Final Fantasy XV‘s multiplayer expansion “Comrades” released this week on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as a paid DLC (free with the season pass) that brings co-operative mission-based combat to the game. This content is accessible from the “Downloadable Content” section in Final Fantasy XV’s title menu. (Note: online functionality in Comrades requires PlayStation Plus or Xbox Live subscription.)

Comrades takes place during Chapter 14 of Final Fantasy XV, during which a great darkness has spread over the kingdom of Lucis, causing people to take refuge from ever-growing monster hordes. Here, many hunters and former Kingsglaive members band together to defend the citizenry and attempt to save what little is left of civilization. You’ll be creating your own character, a Glaive, that finds their way to Lestallum where refugees are gathering.

If you’re planning to dive in this weekend, here are a few quick tips before you begin:

Do your research before heading out on a quest

Of the many monsters you’ll fight in Comrades, many have explicit weaknesses to different types of weapons or elemental properties. One easy way to prepare for this is by toggling through the different monster descriptions at Monica’s quest counter. Simply highlight the quest and press the triangle button (PS4) to start flipping through the monsters you’ll encounter.

Red numbers mean that the enemy will take increased damage when hit with that weapon or element type while blue means they will take reduced damage. Tailoring your weapon loadout for each quest will give you a good advantage when trying to take out more troublesome monsters.

It never hurts to communicate your plans

While Comrades does include the ability to vocally communicate by way of microphone, it’s not always the most ideal for some.

Luckily the game includes a wealth of text options that you can easily convey your strategy. In more hectic encounters, assuming a stricter battle role, focusing on healing and buffing your party, diverting enemy attention, or going all out on damage can help you through the chaos with a little simplification.

Picking a birthplace and Sigil

At the start of Comrades, or when you create a new avatar, you will be asked to name the place of your birth. The four options include Altissia, Galahd, Insomnia, and Galahd. These choices will slightly affect your starting stats, so if you have a character build in mind, you may want to put some forethought into which city to pick. Altissia is best for all-rounded characters, Galahd leans slightly more towards magic stats, Insomnia bestows a heavy magic-user build, and Lestallum brings higher vitality and health to withstand attacks. It should be noted that this cannot be changed after you make your selection. (Our sister site RPGSite has a bit more on this.)

As you bring power back to various locales in Lucis, you’ll be able to assimilate the power of kings by equipping a Sigil. There are thirteen in all, and each have a unique ability suited to different battle roles. The Oracle, for example, will allow you to heal allies across a wider range and The Warrior will allow you to draw attention to yourself and evade enemy attacks with a button press. Choosing a sigil that gels well with your battle style is ideal, as they will also bestow passive stat bonuses that help that combat role.

Choose your upgrade materials wisely…

With the help of Cid Aurum and his laser cutter, you can craft upgrades into your weapon arsenal with various materials you obtain out on your quests. These materials have different properties when used in upgrading a weapon’s stats or imbuing it with a new ability, and some are better than others.

The fastest way to get the most out of your weapon upgrades is to observe it’s preferred stats — you can tell these apart from the others by the small progress bar below them. While any stat can be amplified on a weapon, if you max out these progress bars (they’ll glow white when you do so) before the item reaches its level cap, the weapon be remodeled — transforming into an even more powerful weapon.

Rarer items will bestow more stats, but also more experience, so you’ll want to keep a close eye on how your progress is unfolding so that you don’t inadvertently max out your weapons level before the remodeling conditions are met. Later on the game, when you have more options to farm specific items (again, reviewing drop lists with Monica at the quest counter helps), you’ll be able to imbue weapons with not only the remodeling conditions, but additional stats that will help you customize more powerful gear.

Redo your avatar as many times as you wish, except gender

Comrades will let you create an avatar at the beginning of the game, but you’ll actually be able to create up to eight different ones that you can switch back and forth at your leisure. You share an inventory pool but each avatar must be levelled up independently. Any physical attribute of your avatar can be changed after your initial selection except gender. You’ll have to make a new character.

Once you make any changes, you’ll be given the option to rename your avatar, so there’s no need to fret over the right name choice at the start. To edit your character’s appearance, speak wiith Dustin near the tent in Lestallum. Also, if you’re clothes start to get mucky, approach the tent and you’ll be able to steam them squeaky clean.

Make sure to elect leaders for each outpost

As you fill out the power grid across Lucis, you’ll run into refugees that will take shelter at the various outposts you liberate. When enough of them gather, you will be given the option to appoint a leader and each candidate will offer different donations to your effort. These donations can come in the form of materials you can use to upgrade your weapons, gil for you to spend on new weapons or glamour, or meteorshards to hasten the power grid’s development.

To redeem these rewards, hit up the supply counter in Lestallum — you’ll know when donations have arrived when the gold treasure box icon appears on your mini-map. The more citizens you elect to leadership positions, the more often donations will come in, so make it a priority to take a trip out to each outpost as soon as enough refugees have arrived.

If you run into the experience bug…

Currently, the game has a bug where completing multiplayer missions will sometimes bug your experience point tally. This will often appear as a negative amount that will prevent you from levelling up further. In our experience, we’ve found that whenever this happens, completing a mission with only AI comrades will fix it. You don’t necessarily lose experience from this bug, but being able to level up to access stat boosts is obviously worthwhile.

Any tips you have to share for your fellow Comrades? Let us know in the comments below!