The only advantage the sword can give is Feraldo's skills when he train you with the sword, still you need to grind up so you can truly fill them in. Arihama will be easier to defeat if you take the side quests. Spoiler:
Akonian Ritual - helps you uncover your lore (meaning there is no second round to fighting Arihama)
More Recruits - Your entire fighting capabilities of your troops will be boosted e.g: temporary defence from Skru'Vaks when he is behind the frontlines, Minor additional damages from other gun equipped troops (Rylan, Riordan, Chip, Phoenix). Frontlines are well frontlines (helpful in dealing damage and as well as receiving damage).
The Sythyrian Armor (less evade, more def).
I prefer the ranged weapon unless there is a reset respec stat in early game, plus the sword is too late and will took more time to strengthen melee weapon stat.
and also not to forget the lust stat which is the early strategy of the game, and most powerful stat.(In battling Arihama, the lust stat is like a stun/immobilize effect on him) while your crew damages him without the consequence of getting countered in return (but still hot af).
Bradley can survive Arihama. Didn't you made your crew level up too? The best way is by sending them in the missions, and also grinding them up with repeatable enemies (The nearest would by the Wyverns of Silent Plains).
Your crew can level up too, check their experience bar in the mission tab too.
Mine in my first mistake was not making my crew level up, and Hakkon died but I reset it up grind a little more so they'll raise their endurance, damage and accuracy (lesser miss when giving damage to enemies).
The only available RPG grind in this arc to join you is Chip (The Ship's AI), Rylan, Bradley, Cicero, Phoenix, and Feraldo. (Those are the crew that can level up with grindable enemies as well as GA and GU missions.
Meanwhile, Hakkon, Skru'Vaks, are the only people that can level up with using GA and GU missions, they can't participate in the repeatable grind but they will join you in battling Arihama.
Riordan can join in the battling Arihama but this is the only unit trooper that is unable to level up through both GU's/GA's mission as well as normal RPG grinding.
But going back to the first question, if you want your mc to be damage dealer. Ranged weapon is suitable, rather than the sword which will come later whereas all your points are spent in the stats unless there is a weapon for melee, but I think you can have the sword when you gotten it after you save Alastor the Gunsmith in the prior arc. But the full sword talents also comes when you hire Feraldo after the hiring sidequest.
Plus the sword talents are grueling to keep up since your mc's experience bar is higher in this part and all your stat points and talent points are spent in earlier available stat and/or talent which are the ranged skills and the initiative boost if I am not mistaken.
I did notice allies level up but didnt really grind them yet. Maybe I should...
"(The nearest would by the Wyverns of Silent Plains)." Huh, figured Grauls would be better.
Tbf half of my wish for respec is that I am hoping to unlock magic down the line. I would like to be a mage. I only started adding stats to guns when I realized there was no magic to be found early on and I needed some damage. XD
But yeah, I checked Arihama's stats after filling his lust bar, and what went down was the blue energy bar, which I guess is for his abilities, not HP.
(Incidentally, can you heal Riodan later? Figured I would let him die honorably, but now I wonder)
The truth of being a mage here is somewhat useless in the earlier run, cause you would learn magic in Harmonia, after you defeat Arihama which you will learn a Praharma Skill (first magic skill drop from absorbing Arihama). Plus the the basic staff (weapon equipped) would only have a magical attack after you attend in magic school. So being a mage and battling arihama is asymptotic to say the least. They were two arcs apart. Sadly I hope that I would use spells but lore says that the MC's magic comes from Arihama himself.
In this version 0.43. The missions will appear after you defeat Arihama. You'll enter and talk first to the bridge crew about Galaxy missions and the missions will appear on the choice there before getting back on the tab where it is usually found. (If it doesn't do the trick just explore the galaxy and step foot in Harmonia) and wait til the choice appear in the bridge again.
