Part 32: Classes Summary

Makai Kingdom: More Classes Than God
So, there are a hell of a lot of classes in this game, and it can be hard to tell the difference between them sometimes. Let’s just straight go through them and talk about them a bit. In case you’re wondering the order comes from how they’re listed in the Doublejump guide.

Merchant:
Skills: Money+, Spear, Nunchuk, Bazooka, Morningstar
Pros: Good movement, six equipment slots.
Cons: Terrible equipment aptitudes and stats.
Analysis: Not going to lie, Merchants are very bad in combat. They don’t get any passives to help their stats and both their stat growth and equipment aptitudes are very poor. Personally I’d go with either Nunchuks to improve their movement and make them better at scooping up items or Bazookas, the only weapon they are almost decent at using.

Priest:
Skills: SP+, RES+, Dagger, Spear, Book, Syringe, Recovery, Passive
Pros: High SP and RES, healing skills.
Cons: Weak aptitudes with most stats, slow.
Analysis: Priests are strong healers and vitally important in the base for healing and revival between battles. Their ability to use Books gives them some decent offensive options, though they’ll never match a real caster character while they’re in this class.

Magician:
Skills: SP+, INT+, Dagger, Book, Drum, Box, Offensive Magic, Passive
Pros: Second highest magical offensive power.
Cons: Frail and slow.
Analysis: Magicians have a slower natural growth rate but a slightly higher equipment aptitude than Witches. Which you choose to use is largely down to aesthetics frankly. They’re both absolutely brutal. I prefer the weapon choices of Witches as well.

Witch:
Skills: SP+, INT+, Dagger, Book, Staff, Magnet, Offensive Magic, Passive
Pros: Highest magical offensive power in the game.
Cons: Frail and slow.
Analysis: Basically the same as Magicians, but they have a slight edge overall in offensive power and Staves are better than Boxes as far as dual-stat weapons go. Pick whichever you prefer.

Thief:
Skills: MOVE+, JUMP+, Dagger, Rapier, UFO, Rifle, Fishing Pole
Pros: Stealing, fast, many item slots, great throwing.
Cons: Abysmal stats and aptitudes.
Analysis: Thieves are all about stealing items, getting to weird places and stealing items, and getting your buildings to weird places. You could probably do some weird stuff to get them enough stat bonuses to be able to do anything at all but it’d be a huge waste of time. Their MOVE+ skills can be handy, and their vast inventory allows them to carry in useful items.

Warrior (M):
Skills: HP+, ATK+, DEF+, Sword, Morningstar, Spear, Axe
Pros: Decent at hitting things.
Cons: Passives top out relatively low, low SP.
Analysis: Warriors of any flavor are solid at the beginning of the game but are begging to become a better class altogether by the end. Their passive skills don’t top out at +8 even in the highest tier, and while they have solid ATK and DEF they’re not very fast or good at anything else. The Males have more brutal weaponry overall, so expect them to hit a bit harder than Warrior (F) but to plod along thanks to the Move penalties such weaponry inflicts.

Warrior (F):
Skills: HP+, ATK+, DEF+, Sword, Dagger, Rapier, Spear
Pros: Decent at hitting things.
Cons: Passives top out relatively low.
Analysis: Warrior (F) shares a lot of the problems that Warrior (M) does in the late game. She’s better with weapons that improve mobility, though it costs her the raw offensive power a Warrior (M) can bring. Heavy reincarnation can of course help make up for this a bit but if you’re heavily reincarnating you should really at least kick them up to Swordspeople.

Infantry (M):
Skills: HP+, TEC+, TK. EXP, Axe, Rifle, Gatling Gun, Bazooka
Pros: Earns experience in vehicles, decent at shooting things.
Cons: Passives top out relatively low, can be glassy.
Analysis: The TEC version of a Warrior. They become badly outclassed in the later portions of the game both as a raw TEC attacker and as a vehicle pilot. Drop them into a non-terrible class once you’ve got access to them and take advantage of the HP+ skill you’ll migrate there. Infantry (M)’s signature weapons are slow heavy hitters, just like the Warrior (M).

Infantry (F):
Skills: HP+, TEC+, TK. EXP, Dagger, Rifle, Gatling Gun, Flamethrower
Pros: Earns experience in vehicles, decent at shooting things.
Cons: Passives top our relatively low, can be glassy.
Analysis: Just like the Warrior (F), she has a slightly more eclectic set of weapons available to her than the (M). And just like the Infantry (M), she’s badly outclassed once you’ve got the more powerful TEC classes in everything she does. You’ll want to reincarnate her eventually.

Medic:
Skills: SP+, RES+, Dagger, Rifle, Flamethrower, Syringe, Healing, Passive
Pros: Healing, is decent with guns.
Cons: Suffers from a bit of split focus.
Analysis: Medics are a hybrid of an Infantry (F) and Priest pretty much. They’re okay at healing and okay at shooting. If you really feel like you’re missing a lot by not having a slightly tougher healer who can sort of attack without magic then a Medic is your character. The problem is that they’re not ever going to be as good at the things they do as a character of a class that does one thing really well. One interesting idea would be to reincarnate one as an Archer once you’ve got the healing skills, because Archers are objectively good at shooting things while also having enough RES to be about as good as a Medic ever will be.

Engineer:
Skills: TEC+, MANA+, TK. EXP, Drill, Shovel, Bomb, Wrench
Pros: Repairs vehicles and sells parts.
Cons: Has poor stats and aptitudes.
Analysis: An engineer is necessary back at the base to repair vehicles, but he’s just never going to be a really solid contributer on the field. He can only use close range weapons and while he’s good against facilities thanks to some of them there are much better choices. He’s not even fast, nor does he have the inventory slots of a Merchant. He’s okay in a vehicle, and at least it would give him a fighting chance of surviving at all. Still, just don’t roll our your engineer, there’s no good reason.

Professor:
Skills: INT+, TEC+, Bazooka, Cannon, Remote, Bomb
Pros: Very high TEC and INT growth, aptitudes. Levels vehicles and improves shop inventories.
Cons: Hilariously fragile. Slow.
Analysis: Professors are kind of awesome honestly despite being slow and made of glass. They have the capability to dish out serious damage with their TEC based heavy weapons and at the same time have enough INT growth and aptitude that you could also reincarnate from a class that gets spells and have them be an awesome caster. If you’re looking for a character capable of taking on a lot of different types of targets you could do worse than a Professor with a Bazooka and Book on hand and magic skills, letting you hot swap between being anti-vehicle and anti-personnel. Just keep her away from anything hitting her because a light breeze will drop Professors. Your shop inventories are improved by having a high-level Professor on hand.

Swordmaster (M):
Skills: ATK+, JUMP+, Sword, Katana, Spear, Fishing Pole
Pros: Hits very hard.
Cons: Fragile for a melee class.
Analysis: I really like Swordmasters because they fit well with the blitz tactics I prefer. They’re quick and if the enemy is dead they can’t swing back, can they? Katanas are singularly brutal against lone targets, but you’ll probably want to pick up Swords or Spears a bit so they can hit multiple targets when leveling up. Which version you use is largely aesthetics, though Hammers are better than Fishing Poles in my opinion.

Swordmaster (F):
Skills: ATK+, JUMP+, Sword, Katana, Spear, Hammer
Pros: Hits very hard.
Cons: Fragile for a melee class.
Analysis: Everything I said for the male applies here. She’s got better weapon skills than the male and of course NIS purists know that the only good Ronin is the original Ronin. Swordmasters of either flavor are like Warriors++ and the skills having been a Warrior provide them with do sort of counteract some of their natural weaknesses.

Archer:
Skills: RES+, TEC+, Rifle, Drill, Fan, Syringe
Pros: Simply the best TEC attacker.
Cons: A bit fragile.
Analysis: If you want things shot, an Archer is your best bet. They’ve got absolutely brutal TEC (though technically Prinnies are better in raw TEC stat) and combine it with much better weapon skills overall. A high tier Archer with a rifle in her hands is absolutely brutal and can seriously even hang in with special characters in hitting power, a rare feat for a generic character.

Chef:
Skills: HP+, SP+, ATK+, Sword, Nunchuk, Fry Pan, Pie
Pros: Can boost the EXP of other characters, large inventory.
Cons: Somewhat generic.
Analysis: Chefs are a solid class that is decent at a lot of things but not really exceptional at them. Chefs aren’t really ‘for’ fighting, which is good because they’re never going to be as good as your real heavy hitters. What they’re really for is providing your other characters with extra experience by feeding them food items. I’ll explain more about this when we get to the postgame.

Thunder God:
Skills: HP+, ATK+, INT+, Spear, Drum, Fan, Morningstar
Pros: Serious power matched with impressive toughness.
Cons: Sort of slow, poor SP.
Analysis: Thunder Gods are the class Raiden was, and they’re pretty damn brutal. They’re one of the strongest classes when it comes to ATK and they’ve got the INT to actually use a Drum if you’ve got one. They’re a good destination class for a Magician or a Warrior, honestly. They’d benefit from the SP+ and magic skills of the Magician and the DEF+ from the Warrior. They’re VERY annoying to unlock unfortunately, and will likely be the last class you get.

Berserker:
Skills: HP+, ATK+, Sword, Morningstar, Axe, Nunchuk
Pros: Best ATK for a generic.
Cons: Hilariously weak against magic, only three inventory slots.
Analysis: Berserkers are brutal physical attackers, and their highest tiers are matched only by special characters. They’re late game unlocks and are an obvious destination class for physical attackers. They do have two serious problems, though. The first is that magic folds them like an origami crane, and they WILL die to pretty much anything magical unless they resist the hell out of its element. The second is that they don’t have a lot of equipment slots, which makes it harder to take advantage of their superior equipment aptitudes.

Officer:
Skills: TEC+, TK. EXP, Beam Saber, Rapier, Rifle, Bazooka
Pros: Amazing in a vehicle, second highest TEC, very fast.
Cons: Few inventory slots.
Analysis: If you were to want to use a vehicle in anything serious, then you want an Officer driving it. It’s just that simple, there’s nobody better. They’re another late game class like the Berserker and just like the Berserker they suffer from a small inventory. This isn’t quite as bad for them, though, because they’re very fast and great in vehicles (which get their own inventory). They get the rare Beam Saber skill, so if you want Beam Saber skill on a more ATK based character this is one potential source of it. I’d say you should stick to Rifles and maybe Bazookas for serious Officer combat, though. The first lets you potentially improve on their fast movement with shoes whereas the second lets you take advantage of the fact that they’re still fast even with something that slows them down.

Forsaken One (Mud Man):
Skills: HP+, ATK+, MANA+, Sword, Spear, Drill, Shovel
Pros: Decent HP and DEF.
Cons: Unimpressive offense, relatively slow.
Analysis: Mud men suffer from a decidedly unimpressive attack growth and aptitude that sort of negates any benefit access to ATK+ might give them. They’re a nuisance as enemies because they tend to be pretty tough, but since there’s no way to block movement in this game they’re not very useful for your side.

Bombster:
Skills: HP+, SP+, TEC+, Gatling Gun, Bazooka, Flamethrower, Bomb
Pros: Great with heavy weapons.
Cons: Few equipment slots.
Analysis: Actually a pretty decent class. They’re tough and have skills with a wide range of heavy TEC based weapons. They’re very similar to Infantry in a lot of ways, and just like Infantry they fall by the wayside later in the game when much better TEC classes are unlocked unfortunately.

Gardener (Wood Man):
Skills: HP+, DEF+, MANA+, Morningstar, Axe, Hammer, Shovel
Pros: Relatively tough melee fighters.
Cons: Not very fast and lack the ATK+ skills and strong ATK aptitude.
Analysis: A very generic melee attacker overall. Without an ATK+ skill they’ll never be very exciting, and the relatively crappy aptitude for it is just icing on the cake of their dullness. Annoying to fight, though.

Idol:
Skills: SP+, RES+, MOVE+, Rapier, Fan, Magnet, Pie, Healing, Passive
Pros: Very fast, great healers with lots of SP.
Cons: Very little offensive potential.
Analysis: Simply amazing healers, I prefer them for combat healing because they’re amazingly mobile. Keeping one of their inventory slots open also lets them steal items from the ground and throw things while they’re doing their healing and buffing. Just keep in mind that they’ll never be even as good an attacker as a Priest.

Mana Sphere (Big Eye):
Skills: SP+, TEC+, MANA+, Cannon, Flamethrower, Bomb, Balloon
Pros: Massive pools of SP.
Cons: No real offensive power.
Analysis: The only thing Mana Spheres do well is have high SP, and since only Balloons actually use SP to determine damage there’s no great way to directly turn that into increased damage. You’re going to have to rely on their TEC weapons and sadly they just don’t have enough TEC to hang with the big boys.

Evil Carrot:
Skills: EXP+, MANA+, Sword, Spear, Shovel, Morningstar
Pros: Provides awesome skills for reincarnation.
Cons: Not terribly good at killing things nor very tough.
Analysis: Carrots exist to provide your characters with the EXP+ and MANA+ skills. You shouldn’t be using a Carrot as a serious character because Carrots are bad at doing things. Only bring a Carrot out if it’s a real character who is spending time as a Carrot to get high tiers of EXP+, because at least then they’ll have the passives to not be absolutely garbage.

Evil Pumpkin:
Skills: HP+, RES+, TEC+, Dagger, Rifle, Flamethrower, Wrench
Pros: Can fill any role a Soldier would.
Cons: Is just as terrible in the late game as a Soldier.
Analysis: Pumpkins are a lot like Soldiers in most ways. They’re decently resilient to magic but are incredibly vulnerable to physical attacks and just plain do not have the offensive punch to make up for being so glassy. You could use them if you’d prefer instead of a Soldier but you’ll want to replace them with a better class in the late game just like said Soldier.

CORN:
Skills: HP+, SP+, INT+, Dagger, Book, Magnet, Box, Offensive Magic, Passive
Pros: More health than a normal human caster.
Cons: Less SP and INT than its human equivalent.
Analysis: Corn are pretty effective casters for much of the game, only really suffering in the very late game when their lack of access to high-end INT+ skills and slightly weaker INT in general means they won’t have as much raw power as a Witch or even Magician. You could certainly choose to use them if you’d like, they’re mainly just scary to see on the maps as enemies because casters in general are pretty brutal.

Hell Kitty:
Skills: SP+, ATK+, MOVE+, Katana, Morningstar, Nunchuk, Fishing Pole
Pros: Very high Attack and Move.
Cons: Fragile in the extreme.
Analysis: Okay, now here’s a monster with some serious power. Hell Kitties are like caricatures of Swordmasters, they hit even harder but are even more fragile. You’d need to get them ATK+8 from some other class but they have the potential to dish out hits with the best in the endgame despite being ridiculous.

Apples:
Skills: INT+, RES+, Rapier, Book, Magnet, Syringe, Healing, Passive
Pros: Strong attack capabilities for a healer.
Cons: Limited staying power.
Analysis: Here’s our fruit-based healer. He’s got quite a lot of INT and RES so he not only has a lot of healing power but also the ability to do some serious damage potentially. His big problem, though, is that he’s got very few SP for a caster. Don’t expect them to weather a whole random dungeon and still be throwing out big things by the end, but they’re a great way to get the high-tier INT+ and RES+ skills.

Mimic:
Skills: DEF+, RES+, MONEY+, Morningstar, Hammer, Shovel, Box
Pros: Strong defenses, great throwing range.
Cons: Absolutely terrible at all things.
Analysis: The only possible use for these guys is to throw characters who aren’t garbage around the map, because every stat that isn’t DEF and RES is pitiful. Even HP, so their ‘strong defenses’ won’t even matter. They’ll still get one shot by errant leaves and pointed air molecules.

Iron Golem:
Skills: HP+, DEF+, RES+, Gatling Gun, Cannon, Drill, Wrench
Pros: Annoying to kill.
Cons: Not much offensive power.
Analysis: Iron Golems suck to see on the map as enemies because they can be hard to kill in a single attack. They’re just not that good to have, though. They don’t have the sort of offensive punch you really want out of your characters and it’s not like they can block the enemy from doing whatever the hell they want so why bother with a defensive character at all?

Shadow:
Skills: DEF+, INT+, TEC+, Dagger, Rifle, Flamethrower, Magnet, Offensive Magic, Passive
Pros: Versatile.
Cons: Mediocre at everything.
Analysis: Shadows are okay at several things, but don’t really have the numbers to back up trying to focus on anything. They’re pretty much useless for you but are always a potential pain when you see them because any magic user can be a real problem when they start throwing around Omega magic someone might we weak to.

Vampire:
Skills: ATK+, INT+, Katana, Rapier, Book, Syringe, Offensive Magic, Passive
Pros: Good at physical attacks and magic.
Cons: Not quite as good at either as the real specialists.
Analysis: Vampires are a very high-end hybrid sort of like the Angels in Disgaea. They’re actually close to being as good at what they’re doing as the pure classes that specialize, which can give them a good niche in your party. I don’t use them much but not because there’s anything wrong with them, just personal preference.

Gourmet Ogre:
Skills: HP+, EXP+, Spear, Flamethrower, Fishing Pole, Pie
Pros: Massive health, strong DEF and RES.
Cons: Laughable offense.
Analysis: They’re another potential source of the high end EXP+ skill for your good characters, and that’s about it. They’d be strong if you could use them to block enemies but you can’t so they’re not. They’re sure annoying when they’re tying up points in a map, though.

Death:
Skills: ATK+, INT+, Dagger, Sword, Spear, Book, Offensive Magic, Passive
Pros: Very strong offense overall.
Cons: Small Inventory.
Analysis: Deaths are a lot like Vampires. They are a bit stronger but also only have three inventory slots and are a bit slower. Either way is a very solid choice for whatever application you might need.

Guardian:
Skills: HP+, DEF+, RES+, Beam Saber, Morningstar, Spear, Axe
Pros: Incredibly hard to kill.
Cons: Slow, small inventory, weak offense.
Analysis: They have the very rare Beam Saber proficiency and that’s about it sadly as far as what the bring to the table. They suffer from the same problems classes like the Iron Golem and Gourmet Ogre do. They’re super tough but there’s no way to make enemies attack them so they’ll just bypass them.

Lucky Doll:
Skills: HP+, DEF+, MONEY+, Drum, Hammer, Balloon, Pie, Healing, Passive
Pros: Incredibly fast, long throwing range, huge inventory, great health.
Cons: Weird weapon skills, passives don’t assist them much.
Analysis: These guys are potentially really awesome healers, they have massive HP and great RES to go along with their unmatched mobility and huge item capacity. You might want to make one with reincarnation, though, because they don’t start with skill in any weapon you can buy. They basically obsolete Thieves at everything but stealing once you get them.

Lesser Demon:
Skills: HP+, ATK+, DEF+, Dagger, Sword, Spear, Axe
Pros: Tough melee fighter.
Cons: Few equipment slots.
Analysis: Honestly they’re distinctly unimpressive for ostensibly being high-tier. They’ve got decidedly okay stats, okay aptitudes, and okay passives. They’re like a Warrior but slightly better at everything, which is okay I guess but they’ll still never be as good as the real melee specialists and their higher overall toughness only matters if you ever End Action with an enemy in attack range (which you should never do).

Muscle Demon:
Skills: HP+, DEF+, Morningstar, Axe, Nunchuk, Hammer
Pros: Tough.
Cons: Few equipment slots, lacks a real offense.
Analysis: Another monster class that’s way too defensive to really be useful. They’re the strongest attackers of the classes largely focused on being hard to kill but that’s like being the most fragrant turd in the punchbowl. It’s still a piece of crap in use.

Prinny:
Skills: HP+, TEC+, MANA+, Bomb, Dagger, Shovel, Wrench
Pros: Best TEC of any class.
Cons: Weak weapon skills.
Analysis: A pretty solid class overall, and they're great at cracking facilities open thanks to their Shovel skills. They're not as good as Archers or Officers thanks to their lack of ranged weapon skills.