You should,it really comes in handy in tough situations as the swamp(I got lost first time

and I needed to survive somehow) plus,you start the new game more prepared for what it's coming next(I did this in laxius force 1 where I leveled up Random ,Sarah and Cocka to level 50(Cocka was a nightmare,I killed enough wraiths for the whole life

,but helped,the rest of the game was piece of cake

)