Here you will be given your first route split.
Immediate ring access with S. Riders: Destiny, Heir, Elemental *Note: Probably the best weapon out of the three here, but you can get another scimitar later in the mid game when you recruit Mashal.
Immediate ring access with Merchant: Sanctified, Saint, Storm.
Immediate ring access with Izn's: Lava, Calamity, Diplomat *Note: This axe is really only decent on Khamari later due to his high fortitude but overall, not amazing and probably the worst weapon out of the three. Does give some short-term milage to Shaman Cassandra or Devoted Gwen if you decide to go that route.
You should start out by having 1 Astral Coin and Elixir of HP in your inventory. If you've met all of the objectives of prior chapters, you should have 3k Gold too.
In demonic, I recommend siding with the merchants for multiple reasons:
-The extra 5k gold is super helpful early until you get access to the training missions which are generally harder to farm with Zanele anyway. (You may need to upgrade abilities for this chapter in demonic.)
-Diamonds are harder to come by until very late in the early game (Valeria and Saxon only bond support to give them for a while.)
-The Merchant Lord is a solid 1-2 range magical ally you can phase into combat to help meet the objective and snag the Elixir of Speed.
-The Sanctified Ring on Arthur will allow him to tank a few hits even in Demonic and will be useful throughout your playthrough. Additionally, not using a Ruby, you will be able to buy a Ruby after this Chapter and craft the Bloodied Ring - the strongest ring in the game.
Objectives:
Axe Rune x1
Astral Coin x1 (super important)
Flame Essence x2
Chests:
none
Enemies:
Elixir of Speed
Ruby x1 (super important)
Flame Essence x1
Crystal Essence x1
Dagger Rune x1
Relic Rune x1
Relic Staff x1