This guide will aim to cover the best starting choices to make in Kingdom Hearts, including starting dream weapon choices and starting time of day, for both proud mode playthroughs as well as starting equipment only speed runs. 

In the very beginning of Kingdom Hearts, there will be two big choices you make, which will greatly affect Sora’s growth in your adventure.

that you choose / sacrifice will affect both your starting stats, as well as the level that each ability is learned at.

The second choice you’ll make, starting your journey at 

will affect how much xp is required to level up at different stages of the game.

As for the best weapon to choose / give up, as well as best time of day to choose, it is totally dependent on what type of play through you are looking for, as a 100% play through on proud is more easily done with a different set of choices than say a starting equipment only speed run on easy mode, so I’ll cover these at the end.

As mentioned above, the weapon you choose will determine which level you will learn each skill at, as well as your base stats. As you might imagine, choosing the sword prioritizes offensive stats and abilities, choosing the shield prioritizes defensive stats and abilities, while the stag prioritizes magic.

Certain abilities are very important for play throughs at higher difficulties, so I’ve marked the very important skills below.

While it really comes down to preference as to which order you’d like the abilities in, 

 are very useful abilities, which allow you to continue casting cure even when attacked, and avoid being one-shotted respectively. The combination of the skills means that you will have a much easier time healing up without worrying about dying when your HP is getting low.

As you can see in the chart above, Shield allows you to get these abilities much earlier, while choosing staff means you won’t get Second Chance until level 90 (at which point you will be powerful enough to defeat anything without it). For Proud mode players, as well as those who are trying to avoid any deaths to get the “Undefeated” trophy, having these two abilities will make your journey much easier, so I recommend choosing the 

While the chosen weapon affects both abilities and base stats, the dream weapon you sacrifice will only affect your base stats.

If you are playing on Proud Mode, it’s best to choose the Shield or Staff in terms of stats, but never the sword, as it offers little bonus other than a boost to the strength stat early game. The MP boost is huge and certainly enticing enough to consider this option, so 

On the other hand, if you are speed running to get the Speedster trophy and/or playing to obtain the Unchanging Armor trophy, picking the 

is a good choice, since it will give you an easier time with early game bosses (and since Unchanging Armor will severely limit your opportunities to increase in strength).

Now with your dream weapon choice complete, you’ll then have to talk with your friends from Destiny Islands. Each of them will ask you three questions, and depending on which answers you select, the time of day your adventure begins at will be determined. This will affect how Sora levels up throughout the game.

Overall, the dusk route requires the least total amount of exp to get to the max level, while dawn requires the most. So once again, the best choice here depends on what type of playthrough you intend to have.

For speedrunning or going after the Speedster trophy, the Dawn route is almost essential, as you will want to spend the least amount of time grinding as possible.

For a regular playthrough, Dawn or Midday are fine. If you only want to clear the story, choose dawn, since you will generally clear the story around level 50 in easy/normal modes anyway. If you intend to do some of the optional content, the Midday route will work best.

Finally, if you intend to 100% the game, including grinding to the max level and beating all optional bosses, the dusk route is the most optimal, as it will allow you to collect about 100,000 less xp in order to reach level 100.

To make things easier, I’ve summed up the different types of playthroughs, as well as which choices to make.

If playing for 100% completion, I recommend the 

 choices (especially if done on proud mode), and the 

If playing for the Speedster / Unchanging Armor, I recommend the 

 (best done on Beginner difficulty, allowing you to more easily pick up the Undefeated Trophy).

Lastly, if you are just playing to experience the game’s story at your own pace and are not concerned about trophies, I recommend the 

 options, depending on how much side content you will do (while playing on Beginner or Final Mix).

Following the top two play styles will allow you to collect all trophies in just two run throughs of the game.

Best Starting Choices Guide