Hello fellow bombardiers, had a question for all those who are playing the game.

Due to several reasons, I only was able to start playing the game yesterday despite buying it on PSN a few days prior to launch. I'm actually really enjoying the game and spent a ton of time doing a bunch of quests and hunts. Despite the game clocking me in at around 9 hours, I've left the game paused for times while out for lunch and whatnot (on that note, why does the game clock keep running even when the game is "paused"?) and with the above questing and never fast travelling (enjoy the open road man!), I'm actually only shortly into chapter 2.

I just got to the point where you start unlocking the royal arms and have gotten the initial two pieces. They seem crazy strong, but have a fairly significant drawback in literally sucking your life away when you use them. So I'm just wondering, how many people here actually use them? I would prefer no spoilers for later in the game, like if there's a way to get rid of the drawback, but I'm curious how many of you folks actually use them despite the drawback. I tried it once and I obliterated a group of sabertusks in the blink of an eye, but my HP was getting obliterated at a pretty similar clip.

I am not much further than you, and I don't know how well they will scale, but right now I'm using them all the time. Health regen is such that numbers are the biggest threat you face, at least right now. So I've been using the first one as follows:

Point warp until stamina is low or health is full.

Switch to royal arm.

Warp strike from point warp position. You even get extra damage here because you are usually far away.

After warp strike lands, switch to regular weapon for last few hits.

Point warp to get health back if needed.

I've used the axe in a similar fashion.

Switch to it in the middle of a combo for a hit or two and then right back out.

tldr, 1. you should only be holding them while you are actively dealing damage 2. Don't go all-in on them 3. Don't be afraid to back off and heal up.

I'm about 30 hours in and have a quite a few of them but I only use them from time to time when I'm just messing around during a fight. They seem fine but I don't really see any reason to use them right now.

There's a (minor gameplay spoiler, discussed in the QL) section where you have all weapons taken away, and then are given a royal arm alone. The first section finally trained me to effectively dodge and counter while managing MP in warp-point-free arenas, and the second forced me to figure out a good attack -> dodge -> regen health pattern to manage HP and MP. After that, I've used royal arms and magic almost exclusively because the damage output is so incredibly high.

Also, I finished the story before discovering that when crafting magic, after selecting your elements you can select an item from your inventory to inject into the mix as well. This is huge! Added effects range from casting a spell multiple times per use to a chance of insta-kill. The reason I bring it up is that for hard monster hunts, I now tend to craft spells that also heal the caster. This lets me use royal arms with abandon, cast a spell, and continue on with little delay.

I use them constantly. They're really powerful and as long as you keep an eye on your health and retreat when necessary to recover you'll be fine.

Royal Arms are good once you learn to manage the HP drain with point-warping, Ignis' Regroup, etc. Plus each weapon gives you a unique passive bonus when equipped, so it's good to always carry one around, even if you're not going to use it.

@xaviar: Thanks for sharing your strats. I've only really tried using the sword in the first fight after you get it, in which there were no point warps or cover for you to recover HP, so I guess I became a bit gun-shy after that since even after that short fight, my HP had been drained pretty significantly and I was afraid of the ramifications of using it in a longer fight. I've also not yet gotten proficient at switching weapons mid-fight, so hadn't considered that aspect... thanks for the inspiration!

@nux: I would be interested to hear your reasons as to why you think that way? Is it because of the health drain? They seem so overpowered compared to the normal weapons I have access to that the draw to use them is pretty compelling.

@thatdudeguy: That's interesting. Does hiding in cover or being in a point warp region your health faster than the Royal Arms can drain it? Otherwise it seems it would be pretty difficult to manage unless you're constantly using healing items (and I have the bad habit of being a hoarder in these games, never know when you'll need 99 mega-elixirs on the end boss fight after all!)

I had heard about mixing in items when crafting spells, but I've not really delved into the crafting yet as I'm a tad wary due to the friendly fire aspect of spell casting.

@pompouspizza: Another vote for using them. I think I may give them another try despite my initial hesitation towards them. Thanks!

@encephalon: I hadn't realize they offered passive bonuses! I'll definitely have to go back and inspect them again when I boot up the game again.

I didn't use them at all really, apart from a couple of experiments here and there. But I played pretty gung-ho, preferring to heal myself with items rather than hanging around on warp points. So you definitely don't -need- them.

I haven't used them, as it's just one additional thing I don't have to think about or manage, but I do equip them for the stat bonuses.

I dont really "use" them I just equip them for the extra stats. At the point I am in the game my normal weapons are almost as strong.

I used them once I got them on a hunt but have kind of forgotten about them. I've gotten into some fights that too a little too long to finish and I now realize that maybe I should have used them.

@wchigo: Don't worry too much about friendly fire on the magic grenades. Anyone caught in the spell radius will suffer secondary effects (burn, paralysis, freeze, poison, etc.), but they're safe from raw damage.

@gerrid: I understand that I don't need them but I guess I just wanted to get some other opinions and to see if I could find an excuse to use them.

@octaslash: I'm guessing the stat bonuses are what appear in the box to the side of your HP/MP bars, as I saw those go up rather significantly when I equipped the sword.

@blackichigo: You must be pretty far in then. I just recently was able to acquire a sword in a shop that had an attack stat of 89 (or somewhere there about), which is still a far cry from the 140+ of the sword royal arm that I got.

@junkiiiii: They do some awesome damage, as I tried them out for a bit again last night and when you pair them up with the bonus damage from a long warp strike, it takes a healthy chunk off of some health bars.

@encephalon: OH WHAT?! That literally changes everything! I've been so gun-shy that I haven't used magic at all, aside from when they teach you how to use it in the tutorial, for fear of friendly fire. Oh man... I feel so foolish now.

@wchigo: You've still got to be careful with magic, because while your bros are shivering/convulsing/burning, enemies can and will wail on they asses.

They are very very powerful weapons, I went out of my way that by chapter 5 I had just got 7 of them already.

I wrote up 2 combat mini tutorials in other threads on here, basically you can also use them mid combo so start a combo with say the engine blade hold block/dodge for a second as you switch to a royal arm then back to circle and you'll pull off a combo.

Secondly they all have unique properties, for example Sword of the Wise can do a double warp strike! This is super useful when breaking enemies (KEEP THAT IN MIND IF YOU WANT TO UPGRADE THE ENGINE BLADE LATER IN THE GAME)

Also when you unlock Armiger mode the more you have the better!

@wchigo: im not that far. Chapter 8. Upgrade the engine blade. Do it.

I'll use them for a bit and then switch to Avengers daggers for that those sweet sweet low health crits.

@blackichigo: I just hit chapter 3 and I've only been able to upgrade my Engine Blade once (it's at like 40 ATK right now...)

I love how the royal arms each feel like their own unique weapon and not just a resking of a sword/greatsword/lance ect. I can have my favorites in what I want to use based on their own unique abilities and how I want to play the combat and that is really refreshing. I love the ridiculous warp strike and damage of the katana and the end attack of the spoiler sword you get in the story. They're just really good for enemies that don't really have a weakness or that the weakness isn't that much of a weakness since they will always do damage.

@wchigo: You'll be able to upgrade it a 2 more times. The last upgrade is ridiculous. Were the Royal Arms not in the game, I'm sure it would be Noct's is most powerful weapon. It has something over 300 attack and combined with how fast its moveset is, it is kind of OP. Also it not eating your HP when you use it is a big plus.