front of them. If placed in the front row they can attack the enemy’s front and back rows, but if placed in the back row they will only be able to attack the enemy’s front row.
• Long-ranged characters can attack any row regardless of where they are placed.

As you might expect, long-ranged characters should almost always be placed at the back, as they are usually magic/ranger characters with low defense, and being at the back minimizes their chances of being hit. Short-ranged characters have to go at the front to be effective, but carefully consider where you want to place your medium-ranged to make the most of their abilities.

Story-essential characters can be made Attendants

Don't let the story mess up your party formation / 505 Games

If you have a party formation that you’re enjoying using, it can be annoying when a game forces a new or unused character into your party for story reasons. Thankfully, Eiyuden has a fix for this and gives you three “Attendant” slots in your party that you can throw any story-essential character into.

Characters in this slot will be completely unusable and will have no effect in combat whatsoever, but they will count as being in your party for story purposes, letting you carry people along even if you don’t want to use them.

Taunting skills will save your life

Keep your allies safe while avoid damage / 505 Games

There are several different defensive skills a character can have. Some will simply defend, halving incoming damage, while others will attempt to dodge, giving them a chance to avoid damage altogether. However, by far the strongest of these abilities are the Taunting Counter and Taunting Evasion.

These moves not only provide a defensive action – either counterattacking or dodging incoming attacks – but draw the enemy’s attacks towards themselves, thus covering their allies in the process. If you can force enemies to focus all their attacks on one defensively built character, then you can avoid some very difficult situations.

Don’t spam Hero Combos

Hero Combos can be useful, but don't go overboard / 505 Games

Hero Combos are special attacks that combine two party member’s abilities into one powerful strike. These usually deal high damage and sometimes have secondary effects as well. They can be highly effective when used correctly but don’t spam them all the time.

While the SP cost usually means you can launch them as often as every other turn, that doesn’t mean it’s always the right move. Often having the two characters unleash strong attacks separately will do more damage than the Hero Combo, plus, the extra action can be vital for healing or buffing the rest of the party.

Revisit places after story milestones

Plenty of locations have several possible recruits as the story progresses / 505 Games

The hunt for allies never ceases, as you might expect for a game called “Hundred Heroes”. However, just because you’ve already gone around and recruited everyone from a certain town, doesn’t mean you’re done there. New characters can appear in old locations after certain story milestones, plus there are some characters that will only join you after you become strong enough, or reach certain points in the main quest.

Unlock Divination ASAP

Find more allies with the Divination tent / 505 Games

Among the many upgrades you can add to your headquarters is the Divination stand. To unlock it you’ll need to recruit B’baba, who can be found in Daphan Village. Once you’ve unlocked her shop, you can use her to get clues on where to find new allies, which significantly streamlines the process. Not only does it make you less likely to miss anyone, but it means you don’t have to waste time checking every nook and cranny of the world.

Carrie unlocks fast travel

Teleport anywhere in an instant / 505 Games

This is a hero-specific ability that you might have missed, as the game doesn’t explicitly explain it. As part of the story, you will eventually meet a hero named Carrie, who can teleport around the place. As well as helping you over story obstacles, once she’s been recruited you can fast travel to just about any location in the world with ease. This saves a lot of time, but the game doesn’t tell you it can be done.