Building a party that survives in Ember of the Last Keep

Most people start Ember of the Last Keep by spreading upgrades evenly across all four characters. I did too, and I hit a wall around the swamp fortress boss. The game quietly wants you to commit.

Pick two characters to be your damage core and funnel materials into them. Everyone else supports. Once I did this, fights that felt impossible became routine.

Don't ignore the timing mini-game on attacks either. A perfectly timed hit does noticeably more, and on a long boss fight those extra chunks add up. It's worth practising on easy enemies.

Finally, read the side quest dialogue. A couple of them hand out gear that's better than anything in the shops at that point, and it's easy to skim past them.