Big Bang Age:Hints and Tips

Common Problems
Most players have the same problems

So watch out for...


 * BP money
 * Their Loyality gauge
 * Party members' HP and SP
 * Raid Attacks
 * Every nation area need Peace rating and collect Income

The Dungeon battles don't let you run away, so be careful and make sure all party members are in perfect health and have full SP.

Recommended characters
I know that BBA can be very hard for beginner players to play through.


 * Recruit Miyazato Erika and her gang, since Erika is able to wipe out almost any enemies without problems.


 * Recruit Yamamoto Burai for his good evasion and his skill, which lets you evade any enemies' attack without problems.


 * Recruit Senpuuji Kyouko, she has a nice strong attack for long range.


 * Don't recruit the recruitable party member who have a high pay cost (the school execs)

All the hireable allies in the School Chapter should be hired due to their starting relationship at Friend. That will help in the long run as you dont have to talk to them much to maintain loyalty.
 * Touma Kanata is one of the most powerful characters, and can increase earned EXP with his skill.


 * AVOID recruiting Misugi Ryoutarou if your economy isn't stable and good.

District Chapter has a few notable generics: Sensouji Pep Squad guys (shaved head) are worth the most to release, and then the Bikers. Red generics, either boys or girls, should be saved to hire later due to their very low cost. The rest can be interrogated. The executives are so-so: not too profitable to release, not too useful to hire.

National Chapter has some more interesting ones:


 * Prisoners worth plenty to release are the Arabians BEFORE you suppress Tottori, Hokkaido guys (the swordsmen with the bear fur), and the NPI demons (miko swordswomen with masks).


 * Prisoners worth hiring: PGG guys, Kansai students (male and female), and Hokkaido girls.


 * The rest can be interrogated to gain items: generic schoolboys/girls, executives, Pirates and Sangoku fighters. Knights you'll get too late in the game for their release gain (50 BP) to matter much, and you can't recruit or interrogate them AFAIK.


 * Animals, save for the pandas which you can release for 50 BP, aren't worth much. You might as well just kill them. If you need animals for Mio, you can always trigger the Assorted Creatures star event in HAWAII. The notable exception is the Mambo (blue long-range fish). Its abilities resemble the Kansai schoolboy somewhat and it's easier to get, so capture and hire two of them from Hawaii if you can.

Recruitment Help
This section is to provide help with recruiting some of the trickier characters to get. For all of the characters, check the "Character Details" page.

Don't forget that you can find BP by trigger Community Service over and over again on any region screen (the one where you go to restore order and build stuff) which, while cheap, will allow you to accumulate BP for free. You also have a chance of finding 5000 BP doing this if you've done all five events to obtain the Secret Diary.
 * Tanzawa Nina - Lack of BP is your enemy here. In the School Chapter, recruit as many generic schoolgirls as you can. They are good at gathering BP. Start stationing them in the National Chapter as you gain areas. Conquer Yokohama, then suppress the Curry Museum (制圧：カレー美術館). On your next turn, trigger the Curry (カレー ) event. Also trigger the event Visit Hani Engineering (ハニー土木訪問) event in Ika (伊我) at any point during the National Chapter to enable the option to build things. With the Yokohama events triggered, you can now build curry houses, an extremely usefull source of income. Build a few to start, then build more as BP starts coming in. You can also trigger the Curry Research (カレーの研究) events in several regions, among them Nigata, Narra, Sangoku and MOO!, to increase your income. Your final task is to buy all of the items in Nina's store, which is what all this preparation was for. Try not to spend too much of your BP at once before you do this so that you can still make it through the income phase. After you purchase all of her items, return to her store and buy the new one. Nina will then join.


 * Great Emperor MOO - Station Jinnai Heita in Kunamoto (熊元) and then trigger the event Search for Jinnai Heita (陣内兵太の捜索) on the next turn. This will get you the Fire Crystal. Clear up to the 20th floor of the Hirasaka Underworld dungeon in Shiname to get the Black Onyx. After recruiting Tanzawa Nina, trigger the event Black Market/Tanzawa Nina (闇取引／丹沢丹奈) in Yokohama to obtain the Moonstone. Finally, after getting these items, trigger the event Awaken the Great Emperor (大帝の目覚め) in MOO! to add Great Emperor MOO to the party.


 * Vandain - First, suppress the PGG. Then station Gou in Forestland (樹界) to discover the Giant Magnet. Suppress it, then trigger the event The Master of Forestland (樹界の主). Next, you will need to interrogate the following enemy units: a martial artist with a ponytail from Sangoku, a female Kansai archer from the NPI, and a female Hokkaido archer from the Nightmare Eyes. Then trigger the Vandain (ヴァンダイン) event to recruit him.
 * Boss Bayashi, Fuumin and Mogu Megumi in Minatou, District Chapter - You must have 999BP to buy the Legendary Croquette Bread, then trigger the star event in Minatou. The trick lies in a combination of capturing and releasing Sensouji Pep Squad guys and Bikers. Don't hire Kyouko or any other faction commander until you got enough money, and buy the Silver Ring on turn 2. Don't waste time suppressing moneymaking facilities other than Toukyou Tower. Spend the Territory turns/Companion Phases increasing Hibiki Sanae's love points so that you can do her H events every time and get BP. If there's no event to date Sanae, you can spend it to clear the last level of the Sunshine VI dungeon, getting more XP for your chosen party. Generally you'll have enough after turn 15. Also, you can do Community Service too/instead.

What upgrades to go for

 * When talking to characters in the Companion Phase, you can choose to ugprade their physical or mental stats, as well as their type advantages (the types they are strong against).
 * Most VIP units have decent enough growth to be useful when they hit ~100xp to next level without upgrading physical stats. All the heroines (Kunagi, Senna, Sanae, Kaen, Sae and Sion) have very high growth. Some units are only useful for law/income, or to clear another character's stars.
 * As mental upgrades are very cheap, you may want to upgrade as many characters as possible with it, to make garrisoning districts easier.
 * Since the physical upgrades costs depend on your current stats, be sure to unequip any items that may raise them beforehand.
 * Once you suppress Nihon Bridge, you can trigger the event "Tiger's Lair" to unlock the more expensive upgrade options (physical/mental level 2).
 * For type advantages, consider which route you are in. Holy Flame knights are Holy, Skull Serpent pirates and NPI students are Magic, NPI ninjas are Dark, most Nightmare Eyes units are Demon/Normal, and PGG are a mix of Normal units with Machine tanks. Demons are, of course, demon.

How to make allies

 * How to capture enemies as your allies the easy way:


 * Hibiki Sanae, Ariake Harami, Ulruka, and Asakura Yuma who have Merciful Attack special skills, which are are attacks that won't kill the target.


 * Use Francine, Misugi Ryoutarou and Ninjacaptor Zakuro to increase your chance of capturing enemies.

Leveling up quickly

 * Touma has a skill that increases the EXP you earn from battle. If you need to level any characters, bring him along.


 * Without conquering any areas, all enemies will keep coming back to fight against them but it's pretty risky but worth for leveling up.


 * In Dungeons, you will level fast.
 * One enemy killed worth the same XP whether it's a generic schoolgirl/boy or a bear so use full squad of six for dangerous enemies but one or two to farm easy rebellions.
 * Some character has skill that make the region they stationed in lose public order. Normally it's a bad thing, as PO link to BP harvested from there. But if there's a rat invasion you got an easy battle with easy XP. The two ideal area to station such as them are Moo and Shigoku (without suppressing their facility). Stash Daimon, Nina there with other characters you need to level up and wait till PO reduce to chaos. The 400HP rat only appear a few times, and stop coming once you killed some of that class. The 35+ HP is, needless to say, easy preys.

Understanding The Loyalty Mechanic

 * From http://bmw.seiha.org/viewtopic.php?p=8078#8078


 * Loyalty is on a scale of 1-100. It declines by a random amount depending on the unit's Bond with Rouga each turn. At 40, it enters the red zone and as long as their loyalty remains red, there's a random chance that the unit will abandon you at the start of the turn. The lower it gets, the higher the probability.


 * Speaking to a unit during the conversation phase restores 33 Loyalty. Giving them a bonus during Training restores them to 100.


 * Even though Friends and Normal can lose 1 Loyalty a turn in their base states, even with the Pink Moss, they can never regain Loyalty unless stationed with a Loyalty regenerating building. There is also a maximum gain/turn of 10. These two things just have a flattening effect on the extreme values for Trust units.


 * These are just estimates and there will be variation, particularly over short periods of time or just from sheer bad luck. The exact formulas aren't known either, so all alterations are just off the base case.


 * Average Loyalty Loss/Turn
 * Hostile: -6
 * Normal: -4
 * Friend: -3
 * Trust: 0


 * Pink Moss
 * +2 (All units)


 * Mysterious Dog
 * Loss / 2 (Rounds down, can round to zero)


 * Hanni Building
 * -1 all units stationed in that region


 * Campsite
 * +2 all units stationed in that region


 * Lounge
 * +6 all units stationed in that region


 * Moo Land
 * +7 all units stationed in that region


 * Hot Springs
 * +10.5 all units stationed in that region


 * The RNG variable that determines the loyalty loss is tied to the Lounge and Moo Land. IE, a Hostile unit at a Lounge will never lose loyalty. A Normal unit at Moo Land will always regain 3 Loyalty each turn. They match the RNG generated loss and effectively remove the randomness of the Loyalty change each turn. The other three buildings retain the random element.

How to increase their Loyalty gauge

 * Talk to one party member to increase his/her Loyalty gauge. Generics get increase of one whole level of bond/affection, up to Trust. Almost all named characters with no checks (Shimiko, Space Emperor, etc.) will NOT increase bond level nomatter how many times you talk to them.


 * You can refill their Loyalty to full by paying 50 BP for the Loyalty option in the Companion Phase.
 * Equip Puss in Boots, or Mysterious Dog to stop/slow the rate of Loyalty loss.
 * Stationing allies in a Lounge, Hot Spring or MOO Land region will raise their Loyalty each turn.


 * Get the Pink Moss item by suppressing Lake Akan (阿寒湖) in Transylvania. On a phase where the moon is full, trigger the event "The Pulsing Algae (まりもごろごろ)".


 * H Shion in the heroine round for a slight increase of all party members' loyalty (+5 all units (?))
 * Construct Mu-land in Moo! and hot spring in Narra then station your allies there to get their loyalty restore. You can construct MOO-Land by talking to Emperor MOO 2 times. As for the hot spring, tringer the event "School Trip" in Narra, then choose peeking to obtain Hotsprings Seeds. On the next full moon phase, an event called "Flower of the Hot Spring" will be available in Narra which, once triggered, allows you to construct the Hot Spring.
 * A Hawaiian Vacation, while expensive, will completelu restore all allies' Loyalty at once.
 * Must control Hawaii, have at least one unit with Red Loyalty and have
 * Turn 1-20: 500 BP
 * Turn 21-40: 1000 BP
 * Turn 41-60: 1500 BP
 * Turn 61-80: 2000 BP
 * Turn 81-99: 3000 BP
 * The Colony Bell event in Nagazaki refills all unit Loyalty to full. You must suppress the Cathedral there first.

How to gather more BP

 * The more you invade, the more BP you get.


 * You gain BP by stationing units in conquered areas. It is useful to recruit a lot of generic schoolgirls in the first two chapters so you can use them to gather BP. Mambos, Hannis, and other female generics are also good to capture and recruit for income purposes.


 * Alarm Clock item will decrease all party members' pay.


 * Build Curry Wolf Restaurants to give you 50BP each payroll day.


 * Do "H" Sanae and Kaen to gain BP every turn. Sanae gives you 50 BP and Kaen 500 BP.


 * Recruit Great Emperor Mu to build Mu-Land to gain alot of BP.
 * Don't be afraid to take out another loan early on. Use that money to build more Curry restaurants.
 * Buy the Silver Ring (cuts character upkeep cost in half) in the District Chapter when you have the chance. It only costs 58 BP and it will more than earn it back after a few turns.
 * Get the lottery in the district chapter, you can win anywhere from 0 to 500 BP. Usually happens a few turns after the first payroll day in the national chapter.
 * BP received from lottery is determined by how much BP you have during the draw. If you have under 100, you always win the 500 BP prize.
 * Public Service, an infinately repeatable command, availible starting in district offers a chance of finding 1 or 5 BP. Becausee this is infinately repeatable it means that you can obtain as much cash as you need or want though it is rather tedious. Additionally you must be in control of the area for it to be availible. With further testing it seems that while the command is infinate there is a maximum amount of BP availible to be found. I would guess it is around 2000BP or so.
 * If you have <100 BP, speak to Hibiki Sanae during the Conversation Phase for the ATM Card (+10% Income)
 * Misugi Ryoutarou's 2, 3, and 4 Stars give you 1,000 BP each. You can then fire him during the next Income phase if you don't want to pay to keep him. Alternatively you can give him pearl ring to cut his cost to zero.
 * Pearl Ring cost a lot but can cut cost alot. Buy it right when you can scrape together the large chunk of BP it require.
 * The item in disctrict chapter shop is useful. Even in Hard Mode, after the 999BP croquette bread, if you can scrape together some BP to buy something it's money well spent.

Unlockable Modes

 * Hard Mode - Clear Normal Mode. A new event will appear on the Rooftop in the School Chapter when you start a new game. Hard mode powers up enemies and bosses a little, and increases the control points for each area by one. Also, the requirement to recruit Agito has changed, and four new characters are available.


 * Extra Mode - Clear Hard Mode. A new event will appear on the Rooftop in the School Chapter when you start a new game. Extra mode has no events that the player can trigger manually. It's pure battle and entertainment. Any characters who's stars have been completely cleared will be available to use. Their loyalty gauges decrease, but they will never leave the team.

Fighting Igarashi Faction

 * After defeating the Protection Institute in the National Chapter, Igarashi will take over Koube (香辺) and form her own faction. She forms a treaty with Rouga to leave each other alone. This treaty ended on turn 81 of Senna's route if the only factions remain are Rouga's and Igarashi's. This is suspected info since in one Normal Senna game White Fang can not attack them during 81-99.


 * Igarashi's faction is a mixture of random generics, "agents" (guys in red suits and shades. Uses guns), and defeated units that didn't join with Rouga (either because of route differences, rejection,star events, or difficulty). Some route exclusive characters, such as Neko Banchou, will join. Kashin also joins her. These people, as well as the agents, cannot be captured.


 * There are two "special" cases as well: Akito and Ginjou. Ginjou will join if you fail to clear her first three star events in time. Akito joins in Hard mode. Both of them CAN be captured. This is the ONLY way to get Akito in Hard mode. Note that a re-captured Ginjou will have her stats reset, and Akito joins in "boss mode". His stats resemble what they were during the School Chapter, as does his voice when attacking. He loses his type advantage against White, but he makes up for this by being the easiest character to level up in the game. He only requires 50 EXP to level up, and this NEVER changes.


 * Note that in Kunagi's route, Igarashi's faction will be taken over by the Holy Flame. Trying to fight her before then will ruin the chance to have her join. On Senna's route there are no consequences, and is actually necessary if you want a completely conquered map.

Very important things to watch for

 * Make sure to heal them by putting some of characters who lost HP out in region boxes to rest there every time
 * As for their loyality gauge, it's very important to pay attention to their loyality gauge. Pay them to increase the loyality of a party member to avoid abandoning you which you will lose a party member who lacked the loyality to zero in the loyality gauge
 * It's very important to know what are your party members' strong points and weakness points against enemies
 * Station units with high LAW and INC points to avoid "Riots". It's very important to make peace in every area
 * Every time you start a game, your experience will grow so your skills as well, you eventually know how to play
 * Every time you start a game, your half-cleared characters (yellow status on Char Clear screen of the Extra section) will get a+5 to ATTK, HIT, +10 to HP, LAW, INC; your fully cleared characters (got a big circle thing on their place in the Char Clear screen) get a +10 to ATTK, HIT, +20 to HP, LAW, INC, +1 to their Stamina. This upgrade is applied to base stat.


 * It's very important to upgrade their star levels, they will be stronger than before. Generally the third star will upgrade their affection one level and fourth star will either upgrade their power, or increase stamina, or add skill. You can clear stars any order you like, with some obvious exception like Shizuri.
 * You can have up to 80 characters under your control. If you recruit more, Gou will tell you in his info-round that one random (generic) character had an accident and have been hospitalizationed and therefore removed from your party. Recruits should be fired is the tanks that Kansuke made, as their pay is too high for such a generic class. Keep them until his star related to tanks made is achieved then fire them all.

Defending
When defending you must keep in mind that new attacks made at your territories usually consist of teams with around 5 units while if a team is reinforced it is always done so by two units. Also you must defeat all units of an attacking team before a different faction can attack the defending town.

This usually means that especially if a town is under attack from more than one faction having a really strong 6 person team all the time is not the best way to go since the town can come under attack more than once in a turn whittling your stamina and HP, forcing you to continuously replace your team and fight longer to defend the town.

The best way to defend in this case is to leave a single member of the opposing team alive. That way due to his presence no other factions can attack and knowing that reinforcements come in 2's you can just leave 3 units in your town to defend. If you leave two really strong ones (like Kunagi and Rouga) who can kill the reinforcements without taking damage and have Yuuki use Boom! to avoid the battle with the third then you can keep defending a territory indefinitely.