Combat

In AFAC, the Undertale combat mechanics are a metaphor for the actual fighting [24]. The basic details are best explained by Freja in Extra-Dark Chocolate.

Stats can change based on your LOVE, or training, but training is more time-consuming for the same results [4]. Monsters however, become weaker if they don't want to fight [16].

## Intent

Intent determines how a magical attack will land on a person. The more you want to hurt a person, the more they will be hurt after accounting for the target's desire not to be hurt. A spell that hits multiple targets has the intent to harm each person equalized among all targets. For example, if you were throwing a fireball that hit a person you hated and your best friend, the attack would even out with damage being determined by how little you want to hurt your friend and how much you want to harm the person you hate. However, this only happens if you're aware that one or the other is there. For example, if you are unware of your friend when you cast the spell, they take just as much damage as your intended target [37]. On the other hand, an attack that is naturally lethal will still result in death regardless of intent. For example, a Singularity spell used to create a black hole will kill the target regardless of intent due to the destructive nature of spaghettification [38]. However, consequences of an attack are unaffected by the attack's intent. For example, if a monster is struck by an attack meant to kill them and survives but falls off a cliff, the damage from impact is unrelated to the intent of the strike that knocked them off the cliff [42]. On the other hand, if the monster is intentionally pushed off the cliff, the fall will deal more damage, but not as much as a strike [43].

Lashing out blindly such as in a panic attack negates damage so long as the intent is to drive the threat away rather than actually hurt it like a surge of blind rage or premeditation would [45]. Lighting a pyre to burn a monster alive will not conduct killing intent into the flames, and a monster's flammability determines how much damage they take from this [46].

When used on a monster, the exact nature of the attack does not matter as sufficient killing intent will still result in their death. Thus, if one has enough it doesn't matter if you cut a monster in half or prick their finger with a needle [41].

HP
--

HP is an abbreviation for Hope, which measures how much a person can be hurt before dying. HP is usually represented in whole numbers, but damage can rarely cause it to become a fraction [32].

HP changes when:

* You gain LOVE.

* Your outlook on life changes [9].
* Exercise [4].

MP
--

MP or Magic Points are a stat only available to monsters and wizards. This is like a mana bar, but you can continue using magic afterwards by damaging your body [10]. MP can fill up faster with an influx of emotions [11].

## ATK

ATK is a measure of how much power you have at your disposal, magical or otherwise.

ATK changes when:

* You Gain LOVE [30].
* Your desire to hurt changes [3].
* You train [4].

## DEF

DEF is a measure of how much durable you are. Invincibility frames are the magical equivalent of curling up into a ball when in pain to protect yourself [14].

DEF changes when:

* You gain LOVE [30].
* Your desire to not be hurt changes [3].
* You train [4].
* You eat human food (monsters only [33]).

## SPD

SPD is a measure of how fast you can move.

SPD changes when:

* You train [4].

SPD does not change when:

* You gain LOVE [30].

## EXP

EXP is an acronym for Execution Points, tiny bits of magic that stay with a killer for life and are absorbed by their body, though having a soul isn't necessary to gain EXP [2]. EXP is drawn to the soul of the one who killed their source like a magnet, with multiple killers having the EXP split roughly equally between them. Extreme distance will cause some of these fragments to dissipate, but some will survive, and depending on how many people you killed, the amount of EXP might still be significant. The detonation of a thermonuclear device will cause the resulting EXP to home in on the soul of the one who activated it [39].

There is a strong correlation between wartime PTSD and EXP gain for obvious reasons [17]. Another way of looking at it is that EXP gain is tied to how much the death hurts your psyche [27]. As such even at the same LOVE, it is possible for two different people to gain differing amounts of EXP based on the conditions of the kill and the murderer's emotional state [35]. The more people you kill, the harder it is to feel regret for your actions, leading to it becoming harder and harder to increase your LOVE [28].

EXP is gained when:

* An intelligent creature [34] kills a person [20] with any regret [15].

EXP is not gained when:

* Holding yourself to some sort of ideal that prevents you from regretting your actions [1].
* Killing someone without being able to see or hear them die [25].
* Torturing someone [19].
* Allowing someone to die by inaction [48].

EXP gain is lessened when:

* You kill multiple people at once.
* Not looking at your victim(s) when you kill them.
* Holding an ideal in your mind that isn't strong enough to remove your regrets.
* You murder someone from a distance.
* You kill a person with a higher LOVE [6].
* The murder doesn't hurt your psyche as much [27].
* You kill in self-defense [40].
* Multiple people are involved in one murder [39].

EXP gain is increased when:

* Watching your victim die.
* You murder someone at close range.
* Killing a person who already has LOVE, but less than yours. In such a case, you gain all of the EXP they had accrued [6].
* The murder hurts your psyche more [27].
* You are closer emotionally to the person you're killing [13].
* Killing someone more gruesomely [13].
* You see a person as innocent [13].
* Your reason for killing a person is more selfish [13].

EXP gain does not change when:

* Committing a mercy kill [13] \* (This conflicts with an August 11th 2016 ask stating that LOVE can increase from a mercy kill. Clarification from Trash Queen is required.).

Those who gain EXP react to the rush of power differently. For example, Chara went insane and only thought of monsters as walking EXP, while Frisk retreated inwards and tried to distance themselves from the killing to avoid guilt [29].

## LOVE

LOVE is an acronym for Level of Violence. This is a somewhat inexact measurement for your ability to connect and empathize with others [13].

LOVE increases your other stats because of the link between magic and emotions, with the distancing of emotions magnifying the potency of the EXP you absorbed, which in turn deadens your emotions in a feedback loop as you continue killing [5]. LOVE caps at 20 because at that point you have become incapable of caring about others and are effectively soulless [13]. Given that EXP gain is tied to guilt rather than knowing that killing is wrong, psychopaths gain LOVE faster than normal people [18].

LOVE is increases when:

* You personally commit murders [7].
* Killing to protect yourself and your loved ones, though the risk of being driven mad is lowered [8].

LOVE decreases when:

* You genuinely repent, but killing again resets your LOVE

LOVE is not gained when:

* Killing an animal you have no emotional connection to, though a tiny amount of EXP is gained [12] \* (This conflicts with a September 19th 2018 ask. Clarification is needed).

## Attacks

Attacks are attempts to strike an opponent, but do not necessarily deal damage [31].

### Physical Attacks

A physical attack is a standard attack with no magic behind it. Killing intent influences how much damage you deal to monsters, even damage you inflict indirectly like through tripping [36].

### Magical Attacks

A magical attack has three components to work:

* ATK: see above.
* Understanding: You can't cast a spell you don't understand.
* Intent: Your willingness to hurt someone with your attack. Depending on your intentions, your attack would be weaker or stronger. It is possible to control your intent to be nonlethal 100% of the time, but this level of control is almost unheard of outside of captains of the Royal Guard like Freja [21] and Papyrus [22].

Humans are significantly weaker to magic than monsters and thus will take more damage than monsters, unless they are wearing some kind of armor [23].

## Bracing

Bracing involves taking an attack in such a way that reduces damage among other potential effects. This can be risky, but very effective when pulled off successfully [44].

### Block

This involves managing your desire not to be hurt to reduce damage, sometimes down to next to nothing [44].

### Counter

A step up from a standard block, this not only reduces damage to next to nothing, but also reflects some of the damage you would have taken back at the attacker [44]

### Weaken

A variant of Counter where the opponent is left in a weakened state after an attack rather than have damage reflected back at them [44].

## Checking

Checking is a nonmagical effect that allows for the viewing of a target's stats. With proper training, it can also be used to identify a person's LOVE by means of certain signs in how the person behaves [47].

## Trivia

* The rationale for why attack strength varies based on circumstances is based on how in Undertale, the choices you make, the circumstances you are in, and data mining the game, stats are very different from how they appear based on using the Check option [30].

## References

[2] http://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/176528338322/does-kr-annihilate-any-soulless-creature-or-do-the
[3] http://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/145834446582/did-she-just-get-more-defensive-once-sans-arrived
[4] http://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/149406033262/is-there-a-way-to-increase-stats-without
[5] http://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/149408092662/how-does-love-work-in-this-verse-you-seem-to
[6] http://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/149721789112/so-if-your-love-is-a-measure-of-the-magical
[7] http://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/149742905752/so-in-this-world-killing-hitler-would-make-you
[8] http://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/149743082487/so-in-this-au-if-someone-is-in-the-military-to
[9] http://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/151420651937/question-doesent-hp-stand-for-hope-in-the
[10] http://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/155096481027/mp-what-is-that-do-only-monsters-have-mp
[11] http://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/155096768752/so-how-much-mp-does-sans-have
[12] http://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/155223444697/so-if-animals-have-souls-would-someone-like-a
[13] http://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/155250598267/on-the-topic-of-gaining-exp-from-animals-what
[14] http://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/177131615812/how-would-invincibility-frames-work-in-the-a-fax
[15] http://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/167899776427/wait-so-if-aidrian-had-killed-braids-instead-of
[16] http://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/155110844017/maverick-was-so-easy-to-beat-with-a-lot-of-hp-and
[17] http://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/168013637447/so-would-any-person-regardless-of-whether-they
[18] http://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/168028026062/psychopaths-are-born-sociopaths-are-not-and-i-do
[19] http://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/178173960592/sorry-if-this-was-answered-before-but-does-one
[20] http://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/178252542447/so-chara-wont-get-that-lv-rush-if-they-swat-a
[21] http://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/179032280092/hey-tq-in-this-confluence-of-timelines-has-frisk
[22] http://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/179032518557/its-possible-to-die-to-toriel-but-impossible-to
[23] http://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/181008208652/okay-i-get-that-magic-attacks-do-more-damage-if
[24] http://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/179150693037/so-sans-can-do-30-damage-per-second-at-most-and
[25] http://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/181861802512/gaster-could-also-be-a-mass-murderer-before-he
[26] https://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/619934667180834816/undyne-is-stronger-last-time-i-checked-he-had
[27] https://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/184651374697/so-enola-gay-was-the-guy-who-dropped-an-atomic
[28] https://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/184651623597/so-to-get-better-at-killing-you-need-to-first
[29] https://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/185254105027/so-if-exp-is-magic-that-is-absorbed-into-the
[30] https://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/185421580832/does-increased-love-also-increase-your-spd-or
[31] https://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/188420294007/if-sans-has-1-hp-how-did-toriel-not-kill-him
[32] https://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/188505194547/are-fractions-of-hp-an-actual-thing-or-was-the
[33] https://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/173433154547/cant-chad-just-eat-monster-food-to-heal-his
[34] https://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/625489105756782592/does-a-monsters-vulnerability-to-killing-intent
[35] https://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/635838525569482752/because-of-the-character-limit-i-will-keep-this
[36] https://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/636132569254133760/does-harmful-intent-work-indirectly-if-you-trip-a
[37] https://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/656375573148467200/a-question-regarding-intent-regarding-magical
[38] https://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/656834933872050176/if-i-used-gravity-magic-to-create-a-small
[39] https://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/665070257879269376/so-was-just-rereading-the-comic-and-had-a
[40] https://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/635838525569482752/because-of-the-character-limit-i-will-keep-this
[41] https://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/671446887270907904/isnt-it-weird-how-if-you-have-enough-killing
[42] https://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/675251164357558272/asking-to-assist-mia-if-i-hit-a-skeleton-in-the
[43] https://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/675290083112501248/intent-is-important-when-you-are-fighting-a
[44] https://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/677510366975098880/is-there-any-point-to-a-monster-physically
[45] https://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/678330525652549632/regarding-intent-translating-to-damage-how-would
[46] https://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/681341972589494272/if-i-were-to-burn-a-monster-at-the-stake-does-the
[47] https://askfriskandcompany.tumblr.com/post/682328042675339264/why-doesnt-the-royal-guard-just-constantly-use