Trails to Azurewas released recentlyas the second part of the Crossbell duology, the second major story arc of the long-running storyline told by theTrailsseries. Like the other games in the series, characters inTrails to Azureuse special quartz to power up their stats and give them arts to use in battle.
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Trails to Azurehas the distinction of introducing special Master Quartz to the series, powerful quartz that can drastically change how a character plays. However, this list will only focus on the regular quartz that players can find and equip all over the game. Here are the best quartz of that type, ranked by their usefulness.
10Luck
While it’s fairly rare in theTrailsseries, players may occasionally find themselvesneeding to hunt for lootfrom a specific monster. While monsters never necessarily drop anything rare, they can drop incredibly useful items like ingredients for cooking and bait for fishing.
Luck is a time quartz that essentially doubles enemy drop rate, making it considerably easier to grind for items. While Luck cannot be made in the orbal shop, players can get multiple copies of this quartz by exchanging items for it at Neinvalli, or by feeding Coppe the cat a Noble Carp.
9Dragon Vision
Analyzing enemies is a big part of combat inTrails, as it provides incredibly useful information such as elemental weakness and ailment resistances. However, it can be tough to manually scan each and every enemy, especially during more difficult boss battles.
Dragon Vision is a level 2 fire quartz that grants the equipped character the ability to automatically analyze any enemy they defeat, so long as they land the finishing blow. This quartz can exclusively be obtained by exchanging items for it at Neinvalli, though one can also be obtained in a treasure chest in Chapter 4.
8Heaven’s Eye
Heaven’s Eye is once againa strong space quartz like it was inTrails from Zero, being a combination of two different quartz: Eagle Eye and Information. Eagle Eye grants the ability to see enemy positions on the mini-map, while Information allows the equipped party member to see enemy information without analyzing them.
Heaven’s Eye grants two useful effects for the price of one slot. In addition, it adds a variety of elements to any character’s orbal line (4 Space, 2 Fire, and 2 Mirage), making it easier to access certain arts. Heaven’s Eye can be obtained by feeding Coppe a Gold Salmon, exchanging at Neinvalli, or by defeating a particular boss in Chapter 3.
7Action Series/Onyx Gem
Speed is always an important element in JRPGs, even when they are focused on turn-based combat. The same is true ofTrailsgames, where Speed determines how quickly and how often a character appears on the timeline.
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Each stat has a quartz that helps boost it, and the quartz series that boost Speed is the Action series. Action quartzes are easily obtained at the orbal shop by exchanging a certain amount of time sepith. The strongest quartzes in this series, including the Onyx Gem, grant huge boosts to Speed but reduce MOV as balance.
6Shroud
Trailshas never had random encounters in its games. Instead, enemies appear on the field where players can initiate combat by running into them. Enemies can also react to the party, and avoiding the enemy’s vision to land surprise attacks is a big part of Azure’s combat.
Shroud is a mirage quartz that makes enemies ignore the party, allowing players to land sneak attacks with ease. Shroud’s true strength, however, lies in its massive elemental value, granting 4 Mirage and 3 of every other element to the orbal line, making it a must-have to build a massive arts list. Shroud is difficult to obtain, and can only be exchanged for at Neinvalli.
5EP Cut Series/Gold Gem
Arts may be more important in Azure than they were in Zero,due to just how incredibly useful they can be. However, EP costs are a lot higher in this game as well, meaning that reckless casting can end up with characters running out of steam before the battle is over.
With arts more vital to battle than before, the EP Cut series of space quartzes become incredibly useful, and every arts caster should have the strongest version available in their orbment. EP Cut quartzes can be obtained by exchanging time, space, and mirage sepith at the orbal shop, while Gold Gem is available from a boss monster in the final chapter.
4Septium Vein
Sepith is one of the most important, if not the most important resource in theTrailsseries. Sepith is not only exchanged for mira (the series' currency) but for quartz as well. It is also needed for unlocking and upgrading orbment slots, all important things for progression in theTrailsgames.
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Septium Vein is an earth quartz that boosts the sepith gain from a defeated enemy if the equipped character lands the killing blow. Septium Vein can be exchanged for at Neinvalli, though one can be found in a treasure chest in Armorica Old Road.
3Cast Series/Time Gem
Arts are largely balanced by the time it takes for them to take effect. Most arts take quite some time to cast, making them much slower compared to regular attacks and crafts. Despite this drawback, arts remain strong due to their damage output and utility.
The Cast series of time quartz can easily mitigate this drawback by reducing the amount of time necessary to cast an art. Cast quartzes can be obtained at the orbal shop for time and space quartz, while the ultimate Time Gem, which reduces cast time by 50%, can be obtained in a treasure chest in the final dungeon.
2Evade Series/Emerald Gem
Evasion inTrails to Azureis much more important compared toTrails from Zero. This is due to the possibility of creating evasion tanks with close to 100% evasion, usually using Lloyd due to him having access to special evasion-boosting equipment.
Also important to building an evasion tank is the Evade series of wind quartz, which also boosts evasion at the expense of slightly reducing defense. Evade quartzes can be obtained by exchanging wind sepith at the orbal shop, while the ultimate Emerald Gem can be obtained from a boss monster in the final chapter.
1Bells
Throughout the game, players will encounter monster chests that warn the player of incredibly powerful monsters hidden inside. The chests all contain powerful, high-level monsters that most will not be able to beat until much later in the game, usually around the final chapter.
These challenges are worth taking on, however, as the reward is a Bell quartz, with one existing for each of the seven elements in the game. It grants its holder the ability to immediately act after casting an art of its corresponding element, making arts incredibly powerful and easily spammable. Bells can be used to trivialize many boss fights, even those that would be incredibly difficult otherwise.
The Legend Of Heroes: Trails To Azureis available on PC, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch.
