In the new UI, the stat bonus bars are mixed up between INT, HIT and SPD, so if you're meaning to make a mage or cleric, you'll end up with a character with high HIT instead.

Simple work-around, in your game settings, switch to the old UI before creating a new character.

Before we get started properly, let's get something out of the way. For identifying any specific levels, there's a convention that's been used since the game got first released on PS2, which is to refer to a level by giving the episode number followed by the map number in the storyline progression. Tutorial maps aren't included in Episode I counts.

So level 1-2 for example refers to Vyer's Castle, Blessed Court.
One popular exception is the bonus episode 16, Cave of Ordeal. This is typically abbreviated as CoO, and CoO3 is a shorthand you will encounter in most leveling guides, as it's the easiest one to grind to max level.
Speaking of grinding levels, another popular one for low level exp grinding is 5-3, a map called Terrible Cold. You'll find both mentioned in tons of decade-old discussions.

In the first tutorial level, once you get control, there are a few simple things to remember:

• Only the Execute command ends the turn for all active characters that have an action queued up.
  
• Any character that has moved at the time of launching an execute command, but didn't have any actions set, can cancel its movement and move again.
  
• This is important for combos. To trigger a combo, characters must be in a square immediately adjacent to the attacker. To its left, right, or behind.
  
• The character immediately next to the opponent attacks, and may (or not) trigger a combo while doing so. Regardless, you can then cancel out the movement of all other characters, place them differently, and try for another combo.

Combos have higher damage than single attacks. If they hit.

Alternatively, chain attacks occur when multiple characters attack the same opponent within the same Execute command. Provided every attack hits, a mulitplier gets added on every step of the chain.

You can combo on a chain: Place Laharl right in front of an opponent, two prinnies to Laharl's left and right, and Etna (armed with her spear, a long range weapon) behind him, and queue up an attack for Etna then Laharl. Etna will hit, followed by Laharl for a chain bonus, possibly triggering a combo while doing so. Once this is done, you can cancel the move on the prinnies, place them differently, and try for a combo attack.

Note that you can either move and execute, or execute an action and THEN move.

Thanks to Sanic for the below - it's been driving me crazy for a day:
To zoom in or out of the battle map, you need to hit the following key simultaneously:

• On the keyboard, hold J and press Q
  
• On XBox 360 controllers, hold X and press LB
  
• On PS controllers, hold square and press L1

To rapidly cycle between characters with actions left and the base panel on the battle map:

• On the keyboard, hold J and press E
  
• On XBox 360 controllers, hold X and press RB
  
• On PS controllers, hold square and press L2

Fugepucker69, in the comments, provided the following extremely useful info for mouse + keyboard play:

"Another note on battle camera control and controls in general.
You can control the entire game using just the mouse one handed (for the most part)
Hold right click and move up and down to zoom in and out. Hold right click move right and left to rotate. Hold left click and move the mouse to move the map. Click on units to select them, right click to cancel moves and attacks, right click an empty space to bring up menu."

From Daiemio:
You can change the orientation of your characters on the battle map when they're selected:

• On the keyboard, hold J and press WASD
  
• On XBox 360 controllers, hold X and press the D-pad
  
• On PS controllers, hold square and press the D-pad (unverified)

To gain experience, only the kill counts. In a combo that results in a kill, all characters that participated in the combo will gain experience.

Mana (a currency you need at the Dark Assembly, among many other things to create new characters) is also gained on kills and matches the level of the enemy killed.

When creating a new character, it becomes a pupil of the one that addressed the Dark Assembly (usually that's either Laharl by default, or whoever has the amount of mana required).

There are several benefits to purposefully selecting the master-pupil relationship. First, the master gains a stat bonus from the pupil whenever the pupil levels up. You'll want to have melee characters mentoring melee classes, and magic characters mentoring magic classes.

Second, although this sounds backwards, the pupil can teach the master skills provided the pupil has at least level 1 mastering of the skill. To do so, the master must stand next to the pupil and use the skill until he gets it to level 1. Having trouble leveling that cleric? Get him / her 10 mana points, create a mage pupil for it, then have the cleric learn the attack magic from the pupil, and suddenly, you're no longer limited to bows and combos to gain levels.

Speaking of which, the third advantage is that masters and pupils standing next to each other trigger combos at a higher rate than other characters


To unlock higher skills, you need to use what you have. The weapon affinity of each character determines how easy it will be - the higher it is, the quicker it will happen. For example, Clerics have an affinity grade of S with staves, which requires only 5-6 casts of level 1 spells to get them to the first level. Aside from bows, though, their affinity with pretty much every other weapons is terrible, so giving them a sword is a terrible idea.

Armsmasters (see below) item specialists stacked on a weapon will provide a bonus in weapon mastery.

• Only staves allow long range for magic spells, and the range increases with weapon mastery.
  
• Spells very rapidly gain AoE abilities - the higher the spell ability, the bigger the AoE range.

You've just hit chapter 3, saved some mana for a decent new mage. Your first couple of characters are barely level 8-10, but you're looking for an efficient place for the mages to catch up?
I'd suggest 3-1 for the time being. Get the mage the best INT equipment you can afford (you may want to raise shop level at the Dark Assembly if you still have the starting shop). The three brawlers in front of the stairs usually all have a different elemental weakness, and that's a good starting point. If your mages cannot one-shot them, try taking one of your higher level melees and reverting his weapon to something that doesn't one-shot those guys, THEN get your mage to finish them off.
Once you progress further, it will become much easier to go for more difficult places immediately. Remember, you'll want to stack as much INT as possible. Once you have one mage reach level 9, he gets access to a spell called "Magic Boost", which gives 20% more INT on whoever you cast it on, and it stacks. That helps, too.

Without any particular order, a few things you shouldn't worry about during the first couple of levels

• Transmigration / Stored levels: There is (or used to be) a complicated method to min max all your characters using transmigration. There's a whole FAQ that is most likely still valid that can be found on Gamefaqs that explains the details. Simply put, don't bother with transmigrations at all until you hit level 5-3
  
• In particular, you need to be able to use the Dark Assembly and increase your rank, which means passing a test. The first rank is easy enough, but even rank 2 can become a bit challenging at first, if you don't have the needed levels and weapon skills.
  
• Why 5-3? This level has invincible geo panels, which allow you to grind experience without danger.

The above note about transmigration has an exception - every few levels with a new character class will unlock a better version of that character class. It can be worth doing single transmigrations to get a character to the next tier, as they have better stats and weapon affinities overall.

Speaking of which, you should definitely keep an eye on these weapon affinities. Every humanoid class has a different set of weapons they are good with, ranking from S (best) to E (worst). This influences how quickly you can unlock specific weapon skills. With a couple of exceptions, try to avoid matching classes with weapons ranking worse than B.

As a rule of thumb, on your first playthrough, you're looking at characters at levels between 100 and 150 at the end of the regular game - a far cry from the 9999 level cap the game offers.

Don't waste even a single point of mana creating a good-for-nothing or incompetent character. You have to assign negative stat points at creation. Just grind the first level to rake up a few kills until you have at least 10 mana. Once you've done the tutorial map, the first level on Vyers castle can be repeated a couple fo times to get the mana you need.

• You can lift, then throw characters to increase their reach.
  
• You can do this multiple times in a row and stack several characters on top of each other, then execute multiple throws to toss one single guy as far as you can reach.
  
• Make sure who ever ends up in the middle of a monster pool can survive the next round.

Throwing enemies combines them. This allows you to gain more exp by defeating them, but there's a catch - you also combine all of their stats, and you can very well end up with a super monster that will resist every one of your attacks and make a sandwich of your entire crew.

When you get / purchase equipment, you'll notice that they have stat variations on them, and those who have higher stats than other identical items have bronze pips next to them. If you look at the 2nd page for an item stat, you'll see things like "coach","physician" or "marksman" followed by a number.
These are item specialists, monsters that live within your items. As you progress in the game, you'll eventually be able to enter your items, and defeat these specialists to tame them. Doing so will double their power (the number to the right, which indicates how much they affect a particular stat), allow you to combine several of the same type, and transfer them to other items.
Specialists to look out for in particular during early levels are marksmen, as they will affect your chance to hit stuff. Teachers are useful for magicians, Gladiators for melee, both boost their respective damage.
You'll want to hang on to Armsmasters with higher level values in particular, because they help speeding up weapon mastery. Statisticians are also useful as they affect experience gains.

While most story levels don't lend themselves to massive geo chains (you can get these when playing in the item world later), it's still useful to understand how to plan for your geo chains properly.

The basic principle is simple: Once you start a geo chain by destroying one of those coloured pyramids (the Geo Symbols), it will damage anything currently standing on a pannel of the same colour than the one on which the geo symbol gets destroyed on.

The panels will be turned to the colour of the symbol you destroyed.

Every Geo symbol hit by a geo chain effect will always be destroyed. If you were smart in positioning the symbols, you can create a chain reaction. Let's look at the geo panel tutorial map, the third tutorial, on how this works in case you're confused:

Here's the start situation. The way this map is set up clues you in on how this all works. There's one single spot with no colour on it, simply moving there and destroying the blue symbol will start off a geo chain that will eventually clear the whole map. Take note of the position of the Blue, Yellow and the transluscent ("Null") symbols on the map.


Here you see the chain already started - the panel on which Laharl stands is clear, so he won't be affected by the chain reaction. He destroyed a blue geo symbol that was on a red panel. As a consequence, all red panels are being turned blue.
Once the blue chain hits the yellow symbol (which is hidden behind the chain counter here), you will see a chain reaction set off - the yellow symbol gets destroyed, and once all red panels are turned to blue, all blue panels will turn yellow.



Finally, the transluscent symbol (or "Null" symbol) will be hit by the yellow reaction, then turn all yellow panels transparent, clearing the map.

The damage the chain reaction deals gets bigger on every pass, wiping whole maps in one go (and your party if you're not careful.

To take advantage of that, you need to know that there are six colours of Geo Panels (unless changed from the PS2 version, but I haven't yet seen anything different):
1. Red
2. Green
3. Blue
4. Yellow
5. Purple
6. Cyan

Geo Symbols can be of 6 colours as well:
1. Null (Transluscent)
2. Red
3. Green
4. Blue
5. Yellow
6. Purple

In order to make the longest chain reaction, a few simple rules:

• The colour on which you destroy the first geo symbol must have another symbol on it
  
• If there's a third symbol to destroy, it must be on the colour of the symbol you destroy
  
• Symbols with the "No Color Change" effect must be the first you destroy to set off a chain
  
• Invincible symbols can be destroyed through a chain, throwing them onto an enemy, or throwing an enemy onto them
  
• Remember that the next step on a chain reaction always starts where the next symbol in sequence got destroyed, and that the chain effect spirals from that point. This can easily lead to errors on long chain reactions
  
• If you are going to clear the map, make sure the Null symbol gets hit last.

The planing of your chain reaction is essential. The rule of thumb is - each symbol that gets destroyed should lead to another destruction (I'll post some example drawings tomorrow).

A few illustrated examples
Consider the following map set-up:
You have a couple of choices:

• Destroy the green symbol to create a chain reaction that will eventually clear the map: Green turns all red panels green, and hits the red symbol on the first pass. Then all green panels (that is, the entire map) turn red again, and the 2nd chain destroys yellow, then the Null symbol. The next portion turns the entire map yellow, and finally clears all geo panels.
  
• Hit yellow instead: All green panels will turn yellow, destroying the Null symbol in the first chain. On the next pass, all yellow panels get cleared. The red panels and everything on them remains untouched.
  
• Hit the Null Symbol: All green panels get cleared. The red panels remain untouched.

Simple enough, right?
Now consider this very slight variation:
Here, If you simply hit the green geo symbol, the Null symbol will be hit in the chain reaction before the yellow one.
This is what will happen: All red panels turn green, then all green panels get cleared. Chain reaction over.
This is because the Null symbol is closer to the red symbol than the yellow one - remember that each step in the chain starts from where the symbol that started that step was previously, and that the chain progresses in a growing spiral from that point.
The end result is that you will get a shorter chain reaction, which means less damage to the enemies, and less bonuses at the end of the stage. So you'll want to throw the null or the yellow symbol into a different position before starting your chain reaction.

Finally, consider the situation below:
Here, you have a couple of options again:

• Hit the Red Symbol first and get a complete chain reaction
  
• Hit yellow and miss out on one step
  
• Hit green and only turn all red panels green. You'll need to destroy another symbol to trigger a new chain reaction

Well, aside from wiping most enemies in one action, geo chains also boost the Bonus gauge significantly more than simple kills or combos do. The higher the bonus gauge once the stage is clear, the more bonus rewards you get for clearing the map.

Like here, on the tutorial map.

Not paying attention to geo effects can have harsh consequences.

On the above map, the mage and the archer on the red geo panels will attack twice, and each attack's power is multiplied by six. They will absolutely decimate your party on the first round if you let things in that situation, easily hitting 200+ damage per attack. Oh, and the mage can hit two of your characters at once. Not a good way of starting that level.

• Dark Assembly actions that require a vote will waste the mana if the vote goes against you
  
• Each senator has the same amount of votes than his level
  
• You can bribe senators by giving them any of the 16 items in your backpack. Make sure it is full before summoning the Dark Assembly
  
• Based on this, try seeing if you can bribe the highest level senators in the room
  
• Senators "remember" past bribes and will tend to be more favourable in subsequent votes, although there's still a bit of random luck involved
  
• Different requests also have a different range of possible votes - things that benefit Dark Assembly members tend to have a higher "leaning yes" or above average than trying to raise HL from them
  
• Much later in the game, once you defeat a specific boss that threatens the whole underworld, the senators will love you no matter what.
  
• If you lose a vote, you can choose to fight or give up.

If you decide to fight it out, you will have to remove every senator that voted Nay from the board. You can either defeat them, or throw them onto a higher level Aye voter. So even if you are outmatched, you can still win a vote if you stack all your opponents onto Yes voters before they kill you.
Bear in mind, though, that senators removed in that manner still count as killed, and these will like you less in subsequent votes (means more bribes in the future). Reloading from a save may be better in the long run to avoid wasting the 10000 mana for a genius knight to a negative vote.

There are two different types of class unlocks:

• Higher version of base classes unlock after a character of the same class reaches a certain level (eg the Pugilist, second version of the Brawler, requires a Brawler to reach level 5. The Fighter unlocks when either a Brawler or Pugilist hits level 12
  
• New classes unlock once characters of certain other classes reach specific required levels OR weapon mastery

From the PS2 version (again, this may be different here):

• Scouts and Rogues were unlocked by having a brawler and a warrior reaching level 5, either gender
  
• Ninja required a male brawler and male warrior reaching level 10
  
• Ronin required a female brawler and female warrior to reach level 10
  
• Archer: Any character hitting Bow mastery level 3
  
• Knights: female warrior and female mage at level 10
  
• Recruits: Gun mastery at level 30 on one character
  
• Angels: female cleric, knight and archers all at level 100
  
• Majins: male warrior, brawler, ninja, rogue and scout at level 200
  
• Star Mages / Skulls: To unlock this more advanced version of mages, you'll need to reach level 5 with all three of the basic mage / skull class (one blue, one green and one red). To get to the next tier, there's a further catch: you need a star mage / skull at level 35 for a prism mage / skull, and a prism at level 50 to unlock the final tier, galaxy mage / skull

You can capture any enemy monsters (not humanoids) by throwing them into the base panel. If the combined strength of the characters remaining in the base panel is high enough to defeat them, you will capture them, adding them to your roster (you'll need to visit the hospital though). Otherwise, your base panel will be destroyed, meaning you'd better make sure you can clear the map with all characters already out on the field
(thanks to Cpt. Moist Panties for testing this out).
The short clip below shows how it's done:

Stealing in Disgaea isn't the exclusive specality of the rogue class, they are simply twice as good at it.

In order to steal, you need to have at least one Stealing Hand consumable in your item bag. Move your prospective theif to the target of your larceny, use the item command, pick the Stealing Hand from the item bag, and if you're successful, your victim gets robbed in plain daylight.

Simple enough, right?

Now the calculation of the stealing chance is a rather complex formula, and I wrote a complete guide for gamefaqs over a decade ago - if you want the details, you can read through all the maths on that Stealing FAQ[www.gamefaqs.com] - bearing in mind that this was for the PS2 version, and there needs to be a lot of testing done to confirm they didn't tweak anything for the PC release.

But if you want the simple version, here's what matters to determine your chance of stealing:

• The level of your thief
  
• The HIT stat on the stealing hand you're using - better hands have obviously higher stats
  
• The level of the enemy you intend to relieve of his posessions
  
• The rank of the item you're trying to steal
  
• The rarity of the item

When refering to the item rank, it's the overall item's tier we're talking about - common swords being rank 1, Short swords rank 2, swordbreaker rank 3 etc. The item's rarity is the number shown on top of the item's stat panel, the lower the better. Normal rarity is between 32 and 255, and the symbol looks like a bronze bell with a C underneath. Rares have rarity between 8 and 31, Legendary between 0 and 7.

The net of it boils down to the following approximation - to get the highest percentage of stealing (99%), the level of your thief should be half the enemy's level PLUS a modifier that accounts for the other factors. For low rank, normal rarity items, that number is relatively small, but for legendary versions of the highest ranked items, we're talking about adding 100-140 to the required level of your thief.

Long story short - your thief should be at least half the level of the monster you're stealing from, and needs more levels the more powerful the item you're trying to steal is. If you use more advanced versions of stealing hands, you need a lower level to reach 99% stealing chance.

Also, the rank of your thief doesn't matter, more advanced versions of the rogue class don't improve your chances (or at least didn't in the PS2 version). Best way to level a thief is to first start a ninja or a samurai, get at least 11-12 sword skill, then transmigrate into a thief.

Quick and dirty, no details added (plenty of other guides will cover this shortly if they don't already):

Improve a character's rank at the Dark Assembly?
You need to pass an exam, which requires a chosen character to beat 3-4 monsters of a specific level. All by himself.

Get better equipment at the shops?
You need to get rank 1 at Dark Assembly, then pass a bill for "More Expensive stuff"

Unlock Glasses, belts and shoes at the shop?
You need to get rank 2 at the Dark Assembly and pass an individual bill for each.

Transmigrate?
Get Rank 3... at the Dark Assembly and the option becomes available

Transmigrate efficiently?
Other guides will cover this in detail (or there's Gamefaqs), but in short, make sure you have the mana to transmigrate into Genius if possible. Don't ever go for less than competent, you'll severely cripple your character's potential.

Get more counter-attacks?
Still a rank 3 bill

Improve my movement rate?
Rank 4 and another bill to pass. Yep, welcome to Disgaea: C-Span edition. Or you can equip some shoes, free of Netherworld politics. Shoes and bill stack, though.

Get these bills? I saw them before but now I can't select them?
The character addressing the Assembly needs to have the right rank, so you need to pass the rank exam for each character you want to give more counters to, for example. In short, you petition the senate in your own name only. Told you this was getting political.

There's of course a lot more, but remember, this is a quick tips guide. The above should let you get to experience most of the game if you are casual minded, and at least set you on a solid foundational path if you want to play it to its more extreme limits.

That's all I got at present. Recent additions:

• Added quick notes on Dark Assembly
  
• Added notes on experience, weapon mastery and mentoring
  
• Class unlocks
  
• Quick pointers about stealing
  
• How do I... section

Sardine has started an in-depth FAQ for beginners focused on getting the most out of the game. If you're into min / maxing, you will find a lot of in-depth information that will give you a thorough understanding on mechanisms that don't fit in a "Quick tips" guide.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=632901455

Conversely, if you're satisfied with this but are looking into foundations to help you progress further, Sanic is writing an Quick tips for the intermediate player guide:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=632213896

Finally, note that while much of the PS2 mechanisms seem mostly unchanged, there can still be differences that we haven't noticed yet. Biggest change so far appears that Pleinair can no longer be obtained by starting NG+ after losing to Vyers. More will probably become readily visible once the forums focus more on gameplay than on the performance issues that too many players are experiencing at present (and I hope they get resolved fast for you guys - I love this game to pieces and it's a shame that it is buggy for so many).