In your quest to stop the Old Gods from destroying Shiokawa, you'll come across a fair amount of tools that can greatly ease the difficulty.
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- The Katana, which is obtained through passing a difficult Perception check in the otherworld with a parasitic star, absolutely destroys the game. Whereas the strongest weapons barring gunshots deal six damage with a standard attack, the katana deals nine damage in a single blow, and for more damage and less action points than the powerful-but-slow shovel. If you manage to get one, you've practically beaten the game already. It can even save a Haru run when the Shiba's store is shut down and none of the other methods to get cigarettes are available. Good luck passing the Perception check though, as Otherworld events inflict a -3 modifier to all skill checks.
- The Steak Knife is one of the fastest weapons in the game, and can be bought from the dog's shop for a fairly low price or acquired during specific events at the school. Its naturally high speed makes it a great weapon for anyone with at least decent Dexterity, and it's especially potent in Aiko's hands. The only things that even slightly limit it are its slightly below-average damage-per-hit and accuracy and the hard 8-actions-per-turn cap in combat.
- The Small Candle is, effectively, a Knowledge-based version of the Steak Knife, having the same damage and slightly better speed and accuracy. Moreover, it reduces the Doom penalty for running from combat, making it useful for both combat-heavy and combat-light playstyles. It's a particularly useful weapon for Kirie, who has high Knowledge but doesn't start with a weapon like Mimi does, and it also stacks well with a Knowledge-focused Mizuki and her Fame perk. The only limitation is that acquiring the item requires the Occult Shop to be unlocked and the True Despair achievement to be acquired, so first-time players won't be able to get their hands on it.
- The Brick has similar stats to the Steak Knife and Small Candle and is fairly easy to find once unlocked, as it can be randomly acquired while going to the vending machines and doesn't directly cost anything. It's also fast to equip (making it possible to use a gun and then switch to the brick), and it deals a decent amount of damage when thrown.
- The Police Revolver requires you to lose three Reason to acquire, but once you have it, it's one of the best Perception-based weapons you can have, potentially dealing up to 21 damage in one turn.
- Aiko is one of the best characters in combat and simpler to use than her competition. She starts with high Dexterity and better attack speed than any other character, and has a special perk she can learn that increases her attack speed further. Moreover, some of the game's best weapons, like the Steak Knife and the Katana, are Dexterity-based, so their attack speed scales with your Dexterity level. As a result, Aiko starts out naturally better in combat than everyone else and tends to snowball from there.
- Ayaka is likely the strongest character in the game, despite a seemingly unimpressive start. She starts the game with an amulet that gives her two curses at the start of every mystery. While that doesn't seem great, her three perks provide her with massive boosts to her stats and combat speed for every curse she acquires, as well as lowering Doom based on the number of curses she has. In addition to the free curses for each mystery, she can quickly grab three more by visiting the Witch Tree, then possibly grab one of her perks from the History Club and start snowballing right from the start. Adding the Curious Birthmark background (chance of gaining a curse with combat damage) helps to boost this to even more ridiculous levels.
- One of Mizuki's perks, Fame, grants her increased combat speed for every ally she has. Given how easy it is to acquire allies with her naturally high Charisma, one can assemble a party of at least three allies at the start of her runs, potentially making her faster than average plus any stat bonuses included. This technically has no cap, so with some luck in events Mizuki can get a bunch of combat speed boosts and nearly match Aiko for combat capability.
- Mayhem, Miku's starting ability, lets Miku gain +1 to every stat roughly every 20 Doom. Given how easy it is to gain Doom, Miku can use this to her advantage to buff her stats late in a run. While her stats are the lowest out of any character to balance this, recruiting allies or leveling carefully can make up for this disadvantage, propelling Miku into a Master of All who hits like a truck and steamrolls over the Lighthouse stat checks.
- During earlier versions of the game, Iwa was arguably the best ally you could have in the game as he gave an amazing +4 boost to Strength, essentially trivializing every Strength check in the game and boosting the attack speed of Strength-based weapons by a ton. He now only provides a +2, which is useful, but no longer indisputably one of the best ally effects.
- Toshiaki's unique spells can create a feedback loop where Shebbe's Surge can boost all stats (other than luck) to the point where the player will never fail a skill check, and he can use the extra experience gained to cast F'Thoth Flash to bring the Doom counter back down. It's especially useful during the lighthouse climb or during an Endless Mode run, where the "mystery" will never end and remove the effects of Shebbe's Surge. Also, Krookty's Kill is a very economical way of dealing with deadly bosses without taking damage to your dwindling stamina/reason.
- Toshiaki in general is the strongest character to use in Endless Mode, bar none. His ability to permanently boost his stats ensures that he pretty much wins every battle and passes every skill check, and F'thoth Flash combined with the Compass can keep the Doom counter down practically indefinitely, letting him reach turn counts that none of the other characters could ever hope to reach, to the point where the only way to lose is to lose on purpose.
- Choosing Ithotu as the run's Old God can be a game breaker in a Difficult, but Awesome way. You take additional damage to Stamina and Reason, but you also deal additional damage yourself. Coupled with strategic use of defensive actions, you can quickly tear through enemies like paper, especially when combined with the game breakers listed on this page.
- The DIY Flamethrower is an extremely powerful Dexterity-based weapon that can be equipped mid-battle, with a fast attack speed of 70 and a base damage of six. It's strong enough to be usable even on low-Dexterity characters, and can burn everything to an utter crisp in a short time. Its power is balanced out by the fact that it's only obtainable by achieving Ending A in two specific mysteries (complete Macabre Memoir of Morbid Mermaids first, then equip the Fire Axe and complete Bizarre Bruit of the Blood-curdling Botanist with the Flamethrower equipped), but if you have it, you can pretty much steamroll every enemy encounter from that point on.
- Kana's Always There perk sets their maximum Stamina and Reason to 8, and makes it so that they automatically revive from reaching 0 on either stat at the cost of raising Doom. It's an interesting mechanic to be sure... until you realize that since their maximum health will always be stuck at 8, this makes spells like Ghostly Spear and Mind Drain (deals high damage at the cost of maximum Stamina and Reason, respectively) completely and insanely powerful, dealing high damage with infinite casts (provided you didn't pick Ath-Yolazsth as the Old God anyway), guaranteeing that Kana wins every enemy encounter as soon as they learn the spell. Additionally, this makes the Scars backstory a no-brainer to pick, granting them permanent damage reduction without the drawbacks.
