This is Amir Salore, my Knight file. I’ve managed to get as much Sea Exploration as I possibly can with him, all without any form of story progress past the intro cutscene. Why? Because I thought it’d be fun.
Turns out it isn’t, at least until you’re at a level that has enough quests spawned. Let me explain how that all went.
How much of the Bronze Sea can be completed without the story?
Obviously, no story means no quests from Estrid. No quests from Estrid means no Redwake citizens, so therefore, no Redwake completion and Bronze Sea Explorer title. There can’t be a lot beyond that, right?
Well, turns out, there’s a lot of stuff you can do without dealing with the Redwake fiasco. In fact…
…you can get 98% completion, with almost every island having all exploration tasks done! There are only three islands in the B.S. that can’t be completed.
- Redwake - You can’t complete quests, talk to citizens, nor hire the Redwake Warriors. Oddly enough, the Redwake of the Bronze Sea quest doesn’t activate when arriving at the island; only finishing Estrid’s conversation will complete it. You can open the 15 chests required.
- Sailor’s Lodge - The Starving Woman only appears after completing Fort Talos’ part of the story.
- Ravenna - For being the focal point of the B.S. story, there’s surprisingly only two completion goals locked away, namely the Double-Crosser quest and hiring the Ravenna Deserters, both of which only appear after killing King Calvus IV.
How should I get EXP?
This is something I should’ve thought of when I first decided to try this sort of challenge. As it turns out, completing Exploration Tasks doesn’t grant a lot of experience, but at the same time, it’s one of the few reliable ways to get it early on. Obviously, Dawn Island is a must-do, but what about other areas?
Well, we can scratch off islands with Treasure Chart requirements, since those are impossible until we can get Treasure Charts, and we can’t get Treasure Charts until we hit Level 20. Quests are also completely out of the picture right at the start. This means that exploring Gloam Ruins, Mango Isle, and Darkpine Isle is the best way to start. Whispering Caverns, Cassia Bay, and Fort Talos are a good bet too, although they’re rather far away from Dawn Island, your permanent spawn point. You might be afraid of touching the Jaws area, but both the Northern and Southern areas are actually fully completable too.
So seven islands out of thirty-two are completable, right? Well, there are also the sky islands, all of which are completable as well.
All four of them.
So EXP is still an issue. Personally, I’d say to complete these islands, then see if you can take down some Spire Bandits, Frost Brigands, or Ice Smugglers. They aren’t good EXP, but they might give you the edge you need to finally get some Frostmill-related quests, or at least the Delivery for Enizor quest, which unlocks at Level 12. From there, it’s a snowball effect of quests. During your downtime while completing quests, I’d also make sure to do some Diving Points if they aren’t too deep. They give about a third of your total EXP from what I’ve seen, which can help somewhat.
If you don’t have any quests available, go search for Sea Charts and do Underwater Structures. Hope your build is good enough for those; speaking of which…
What Stat Build should I use?
This might sound weird, but just bear with me. You know I said that my file for this little adventure, Amir Salore, is a Knight, right?
Well, turns out that was a pretty bad choice.
Knight, while opening with two attack options right off the bat with the Old Dagger and Eagle Patrimony, still relies on chests to get a good set of skills going. Even then, you also cannot work with your awakening, since that’s a story quest. For some reason, I can’t destroy Jellyfish in Diving Points or Underwater Structures at all. Throwing skills? Already nerfed in water. Flying Slash or Dual Crescents? Nope, nothing. Piercing Shot? Nein. Spirit Blast? NOPE!
If you want an easy time doing this, make sure to pick a stat build and ability set that can actually work in this situation. Weapons are completely out. I’m not too sure about how well Strength builds can kill Jellyfish, but last time I checked, it didn’t go too well. This means Magic is optimal, but that also means we can’t use Fire, Plasma, Magma, Explosion, Ash, Ice, or Snow Magic, since those were hit with just the loveliest game design. Personally, I’d pick something like Lightning or Metal.
Outside of that, doing the Underwater Structures is the same as usual. I think having no awakening is actually why I can’t destroy the jellyfish, but that’s just a hunch. Also, I would rather get shot than step near them.
How hard is it overall?
Honestly, it isn’t hard, just extremely tedious. The bulk of the difficulty comes from getting enough levels to get quests rolling in; having no awakening might make things a little harder too, depending on what build you pick.
Would I do it again? Maybe; I’m already doing it for the Nimbus Sea too. Hint: You can currently get 100% of Nimbus completion, and make landfall on the nameless island above Port Mistral.
