10 Beginner Tips for The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales has just arrived and is already winning over the public with its gorgeous HD-2D visuals, incredibly satisfying gameplay, and tons, tons of nooks and crannies to explore. I don't know about you, but I tend to get a bit overwhelmed when a game is wide open, constantly torn between tackling the main campaign and exploring endlessly, risking total burnout.

Rest assured that Square Enix's action RPG managed to strike a perfect balance here. You certainly can (and probably will) spend more time tackling secondary content than the main story. However, you can also just stick to the campaign and still naturally chart the world, stumbling across a hidden secret or an optional cave here and there.

With your enjoyment in mind, I have compiled a few beginner tips and tricks for The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales to help make your journey smoother and more rewarding. These are by no means advanced strategies, and some might even seem obvious, but if even one of them helps you out, I will feel like my job is done.

10 Activate Auto Message

Grab a Popcorn for Cutscenes

I don't know about you, but I love watching cutscenes and just letting them unfold naturally at their own pace, especially when they are fully voiced. The Adventure of Elliot kicks off with one introductory cutscene, but I found myself having to press a button to advance the dialogue every single time. It wasn't until the game actually started, and I checked the controller configuration in the settings menu that I discovered pressing L1 (or your platform's equivalent button) toggles the auto-message feature.

This is much more practical and makes the story events flow organically, adhering to the exact timing intended by the developers. Plus, the auto-text doesn't remain active during standard NPC conversations, so you don't have to worry about dialogue rushing ahead while you are still reading text boxes in town.

9 Change the Difficulty Level

It's Your Game, Play as You Wish

I played through the game on Very Hard because I feel that higher difficulties force me to interact with every single gameplay mechanic. It makes me truly understand what makes the game tick and forces me to look for the most creative or effective ways to win. In The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales, we have access to Magicite, and instead of just equipping the ones that boost raw damage, I actively looked for unique synergies.

However, Very Hard is incredibly punishing. Enemies can take you down in two hits, meaning a single tiny mistake spells death. I decided to check if I could change the difficulty just to test it out (though I stuck with Very Hard anyway), but the option was nowhere to be found. I distinctly remembered reading that I could change it! Well, it turns out it's possible, but only while resting within range of a Guiding Post. Once there, just open the System tab and swap the difficulty. There is no shame in lowering it, so go right ahead.

8 Calm Down Companion

Sometimes You Just Want Silence

I am not one to complain about Heuria or Faie's talkative nature. Both just want to travel alongside Elliot, so give them the chance to be joyful and flamboyant. However, if you ever find yourself getting annoyed by the constant chattering, know that there is an option to make them a bit quieter.

Simply open up the menu, navigate to System, and under the Game tab, scroll down until you find Partner Chattiness. Talkative is the default setting, and they will certainly live up to it. If you select Reticent, they will speak a tad less. I don't actually know how much less because I am not a monster and loved chatting with them, but you do you.

7 Save Money for the Flutterer's Cape

Hovering Helps a Lot

In the Huther item shop, you will find equipment you should buy immediately, such as the boomerang and the empty vial (which you can fill with medicine). But before you go spending your funds on Charms, which you will eventually earn naturally, I highly recommend saving up 1,000 Tuls to purchase the Flutterer's Cape.

As the description implies, holding the jump button allows you to hover for a short moment. It might sound like a minor upgrade, but it helps immensely during platforming challenges. I bought mine right before entering the Mist Ruins and managed to completely bypass a bunch of sliding block puzzles by hovering over them, and it proved incredibly useful in many late-game areas too.

6 No Need to Save Your Magicite Fragments

Spend It All

Early on, the tutorial on how to use Magicite fragments will reward you with some of them. The feature functions a bit like a gacha mechanism where you never truly know what you are going to get. You will frequently pull duplicates, and while they will be dismantled back into fragments, the conversion ratio is terrible.

The first Magicite option is generalized and pulls Magicites for all weapon types. Being a smart player, you will likely notice that there are several other unlockable options, which, yes, are Magicite draws for specific weapons. But contrary to what you might expect, you don't unlock these options by progressing through the story. Instead, they unlock once you hit Form Rank 5. Because of this, there is no point in hoarding your Magicite fragments early on, waiting for a specific weapon draw. Casino away!

5 Don't Worry About Missing Collectibles

But There Are Missables

When starting The Adventures of Elliot, you will likely encounter cracked walls you can't break yet or other inaccessible pathways that require specific tools. If you are anything like me, you might panic and start marking down every single location out of fear of permanently missing a secret.

Don't worry, because absolutely nothing in The Adventures of Elliot is missable, even when you are hopping through time. Every single era can be revisited whenever you want, allowing you to collect items, find shrines, and grab any missed collectibles at your leisure. Many ruins and caves are intentionally built to be completed only after acquiring a specific tool, meaning the game fully expects you to backtrack later on.

If you skimmed the trophy list, you know there are multiple endings to experience. And yeah, those are technically missables, because if you do everything the game offers before finishing it, you'll jump directly to the true ending, forfeiting the bad and the good one, thus missing them and the achievements they come with. So the ideal is to complete the bad ending, make a clear save data, reload, do the good, complete it, and then proceed with the true one.

4 Don't Trust Markers Blindly

Not Everything is Shown on the Map

While The Adventures of Elliot map is packed with convenient markers showing treasure chests, traversal barriers, and other collectibles, not everything appears automatically. A prime example is the hidden manuscripts that flesh out the lore of Philabieldia. Within the Kingdom of Huther alone, you can find three volumes of the kingdom's history tucked away on bookshelves inside random houses.

If you rely solely on map markers and skip thorough exploration, you are going to miss out on key collectibles. Manuscripts are one example, and hidden cats are another. Beyond the rich lore packed into these written documents, tracking them down is essential for the platinum hunters out there. Eventually, you will trigger a sidequest that rewards you with a Magic Compass to display more items on the map (like Cats, though you will also need the Cat Needle tool), but until then, pay close attention to your surroundings.

3 Most Enemies Have a Weakness

Test Weapons and Study Patterns

Ever since I encountered small thamatuon charging enemy and discovered that blocking its advance sends it crashing to the ground in a vulnerable state, I began testing different strategies against every enemy type. Many monsters don't have a glaringly obvious weakness like that one, but different weapons excel against specific targets.

For example, the humanoid thaumata has an attack where it thrusts forward violently, and it doesn't get staggered from regular sword or spear attacks, but a single charged strike from the chain and sickle will stop them dead in their tracks. The wolfie-boys always take a small leap before pouncing, and do you know what works best to swat them out of the air? A well-timed hammer smash. It feels as though every enemy has its perfect counter.

Many bosses also possess specific triggers that leave them stunned, at least during the early game. Always keep an eye out for changes in their appearance, or try to strike immediately after they unleash a massive attack. Chances are they will wind up stunned and completely vulnerable to your offensive line.

2 Don't Neglect Faie

Her Abilities are Impressive

It's amazing that we can control Faie directly, but I quickly realized I was only doing so to gather loot or to use her abilities at scripted moments, like detonating a bomb or lighting a torch. The moment I unlocked her first Ignite upgrade, I realized just how powerful she truly is.

There were moments where I had to face overwhelming hordes of monsters and felt completely cornered. My go-to trick became sending Faie out to set the entire group ablaze, triggering a massive implosion, and then rinsing and repeating. If her energy is depleted, I would just hide her away to speed up her recovery.

I know this might sound obvious, but in the heat of battle, I often found myself relying solely on Elliot's swordplay and completely forgetting about my fairy companion. The secret to overcoming the game's toughest challenges lies in mastering the synergy between the two.

1 Explore to Your Heart's Content

But Hold On Until New Unlockables

I'm not going to dictate how you should enjoy the game, but as the title implies, The Adventures of Elliot is a true adventure game. This means you will be doing a lot of exploring, uncovering secrets and rewards at every turn. If you suffer from that classic exploration bug that demands you clear everything possible before moving the main story forward, you are going to spend way more time gallivanting around optional zones than the main path.

However, during the opening hours of the game, you will frequently clear a tough dungeon or cave, defeat powerful enemies, and then hit an impassable obstacle because you lack the necessary tool. Having to turn around and come back later can be a bit annoying. My suggestion is to push through the main story at least until you secure every weapon type and a few of Faie's abilities. This ensures your subsequent exploration runs will be entirely seamless and won't be constantly cut short by roadblock obstacles.