Battle Basics

## Turns

Battles are turn-based, meaning all allies on a player's team will act, followed by a turn where all enemies will act. The player may select a Normal Attack or an Arte for their turn. While Normal Attacks are always available, most Artes will have a cooldown which requires the player to wait to use the Arte again until a certain number of turns has passed. Mystic Artes may also be available, which can be used in conjunction and will not take a turn by themselves.

Each turn may come with effects such as those activated by a Character's Max Skill or those activated by a Memoria Stone's skill. Status effects may cause damage during the turn as well.

## Hit

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The amount of Hits a Character will do is based off of the selected attack. Most Artes will hit multiple times, while most Normal Attacks will hit once, though these are not always the case. It is to the player's benefit to hit an enemy as many times as possible for an attack bonus.

The damage bonus is 10% per 10 hits, but increases to 20% per 10 hits after 30 hits is achieved. The bonus appears to increase at intervals above this, as shown below, up to 999 hits maximum. The number of hits will reset each turn.

## Over Limit (OL) Gauge

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The Over Limit gauge determines when a Mystic Arte can be activated. A Mystic Arte does not cost a turn to activate and will do additional damage, add to the hit count, and possibly activate additional effects.

Various actions will increase the Over Limit gauge besides simply attacking, including using an element the enemy is weak to, activating a critical hit, depleting an enemy's BREAK gauge, or simply defeating an enemy. In addition, OL may be granted by specific skills. For more information on specific OL increases, see the OL Gauge page.

## Elements

Elements will affect damage given and damage received in battle. Elemental damage gives a 50% bonus.

When using a stronger element, the player will do more damage against an enemy and take less damage from them. Conversely, when using a weaker element, the player will do less damage against an enemy and take more damage from them.

Light and Dark are special cases, which are both strong and weak against one another. This means the player will always do more damage if they are the opposing element, but they will also take more damage as a result.

Neutral element enemies will receive no bonuses or detriments.

## BREAK Gauge

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An enemy's BREAK gauge will activate when an enemy attempts to use a strong attack. All actions taken by allies that deal damage will help to decrease the BREAK gauge, as well as any additional skill effects from Memoria Stone or Character skills. It is imperative to empty the BREAK gauge as quickly as possible so that an enemy will not activate the skill.

Additionally, if a BREAK gauge is emptied, the enemy will be given the BREAK status effect. This status effect will temporarily prevent the enemy from taking an action. Every attack dealt during the BREAK will cause critical damage, allowing the enemy to be defeated faster.

## Status Effects

Both player actions and enemy actions can cause status effects. Status effects can be both beneficial and detrimental to a Character, depending on which effect. See Status Effects for the current list of status effects.

Many Artes and Mystic Artes have additional effects that may inflict detrimental status effects on enemies or beneficial effects on allies. See Status Effect Artes for a list of those that can. Certain beneficial status effects such as Attack Up or Defense Up may also be cast as Artes by certain Characters. See Buff Artes for a list. Additionally, Memoria Skills or Character Max Skills may also give beneficial status effects during a battle.

Detrimental status effects may only be cured by special Recover abilities, such as the one used by Kohaku [Sparkling in Battle]. Using a Memoria Skill that resists a status effect is the most efficient way to avoid the skill's effect should an enemy afflict one.