Last Remnant: Battle links and Battle rank

As it took me a while to figure out how it works, I thought I'd write a short article about how Battle links and Battle rank actually work in the Last Remnant. Since these mechanics are essentially the leveling system, it pays to understand how to use it to your advantage.

Battle links pertain to how many enemies you can link using Timeshift. Once you activate Timeshift you can tag as many monsters as you can during the duration and then activate combat with all of them. The more links you get, the better loot you will obtain. Therefore if you're hunting for money, or parts to assemble a new weapon- linking lots of enemies is a reliable way to grab lots of materials and cash. Linking more enemies gets you more loot, but it will also raise your Battle rank very quickly.

Sometimes it's really hard to even link 2 enemies together, plan your attack and save often.

Battle rank is essentially your parties level. Enemies scale with you, so the higher your Battle rank, the more dangerous they become. If you raise your rank too high, the game can become very difficult. Bear in mind, that attribute bonuses you obtain after combat does not raise your rank. Killing opponents is what increases the Battle rank.

Hopefully this clears up any misconceptions you have about how the leveling system in the Last Remnant works. Just remember, if you want to increase your stats, don't link enemies. Find the toughest opponent you can, and fight it alone without linking it to anything else. This is the fastest way to upgrade your stats without gaining battle rank quickly.

You can keep your eye on the Battle rank by looking at the menu.

Many players including myself abuse linking from the start, and constantly link up 3+ times every battle. After getting 20 hours into the game, this can come back to bite you in the ass. Your Battle rank will be higher than the statistic increases your party have obtained. You will have lots of loot, but that's not a good substitution. When this happens some enemies will start instakilling your unions, and you'll have to save every second.

My advice, is to combine a mix of both into your playstyle. Complete an area by killing one enemy at a time. Come back later, and repeat the same area by linking as many as you can. Since you know where all the enemies are, it should be easy to create huge links. Essentially, you can use this approach to moderate your difficulty. If you like it easy, then continue to fight opponents individually for the first disc. It should be a breeze all the way through. Personally, I like a challenge. So I keep linking for most of the game, and double back to increase my stats if I go too far.

I hope this article enlightened you if you were looking into Battle links and Battle ranks. Good luck!