A beginner's guide on what you need to know before playing Visions of Mana. Check out exploration tips, how to make characters stronger, and combat tips to progress efficiently.

Exploration Tips

Exploration Tips
Head to Towns First Before Exploring Obtain Pikul Mount in Fallow Steppe Look Out for Map Elements Complete Side Quests

Head to Towns First Before Exploring

Before heading out to explore, make sure to head to towns for a safe haven first. These areas offer a safe haven away from enemies in the overworld and offers services where you can buy healing items and purchase equipment.

Obtain Pikul Mount in Fallow Steppe

Progress through Chapter 1 to reach Fallow Steppe, where the Pikul mount is unlocked. Using the Pikul mount enables faster traversal across the world while avoiding combat.
How to Get Pikul Mount

First Continent Trynia is Temporarily Unavailable After Rhata Harbor

Fallow Steppe leads to Rhata Harbor, where the party will board a ship after its events. Boarding the ship will make the first continent unavailable until a later point in the story. It is recommended to complete exploration and side quests first before boarding.

Look Out for Map Elements

These elements present during exploration provide helpful bonuses and rewards:

Treasure Chest	Contains useful items or equipment
Meridian	Allows fast travel and free full HP/MP recovery
Elementite	Obtain a large amount of elemental points
Li'l Cactus Diary Entries	Provides special quality of life bonuses
Grizzly Syrup	Redeemed in Grizzly Exchange for useful items
Nemesis	Defeating them grants a large amount of XP
Valorfly	Doubles XP gain for a duration
Fortunefly	Doubles Lucre gain for a duration
Golden Spots	Contains useful items or Golden Clovers

It is recommended to obtain and make use of these elements as you go.

▶ All Li'l Cactus Diary Entries and Rewards
▶ Grizzly Syrup Farming Guide

Explore the Blue Dots on the Map

The Blue Dot indicated on the map shows the location of a treasure chest, meridian, or an elementite. It is recommended to check out their location when nearby.

Complete Side Quests

Side Quests reward lucre, useful items, and/or powerful ability seeds. It is recommended to clear side quests as you travel the world.

List of All Side Quests

How to Make Characters Stronger

How to Strengthen Characters
Level Up by Defeating Enemies	Equip Spirit Vessels
Expand Elemental Plot	Upgrade Equipment

Level Up by Defeating Enemies

Leveling up raises stats and grant elemental points for the elemental board. Gaining levels is a direct increase to the characters' strengths.

Leveling Guide: How to Farm XP Fast

Defeating a Nemesis Provides A Lot of XP

Monsters with unique names can be encountered in the world and provides a lot of XP when defeated. These monsters—or Nemeses—feature new abilities and distinct appearances. Defeat these monsters as you come across them to obtain a lot of XP.

Explore other Classes by Equipping Spirit Vessels

Equipping Spirit Vessels unlocks a new class and raises stats. It also enables learning of new skills in the elemental plot, hence, it is recommended to have each character equip the vessel at least once after obtaining.

List of All Elementals and Elemental Vessels

Expand Elemental Plots

Expanding the elemental plot requires elemental points which are obtained after defeating enemies. Spending points in the elemental plot unlock new skills and passives that enhances a character's performance.

Elemental Plot Guide and How to Expand

Equip Stronger Equipment

Equipping stronger equipment raises a character's offensive and defensive stats. Having weak equipment can make the party take too much damage or deal too little damage, hence, it is recommended to equip stronger gear as soon as it is available.

▶ List of All Weapons
▶ List of All Armor

Combat Tips

Combat Tips
Check the Color of the HP Damage Learn Physical and Elemental Damage Types Use Class Strikes and Elemental Vessels Lock Onto Enemies Counter Enemy Attacks Register Items in the Ring and Shortcut Menus Lower the Game's Difficulty

Check the Color of the HP Damage

HP Damage Color Indicator Guide
Yellow (Weak)	Blue (Resistant)	Gray (Immune)

When attacking an enemy, take note of the color of the inflicted HP damage. This lets you know whether an enemy is weak, resistant, or immune to your attack.

Learn the Physical and Elemental Damage Types

Physical Damage
Slash		Strike
Elemental Damage
Wind	Moon	Water	Fire
Earth	Wood	Light	Darkness

You can deal two types of damages to enemies: physical damage and elemental damage. Physical damage is dealt by equipped weapons and can be a Slash or Strike. On the other hand, elemental damage has eight types: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Darkness, Light, Moon, and Wood.

Each enemy in the game can be weak, resistant, or immune to these damage types. Refer to the ingame bestiary to see each enemy's affinities.

Look for a Check Mark Next to the Enemy's Name

A ✓ mark next to the enemy's name indicates that the enemy is weak to the weapon/vessel the active character has equipped. Additionally, the enemy has a △ if it resists and a ✖ if it's immune.

Use Class Strikes and Elemental Vessels

Class Strikes and Elemental Vessels are powerful tools that can make battles significantly easier. Using Class Strikes to defeat enemies grants an XP bonus based on the number of enemies defeated.

All Class Strike and How to Unlock

Lock Onto Enemies

You can press the middle mouse button on the PC or the R3 button in Xbox/PS5 to lock-onto an enemy. This comes in handy especially when battling multiple enemies.

Counter Enemy Attacks

You can counter certain enemy attacks when you time your attacks right. It is recommended to use Morley for this as his attacks are quicker, making it easier to counter attacks.

Register Items in the Ring and Shortcut Menus

HP Recovery Items can be registered in the Ring and Shortcut Menu through the items tab. Choose an item and select "Set to Ring Menu" to access the item via ring menu, and select "Set to Shortcut" to access it via shortcut menu.

The Ring Menu pauses the game when used, and the Shortcut Menu allows quick access of items without pausing. Note that using an item will fail if the action animation is interrupted.

Lower the Game's Difficulty

Beginner	Hard

Lower the difficulty to make the battles easier to progress more efficiently. The difficulty can be changed any time outside of combat, hence, it is recommended to lower the difficulty when struggling with a battle or when leveling up.

Best Difficulty to Choose

Visions of Mana Related Guides

Beginner's Guide: Tips and Tricks

All Tips and Tricks Guides

Combat Guides
How to Dodge and Counter Attacks	How to Switch Characters
How to Save	Elemental Plot Guide and How to Expand
How to Get Elemental Points	All Class Strike and How to Unlock
Leveling Guide: How to Farm XP Fast	How to Change Party Members
How to Heal	How to Recover MP
Other Guides
How to Change Appearance and Outfits	How to Get Pikul Mount
All Li'l Cactus Diary Entries and Rewards	How to Get and Use Gold Clovers
Difficulty Differences and Best Difficulty	Grizzly Syrup Farming Guide
Money Farming Guide: How to Get Gold (Lucre)	Trophy Guide: How to Get Platinum
Game Length: How Long to Beat Visions of Mana?	Missables and One-Time Events Guide
All Post Game Content	How to Get and Exchange Niccolo Coins