Hit a large brick wall, kind of lost...

[misterskippy]

So I'm stuck in Loguetown chapter 12 where I'm not even coming close to beating Smoker. I've tried 3 times, the first time falling just before Smoker, then the other 2 times (once with an Arlong guest, and once with a Vista guest) just getting destroyed by Smoker himself without even getting him below 75% HP.

Below are screenshots showing my typical crew line-up, as well as the rest of my character box.

I'm guessing I just can't beat him with what I have at the moment and really need to farm/grind, which is fine, but would appreciate some advice on what to focus on (especially since my experience with successful drops so far as been pretty crappy).

Should I bother farming Zeff? Arlong? Someone else or just turtles? Or grind Extra Isle for XP?

Any help/insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[MASI576]

You should try to farm Arlong. Against Smoker Arlong will be a very big help, then with this QCK team it will need very long to defeat Smoker...

I would say, farm Arlong and then use this team: 
Captain Arlong, Friend Captain Arlong
Crew: Usopp, Zoro, Kuro and Ace

I don't know, if it will work, but with two Arlongs who both have 4 times ATK, you will deal much more damage...

And also a possible help could be Alvida, farm her and evolve her, then she can help you with her special

[misterskippy]

Thanks Masi I'll try that!

[Layos]

smoker is a dex unit so you Need STR Units if you want to try it again your Luffy and a g3 Luffy from a friend (if you can hit 3 Perfects in a row) should also be able to beet him.
But Arlong is a good unit so the hint to farm him is still pretty good

[misterskippy]

smoker is a dex unit so you Need STR Units if you want to try it again your Luffy and a g3 Luffy from a friend (if you can hit 3 Perfects in a row) should also be able to beet him.
But Arlong is a good unit so the hint to farm him is still pretty good

So at a high-level, farm and level up STR units?

Anything else that I should be doing besides just spamming Arlong Island 14/15 over and over again till Arlong drops?

[Light]

No no its not about STR characters at high lvl. Its about who you are fighting, STR > DEX > QCK > STR. Thats the circle you also see in the upper left corner in every fight. So if you are fighting a DEX unit then you will want to have STR units. Or if you are fighting STR then you will want to have QCK characters.
I think you first need to learn the mechanics of this game as the synergy of that crew you posted is almost non existant. Well its that bad if you chose a friend ace captain. 
First of all you mentioned you chose arlong and vista guest friends, any guest captain won't have his captain ability activated (for arlong x2 slasher and vista x2 atk/hp int) so you are missing out on some major damage! In 95% of the fights you will want to have the same friend captain as your own captain
Second attacking a DEX (green) unit like smoker with blue team is cutting your damage even a further half! So without an ace friend and attacking a DEX unit you are effectively doing 25% damage only, no wonder you are geting him to only 75% hp and die.
Currently I don't think you will be able to kill smoker till you get some good STR units. Unless you can get a very powerful friend captain like G3 luffy you will have to stop here and farm your butt of. Arlong and zeff which are both farmable are very good starting units for beginners. Once you get arlong, evolve and lvl him up a bit. Get a evolved arlong friend captain. Your own crew should be, usopp-kuro-zoro and i guess ace as a filler for his HP. As arlong boosts x2 (x4 with friend captain) to slasher units you are looking for a full slasher crew eventually (if you can manage to get lucci from current forthnight isle that would be best).
Zeff boosts fighters units x2.5 (x6.25 with friend zeff). Your zeff team should look something like zeff friend, zeff, luffy, sanji, usopp, ace!
You are behind on lvls as a lot are not evolved and lvled. Get zoro and luffy to their final form as they will help you a lot and try to get all forthnight isle characters that come along.
Hope that helped a little, let me know if you need more help

[misterskippy]

No no its not about STR characters at high lvl. Its about who you are fighting, STR > DEX > QCK > STR. Thats the circle you also see in the upper left corner in every fight. So if you are fighting a DEX unit then you will want to have STR units. Or if you are fighting STR then you will want to have QCK characters.
I think you first need to learn the mechanics of this game as the synergy of that crew you posted is almost non existant. Well its that bad if you chose a friend ace captain. 
First of all you mentioned you chose arlong and vista guest friends, any guest captain won't have his captain ability activated (for arlong x2 slasher and vista x2 atk/hp int) so you are missing out on some major damage! In 95% of the fights you will want to have the same friend captain as your own captain
Second attacking a DEX (green) unit like smoker with blue team is cutting your damage even a further half! So without an ace friend and attacking a DEX unit you are effectively doing 25% damage only, no wonder you are geting him to only 75% hp and die.
Currently I don't think you will be able to kill smoker till you get some good STR units. Unless you can get a very powerful friend captain like G3 luffy you will have to stop here and farm your butt of. Arlong and zeff which are both farmable are very good starting units for beginners. Once you get arlong, evolve and lvl him up a bit. Get a evolved arlong friend captain. Your own crew should be, usopp-kuro-zoro and i guess ace as a filler for his HP. As arlong boosts x2 (x4 with friend captain) to slasher units you are looking for a full slasher crew eventually (if you can manage to get lucci from current forthnight isle that would be best).
Zeff boosts fighters units x2.5 (x6.25 with friend zeff). Your zeff team should look something like zeff friend, zeff, luffy, sanji, usopp, ace!
You are behind on lvls as a lot are not evolved and lvled. Get zoro and luffy to their final form as they will help you a lot and try to get all forthnight isle characters that come along.
Hope that helped a little, let me know if you need more help

Thanks, I do understand the mechanics of matching up types better now, but that's not my main question (at the moment). While I understand what's weak and/or strong against what, I've just not worried about getting 100% efficiency from type damage up until this point, because I've been able to clear the story battles with what I had, until now, of course.

My main question now, is what is the most efficient method to strengthen my team? We've established that I should get Arlong, and I've been farming Arlong Island 14 the last day or so. But what about farming pirate level XP or turtles? Should I do that too? So far what I've been doing is this -- grind Arlong Island 14 (the 0.5x stamina thing going on right now helps a bunch) until I'm just about to level up, then run one run of the Veteran stage of Extra Isle, since that gives a ton of pirate XP in comparison to the story chapters I have access to. Rinse and repeat. But what happens after I do get Arlong (and perhaps Zeff)? What story stage/s should I then grind/farm in order to level up my characters? For example, should I focus on farming Daimyo turtles per the wiki (http://onepiecetreasurecruiseglobal.wikia.com/wiki/Turtles)?

[Light]

The 100% efficiency and the right captain friend are your main concern for a good crew. Always try to get the same captain as you to double boost your crew damage. 

You should look to farm arlong and lvl your characters (arlong, zoro priority). I dont know if you are a f2p or occasionally gem buyer. But if you are a f2p then you will have to take it slow and spend gems wisely. Either to gem turtle times or pull RR and hope for good characters.
Focus on getting arlong for now and get turtles at your monday turtle time. Get a full marine team to do your turtle times. Their tandem will instant kill all turtles on a stage and will be your main turtle team for the time being. 
If you get arlong and your slasher team to a decent level, continue story mode till you get stuck again and try to figure out how you can beat him or ask advice again. But if you understand the mechanics then you should be able to figure out yourself or do some research what others have used. Blog and this forum has loads of info on bosses. In general forthnight isles give best xp and ofcourse best drops. Again try to get lucci and kaku from the current isle as they are very good characters and the xp / drops are boosted there. Once you have finished the main story line, best way to farm are forthnight isles unless you are looking for farm a certain story character

[misterskippy]

Thanks Light, that's very helpful. I did pull Lucci this morning but am still trying to get Shark-breath.

[Light]

Great. Lucci will be your blue slasher for a long period (better then Kuro). So investing xp in him with zoro and along  can't be wrong. GL getting arlong

[Layos]

he is also a great Addition to your Ace Team!

[misterskippy]

Whew, managed to pull Arlong last night while taking advantage of 1/2 stamina on Arlong Island, then -finally- managed to get Zeff to drop a minute ago when taking a 5 minute break from work to use up my 7 stamina (1/2 stamina on Baratie now). Zeff was a stubborn little girl, must have taken almost 30 runs to get him.

[Light]

Gj. Focus on arlong and slashers for now since that would be your main story line team.

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