Like Persona before it, Metaphor: ReFantazio has a major limiting factor to discourage you from exploring too many dungeons in one sitting: MP (mana points). If you’re anything like me, you’ll get annoyed at how few opportunities there are to regain MP, particularly early in the game. MP fuels the most powerful and useful skills in the game, from healing to powerful offensive spells, and I just want more!
But there is hope. There is a way to regain your MP without ever leaving the dungeon, and without spending tons of cash on consumables.
Running out of MP isn’t an issue in short excursions, but as you settle into longer combat sections, it’ll creep up on you. You may run into this issue a little bit while traveling through the mines with Strohl and Grius early in the game, but you’ll certainly run out of MP if you try to clear the Grand Cathedral in a single sitting (as I did).
The first thing you’ll need to use this technique is access to the Mage archetype. The Hero Passive ability for the Mage is Magic Recovery, which recovers a little MP every time an enemy is stunned or defeated in overworld combat.
That qualifier is extremely important, because it refers to striking enemies with an attack as you run around the dungeon, not going into the turn-based battle system.
While you can stun or defeat enemies this way as any class, the MP restoration works only for characters with the Mage archetype equipped, so make sure to go to Akademeia and speak to More (or use the Archetype Tree, if you have unlocked that in the main menu) to unlock the Mage class for everyone in your party, then make sure to Equip it on everyone.
By the time you’re running out of MP, you should have enough MAG (the Archetype Tree currency) to unlock the Mage class, unless you already spent it on other classes and abilities. If you don’t have enough, go defeat more enemies until you have 500 MAG for each character that still needs to unlock the Mage. It doesn’t take long.
Since you can use the Magic Recovery ability two ways (by stunning or defeating in overworld combat), I’ll explain how each works.
Stunning can be done relatively easily when enemies are near your level. You can attack enemies several times in the overworld (even slightly tougher enemies), and if you deplete the yellow gauge that appears when engaged in combat, they will be stunned.
Stunning enemies in this way is sufficient to regain MP for everyone in your party who has the Mage archetype equipped, and if you decide to battle the enemy while stunned, they’ll begin the fight already at half health. Unfortunately, early in the game, it only restores around 1 MP per enemy stunned this way, so stunning isn’t the most efficient way to get your MP back.
Enemies on the first floor will be stunned by overworld attacks until you reach around Level 12, at which point they’ll die from your overworld attacks instead, giving you that same 1 MP you got from stunning them. This is the second and more preferable method.
Now you can begin replenishing your mana much more quickly. Teleport to the Prayer Chamber, then leave the Magla Hollow and run around the first floor, smacking enemies as you run through each area.
Once you have killed all the enemies on the first floor with overworld attacks, return to the Magla Hollow, which will cause the enemies to return. Now resume exploring and run it again. Repeat until you are back to 100 percent MP.
Now that you know how to regain your MP, even if you don’t have any money, you are ready to tackle the Grand Cathedral with your full strength and bring an end to the Necromancer’s plans. The time of a new king approaches!