Animation Speed

Faster attacks are important in the Warrior Dimension to improve floors cleared per hour.

The skills below are listed from fastest to slowest. Measurements are reasonably precise but not necessarily exact.

1. ↑ The rate for these samples was 30 frames per second. Actual times were often slower.
2. ↑ Missing a turn from stunned, sleeping, or Blademaster ability does not incur the 400ms (12 frames) delay between allies, so it is significantly faster than Defend.
3. ↑ The Defend skill itself takes no time, with only a single frame to show the defense stance. However, there is always 400ms (12 frames) between ally moves, so it takes that much longer than if there was no ally in that position or if the turn was skipped.

Times and relative delays for most other skills in this table show the skill time only, not including the delay between ally moves.
4. ↑ Compared to if that ally would have used Strike: 12 / (12 + 14) = 0.46x.
5. ↑ Blunt and slashing default attacks are the same speed even though the sound and animation is different.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Speed varies according to the distance the projectile travels.
7. ↑ According to Shawn (SD2 Developer) on the Discord Server, Sweeping Smash has the same speed as Phantasmal Claw
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Skill is 100ms faster (3 frames) if effect is resisted. If effect is successful, there is also an additional 600ms (18 frames) delay, the same as when an enemy dies.
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Plus an extra 600ms (18 frames) before next ally turn. Comparing Recharge and Mark with other skills is tricky, but Recharge (26 + 30 = 56 frames) is slower overall than Group Heal (37 + 12 = 49 frames).
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Compared with a non-lethal Strike including time until next ally move: (26 + 30) / (14 + 12) = 2.15x.
11. ↑ Attacks that miss are slower.

## Calculations — Physical Build

How do Shadow Slicer and Nailed It compare for clearing floors? If a floor has three enemies, then Nailed It takes (46 frames for Nailed It \* 3) + (12 frames for delay between allies \* 2) = 162 frames. This is much slower than Shadow Slicer's 106 frames. For two enemies, Nailed It takes (46 frames for Nailed It \* 2) + (12 frames for delay between allies \* 1) = 104 frames, just a hair faster than Shadow Slicer.

However if the first enemy dies, as no doubt he will because we have done the Nailed It quest, then the delay between allies is 30 frames, so the two attacks take (46 frames for Nailed It \* 2) + (30 frames for delay between allies when the enemy dies \* 1) = 122 frames. So Shadow Slicer is faster when there is more than a single enemy on the floor.

If our intrepid Carpenters can kill with a single default attack each, then 3 enemies take (14 frames for Strike \* 3) + (30 frames \* 2) = 102 frames, a bit faster than Shadow Slicer.

To test these numbers, we timed from the beginning of one floor (when it's fully dark and the level number has just gone up) to the beginning of the next floor. The result was about 5 seconds for floors cleared with Shadow Slicer (times varied a bit for each floor) and 5.7 seconds for two enemies cleared with Nailed It. This is roughly what we expected.

Clearing floors with 3 enemies using default attacks took about 5.2 seconds, averaging slightly longer than Shadow Slicer. It seems the 2 delays between allies while loot is dropping were sometimes longer due to system slowdown. With a faster system this would probably not be be an issue, so 3 default attacks would presumably be faster than Shadow Slicer.

From these observations, we can see that Phantasmal Claw is going to be much faster than any kind of single attack for floors with more than one enemy. That is why the late game comes down to X Claw even if you use a Physical Build in the mid game.