Tales of Luminaria offers a welcome respite from the vast majority of other mobile RPGs currently in the market, a lot of which are derivative of each other. This new entry in the “Tales” series puts us in the shoes of a wide variety of characters, as we discover the events of the story unfolding from their own unique perspectives. In this sense, while not only being a fun action game, Tales of Luminaria also offers a sprawling storyline that players will discover as they make their way through the many chapters of the story missions.

However, in contrast with other games in this category, Tales of Luminaria takes place through chapters, with no unifying overworld for players to explore. In this sense, the story happens through episodes that players can choose from the main menu, and that consist of several chapters each. These episodes have both expository as well as action sequences, with the combat taking place in real-time where players will have to move around, dodge, attack, and defeat their enemies.

Tales of Luminaria offers a unique approach to its gameplay, which itself is enough to warrant a playthrough, especially if you’re a fan of RPGs. With that being said, we’re going to give you a few tips and tricks for beginners, so that you can start your journey on the right track.

Characters and Episodes

As we mentioned just now, Tales of Luminaria revolves around story-driven gameplay with multiple characters, each with eight episodes in their personal arcs. The story is told from the perspective of the different characters, and the players can piece the overarching events together as they clear different chapters, as well as with the help of the in-game chronology feature.

This is just to say that, while it might seem a bit confusing in the beginning, the way to play Tales of Luminaria is simply by selecting the episodes from the main menu. This is always the first option in the menu, and below it you’ll find other game modes like the multiplayer bosses, the daily quests, the summonings, and more. And for ease of navigation, you can always click on the “Episode” button above to view only the main story missions. 

Keep in mind that, at launch, there are only a few characters available, while more will be added in future updates, at least according to the devs. Each character will have eight episodes, which will amount to a total of 168 episodes once all the content has been added. But don’t worry if it seems like there are only a few bits of content; these episodes can get quite long and challenging, and you’ll have to grind and level up to beat them.

This brings us to our next point.

The Gacha System

Like most mobile RPGs, Tales of Luminaria has a gacha system in place, where players can roll for certain important items by paying with premium currency. The results from these rolls, however, are completely randomized. 

In contrast with other games, players in Tales of Luminaria roll for pieces of gear, rather than playable characters. These pieces of equipment are very important since they bestow special abilities and stat boosts to the characters that can use them. Moreover, while these pieces are not mandatory for completing the game’s challenges, they are the only way to increase the characters’ level caps.

In this sense, obtaining the right equipment is absolutely necessary for boosting a character’s strengths, and for making it much easier to complete certain challenges. Furthermore, it’s worth pointing out that, when it comes to rolling for gear, it’s always better to purchase the bundles, as they give you higher odds of obtaining rare gear.

The Unifying Action Button and Combat System

Now, when it comes to the gameplay itself, Tales of Luminaria has an interesting combat system revolving around real-time battles, where players must evade, attack, and defeat a wide variety of ferocious and powerful enemies. And while this is pretty much standard in the genre, this game has a unifying action button that controls nearly every aspect of the combat.

Play Tales of Luminaria on PC

Play Tales of Luminaria on PC

For mobile users, Tales of Luminaria was designed so that everyone can play the game one-handed and in portrait mode. The way they achieved this is through the use of a unifying action button located on the bottom center of the screen. This button has many different functions, including the following:

• Character Movement: Click and drag in the desired direction to make your character move.

• Attacking: Tap on the button to make your character attack the nearest target.

• Charged Attacks: Hold the button to make your character charge and unleash a powerful attack at the nearest enemy.
• Dodging: Swipe towards the desired direction to make your character execute a dodge roll to evade enemy attacks.

This action button is both one of the best and worst parts of Tales of Luminaria. On the one hand, it considerably simplifies combat. However, the fact that you can do so much with just one button leads to wrong inputs fairly frequently, which is one the weakest aspects of the game. Luckily, you can play Tales of Luminaria on PC with BlueStacks and get the best keyboard and mouse controls that will help you to win all your battles.

Map Exploration

As we said above, there is no overworld in Tales of Luminaria. Instead, all the gameplay takes place through the stages in the various episodes, all of which can be quite linear and small. Nevertheless, it always pays to explore every nook and cranny of the stages since you will always find bonus items and goodies lying around, including a few PB-Stones, which is the game’s premium currency.

Whenever you’re running around, take a few minutes to check out every side path and other parts of the map in order to uncover all the resources hidden within.

Character Leveling and Level Cap

One last thing you need to know as a beginner in Tales of Luminaria is the way leveling works. 

Like in most RPGs in existence, you level up by getting enough experience, which you can obtain by defeating enemies and completing missions. However, you get experience ONLY from the story missions, so you must repeat these in order to grind and increase the level of your characters.

In the beginning, your characters are limited to level 10, though you can increase this level cap, as we mentioned above, by collecting certain pieces of equipment. Your character’s power and level increases automatically as you obtain more equipment, so you never really have to go out of your way to outfit them

And that’s all you need to know as a new player in Tales of Luminaria. Feel free to share your own tips and tricks in the comments below!