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If you want to work well with someone, you’ve got to get to know them. This ain’t just true in real life—it’s also true of your party members inthe surprisingly large castofRune Factory: Guardians of Azuma.
Get close enough, and you might evendiscover a budding romancewith one of your party members. However,Guardians of Azumatracks “Bond Level” and “Intimacy” separately.
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Impossible not to love!
Your romance options don’t lock out perks gained from a high Bond Level with other romanceable NPCs.
That said, don’t get carried away. You have to make some friends first, andhere’s how to bond with your party members in Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma.
Building Bonds
A character’s Bond Level increases after social interactions, during adventures, and when you complete their quests. You get a reward at each Bond Level, but these rewards are unique for each character. However, all party members follow the same pattern for unlocking new social interactions.
For example, at Bond Level 6 you unlock the “Cooking Together” option. This marks certain recipes with a chef’s hat in the cooking menu. Cook it up with the character, and you’ll unlock a new (usually powerful) consumable.
Do The Dailies
Your most basic social activity is chatting with party members. The first time you select “Let’s chat” while interacting with an NPC, you’ll progress a little bit toward the next bond level.
Chatting doesn’t cost in-game time,so even on a busy day it’s worth hitting up every character, even if their daily dialogue isn’t quite iconic. On the downside, there’s no indicator that you’ve chatted with an NPC. On long days, it’s easy to fruitlessly check the same person several times.
In addition, your very first Sacred Treasure—the Plum Branch—gives a little bump to Bond Levels each time you use it near them. This costs 2 RP, and you can only strengthen an NPC’s bond this way once per day.
So, you may as well do both at once when making your rounds!
Hanging Out
The easiest way to boost aparty member’s Bond Levelis the “Let’s hang out” option.This opens a dialogue of four activities you can suggest. You can hang out with a character once per day. If you haven’t yet, a yellow icon appears on their head when you walk by.
Hanging out always costs in-game time. The time spent depends on the chosen activity.
Example Activities
10 minutes
Telling a joke, making small talk
30 minutes
Going for a walk, giving a gift
60 minutes
Going out to eat, taking a nap
If you’ve done an activity before with the character,Guardians of Azumashows their preference with a Loved, Liked, Disliked, or Hated icon. (There’s no icon for “neutral.")
Longer or higher-level activities usually give more points towards your next Bond Level. However, this ismassivelyoutweighed by choosing a preferred activity. Doing Loved 10-minute activities will earn more progress than neutral 60-minute activities. Choose against the NPC’s preferences, and you’ll lose points.
Going out to eat at Iroha’s Teahouse or Yachiyo’s Izakaya is almost always a safe choice. While it does cost 60 minutes, I’ve never seen an NPC dislike those options.
The “Give a Gift” option is always available when hanging out. The party member’s reaction depends on the gift given. Paying attention to dialogue gives hints about most characters' likes and dislikes. You’ll usually see this in another character’s dialogue—NPCs are less chatty about their own preferences.
Once you’ve given a Loved, Liked, Disliked, or Hated item, it’s recorded in the Profiles section of your menu. Those items also have an icon the next time you give that character a gift. Just like activities, you’ll lose points for gifting Disliked or Hated items.
As you advance the main story and level up your Social Activities skill tree, new hang-out options appear in your choices. If the NPC’s Bond Level is low,don’t pick higher-level activities.They’ll scold you, and you’ll lose some progress. This can be a bit tricky once the pool is filled with higher-level options.
The one exception is new relationships at Bond Level 0. There are no level-zero activities, so go ahead and pick a level-one activity (remember, gifting is Level 1).
Perks in the Social Activities tree allow you to refresh hang-out options. These refreshes are daily—not per character—so use them sparingly. I usually refresh to find low-level activities for new relationships.
Keep Your Friends Close
Your Bond Levels progress with party members while you’re exploring Azuma. It’s not a ton of growth, but you’ll find it’s impactful over time.
Almost every time yourparty members chat during exploration, you’ll receive a pop-up about their bond growth. Selecting party members who share dialogue—such as Iroha and Ulalaka—increases your growth rate. When either character triggers their conversation, your Bond Level will grow with both.
The Options menu includes a “Party Chatter” setting for the frequency of conversations. I haven’t tested it thoroughly, but I’m fairly confident leaving it on “Normal” speeds up adventuring growth.
After completing the Winter Region, your party size increases to six characters. Only your active party triggers conversations, so rotate party members to optimize their bond growth.
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Personal Requests
In addition to the Ema Board’s generic requests, each NPC hasPersonal Requestswhich reward you with village XP and bond growth.Plus, you’ll receive gold and items as usual.
Personal Requests are numbered, but they aren’t sequential. If you get “Ulalaka’s Request 6,” you haven’t missed quests one through five. Each NPC has over a dozen possible Personal Requests. Quests that repeat still give rewards.
Characters don’t always have a Personal Request available. These quests spawn as the days pass, and only go away if you use the “Give Up” option.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to tell who has a new Personal Request. Just gotta hit the town and ask around.
Bonding Quests
Advancing your Bond Level unlocks a sequence of “Getting To Know So-And-So” quests. TheseBonding Quests require a certain Bond Level to proceed,and some have additional requirements.
Quest Number
Required Bond Level
In general, Bonding Quests don’t require much of you. They’re your story reward for strengthening bonds with your party members. Each quest shows the NPC dealing with a personal problem or crisis which the Earthdancer helps them resolve. Along the way, you’ll usually have to do a simple task, like gathering a few resources.
For example, one of Matsuri’s Bonding Quests requires completing the Winter Region because of a character interaction afterward in the main story. This sets up a conflict for her last Bonding Quests, culminating in a rematch with the Summer Region’s boss.
Instead of Bond Level,Bonding Quests increase your Intimacy with a character.Intimacy tracks separately from Bond Level. Reaching Bond Level 7 allows you to complete a character’s fourth Bonding Quest and unlock romance.
While not asunhinged as some games,the romance sub-plots are still a fun reward for being a social butterfly.
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