Introduction This a guide on some of the mechanics in Berseria. It's by no means comprehensive. I tried to include mainly things that aren't explained directly in the game, and things that people may find useful. The majority of the information is compiled from Bandai Namco's Official Complete guide. I originally wrote the guide in google documents, and then later decided to post it on gamefaqs, so fingers crossed that I didn't mess anything up in the process. Send me a PM (@cb220) if you notice anything out of place.

Difficulty Settings There are 6 difficulty settings: simple, normal, moderate, hard, evil, chaos. From the start of the game you can select any of these except for evil and chaos. You'll unlock evil and chaos by completing certain hunts. Some of the potentites will only have an effect when you're above a certain difficulty. Also, if you play on simple enemies will have no elemental/species weaknesses or strengths. All the other differences between the modes can be seen in the chart below. Subject of Change Simple Normal Moderate Hard Evil Chaos Enemy Level 0.8x 1x 1.1x 1.2x 1.3x 1.5x Enemy HP 1x 1x 1.2x 1.4x 1.6x 2x Enemy Attack 0.5x 1x 1.2x 1.4x 1.6x 2x Enemy Arte Attack 0.5x 1x 1.2x 1.3x 1.5x 1.8x Enemy Defense 0.9x 1x 1x 1.2x 1.3x 1.5x Enemy Arte Defense 0.9x 1x 1x 1.2x 1.3x 1.5x Enemy Focus 0.5x 1x 1.25x 1.5x 1.75x 2x Enemy cast time 1.5x 1x 0.9x 0.8x 0.7x 0.5x Enemy idle time after attacking 2x 1x 0.9x 0.8x 0.7x 0.5x Damage adjustment when using an element that enemy is strong against N/A 0.5x 0.4x 0.3x 0.2x 0.1x Effectiveness of heals received from allies 1.5x 1x 0.9x 0.6x 0.4x 0.2x Item use cooldown time 2s 4s 5s 8s 10s 16s % of blast gauge kept after dying 100% 50% 30% 20% 10% 0% Increased enemy idle time per allied death (*) 0.16s 0.08s 0.03s 0.016s 0s 0s Increased enemy idle time per retry (**) 0.16s 0.1s 0.03s 0s 0s 0s Experience gain 1.2x 1x 0.95x 0.8x 0.7x 0.6x Hit bonus experience modifier 0x 1x 1.2x 1.5x 2x 4x Gald earned 0.8x 1x 1.1x 1.2x 1.3x 1.4x * Every time one of your characters dies in battle the enemies will have a longer idle time between their attacks. Only applies up to 4 times. ** Every time you get a game over and retry the fight the enemies will have a longer idle time between their attacks. Only applies up to 2 times.

Treasure Chests There are three types of treasures chests: bronze, silver and gold. Treasures chests follow some rules: The first time you open a chest the contents are not random. After opening a treasure chest, once you've zoned between four different areas there is a 50% chance of the chest refilling. Each treasure chest has a given level (unfortunately, I don't know the level of all of the chests). Here's the specific details on each chest type: Type First opening Refilled Opening Bronze Mainly materials/gald/items Random material/item from the range [Chest level - 10] ~ [Chest level]. However, shark bottles, hourglass, soul bottle, and the two teleport type bottles won't drop. Silver Base equipment (regular equipment that can be obtained from many different enemies) Random base equipment from the range [Chest level - 10](if < 5, then 5) to [Chest level](if < 10, then 10). However, equipment types for a character you don't currently have will not drop. Gold Unique equipment (rare equipment that can only be obtained from chests and specific enemies) Random unique equipment from the range [Chest level - 5](if < 5, then 5) to [Chest level + 5](if < 10, then 10). However, equipment types for a character you don't currently have will not drop. White (EX Dungeon only) Random consumable, base equipment, or unique equipment. Some of the equipment from these chests cannot be obtained anywhere else. Random, just like first opening. The chests will respawn when you re-enter the dungeon.

Herbs There are 118 herbs in the game. The herb that you'll harvest at each location is always the same. Herbs can respawn. At the start of the game all 118 herbs are spawned. Once you've picked enough herbs such that the total number of herbs currently spawned is less than 50, a random already-picked herb will respawn every time you pick a new herb.

Katz Spheres Katz Spheres respawn every time you re-enter a zone. They'll also always be in the same locations within the zone. For the most part they are used to open the Katz Chests, but they also have various uses in the EX dungeon.

Stats and Leveling Here's what each of the stats do: Stat Description Cap HP -- Maxes at 9999. BG -- Maxes at 9. SG -- Max starting SG is 5, max total SG is 8. Attack Increases the damage of Martial Artes, Hidden Artes, Break Souls, Mystic Artes, and Switch Blasts. Cap is 1999 (from level ups and herbs) Arte Attack Increases the damage of Malak Artes, Hidden Artes, Break Souls, Mystic Artes, and Break Artes. Affects healing amount. Cap is 1999 (from level ups and herbs) Defense Reduces damage taken from Martial Artes, Hidden Artes, Break Souls, and Mystic Artes. Cap is 1999 (from level ups and herbs) Arte Defense Reduces damage taken from Malak Artes, Hidden Artes, Break Souls, and Mystic Artes. Affects healing amount received. Cap is 1999 (from level ups and herbs) Focus Increases SG recovery rate as well as increasing the chance of chance based effects occurring (like stun). Cap is 1999 (from level ups and herbs) Here's the gains to each stat per level: Character HP Attack Arte Attack Defense Arte Defense Focus Velvet 66 2.44 2.44 2.85 1.63 2.85 Rokurou 70 2.75 1.97 3.15 1.97 1.97 Laphicet 54 1.81 3.17 2.26 3.62 2.72 Eizen 64 2.48 2.48 1.65 2.48 3.31 Magilou 58 2.18 3.49 2.62 3.05 1.75 Eleanor 62 3.37 1.68 2.53 2.53 2.53 * Above values only apply to level 1~60. From 61~100 the values are halved. From 101~200 the values are 1/4 of what is shown in the chart.

Enhancing Equipment You can enhance equipment up to a maximum of +10 (to begin with you can only do up to +3 but as you progress you'll eventually be able to do up to +10). Every time you enhance a piece of equipment one thing that happens is it's stats will go up: +Lvl +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +10 Total +Stat +8 +8 +8 +8 +8 +10 +12 +12 +12 +14 +100 If the piece of equipment has one stat, it will gain the full benefit as shown above. If the equipment has two stats the bonus shown above will be split between them (for example, when the bonus is +8 the main stat will get +6 and the secondary will get +2). Another thing that happens when you enhance equipment is the unlocking and strengthening of the enhancement bonus skills. The first enhancement bonus skill will definitely unlock when you level your equipment to +1, the second enhancement bonus will randomly unlock at one of the levels. The rarer the equipment, the less likely it is for the second enhancement bonus to unlock, however it will definitely unlock by the time the equipment is +10. Every time you enhance your equipment the first enhancement bonus skill will get stronger, but the second skill will always stay the same. The enhancement bonuses will always be the same for all equipment that have the same name, unlike random skills. Furthermore, there are potentites that give you bonuses depending on how highly leveled your gear is. It counts the levels across all of your gear pieces, so since each piece can go to +10 and you have 5 pieces of gear, you can get up to +50 in total. Here's the bonuses: Total level of gear Bonus available from potentite 5 +1 Max BG 10 HP regen while not participating in combat +50% 15 +1 Max BG 20 +1 Max Soul 25 +1 Base Soul 30 +1 Max Soul 35 +1 Max BG 40 +1 Max Soul 45 +1 Base Soul 50 SG costs are halved Here are the necessary ingredients to level up equipment: Level Ingredients needed Gald cost For 'base' equipment For 'unique' equipment 1 Base ingredient (x1) -- Base ingredient (x1) -- Shop cost x 0.1 2 Base ingredient (x2) -- Base ingredient (x2) -- Shop cost x 0.2 3 Base ingredient (x3) Coarse Tempering Powder (x1) Base ingredient (x3) Odorless Fluid (x5) Shop cost x 0.4 4 Base ingredient (x4) Coarse Tempering Powder (x2) Base ingredient (x4) Balmy Fluid (x10) Shop cost x 0.8 5 Base ingredient (x6) Coarse Tempering Powder (x4) Base ingredient (x6) Coarse Tempering Powder (x10) Shop cost x 1 6 Base ingredient (x8) Standard Tempering Powder (x1) Base ingredient (x8) Mellow Fluid (x10) Shop cost x 2 7 Base ingredient (x10) Standard Tempering Powder (x2) Base ingredient (x10) Standard Tempering Powder (x10) Shop cost x 4 8 Base ingredient (x12) Standard Tempering Powder (x4) Base ingredient (x12) Pungent Fluid (x10) Shop cost x 6 9 Base ingredient (x14) Fine Tempering Powder (x2) Base ingredient (x14) Fine Tempering Powder (x10) Shop cost x 12 10 Base ingredient (x16) Fine Tempering Powder (x4) Base ingredient (x16) Funky Fluid (x10) Shop cost x 40 And here's a chart for what you get when you dismantle equipment: Names of ingredients are just rough translations for now, since the ENG version isn't out at the time of writing this. Once it comes out feel free to PM me (cb220 @ gamefaqs) the actual names and I'll fix them. Level Ingredients obtained 0 Base ingredient (x1) -- 1 Base ingredient (x2) Coarse Tempering Powder (x1) 2 Base ingredient (x3) Coarse Tempering Powder (x2) 3 Base ingredient (x4) Coarse Tempering Powder (x3) 4 Base ingredient (x5) Standard Tempering Powder (x1) 5 Base ingredient (x6) Standard Tempering Powder (x2) 6 Base ingredient (x7) Standard Tempering Powder (x3) 7 Base ingredient (x8) Fine Tempering Powder (x1) 8 Base ingredient (x9) Fine Tempering Powder (x2) 9 Base ingredient (x10) Fine Tempering Powder (x3) 10 Base ingredient (x11) Sovereign Acerite (x1) You also get ingredients based on the random skills the equipment has: Random skill Ingredients obtained None Odorless Fluid (x1) Rank 1 Balmy Fluid (x # of skills) Rank 2 Mellow Fluid (x # of skills) Rank 3 Pungent Fluid (x # of skills) Rank 4 Funky Fluid (x # of skills) All the numbers listed above are WITHOUT the potentite that doubles the amount of ingredients you get when dismantling +1 or higher equipment. A few things in the charts might need some explanation. What is the Sovereign Acerite? By having this potentite it becomes possible for enhancement bonus skills (only the second slot ones, though) to appear as random skills. This will only occur on equipment that you've gotten to +10 before, though. I don't have any concrete numbers on how much the chances increase, but I did test it for a while with 99 Sovereign Acerites, and it honestly didn't seem like a great chance. I do have a bit of an explanation on the chances in the random skills section of this guide, but it's still not very concrete (though, I think it does prove that the chances are pretty bad even with 99 Sovereign Acerites).

By having this potentite it becomes possible for enhancement bonus skills (only the second slot ones, though) to appear as random skills. This will only occur on equipment that you've gotten to +10 before, though. I don't have any concrete numbers on how much the chances increase, but I did test it for a while with 99 Sovereign Acerites, and it honestly didn't seem like a great chance. I do have a bit of an explanation on the chances in the random skills section of this guide, but it's still not very concrete (though, I think it does prove that the chances are pretty bad even with 99 Sovereign Acerites). What are the random skill ranks about? So, when you get a random skill, let's use +Attack as an example, it will randomly have different magnitudes. A rank 1 +Attack gives +5 Attack, rank 2 is +8, rank 3 is +15, rank 4 is +40.

Grade Shop Title Bonuses There is a Grade Shop option that makes it so your titles give you additional permanent stat bonuses each time your character levels up. Usually, there's a trade off (like, you'll gain an extra 3 Arte Attack each time you level, but you'll actually get 1 less Attack than you usually would). By looking at the titles with the Grade Shop option active you can get a quick glance at the trade offs you'll be making since they'll show upward facing arrows for bonuses, and downward facing arrows for penalties. The more arrows, the larger the effect. Furthermore, the higher ranked the title is, the larger the effect (for both bonuses and penalties). Just seeing arrows makes things a little vague, though, so here's the numbers: Arrows Stat change Rank 1 title Rank 2 title Rank 3 title 3 up +2.4 +2.7 +3 2 up +1.6 +1.8 +2 1 up +0.8 +0.9 +1 1 down -0.8 -0.9 -1

Random Skills There's actually not too much to say here that isn't already explained in game. There isn't much mystery to skills in this game (there are NO double or triple skills like in Zestiria). I think there's two things that people want to know about random skills:

Which skills will I get? As you go through the game you'll get glacites that will unlock the ability for different random skills to spawn on your equipment. Until you have those, certain skills won't appear (if I remember correctly a number of these came from optional things, so in theory you could limit your skill pool by avoiding optional ones that unlock skills you don't want). Besides having the glacite to unlock the ability to get those skills, some skills are also limited by what difficulty you're on. Apparently enemy level also limits the options. Skills also have ranks. A rank 1 +Attack gives +5 Attack, rank 2 is +8, rank 3 is +15, rank 4 is +40. You'll need certain potentites to unlock the ability to get higher ranked skills. The higher the difficulty you play on, the better the chances of getting higher ranked skills, as well.

How many skills will spawn? In the beginning only 1 random skill can spawn, but as you progress, certain potentites will unlock the ability to get more random skills (up to 3). The higher the difficulty you play on, the better the chances of getting more skills. Also, if the equipment is dropped from enemies, you have a better chance of getting more skills from an enemy that you've killed lots of. If the equipment is from a shop you have better chances of more skills with a higher shop rank. If the equipment is from a respawned treasure chest, your chances of getting more skills are based on the average level of the enemies in the area.

Sovereign Acerite: Finally, I'd like to make a quick note about the Sovereign Acerite that you get from dismantling +10 equipment. By having this potentite it becomes possible for enhancement bonus skills (only the second slot ones, though) to appear as random skills. This will only occur on equipment that you've gotten to +10 before, though. The official guide lists the chances in a way that is slightly vague, but I'll explain it here anyways. So basically every random skill has a set 'ease of spawning' -- the higher the value, the more likely the skill is to spawn. To give a point of reference, the most common random skills have an ease of spawning of 525 and the rarest skills have a value of 112. Now, for each Sovereign Acerite you get it makes it so that every enhancement bonus skill (only the 2nd slot ones, not the 1st slot) has +1 ease of spawning. So with 99 Sovereign Acerites the strengthening bonus skills will all have an ease of spawning value of 99, which makes them a bit rarer than the rarest regular random skills.

Shops Shops work a lot like they did in Zestiria. Consumable items at shops can be be bought as much as you want and they'll never run out. Equipment sold at shops is limited -- once you buy it all, you'll have to wait until they restock more to buy more. Generally speaking, the later in the game a shop is, the higher level equipment they'll sell. Shops also have a shop rank that increases as you buy/sell or upgrade equipment. The shop rank is shared across all the shops in the game, and as it increases you'll get a larger discount at the shops. You also receive an item as a reward for each shop level. Here's a chart showing how much money needs to pass through the shop and what you get for each rank: Item names are rough translations of the JP names. If someone wants to PM me a list of the English names on gamefaqs (cb220) I'll change them to the English names. Cumulative gald Shop Rank Item Discount % 0 1 -- -- 1000+ 2 Wanderer's Ventite 2% 19,477+ 3 Silky Touch Garment 4% 43,072+ 4 Adept's Glacite 6% 80,952+ 5 Warrior's Ventite 8% 140,626+ 6 Wizard's Ventite 10% 234,277+ 7 Colorful Waistcoat 12% 382,582+ 8 Pumper-Upper 14% 617,074+ 9 Misfortune Ward 16% 967,455+ 10 Helmut Schmidt Sash 18% 1,984,055+ 11 Haggler's Acerite 20% 3,420,555+ 12 Unnamed Ring 22% 5,117,055+ 13 Unnamed Boots 24% 8,149,305+ 14 Unnamed Boots 26% 14,503,055+ 15 Sovereign Acerite 28%

How shops restock After every 3 battles the shops will have a restock. What and how much is in the restock is random, but there are some things that affect it: For each type of equipment (weapons, character specific, armor, rings, boots) the shop can have at most 6 pieces. The less there is of a type of equipment, the greater the chances for that type to be restocked. Exactly what items will be restocked depends on the shop rank and the level of the shop itself (a hidden value, but generally higher the later the shop is in the game). However, unique equipment (stuff that has a more interesting name rather than just 'Amber Boots'), can't spawn in shops until you've obtained it from enemy drops. Also, if you don't have a character in your party, equipment that is specific to them won't spawn. If you sell a shop a piece of equipment, the shop will have a chance to spawn more equipment of the same name. The more of that equipment you sell to the shop, the higher the chance. In Zestiria there was an invisible limit of 16, past which you wouldn't see any benefit. I'm not sure if it's the same in Berseria but it seems likely. Shops can also discard some of their stock after every 3 battles. Here's some points about this: The more there is of a type of equipment, the greater the chances for pieces of that type to be discarded. Pieces of equipment that the shop has held onto longer are more likely to be discarded. If a piece wasn't discarded, it will sometimes be put on sale for half price. If an item that is on sale isn't purchased, it has a very high chance to be discarded on the next cycle.

Cooking There actually isn't too much to say about cooking that isn't apparent in game. As you gain levels in cooking you'll unlock cooking skills specific to each character that give you unique benefits to cooking. There's also a chance that you expend no ingredients when you cook, and this chance increases with your cooking level (at level 25 it's about a 50% chance). Unlike most Tales of games you don't have to battle or rest between each thing you cook, so if you're just interested in boosting your cooking levels fast you can repeatedly cook things outside of battle. Here's some charts of EXP gain and how much is needed for each level: EXP Gains: Conditions EXP gained Recipe with ingredients that are sold in shops that is not one of the characters specialties. 3 Recipe with ingredients that are sold in shops that is one of the characters specialties. 4 Recipe with ingredients that are not sold in shops that is not one of the characters specialties. 10 Recipe with ingredients that are not sold in shops that is one of the characters specialties. 12 EXP Needed per level: Level Range EXP Needed 1->2 60 2->3 100 3->19 160 (per level) 19->20 170 20->21 190 21->22 220 22->23 260 23->24 310 24->25 370

Ship Voyages With ship voyages you send out your ship, and then 30 minutes later it comes back and gives you whatever items it found. The items range from ingredients, items that can be sold for a fair bit of gald, treasures (need to collect all these for a trophy), recipes, visual items, TL coins, and unlocking new areas. On every voyage there are 3 'battles', and the more battles your crew wins (it's random), the more items they'll bring back for you. The higher your voyage level is, the better chance you have to win the battles. There are also ways to reduce the 30 minute return timer: Some skills will reduce the timer (I'll explain more about skills in a moment).

Each battle you fight while they crew is on a voyage reduces the timer by 30 seconds.

The time continues to progress even when you're not playing the game because it relies on the PS4's clock. You can abuse this by setting the clock forward after sending the crew out on a voyage, allowing them to come back instantly. There are special voyage skills, as well. For every treasure the crew finds (there is one treasure per island), you unlock a voyage skill. Whenever your crew returns from a voyage you'll randomly activate a skill that will be in effect when you send the crew out on their next voyage. These skills are things like reducing the voyage time, or increasing the chance to find more items. Each skill has a party member attached to it, and if a party member is separated from the party for story reasons, skills that are related to that party member won't appear. If you've progressed the game past Mount Killaraus and your voyage skill level is 15 or higher, the next time your crew comes back from a voyage they'll bring a sighting report of terror island. If you follow the subevent that starts with this, you'll be able to go to Normin island. Finally, here's some charts showing EXP gains and how much EXP is necessary for each voyage level: EXP Gains per voyage: Gap between island's required level and current voyage level EXP Gained 0 22 1 19 2 17 3 14 4 12 5 10 6+ 8 EXP Needed per voyage level: Level Range EXP Needed 1->20 100 (per level) 20->21 120 21->22 160 22->23 340 23->24 500 24->25 820

Quick Fishing Bait Not really a mechanic, but a useful tip. If you need some more fishing bait try the loot spots in the shrine area of the Tranquil Woods. These spots seem to have a very high chance of being the top level fishing bait, and they'll often give 3 of the baits in one go. I tried opening 20 of these and 9 of them were the top level fishing bait. I know that's a small sample size, but clearly the drop rate is quite high.

Velvet's Break Soul I'm only covering Velvet's and Magilou's Break Souls because they have some special mechanics that aren't really explained in game. Velvet's Break Soul has her undergo a transformation. While she's in this state she gets various bonuses depending on the species of enemy she hit with the Break Soul before transforming. In this form she can't be staggered (except by guard break attacks), and can't be hit with status ailments (also, when she transforms, any status ailments she had are erased). While in this form she will slowly lose HP, but the pace at which she loses HP increases every 4 seconds, maxing out after 12 seconds. However, on any mode above simple she will take double the damage in this form. When the mode is cancelled (either through reaching 1 HP, or using an arte past your combo limit) she'll release a Break Arte that changes depending on what species of enemy she hit with the Break Soul before transforming. If the enemy she hits has multiple species, it'll choose the furthest left species on the list. Also, if the species is 'unknown', it'll pick a species at random. Of special note is that she can't actually die in this form. An enemy can knock her HP down to 1 point, but that will just cancel the mode and not actually kill her. This is actually very powerful when you have a steady supply of souls coming in (lots of stuns, or killing monsters quickly, for example) since it makes her essentially invincible since you can just keep using Break Soul to transform again every time you're reduced to 1 HP. There is a trophy for using everyone's Break Soul, and it includes all of Velvet's Break Artes that change based on the species hit.

Magilou's Break Soul I'm only covering Velvet's and Magilou's Break Souls because they have some special mechanics that aren't really explained in game. For the most part, Magilou's Break Soul is explained well enough in game, but I think everybody wonders how to determine what Break Arte will come out when she fills up the gauge. Well, it's not actually random. Basically, she'll eventually have 7 different Break Artes that can come out, and they're ranked from 1-7. Generally speaking, they'll come out in order of their rank (so the first time she fills the gauge it'll release the rank 1 Break Arte, the second time she fills the gauge it'll be the rank 2 Break Arte, and so forth). The ordering is saved across battles, but if you load a save the ordering starts again from rank 1. However, you CAN skip a rank if you overfill the gauge by enough to fill the NEXT rank's gauge as well. This can easily happen if you're blocking a bunch of spells at once with her Break Soul. Once you've used the highest rank Break Arte available to you it loops back around to rank 1. Another thing you can do is use a dash right after using your Break Soul that would have filled the gauge to max. When you do this, Magilou won't actually cast a Break Arte, so she won't use up any of her gauge. If you continue to do this, and keep track of the enemy spells you're cancelling you can dictate exactly what spell you'll release. For example, you could just keep building straight up to Tetra Detonator (the rank 7 Break Arte) by using a dash after every Break Soul until you reach 54 or more gauge points (54+ is the cumulative amount needed to release Tetra Detonator if you were starting from rank 1). Why do this, though? Well basically you give up the damage of releasing all the Break Artes leading up to Tetra Detonator, but it pays off in the long run. Like, suppose you built up to 70 gauge, and then allowed Tetra Detonator to go off; it costs 12 gauge, so now you're at 58 gauge, so the next time you absorb a spell you'll release another Tetra Detonator since you're still above the 54 cumulative gauge needed. Basically, as long as you keep yourself above 54 gauge (either through dodge cancelling some of the Break Arte releases, or just doing big enough spell cancels to make up for the 12 gauge you lose each time) you can unleash Tetra Detonator repeatedly. Here's a chart showing what rank each Break Arte is and how big each of their gauges are: Rank Break Arte Gauge Size 1 Violet Storm 6 2 Calamity Flare 8 3 Hydrostorm 6 4 Flare Vortex 4 5 Gravity Gale 10 6 Lightning Blast 8 7 Tetra Detonator 12 Here's a chart showing what various enemy spells give towards your gauge: Gauge Earned Spell Blocked 3 Aqua Spirit, Wind Lance, Glave, Shade Blight, Geostigma, Stone Edge, Heat Red, Photon Blaze, Blood Moon, Luminous Gain 4 Anything not in 3, 5, or 6. 5 Insubstantial, Embrace End, Explode, Ground Quake, Shadow Savant, Divine Saber, Hell Gate 6 Sinister Soul, Meteor Swarm

Switch Blasts Switch Blasting is when you switch out an active party member with a reserve member. Doing this costs the active member 1 BG, and gives the reserve member 1 soul. When you move an active member to reserve they'll be cured of all status ailments and begin to slowly recover any lost health at a rate of: (Defense / 8) + 12.5 per second. If the active member is dead but still has 1 BG they can still switch with someone. While a reserve member is dead they'll recover HP at 1/3 of the regular rate, and once they reach full HP they'll be revived. You can do several different types of Switch Blasts: Type Command Effect Regular Just press Up or Down on the D-Pad. Your character will switch out with the reserve character and the reserve character will perform their Switch Blast attack. Defensive Press Up or Down on the D-Pad while holding L1. Your character will switch out with the reserve character and they reserve character will be defending. Break Soul Press Up or Down on the D-Pad while holding R2. Your character will switch out with the reserve character and the reserve character will unleash their Break Soul. Mystic Arte (Chainable Mystic Artes) At the end of a Mystic Arte, hold L2 and press Up, Down, Left, or Right on the D-Pad. Can also just hold the key combo during the Mystic Arte, so long as it's still pressed at the end of it. This is the only Switch Blast that doesn't consume 1 BG (it does still consume BG, but only the BG cost of the Mystic Arte being used). Depending on the D-Pad direction you pressed one of the characters will perform a Mystic Arte directly after your Mystic Arte is finished. If you pressed Up then the top reserve member will do it, down is for the bottom reserve member, right is the character next to your character's portrait, left is the character furthest from your portrait. You can also chain these one after another (like, Up, Down, Right, Right, Right will make all of your characters do a Mystic Arte assuming they have enough BG. The first 2 Mystic Artes in the chain are level 1 MAs, the next two are level 2, and the next two are level 3.

Arte Usage Count The stars you gain by using artes a bunch of times serve two purposes. If you count up all the stars a character has across all of their artes, that's how many BG 'points' you'll get back at the beginning of every battle (100 BG points = 1 BG). Advantageous encounters double the amount you get, but dangerous or risky encounters don't give you any. The other thing that arte usage count does is work in conjunction with certain skills (mainly you'll find these on titles -- things like "do more damage with artes that have more usage"). Here's some concrete numbers on exactly what you get with each skill (note that you don't get all of these bonuses just by having high arte usage, you must be wearing the appropriate title as well, which will have just 1 or 2 of these bonuses): More damage at higher combos: For every hit your damage goes up 1%, so at 100 hits you'll be doing double damage.

Do more damage with more stars on artes: For each half star you get from using an arte X times you gain 5% more damage on that arte. So, if you had 5 stars on an arte you'd be doing 50% more damage with this skill equipped.

Stagger longer with more stars on artes: For each half star you stagger 0.025 seconds longer. So at 5 stars you'd stagger 0.25 seconds longer with that arte when you have this skill equipped.

Longer super armor with more stars on artes: For each half star you get an extra 0.066 seconds of super armor. So at 5 stars you'd get an extra 0.66 seconds of super armor when you have this skill equipped.

Better chance of triggering chance effects with more stars on artes: For each half star you get an extra 0.1x chance. So at 5 stars you'd get 2x the chance for chance effects to trigger when you have this skill equipped.

Lower SG cost of arte with more stars: For each half star you lower the SG cost of the arte by 5%. So at 5 stars you'd have 50% reduction to the SG cost of the arte when you have this skill equipped. Here's a chart that shows much you need to use an arte to get stars: # of stars # of uses needed Martial Artes Hidden Artes Malak Artes Break Soul / Switch Blast Mystic Artes 0.5 50 35 25 15 10 1 150 110 80 50 30 1.5 300 210 150 90 60 2 600 420 300 180 120 2.5 1000 700 500 300 200 3 2000 1400 1000 600 400 3.5 4000 2800 2000 1200 800 4 6000 4200 3000 1800 1200 4.5 8000 5600 4000 2400 1600 5 9990 7000 5000 3000 2000

Souls and SG Souls and SG are sort of the same thing. Each soul you have is 30 SG. You use SG whenever you use an arte, or when you dodge things. However, you can only use as many artes in a row as you have souls (so, even if your technically have 90 SG because you have 3 souls, you can still only use three 15 SG cost moves in a row). You start the battle with 3 souls (can be increased to 5 with skills), and can gain or lose souls up to a maximum of 5 (can be increased to 8 with skills) and minimum of 1. Here's the ways you gain and lose souls: Action Soul gain/loss Stun or apply status ailment to your target +1 to your souls, -1 to targets souls (if target is at 1 soul it won't lose any more). Use Break Soul -1 to your soul, +1 to target's souls. Defeat an enemy +1 soul to whoever did the finishing blow. Use a Mystic Arte For level 1 Mystic Artes you gain 1 soul, level 2 gives 2 souls, level 3 gives 3 souls. Use Eizen's 'Plundering Ghost' arte Chance of getting +1 soul. Use Switch Blast +1 soul for character that gets switched in. Take a Soul Object +1 soul to whoever took the Soul Object. Use a Soul Bottle +3 souls to whoever is affected by the bottle. Enemy uses Soul Burst +1 to enemy's souls. Depending on how many souls you (or your target) currently have, certain modifiers are applied. Generally speaking, the more souls you have the worse the penalties. So, it's a trade off -- more souls allows you to make longer combos and be more flexible, but also comes with a number of penalties as listed below. Here's the details (remember that enemies have souls, too, so these modifiers apply to them as well): Affected area Change based on current number of souls 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Damage taken when receiving an attack. 0.8x 0.9x 1x 1.1x 1.2x 1.3x 1.4x 1.5x Chance of applying chance based effects (like stun). 2x 1.33x 1x 0.8x 0.66x 0.57x 0.5x 0.44x Chance of being affected by chance based effects. 0.2x 0.6x 1x 1.4x 1.8x 2.2x 2.6x 3x Healing received when hit with a healing arte. 1.24x 1.12x 1x 0.88x 0.76x 0.64x 0.52x 0.5x Stagger time when hit by an attack +0 seconds +0.03 seconds +0.06 seconds +0.1 seconds +0.13 seconds +0.16 seconds +0.2 seconds +0.23 seconds Soul Objects and Soul Pool If you (or the enemy) are at max souls and you (or the enemy) steal more souls from your target, those souls will be put into your (or the enemy's) Soul Pool. There is no way to see your Soul Pool in game as it is a hidden mechanic. Soul Objects are the souls that will sometimes appear on the battlefield that you can pick up. These come from yours or your target's Soul Pool when you perform certain actions. Everyone starts with 1 soul in their pool at the start of a battle (this is why if you perfect dodge an enemy at the beginning of a fight a soul will come out of them, but if you do it again right after, no soul will come out -- because their Soul Pool is empty). However, in a Perilous encounter everybody starts with more souls in their pool on difficulties below chaos (simple:6, normal:5, moderate:4, hard:3, evil:2, chaos:1). Here are the methods you (or your enemy) need to use to gain souls in your Soul Pool: While you have max souls, stun your target.

Defeat an enemy while you have max souls.

Using Break Soul on an enemy with max souls will add 1 to their soul pool.

If an enemy uses Soul Burst while they have max souls they'll get 1 in their pool. Here are the ways to get Soul Objects to pop out: When one of your allies dies they can pop out at most 2 souls from their pool.

If you use break charge to guard break an enemy they'll pop out a soul object if they have any in their pool.

If you around step an enemy a soul will pop out if they have any in their pool (I think it comes out of the enemies pool, but it might come out of your own pool?)

An exception to the rule of needing souls in the pool to pop soul objects is when you have 3 or less souls and do an around step. At 3 souls you have a 10% chance of popping a soul object, at 2 souls you have a 30% chance, and at 1 soul you have a 50% chance. Furthermore, there is a benefit to chance based effects when you have more souls in your Soul Pool: Number of souls in pool Chance to trigger chance based effects (like stun) 0 1x 1 1.33x 2 1.66x 3 2x 4 2.33x 5 2.66x 6 3x 7 3.33x 8 3.66x 9 4x 10 4.33x

Combos I just want to give information showing the effects of mixing different types of attacks, the effects of using the same arte repeatedly, and the effects of comboing on casting speed. Starting with a table on the effects of mixing different attacks in a combo: Type of attack Effect Number of times used during the combo 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Martial Reduce the SG cost of everything but Martial Artes. -10% -20% -30% -35% -40% -45% -50% -25% Hidden Arte Increase the chance of chance based effects occurring for everything other than Hidden Artes. +20% +40% +60% +70% +80% +90% +100% +50% Malak Arte Increase the stagger time of everything but Malak Artes. +0.13s +0.2s +0.26s +0.33s +0.4s +0.47s +0.53s +0.27s Break Soul Increase the damage of everything but Break Souls. +20% +40% +60% +80% +90% +95% +100% +50% The effects of using the same arte repeatedly are basically reduced stagger times. When you're comboing and you perform attack 'X' the game will look back at the last 4 attacks you did in the combo and see if attack 'X' was one of those. For each time attack 'X' appears in the last 4 attacks you receive a -20% penalty to stagger time for attack 'X'. Too many of these penalties and the enemy will easily break out of the combo. Finally, here's a small table showing the effects on casting speed depending on where you put a Malak Arte in a combo: 2nd attack 3rd attack 4th attack 5th attack 6th attack 7th attack 8th attack Change in cast time -20% -40% -50% -55% -60% -65% -50%

Chaining Mystic Artes Already covered this a bit in the Switch Blasts section, but there is more to say about it and it might be hard to find the information if it's just in the Switch Blasts section.

Basic Mystic Arte Chains Anyways, the basic point is that you can chain Mystic Artes so long as someone in your party has enough BG to continue the chain. You do this by holding L2 plus a D-Pad direction while you're doing a Mystic Arte. Depending on the D-Pad direction you pressed one of the characters will perform a Mystic Arte directly after your Mystic Arte is finished. If you pressed Up then the top reserve member will do it, down is for the bottom reserve member, right is the character next to your character's portrait, left is the character furthest from your portrait. You can also chain these one after another (like, Up, Down, Right, Right, Right will make all of your characters do a Mystic Arte assuming they have enough BG. The first 2 Mystic Artes in the chain are level 1 MAs, the next two are level 2, and the next two are level 3.

Dual Mystic Artes If you start the chain with a dual Mystic Arte, then whenever you chain to a character who is eligible to use their dual Mystic Arte they'll automatically use that instead of what they usually would. Dual Mystic Artes are unlocked in the EX dungeon. They are performed by having 5 BG on both you and your partner, and having your partner as a reserve member, and then pressing the D-Pad direction of your partner plus L2. So for example, if you were playing as Velvet and had Laphicet as the top reserve character you would start off by pressing up on the D-Pad plus L2 to do Velvet and Laphicet's dual MA. Then, suppose you had Eizen to the right of Velvet and Rokurou in the bottom reserve slot, and they both have 5 BG. During Velvet and Laphicet's dual MA you'd hold L2+Right in order to use Eizen's Mystic Arte next, but when it comes time for Eizen to do his thing, it actually ends up being an Eizen+Rokurou dual MA.

Single Character Chains So now we know how to chain Mystic Artes with the party, but you can actually do a small chain (a level one Mystic Arte directly followed by a level two Mystic Arte) with a single character, too. Basically, if you do a combo that has 7 attacks in it, and then use your level one Mystic Arte it will count the level one Mystic Arte as your 8th attack, and since you need an 8 attack combo to perform a level two Mystic Arte you'll now be able to do your level two Mystic Arte as well if you just hold down L2 during the first Mystic Arte.

Fleeing Battle The time it takes to flee from battle depends on the enemies level vs your party's level. The base time it takes to flee is: Base Flee Time = 4 + (Highest Enemy Level - Average Party Level) / 5 Furthermore, depending on certain conditions this time is modified: Perilous encounter = 4x Dire foes = 0.5x Running while dead = 2x Yes, you can actually run from battle while your controlled character is dead. Just pull your left stick in any direction while you're dead and the flee bar will begin to fill.

Stagger and Stun Some quick points on how stagger works in this game: Once your combo surpasses 26 hits, the amount of stagger time is reduced for each hit past that, all the way up to 115 hits. At 115 hits and above the stagger time is about 10% of what is originally was.

If you use the same attack twice or more you'll receive a penalty to stagger time. More info in the combo section of this document.

If the target is under the effects of burn, they will be staggered for longer.

The more souls the target has, the longer they will be staggered. More info in the Souls and SG section of this document.

Bosses and other special enemies often have reduced stagger times. So, I've been calling stuns a chance based effect throughout the guide, but that's sort of a lie. Unlike Zestiria they're not actually a chance based effect. You sort of build up stun points on an enemy whenever you use an arte on them that has the stun property, and once it passes a threshold they get stunned. It's more reliable. To keep it simple, the more Focus stat you have, and the less souls you currently have, the faster you build up stun points. This guide isn't really about simple though, so let's look at this in more detail. To start with, here are some basic properties of the stun system: On top of making the enemy unable to move, they'll also take 2x damage while stunned.

1000 stun points is the threshold we need to cross to trigger a stun. Once a stun is triggered the stun points for that enemy are reduced to 0.

At the beginning of the battle every enemy and ally gets a randomized starting amount of stun points. The higher the difficulty the more likely it is for enemies to start with a low amount of stun points.

When you land an attack on an enemy their stun points go up. It's sort of a fixed amount, but sort of random. I'll provide the formula for the fixed amount below, but the game actually takes that fixed amount and then randomly puts it between 65~150% of that value.

Base amount of stun points gained when landing an attack Stun value of arte used * sqrt(attacker's Focus) / sqrt(enemies Focus) * Attacker's soul modifier * Enemies soul modifier * Pool modifier * Enemies Chance Effect modifier * Status effect modifier * Guard break modifier * 2 Stun value of arte used: We're looking at values between 30~100ish depending on the arte. The arte HAS to have stun property on it, though. Of special note is Magilou's Force Detonate Break Soul, which has 1000 stun value.

We're looking at values between 30~100ish depending on the arte. The arte HAS to have stun property on it, though. Of special note is Magilou's Force Detonate Break Soul, which has 1000 stun value. Attacker's soul modifier: 4 / (attackers current # of souls)

4 / (attackers current # of souls) Enemies soul modifier: Enemies # of souls * 0.4 - 0.2

Enemies # of souls * 0.4 - 0.2 Pool modifier: 3 + (# of souls in Soul Pool) / 3^2 (More info on Soul Pool in the Souls and SG section).

3 + (# of souls in Soul Pool) / 3^2 (More info on Soul Pool in the Souls and SG section). Enemies Chance Effect modifier: We're looking at values between 0.35x~1.5x. Most enemies are below 1x so usually this brings down the rate of stuns, but some enemies (like snakes at 1.5x) will get stunned more frequently.

We're looking at values between 0.35x~1.5x. Most enemies are below 1x so usually this brings down the rate of stuns, but some enemies (like snakes at 1.5x) will get stunned more frequently. Status effect modifier: If an enemy is under a status ailment, 2, otherwise 1.

If an enemy is under a status ailment, 2, otherwise 1. Guard break modifier: If using an arte that has guard break properties, 2, otherwise 1.

Damage formula: (Attacker's level + 10) * Attacker's stat * 1.5 / Enemies stat * 2 * Potency of arte used / 100 * Soul modifier * Weakness/Strength modifier * Combo modifier * Stun modifier * Skill modifier Attacker's stat: Depends on the type of attack. For Martial Artes or Switch Blasts use Attack, for Malak Artes or Break Artes use Arte Attack, for Hidden Artes use whichever is lower between Attack and Arte Attack, for Break Souls and Mystic Artes use whichever is higher between Attack and Arte Attack.

Depends on the type of attack. For Martial Artes or Switch Blasts use Attack, for Malak Artes or Break Artes use Arte Attack, for Hidden Artes use whichever is lower between Attack and Arte Attack, for Break Souls and Mystic Artes use whichever is higher between Attack and Arte Attack. Enemies stat: Same principle as Attacker's stat. For Martial Artes or Switch Blasts use Defense, for Malak Artes or Break Artes use Arte Defense, for Hidden Artes use the lower of Defense or Arte Defense, for Break Souls and Mystic Artes use the lower of Defense or Arte Defense.

Same principle as Attacker's stat. For Martial Artes or Switch Blasts use Defense, for Malak Artes or Break Artes use Arte Defense, for Hidden Artes use the lower of Defense or Arte Defense, for Break Souls and Mystic Artes use the lower of Defense or Arte Defense. Potency of arte used: Varies depending on the arte, but for Martial Artes we're looking at ~200 range, Malak Artes 500-1000 range, with level 3 Mystic Artes being around 6000-7000 and dual Mystic Artes being around 10,000.

Varies depending on the arte, but for Martial Artes we're looking at ~200 range, Malak Artes 500-1000 range, with level 3 Mystic Artes being around 6000-7000 and dual Mystic Artes being around 10,000. Soul modifier: 0.7 + Enemies # of souls * 0.1

0.7 + Enemies # of souls * 0.1 Weakness/Strength modifier: If you hit an element they're weak to it's 1.5x if you hit a species they're weak to it's 1.25, if you hit both it's 1.75x. If you hit an element they're strong against it ranges from 0.1 to 0.5 depending on difficulty (see the Difficulty Settings section).

If you hit an element they're weak to it's 1.5x if you hit a species they're weak to it's 1.25, if you hit both it's 1.75x. If you hit an element they're strong against it ranges from 0.1 to 0.5 depending on difficulty (see the Difficulty Settings section). Combo modifier: This depends on how many times you've used Break Soul in the combo so far. The value will be between 1~2. See the Combos section of this document for more info.

This depends on how many times you've used Break Soul in the combo so far. The value will be between 1~2. See the Combos section of this document for more info. Stun modifier: If the enemy is stunned this is 2, otherwise 1.

If the enemy is stunned this is 2, otherwise 1. Skill modifier: If you have skills like "damage increased based on usage count of arte" type skills, they are applied at this point.

Healing Formula: (Caster's Arte Attack / 2 + 350) * (Receiver's Arte Defense + 200) * Artes's Potency * Soul modifier * Battle rank modifier / 120000 Arte's Potency: For example, Laphicet's First Aid has 180 potency.

For example, Laphicet's First Aid has 180 potency. Soul modifier: 1.36 - Caster's # of souls * 0.12 --lower limit is 0.5.

1.36 - Caster's # of souls * 0.12 --lower limit is 0.5. Battle rank modifier: See the Difficulty Settings section of this document. Furthermore, if you cast a healing arte without having enough SG, the healing will be 1/3 of the usual value. As an exception, if you're at full SG but don't have enough to cast the arte (like, if you only have 1 soul, which is 30 SG, and you try to cast a heal that costs 50 SG) the healing is reduced to 2/3 of normal.

Experience Formula Total amount of EXP of enemies defeated * (10 - Level difference) / 10 * Difficulty modifier Level difference: Party's average level - Enemies highest level at start of battle. Minimum is 0, max is 7.

Party's average level - Enemies highest level at start of battle. Minimum is 0, max is 7. Difficulty modifier: See the Difficulty Settings section of this document (the 'experience gain' row). Also, the character that gets the killing blow on the last enemy gets some bonus experience: Total experience * (MaxHit # * Difficulty modifier) / 100 Difficulty modifier: simple:0 normal:1 moderate:1.2 hard:1.5 evil:2 chaos:4

Grade Formula (A + B + C + D) * Repeated fight bonus + E + F A/B/C/D/E/F: These values can be found in the table below. They're 0 if you don't fill the requirements for them.

These values can be found in the table below. They're 0 if you don't fill the requirements for them. Repeated fight bonus: Between 1~2 depending on how many fights you've done in succession. If grade ends up being below 0 it will simply be set to 0. Group Bonus type Grade earned A Win without anyone dying. 0.25 Win in X seconds. [5+sqrt(Expected time - Actual time)] * 0.04 Use Break Soul X times. 0.07*sqrt(# of Break Souls used, limit of 100) Defend against status ailment 0.15 Stun enemies X times. 0.08*sqrt(# of stuns, limit of 100) Put status ailment on enemies X times. 0.1*sqrt(# of status ailments applied, limit of 100) Use Switch Blast X times. 0.15*sqrt(# of Switch Blasts, limit of 100) Win without the controlled character taking damage. 0.12*sqrt(highest enemy level + 15) / 5 B Difficulty bonus A * sqrt(Difficulty modifier / 2) * Level gap modifier * 0.3 * Enemy numbers modifier * Boss modifier * Encounter modifier C (can only get 1 of these 3) Win without using items (A + B) * 0.15 Beat a strong enemy (A + B) * sqrt(highest enemy level + 15) * 8 / 5 Beat a strong enemy without using items. (A + B) * sqrt(highest enemy level + 15) * 11 / 5 D Defeated an enemy with a Mystic Arte. A + B E Finished the battle with a status ailment. (A + B + C + D) * (-0.25) F Died X times. (A + B + C + D + E) * (1 + sqrt(# of deaths)) * (-0.25) Difficulty modifier: simple:0 normal:1 moderate:2 hard:3 evil:4 chaos:5

simple:0 normal:1 moderate:2 hard:3 evil:4 chaos:5 Level gap modifier: If average party level is higher than highest monster level, [15 - sqrt(avg party level - highest enemy level)] / 15. Else, 1 + [sqrt(highest enemy level - avg party level) / 8].

If average party level is higher than highest monster level, [15 - sqrt(avg party level - highest enemy level)] / 15. Else, 1 + [sqrt(highest enemy level - avg party level) / 8]. Enemy numbers modifier: 1 + 0.1 * sqrt(# of enemies defeated - 1)

1 + 0.1 * sqrt(# of enemies defeated - 1) Boss modifier: If it's a boss 2, else 1

If it's a boss 2, else 1 Encounter modifier: If it's a Perilous encounter 2, else 1

Item Drops Just some points about item drop chances: Most enemies have a 'unique' piece of equipment they'll drop (unique equipment is equipment that has an interesting name, rather than just 'Amber boots'). They'll either drop their unique piece, or the base version ('Amber boots') of the unique item.

Unique items are rarer than base items.

The battle rank increases the drop chances... if normal is 1x then moderate is 1.1x and so on, adding 0.1x more for each difficulty.

The chance of an enemy dropping something increases based on how many enemies were defeated before it in a given battle. For example, if you killed one enemy before it the chance of it dropping something would be 1.05x, two and it'd be 1.1x, and so it continues, adding 0.05x for every enemy killed.

If you kill the enemy with a level 1 Mystic Arte the chance they drop something is boosted 30%, level 2 Mystic Arte is 40%, level 3 is 50%.

The actual possible drops don't change with difficulty, just the chances for something to actually drop.