Weapons, armour and what to upgrade
Buy at least one weapon of each element before you commit to a Greater Craymel fight — elemental weapons outdamage raw attack upgrades against the boss you are about to face.
Equipment in Tales of Eternia Remastered is a gald-management problem with an elemental twist. You have more slots than money, and the slots that matter change every few hours.
Weapon classes by character
| Character | Weapon | Also able to use |
|---|---|---|
| Reid | Sword | Axe, spear, halberd, dagger, long sword, shield |
| Farah | Knuckles | — |
| Keele | Rod | Mace |
| Meredy | Whistle | — |
| Max | Craymel Gun | — |
| Chat | Bag | — |
| Rassius | Saint Rapier | (temporary party member) |
Reid's breadth is the reason he stays in the active party permanently: he can hold almost any physical weapon the game hands you, so a rare drop that fits nobody else is still a Reid upgrade.
Armour and accessory slots
Armour is shared across the party in slots rather than per-character sets: body armour, cloaks, robes, helmets, ribbons, circlets, berets, shields, bracelets and mittens. Accessories cover capes, boots, gemstones, charms, rings and crests, plus a long miscellaneous list of quest items.
The slots worth money:
- Rings and charms that grant elemental resistance. These decide whether a boss fight is survivable, and they are usually cheaper than the healing items you would otherwise use.
- Accessories that stop a specific status effect, notably anything that blocks Freeze or Paralysis. Two of the Greater Craymels fight primarily through status ailments.
- Bracelets and caps that boost a stat your character actually uses. A magic-boosting accessory on Keele is worth more than several points of defence.
The upgrade order that works
- Weapons for your frontline first. Attack power shortens fights, and shorter fights mean fewer hits taken.
- A cheap elemental weapon of each element. Keep four in the bag rather than one expensive one. Elemental weakness is worth far more than a bigger number.
- Resistance gear for the boss you are walking towards. Buy it in the region you found it in; the shops are tuned to the dungeon next door.
- Armour last, and only when it is discounted or dropped.
Crafting, smithing and the shop economy
Inferian crafters who work with Craymels are effectively modernised blacksmiths, and they are where equipment becomes a system rather than a shopping list. Two things are worth knowing:
- Crafters treat their work as traditional knowledge rather than science, which is why Inferian shops sell finished goods rather than materials for you to combine.
- Several upgrade paths run through items, not gald. Weapons and armour improve using materials dropped in the lairs whose element they carry, so clearing a lair twice is often more useful than grinding money.
Items that are secretly equipment
A number of drops that look like junk are equipment inputs or auction fodder. Before you sell anything unidentified, check whether it appears in the game's collectible records — the Collector's Book and the Monster Collection both track things whose only use is to be turned into something else.
