There are 14 archetype trees in Metaphor: ReFantazio. There are also 14 followers in Metaphor: ReFantazio. You probably don't need me to tell you this, but that isn't a coincidence.
If you want more detailed specifics on how to find the followers that give you these archetypes and how to progress their bonds, it's best you check out our other guide on that exact subject. I'll be going over the basics for all of that here too, but this guide is mostly going to focus on what the archetypes in Metaphor do and the most powerful skills for each one.
Two spoiler warnings here. Spoiler number one: there's a specific follower in this guide who I deem to be a big spoiler. They're the second-to-last entry in this guide.
Spoiler number two: For the love of god, do NOT scroll down to the final entry on this page if you haven't left Altabury Heights yet! Just don't do it. The final entry in this guide will essentially spoil the entire game for you if you read it before doing so. Don't say I didn't try to warn you.
Seeker archetypes
The Seeker archetype is the first one you'll unlock in Metaphor, as it's supposed to be the protagonist's archetype of choice. I say "supposed to be" because, while useful, I'd consider it one of the weaker archetypal trees in the game. You'll acquire it automatically during the boss fight at the Northern Border during the first part of the main quest, but unlocking the other two archetypes in the Seeker's tree won't be as straightforward.
The other two archetypes in Seeker tree can only be unlocked by progressing More's Follower bonds. You'll unlock the Magic Seeker by finishing his third rank, which requires you to upgrade the Gunner class to level 15. The Soul Hacker can be unlocked by completing his seventh rank, which requires you to have studied a total of 25 different archetypes across all of your party members.
The Seeker archetypes are supposed to be all-rounders, which is almost definitely why they end up being pretty useless towards the end of the game. There are still a few skills worth investing in, however.
Key skills
At level 20, the Seeker will gain access to the Tetrabreak skill which negates any enemy's ability to repel physical damage (which will have its uses during a specific boss fight).
The Magic Seeker can use the skill Vitalja at level 20 too, which increases the attack and defence of any party member by two ranks for three turns.
The Soul Hacker will unlock Adventurer's Curiosity at level 7, which is one of the only skills in the game that affects your critical hit chance.
Mage archetypes
Much like the Seeker, unlocking the rest of the archetypes in the mage tree isn't something you can force. This archetype tree is tied to Gallica's follower bonds, which will only progress as you make your way through the main story.
You unlock the wizard archetype at rank 3, and you'll unlock both the Elemental Master and warlock archetypes at rank 8. That means you won't be seeing those last two archetypes until you're about two-thirds of the way through Metaphor: ReFantazio.
The standard mage is pretty simple. You gain access to fire, ice and electric skills. The Wizard is basically just an upgraded version of the Mage, so there's equally little to talk about there.
Key skills
Getting to the Elemental Master and Warlock archetypes is worth the effort. Both of these classes have passive skills that boost your MP, which you might have noticed is a resource that's in pretty short supply in Metaphor. Passive skills like these are lifesavers in the mid-to-late game, so it may be worth unlocking these archetypes for characters you don't even intend to use them with.
Warrior Archetypes
Warrior archetypes are directly tied to Strohl's follower bonds. You'll unlock the first one automatically once you defeat Captain Klinger during the main story quest in the Nord Mines. From here, you'll unlock the Swordmaster at rank 3 and the Samurai at rank 7.
These archetypes mostly just deal in basic slash damage, at least until you properly level up the Samurai. Multi-targeting, high damaging slash-type attacks are the Warrior's bread and butter, which will probably help you coast through the first couple of dungeons in the game.
Key skills
The Swordmaster's skills are primarily passive and offer a flat damage increase to any slash-type skills. The Samurai is where things get interesting, as you'll gain access to a multi-hitting electric type move called Thunder Blade at rank 2 and two separate skills that buff the user's evasion and damage.
Knight Archetypes
Knight archetypes are unlocked by progressing Hulkenberg's follower bonds, who you'll meet during the main quest line in Grand Trad. Magic knight is unlocked at her bond rank 3, and the paladin and dark knight archetypes are unlocked at rank 7.
Key skills
These archetypes primarily serve as tanks. Both the knight and magic knight have access to the Knight's Proclamation skill, which makes enemies target whoever uses it. They also both have a few weak healing skills, which can be useful in the early game.
The Paladin archetype isn't much different in this respect, but you do also gain access to a few new skills that buff your overall defence like Knight's Defence. The dark knight is sort of the opposite end of the spectrum, as it's primarily focused on dealing elemental-based damage and strong piercing-based attacks.
Healer Archetypes
Healer archetypes are unlocked through Maria's follower bonds. You'll meet Maria in Grand Trad not long after you set foot in the Honeybee Inn. You have to progress her follower bond to level 3 to gain access to the Cleric archetype and to level 8 to get the Saviour archetype. Progressing Maria's follower bonds past level 2 isn't possible until after you've left Grand Trad, however.
This archetype, as you might have guessed, is healing-focused. As you progress through the tree, you'll essentially just be unlocking skills that heal more and more health.
Key skills
You won't find much in the way of useful skills outside of healing until you get to the end of the Saviour archetype. It is worth having at least one fully levelled Saviour, because this archetype has access to skills that counter status effects. Extremely useful for the times you enter a new dungeon and start encountering status effects you've never seen up to that point.
Merchant Archetypes
Merchant archetypes are unlocked through Brigitta's follower bonds. She can be met almost immediately once you make it to Grand Trad, but getting to her final rank and unlocking the second merchant archetype will take you a long, long time.
Getting her to rank 2 unlocks the merchant archetype, but you'll have to get her to rank 8 to unlock the tycoon. The issue is that rank 8 is locked behind what is probably the biggest spoiler in Metaphor, so you'll just have to progress the main quest until you encounter said spoiler.
Merchant archetypes are probably the silliest archetypes in the game. Instead of spending MP to use a merchant's skills, you'll spend your money to activate their skills instead. However, you gotta spend money to make money, which is why the Merchant archetypes have passive abilities that increase the amount of money you'll earn in combat.
Key skills
The Tycoon has access to one of the most busted skills in the game: Gold Rush. This skill costs a whopping 2,500 every time you use it, but it has an incredibly high critical chance and deals almighty damage (which ignores resistances and cannot be blocked).
Brawler Archetypes
Brawler archetypes are tied to the follower bonds of Catherina, who you'll meet at the very start of the Mausoleum dungeon in Grand Trad during the main storyline. You'll have to complete her quest A Friend in Need to gain access to her follower bonds, which I'm 99% is impossible to miss as the quest is directly tied to your progression through the main storyline.
You'll unlock Brawler as soon as you finish Catherina's quest. The Pugilist will unlock once you get her bond to level 3, and the Martial Artist will unlock once you get it to level 8.
Brawler archetypes are the glass cannons of Metaphor. They deal strike-based attacks that output an incredible amount of damage, but the trade-off is that you have to spend your HP instead of your MP to use them. On the plus side, that means that characters with big health pools will deal a lot more damage using this archetype—like Hulkenberg, who has naturally high HP.
Key skills
The classes do become more tanky as you progress through them. Once you make it to the Martial Artist archetype, you'll unlock two very powerful passive abilities (one of which can slightly break the game). At rank 20, you'll get the Battle Master passive, which makes the party member using it completely invulnerable to almost all of the status ailments in the game.
It's the skill before this one that's the most overpowered, though: Unyielding Blood. This allows the user to automatically protect any single party member from dying once during combat and it also heals them to full health.
Gunner Archetypes
You gain access to the Gunner archetypes once you meet Neuras, who is a sort of quasi-party member who you'll automatically recruit after leaving Grand Trad. You'll have to complete the quest Providing a Spark once you do meet him, which will also trigger a series of sidequests that will help you unlock the other two archetypes in the gunner tree; the Sniper and the Dragoon.
You won't be able to unlock the Dragoon archetype until you've accessed a part of the map that's locked behind one of the final main story missions in the game though, so I hope the cool sounding name doesn't entice you too much.
Key skills
Gunner archetypes work a little differently from most other archetypes. For a start, you can only use the majority of every Gunner archetype's skills by moving a party member into the back row. The first gunner archetype also has several skills that inflict status ailments—more than any other archetype in the game.
The Sniper archetype is supposed to operate as sort of a pure damage class. Multi-targeting, high-damaging moves like Wild Salvo and Myriad Shots can take out multiple enemies in a single use. The Dragoon archetype serves as a mix between the Mage and Gunner archetypes, with three different elemental-based attacks that target all of your enemies at once.
Thief Archetypes
Thief archetypes are unlocked by progressing Heismay's follower bonds, who can be encountered during the main quest in Martira. You'll have to complete the quest Apprehend the Kidnapper before you gain access to the first archetype, and then you'll have to progress Heismay's follower bonds to levels 3 and 7 before you can unlock the Assassin and Ninja archetypes.
These archetypes primarily focus on two things: insta-kill attacks and evasion. The Thief starts out with a couple of dark-based attacks and two almighty skills that steal HP and MP, but the archetype only truly begins to open up once you get to the Ninja.
Key skills
Alongside the insta-kill attacks you unlock (which don't seem to work on bosses, unfortunately), the Ninja also has several skills that affect your chance of evading attacks. This becomes extra great once you unlock the Third Eye passive ability, which halves your opponent's chance of hitting you.
To emphasize how useful this is: you lose turns when you miss in Metaphor, and that applies to bosses as well as you. Essentially halving the opponent's chance of hitting you can win fights all on its own.
Faker Archetypes
The Faker archetype tree can be unlocked after you meet Alonzo in Martira and complete his quest A Dagger, a Ring, and a Rake. However, you won't be able to progress his follower bonds past rank 2 until you make your way to Port Brilehaven. This means that you'll be waiting a while to unlock the Trickster archetype, as it's locked behind the 8th rank of his follower bond.
Now, I think you can most get away with using whatever archetypes you want in Metaphor. You might run into a few elemental resistances that hamper your progression if you're really bullheaded about it, but for the most part I think you'll be fine just using whichever ones you like the most.
I don't think that's the case with the Faker archetypes, though. Using both the Faker and the Trickster feels borderline mandatory at certain points, as all of the skills in this archetype tree focus on lowering your opponent's resistances.
Key skills
The Trickster's Debilitate skill is likely the one I've used the most through my playthrough of Metaphor, as it lowers your opponent's attack, defence, and evasion simultaneously. When you start running into the types of bosses that can kill your entire team in a single turn towards the end of the game, you'll understand why a skill like this feels so necessary.
Commander Archetypes
The Commander archetype skill tree is unlocked by progressing Bardon's follower ranks, which can only be done after completing the main story quest Apprehend the Kidnapper in Martira. You'll unlock the commander immediately afterwards, at which point you'll have to progress his follower rank to 3 to unlock the general and to 8 to unlock the warlord.
This archetype tree essentially serves as the inverse of the Faker tree. Instead of debuffing your opponent, the Commander's skills revolve around buffing your party instead.
Key skills
Once you gain access to the archetype, you're almost definitely going to want to slap the Marakukaja skill onto one of your party members straight away. Marakukaja increases all of your party members' defence by one stage and can be stacked up to three times, which will help you survive for twice as long during difficult boss fights.
The second archetype, the General, has access to another move that's a mainstay in my party: Frigid Fortress Tactics. This attack forces your opponent to become weak to ice attacks when you use it, which means it guarantees you some extra turns in combat. I'm not going to spoil it for you, but I was only able to beat the toughest boss in Metaphor by using this skill. It's honestly just that good.
Masked Dancer Archetypes
The Masked Dancer archetypes can be unlocked once you complete the quest Save the Mourning Snakes on Virga Island. This quest is given to you by Junah, and requires you to have cleared the dungeon in the main quest mission Obtain Drakodios before it will trigger. You'll get the Masked Dancer archetype as a reward for clearing Save the Mourning Snakes, but you'll then need to progress Junah's follower bond to rank 6 before you can unlock the Persona Master archetype.
These two archetypes are a little tricky to explain, mostly due to their gimmick. Once you unlock the Masked Dancer, you'll be able to talk to More and access some "experiments" that he's cooked up for you. These experiments allow you craft masks, which allow Masked Dancer users to copy the abilities of another archetype you've already unlocked.
Key skills
As the masks that you can craft and equip have literally dozens of possible combinations of skills, I'd suggest that you simply try a few of them out and see which ones you like the best. As the Masked Dancer archetypes come with skills that force your opponents to become weak against specific elements, regardless of which masks you equip, it's more of a case of picking which masks work best with the other members in your current party.
Summoner archetypes can be unlocked once you complete Eupha's quest The Trial of Malnova on Virga Island. Much like Junah's questline, you have to complete the Obtain Drakodios dungeon before it will trigger. Once The Trial of Malnova quest is complete, you'll have to get Eupha's follower bond up to level 6 before you can access the Devil Summoner archetype.
Both the Summoner and Devil Summoner archetypes work in exactly the same way. Much like with Junah's Masked Dancer archetypes, the Summoner archetypes can be upgraded by talking to More.
The difference is that the Summoner archetypes are permanently upgraded through More's experiments, and don't require anything to be equipped to the party member using the archetype once upgraded.
Key skills
The Summoner archetypes are supposed to fill a sort of jack-of-all-trades role on your team, as they can unlock skills that allow you to cover every possible elemental weakness with a single party member.
Last warning before scrolling down: The final two archetypes are major spoilers!
The first of these two final archetypes is locked behind a big, huge spoiler. And even just the name of the final archetype is revealing.
Consider this your first and final warning: everything from this point onwards could be considered a plot-ruling spoiler!
Berserker Archetypes
Once you've finished the Obtain Drakodios quest on Virga Island and also found your way to Altabury Heights, you'll unlock the final party member that Metaphor has to offer.
Said party member gives you the Berserker archetype once unlocked, but requires you to get their follower bond up to level 6 before you can unlock the Destroyer archetype.
Both of these archetypes act as pure damage dealers. They dish out strike-based damage and have a unique buff called Charge, which increases your damage and is unique in the sense that said damage boost stacks on top of any other skills that do the same.
Key skills
Both of these archetypes might seem a little too basic at first, considering you unlock them in the end game, but they're incredibly straightforward to use. In short, they deal a lot of damage. Like, a LOT of damage. This archetype is supposed to serve as your end-game boss killer, so load them up with a bunch of equipment that improves their defence and strength and go to town.
Royal Archetypes
Alright, well, if the last entry in this guide didn't spoil the entire game for you, then this part of the guide definitely will.
If you've already fought Louis twice, then I likely won't spoil anything for you from this point onwards. If you haven't, please turn back. This is officially the point of no return.
Once you complete the main story quest Prepare for the Final Battle, you will gain access to the Prince archetype.
Key skills
The Prince archetype is busted. This is easily the single strongest archetype in the entire game, which is probably why it's locked to the protagonist. There are two skills that make this archetype nuts: Hero's Cry and Royal Slash.
Hero's Cry just gives you a bunch of extra turns once per combat. That's it, that's the whole skill, and if you've played Metaphor for more than five minutes you probably already realise why that is so incredibly overpowered.
Royal Slash deals almighty damage, and oh boy does it deal a lot of it. Turns out, a really powerful attack that completely ignores all of your opponent's resistances is kind of strong. Who would have guessed?
However, you also gain access to six other archetypes once you unlock the Prince archetype. These archetypes, much like the Prince, can only be used by specific members of your party. Not even the protagonist is allowed to use them once you unlock them.
These archetypes are the Royal Warrior, the Royal Knight, the Royal Thief, the Royal Masked Dancer, the Royal Summoner, and the Royal Berserker. These can only be accessed by getting their respective party members' bonds up to level eight.
