What am I doing wrong?

[Sharm]

I ground through two levels last night and because of replacing weapons and needing healing I have less money now than when I started and almost ran out of money completely twice. Are levels 2-4 just not good for money? Am I grinding in the wrong area (I've been running into a lot of dragons). Is my holy alignment working against me? All my stats are above 15, is that not good enough? I've been using volley balls and only using my elven blade when I'm matched up against something that can kill me even at full health (which is often). I'm using my fairy dragon hood as armor, which seems to do nothing to help me need to heal less.

Anyway, I'm getting frustrated with the battle system and I'd appreciate any hints on how to survive without burning through all my weapons and cash every time I go to fight.

[Maeve]

Hm, let's see, your HP seems fine, your strength too...

What zone are you in (see the "Explore" tab)? I'd suggest staying in the Great Gated City, since it's where most monsters are, so you chances of encountering weak or strong foe should be more balanced.

If you want to make money, don't be afraid to run from stronger monsters, and by strong I mean anything that has more than, let's say, 100HP. The main reason I'm saying this is that killing them will take a lot out of your weapons, and you won't get much more in return then if you killed a lizard with 5HP.

I personally use a tenro as my stronger weapon, and volleyball for the weaker things. Some EIs could work too if you prefer (tell me if you need one, I could probably find you something). An elven blade just doesn't seem to have much more power than a volleyball (unless I'm checking the wrong weapon, but the one I'm seeing has 3 power instead of 1 for the ball, so basically it will only do 2 damage point more than the ball)...

What are you using to repair your weapon? I'd suggest using a super repair hammer, since it's supposed to have the best quality/price ratio. Providing you get a better weapon (with more duration), this should help reduce your cost.

Armors... I dunno, I never really used them. I don't think you really need them that much, at least at a lower level.

Hope this helps a bit.

[Weaseldale]

You aren't really doing anything wrong, but at the moment fighting monsters with high HP just isn't worth it at this point. Also, if you are repairing your weapons don't bother with volleyballs, just delete them when they run out and buy a new one. They are so cheap repairing them is actually more costly. If you get a tenro as Maeve suggests, it is worth repairing though (the elvin blade isn't really that much better, as she said).

But basically, fighting dragons isn't worth it unless a dragon quest is currently going on, which it isn't. I'm level 32 and I still run from them because of this.

Your alignment shouldn't be working against you.

Edit: I have a stronger weapon at least that should be of some help to you :)

[Sharm]

Running huh? Every jrpg playing instinct in me says not to do that, that's probably what I'm doing wrong. I wasn't reparing my volley balls, just my blade and armor. I was trying to save up for a better weapon than my elfin blade, but as you can see that didn't work out. If you could send an EI my way I would be grateful!

[Weaseldale]

I also had an EI to send you, although I don't know if it went through... it's not showing up as it for me. ><

But yeah, the adult dragons were originally added as quest monsters for the dragon wings and horns, and were meant to be a good deal tougher than most monsters. Because not everyone uses the battle system, they have to be availalbe to all levels even if in reality I doubt there would be a level 1 dragon.

[Sharm]

I just got the sword, it is soooo much better! Thank you Weaseldale!

[Usagi]

Ah, apparently Ace was faster than me as usual

Hope you will have better luck in the battle system now!