After a brief hiatus I'm getting back into my Japanese study. I've hit a roadblock straight away ;-) I am having trouble with the use of '使ってみなさい' here. I don't think I've seen it before. -なさい means "please don't do ". Then the sentence after that, I am confused by the use of 'ない’.
Could somebody help me with the translation please?
(context: Zelda guide book talking about using new items that you find)
ちなみに宝箱やツボの中から入手できる矢束、爆弾などは、「その場で使ってみなさい」という、さりげないヒントであることが多い。 (By the way, inside treasure chests and jars you can get arrows, bombs etc. [that place please don’t see and use ] there are many casual hints。)
使っても意味のない場所やタイミングでアイテムが手に入ることはないのだ。
I'm sure it ends with saying "there is no need to obtain items" but that makes little sense. The beginning of the sentence is confusing to me, I cannot even guess at what it is trying to say. The meaning of [their] use... not at this place?
Really struggling...
宝箱やツボの中から入手できるmodifies矢束、爆弾などby the "verb in plain form immediately followed by a noun" pattern, so it should bethe arrows, bombs etc. **that** you can get inside treasure chests and jarswhich is then the topic for the rest of the sentence. Also,ヒントであるmeansis a hintand<clause>ことが多いmeansit is often (the case) that <clause>,there are many (situations, times) where <clause>. (It has to be である and not だ, which means the same thing, because only である can modify the following noun こと.)