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.

School phase

 * Nakanishi Kendo and Kyudou are much stronger than Miyazato.
 * Burai's high EVA is more forgiving compared to Kinako (who has lower STA and will be easily stopped by long range attackers)
 * Ijuuin's scout skill is more valuable compared to Francine (whom has a weak short range attack and low EVA)
 * Mizuki is better in the early game compared to Nanana, but Nanana has a much better skill in the late game and allows you to recruit a very strong Mid range fighter.
 * Use the "Find an Ally" option as much as possible except the last one before the Yamizaki fight as the Executive has a high pay
 * If going the Senna route, do not use Kunagi so that other characters can get XP instead.

District phase

 * You will now need to use Hibiki's gentle strike to avoid killing enemies you want to capture
 * Hotta Daigo is better than Sanzo, he's another high EVA short ranged fighter like Burai
 * Jun, Mitsuhir and Zakimura can be skipped
 * Do not recruit Kyoko if you want to recruit Idagawa Ren
 * If going the Kunagi route, do not use Senna so that other characters can get XP instead.
 * Recruit as many generics from Seijou as possible to collect taxes later on
 * You do not need to keep characters in most other regions as they generate almost no income anyway, just make sure you have an open path to either Sanzo or Ren

National Phase
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.
 * Do not recruit Misugi unless you have conquered Nakoya at the earliest
 * Attack Shikoku ASAP so that you can get Kanata's 2nd star. You need to conquer Shikoku first and leave Youki alive until you get the event where Kanata's 2nd star is cleared, but you must do this before recruiting Yuma.
 * Cleo is unimportant unless you want to clear Yuuki or get Cleo's character clears.
 * Do not join the Haniwa cult as it will cut your available actions per month by 1/4th
 * Daimon, Cat Banchou and Tennoji Mio are weak and can be skipped if you are not doing their character clears
 * Kibito can be dismissed after you have cleared Sion as he is very weak both in and out of combat
 * Hokkaido snow archer girls are good for LAW and INC
 * Unless clearing Kaguya, do not let her kill Daigo

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. (Not true, knights cracks after near 5 interrogations or so.)


 * 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. Note that if you have so much community service that you only receive garbage, then even with the diary you will NOT receive the 5000.
 * 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 Hanny 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, Yezo, 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 Magic, Skull Serpent pirates and NPI students are Holy, 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 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.
 * Dating with a heroine gives her enough experience to level up.
 * Shin Juku always spawns 2 zombies per turn (until turn 80), which have 0% to counter and short range. It's ideal for levelling up characters as Nanana who wouldn't be of help elsewhere (at least until you find the legendary bloomers). Keep in mind that at one point pandas appear along with the zombies and they keep appearing at a fixed interval (every 6 turns for Normal mode).

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 1-19: 500 BP
 * Turn 20-39: 1000 BP
 * Turn 40-59: 1500 BP
 * Turn 60-79: 2000 BP
 * Turn 80-99: 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 infinitely repeatable command, available starting in district offers a chance of finding 1 or 5 BP. Because this is infinitely 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 available. With further testing it seems that while the command is infinite there is a maximum amount of BP available 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 Sect

 * After defeating the Protection Institute in the National Chapter, Igarashi will take over Koube (香辺) and form her own faction called "Igarashi Sect."  The treaty that prevents you from attacking ends on turn 81 of Senna's route if the only factions remaining are Rouga's and Igarashi's and your playing on hard mode. On this turn, Igarashi will immediately take over Kumamoto, Oosaka, and Shigoku, as well as attack Kyou. Note that these events only happen if you defeat NPI early enough (~turn 60); if you wait too long, for instance to recruit the Transforming Hero, Koube simply becomes an orange Independent region that can never be attacked.


 * 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 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 hospitalized 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.

General tips and hints

 * Items that give stamina always give and take the specified stamina when you equip and unequip them. This means if a character has 1 stamina with the button of terror equipped will have 0 when you take it off and 3 when you re-equip it. This is especially useful with characters such as Kunagi who when probably leveled don't lose HP, leaving stamina as the only issue.
 * If you want to get the Senna or Kunagi ending you must get all 5 buttons in their route before going in the hell hole. If on the other hand you want the ending of one of the 4 other main partners be sure to leave one (which means don't destroy the last faction). Note: You can get one of the other heroine partners even with destroying all factions but in that case you must keep the love level of the main heroines low.
 * Different characters have different requirements for their endings to show. Some just require for you to have them in your team when you beat the game, others require you clear some stars, while others won't show their endings with a full character clear. For the last case usually the problem is that you cleared too many stars and got the ending of another character. For instance if you clear all stars for both Abao Akuu and Comet-san you'll get Comet's ending but if you skip her 5th star you'll get Abao's. Other pairs where you can't get both of their endings with a full character clear include Mitamazuka Youki- Touma Kanata, Ulruka- Camilla with the first character being the one who gets the pair scene.
 * It's easy to miss but in the nametag during the conversation phase just before the type advantages are 5 dots resembling the number 5 as found in dice. Those represent the 5 stars of the character and the ones you have cleared will light up. Very useful if keep a lot of saves and like to branch out from them. It also shows during the deployment phase but not for units that are stationed (as it shows where they are stationed).
 * Combining the bonuses of Yuuna and Kyoko is really effective and apart from killing safely you can combine it with some untrained mambos to either help you get total victories at Moo without killing the cows (see game mechanics wiki) or even helping you keep taking ground from Kibito while you wait for Sion so you can capture him. Whatever the case you must remember that the order their bonuses are applied is according to their position in the team. If you place first Yuuna then the -50% enemy counter will be applied first but if you place Kyoko first her bonus is applied first. Against a 64% counter enemy (moo people) with a 4 stars cleared Kyoko the combo would make it 2% if Yuuna was first but it would be going up to 17% if you placed Kyoko first.
 * If you want to cure girls with high infection level and want to save your strongest characters there is a way. Just have Takabane Sae have 6 stamina (you'll need to use a stamina boosting item if you haven't fully cleared her before), and have her use her special move 3 times. After that the demons won't have any stamina to attack and won't even be able to dodge. Just make sure your units can kill them before they run out of stamina as well.
 * Ally Recovery heals a % of your current hp. So if Gyver Mac for example has 40/200 hp and has Sonnet with Ally recovery 30% he will gain 12hp instead of 60. So in dungeons make sure to use your strongest characters to get you out of a pinch so you can keep your characters near top health at all times.

Capturing Territory
In this case a good defense is literally the best offence. The quickest way to take over a territory is to exploit the fact that attacking an empty territory will always give you 3 capture points instead of the 1 or 2 you normally get in an offensive battle.

The way to take advantage of this is to station a group of fighters in the territory you want to take over, but don't attack it right away. If you let the AI attack instead and you can kill or capture all of the AI units then on the next round the territory will be empty and when you attack it you will gain 3 control points. If the territory has 3 or less control points needed to take over then you can just send in any unit to capture it while you move your group of fighters to the next area you want to take over.

Capturing territory this way means that any area with 3, 5 or 6 control points will be taken in one less turn than normal and areas with 7-8 control points will take two less turns. Any area with 1, 2 or 4 control points will still take the same amount of turns however.

Obviously this only works if you can actually clear the entire territory when you are attacked, so if you're underleveled or an enemy Banchou shows up it probably won't work. Also, since attacking an empty territory doesn't give any exp you will essentially be getting around half the exp you would normally get.

Memory Editing
Using a memory editor such as art-money or cheat engine its possible to change a few character values. Current health is problematic and should be avoided. I haven't had any success with editing BP which only results in reseting the value to zero.( scan for value of debt to the loan shark. set that value to a negative value and when you pay it back, it will all transfer to you. ) (Edit by QuizmasterBos: I've tried this method using cheat engine and it doesn't work. Once the debt is set to a negative value, the value increases to an incredibly high amount, which results in the game crashing)

It is possible to edit BP using cheat engine or art-money by editing BP before you gain or lose money. Examples of this would be before Gou gives you BP or before taking an additional lone or buying an item.(Note: you must close art-money before BP bonus box showing off)

There is a report of successful BP editing in ArtMoney. There are 2 values (4 byte integers) 16 bytes apart that represent BP. If only one is changed, it is reset to zero occasionally. If both are changed together the value will remain. Remember that addresses are in hexidecimal, so 16 bytes apart would be in example: 06DEF580 and 06DEF570

On the positive side its possible to edit a characters experience (4 byte interger) then also character stats (4 byte interger)