TheUnknownMercenary

Loved the game, played every route. My recommendation is to play the game with whatever heroine you want (I did Lesteena for instance first and foremost).
There are a few heroines that you can only do after NG+ but otherwise if the battles are an issue for you, you can just use a trainer to get through the "gameplay" aspect of it.
Most of the game is pretty linear with maybe 2ish hours worth of content related to heroines in specific, otherwise many share similar "routes" and only minor changes come from choosing them.
The recommended route is mainly just due to related plots diverging from the main heroine.
Aselia->Esperia->Orpha->Uruka->Lesteena->Kyouko->Tokimi.
Aselia is the main heroine and relates to Esperia, Orpha, Uruka, the later three slightly diverge and maybe Orpha only having a bit more additional content related to her specific plot.
Lesteena is pretty separate from the above 4 so there isn't really a lose in playing hers (and after playing all the routes I personally still enjoyed hers the most but that's personal opinion).
Kyouko and Tokimi are NG+, the later was a good route and probably my second favourite next to lesteena.
Then there is of course the failed-to-get-heroines route and the bad route...
tl;dr choose whichever YOU personally like, you won't miss much, then if you want to go back and do the rest and if you dislike/annoyed by the gameplay, trainer it.
Don't care what anyone says Eien no Aselia is one of my favs.

Loved the game, played every route. My recommendation is to play the game with whatever heroine you want (I did Lesteena for instance first and foremost).
There are a few heroines that you can only do after NG+ but otherwise if the battles are an issue for you, you can just use a trainer to get through the "gameplay" aspect of it.
Most of the game is pretty linear with maybe 2ish hours worth of content related to heroines in specific, otherwise many share similar "routes" and only minor changes come from choosing them.
The recommended route is mainly just due to related plots diverging from the main heroine.
Aselia->Esperia->Orpha->Uruka->Lesteena->Kyouko->Tokimi.
Aselia is the main heroine and relates to Esperia, Orpha, Uruka, the later three slightly diverge and maybe Orpha only having a bit more additional content related to her specific plot.
Lesteena is pretty separate from the above 4 so there isn't really a lose in playing hers (and after playing all the routes I personally still enjoyed hers the most but that's personal opinion).
Kyouko and Tokimi are NG+, the later was a good route and probably my second favourite next to lesteena.
Then there is of course the failed-to-get-heroines route and the bad route...
tl;dr choose whichever YOU personally like, you won't miss much, then if you want to go back and do the rest and if you dislike/annoyed by the gameplay, trainer it.
Don't care what anyone says Eien no Aselia is one of my favs.

This pretty much all relates to how she feels about it.
It's like porn, honestly (assuming you are playing the porn type VN's and not, say, Steins;Gate). Some women are okay with it as long as it doesn't detract from them, hell because it's a VN it might be "better." Others are completely against it.
So you got to ask yourself, does she like anime/manga and understand what a VN is. The whole "I learned Japanese because of those games" is a point that isn't needed to make you can easily just be like "yeah i thought it would be fun to learn" kinda thing.
But if you want to play VN's, she has to know, and if she has to know, she has to be okay with it. ESPECIALLY if you are doing something "sneaky sneaky" behind her back. You can just tell her "look VN's are like reading a book, I can't do them with you around because I get distracted from the immersion required to fully enjoy it. So like reading a book it is best to have some seclusion/privacy while doing it. Hell you could even do something like watch a movie or whatever you do in the mean time"
My wife loves VN's especially the yaoi ones from Nitro+, So yeah I get the jab every now and then about the VN porn games but I never hide it from her, If i'm playing those kinds of games she just goes and plays something/watches something/does something else.
Now taking all this into account, if she IS the type to go ape shit over this stuff, then yeah you gotta either break it if VN's are more important to you or resign yourself to the fact you gotta give it up. If she REALLY does not like VN's then it's just going to put a strain on the relationship.

This pretty much all relates to how she feels about it.
It's like porn, honestly (assuming you are playing the porn type VN's and not, say, Steins;Gate). Some women are okay with it as long as it doesn't detract from them, hell because it's a VN it might be "better." Others are completely against it.
So you got to ask yourself, does she like anime/manga and understand what a VN is. The whole "I learned Japanese because of those games" is a point that isn't needed to make you can easily just be like "yeah i thought it would be fun to learn" kinda thing.
But if you want to play VN's, she has to know, and if she has to know, she has to be okay with it. ESPECIALLY if you are doing something "sneaky sneaky" behind her back. You can just tell her "look VN's are like reading a book, I can't do them with you around because I get distracted from the immersion required to fully enjoy it. So like reading a book it is best to have some seclusion/privacy while doing it. Hell you could even do something like watch a movie or whatever you do in the mean time"
My wife loves VN's especially the yaoi ones from Nitro+, So yeah I get the jab every now and then about the VN porn games but I never hide it from her, If i'm playing those kinds of games she just goes and plays something/watches something/does something else.
Now taking all this into account, if she IS the type to go ape shit over this stuff, then yeah you gotta either break it if VN's are more important to you or resign yourself to the fact you gotta give it up. If she REALLY does not like VN's then it's just going to put a strain on the relationship.

Let's do this
 

Let's do this
 

>Not having the superior Eien no Aselia

 
Also want more nitroplus as well

Nice, been waiting to get my hands on Yumina the Ethereal. Unfortunately I can't buy anymore copies of EnA, pretty much bought them everywhere and for most people i know that will play it. Sequel as well. The rest of the games I either had or, in Raidy case, didn't quite interest me.

Source: FGO (I love this game)

Here's some broad big-picture suggestions:
Moderation consistency/fairness: There's been grumbling about this lately, both on and off-site. Partnerships and engagement with publishers: Promoting visual novels effectively means working more closely with English publishers.  I'd like to see them engaging openly with the community here, including posting on the forums and doing more interviews on the official blog. Outreach to Japanese developers/communities, including developers not currently selling games in English: Fuwanovel is uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between the Japanese and English communities due to the many fans here who have learned or are in the process of learning Japanese.  Sending out these fans in an organized fashion to establish connections could accelerate the already growing interest in the English market--and help developers be less boneheaded in their attempts to enter it.  A highly innovative project like this would also re-establish Fuwanovel as a central pillar of the English community.

Lovely!
First, enjoy and have fun, this game is, imho, built around having fun, not having the best servants and that stuff. In saying that here is my 2 cents
First, daily missions, I would pay attention to them only in that you want to be able to hit the 40ap consistently as fast as possible if you want any chance at levelling servants up at any decent rate. I would highly use support servants for this and paying attention to attributes (example on a saber day use a 90 (or high) level servant) as they do double damage and take half as much, making the farming for you much easier. Gold embers are what you want for levelling up. Other than that they are just their to get you quartz fragments to give you free quartz
Second, This game is designed so that you can complete it using non rare servants. In saying that, take a look at G&A Reviews for a good breakdown on ANY rare servants you get as they give you the pros/cons and what craft essences work well for them, how you can use them with various servants, and it honestly makes using servants much easier as they give you a good look at even lower level ones. In saying all that, especially take a look at their video on the 3star and below best servants for each class. Servants such as Hans, Hassan, Cu, etc are notable but most people don't know that servants such as the fat Caesar are actually pretty damn good. (although this was done at the early start of the NA and doesn't tell you about all the new 3star servants that came out.
Third, Liz is a great unit imho for lancers and Marie is a fantastic tank and meme lord. Mash becomes amazing later as a fantastic tank/stall unit with 0 cost (later in the game this becomes MORE important than rare servants).
Fourth, My code and ID is here, add me, i'm in a battle atm but i'll accept or add you when i can. My CE aren't usefull for farming as I'm currently doing the Onigashima event...but my servants themselves should prove useful for you.
Fifth, Limited gacha, roll only if you REALLY want that character, otherwise look up a review and see if they are worth rolling for.
 
Lastly, Play with all the characters you want, and appreciate all that you got. You would be surprised at how utterly amazing some 1,2, and 3 star servants are even beating out 4 and  5 star (i really wana grail hassan to 100...)
 
P.S. Remember you CAN move the Support unit around in your party.

You should never feel sorry for choosing the meme queen.

He gets his shirt back later ;D

Yeah the difficulty spike into 30 and then 40 is pretty big, but once you can start farming 40 you will be in the clear.
I'll add you after I'm done my meetings. And it's fine...I have every servant so I don't even use supports much. Most of my friends are lower level players anyways.
Yeah I ended up playing quite a while with support servants and ended up being annoyed because I wanted to make a team of, say, arts team based but friend servants didn't fit what I wanted. Then after watching a G&A Review video I saw them switch servants around and I went "AWW HELL NAW WHY DID I NOT KNOW THIS!" Almost know one I knew knew this either lol.
I played during launch so...my servants were usually the OP ones on the NA server, but I kept them in the back so that I could play with who I wanted, and if I was close to losing I would have that clutch servant in the back.
Also, work on Cu when you get him, dude is a beast.

Congrats, Drake is a fantastic Rider, waifu material and a bro. Couldn't ask for a better rider honestly. Her skills are fantastic and her NP is great as well. Aside from the lack of single target NP she is a fantastic Rider.
Herc is pretty much a 5* in disguise so having him will pretty much make you set for the game, he can continuously smash through everything. I would recommend Ascending him first to get his skills ASAP.
Don't worry about the cost, you will get enough easily later.
Did I already add you?
Leader position does nothing really, currently you ONLY need a support servant, the Leader is just the first servant in the slot you have. I honestly would have preferred being able to use only my own servants and at that being able to only use 1 specifically (would love soloing the game without the stupid gimmicks now needed to do it).
If you didn't already know (as it took me time for me to find out) you can move the support servant to the back row and rearrange servants around allowing you to have your first 3 servants being your own.

No problem, I know too many people who got butt hurt over not getting a character in 500sq, 300sq, and even 150sq. You gotta remember that it's basically a lottery. Sure you COULD get a SSR off a ticket but you are also likely NOT to get an SSR in a shitload of pulls. If you go in not expecting anything it makes it that much more awesome when you roll a ticket for giggles and Jeanne pops out randomly off rate up just cause (happened to me and it was, at the time, the only SSR I didn't have because she hadn't had a rate up yet).
Have fun and if you need help on team comps or anything just ask.

Is why I tell people that if you are whaling be prepared to either fail or spent a shitload because you COULD go 1k and not get a single SSR (in my case I got Cu Alter, the ONLY SSR I got on my VERY last multi on the VERY LAST slot at the end of my 1k).
You will have a better time just enjoying the game and leaving it to luck if you get the characters or not. There are usually reruns and many servants will perma be in the gacha so unless you have, say, a huge damn hard on for Gil, who is limited, I would say don't worry about it. And even then just roll whatever you got and if you don't get them be okay with it, move on, and try again next time.
Waver is in pretty much EVERYONES support as almost everyone playing from day 1 has him (because everyone either rerolled for him which wasn't too hard considering there was what...5 SSRs in the gacha back then? or he spooped you later on).

I would suggest, like I have to many new players, go for what YOU want not what you think is good. As I mention above, this game you can clear most content with 3* and below with the help of a good support from time to time and most of your friends will have whatever "support" you will need.
In terms of "Broken" characters there are really only a few. Waver is one of those characters. The reason being is that he has 3 abilities all of which increase a characters NP gauge, 2 of which increase ALL allies NP gauge. These abilities basically increase 1) all allies attack + NP, 2) all defense + NP 3) A selected characters NP + Crit strength. His NP also gives a lot of debuffs, including some pretty amazing ones such as stun (chance), enemy NP charge down, def down, curse (enemy takes damage per turn for a few turns).
And most people HAVE him on their support caster list so there really isn't a need to roll for him. So I suggest picking one you like, and going with that and having fun, especially since you are F2P.
I would also state that the gacha can be amazing and shit so don't whale unless got the cash to back it up.
In the past few gachas I got Shuten in less than 150sq, I got Li Shuwen and Xuan in 300sq (I was rolling for Li Shuwen who i got on my FIRST roll and decided to roll for craft essence for this event, I ended up gettig 5 total Li Shuwens and 3 Xuan, 2 of which were from tickets). I also got 1 lancelot and 1 D'eon making it 7 total SR and 3 SSR in 300sq
Similarly, I went 500$ in the Cu Alter banner without a single SR or SSR until I finally got 1 SR (that's 750sq btw, and then went straight to 1k until I got Cu Alter. Which means in 1k (1500sq) I got 1 SR and 1 SSR.
This happened to me 3 times if i remember, once on Bryn banner, once on Okita, and once on Cu Alter.
Many other servants either came through tickets or under 150sq, and a handful in between massive spending and barely any.
At this point I found that almost no servant is worth whaling unless you are willing to go that mile. Just enjoy the game instead and you will probably eventually randomly get the servant.

There is no way to increase "Star" level but you can GRAIL servants. star just really means your lvl cap, so 5star is capped at 90, 4 at 80, 3 at 70, 2 at 65, 1 at 60? i think. So of course their stats are lower if they have lower star level, but stats don't really mean too much. It's all about skills and NP. This is why people like Cu, Hans, Hassan, are GREAT as they have amazing skills and/or NP abilities despite having lower "stats" and level "cap"
However by Grailing servants (once they reach max cap level you can use a Holy Grail to increase their level cap (before 90 it goes up by 5 so, 60 -> 65 -> 70 -> 75 -> 80 -> 85 -> 90, 90 goes up by 2 to 100 so 90 -> 92 -> 94 etc to 100 which is THE level CAP) you can get lower stars to be on relatively better footing to compare to upper stars. However note that in this game GRAILS are limited, you will get more as time goes on but they are entirely limited resources so be careful on who you grail. It is recommended to grail the servants you REALLY like rather than for "stats" or "min/max"ing as the servants you really like are the ones you will most likely play with and therefore you will get the most out of grailing those.
To get 5* servants it's rare even on rateup. Rateup just means that 5 star servants are 1% chance. if the game registers you as getting a 5 star it will then randomize WHICH 5 star you get, rateup just means when this RANDOMIZE process starts you will have a better chance at getting that servant. but this does not increase the 1%
In saying that, if you want to remain free to play, just save up your quarts and tickets and don't go ham on spending them, spend every now and again, a multi here and multi there, a ticket every now and then. you may get lucky.
I myself for instance spent 2 tickets randomly on the story gacha and got a 4 star AND a 5 star. I have spent a few multis on banners and got both the 4 star and 5 stars in a few multis...but at the same time I have gone over 1000sq without getting a single 5 star before and also over 500 without a single 4 star. and even THEN you aren't guaranteed the servant you wana roll for...so just appreciate everything you get, don't go ham, and have fun.

There is no way to increase "Star" level but you can GRAIL servants. star just really means your lvl cap, so 5star is capped at 90, 4 at 80, 3 at 70, 2 at 65, 1 at 60? i think. So of course their stats are lower if they have lower star level, but stats don't really mean too much. It's all about skills and NP. This is why people like Cu, Hans, Hassan, are GREAT as they have amazing skills and/or NP abilities despite having lower "stats" and level "cap"
However by Grailing servants (once they reach max cap level you can use a Holy Grail to increase their level cap (before 90 it goes up by 5 so, 60 -> 65 -> 70 -> 75 -> 80 -> 85 -> 90, 90 goes up by 2 to 100 so 90 -> 92 -> 94 etc to 100 which is THE level CAP) you can get lower stars to be on relatively better footing to compare to upper stars. However note that in this game GRAILS are limited, you will get more as time goes on but they are entirely limited resources so be careful on who you grail. It is recommended to grail the servants you REALLY like rather than for "stats" or "min/max"ing as the servants you really like are the ones you will most likely play with and therefore you will get the most out of grailing those.
To get 5* servants it's rare even on rateup. Rateup just means that 5 star servants are 1% chance. if the game registers you as getting a 5 star it will then randomize WHICH 5 star you get, rateup just means when this RANDOMIZE process starts you will have a better chance at getting that servant. but this does not increase the 1%
In saying that, if you want to remain free to play, just save up your quarts and tickets and don't go ham on spending them, spend every now and again, a multi here and multi there, a ticket every now and then. you may get lucky.
I myself for instance spent 2 tickets randomly on the story gacha and got a 4 star AND a 5 star. I have spent a few multis on banners and got both the 4 star and 5 stars in a few multis...but at the same time I have gone over 1000sq without getting a single 5 star before and also over 500 without a single 4 star. and even THEN you aren't guaranteed the servant you wana roll for...so just appreciate everything you get, don't go ham, and have fun.

#zero-Two-Team