Battle

This page contains a general overview of how combat functions in the game, as well as laying out the basics behind how stats are calculated and how they function.

## Stats

There are five Stat ratings indicated by the symbols Sword, Staff, Shield, Heart, and Potion. Each tick mark is a rating point for that specific stat. Each monster species has its own unique base stat ratings. The stat ratings of a monster can be increased by passive skills as well as shifting. The stat values of a monster (not to be confused with the stat rating), can also be influenced by the food the monster has eaten, as well as the accessories and weapons equipped.

###  Attack

This stat determines the amount of physical damage the monster can do. This value is then multiplied directly by the percentage values in attacks to determine the raw base damage of a move, before additional multipliers. The formula for calculating the base attack value of a monster is:

`Attack = Attack Rating * (10 + Level) / 2`

###  Magic

This stat determines the amount of magical damage the monster can do. This value is then multiplied directly by the percentage values in attacks to determine the raw base damage of a move, before additional multipliers. The formula for calculating the base magic value of a monster is:

`Magic = Magic Rating * (10 + Level) / 2`

###  Defense

This stat determines the amount of defense the monster has. The monster's defense value determines the base damage reduction value. The formula for calculating the base defense value of a monster is:

`Defense = Defense Rating * (10 + Level) * 7 / 10`

You can convert this **Defense** value into base damage reduction with the following formula:

`Damage Reduction = (Defense + 10) / ((Level + 10) * 8 + Defense)`

###  Health

This stat determines the amount of health the monster has. Health is a literal number for how much damage the Monster can take before it is killed and defeated from combat. The formula for calculating the base health value of a monster is:

`Health = (5 + Health Rating) * (10 + Level) * 4.5 * (1 + Level / 100)`

###  Mana

This stat determines the amount of mana the monster has. Every Monster uses Mana in order to use their Active Skills. Every Skill costs some Mana, and the Mana Regeneration helps you maintain high enough Mana to continue to use your strongest Skills. If you run too low on Mana, you are able to use the basic **Attack** command by tabbing left in battle. It hits 3 times for a total of 120% physical neutral damage, so it isn't usually in your best interest to use it. The Monster's base Mana Regeneration value is 50% of the Monster's base Max Mana, rounded down. Outside of the direct Rating, Mana and Mana Regeneration increase completely independently of one another. The formula for calculating the base mana value of a monster is:

`Mana = (8 + Mana Rating * 1.3) * (40 + Level * 2) / 8`

### Additional Stats

####  Mana Regeneration

Mana Regeneration determines how much Mana is regained at the beginning of your turn. The Monster's base Mana Regeneration value is 50% of the Monster's base Max Mana, rounded down. You can increase this base value with equipment and other skills.

####  Critical Chance

Critical Chance determines the chance of a critical hit. It is initially 10% for every monster, and can be increased by Weapons, Accessories, or some passive skills.

####  Critical Damage

Critical Damage determines how much additional damage a critical hit does. It is initially +50% for every monster, and can be increased by food, weapons, accessories, or some passive skills.

## Damage

Damage, at a base level, is calculated by simply taking your Attack or Magic score (based on whether the attack is Physical or Magical, in nature) and multiplying that by the percentage value given by the specific Skill description. This gives the base damage of a given hit of an attack. This value then gets modified by other factors, such as Buffs, Debuffs, passives, and the Damage Reduction value of the target of the attack. There is only a small damage variance of ± 3%, which is calculated on a per-hit basis.

In addition to this, each monster species has their own weaknesses and resistances. If you strike a Monster's Weakness, you deal 50% more damage. If, however, you hit a Monster's Resistance, you deal 50% less. Some more complex combinations of Weakness/Resistance pairings can cause certain moves to hit *both* a Weakness *and* a Resistance. When this happens, the two effects cancel out and the attack deals normal damage.

### Damage Types

Every attacking Skill deals either Physical or Magical damage (in order, above) and interacts with these weaknesses and resistances, if they are present on the defending Monster. Physical damage also draws its power from the attacking Monster's

 Attack stat, whereas Magical damage draws its power from the attacking Monster's

 Magic stat.

### Elemental Types

Elemental Weaknesses and Resistances are based on the Elemental attribute of whatever Skill you use.

All offensive Skills possess a single Element, which is stated just after its type. For example, as seen above, Beating deals **Physical Damage** of the **Neutral Element**. As such, it would interact with both Physical and Neutral weaknesses and resistances.

### Debuff Effects

Some Monsters have weakness to or resistance from Debuff effects. Those effects which matter for this are Burn, Chill, Shock, Poison, Armor Break, and Weakness. Stacks such as Bleed are not affected by these weaknesses or resistances. A Monster with resistance to Debuffs will reduce the impact of *all* debuffs they are afflicted with by 50%, and will instead increase their effects by 50% if they are weak to Debuffs. Keep in mind that some Debuffs are elemental in nature, so a mixture of Debuff and Elemental weaknesses and resistances can make for interesting combinations.

### Elemental Shift

Some monsters have a special weakness/resistance trait called Elemental Shift. With this trait, their weaknesses and resistances shift as they use different sorts of elemental attacks. For example, using a Water skill will change the weakness/resistance of the monster to Water Resistance and Fire Weakness. Using Neutral element attacks, buff actions, or heals does not shift their weakness and resistance profile at all. They are capable of having neither weaknesses nor resistances if they *exclusively* utilize these types of actions, as Tanuki is capable of doing.

Here is a table of how the monster's weakness/resistance changes with elemental attacks:

### Combo Meter

Every action you take in battle deals a certain number of "hits." Damage, healing, shields, and buffs can all count as hits. For every hit generated by an action, the next monster's attacking skill will be boosted by 5%. This can stack as high as you can push the combo counter! For example, if your first monster lands 10 hits, the next monster will hit for 50% extra damage. If that monster then lands another 10 hits, the third monster will then deal a whopping 100% extra!

As such, it is always recommended to focus on building high combo counts before dealing damage. One way to help with this is to use your non-damaging actions first (like shields, heals, and buffs) and then have the third monster be your highest damage monster.

The Combo counter also resets at the end of every round, so you need to use it or lose it! As such, it is highly recommended to (in most cases) use a damaging attack at least once every round, ideally as close to the end as possible, otherwise all the combo you built will go to waste.

Some Passive Skills can also increase combo count beyond what the basic attack does. Things like Attack Proc, Combo Buffing, or Combo Healing are pretty obvious that they will, but some other interactions can be rather confusing as to whether or not they will additionally boost the combo counter. For example, Buffing Heal will not increase the combo of Helping Hand, even though it is a healing action and the passive adds additional heals with each buff. This may seem counterintuitive. If you are curious to read more, you can check out the page on additional hits.

## Skill Terminology

Some Skills utilize some specific terminology that isn't explained anywhere in-game in the menus, but that nonetheless are important concepts to understand.

### Auras

Skills with the purple tag "**Aura**" affect the entire team. Their effects function for everyone in the party, rather than just the Monster who unlocked that specific passive skill. For example, the skill Mana Upkeep is a passive that increases every active Monster's Mana Regeneration by 10%, rather than only affecting the singular Monster, like Improved Mana Regeneration does, because it isn't an Aura.

The effects of Auras can stack! If you have multiple monsters in your party (or multiple instances on one Monster) with the same Aura, all of their effects will activate and function in tandem, boosting the effect! For example, if you have a Vasuki and an Imori, both with Acid Spit unlocked, then all Reptiles in your party (the two of them included) will have two 7.5% chances to inflict Poison or Burn on every hit, instead of just one.

#### Unique Auras

Some **Auras** are also marked as **Unique**. This simply means that this Aura **does not stack**. That means that, even if multiple Monsters in your party bring the same **Unique Aura** into battle, only one instance of it will be active, not all of them. For example, bringing Magmapillar and Vasuki into battle in the same party, both with Burning Desire unlocked will still only trigger a single shield for the party per Burn damage activation on the enemy, rather than two, because Burning Desire is a Unique Aura.

This is very important to keep in mind, when building your team. You can pick and choose which of your Monsters brings a specific Unique Aura into combat to free up Skill Point(s) for the other Monsters. Same for Auras, if you don't need the additional stacks of the same one. Keep in mind, however, that multiple *different* Unique Auras *can* be active simultaneously! You can have Burning Desire active with Vasuki while Fungi additionally brings Poisoned Nerves to bolster the effects of Poison on the enemy team.

## Additional Skill Information

In battle, certain conditions will provide additional information of a Monster's skill.

A  icon of a physical skill indicates that the Monster's attack and magic stats have more than a 30% difference between them and the attack stat is the lower stat. This would mean that the physical skill will deal significantly less damage compared to using a magical skill of the same tier. As shown above, the icon appears on Air Sickle, meaning it would be better to use a magical skill instead, such as Ice Hail.

Similarly, a  icon of a magical skill indicates that the Monster's magic stat is the lower stat instead. Using the previous example, the icon would appear on Ice Hail and other magical skills instead.

## Battle Rating

After every battle, you are rated based on how well you did in defeating the enemies. You're ranked on a few different categories, each explained in-depth below. The better you do at each category, the higher your final star ranking. Each star costs 2000 rating points, essentially, with the 1st star being essentially free (because scores below 2000 are impossible to obtain).

As such, you need 10,000 points to obtain a five-star rating, which guarantees that you receive a rare item drop. You can get a sixth star if your total score breaks 12,000 points, which nets even more rewards than usual. Achieving a 6-star score against Champion Monsters nets you additional bonus rewards the first time you manage it for each of them.

The absolute maximum value you could theoretically obtain is 7000 from Duration, 3500 from Healthiness, and 4500 from Execution for a total of 15000 before factoring in your Buffs / Debuffs and the Enemy Difficulty scores. This is easily achievable when handling low level enemies with a single weakness-exploiting attack that hits all enemies. You will generally, however, only exceed 15000 by a few hundred, as the Difficulty and Buffs/Debuffs scores will be very low.

 Bonus Gold %

For more information about loot drops, click here.

### Enemy Difficulty

This is a basic number that cannot be changed for a given encounter. It scales the enemy team's power against yours and grants them a difficulty rating based on how hard the fight is assumed to be. If they're higher level than you, for example, this value goes up, while it would go down if you're fighting low level enemies.

### Combat Duration

This just directly counts how many turns you took to defeat the enemies, granting a score accordingly. 1 full turn is considered to be 3 entire actions from your team. As such, you can achieve .33 and .66 scores, based on if you attacked with 1 or 2 monsters on your final turn before victory, respectively. The highest possible Score from this category is 7000, and you will score 0 points if the battle lasts 5 turns or more in a regular wild encounter (4.66 grants 500 points) or more than one Monster is needed on your 8th turn in a Champion battle (7.66 results in 0, but 7.33 grants 166).

### Healthiness

At the *end* of each of *your* turns, your Monsters are assessed for how "healthy" they are. This value is checked each turn as a percentage, comparing total party current health against total party max health (ignoring shield values). Those numbers are then averaged out based on the number of turns you lasted, giving a final score. If your team was full health at the end of every round, you'll end with a 100% Healthiness score for +3500 points - the maximum allowable value. This scales down linearly.

### Buffs / Debuffs

This score measures your effective use of Buffs and Debuffs throughout combat. Every application of a Buff or Debuff adds points to this score. You also get additional points added every time your enemies are affected by a damage over time effect. Each single tick of damage adds a flat value to the score, allowing you to somewhat counteract the negative effects of long duration by having effects like Poison and Burn ticking for the full duration of battle.

### Execution

Execution awards points for three different cases.

* You gain additional points based on how high your first two acting Monsters pump the Combo Meter. More hits yields higher score.
* You gain additional points based on how much damage your third acting Monster deals with respect to the enemy's total health score. More damage yields higher score.
* In addition, you get bonus points each time you exploit an enemy's weakness with an attack.

You get double value for combo meter and weakness exploit on the first two turns. The conversion for combo meter and third-monster damage gets worse at average (your) monster level 11 and 31. In total, your score in this category cannot exceed 4500 points.