NEO: The World Ends With You has a very large roster of characters to keep remember, from the various allies you pick up over the course of the game to all the mysterious antagonists who love to check in on your progress every now and then.
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Thankfully, the game has a handy reference tool for keeping track of the many people you'll meet. The Social Network is a feature that details every named character in the game and is a mechanic that allows you to unlock new abilities and items.
Social Network Overview
The Social Network feature is unlocked on Day 4 of the main story. You can access it by going to the Thoughts tab of the menu where you'll be presented with a web of nodes inhabited by characters. These nodes are connected according to the characters' actual connections and give you a sense of where everyone stands in the city of Shibuya.
Every single node on the Social Network has a reward attached to it that can be purchased with FP (Friendship Points). Some of these rewards are much more valuable than others. They can only be purchased if you can trace that character's node all the way back to Rindo's node, which is at the very center of the Social Network.
There are a few ways that a node's reward can be unlocked for purchase:
- Reach a certain point in the story: This is applicable to the main characters of the story, mainly the protagonists and antagonists.
- Complete that character's side quest: Many nodes are unlocked upon completion of a character's side quest. Incomplete quests for the current day can be found in the Mental Notes sub-menu of the Thoughts tab, and it eventually becomes possible to replay past days to finish off missed side quests.
- Shop: The many shopkeepers of Shibuya also have nodes and rewards on the Social Network. Those that sell clothes and pins require you to reach Level 3 VIP in their brand, while those that sell food require you to buy three meals at their restaurant.
How To Earn FP
There are just enough FP in the entire game to unlock every node on the Social Network, but that's the limit. There is no way to grind for extra FP so it's a good idea to be choosy when it comes to buying node rewards.
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FP is earned in three ways:
- Finishing days will grant you a handful of FP.
- Completing side quests will grant you some FP too. Most sidequests will give you a flat five FP but that is not the case for quests that require the use of Nagi's Dive ability. These quests will grant you two FP per rank you achieve in the Dive. That's two FP for a Bronze Rank, four FP for a Silver rank, and 6 FP for a Gold rank.
- The post-game has a special Time Trial challenge. It's another of Nagi's Dives but holds a whopping ten reductions. To compensate you for this time investment, every rank of this Dive rewards you with five FP each, up to fifteen overall.
Best Rewards
Working out which nodes to prioritize is important as you might find that you've unlocked a really valuable-sounding reward but don't have enough FP to afford it. As a rule of thumb, avoid unlocking the rewards of shopkeepers unless you're sure you'll need those items — for example, to trade for a great pin or piece of clothing. Here's a few rewards that should be picked up as soon as possible:
- Difficulty modes: These will be among the first rewards you buy. Fighting in different difficulties is really important for completing your Records and collecting lots of different types of Pins.
- Uber Pin Unlocks: Uber Pins are among the strongest Pins in the game and you're limited in how many you can equip onto your team at once. Each Uber Pin Unlock node that you buy will increase your limit by one until you can equip your entire team with Uber Pins.
- Plentiful Pins and HP Retainer: These two rewards will make it easier to collect Pins when you lower your level in order to achieve a higher Drop Rate.
- Up-and-Over: This is the reward for beating a side quest available on Day 5. It allows you to hop over low fences and is crucial for reaching some areas that contain Pig Noise.
- Post-game rewards: There are two nodes that only unlock once you have completed the game, and they are quite expensive. One unlocks Ultimate Difficulty and the other enables Boss Noise to spawn when replaying certain days. Together these nodes cost 13 FP, so save some up for the post-game!
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