Dance Battle

**Dance battles**, also known as **dance-offs**, are an important gameplay mechanic in Ooblets. They can be held against wild Ooblets to acquire their seeds, NPCs to progress certain story beats, or trainers in the Dance Barn to win tournaments and prizes.

## Mechanics

### Initiating Dance Battles

Dance battles against wild Ooblets are initiated by offering them the items they request; different species of Ooblet require different items. Teams can consist of several different types and amounts of Ooblets, but only the "team leader" needs to be appeased.

Dance battles in the Dance Barn are accessed by interacting with the tournament sheet on the small table, and dance battles against NPCs in other regions are generally accessed by working through Tinstle Tasks and/or interacting with NPCs. (Outside of the Dance Barn, once an NPC has been defeated, you cannot challenge them again.)

To enter into battle against a team, you must select an equal number of Ooblets from your Follow Babies to fill out your own team. The Ooblets you select will determine which signature move cards you have access to during the battle.

### Cards, Beats, & Points

Both teams take turns, always starting with the player's team. On their turn, a team draws a set amount of random cards from their deck. They also get a set number of "beats" per turn. Different cards cost different amounts of beats to play. The team can play as many cards from their hand as they want, and in any order, provided they have the required beats. Once they choose to end their turn, any remaining beats are lost, and all cards are reshuffled into the deck. To win a battle, a team must reach the designated number of points before their opponent.

The number of beats per turn, cards per hand, and point goal depend on the number of Ooblets participating in the battle.

### Other Terminology

#### Deck

The **deck** refers to the total collection of cards available to you: basic moves, signature moves, club moves (if any), and trepidation (if any).

#### Hand

The **hand** refers to your current pool of moves drawn from your deck. As soon as you use a move in your hand, it reenters your deck. Certain signature moves can change hand size.

#### Hype

**Hype** is a status effect that appears as a flame in an orange circle next to the hyped team's point bar. Hype increases the number of points gained by all of the team's moves by 1 point per hype. There is no limit to hype gain. Gaining hype early on allows you to gain more points more quickly over the course of the battle.

#### Fluster

**Fluster** is a status effect that appears as a downwards arrow in a green circle next to the flustered team's point bar. Fluster decreases the number of points gained by 1 point per fluster. There is no limit to fluster gain. Being able to block, remove, or otherwise counteract fluster is important because otherwise you may wind up with a team unable to gain points at all.

Hype and fluster counteract each other but do not remove each other; a team with an equal amount of hype and fluster will still display both in the status bar.

#### Stun

**Stun** is a status effect that appears as small yellow stars surrounding the stunned Ooblet, along with a red circle indicating the number of turns the Oooblet is stunned. Stunning an Ooblet prevents them from performing any signature moves for the duration of the stun. If all Ooblets on a team are stunned (and/or warming up), that team will be unable to perform any moves whatsoever, essentially skipping their turn.

#### Warm-Up

**Warm-up** is a requirement of certain signature moves. Essentially, because the cards tend to have a powerful effect for their beat cost, the Ooblet must spend between 1-4 turns (depending on the move) preparing to use the move before the move can be used.

While warming up, an Ooblet will not be able to use any other signature moves and will be surrounded by a blue glow with a blue circle that indicates the number of warm-up turns remaining. Other signature moves can increase or decrease warm-up periods, and stunning a warming-up Ooblet stops the warm-up and cancels the warming-up move. If all Ooblets on a team are warming-up (and/or stunned), the team cannot play any other moves.

#### Trepidation

**Trepidation** is a status effect inflicted by certain moves that replaces some cards in the target team's deck with useless "trepidation" cards. Because the afflicted team could draw these useless cards into their hand, it can decrease the amount of moves that a team can use in a turn, or at least reduce the team's options.

### Ending a Battle

As soon as a team reaches the point goal, the dance battle ends. **Winning** a dance battle awards all participating Ooblets on the winning team experience points. If the battle was against wild Ooblets, you will have the opportunity to receive a seed matching the species and rarity of the team leader. You cannot challenge the Ooblets again whether or not you choose to receive a seed. If the battle was in the Dance Barn, you will receive a different reward (wishies or the daily prize, depending on the tier).

**Losing** a battle awards all team members a much smaller amount of experience. If battling a wild Ooblet, you will not have the opportunity to receive a seed. (You can challenge the Ooblets again by leaving and reentering the region to make them reappear, but you will need another set of the items they want.) If battling in the Dance Barn, you lose the tournament and cannot try again for that day.

If a battle goes on too long, it will automatically end after each team has taken 9 turns. (A warning will be given after the player's 7th turn.) The team with the most points at the end of the final round wins. If both teams have the same number of points, the battle ends in a **draw**, which counts as a loss for the player. Battles can be **forfeit** at any time, which will also count as a loss.

### Special Situations

#### Zero is the Minimum

Whether by stealing, stacking fluster, or using a move that reduces points, it is impossible to drive a team into negative points. The lowest point value a team can have is always 0.

Stealing cannot steal more points from a team than that team has. If a move can steal 6 points and the targeted team has 2 points, they will only lose 2 points, and the other team will only gain 2 points.

If a team has a higher fluster value than the normal value of points earned by a card, they will not lose points but will not gain any, either.

#### Moves that Cost Points

Using certain signature moves will reduce your own points in exchange for some other kind of benefit. Hype and fluster do not affect the point losses from these moves. Examples include Hermble's signature moves. Even if a team had 5 hype or 5 fluster, Hermble's Hokeyokay would still cause Hermble's team to lose 10 points.

Again, you cannot go below 0 points. This makes cards that lose points essentially harmless if you currently have no points.

#### Moves with High Beat Costs

Some moves cost more beats to use than you normally have. For these moves, you need to utilize cards that either earn beats or decrease beat cost. A popular choice is Fleeble's Miniscule Medley, which decreases all beat costs to 1 for the current turn. There are many other options, such as Gullysplot, Whirlitzer, Wuddlin, and more.

#### Unusual Move Effects

Not all signature and club moves have normal effects or are useful in battle.

An example of an unusual move is Kingwa's Divine Sleight. Divine Sleight causes the opponent's team to have point gains and losses reversed during their turn and is the only move with this status effect. The status is indicated by a blue and pink circle containing a plus sign and a minus sign in the hype/fluster status bar. If a team affected by Divine Sleight attempts to steal, both teams will lose points.

Some signature moves (and one club move) have cosmetic effects only. If a signature move causes a cosmetic change to your Ooblets (shrinking or enlarging them), the effect disappears after the dance battle ends. Shrinking or enlarging an Ooblet has no effect on the battle itself.

If a signature move causes a cosmetic change to a character (enlarging heads, making arms wiggly, or shrinking), the change disappears after one in-game day. For some character cosmetic changes, the effect length can stack, meaning having your head swollen 4 times in one battle will cause the head enlargement to last 4 days.

Certain signature moves are used only to gain items. Items will be placed directly into your inventory, and you will keep them even if you lose the battle.

Some moves can only be used a certain numbers of times per day. For example, Puffed Disrupt, which spawns a gleamy in the current region, is limited to once per day. (With a good combination of beat-affecting moves, Sidekey's Finite Loop can get around this limitation and play one Puffed Disrupt card twice in a row to spawn two gleamies.)

## Dance Moves

### Basic Moves

Basic, or normal, cards always have a chance to appear in your deck regardless of which Ooblets are being used. Opponents have their own basic deck with opponent-only moves. The player's default deck (before any Signature Moves, Club Moves, or Trepidation) consists of 10 cards:

* Lil Lindy x3
* Gavotte Trot x2
* Flip Floss x1
* Takey Tap Tap x1
* One Step Pep x1
* Rhythm & Grow x1
* Rig-A-Jig x1

*\*This card only appears in the deck of a team afflicted by the trepidation status.*

### Signature Moves

Each Ooblet has a unique set of three cards that can appear in the deck when participating in a dance battle. Ooblets start out with access to one signature move and learn the remaining two at level 3 and 6 respectively.

The following table of all Ooblets' signature moves may contain late-game spoilers.

### Club Moves

Each Ooblet club sells two unique single-use moves for club tokens. Once used, a club move is removed from the deck. The player can own up to three club move cards at a time.

### Opponent-Only Moves

Some moves are only usable by wild Ooblets and NPCs. The first five are weaker versions of certain standard moves and appear primarily in earlier regions. The latter five each correspond to a later region and are primarily used by opponents in those regions.