The World Ends With You is one of the most unique RPGs on the DS, and its battle system is still one of Square Enix’s best in any of its RPGs. The World Ends With You has features on top of features, and the same is true for the sequel. Neo: The World Ends With You handles some things differently than its predecessor, while other features are entirely brand new.
One of these new mechanics includes the Social Network. It’s basically a skill tree Rindo can use in order to unlock perks in the game from new difficulty options to easier ways to sell Pins. Of the skills in Neo: The World Ends With You, which are the most useful to unlock early on?
10 Uber Pin Unlock
The first time this skill can be unlocked is through Fuya. It allows players to equip Uber Pins, which are more powerful than the standard ones. It’s as simple as that.
As the game goes on, more and more contacts will offer players to equip more Uber Pins. By the end of Neo: The World Ends With You, it should be possible to equip all party members with an Uber Pin.
9 Regroup And Retry
This is a skill that can be unlocked relatively early on when Nagi joins the group. Before this skill is acquired players can choose to retry a battle following their death. However, there is a catch. Players can’t equip new gear or Pins or change the difficulty.
Regroup and Retry allows players to change their gear before jumPing back into battle. This is a great tool that will reduce a lot of frustration early on in the campaign.
8 ShibuPay Expansion
This skill can be unlocked through Eiru. The default amount of Yen players can gather is 99,999. Once ShibuPay Expansion is unlocked, players can add an extra 9 to that extension and there is one more unlock for the wallet as well.
This is important because as the game goes on, things will start to get more and more expensive. It would be impossible to buy clothes, for example, without the ability to hold more money.
7 Hard Difficulty
Neo: The World Ends With You begins on Normal difficulty. Once the Social Network unlocks, two more difficulties can be obtained through it. The better of the two is Hard, which is unlocked through Sho. Conversely, Fret has the Easy difficulty setting.
While Easy is good for those struggling with the game, Hard is better because it allows players to unlock rarer Pins. However, it should be noted that all three settings will net players different Pin rewards from the same monsters. Be sure to experiment as to not miss a Pin.
6 Pin Multi-Wield
This is kept secret for at least half, if not two-thirds, of the game but players can have up to five party members once Shoka joins. That’s a mild spoiler but how she does join will be left a mystery.
Once this story beat is reached, Shoka also unlocks a skill that players can buy to have more than one type of Pin equipped. For example, two Y skills can be equipped, so using Y in battle will fire both off. Consequently, Shoka really helps expand the JRPG's combat system.
5 Noise Magnet
There are skills in the game that increase the number of Noise someone can chain together above five, which is great. However, it’s hard to gather that many at once.
That’s where Noise Magnet comes in handy which is unlocked through Sumio at first. This draws Noise toward the player. Combining Noise Magnet with chain-focused skills is recommended to fully dominate Neo: The World Ends With You and reap greater rewards.
4 HP Viewer
This is a simple one but an absolute must for Neo: The World Ends With You. Rindo has the HP Viewer ability in the Social Network, and it displays enemy health bars. This makes it easier to tell how effective attacks are in combat.
Numbers are great in battle but they are meaningless without a health bar to provide context to the data. HP Viewer should be the first skill players acquire in Neo: The World Ends With You.
3 Divine Dodge
Players can unlock this ability once Beat joins the team. That’s another mild spoiler, but like Shoka, the details will be spared. Divine Dodge increases the invisibility window when players dodge roll in combat.
This allows players to be riskier with their maneuvers, such as rolling right through a wide beam that seems like it would hurt. Timing is still everything in combat but this certainly helps.
2 Girl Power
This is unlocked through Machastree. One of several combo skills that players can unlock in Neo: The World Ends With You, Girl Power increases how effective special meters are during combat. Girl Power, in particular, raises the Groove earned by chaining together attacks through Nagi and Shoka, hence the meaning of the skill’s name.
All combat maneuvers such as this should be bought as soon as they unlock in the Social Network.
1 Formidable Footing
This common skill found in many action RPGs is unlocked through one of the normal red hooded Reapers. Formidable Footing unlocks the ability for players to recover in midair after getting knocked back. This allows characters to get right back to the action instead of rolling around on the ground in pain.
Combined with Divine Dodge, Formidable Footing will make Neo: The World Ends With You easier in the long run. Like any sort of dodging skill, practice makes perfect.