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Sand Land, the Action RPG from Bandai Namco based on Akira Toriyama’s manga of the same name, is a vast, but cruel world. Thankfully, you don’t need to have read the manga to know what to do and where to go. It’s a pretty straightforward game, but when it comes to general knowledge of the game itself, that’s another matter entirely. Several habits I have in action RPGs had to be completely shelved.
After 20-30 hours with the game, I have some advice for would-be Fiend Princes in Sand Land. Some of it might be obvious, but it is something worth keeping in mind as you explore the vast expanse of the desert, and beyond.
Disclaimer: This features minor spoilers for Sand Land.
Tips for beginners in Sand Land
1) Most battles can (and should) be fought in tanks/vehicles
Your instinct will probably be to fight as Beelzebub - the protagonist of the manga, and an incredibly powerful fiend. However, in my experience, unless you’ve put the effort into mastering his dodge roll, you’ll take more damage than is necessary. There are also the Elite/powerful enemies that can easily slaughter the protagonist if he’s on foot.
Instead, fight as many of the battles as you can in a tank. Take the time to understand how Beelzebub fights - there are a few battles when you can’t summon a vehicle - but vehicle combat is king. Especially the tank, and one of the later suits. Even the Jump-bot is pretty useful in combat.
2) Keep two vehicles upgraded as much as possible
It gets expensive to upgrade your vehicles. You’re going to need a lot of Steel in Sand Land, as well as other useful crafting materials to keep leveling up all your vehicles. In my experience, it’s best to keep a couple of them as leveled up as possible - the ones that are most likely to be used in combat.
For me, the best Sand Land vehicles to upgrade were the Jump-Bot and the tank. Some of the later vehicles will start at a decent level, but the motorcycle and car? Those only serve to drive around at a faster rate than the tank, in my opinion. Whichever vehicles you use the most, upgrade those first.
3) Level grinding has no purpose - other than material farming
This was one of the big let-downs for me in Sand Land - few though there were. Whether you fight as Beezlebub, or in a vehicle, the exp you gain from enemies in the world is almost nothing. It adds up eventually, but it takes too long. The only reason you have to fight enemies in the world is to get crafting materials - which are incredibly important.
The only time I leveled up, or gained significant exp was when fighting bosses. Even side quests don’t grant exp - just Zeni and other rewards.
You should still fight enemies when you see them for the most part - especially if you’re tracking down materials like Steel. I found it unnecessary to fight everything all the time - unless they had rare, useful ingredients. Crocs, and military units, were the ones I went out of my way to fight the most. Even consistently upgrading vehicles takes time.
The parts get rarer, requiring more farming in deeper areas of the game. In the late game/post-game, you could likely grind and farm for parts easily, but as you play through the game? Sometimes you just have to wait for the next zone.
4) Take the time to explore everywhere
You don’t have to explore everywhere and do everything in Sand Land, but it will no doubt help. Taking the time to do side quests that add more villagers to Spino will give you more stores, and other unlockables.
Going through caves is a great way to farm ore. Then you have the rock pillars that require Jump-bot. Those often have four to five treasure chests on top and usually have at least one weapon/chip for your mechs.
5) Patience is key for Stealth Missions
Stealth missions in Sand Land don’t come up too often, but they can be incredibly frustrating if that’s not your kind of game experience. If you get caught even once, you get thrown back to your last checkpoint, and some of the rooms you have to stealth through are massive.
Don’t be afraid to take a look around and reset a room, just to find where everyone is. Sometimes, soldiers are standing in weird locations and will just pop up and start patrolling when you don't see them.
The open-world bases are harder to stealth through, though, and have longer pauses between checkpoints. I cannot stress enough that sometimes you just have to take your time and go slow.
Sand Land is now available on a variety of platforms and follows the story of Fiend Prince Beelzebub. You can learn more about it in our in-depth review.
