The DioField Chronicle characters and party guide
Nintendo Everything has created a characters guide for The DioField Chronicle detailing the best party members to use at each point in the game, covering recommended skills, adjutants, and general tactics to ensure victory.
Early and Mid Game (Chapters 1-4)
Recommended Party
Andrias, the protagonist of The DioField Chronicle, is also fittingly one of its best characters. Whilst he cannot make much use of the Shield Wall class ability, he has access to something far more valuable in the Assassination skill. If this is used to deliver the finishing blow to an enemy, cooldown time is reset to zero, meaning he can then use it again on another enemy. This will help you eliminate the weaker Sharpshooter units which will otherwise hang back and slowly whittle away to your unit’s HP, and also to more quickly finish off stronger opponents when they are near death.
Fredret, the second unit available from the start of the game, will be your most mobile until Chapter 4, and is a good choice for a party member. When upgraded, his skills provide useful secondary bonuses, with Full Frontal Assault allowing him to cover distance quickly and being effective against Sharpshooters, and Furious Flurry being more effective against beast-type units.
Izelair, your third unit available from the beginning of The DioField Chronicle, is an excellent character to draw aggro. Despite being slower than other characters, she has access to Shield Wall and can use this to draw in enemies, and her Shield Bash will be vital in disrupting enemy attacks.
Shivat, who you will unlock in Chapter 2, is your best choice for a Magicker, having a higher damage output than Waltaquin and a better healing skill in Sanctuary. Give him the Replica Wand, unlocked early in Weapon Development, so that he can use this and Lightning Rod, which is one of the better offensive magic skills.
Adjutants
You will unlock Iscarion and Rickenback early in the game, and should set them both as adjutants, ideally to Andrias and Fredret. Equip them with weapons that give them access to Stun Shot or Backflip, so you can utilize these in battle to interrupt enemy attacks.
Waltaquin is best set as an adjutant to Shivat, so that he can provide support with Ignition and Frostbind: the earliest you will be able to equip a weapon with these two skills is the Mage Staff, from Rank 2 Weapon Development. Replace Waltaquin with Estalt once you unlock him in Chapter 3 – you’ll understand why later!
Donovar is best set as an adjutant to Izelair, so that she can take advantage of the healing effects of his Axe of Grace skill. In the beginning of the game your available SP will be limited, and is better invested in other characters that have more long-term use.
Strategy
Regardless of your chosen difficulty, your strategy should be a simple one: draw the attention of enemies with Izelair, and use Andrias and Fredret to attack them from behind with ambushes, providing support and healing as necessary with Shivat. Where possible, use Assassination with Andrias to finish off enemies. Where you are being attacked by Soldiers and Cavalier enemies being supported by Sharpshooters from a distance, you can also use Mounted Charge with Fredret to push them all back before using Frostbind to keep them together, making them easier to finish off.
Alternatives and adjustments
You will unlock additional units over the course of the game’s first four chapters who are all viable in combat (one of them, Umarida, will actually prove to be extremely helpful in the endgame, see below) but your initial party is good enough to see you through the majority of the game, and level growth is slow, so it is not recommended that you swap your characters in and out too much unless you are partial to grinding.
Endgame (Chapter 5 onwards)
Recommended Party
Andrias remains a strong staple party character in The DioField Chronicle and will serve the same function as he did in the first half of the game: to finish off enemies with Assassination.
Umarida, who you will have unlocked earlier in the game, becomes one of the best characters to use once you unlock Rank 5 in the shop. This will let you purchase a Dragon Claw Bangle, which gives you a Critical Rate of 100% at full health. This allows Umarida to do thousands of damage to multiple enemies with her Chain Shot and Headshot skills!
Zoruaq, who you will unlock in Chapter 4 after clearing the sub-quest A Warrior Gets His Wings, should replace Fredret immediately once you get him. He has access to two skills – Wings of the Storm and Cyclone – that you will want to invest SP in as soon as possible, with the former having a massive area of effect and able to pull enemies close together, and the latter being able to hit multiple targets for a high amount of damage. Zoruaq also has the Aggressive Healing ability, which will recover 5% of the damage he deals as HP, making him a good unit to draw aggro.
Chappleman, who you will unlock in Chapter 6 via the subquest Give to Those Who Reach Out, will be one of the last characters you recruit. He serves much the same function as Zoruaq, having access to the same skills, and similarly high damage potential. He has the Aggressive EP Recovery ability instead, making him a better choice for using skills in most situations.
Adjutants
Catherine and Izelair are best set as adjutants to Umarida and Zoruaq, so that you can interrupt enemy attacks with Shield Bash and Shield Charge. Make sure they have a weapon equipped that gives you access to these skills.
Estalt is best set as an adjutant to Chappleman. Thanks to his Aggressive EP Recovery ability he is best suited to cast Ignition on the party and maintain it as necessary. Estalt also gives access to Frostbind, in the event that you still need it.
Shivat, once you have unlocked Chappleman, is best set as an adjutant to Andrias, so that he can provide healing support with Sanctuary if it becomes necessary. As Andrias’ primary role is still to use Assassination to finish off weaker enemies, he shouldn’t be in a cooldown state and will be able to provide emergency healing where needed.
Strategy
Begin each mission by using Ignition on your characters, and then use Zoruaq to draw in as many groups of enemies as possible, if they do not rush towards you. Once they are within the area of effect, have him use Wings of the Storm. Immediately after this, hit them with Chain Shot or Headshot with Umarida, and then finish off any that survive this with Andrias, using Assasination if you can or Avatar Rush if you cannot. Once you unlock Chappleman, you can also use Cyclone after Wings of the Storm if you choose. If you are unable to finish off the enemies caught up in it this way (which is unlikely unless they have multiple health bars) then use Frostbind and hit them with auto attacks until you can.
This strategy should leave you free to focus your efforts on enemies with more than one health gauge, which are much easier to take down when you don’t need to worry about other enemies. If you find that you’re taking too much damage on higher difficulties, swap one of your party members for Izelair or Catherine for their survivability, and support them as needed with Sanctuary. Remember to re-cast Ignition on your characters once it wears off.
