Ecol Tactics Online Leveling and Exploration Guide

Leveling in Ecol Tactics Online is a rather slow progress if you don't buy large bombs from the cash shop. I am just joking. Bombing your way to win is not a fun way to play the game.

I am going to break down the guide to 5 sections and give you some tips and strategies that will help you level faster and save money in the long run.

• General Tips
• Levels 1-15
• Exploration Guide
• Levels 16-30
• Levels 31-41

• To level smoothly, make sure you do all quests. There are 2 types of quests. They are the main quests and sub quests. The main quests are denoted in red and the sub quests are denoted in green.
• Try to follow the main quests once you get to within 3 levels of the main quest mobs, otherwise you will have to resort to some luck or over reliance of archers and poison.
• AI play whenever you are in front of your computer but you have to do other stuff. Every little bit of experience helps.

This is the easiest part of leveling. You start of with the story line and get to witness the awesomeness of the level 70 mercenaries. Your first mission is fighting 2 bandits, which you should win easily with your eyes closed.

Levels 1-5

This part is pretty straight forward. Follow the main quests to get to level 5. Doing the following main quests will get you to level 5:

• The Beginning...
• Getting INNformation
• Ready for Slime Time!
• Weapon Merchant: Grants!
• Armor Merchant: Lasagna!
• Item Merchant: Kaire!
• Item Merchant: Karea!
• Banker: Robin!
• Welcome to Vermonics!
• *He's the Luke!
• Mercs of a Feather
• From Rock to Ripple
• Not a Trap.

In the process, you will get to know the starting town Vermonics a little better. If you don't know where the NPCs are, just click "M" button and hover at each red dot. Most main quests will be given by Sena and Luke, so just keep a lookout.

Levels 6-10

The main quests actually start providing some challenge by making the monsters a little stronger. You will be getting some sub quests along the way, so do them. Follow the main quests, and do them all, while hiring mercenaries. You might also want to start mastering the south gate maps. Mastering the maps unlock some sub quests that you can do for extra experience.

Levels 11-15

At this point, the main quest monsters are starting to get harder. They hit harder and are usually 3 or more levels higher than you are. Besides doing sub quests, you will have to start doing some regular map grinding to get experience. A good team of mercenaries you could have are a mix of fighters, archers and 1 cleric.

Using AI play

This becomes a good option once you are about 6 levels above the map that you want to level at. Ideally, you will want to do an easy map that does not contain any enemies that can poison you. They can be a dangerous foe. Having archers as mercenaries in your team is great as they have range to clear the map faster than other mercenaries. To use AI play, select the grey button on the top left of the screen anytime before or during the battle.

What is Mercenary Exploration?

It is a system where you can use your mercenaries and send them to fight in maps to gain extra experience, gold and possibly items. They start showing up once you are level 12 and higher. To start an exploration, talk to Sena or Arieta in the Inn. Depending on the map, you can either send a minimum of 1 or more mercenaries to explore the map. The time for each exploration varies, but it gets longer the higher level you are. Exploration is great as these mercenary expeditions will net you gold, items and experience while you are gone. Use them as much as you can, especially when you go to bed. Below is the list of maps that you can send your mercenaries to an expedition.

Starting from 16 and up, you will start seeing a sharp increase in experience required to level up. I suggest you start mastering south gate maps if you haven't already. There will be some tough main quests that you will be dealing with.

Main Quest: Blue Man Groupless

This quest can be a tough one. You are assigned to defend this blue mutant orc, while he is attacked by 8 green orcs. The worst part is, you start off far away from him. In round 2, he will be surrounded by 3 orcs. If you cannot get to him fast enough by round 3, he will have 4 orcs on him, making it effectively game over. All orcs have regeneration abilities, so to counter that, you will need the poison skill by archers. You will want to bring as many archers as you can and 1 cleric for healing. Poison the orcs that is near you. Lure the top right orc quickly so it won't target the mutant blue orc.

Main Quest: Sympagis the Mercenary!

This quest is similar to Blue Man Groupless. You start off far away from Sympagis. He is surrounded by bandits and bandit archers. Depending on how lucky you are, you just have to pray that the bandit archers do not poison him, otherwise you probably have to start again. The first thing you have to do is to lure the nearest bandit archer to you, so he will not target Sympagis. Sympagis should be able to last at least the first 3 rounds if he is not poisoned, so bring a fighter, 2 archers, 2 clerics if you can.

Main Quest: Fear the Reaper!

The Grim Reaper can summon his clones. You will have to be aware of his attacks as well. It can cause status ailments like poison. Just make sure you have the antidote ready. The easy way to finish this is to get some archers to poison him and stay back. When he summons his clones, clear them out as soon as possible. Let the poison whittle his hp down every turn. This strategy will take care of him even if you are under leveled.

Once you finish the "Fear the Reaper" quest, you will be able to start Arpenion main quests. The regular warriors and archers here in the main quests are extremely deadly. The regular warriors here can use high slash level 3, which hits up to 3 of your allies in a row. The archers here no longer use poison arrow, but they can use arrow shower. You will have to thread carefully now, because a wrong move could cost the battle.

Levels 31-41

Once you are level 30, things start getting a little easier. If you have a bunch of 30+ mercenaries, great places to use AI play are maps without enemies that can poison you. Here are some favorite places for you to AI play at 30+:

• West Area - Hermit's Forest - Hard Difficulty
• West Area - Secret River - Medium Difficulty
• West Area - Western Forest - Easy Difficulty

While any area above 20+ can give you basic cubes, Secret River and Western Forest are great because the monsters there of the above difficulties cannot poison you, which is a great plus.

You are in for some tough quests ahead in Arpenion. I am going to list some that most people are having trouble with.

Guard-Commander's Request

This map has only 1 type of enemy, which are a few super buff knights. You start off with 3 jellys to fight. I would suggest getting the jelly on the most right, as it will spawn 1 buff Guard-Commander 3 times after you kill it once. After that, it spawns 3 all at once. You will have to plan your steps correctly, as they hit super hard if you are under leveled. The good thing is they have an attack range of 1, so you can use a master mage here and use gravity or snare bombs to stop their movement. Archers with poison is a must here. They have 2000+ hp.

To Rayon Shrine

This map is tough because you cannot control Luke or Sister-M. You are surrounded by a mix of warriors and archers from 3 sides. Luke and Sister-M charges in like buffoons, so saving them is usually a bad idea. However, you can buy some time with their foolishness and start attacking one side which is probably the right side. Bring 2 archers and 2 clerics. Use your archers to poison and clerics to heal often, because you will need it.

Lucia's Identity

This is probably the toughest map I had to deal with. First of all, you have to fight 3 separate maps back to back with NO REST in between. You also cannot afford to lose any mercenaries in the first fight as you will NOT BE ABLE TO USE THEM if they DIE in the first or second fight.

1st Map - You have to fight a special warrior that has crash and a special archer that has thunder snap. Proceed carefully. I would target the special warrior to the left of the map first. Lure 1 by 1 and poison them with your archers. Bring 2 clerics to heal if you can.

2nd Map - If you can figure out a way to lure Lucia to the front lines, you can focus on her and kill her. That ends the battle. Sister-M, as usual, charges to the front for some quick death. However, if that is not possible, you will have to lure 1 by 1. Poison them with your archers and kill them off quickly.

3rd Map - You will have luke right in front of Adolf, a beefy warrior. Thankfully, you have Fijiro and Sympagis for this battle. While you cannot control Fijiro, Sympagis can be controlled. Yay! He has crash level 3 and high slash level 3, making him quite a powerhouse. Let Luke and Fijiro die while you retreat to the left to lure 1 by 1 again. Poison with the archers and heal when necessary. That should be do the trick.