Year 2

1/1

Bronze Areas	Materials	Monsters	Note
Herbal Plains	Edge Aloe Med Tree Root Bitter Worm	Mandragora Green Puni
Holy Slumbering Tree	Incense Bark Bamboo Bitter Worm	Pot Squirrel Wolf
Pixie Dance Floor	Mudhead Dizzy Cap Spore Puni Mushroom		Landmark is a circle of mushrooms.
Dragon Grave	Forgotten Bone Petrified Lizard Venom Gland	Spike Bug
Scorched Wasteland	Living Cactus Cryptobotany Coco Fruit Forgotten Bone Petrified Lizard	Salamandra Roc Griffon Wasteland Beast	Heat hurts. Heavenly Parasol would be lovely. Bomb needed to blow up rock next to boss. 13 Search points Giant cactus is your landmark. Visit it!

• You should hit Bronze rank soon for Aquanaut Memo.
• Equipment Synthesis
  • You are at the point that you need new equipment. You may have already made some, but this is intended as a light introduction. You don't actually have to do this, but if your equipment is really lame it won't hurt.
  • As prep work, make some good Pure Oils (with Lightweight and any other traits of your choice), as well and Zettels (shoot for Defense +3 and MP/LP +10). Pure Oil will increase the traits you can buy, and a Zettel is needed for the second level of armor. Buy Stim Stones from Hagel -- the expensive ones with Attack +3.
  • Make three sets of Tincs/Muffcots at once. (If your level is high enough you can try much of this for the higher level ingots/cloths.) You'll need good ingredients to keep the cost level between 6 and 10, depending on what traits you have.
  • I've already listed the good traits to get, for now. By all means, shoot for more traits. Just get familiar with the process of making equipment that is above the bottom of the barrel. Quality alone doesn't make your equipment godly (it helps, though), especially in the Vita version.

• Alanya
  • Talk to Ceci after hitting Bronze for Wholesaling. It's good for fulfilling requests and replicating common synthing ingredients. For instance, put a decent Arland Crystal with Hagel and you'll fulfil a request every so often with it. Don't be picky; if it seems vaguely useful, register! However, if the item has Traits with 8 or more Cost, wholesale will duplicate the item, but not those traits. Similarly, if your item is above 100 quality, it will be reduced to 100.
  • Here's a nugget: shops will stock items on days ending with 1 and 2. So if you register an item on the 10th, there will be 10 of them on the 11th. Or if you buy up the items on the 10th, they'll reappear on the 11th.
  • Sterk will force his way in the workshop. Friend Requests become available. They come every 15 days, and only the people you can hire near your current Atelier will show up. Really, just adventure with your friends to get them to 60. After they hit 60, do not do requests except to manipulate ends.
  • To hire Sterk, you have to do at least one or two requests. If you feel the need to get it done quickly, you can try saving and reloading till he's the one to appear at your door.
  • See Gino Events for his first batch of things to do. Let me emphasize something: DON'T WAIT. The sooner you start his events, the better. Feel free to level him to 15, if you haven't already done so, but not much higher. There's a reason for this; an event will increase his level, and that can be bad.
  • If you're just now traveling with her, don't forget about Mimi Events. She has a bunch in the Alanya area.
  • Go by Pamela for an event about the bear. A long while after that, go back for one about snoozing in the bear.

Silver Areas	Materials	Monsters	Note
Crystal Hole	Bounce Stone Snow Stone Original Gem	Aphostol
Drifter's Grave	Phlogiston Forgotten Bone Pendelook
Holy Land Shortcut	Fest Stim Stone Bless Stone		Chest: Else Qulario
Morning Mist River	Some Egg Pretty Shell Isle Amber
Stein Hill	Star Piece Gravistone Quake Crystal Strawberry Bug Beast Stone	Pot Squirrel Fighting Goat Ear Puni Jagd Wolf	Step on Monument by boss for License points. 11 Search Points (start jumping!)

• Arland
  • Go to Cory for an event. This is part of Sterk's recruitment. You'll have to go back to Alanya for the next couple events. Sterk will visit the Atelier twice. Once to talk about a certain witch, once with a pigeon (it'll pop up after doing a request for him).
  • Event with Tiffani about Pamela.
  • Make the Parasol you just got before going to Scorched Wasteland. I wouldn't attempt going there before level 15. Be sure to have a couple good Bomb Ice and upgraded equipment. You'll also need a bomb to get to the landmark in Scorched Wasteland.
  • Once you beat the boss there, you'll hit Silver with incredible ease. Lemegeton is your reward for a rank up. Don't worry about beating Jagd Wolf so soon.
  • Enter the shop menu and exit at Tiffani's after hitting Silver, but with your Basket mostly full (I had 40 items). You get a bigger basket.
  • Once Marc's friendship is adequeately high, visit Hagel's store. See Marc Events for the full sequence of events. Effectively, you'll be visiting Artisan's Way several times at 30 day intervals. You will need to eventually get his level to 30 as well, but it isn't a big deal to grind him up by the time this is relevant.

6/1

Gold Areas	Materials	Monsters	Note
Ancient Monastery	Globe Sphere Venom Gland Pendelook Flour Chainweb	Aphostol Ghost Ear Puni Scarlet	Landmark is at the far end 11 Search points
Camp of the Defeated	Winding Grass Honeypot Ant Strawberry Bug		Normal Threads chest
Mountain Cave	Stench Stone Stim Stone Original Gem	Ghost
Promised Land	Fuel Dirt Sunny Crystal Metal Ore	Scare Phantom Ghost

• Try to hit Gold soon-ish (I got it in August) for Agrarian Mastery. Don't worry about beating Scarlet yet.
  • Make the Speed Gloves when you can (which will not be soon). You can buy New Age Art Theory, the recipe for Magic Paint, from Pamela's Shop. Something like Simple L will be VERY helpful in synthing success rates (which, at this point, you shouldn't see awesome traits like that :P). Your normal success rate might be 0 at this point. It was for me.
• Alanya
  • Stock up on Homemade Pie. You'll need it soon-ish.
  • Pop into the Atelier. Rorona appears and joins! If you need to bomb toss a boss into oblivion, she and Totori can have loads of fun. For her end, you need to hit Alchemy Level 50. If you hit it and don't want to trigger her end, all you have to do is avoid synthing in Atelier Rorona (which will be easy at that point). Just a heads up. Oh, you get the Catch of the Day trophy.
  • Visit Pamela with Rorona in the party.
  • An event between Mel and Ceci will occur in Gerhard's bar.
  • Later, Ceci will get drunk in the bar. :D
  • At some point, talk to Gerhard and he'll ask you to make alcohol. Go to Atelier Rorona for Alcohol and Life. See Specialty Liquor for the rest of it.
  • After 9/1, if you went to Dragon Grave (I think the event can pop up in another area, but I don't remember which one) for a short Sterk event, he'll pop up at the Atelier. He's worried about age, but he turns out gorgeous in Meruru. This is entirely optional.

• Arland
  • You'll meet Rorona upon arriving (if you met her in Alanya first!). Synth for... pie. Ohhhh Rorona. Enter and exit the Atelier for a Cory event. After a week, you'll get Rorona's Pie Notes. For more like this, see Recipes under Rorona Events. The very next time you're in Alanya, MAKE A PIE. This is required for the rest of Rorona's recipes, and it trips a lot of people up. The rest should seriously fall in your lap if your alchemy level is high enough. Another event will follow after synthing more, this time about the container.
  • Mel will pop up in Arland.
  • After 9/15, you'll get to decide Chim's gender. 30 days later, Chim is born. You have to return from adventuring to see the birth scene. Chim has an ending too, so see Chim End Requirements for that. Be sure to buy the Water of Life from Pamela! Make the Chim events happen ASAP. Cuteness Swarm! trophy. After Chim's birth, Cory should pop in the Atelier.

• About Chim (Important!)
  • Thou shalt not wait to get all five Chims. Thou shalt make Chim the TOP PRIORITY till the fifth is acquired. All other things can wait. Yes, I'm very serious about that. Nothing is as important as Chim, and about everything else can be fixed without much effort. So let this also serve as a reminder: If you are behind the guide, it is okay. Even if you're behind in rank.
  • In other words, sell your organs to get the Water of Life from Pamela. Get the Cooking Class events done (they will be coming soon). Get to Cobalt rank. Get Sterk's friendship high (he's coming soon as well). Chim is one of the few obstacles in the way of getting Platinum.
  • I don't mean you have to do all these things ASAP. But try to get all five by Year 4, 6/1 (the earliest you can get to Cobalt rank). If you can't reach Cobalt by that date, make sure you have the other four Chims and focus immediately on getting your rank up ASAP. The reason I focus on that date is because it's foolproof, not because you're doomed if you don't have them all by that date (though you could be, depending on now slow you are about getting the Chims).
  • Get your Chim working, especially on your most expensive low level item. Chim will work faster as it gets more pies, so try to duplicate a ton of one-day items with traits that jack up the price for extra cash. I used Alchemy Yeast, but I never really experimented either. When you get more Chims, you can have them duplicating items that Wholesale can't duplicate well enough. And if you can't think of something for Chim to do, duplicate pies.