The bravery (abbreviated as BRV) of a character affects the threads they are able to equip to themself. Typically, men's clothes require less BRV, while women's clothes require more. Shiki is the only character to start with high initial BRV, allowing her to wear women's clothes whereas the male characters initially cannot. The maximum possible BRV is 999.
BRV is not an exact indicator of how powerful a thread is, though some of the more powerful maingame threads require high BRV. The maingame threads with the highest BRV requirement are (152) Vampire Dress and (160) Black Bikini, with the latter only being accessible with sufficient FSG. Postgame threads require even more BRV.
In NEO: The World Ends With You, BRV is replaced with Style.
The BRV requirement for threads is not cumulative. (A character with 50 BRV is able to equip four threads that require 50 BRV each.) The starting BRV for each character is as follows:
BRV can be increased by leveling up (+1 per level), mingling with other players, or by digesting food:
| Location | Price | Bytes | Bravery Boost | Bravery-to-Bytes Ratio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vanilla Soft Serve | Burger Shops | 230 | 5 | +2 | 2 to 5 (0.40 ratio) |
| Soft Serve Swirl | Burger Shops | 320 | 5 | +2 | 2 to 5 (0.40 ratio) |
| Corn Chowder | Burger Shops | 470 | 6 | +2 | 2 to 6 (0.33 ratio) |
| Pumpkin Soup | WildKat | 580 | 6 | +2 | 2 to 6 (0.33 ratio) |
| Donuts | WildKat | 350 | 7 | +4 | 4 to 7 (0.57 ratio) |
| Muffin Set | WildKat | 400 | 7 | +4 | 4 to 7 (0.57 ratio) |
| Crepe | Mexican Dog | 450 | 8 | +4 | 4 to 8 (0.50 ratio) |
| Pancakes | WildKat | 530 | 8 | +6 | 6 to 8 (0.75 ratio) |
| Tonkotsu Ramen | Ramen Don | 750 | 16 | +6 | 6 to 16 (0.375 ratio) |
| BRAVE+ | Pharmacy | 20,000 | 3 | +20 | 20 to 3 (6.666 ratio) |
| Cordyceps | Herbal Remedies | 80,000
Quest (x4 10,000 Yen) |
16 | +50 | 50 to 16 (3.125 ratio) |
Analysis[]
Tonkotsu Ramen is the first available BRV booster. When Dogenzaka is first accessible on Week 1, Day 3, the player should erase the green pig Noise, then sell the 5000 Yen pin in order to purchase Tonkotsu Ramen and Shio Ramen, which is required to clear a wall later. Neku should then immediately eat the Tonkotsu Ramen for a head start in raising his BRV. Unfortunately, this is the last opportunity to buy it prior to Week 2, Day 3, though it subsequently becomes available for most of the remaining chapters. By that point though, it is effectively rendered obsolete by by Pancakes, which offer the same boost for half the bytes and lower cost. Tonkotsu does retain a slightly higher sync boost, but its likeability means only Beat receives substantial benefit from it.
Vanilla Soft Serve is the next available BRV booster. As it's inexpensive, the player should buy as many of them as possible for Neku to consume. It has a poor byte to BRV ratio, but falls under the fullness threshold, allowing the player to grind BRV all day. The Soft Serve Swirl is a slightly more expensive alternative that becomes available during Week 2 and features a higher sync boost when eaten.
Crepes become available towards the end of week 1 and offer a reliable boost, though still limited due to the bytes per day restriction.
Pumpkin Soup and Corn Chowder are both similar in that they offer modest boosts while remaining under the byte limitation of 6 that can bypass the byte per day restriction. They are pricier and and a byte heavier than the two soft serves, but the trade-off is a higher sync boost and being better liked.
BRAVE+ is close to the ideal BRV booster. It falls under the fullness threshold and has a BRV per byte ratio of 6.67, but is expensive at ¥20000. It is much more efficient than Cordyceps, which has a BRV per byte ratio of 3.13. Since Beat joins with low BRV, it is highly recommended to purchase at least one BRAVE+ on Week 2, Day 6 from Nishimura Drugs at Shibu-Q Heads to help Beat wear some better threads. Shibu-Q heads will then be inaccessible until Week 3, Day 5, so purchase as much BRAVE+ as possible on that day.
As for Cordyceps, the high byte requirement is typically seen to make it inferior to BRAVE+, but it does benefit from much higher sync boosts and more likeability (two categories where BRAVE+ sets the standard as the worst food item in the game). Its price is another major drawback but buying via Quest using four 10,000 Yen pins not only effectively cuts the price in half but also makes it more cost effective than BRAVE+, providing 2.5 times the boost for only twice the price. For most players though, these advantages aren't enough to cover for its weaknesses.
Notably, most Bravery boosting food had lower bonuses in the Japanese release, with Tonkotsu Ramen seemingly being the sole exception. The rest gave only half the boost except for Cordyceps which instead gave 60% of what it did in the international version.