Having access to powerful early demons is crucial in any Shin Megami Tensei game, and whilst we certainly wouldn’t rank Soul Hackers 2 among the most difficult, you’ll still have a hard time without a powerful roster backing you up. Loading up on generically powerful demons isn’t the best idea either, because each of your party members have strengths and weaknesses that you’ll need to pay attention to. Picking strong elemental choices to match your team members is easy, so we’ve spent some time in the Cirque du Goumaden fusing up some genuinely useful choices for the early game.
Pixie S
Available as a Special Fusion in the early game, Pixie S is the ideal healing demon to take with you in the early game of Soul Hackers 2. Early on, Arrow is earmarked for the role of healer, thanks to specialising in Ice and Healing skills, however it is perfectly reasonable to build another for this purpose, and in this case Saizo makes for a great Pixie S partner. Both single and multi target force spells will be at your disposal, which he can make great use of, and Pixie S will also provide single and party wide heals, thanks to Dia and Media! You’ll even get a nice bonus to your MP total, thanks to learning Mana Bonus at level 12.
Early Benefits
- Single and group target Force spells, Zan & Mazan.
- Single and full party heals, Dia and Media.
- Learns the MP boosting passive Mana Bonus at level 12.
- Ideal early demon for Saizo.
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Neko Shogun
Whilst our second recommendation might seem a little strange, after all Neko Shogun only has access to one elemental attacking spell, its true power comes from a couple of supportive elements within its kit; Rakunda and Sabbath Healer. The former is a defence debuff that applies to the entire enemy team, meaning you’ll be able to deal big damage to groups of tough enemies, which is particularly useful versus tough quest encounters in the Soul Matrix. The latter is essentially a chance for a free party heal when you complete a Sabbath, and whilst it’s not anywhere near guaranteed at this level, you will be thankful when it hits deep into a dungeon dive.
Early Benefits
- Early access to Rakunda, which debuffs the defence of the entire enemy team.
- Learns Sabbath Healer at level 13, which has a chance to restore HP for the entire party when a Sabbath is activated.
- Access to the single target healing spell, Dia.
- Having access to Agi would make this ideal for Milady or Ringo, however we would opt for the latter here, and allow Milady to take advantage of the debuffed enemies with more powerful physical & fire attacking demons.
Halphas
Alright, so you’ve made yourself a Neko Shogun, and your team is able to deal increased damage to the entire enemy team, but what if they’re dealing too much to your squad? In steps Halphas, to complete the ideal duo of early game debuffs by providing Tarunda, which reduces the offence of your opponents. Skills outside of this aren’t fantastic, consisting mostly of Life Drain and some elemental dodge passives, however the Heatwave skill is an excellent all-targeting physical skill, which will be useful when clearing out regular encounters as either RIngo or Milady. Generally speaking we opt for the latter of these two characters, because Milady will deal great physical damage with Heatwave whilst Ringo debuffs or aims for spell weaknesses.
Early Benefits
- Knows Heatwave, a powerful group physical skill.
- Access to Tarunda, which debuffs the attack of the entire enemy team.
- Life Drain, Dodge Fire and Dodge Ice are also situationally useful.
- Great choice for Milady in the early game – she can Heatwave to deal damage in normal encounters, and pitch in with Tarunda in tougher battles.
Koppa Tengu
Alright, so our last two choices focused on tearing down your opponents with debuffs, but what about powering up your allies? Everybody can stack Elec skills on Ringo or Fire skills on Milady, but why not pick something up that makes everyone more powerful? Well, this is where Koppa Tengu steps in, providing as it does the ability to buff both the attack and agility of the entire party via Tarukaja and Sukukaja respectively. These last three turns each, and once they’re combined with the debuffs we’ve detailed above, you’ll well and truly have the deck stacked entirely in your favour. You’ll also get the Force spell Zan, and whilst this isn’t tremendously powerful, it’s still nice to have an attacking skill to exploit weaknesses.
Early Benefits
- Tarukaja will buff the attack of your entire team for 3 turns.
- Sukukaja will buff the agility of your entire team for 3 turns.
- Access to the Force skill Zan makes this an obvious early demon for Saizo.
- Force Wall isn’t too useful, and Koppa Tengu is weak to physical, so take care when using it – the buffs are great but a weakness is still a weakness in an SMT game.
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Leanan Sidhe
By the time you reach level 20 and above, which we really consider to be the end of the ‘early’ game, you’ll be well and truly used to the world of Soul Hackers 2. Prioritising elements and skill types to each character isn’t difficult, however finding powerful niche demons can be a bit of a pain, especially when incoming damage is starting to increase quite significantly. Rather than pick out an attacking option then, we’re going to recommend a great healer to help you on your way.
Leanan Sidhe is everything you could want in a healer at this point in time. You’ll gain access to the group heal Media, the medium single target heal Diarama, and a couple of useful elemental skills to deal damage with in the form of Bufula and Lullaby, which are Ice and Dark skills respectively. Having both single and group heals along with two elemental attacks is a boon at this point in the game, and it’ll ensure that Arrow – the de facto choice for Leanan Sidhe – remains useful in what tends to be a power trough portion of the game for him.
Early Benefits
- Media and Diarama provide group and single target healing options, the latter of which is very useful when incoming boss damage ramps up.
- Bufula is the medium single target Ice skill, which this demon innately knows.
- Also innately known is Lullaby, a Dark skill that attacks all enemies and has a chance to send them to sleep. Even if the sleep misses, the dark damage will still activate the weakness and grant a stack.
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Categories: Soul Hackers 2