Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth 1 PC Tips

Finally got around to getting the rest of the DLCs, so I've been playing this again, and I was just thinking of some things that I know now that would have been nice to have known earlier.

So, here's a list!

• Always carry around plenty of Healing items (Grass, Pods, Nep Bull, etc.) just in case Compa gets downed.
• Always carry some Paralaxin. Nothing can mess up a battle more than 2/3 of your party being paralyzed.
• Carry around as many Life Fragments as you can afford. Compa doesn't get a resurrect until a lot later, and you'll die before then, guaranteed.
• Always check outfits and accessories for stat increases. Later on they'll be so minimal that they won't really matter, but early on, every little bit helps. As an example, Vert's Military Dress outfit and Sister accessory both raise her stats a bit. It's certainly not necessary to wear the stat-raising items, but it can sometimes be nice to have the little boost.
• Buy Life Rings. They are so great to have.
•  Always check the Commands > Combo Skills available to each character. They get new ones when leveling up, and most of them are upgrades. Aim for the best result, preferably with all three slots per type filled. Always check the number of hits on each attack, and do your math. For example, Plutia's "Breaker!" Break attack, at first glance appears to be the best due to its 230 Guard Damage, when in fact "Punishment!" is much better because it does 3 hits of 146 damage each, for a total of 438 Guard damage.
• Rush attacks mean that they hit a lot of times, so aim for a lot of hits there, with either Power or Guard Break. Power attacks deal more damage to an enemies HP than Guard, so aim for high Power attacks. Break attacks deal damage to the enemies Guard gauge, so aim for high Guard Break there.
• Be aware of what each character can do. Plutia, Rom, Broccoli, and Compa are all good at healing, for example, but only Rom and Compa can resurrect, and all characters have buffs to provide to the party. For example, IF can do an emergency heal with "Green Nova," and can raise an allies TEC with "Tech Support."
• Make sure that you unlock at least 1 Candidate in your first playthrough, preferably two. The best ones to go through at first, in my opinion, are Ran + Rom, then Nepgear, and then Uni. Reason being that Ran + Rom is a two-for-one and Rom's "Refreshments" ability is extraordinarily useful. Nepgear does pretty great damage (not great Guard Break damage though), while Uni is better at Guard Breaking, it seems like to me.
• Early on, level up against Child Whales in Mechtro Factory (Add Enemies required). They're kind of tedious at first, but good exp. They also drop Holy Whale Balls which can be used to complete the "Challenger" guild quest, which gets you money! Setting up for this is kind of a pain though. First, you need to unlock the Zeca Ruins No. 1 dungeon via a plan, which only requires Dogoo-Man Jelly (available in one of the early dungeons). Then you need to get to the point where you can kill Shampurus easily, including the Buff Shampuru. Then do the Mechtro Factory plan which requires Shampuru Ears, and get the Add Enemies plan which requires a Random Encounters chip (which can drop off of the Buff Shampuru). Generally, killing the Child Whales will require at least one CPU in HDD form to beat quickly and easily. You might also want the Weaken Enemies plan on. Just saying. You need a Mysterious Glowing Object, but I don't remember where you get it...
• If you see an Information pop up in Planeptune under the name Polytan, ignore it until you do the next bullet point here.
• Check the shops frequently, especially the Processors. As soon as you see the Terra processors pop up, you're in luck. Buy three sets of the Terra stuff when you can, and get to a point in the game where you have three CPUs with you that can use HDD. Equip all three with the Terra processors. And make sure you have the Coliseum unlocked. As long as you have the Fairy Fencer F DLC (which is free, by the way) installed, you may see a Polytan event pop up in Planeptune. Normally these things are pretty deadly, but they only do Electric type attacks. Having a full set of Terra processors makes you 100% immune to Electric type attacks, and therefore, the Polytans cannot hurt you. Killing them the first time will unlock a very good processor set for Neptune, and unlock the Polytan DENGEKI Fest Coliseum match. Doing this match over and over will get you a TON of exp. Usually 10+ levels each match pre-level-100.
• Speaking of the one above, get the DLCs as soon as you can. It's under $7 for all of them, and they are really useful. Plutia, Histoire, and Peashy are all very powerful, and having all three content packs gives your more quests, coliseum matches, and allows you to get up to level 999.
• Disk development, Disk development, Disk development! If you have a character that isn't equipped with a Disk, then go make one for them.
• Pick up every item you find in dungeons. Sometimes you'll get a Chip that you can use for Disk development. You've hit the jackpot if you happen to pick up a Crazy Difficult or Can't Grind, because those make you level faster if equipped to a disk!
• Do your Plans, particularly the System ones like Destroy Symbols, and Sneaking Scope. Also, definitely do Coliseum Unlock. System > Battle Plans are also great, like Escape Anywhere, Super EXE Drive, 100% Escape, Negative Status Reduced, Break Damage Limit, and Weaken Enemies. Fortify Enemies is also useful at higher levels.
• Check your Dungeon plans often. It's generally a good idea to unlock any dungeons you can, and do the plans for Add Enemies and Item Change.
• Definitely do Item Dev. > Item plans too, since they let you buy recovery items in the shop, which is vital (particularly the Plan for Life Fragments!). The rest of the Item Dev. Plans are more optional, and you may even want to avoid doing them so you can save MBs for the Candidate plans later...
• Find a party that you like to use. Early on in the game I used Compa, Vert, and Blanc most of the time. I always liked to have Compa in my party for heals. Now, at level 100+, I use Plutia, Rom, and Nepgear, and at endgame Broccoli is always in my team.
• Pay attention to one characters you set as backup party members. If you know you won't be needing to switch, check what abilities they get from their Lily Ranks. Some characters, like IF, give exp bonuses!
• Don't use an EXE Drive until the enemy's guard is broken.
• An enemies guard goes back up a little every time they attack, but quite a bit if their guard was broken. If you're trying to use a specific character's EXE Drive, get the enemy's guard down really low, but don't break it until you are positive the character you want to EXE will get to attack before the enemy does.
• Do anything that lowers the Others shares. They're useless to get the True Ending or for unlocking Candidates, and it will mean less grinding at end-game to get it down.

I'll add more when I think of more.