Primarily, you’ll want to pay the closest attention to your characters’ element types, but in this game, element types are reconfigured, so to say, as skills. To simplify things, strength is red, dexterity is green, quickness is blue, psyche is yellow, and intelligence is purple. And as far as elements go, strength > dexterity, dexterity > quickness, quickness > strength, psyche and intelligence both turn out to be weak when up against each other.
Like in other games that reward you for the combos you create, timing is paramount in helping you string them together. But if you’re new, you have to pay closer attention to what’s being taught you on the tutorial. For example, you can first tap on your own character, pay attention to the Japanese characters (“attack words”) moving toward your target, then quickly tap on a second character. That way you can create a Perfect Chain, and subsequently a Doom attack once you’ve gotten the hang of things.
Prior to starting a new chapter in the story, you’ll be prompted as to whether you want to bring their captain to the fight with you. This should be an automatic “yes,” as that guest captain could help you in battle. But once you’re done with a chapter, go ahead and repay your friend(s) with guest captains of their own. More friend points, after all, gives you more chances to unlock and add new characters.
Be prudent with the type of attacks you’re launching when you notice there’s a piece of meat next to any one of the pirates on your team. Make sure you’re going for a Good or a Great attack so you can recover hit points with that meat. Going for a Perfect attack, contrary to what you, as a newbie may think, is the last thing you want – the meat’s going to bounce away, and that’s going to leave you with egg on your face and no HP recovered.
First, start with a Good attack, then follow up with a Great one, before hitting a Perfect attack. If you do that, you’ll be asked if you want to use a Doom attack – after you see the Doom notification, tap on your next crew member to launch the attack.
In One Piece Treasure Cruise, you should do more than just upgrade the members of your party. You should also upgrade your ships, and go for the upgrade that should give you the best bonuses for your crew members. And in relation to upgrading your party, one way to do this is to sacrifice your one-star pirates (and there will be many) to power up your stronger team members.