🌱 Beginner Guide - First Steps & Timeline Basics

Learn the timeline before you chase the story. Your first hours should build three habits: pause when the counter-timeline clusters (the gauge shows exactly when and how enemies attack), customize your Skill Palette at the first rest point (the A School Self-Forged achievement marks it), and sweep every Shibuya Search Area you pass — evidence and skill drops compound across the whole 20-hour Grand Scenario. Don't skip fights to rush Key Areas; the five-day clock advances on story beats, not on battles won.

• Finish every tutorial prompt — the Locked and Loaded achievement confirms none are skippable filler.
• Customize your Skill Palette at the first rest point; carry one offense skill, one buff, one recovery.
• Practice Perfect Guard on low-level Wailing Wraiths — the Impenetrable Defense achievement is your timing test.
• Sweep Shibuya Search Areas for Tiny True evidence; the Evidence Board opens story context early.
• Discover your first Mystic Pass (Into the Unknown achievement) — the fast-travel network saves countdown time later.
• Clear all four Combat Trainings at the Gymnasium when they open (Rookie Graduation) — each teaches one combat pillar.

Every attack in Qliphah is announced on a timeline gauge before it lands — its exact timing and nature visible in advance. Combat is therefore reading, not memorizing: slow time or pause (Y) when the gauge stacks, program a counter into the gap, Perfect Guard what you cannot punish, and chain Rush combos across the enemy's recovery. The system scales with you: early fights are chess, mastered play rivals pure action games. The timeline combat guide breaks down every layer.

The dual-lead system is the real beginner trap. You control one character at a time, but Buddy Counters and cross-buffs make the pair a single unit — Perfect Synchronization (100 Buddy Counters) and Reliable Support (50 ally buffs) are core milestones. Swap deliberately: Rena dismantles dense attack clusters, Soma cashes openings with Rush chains. Who you control when is a bigger decision than any skill choice.

A Time Until Collapse counter — five days from the opening chapter — frames the whole campaign. Time moves through story beats and expeditions, not real time, but it changes the routing: clear high-value Search Areas early, check enemy levels and skill drop rates on the map before detouring, and bank skills before late chapters lock districts. Districts guide has the full map breakdown.