BlazBlue: Entropy Effect Guide – Tips and Strategies
If you like anime and side-scrolling action roguelikes, then give BlazBlue Entropy Effect a try. The trailers and the Youtube videos don’t do it justice and to experience the game in its true glory, you’ll have to get your hands dirty.
The game does get a tad overwhelming with all the particles and attack effects flying around. But once you embrace the chaos, the game makes you feel like a god character in your own anime world.
In this beginner-level BlazBlue: Entropy Effect guide, I’ll be focusing on the basic controls, abilities, and a few other things to help you get started.
Table of Contents
Controller and Keyboard Controls
BlazBlue Entropy Effect offers full controller support, primarily catering to players who prefer traditional fighting game setups. However, you can also play on a keyboard and mouse, though it might require some tweaking to find a comfortable layout.
Controller:
Keyboard Controls:
How to unlock characters
There are 10 characters with the BlazBlue Entropy Effect and you can unlock them with Prototype Analyzers. Each character has a unique set of skills that all seem and feel unique. Once you have a Prototype Analyzer, head to the far right until you come across a narrow pathway.
Jump into the stream to reach the character selection menu.
Once there, simply hover over an unlocked character, and you’ll get the option to unlock them if you have an analyzer on you.
How to obtain Prototype Analyzers
You’ll receive one analyzer at the beginning of the campaign and get more as you keep completing in-game missions. Simply visit each NPC and keep finishing the missions and you’ll have enough analyzers to unlock every character.
The second way to obtain analyzers unlocks a little later in the game. Once you can access the second floor, talk to Dor. After you finish a couple of missions for him, you can exchange AP for Prototype Analyzers.
If you don’t know which ones to unlock first, refer to our BlazBlue Entropy Effect tier list for a detailed breakdown of all the characters.
Why Should You Unlock More Characters? (Spoilers)
More characters let you choose from more evotypes. Evotypes are like templates of stored power. Once you finish a run (either by killing every boss or by dying yourself) with a specific character, four of their skills, called Legacy, are saved for future runs.
The Legacy Move and Legacy Talent are picked automatically. However, you can choose two of your Tactics to also be used for later runs. Having more characters gives you access to a massive library of skill combinations. Now you can optimize your characters down a specific build path and access advanced Potentials in that Potential tree to create more powerful builds.
Building Your Character Effectively
There are several build paths to explore for every BlazBlue character and it might take a while for you to discover them all. The general approach for building every character is to max out one Potential first (if possible) before branching out into different Potentials.
A maxed-out potential is not only easy to remember, but it also unlocks supporting combos that synergize well with the rest of the kit. Once you have a key offensive potential, upgrade your mobility. Get the third dodge and jump and any attack moves that synergize with them.
As for Tactics, I find Ice to be the most easy and powerful of them all. Blade and Umbra are my second favorites, followed by the rest. Feel free to experiment with different Tactics to find your sweet spot.
Potentials: What are They and How to Make the Most of Them
Potentials are abilities. Every character has unique Potentials, and as you keep playing, you can either unlock new ones or upgrade your existing ones with more utilities.
Although it’s nice to have a decent collection of Potentials, always prioritize obtaining all the abilities of a specific Potential before unlocking a new one.
Having too many Potentials makes it confusing to execute them all in combat. You’re better off perfecting one or two core Potentials for all of your characters and moving on to new Potentials once you’ve fully mastered the old ones.
A Note on Tactics
Tactics are special abilities and all of your characters have access to them. Like Potentials, they can also be upgraded to deal more damage or to perform different functions.
Tactics are triggered when you dash, use your legacy moves, or use your skills. Some tactics, like the Ice Spike, are passive abilities that automatically spawn ice shards and attack enemies.
It’s impossible to unlock all the upgrades of a given tactic in one run, especially if you’re a beginner. Once you have a few good evotypes with high-level legacy tactics, you can further upgrade them and make them more powerful.
Note that tactics aren’t as impactful as Potentials. They simply add another layer of utility/ damage, rather than changing the entire playstyle of your character.
Transfer your Progress to a new Save File
In addition to the hack-and-slash aspect of the game, BlazBlue: Entropy Effect also has lore and multiple endings, which you can discover throughout the game.
It even comes with an Inherit mechanic where you can transfer all of your Evotypes, unlocked Prototypes, Crystals, and Mind Upgrades to a new save file.
This lets you replay the story and unlock the different endings without having to unlock everything from scratch.
Make Your Character Stronger with Mind Upgrades
Through Mind upgrades you can obtain additional perks that make your character more powerful and also obtain bonus HP.
You unlock one Mind Crystal slot every five Mind Upgrade levels, up to a maximum of 6 slots.
Once you’ve unlocked a slot, you can unlock Mind Crystals using Shards. Unlocking a Crystal costs 5 Shards and Ascending/upgrading it costs AP boosts its effectiveness.
You can only equip 6 Mind Crystals at a time so choose wisely.
What is Entropy
The entropy system in BlazBlue: Entropy Effect adds more difficulty modifiers, such as increasing the health of enemies or making traps deal more damage, etc. These changes make the game more challenging and fun to play for advanced players who like to push their limits.
Higher entropy levels also unlock different perks to somewhat offset the rising difficulty, such as granting your character two more Potential spaces.
