Gameplay

## During Stages

**1) Best score.** The highest score you have registered on this stage.

**2) Material.** The amount of Material you have collected on this run. Material is dropped by destroying marked enemies (explained further).

**3) Stage items.** Each of these icons represent a stage item. If it is blackened out, it is not activated.

**4) Pause.** Pressing this pauses your game, bringing up the pause screen. On the pause screen, selecting the option on the left continues the stage, and the one on the right gives up (the same as failing the stage).

The pause function can be used to warp around the screen without taking damage. Without letting go of the finger that is being used to move the character, press pause, and then press "continue". During the countdown to resume to the stage, move the finger that was being used to move the character to the desired spot on the screen. When the stage resumes, the character will appear on that spot, ignoring any obstacles on his way.

**5) Score evaluation.** This meter represents your score evaluation that will be given when you finish the stage. While there are also the Combo and Clear evaluations, Score is the most important because it determines, among other things, the Active Points you will earn (diminished if lower than S).

**6) Score.** Your current score on this run.

**7) Combo.** Your current Combo chain. It raises as you shoot down targets and collect golden stars and Material before the meter depletes. The higher your combo chain is, more points you will get out of collecting golden stars. There is a maximum Combo limit for stages (2000 for Easy, Normal and Hard; 10000 for Death), but you can increase this limit in the Ability Tree screen. If your Combo meter depletes, the counter goes back to zero, except during a boss fight; in that case, it falls at a fast rate. Being hit while vulnerable also resets both your combo meter and counter.

**8) Special item.** Some events bring stages with special items for you to collect. *See the List of Event Types for details.*

**9) Enemies.** Destroying enemies earns points based on your shot familiar or offensive Skill's Power. It may also make them drop golden stars that increase the score when collected, but golden stars also appear in many other ways. Most enemies have a color that indicates attribute, and every attribute has a weakness. Shooting enemies with shots of their opposing attribute is a "critical hit" that deals more damage and grants more points. On the other side, shooting enemies with the attribute they are strong against gives diminished results. See this chart for reference:

* **Fire:** strong against Wind, weak against Water.
* **Water:** strong against Fire, weak against Wind.
* **Wind:** strong against Water, weak against Fire.
* **Light:** strong against Darkness.
* **Darkness:** strong against Light.

Some enemies (usually large ones), shortly after appearing on the screen, have a state in which they absorb much of the damage of your shots, while you are still able to hit them. Doing this raises your Combo at a fast rate on higher difficulties.

On Death difficulty, doing this while they are inside your Magical Ring also makes them spawn a great amount of golden stars. The same applies to destructible rocks shot by enemies (or spawned upon destroying them on Death difficulty, which happens at random), as they also have high damage absorption.

Throughout a stage, up to three large enemies may appear. The English community refers to them as minibosses. Minibosses shoot destructible rocks against you and may or may not impede other enemies from spawning. For that reason, when aiming to achieve a high score, to destroy a miniboss early or late depends on the stage and difficulty.

**10) HP.** The HP of your selected shot familiar. Being hit while vulnerable lowers it. You are invulnerable shortly after being hit, shortly after activating a Skill, and during a boss' death animation. The higher the difficulty you are playing on, the more damage you will receive from hits. If a shot familiar loses its entire HP, it is defeated and you will not be able to use it for the rest of the stage. However, support familiars that only have a Love Link with the defeated shot familiar may still Awaken their Skill. There are no lasting effects for familiars defeated this way. If all of your shot familiars are defeated, you may pay five gems to heal them and reset your score, or give up and fail the stage.

**11) You (the Master).** You can move your character around by tapping and dragging anywhere around the screen (you do not need to press your character to move). You shoot by tapping the screen. The shot depends on your selected shot familiar. If you let go of the screen, the game slows down considerably after a second. The circle inside your character represents your hitbox, and its color relates to the selected shot familiar's attribute. Keep in mind that your actual hitbox is smaller than that, and so are the enemy models and bullets to a lesser degree.

**12) Magical Ring.** The circle around your character is called Magical Ring and delimits your marking range. It expands and contracts with your Combo meter. If the center of an enemy model gets inside this circle, they will be marked, with a visual confirmation. If you destroy marked enemies, you get double the points and they drop Material, which can be spent for bonuses on the Prayer screen. Only 1000 Material can appear during a stage (even if you collected, for example, 950 while 1000 already appeared, no more will). You cannot mark bosses, but you can mark minibosses.

**13) LOVE MAX meter.** When you chain a 100 hit Combo, you go into LOVE MAX mode with your selected shot familiar, making their shot stronger in various aspects and speeding up the game slightly (though some devices may, on the contrary, slow down). The progress toward LOVE MAX appears on this meter — when your portrait reaches the familiar's portrait, it happens.

The duration of the LOVE MAX is based on the Intimacy of the selected shot familiar. It can also end early if you switch your shot familiar or are hit. This can be used for your advantage if you want to if you want to LOVE MAX at a particular moment during the stage.

**14) Shot familiars.** This shows the three shot familiars you brought to the stage. Pressing around these icons changes your shot familiar. The one on top is your selected shot familiar, and its Power appears above its icon. When the stage starts, it will default you to your straight shot familiar. When a boss appears, familiars of the opposing attribute will have a speech bubble displayed on top of their icons. You can edit teams in the Equip Familiars screen.

**15) Supports.** Tapping a support familiar’s icon activates their Skill and triggers a short duration of invincibility frames. These invincibility frames can be used to "blink" around, as your character will move to a new location instantly if you do so without untapping the screen during the Skill activation animation. This can only be done if you were pressing the screen before the Skill's activation. You can see the List of Skills and Descriptions for names and explanations.

If a support familiar is compatible with one of the shot types, their icon will display a linked hearts symbol. This is called Love Link. It means that there is a chance of Awakening the Skill, boosting its effect considerably. You can see which shot familiars a support familiar is compatible with on their header upon assigning them to a team. For a detailed explanation of Skill Awakening effects, see Other Skill Considerations. You can edit teams on the Equip Familiars screen.

Skills improve as the familiar evolves, and their numerical effects can be improved on the Skill Item Synthesis screen. You can see the numerical effects for each Skill on Skill Behavior Analysis.

## Boss Fight

**1) Boss.** The boss is the final enemy of the stage, but weaker bosses may appear before it. The English community refers to bosses that appear on the middle of the stage as midbosses. Despite its hostile appearance, you can move on top of it without taking damage. Be careful, however, as bullets spawn even if you are placed at their spawn range.

When the boss is defeated, you gain earn bonus points based on your current Combo. This is called Combo Bonus.

**2) Boss attribute and health.** This displays the boss' attribute and remaining health.

**3) Skull orbs.** Skull orbs will fly down the screen in various patterns. All of them have attributes, represented by their color. They work like bullets, but do not despawn upon hitting you. Your shots slow them down, and a penetrating shot cannot penetrate skull orbs of the attribute it is not strong against. On high difficulties, they may shoot bullets of their own.

When the boss is defeated, skull orbs and bullets on the screen turn into golden stars, and can make a difference if you want to earn a high score.

**4) Boss timer.** Displays how long you have to defeat the boss. For final bosses, if the timer ends, you fail the stage.

**5) Destructible orbs.** Your selected shot familiar is able to destroy skull orbs of the attribute it is strong against, sending a counterattack against the boss that neutralizes hostile fire. This is shown by a yellow crosshair around the orb. If the destroyed orb is the same attribute as the boss, it will destroy other orbs close by, causing a great deal of damage; but keep in mind that this will not happen if the orb is destroyed by a Skill and sometimes shortly after you activate a Skill. It also cannot happen multiple times within a short period.

## Stage Clear (screen 1)

**1) Score evaluation.** Your score evaluation. Reaching S is easily attainable by marking many enemies and building a lasting Combo chain. Setting a team with high Power is also important.

**2) Combo evaluation.** This evaluation is for the highest Combo chain you achieved on the stage. Keep in mind that some shot types are better than others are at building combo chains.

**3) Clear evaluation.** This evaluates the amount of times you cleared the stage. Higher difficulties require you to clear the same stage many times; usually around 20 for Death.

**4) Intimacy increase.** By clearing stages, your familiars become more intimate toward you. Raising Intimacy increases LOVE MAX time if you are using the familiar as a shot, and increases the Skill Awakening chance if you are using them as a support. *For details, see the Equip Familiars screen.* By pressing the familiar's icon, a table detailing the Intimacy gain will show up. These are all the motives you may see an Intimacy increase:

**5) Next.** Go to the next screen.

## Rank Up

If you Rank up after the stage, this screen will come up after the first Stage Clear screen. One of the three listed stats (AP meter size, Cost limit of your teams of familiars and Friends List capacity) will be increased by one.

**1) Rank.** Your new Rank.

**2) "Your AP has been restored!".** When you Rank up, you gain an amount of AP equal to your AP capacity. This can overflow your AP meter.

**3) Max AP.** Your AP capacity.

**4) Cost limit.** Cost limit of your teams of familiars.

**5) Friends capacity.** The size of your Friends List.

**6) Close.** Closes the screen.

## Stage Clear (screen 2)

**1) Medals acquired.** The amount of Medals you got from clearing the stage. Higher difficulties are more efficient for acquiring medals. You spend medals to upgrade familiars, among other functions.

**2) Material gained.** The amount of Material you got from clearing the stage. While you get more Material on higher difficulties, there is a 1000 Material cap for every stage. On Death difficulty, this cap is easily reached. Easy stages are the best for acquiring Material due to the low AP consumption.

**3) Experience gained.** The amount of Experience you got from clearing the stage. Experience is given at even rates through all difficulties, based on the stage's spent AP. You earn Experience in order to Rank Up.

**4) Experience bar.** This bar represents your progress toward the next Rank.

**5) Familiars/items gained.** From clearing stages, you get random drops based on difficulty. Lower difficulties can provide Rarity 1–2 familiars and low-tier upgrading items while higher difficulties also provide high-tier upgrading items.

**6) Score.** The score you got on the stage during this run. It also indicates the difference between your best score, or previous best if you surpassed it.

**7) Special items collected.** If the stage has special items, the amount of them that you collected appears here.

**8) Active Points gained.** Your Active Points earned from completing the stage, and to the right, your current amount.

**9) Score ranking.** This shows your current position on the score rankings for this stage, as well as changes either positive or negative if you have registered a score before.

**10) Active Point ranking.** Like above, but for Active Point rankings.

**11) Continue.** Upon pressing this, a screen comes up asking if you would like to cheer or send a friend request to your helper, depending on whether it was a friend or a stranger. After this, it takes you back to the Stage Selection screen.