Kingdom Hearts 3 Best Starting Choices – No Powers, No Problem!

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Callum Marshall

Cal is the Managing Editor at RPG Informer, so all that you see before you is under his watchful eye. Despite this workload, he does his best to carve out some time to write up some eyecatching pieces and showcase his love for RPG's. His standout titles within the genre are Fallout New Vegas, Disco Elysium, Bloodborne, Kingdom Hearts, and his main squeeze right now is Elden Ring. Outside of gaming, Callum is a podcaster, a skateboarder, and an all-around sound guy.

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To say that the Kingdom Hearts series is a hard franchise to hop into as a new player would be an understatement. With main games and canon spin-offs spanning across generations and innumerable consoles, it feels like you need to practically study for an exam just to get your big chunky shoes on the ground and get going. This is partly down to the fact that Tetsuya Nomura has this fun habit of wedging in plot points for practically no reason. He’s a meticulous game designer, but not a logical one. One of these decisions was his choice of using the ‘power of waking’ plot point to ensure that when players began their Kingdom Hearts 3 journey, they would be doing so without any of their powers from previous outings. Thanks for that, Tetsuya!

That’s right; you go from the cusp of being a certified Keyblade Master to what feels like wielding a Struggle baton overnight. Okay, maybe that’s a little dramatic, but you get the point. No powers mean you’ll need to work pretty hard to get back to where you were. This also means that your initial choices within the world of Kingdom Hearts 3 are vital when it comes to choosing the right build for Sora, easing through the opening worlds, and much more.

So with that in mind, we think it would be beneficial to all of you Keyblade wielders in training if we went through the opening stages of Kingdom hearts 3 and discussed what choices you should consider making if you want to squeeze optimal performance out of Sora in the introductory stages of the game. I think I hear the Destati theme playing; it’s time to get started!

What do you Desire?

We kick things off with the initial question that you are asked when you begin the game in the classic ‘Dive to the Heart’ section. After a flurry of clips from past games in the series, the game will ask you, ‘What do you desire? A pretty open question, and the answers you can choose don’t do a lot to help the player understand the weight of what they are actually choosing. So let me help you understand what’s happening here. Your choices will be as follows:

• Option one: Wisdom
• Option Two: Vitality
• Option Three: Balance

As I said, pretty cryptic, but it basically translates to whether you want to build a character that will rely on MP and magic, HP and physical attacks, or run a more balanced character with a focus on using AP and Abilities. This is still quite a generalized view of proceedings, though. You may be wondering what this actually means for your stats and unlockable abilities. Well, here is a quick rundown of each choice.

Wisdom

• HP: 90
• MP: 120
• AP: 28

Vitality

• HP: 120
• MP: 90
• AP: 28

Balance

• HP: 105
• MP: 110
• AP: 28

It’s also important to bear in mind that magic damage, physical damage, and defense will start on the same stat, but depending on which choice you make, these will scale faster. Vitality will raise attack faster, Wisdom will boost magic, and Balance will boost defense.

Of the three, I would personally recommend that you go with Vitality. This is because the balance role isn’t specialized in any area, meaning you can’t truly excel. Then with regard to Wisdom, it’s a solid choice due to the damage output one can do with magic, as it is a much more consistent strategy than it has been in past titles. However, Vitality is the clear choice because while magic is a strong option, if you really want to power through the game quickly, rides and attractions are much more effective, and they don’t use MP. So more physical options, combined with those, will serve you better long term.

What Power do You Seek?

So now that you have decided what your base stats will be, and how they will scale, you now need to decide your progression path. Once again, the game isn’t too keen to tell you what you are actually choosing between, offering up a Sword, Shield, and Staff to represent the following roles

• Option One: Warrior
• Option Two: Guardian
• Option Three: Mystic

This will be familiar for long-time fans, as we have been choosing from these options when we first explored Destiny Islands. However, the progression paths are tweaked this time, and if you want to build Sora in your own image, then you need to know what abilities you will have access to. So here is a rundown of each progression path:

Warrior Progression

Mystic Progression

Guardian Progression

As you would imagine, the choice that you make in the first question should really dictate which way you go with this one. If you choose a higher base magic stat, then it would be silly to go with anything other than Mystic in this case. Then, as a rule of thumb, Vitality players should choose Warrior, and Balance players should choose Guardian. However, what I will say is that there is a lot more flexibility when mixing up the non-magic roles. Vitality players could combine with Guardian for an ultra-defensive tank build, with perks like getting access to abilities like Second Chance as early as level thirty. 

Then equally, balanced players could opt for the Warrior role so that they have access to stronger, longer-lasting combos earlier in the game, combining with magic to play a role not unlike a DPS build. The first choice should dictate your actions, but if you have a fun experiment in mind, then I say go for it! 

Let me Re: Mind You

If you are playing the vanilla game, then that’s where the tough choices end, and you can get stuck into the action. However, if you are a bit more of a seasoned player and opted to purchase the Re: mind DLC content, then you have an extra step to consider before the KH3 adventure unfolds. This DLC gives you access to some codes, which are cheats and difficulty toggles that players can mess around with to make the game easier or harder, depending on what you are aiming for. It was a great feature to encourage replayability, and for veteran players, this made KH3’s rather easy run a lot more challenging. You will have to choose from the following options: 

• Option One: Usual Adventure
• Option Two: Easier Adventure
• Option Three: Challenging Adventure 

What does this mean? I hear you ask. Well, let me give you the lowdown. 

Usual Adventure

This is for all of you folks out there that really enjoyed the vanilla version of Kingdom hearts III and just want to experience the game as the developers originally intended. This will mean that you will not be able to access either premium menu throughout your run. This is the choice for all the KH3 purists.

Easier Adventure

Did you find KH3 a bit of a drag the first time around? Were the fights too tough, the Gummi Missions too taxing, and did Donald keep dying? Well, we are afraid that the last one is part and parcel of the Kingdom Hearts experience, but with the help of the easy premium menu, you can make KH3 a doddle. Here are some of the things you will be able to access if you make this choice: 

• Deadly Blow – One Hit Kills
• Auto Block – Blocks when not attacking without input
• Hp Regen – Whole Team regenerates health passively
• Mp Regen – Whole Team regenerates MP passively
• Focus Regen – Whole Team regenerates Focus passively
• Form Charge – Passive Form Recharge 
• Attraction Pass – More frequent Attraction availability 
• Best Combination – Team Combos are more frequently available 
• Overflow – Rage Form is more frequent 
• Everlink – Much longer Link duration
• AP Free – Abilities cost no AP
• Survival – Attack and Magic stats are tripled for the player and enemies 
• Cooking Master – Recipes always achieve an ‘Excellent’ rating 
• Shop Discount – All items are half price 
• Gummi Ship Meister – Sets Gummi Ship Level to 99 (cannot be deactivated) 

Challenging Adventure

Then perhaps you are on the other side of the coin. A player that felt that Kingdom Hearts 3 was patronizingly easy, that certain skills were super overpowered, and that bosses were sniveling little babies. Well, Re: Mind beefed up the bosses anyway, but it also gave players the chance to unlock Pro Codes, which makes this game a really challenging ordeal. Here is a taste of the uphill struggles you can sign yourself up for: 

• Default Stats – Drops stats to their default level (basically keeps your character at level one forever) 
• Zero Defense – Drops your defense stat to zero (Buffs are still applied)
• HP Slip – During combat, your health gradually drops, stopping when at critical levels
• MP Slip – During combat, your MP gradually drops, and MP recharge takes twice as long
• No Shotlocks – The Shotlock feature is disabled
• No Cure – Disables the ability to use the Cure spell
• No Battle Items – Cannot use items when in combat
• No Links – Using Links is disabled 
• No FormChanges/Grand Magic – Disables Forms and Grand Magic
• No Attractions – Disables Attractions 
• No Team Attacks – Disables Team Attacks
• No Kupo Coins – Kupo Coins can be collected but serve no purpose 
• Ability Limit – Caps equippable abilities at thirty

Where to Visit First

Then lastly, let’s talk about when the game gets going, and you have to decide where to jet off to in your Gummi Ship first. Now, as many of you will know, you don’t really get the luxury of choice, to begin with. You will be forced to travel from Yen Sid’s tower to Olympus to catch up with Hercules. Then you will sail off to Twilight Town, where you meet up with Hayner, Pence, and Ollette. However, after that, the player gets hold of the steering wheel and can plot their own course. 

As usual, Kingdom Hearts III only gives you access to two unique worlds, to begin with, and these worlds are Kingdom of Corona, and Toy Box, which are the Tangled and Toy Story Disney worlds, respectively. In truth, you can approach these in either order, as the game wants to give the player a genuine option here. However, of the two, we would suggest that you head to Toy Box before you meet up with Rapunzel and the gang. 

You see, Kingdom of Corona has a higher Battle Level, meaning that the enemies hit harder than in Toy Box, and when you take into account that the final boss in Kingdom of Corona is no slouch, you might want to build up your strength to avoid this mild difficulty spike. Not to mention that visiting Toy Box afterward will feel a little easy, and can make that vibrant world of wonder feel a little boring. 

Also, if you take the Keyblades you receive for completing each world into account, Toy Box’s Favorite Deputy is a much better offering as it increases the drop rate of synthesis items, and has a great duo form change. Whereas Ever After is only really good for Magic-based builds, and is more of a support/healer type form change. It relies on more situational application, and thus doesn’t compare to Toy Box’s Keyblade. 

Heartless, Come at Me!

As you can see, there are quite a few considerations that will be sprung on you mere moments into the game that will have long-lasting effects on your full playthrough. This can be a little daunting, especially considering how cryptic they are. However, with the help of this guide, you should be able to make a clear, informed decision and ensure that when the Heartless come after you, you’ll be more than ready to show them who’s boss. I hope that this guide helps you build Sora into a Keyblade Master in waiting, and as always, thank you for reading RPG Informer. 

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