Combat

Combat in Heart of Flame is a turn-based system with a focus on the use of the battlefield. Positioning of characters and attacks as well as proper resource management is key to victory in this game.

**How it works**

**Spawning**

When combat begins, the first thing that happens is placement of characters. Mobs are randomly placed on the right half of the battlefield, in a small group. They are placed within a randomly selected square of varying dimensions at the beginning of battle. Once the enemies are spawned, the player can then choose where to spawn each of their characters within a predetermined square of a fixed size.

**Turns**

When that's done, the game will determine the turn order for the battle. Characters with a higher speed stat will go first, followed by the slower ones in order. The first character on the turn order will go first, followed by the second, etc. Once everyone has got their turn, a "round" ends, and it rolls again. Since speed can change during combat, it's redetermined every round.

Each action during a turn costs AP. AP is a representation of how much time you have per turn. Most actions take 2 AP, and most characters and mobs have 4 AP each turn.

When it's a player character's turn, the UI will show up for that particular character. It will allow the player to choose from the following options, or commands:

**-Move (2 AP)**

Movement changes the player into "move" mode, where they can control their character using "WASD". Pressing a direction will have the character run one tile in that direction (you can't issue two commands at once). Each tile moved has the "movement" counter go down by 1. At 0 movement ends. The movement counter is reset at the start of each move command, and is determined by the "move" stat. The player can press X at any time during movement to stop moving, but this prevents using the "move" command again this turn. Using any other skill or command during movement will also cancel it.

**-Attack (2 AP)**

This command allows the character to attack an enemy. The type of attack depends on the character.

Arisa will use her bow, performing a ranged attack.

Tarako will attack in melee with his Saber.

Theobald will attack in melee with a basic summoned claw (does not cost energy).

Selana will kick the enemy.

The damage of this skill is equal to the total ATK of the character.

Using this command will place the player in "targeting" mode, where he will be able to select which target to attack using the arrow keys to cycle between them, and can confirm using the "Z" key.

**-Skill (Depends)**

This option will open up another menu with all the available skills. The player will be able to either use these skills directly in the menu, or add them to a hotbar on the bottom of the screen, where the player will be able to use the skills with the number keys.

Selecting a skill via either route will place the player in "targeting" mode. This mode is different depending on the skill. It will also show the range of the skill by highlighting all tiles that can be reached with the skill.

-For self-cast skills, it will only require confirmation with the Z key, with the reticule being on the caster.

-For skills cast on allies, it will allow to cycle between self and allies in range using arrow keys, and confirm with Z.

-For single-target offensive skills, it will allow the player to cycle between targets in range if possible. If there are no targets in range, the player will still be able to see the range of the attack, but won't be able to confirm since no target is found.

-For ground targeted skills, the player will be able to move the target reticule wherever they wish within range, and confirm the location with Z.

The skill will then be cast if there are enough resources to do so and everything is in order. It'll remove the cost from your pool, then cast the skill, and finally it will enter cooldown. Note that skills that are on cooldown cannot be selected in the menu or hotbar.

**-End Turn**

Ends the current turn.

**-Flee**

Flee the battle. Must be done while all player characters are on the leftmost edge of the battlefield.