10 Pro Tips For Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot You Should Know
A love letter to Son Goku, the Saiyans, and the Dragon Ball Z in-between, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is going to go down as one of the greatest games the franchise has seen. It’s a title bursting with a love for the series, one that actually manages to capture an important period of the franchise’s history impeccably well.
It’s also a lengthy game with a lot of content, and understanding how to approach the game upfront can go a long way in making one’s experiencing that much better. While Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot might seem familiar and friendly on the surface level, it’s its own beast.
10 Take The Time To Find D Medals
It perhaps goes without saying, but quite a few people are going to play this game focusing exclusively on the story. There’s no shame in it, but it’s worth keeping in mind that this is a very quick way of not having the De Medals necessary to train and unlock new Super Attacks down the road.
D Medals can be gained by completing challenges within the Z-Encyclopedia (remember to actually open the encyclopedia to claim them) or by finding them on the overworld. Even if all you want to do is rush through the story, take the time to explore and find some D Medals. It’ll save you some heartbreak in the long run.
9 The Benefits Of Cooking
Cooking is a rather fun mechanic that’s very easy to overlook and ignore altogether. As Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot isn’t a challenging game, one might never feel the need to cook. Those that choose to do so, however, will reap the rewards over and over again. Not only do meals offer temporary buffs, but they also offer permanent stat boosts.
Each meal has two description boxes showcasing the bonuses players will get. The upper features the temporary bonuses whereas the lower box features the permanent stat boosts. Better yet, these upgrades apply to every single character in the party, not just the character who eats the meal.
8 Train & Upgrade ASAP
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot’s combat doesn’t have much in the way of depth or mechanical variety, but it’s a lot of fun to play with it on the surface level. There are a bunch of different Super Attacks to play around with, and each one generally has its own unique feature, ensuring that players have some level of variety with how they approach combat.
At the same time, having access to this variety requires diligently upgrading. Make sure to have Z-Orbs and D Medals at the ready to knock out notches on a character’s Skill Tree. It’s important not to forget about Know Hows, either, Kakarot’s passive abilities.
7 Crash Through Enemies
Thanks to long load times, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot can be a drag at times. There comes a point where you just want to make progress between the loading screens, and something as simple as a random encounter with an enemy is enough to sour the mood. Thankfully, there’s a way to get around fighting altogether.
At a high enough level, players can dash through enemies on screen. This will cancel out the fight entirely, while still rewarding players with experience and Z-Orbs. It’s one of the best ways to grind in the game, if not outright the best. Unfortunately, leveling comes with a price...
6 Want A Challenge? Avoid Random Encounters
The greatest flaw plaguing Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot (other than load times) is the complete and utter lack of challenge most of the time. This is a game that’s perfectly content allowing players to barrel through it. The few truly challenging fights there are can be easily circumvented by players overleveling through random encounters and side quests.
Anyone looking for a challenge might want to call it quits on fighting enemies on the overworld and doing side quests altogether. Maybe save those those for Intermissions (more on those in a bit,) but even then, you run the risk of grinding too much and trivializing a game that was already going to be easy.
5 Make The Most Of Intermissions
Dragon Ball Z’s pacing doesn’t really leave much room for freedom. Anyone who’s playing Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot for the RPG of it all and immersing themselves into the characters will likely find themselves unable to pull away from the main plot. The game allows players to do so at the most nonsensical of times, but there’s a very clear logical path the story is following.
Which is where Intermissions come in! For those adamant not to kill the flow of the story, Intermissions pop up in between story arcs and basically serve as a playground for players to waste their time in. The story won’t advanced, but there’s a ton of content to go through– plus Dragon Ball hunting!
4 The Dragon Balls Recharge On A 20 Minute Timer
Anyone who grew up watching or reading Dragon Ball likely imagined themselves gathering the titular Dragon Balls themselves at some point. It’s an easy adolescent fantasy to have, one that promises not only adventure, but a wish. To have your deepest desires given to you is a reward unlike any other.
During Intermissions, players can gather Dragon Balls to their heart’s content. Rather than recharging over the course of a year, only 20 real-time minutes are required before the Dragon Balls can be collected again. Wishes range from more money, to more Z-Orbs, to outright reviving characters like Raditz or the Ginyu Force.
3 Abusing Transformations Is Super Easy
Kaioken’s introduction can give off the false impression that transformations are a double-edged sword. This is true in the case of Goku as far as his relationship with the Kaioken goes, but there’s no reason not to immediately transform into a Super Saiyan at the start of every fight once characters have the means to do so (Piccolo can transform as well, albeit not into a Super Saiyan, obviously.)
Transforming drains Ki as does maintain the transformation, but charging up Ki takes little to no time whatsoever, and there’s even a bit of Super Armor at play (at least when the Surge meter is full.) Just take a second to charge your Ki every so often, and there’s no downside to turning Super Saiyan.
2 Surge Spam, Or: How To Rip Through Boss Health
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot isn’t a particularly challenging game, but certain bosses will pull up one hell of a resistance. Getting on their bad side can very easily lead to a lot of deaths. There’s nothing fun about going into the wrong boss fight unpreprepared. Thankfully, one need not worry, for Surge is the Dragon Team’s greatest ally.
By charging one’s Ki to max while the Surge meter is full, players will enter a superstate where all their attacks are both faster and stronger. Not just that, Surging allows players to cancel their Ki attacks, creating an opportunity for you to spam Super Attacks at the opponent. With the right timing, it’s even possible to lock them into your attacks so long as you’re Surged.
1 Read The Z-Encyclopedia For Story Context
The Z-Encyclopedia is quite possibly the single greatest feature in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. Moons being real or not aside, it is a wonderful way of getting easy to access story and character context. Honestly, the Z-Encyclopedia does just as much work fleshing out the story as the cutscenes. If you want to play Kakarot as a proper RPG adaptation of DBZ, you need to read the Z-Encyclopedia.
Filling out the Encyclopedia is rather dynamic as well, often requiring the player to complete certain tasks in different parts of the overworld. It’s a great way of not only encouraging players to engage with Kakarot on a deeper level, but of shedding some light on Dragon Ball rich history.
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