Combo

In Monster Sanctuary, **Combo** plays a crucial role in combat as a key mechanic. Each action a Monster takes during battle results in a certain number of "hits." This includes damage, heals, shields and Buffs from active skills.

For every hit generated by a Monster's action, the next Monster's damaging action receives a cumulative 5% boost. The current Combo and damage multiplier are conveniently displayed at the top left or right, depending on the player's facing direction in battle. Opposing Monsters in wild battles, Champion battles and the Infinity Arena do not benefit from the Combo mechanic.

Combo can be stacked as high as you can push the Combo Meter. For instance, if your first Monster lands 10 hits, the next Monster's attack receives a 50% boost. Should that Monster then achieve another 10 hits, the third Monster's attack gets an impressive 100% boost! To maximize damage output, it is advisable for your first two Monsters to concentrate on building high Combo counts, enabling the third Monster to unleash a substantial amount of damage. One effective strategy is to start with Non-damaging actions or high hit count attacks using the first two Monsters, and then use the third Monster's strongest attack.

The Combo Meter resets at the end of every turn, so you need to use it or lose it! As such, it is highly recommended to (in most cases) use a Damaging action at least once every turn, ideally as close to the end as possible; otherwise, all the Combo you built will go to waste. At the end of the battle, additional points are added to the Execution score, determined by how effectively the first two acting Monsters pump the Combo Meter. The more hits achieved, the higher the final score.

## Additional Hits

Some passive skills, such as Attack Proc, Combo Healing, and Combo Buffing, can increase the base hit count of an action. However, these passives only add Combo when used with the corresponding action type. For example, Mentor, a passive that provides 2 Buffs, increases the Combo Meter by 2 only if the action used was a Buffing action, such as Helping Hand. Notably, not all passives that give heals, shields, or Buffs generate Combo. For instance, Bolster, a passive that works similar to Mentor, does not add any Combo, regardless of whether a Healing Buffing action is used.

When using a multi-target action, additional hits that trigger only once per action will target Monsters based on the action type, which is as follows:
* Damaging actions target the Monster with the highest Health percentage.
* Healing or Shielding actions target the Monster with the lowest Health percentage.
* Buffing actions target a random Monster.

Additional hits also inherit the properties of the used action and contribute to the hit count of the active skill. Below are some examples of this interaction:
* Using Leaf Slash causes additional hits to deal physical Earth damage and cannot be dodged.
* Healing from Defense Healing and Power Healing can be affected by Critical Healing.
* Shielding from Combo Shielding and Situational Support will ***always*** trigger Load Up (despite being passive skills) if a Shielding action is used.
* Damage, healing, and shielding from the passives mentioned above are also boosted by Overcast and Cascade if their corresponding action type are used.
* Since Blessed Strikes applies its Buff before the attack, Combo Buffing and Holy Presence would also do the same.

The order in which additional hits trigger is determined by their priority bracket. Hits within the same priority bracket follow the sequence in which the skills were acquired in the Skill Tree (or the position of the Monster in the case of Auras). The priority brackets for damaging hits are listed below. Double Strike is the only damaging hit not listed as it can trigger any time after a non-Double Strike hit.
1. Sidekick
2. Equipment trigger, such as Bow
3. Shadow Proc, Combo Initiator, Chain Reaction, Double Impact, Volatile Shield
4. Attack Proc, Magic Proc, Defense Proc, Health Proc, Mana Proc, Attack Mastery, Spell Mastery, Glorious Spark, Pecking Order
5. Shock
6. Critical Hybridization, Antipode, Flash Freeze, Proliferate, Punishment

* Active Skills
* Passive Skills
* Ultimate Skills
* Status Effects
* Shift Passives
* Equipment

Adds combo when using a Shielding action
 Combo Shielding | Upon using a Shield action, additionally Shield an ally with the lowest Shield by 50% of this Monster's Defense.

Skills with additional hits

Adds combo when using a Damaging action

Adds combo when using a Damaging action

Adds combo when using a Healing action

Adds combo when using a Shielding action

Adds combo when using a Buffing action

### Weapons

Adds combo when using a Damaging action

Adds combo when using a Healing action

  Warhorn+1

  Warhorn+2

  Warhorn+3

  Warhorn+4

  Warhorn+5

Adds combo when using a Buffing action

### Accessories

Adds combo when using a Buffing action

  Grey Stone+1

  Grey Stone+2

  Grey Stone+3

  Grey Stone+4

  Grey Stone+5

### Unique Interaction

The Restoring Wand and Pure Leaf have a unique interaction when using healing items. Normally, these equipment do not generate any Combo. However, when using single-target healing items, both equipment always generate Combo, and when using multi-target healing items, they only generate Combo if there are Debuffs present. This interaction does not affect Small Antidotes, Antidotes and Mass Antidotes. It is unclear if this unique interaction is intentional.