Fairy Tail offers players a chance to pick their favorite guys and gals in the anime. As you follow the guild’s journey, you’ll also be treated to personal character stories and, in turn, you’ll get to increase character ranks. Here’s our guide to help you out.

Note: For more information, check out our Fairy Tail guides and features hub.

Fairy Tail: Character ranks guide

First, let’s get one thing clear: Fairy Tail‘s “character levels” are vastly different from the “character rank” mechanic. The former, “character levels” or “level-ups,” are obtained via conventional means (killing mobs and gaining EXP). They also offer rudimentary progression increases such as HP, MP, and new spells.

Meanwhile, the latter, “character ranks” or “rank-ups,” are obtained via the guild ledger, the book in each guild hub which also shows your guild’s rank and facilities (seen below):

Likewise, each rank-up in Fairy Tail requires a specific number of Fairy Points (which are obtained when you complete guild requests). The character ranks system also follows a few similarities among all the peeps you recruit in-game:

  • Rank 0: N/A
  • Rank 1: Magic Chain Enhance – Adds a new command to the Magic Chain during battles; increases damage of finishers.
  • Rank 3: Heavy Armor – Additional Lacrima slot.
  • Rank 4: Alternative Costume – Grants an extra costume for that character. This can be changed in Lucy’s house when you access the wardrobe.
  • Rank 5: Follow-up Enhance – Increases the damage of follow-up attacks.
  • Rank 7: Rapid Refresh – Increases MP restored at the end of a battle.
  • Rank 8: Magic Enhance II – Adds a new command to the Magic Chain during battles; increases damage of finishers.

As you can see, only a select few ranks will provide unique boosts tailor-fit for that character (ie. ranks 2, 6, and 10); the tenth rank actually provides a special skill or ability. Here are some examples early on in Fairy Tail:

Character stories

Okay, so far so good, right? Well, just to be clear, there will be times when you might hit a brick wall even if you have the requisite Fairy Points. That’s when the game might require you to complete a character’s story first.

Anyway, in Fairy Tail, a character that can have his or her story tackled will have an icon over their model. Mind you, these are usually quick, short romps — technically they’re sidequests too — that require you to complete a task for a specific person. For instance, Erza’s early character story would just have you buy some sweets in Magnolia:

Completing this will unlock possible rank-ups from rank 4 to rank 6:

Character stories don’t even need you to reach a certain rank already — ie. reach rank 6 with Juvia first before her next character story becomes available. It just requires you to have completed a previous story for that character. Try to pay attention to some guild requests that would require you to bring certain folks just in case these would lead to new stories too.

Fairy Tail is available on Steam. For more information, check out our guides and features hub.