Instant Wins



In some cases, when you get into a fight with a weak enemy, you automatically win without going into battle. This is based on your speed, offense, and status. Only the chosen four matter for this; NPCs such as Flying Man are not counted.



You can't instantly win in a red swirl or in a fight triggered by dialogue (such as a boss fight). If the number of enemies is greater than the number of characters who aren't unconscious, diamondized, paralyzed, nauseous, poisoned, possession, mushroomization and don't have a sunstroke or a cold you can't instantly win.



In a black swirl, the highest speed among enemies is compared to the lowest speed among your current party members (even if unconscious). Each enemy's HP+defense is then compared to the lowest offense among your current party members (even if unconscious). If your party's stats are greater (not equal) in both cases, you instantly win the fight.



In a green swirl, your characters who do not suffer from the aforementioned statuses are sorted by offense in descending order, and the enemies are sorted by HP in descending order. In turn, each character "attacks" the first enemy which is still "alive", dealing exactly 2*offense-defense "damage". If every enemy is "killed" this way, you instantly win the fight.









Item Drops



When you enter a battle (or after YOU WIN! appears on an instant win), an enemy is chosen at random, and then that enemy may or may not decide to drop an item, with probability depending on the enemy. Since the item drop is decided before the battle begins, enemies summoned/called to help cannot drop anything.



If you spy on any enemy, you will always pick up the predetermined item (if there is one), regardless of who is actually spied on. If Jeff's inventory is full, however, not only will Jeff neglect to collect the item, but the game will not indicate that there is an item to pick up.



If a Cute Li'l UFO or Beautiful UFO is present in battle and no item would be dropped otherwise, an item is randomly chosen from a list of 7. This item will always drop. If both enemies are present, the Beautiful UFO drops an item. This obviously doesn't matter, since those two enemies will never appear in the same region.

- Cute Li'l UFO: Cookie, Bag of fries, Hamburger, Boiled egg, Fresh Egg, Picnic lunch, Pizza

- Beautiful UFO: Can of fruit juice, Royal iced tea, Protein drink, Kraken soup, Bottle of water, Cold remedy, Vial of serum









Turn Order



At the beginning of each turn, each character has their speed adjusted by +/- 50% to determine the turn order. In the case of a tie, later characters act first, and enemies act before allies. If an enemy tries to steal, they will always act last.









Auto Fight



Paula and Jeff will always attack a random enemy. If Ness/Poo is not feeling strange or unable to concentrate, he will attempt to use PSI if applicable. The possible PSI commands for Ness and Poo in Auto Fight are used in the following priority order. As soon as an action is reached which is possible and fits the conditions, it is used and the rest are not considered. If both Ness and Poo use PSI, they will not target the same character. Lifeup Omega isn't considered to target anyone for this purpose. When more than one character can be targeted, the character with the lowest absolute HP has priority. A character is considered to be at low HP if his/her HP is less than 1/4 of maximum.



1. Lifeup Omega if more than one PC is alive and all have low HP

2. Lifeup gamma on someone with low HP

3. Lifeup beta on someone with low HP

4. Lifeup alpha on someone with low HP

5. Healing Omega on an unconscious character

6. Healing gamma on a paralyzed character

7. Healing gamma on a diamondized character

8. Healing gamma on an unconscious character

9. Healing beta on a poisoned character

10. Healing beta on a nauseated character

11. Healing beta on a crying character

12. Healing beta on a character who is feeling strange

13. Healing alpha on a character with a cold

14. Healing alpha on a character with sunstroke

15. Healing alpha on a sleeping character



If none of these options are available, Ness/Poo will attack a random enemy.









Run Away



The probability of successfully running away from a fight is (highest speed among PCs - highest speed among enemies + 10*turn number)%. Some enemies prevent you from running away regardless of your speed.









Avoiding mortal damage:



If an ally has more than 1 HP and is dealt damage that would kill you, the probability of surviving with 1 HP instead is guts/500 or 1/20, whichever is greater. Enemies can't use guts to survive otherwise mortal damage, but NPCs can.



If only one PC is alive when the last enemy dies, and that enemy has a damaging final action (such as bursting into flames), that damage will set the character's HP to 1, even if it wouldn't otherwise kill him. This is mostly irrelevant, since the battle will end before this will matter.



Everyone's HP stops decreasing at the beginning of the last enemy's death text (or when the game declares that you've successfully run from a battle), and increases back to 1 if it's at 0 (for those that are still alive). If anyone is recovering health at one of these times, their HP will keep increasing to the proper value, at an accelerated rate.









Calling for help



The odds of help arriving is (maximum number of enemy type - number of enemy type)/(maximum number of enemy type) * 205/256. (205/256 is probably an approximation of 4/5.) If the enemy being called doesn't exist in the current formation, help will not arrive. This is why there are formations with 0 of an enemy (such as 1 Skate Punk, 0 Pogo Punk, 0 Yes Man Junior).









Enemies running from you



Enemies will run away from you out of battle under the following circumstances:



- Some event flag is set (because a sanctuary boss was killed): always

- Sum of your levels > enemy's level*10: always

- Sum of your levels > enemy's level*8: 75%

- Sum of your levels > enemy's level*6: 50%









General note about randomness



Whenever numbers are adjusted by +/- 25% or +/- 50%, the result follows a pyramid-shaped distribution. The number is more likely to be near the middle of the range than near either end, when considering intervals of equal length.



