Granblue Fantasy Relink endgame explained: Max Level, Overmastery, Ascension and more

While the main story of Granblue Fantasy: Relink is a great time, it's the endgame where the real sickos reign; and boy, is there a lot to chew your teeth on when it comes to preparing your party for some of the endgame's most difficult challenges. Thankfully, we've got all the info you need to understand what you'll be dealing with once it comes time to gear up for those fights - and what some of those challenges are. On this page we detail many of the key things you'll want to know about the Relink Endgame - from the Max Level to Ascension Weapons, and beyond.

Granblue Fantasy Relink Max Level: but the level cap is only the beginning

Granblue Fantasy: Relink's level cap is Level 100, but most players will reach that limit at the end of the postgame; or, in other words, the true beginning of the endgame. In fact, the enemies you'll face at the endgame will come at you with levels higher than your own level cap.

Instead, your gear - your weapons, your masteries, your sigils and everything else - are much, much more important when it comes to raising your PWR level, and becoming stronger. They will ultimately help you to become orders of magnitude more powerful even though your 'character level' will remain capped at the max level of 100. Each of these systems is a small part of the larger whole, so it might take some breaking down to explain just how each slots in to the overall endgame experience - which the rest of this page will now go on to explain.

Mastery and Overmastery

While you complete quests, you'll unlock Mastery Points (MSP), which can be spent on each character's Mastery Tree(s). You'll have a tree for Offense, a tree for Defense, a Collections tab, and once you've reached specific level milestones - the ability to invest into Overmastery.

Offense and Defense are the most straightforward; you'll unlock either stat upgrades, skills, or unique attributes for the character that improve either their Offense or Defense. These will likely be what you'll clear out first; and alongside improving your Ascension weapon, this would be the first aspect of improving your character to focus on while progressing through the game at a normal pace. The Collections tab and Overmastery are a different beast. Collections are bonus buffs you can unlock with MSP, based off milestones you have reached for levels for your character's weapons. These buffs, once unlocked, will apply regardless of which weapon you have equipped. This is especially important, as there very much is a "best" weapon in the game for each character, the Ascension weapon, but it also means that even once you've maxed out the level on one weapon, you should be making the effort to craft and level the rest for your chosen character.

Overmastery is your last stop for MSP, then. You can spend MSP for 1 of 3 different types of Overmastery, which will weigh specific types of buffs you might receive differently. Once you've spent MSP on everything else, you can use it here to roll an RNG buff for your character. 

Weapons and Ascension

No matter what character you play, or your build, every player will want to eventually max out all of their character's weapons. The reason for it was explained up above, but to reiterate; there are permanent buffs you can unlock based on the levels of each character's weapons. So at endgame, you will be at a deficit if you haven't taken the time to do so. As for which weapon you should actually use, there is a right answer - and it's your Ascension weapon, due to its inherent ability to be further upgraded after reaching the Weapon Level Cap.

Upon reaching Weapon Level 150 with your character's Ascension Weapon, you can unlock the ability to spend materials and currency to Awaken your weapon up to a maximum of 10 times. This will be your main grind at the endgame, as the cost and rarity of the materials required for these upgrades will scale in size and scope with each Awakening. Since each Awakening will massively boost your Ascension weapon's stats, and can add additional Skills to it, there is no reason to use any weapon other than your Ascension Weapon at endgame; if you want a different visual, you can overlay a different weapon's model. 

One other wrinkle to Weapons are Mirage Munitions; you'll start collecting these as part of the standard rewards for missions later into the game, and you can slot up to 99 of these on a weapon for a small stat boost for every one attached. It's basically a way for the game to help you feel like you're progressing in strength, even if you've reached a wall - whether it might be due to a lack of upgrade materials, or something else. Finally, there are Wrightstones, which can imbue skills onto a weapon, though these have more in common with Sigils than any other system.

Wrightstones and Sigils

While Masteries and Weapon upgrades will be the same regardless of your character and playstyle, Sigils and Wrightstones is where things will begin to differ depending on the character that you choose to play. You will want to choose which Skills to prioritize depending on your playstyle. For example, if you're playing as Io - a rather stationary caster, it's probably a good idea to use Low Profile, to prevent enemies from targetting you while you charge your powerful spells. That being said - there are at least a few Skills, and Sigils, that should be pretty universal.

Once you've reached the endgame, and especially as you've continued to Awaken your weapon, you'll start bumping up against the Damage Cap. So, you'll want to use Sigils that will help you overcome that cap; especially for your hardest hitting moves, where you would otherwise be leaving damage on the table. Additionally, each character has their own specific Sigil that you'll want to unlock from the Knickkack Shack; there will be at least one to grab from Treasure Trade, and one to grab from the (Gold) Dahlia Badge exchange; though you can also receive upgraded versions of these while Transmuting Sigils with Knickknack Vouchers.

On the flip-side, while character's will have a number of Sigil slots that will increase as you go through their Mastery Trees, you can only ever Imbue one Wrightstone on a weapon without overwriting their effects. Much like Sigils, Wrightstones will impart Skills to a character; but generally they'lll be a number of skills, instead of just one or two. Think of Wrightstones as being one last extra perk for your build, while Sigils are the foundation for your playstyle.

Stand Proud at the Endgame

Now that you know how to strengthen your character, it might be useful to understand what all of this grind will actually be for; Proud difficulty. After a grueling rematch with a beefed-up version of the game's final story boss - complete with an especially challenging DPS check to test players and ensure they've been properly gearing their party - you'll unlock Proud difficulty. Not only will enemy levels continue to eclipse your own, but you'll begin to find sick challenges such as fights against multiple postgame bosses at the same time, alternate versions of previous story bosses, and all new enemies with their own unique mechanics to engage with.

While you may be able to handle some of these challenges alone with NPC party members, we would highly advise finding a party to tackle these challenges with. Not just because the partner NPCs might not quite be up to snuff, but more fundamentally - you'll have a much easier time when you only have to gear one character up for these challenges, instead of four. After unlocking Proud Difficulty, there are no more PSN Trophies or Steam Achievements awarded for clearing these challenges; the reward for continuing down this path are the most brutal fights in the game. It's all bragging rights from here.

Whether or not you decide to tackle Relink's greatest challenges; here's hoping you now have the information necessary to attempt this task. Good luck, Skyfarer.