Metaphor: ReFantazio: 10 Best Bond Abilities

In Metaphor: ReFantazio, you can form bonds with certain distinctive individuals, each one of whom embodies one of the heroic spirits of your Archetypes.

Making friends is nice for its own sake, and unlocking new Archetypes for combat certainly doesn’t hurt, but those aren’t the only reasons you should spare a thought for your Followers.

Every time you level up one of your Bonds, you receive a new ability. Sometimes, it’s something simple, like a discount on studying their respective Archetype, but other times, you unlock specific abilities like convenient time-savers, dungeon exploration aids, and various discounts at the many shops around the kingdom.

10 More: More’s Magic Igniter

The Convenience Of Akademia, Everywhere You Go

Early in the story, whenever you want to switch out your characters’ Archetypes or their inherited skills, you need to visit More in Akademia.

While More can be found in all towns, before dungeons, and in the Gauntlet Runner, if you’re already in a danger zone, you can’t change up your kit.

With the help of More’s Magic Igniter, you can use the Archetype and skill inheritance menus from your pause screen instead of having to slog all the way back to Akademia every time.

It’s a time-saver, and you can hot-swap Archetypes in the middle of a dungeon.

9 More: Ability Forecast

Know What’s To Come To Prioritize Your Bonds

While it’s nice to make friends with everyone for the sake of character development, it can be a little annoying to dedicate time to a Bond you’re not getting tangible benefits out of.

If you’re looking to optimize your time with your Followers, a bit of knowledge in advance can go a long way.

More’s Ability Forecast reveals the full ability progression list of every Follower you’ve obtained, including their name and effect.

If you’re trying to rush a relationship to get a specific ability, you’ll know exactly how many times you need to rank up before it’s unlocked.

8 Junah: Triumphant Hymn

Every Bit Of MP You Can Get Helps

While crawling through dungeons in Metaphor, your party’s collective MP reserves constantly drain away as you battle monsters.

MP restoration items are hard to come by, so you need every little fount of additional MP you can get, from cooked meals to convenient abilities.

One of these convenient abilities is Junah’s Triumphant Hymn, which restores a modicum of MP for the whole party after every successful battle.

If you can max out her Bond, Triumphant Hymn evolves into Heroic Hymn, which restores even more MP after a battle. It’s obviously not quite a full recovery, but it’ll definitely keep you going longer.

7 Maria: Speed Cooking

We Don’t Have All Day To Stand Over A Stove

When you first unlock the ability to cook in the Gauntlet Runner’s kitchen, you initially have to spend an entire day or evening preparing a single meal.

The various recipes you can prepare can be very useful, but we’re on a schedule here, and all that wasted time cooking could be put to more practical purposes.

With the help of Maria’s Speed Cooking ability, you can prepare an entire meal in the Gauntlet Runner’s kitchen without actually taking up time. This will free up more time to increase your Bonds, level up your stats, or engage in other miscellaneous activities around the Gauntlet Runner.

6 Catherina: Bounty Bonus

If You’re Going to Risk Your Life, It Better Be Worth It

Hunting large monsters at the behest of a town’s Recruitment Center is a great way to make a quick buck, not to mention get leads on new dungeons that may hold other treasures and goodies.

Of course, a hunting expedition requires funding, and it kind of takes the fun out of it if you have to spend your whole purse on replenishing your supplies.

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With the help of Catherina’s Bounty Bonus, the monetary rewards for every Recruitment Center bounty you clear will be increased exponentially.

Apparently, Catherina is such a renowned bounty hunter herself that the guard doesn’t have the guts to turn her down when she asks for better payouts on your behalf.

5 Catherina: Comrades In Battle

One More Pair Of Fists Never Hurts

In just about any other fantasy RPG, a distinctive character like Catherina would definitely be a party member, but unfortunately, she’s too busy in the run for the crown to join your crew in Metaphor.

That said, while she can’t join you completely, she can still chip into your efforts now and then.

With Catherina’s Comrades in Battle ability, the lady herself will appear at the start of battle to deliver a decisive knuckle sandwich to one random enemy.

Unfortunately, Catherina will only come to your aid in nonessential side dungeons, but it’s still a huge help when working on requests and bounties.

4 Alonzo: Grifter’s Eye

Peg Monsters Before You Even Meet Them

Normally, the first time you encounter a new monster while dungeon-crawling in Metaphor, Gallica won’t be able to tell what they’re weak or resistant to.

You’ll just have to try things at random until you land upon a weakness and go from there.

If you’re in a hurry, Alonzo’s Grifter’s Eye ability will instantly reveal all of a monster’s affinities when you scan them, even if you’ve never encountered them before.

This won’t work on boss enemies, however; you’re still going to have to work those out the old-fashioned way.

3 Brigitta: Guild Discount

There’s Perks To Membership

Warfare and armor are two of the biggest money sinks in any new town within Metaphor. While you’ll occasionally get lucky and find gear for your equipped Archetypes in dungeons, you’ll usually have to cough up for something decent at the weapon and armor shops to stand a chance.

To lighten your load somewhat, Brigitta’s Guild Discount ability will give you a discount at all weapon and armor shops in the game, as well as her Igniter shop in Grand Trad.

Amusingly, this discount extends even to places it really shouldn’t, such as the Mustari shops on Eht Ria, with a guild representative apparently leaning on them until they agreed.

2 Bardon: Rapid Swapper

Move It, Troops, Double Time!

Once you’ve got more than four party members, you can swap them out in the middle of combat via the Tactics menu. However, swapping a party member out costs a full turn icon, and in the middle of a heated fight, even a single move can make a big difference.

With the help of Bardon’s Rapid Swapper ability, swapping party members in combat only costs half a turn icon instead of a full one.

You might miss an opportunity to exploit a weakness, but ensuring everyone gets at least one action can be vital for preserving your strategy.

1 Bardon: Escape Master

Look, A Distraction!

One of the most frustrating scenarios in Metaphor is when an enemy gets the drop on you in the field, then spends a whole turn whaling on your party or inflicting them with status ailments.

To make matters worse, you usually can’t escape from ambush battles, forcing you to tough it out and waste resources.

With Bardon’s Escape Master ability, you’ll have a 100% escape rate from all normal Squad Battles, even if they’ve ambushed you.

If you’d rather not burn the healing and status recovery items, you can make a break for it and try to stun the enemy on the field again (or just scram).

Next

Metaphor: ReFantazio All Elite Archetypes, Ranked

Each Archetype has its own role to play in Metaphor: ReFantazio and can be levelled to Elite tiers which unlock new skills and abilities.

Released

October 11, 2024

Engine

GFD

ESRB

T For Teen // Blood, Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence

How Long To Beat

66 Hours

Steam Deck Compatibility

Playable

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

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