In-depth Destiny of Spirits FAQ

I'm a big fan of Destiny of Spirits the turn-based, location based Free-To-Play RPG available on our beloved PlayStation Vita. I have put over 400 hours into the game itself and countless other hours through ventures such as my Destiny of Spirits Facebook page and my Destiny of Spirits subreddit on Reddit.

Something I have been working on off and on for the past few months is a comprehensive Destiny of Spirits FAQ. In making this FAQ I have talked to dozens of Destiny of Spirits players and used my own experience to make what I truly believe to be the biggest and best FAQ for the game you'll find around.

Merging:

“Can Jokers of X be summoned or acquired as you clear some areas in the map?”

To this point, no. They can only primarily be received by defeating X amount of bosses in Raid Events. You can occasionally get them through login bonuses for reaching a certain number of login days in a given month. 

“What does ‘(For Merging)’ mean on my spirit’s card?”

This means your spirit is specially designed for merging into other spirits.

Princes and Queens offer incredible XP boosts over their UC and R counterparts.

Jokers allow you to limit break a spirit, so long as it hasn’t been broken too many times. It does NOT provide an XP boost like the Princes and Queens.

It is not currently known what Kings do.

"How can I increase my spirits level?"

You can increase your spirits level by feeding him other spirits. Depending on the type and rarity of the spirit you can get more XP. An SR will give more experience than an R, an R more than a UC, and a UC more than a C. A spirit of the same type will give more than a spirit of any other type.

You shouldn't ever merge R and SR simply for leveling purposes.

A Prince, Queen, and King are special spirits whose only purpose is to be fed to other spirits and as such they will provide mega XP moreso than their regular counterparts.

"I can't level up my spirit anymore! How do I fix this?"

Your spirit reached its level cap. You can break this cap in two ways.

Method 1: Merging a Joker of the same type.

Method 2: Merging a copy of the spirit.

“I don’t have an option to break my spirit and I have a Joker/Copy/Both!”

You probably hit the absolute maximum a spirit can reach.

You can only  break a Common's level once, a UC's twice, an R's 3 times, and an SR's 4 times bringing each spirit’s level to 20/35/50/65 respectively.

Once those levels are reached no amount of Jokers or copies will break through.

“When do I start merging spirits for max stats?”

You should start a little before you do your final level break. This not only maximizes your stat boosts which means you need to use less spirits, saving you time and money, but it also guards against being able to use too few if a spirit has a low growth in a stat, such as Greys with its speed.

“Do I get bonus stats for the copy of the spirit I use to level break?”

Nope, it is used only for merging and that’s that.

"When you use Jokers or a copy of the spirit to boost the level cap do you get experience for either spirit?"

Unfortunately you will not receive any experience from a spirit used in a level breaking. 

Trading:

"I made a trade, why didn't I get my trophy?"

You need to have a spirit on your block that is offered on and consequently traded for the trophy to trigger.

“How can I check my pending trades? When I go to trade with someone it says I have too many pending trades.”

First off, go to Communicate ---> Trade to see if you have anything up. These count towards your pending trades.

If you have nothing there you will need to look at each friend’s profile one by one as there is no other access to see what you’ve offered and where.

“How do you see trade offers in-game?”

To see who, if anyone, has offered on a spirit go to Communicate ---> Trades which is where you originally posted them.

If you want to see what someone else has up for trade, go to Friends ---> Profile ---> Trade and you will see what, if anything, they have for trade and you will have the ability to offer at that time.

Summoning:

"How do I get more spirit collection space?"

You will get more space for clearing certain zone clearance benchmarks and you can buy 5 spaces for 10 Destiny Orbs a limited number of times.

How is what my spirit summons with stones or orbs are determined?"

It is ultimately determined by your region. DoS is split into three regions: NA, EU, and AS. Sometimes there will be "World Tours" and you can get with orbs Rs and SRs from other regions. That and trading is the only way to get other region spirits.

What you can get is further determined by how much of the map you have cleared. The more Zone and Area bosses you beat, the larger your summoning pool will be thus enabling you to have a wider variety to potentially be summoned.

Battling:

"Should I attack the minions first or just tank the boss?"

It really depends on the situation. If you match up well against it, you can tank it. If it has a lot of minions you'd have to keep on killing, you can tank it.

Ideally if you were going to tank it, you'd have 2 spirits to tank it with and one spirit to take care of any bad minion matchups versus those tanks that'll eat away at your HP and impair your progress a bit while your spirits heal once more.

"Should I pick my strongest or fastest attackers in battle?"

I'd say go with the best balance you have instead of focusing on one or the other. If your second strongest spirit has a bit more speed than your strongest then it is probably worth the trade-off.

Hunting:

"I can't find anything in hunts no matter how many times I try. What do I do?"

You have to travel at least one kilometer from one wifi location to another for the game to allow you to hunt for new spirits.

"Are there any limits to how many times I can hunt?"

The only limits to how many times you can hunt are your own. If you're willing to travel from location to location hunting you'll be able to without any problem. 

"I see people getting over half a dozen spirits and I only ever get a few, how do I get more?"

They are getting more spirits than you because they are traveling a greater distance than you. Your distance will affect not only how many spirits you get, but the chances that one spirit or more will be a rare find like a Super Rare spirit.

Raid Events:

“How do I earn rewards in the event?”

You can earn rewards by beating bossing and helping friends beat bosses. Beating your bosses counts towards your credit for that spirit in particular and your total overall. Helping friends beat bosses counts towards your overall only.

“How can I find Raid Bosses?”

You can find Raid Bosses by doing a normal, non-boss (neither zone or area) battle and winning. It is recommended you do this on an easy to beat battle so that you can quickly and easily farm bosses with your raid points.

“I ran out of Raid Points, how do I get more?”

Once you start using your Raid Points you will get 1 new one every 30 minutes for a maximum of 5 at any time. You can also get Raid Points by spending Destiny Orbs to replenish either one, three, or 5 at a time.

"Someone on my friends list is joining my raid battles and doing 0 damage. Why is he doing this?"

He's doing it because it's a faster process when you're speed-running the event than sending in properly leveled spirits in to die. He's shaving a significant amount of time off per raid boss by quickly shedding his normal team and tossing in a common that won't put up a fight.

One hit and its dead, game over.

You don't have to do damage to get the point, all you need to do is get in there and die.

I don't condone the practice and would never do it myself more than the one time I did to test it out for giggles early on in the game, but it is a pretty savvy strategy.

You're easily saving a minute per match by doing this and sacrificing nothing on your end.

Miscellaneous:

“What is sending a spirit to “storage”?”

Sending a spirit to storage means you are placing it in your mailbox to free up spirit collection space.

“How do I send spirits to “storage”?

Sending a spirit to storage is simple!

Have a friend put up spirits on their trade block.

Have your friend decline the offers.

Lather.

Rinse.

Repeat.

“Can I see what spirits my friends have?”

Unfortunately no, you can only see whatever they have posted on their trade block in-game.

“Can I change my birthday listed on my DoS profile?”

No, it is not possible to change it. It is drawn directly from your PSN account which also has its birthday unchangeable.

“My login counter reset to day 1 and I was almost at 30 days. I just lost my trophy! Right?"

Fear not!

You did not lose your progress towards the trophy.

The login tracker and the trophy login tracker are completely separate.

So long as you’ve logged in everyday and continue to do so, you will get your trophy!

"What is that finger I see in battle?"

It's nothing special, it just points to where to press to access battle options such as Battle Skill Activation and the direction in which it should attack.

"What's the best thing to spend Destiny Orbs on starting out?"

Storage Space, undoubtedly. You get 5 storage slots for 10 orbs and they will come in handy as you progress. You can spend all the orbs in the world on spirits, but if you have nowhere to put them you are out of luck.

"What do the (+11,+1) numbers mean on the tiles?"

Not much. They simply denote the location of the area.

"Does it make any difference if a tile has other players noted on it?"

Kinda. It shows you where your in-game friends are located and it also shows how many suggested friends are from that area.

“Does my home base change as I travel outside of the location?”

No, your base will always stay the same even if you are out on the road.