Techniques, Damage & Effects

Skills and your four Techniques

Skill is the umbrella term for combat abilities. The current regular catalog contains 139 Techniques across 18 Disciplines, using the currently enabled definitions. Each shipped Discipline starts with eight learnable Techniques; published edits may change this catalogue. Select up to four in Nexus → Manage Techniques. A pure build selects from its Primary library and gains a separate Essence Skill; a mixed build selects four total from its Primary and mastered Secondary libraries, with a 1+3, 2+2 or 3+1 full loadout and a separate Resonance.

Primary supplies the base stat profile; Secondary does not add a second base profile. Learned availability and earned Mastery still govern which Techniques you can select. Battles use committed content versions: editing your build does not rewrite a battle in progress.

Equipment Skills and Essence Skills have their own sources. The magnitude comparisons below cover only the current regular catalog, excluding those sources, historical versions and temporary battle modifiers. This catalogue includes current published overrides. Already-pinned battles retain their exact captured definitions; their battle previews take precedence for those encounters.

Reading the Technique Preview

Read Skill Type, Cost, Cooldown, Requirements, Effects, Target Method, Target Elevation and Line of Sight in that order. Skill Type is Attack, Utility or Heal. Requirements must be satisfied before use. Costs may include AP, MP and HP and are paid together. A modular definition has a separate eight-field report for each Manual, Automatic or Ongoing action or modifier group. Automatic groups react to supported events; Ongoing groups remain active while their Requirements are met and end when those Requirements fail or the source is removed. Cooldowns govern repeated use; current Skills have no once-per-game limit. A primed Skill shows a Primed indicator until release or cancellation. Target Method shows Single [X], Line [X], Circle [X] or All. X is the maximum range in tiles. A minimum above one is shown as a range, such as Single [3–6], which excludes targets closer than three tiles. All has no range number. Area geometry is explained in the Target Method help. Line starts at the caster and covers its authored length in tiles in one cardinal direction, including empty tiles and every eligible occupant. Circle is centered on the caster: radius 1 covers the eight surrounding tiles; radius 2 covers 24 tiles including the inner ring. The caster tile is excluded, while separately authored self effects still apply. All reaches eligible units or ground across the board without positional range or line of sight.

Identical effects group on one line with an application count while distinct effects retain separate lines. Bounded non-percentage effect power runs from 1 to 20: Dmg [7] means seven authored base power for each packet. HP Recovery [4%] means 4% of the recipient’s maximum HP, and MP Recovery [4%] means 4% of maximum MP. Recovery amounts are captured at cast, including HP Hex once; later maximum-stat changes do not recalculate the captured amount. Equal repeated damage entries remain separate hits, and the command pays its costs once.

A positive duration is appended to the effect line, for example Slow [+10 AP] [2 Turns]. A duration of 0 is immediate and intentionally has no [0 Turns] label. New battles default to following-global-round activation, except direct damage and HP/MP recovery. Icons appear Pending immediately. After activation, ordinary timed statuses last their authored complete global rounds. Attack-based Burn, Poison and Bleed instead tick at affected turn end for their authored number of ticks. Each reader shows the pinned lifetime. Each battle keeps its pinned timing policy. Persistent duration consumes balance budget.

Percentage-based effects use their percentage instead of the 1–20 power number. The same named status may be authored at different potency on different Skills—for example one Guard application may reduce incoming damage by 10% while another reduces it by 15%. The Technique Preview is authoritative for that Skill version. Most shipped Single Skills use range 1–5. Master can set a longer legal reach and a minimum target range starting at one; each report shows the saved limits. Line uses one reach X from 1 to 15 and stops at the battlefield edge; Circle uses 1 to 5. All has no range suffix and shows Line of Sight as N/A. Target team, friendly fire and explicit elevation limits still govern recipients. Most current Techniques have elevation 0 reach; elevation 1, 2 and 3 are uncommon exceptions. Jump governs movement onto raised terrain. Extra reach, elevation access, and bypassing line of sight consume balance budget and therefore reduce available Power or require other tradeoffs.

Base damage and Power magnitude

Current non-percentage Technique effects use a bounded authored power scale from 1 to 20. Higher-AP Skills receive more total effect budget, but area coverage, extra effects, long durations and strong utility consume part of that budget so high cost does not mean unlimited output. In new battles, each ordinary direct-damage packet adds 25% of its matching Physical or Mystic Power before defenses, independently of AP cost or packet count. Historical battles keep their recorded scaling.

In new battles, Ruin turns the target’s consumable debuffs captured at commitment into one boosted hit. The first landed eligible hit spends those debuffs, including a hit absorbed by Barrier; later damage packets against that target cannot reuse the bonus. Debuffs applied afterward remain. Protected Reversal Strain does not increase Ruin. Its total applied bonus appears beside the same damage outcome in the Chronicle and copied log. Historical battles keep their captured rules.

For a normally scaled direct-damage block: coefficientBP = 2500; Power bonus = floor(matching Power × coefficientBP ÷ 10,000); raw damage = authored damage power + Power bonus. A basis point is 0.01%. Explicitly authored scaling is retained; Historical Vengeance uses its recorded-damage rule. Current Reflect returns a set percentage of damage received instead of adding another attack Power bonus.

Ordinary Physical damage uses an authored 1–20 packet; ordinary Mystic damage generally caps at 16 and trades some direct force for stronger tempo effects. Rare and existing pinned exceptions retain their authored versions. This authored number and the per-packet Power contribution are separate. More AP can raise the authored budget but does not change the ordinary 25% Power coefficient. Area coverage, secondary utility, multiple hits, effect potency and duration reduce how much of that authored budget can be concentrated into one damage block. Historically pinned battles keep their own formulas.

The damage calculation, in order

The server first checks legality. Repeated timing-tag packets in new battles resolve independent hit and critical checks, with their applicable source exceptions; hostile status resistance also follows each packet. A missed packet does not apply its hostile effects. For each successful direct-damage block, the following order matters because each multiplication rounds down separately:

• 1. Add floor(matching Power × coefficientBP ÷ 10,000) to the authored base damage.
• 2. Apply Physical Defense or Mystic Defense (reduced 20% while on elevated terrain in new battles): floor(raw damage × 100 ÷ (100 + defense)), with a minimum of one for positive raw damage. Pierce retains Physical and Mystic Defense; its displayed bypass applies only to equipment Armor.
• 3. New battles multiply hostile direct damage by 140% and round down. This applies after defense and before critical; allied and self damage do not receive this multiplier. Historical encounters retain their pinned policy.
• 4. On an eligible critical hit, multiply by 1.5 and round down. Each eligible repeated packet uses its own critical result. In new battles Pierce cannot critically hit, including through Weak Point or Spike; ordinary Damage in the same Skill remains eligible. Historical encounters retain their recorded critical rules.
• 5. Apply the attacker-versus-defender Level multiplier below, rounding down. Self-damage does not receive this relative-Level adjustment.
• 6. Apply facing damage modifiers, rounding down. Blindside is a one-turn debuff on the target: its listed side/rear percentages increase incoming Skill damage. Front hits and Basic Attack are unchanged. Historical versions retain their recorded facing rules.
• 7. Apply the recipient’s legacy damage-taken multipliers, once per active stack in stored order, rounding down each time. Guard, Vulnerable and authored Defenseless use each application’s saved damage-taken multiplier. The separate historical timeout penalty retains its recorded multiplier.
• 8. Apply the combined conditional/status/elemental damage multiplier and round down. New battles retain the stacked result without the historical clamp; historical policies bound this multiplier to 50–200%. Piercing ignores incoming reductions in this budget and legacy incoming reductions, but not incoming increases.
• 9. Barrier absorbs damage before HP. Pierce destroys the Barrier and then damages HP. Remaining damage cannot exceed current HP; later multipliers can round a small hit to zero.

A worked hit

Example: a physical 40 AP Skill hits an enemy with one damage block of authored power 10, the attacker has Physical Power 40, and the defender has Physical Defense 25. At equal Levels, with no critical, facing bonus, status modifiers or Barrier: coefficient = 25%; Power bonus = floor(40 × 0.25) = 10; raw damage = 20; after Physical Defense = floor(20 × 100 ÷ 125) = 16; current hostile direct damage = floor(16 × 1.40) = 22 HP, assuming sufficient remaining HP. Every ordinary packet uses the same 25% coefficient even in a repeated-hit Skill.

A higher-AP attack can receive more damage budget, but adding an area shape, a strong status, another effect or a longer duration redirects part of that budget away from direct damage.

Relative Level damage modifier

Let delta = attacker Level − defender Level. Within ±20 Levels, the multiplier is 100% + delta × 0.5 percentage points. Beyond that band, each additional Level changes it by 1.5 points in the same direction. The result is clamped to 25–175%. Character Levels run from 1 to 100.

Level does not directly increase Physical Power or Mystic Power. It supplies this separate direct-damage multiplier. Fixed periodic damage uses its own rules.

Cooldowns and requirements

The shipped native Skills use power-based cooldowns from 1 to 3 turns. More powerful, broader or longer-lasting Skills generally receive longer cooldowns.

In the native roster, a Skill with an explicit use Requirement uses that prerequisite instead of a cooldown. A modular group may author both a Requirement and a cooldown; its displayed report gives both limits. The old consecutive-use 50% falloff is retired for current Skill versions; cooldown state is server-authoritative and advances on the owner’s turn boundaries.

Essence and Resonance details in Nexus

A pure build shows its active Essence card in Nexus; a mixed build shows its active Resonance card. The card itself keeps a concise flavor line so the full mechanical description does not crowd the layout.

Hover the active Essence or Resonance artwork, or move keyboard focus to it, to open the detail panel. Moving the pointer or focus away closes it automatically. Essence details use the same Skill rows as Technique details: type, cost, cooldown, requirements, effects, range and targeting where applicable.

Legacy Resonance details use Setup, Trigger and Result. Sequence Resonances show the Setup Discipline/tags that arm the Resonance, then the Trigger Discipline/tags that activate its bounded Result effects. In current Setup rows, Chronist Skills means any Chronist Skill, including attacks. Other Setup and Trigger rows retain their displayed tag requirements; these tags do not mean the Utility Skill family. Immediate Resonances have no Setup, activate directly from their Trigger, and use a lighter Result because activation is easier. Modular Resonances show their own Manual, Automatic or Ongoing behavior groups, Requirements, costs and limits instead. The panel is informational only; it does not change the committed build or battle state.

What each effect family does

Bracketed magnitudes describe authored effects, not guaranteed net results. Recipient, timing and conditions determine what happens.

• Dmg: direct damage resolved through the full pipeline above. Multi-hit blocks resolve separately. Accuracy, defenses, criticals and active statuses change the actual result.
• HP Recovery: the base amount is a percentage of the recipient’s maximum HP, rounded down with a minimum of one for a positive maximum. The amount is captured at cast after applying HP Hex once. One to four applications reuse that captured amount: the first occurs on activation, with later applications at recipient turn ends. Each gain caps at the current maximum HP and never revives a defeated unit. Pinned historical Heal versions retain their old flat/Power behavior.
• MP Recovery restores its saved percentage of maximum MP or fixed MP amount. Percentage recovery is captured at cast, rounded down with a minimum of one for a positive maximum. Repeated applications reuse the captured amount while each gain caps at the current maximum MP. Existing fixed amounts and application counts remain unchanged. MP Drain removes its set percentage of the target’s maximum MP and does not restore MP to the caster.
• Barrier: grants a percentage of maximum HP as temporary protection, rounded down with a minimum of one. It absorbs damage before HP, including damage over time and reflected damage. Pierce destroys the Barrier and damages HP. HP costs still spend HP.
• Burn: Each tick deals the displayed percentage of the granting attack’s HP damage, rounded down. Only one Burn can be active. Reapplication replaces it and restarts its duration and saved decay. Once per turn, after the bearer damages enemies, backlash deals 10% of that actual HP damage, rounded down. Multi-hit damage is combined; misses and friendly damage do not count. Reapplication and Copy do not reset the backlash allowance. Historical pinned profiles and trigger policies retain their recorded behavior.
• Poison: Each tick deals the displayed percentage of the granting attack’s HP damage, rounded down. Poison ticks once at turn end. Only one Poison can be active. Reapplication keeps the greater potency and original duration separately, restarts that duration and resets movement progress. Every five traversed tiles, including Push or Pull, refresh its full duration without extra damage. Partial movement carries between turns; teleporting does not count. Historical pinned profiles and trigger policies retain their recorded behavior.
• Bleed: each application captures its own attack HP damage, percentage and duration. All applications tick independently at recipient turn end without a stack limit. Damage is rounded down; a zero-damage tick still consumes its duration. Copy Debuffs preserves the captured basis and remaining lifetime, and Cleanse removes every qualifying application.
• Apply status: grants the named condition for its authored duration. Percentage-based status potency is authored per effect where supported, so Guard, Vulnerable, Mark and similar effects can differ by Skill version. Each Skill applies one status stack by default. Repeated uses follow the status’s stacking rules.
• Master controls timing globally for each tag. Instant applies immediately, Normal activates next global round, and Delayed activates one round later. Controlled requires priming before a paid release. Skills using the same tag share its timing; existing battles keep their saved rules. Barrier and Blindside default to Instant.
• Cleanse removes all negative debuffs. Conditional Cleanse removes only the selected debuffs. Dispel removes only the selected positive buffs.
• Push / Pull: moves the target until blocked by terrain, occupancy or Rooted. A Skill with Move selects Ground and includes movement in its total cost; utility effects can work on empty Ground. Skill Move has its own authored distance, independent of ordinary walking and its remaining Movement. Jump, Rooted, terrain and occupancy still apply. Rewind records each legal target’s own position for a later return. Controlled priming binds the selected targets; release pays the Skill’s costs. Rooted, occupancy or impassable terrain can block the return. It does not restore resources or undo actions.
• Chilled Ground uses the icy tile material and applies ordinary Chilled on contact, restricting final facing. It adds no Skill AP surcharge. Ground can carry recipient effects such as Damage, Pierce, defenses, recovery, debuffs, removal, Reveal and Push/Pull. Active contact applies immediately; field activation keeps its authored timing. Each character receives each logical effect type once per own-turn cycle across overlapping fields. Targeting, teams, Airborne, resistance and ordinary refresh rules still apply. Source-only operations keep their own targets. Historical battles retain their captured Frozen Ground rules.
• Reveal can target Invisible or Covert units. Hitting a target with either removes both and applies Revealed: incoming attacks have 100% accuracy and deal the saved extra damage for the set duration. Copy Buffs copies selected eligible buffs from the target to the caster; Copy Debuffs copies selected eligible debuffs from the caster to the target. The originals remain. Selecting every option is shown as All Buffs or All Debuffs.

Low, typical and high magnitudes

These figures are generated from the 139 currently enabled regular Skills. Compare within a family only: seven base damage cannot be ranked against seven MP or a seven-tile line. One observation is one authored effect block, except command damage totals and shape sizes. Modular groups are sampled separately; mutually exclusive groups are never added into one command total. Conditional packets describe authored capacity, not guaranteed activation or net damage. Multi-target effects are counted once, not once per potential target.

“Typical” is the inclusive lower-to-upper quartile interval (Q1–Q3). Low means below Q1; high means above Q3, within the observed range. Quartiles use nearest rank: sort the observations and take positions ceil(n × 0.25) and ceil(n × 0.75). Ties can leave a low or high band empty. A fixed-value or tiny family is a catalog comparison, not a reliable balance tier.

DOT observations use the authored magnitudes for Burn, Bleed and Poison where present. Historical/default fallback profiles remain versioned separately. Total healing includes only effects with multiple applications, before missing-HP limits and healing modifiers.

Status percentages and movement modifiers

Named status magnitudes are not forced to one global percentage. Percentage potency can be authored per Skill effect where the status supports it, while movement effects such as Haste and Slow use AP-per-tile rules and Root blocks movement instead of adding a percentage magnitude.

A larger magnitude alone does not make a Skill stronger: AP/MP cost, range, area, requirements, duration, setup, payoff and cooldown all matter. The table shows the canonical fallback status wording; the Technique Preview shows the actual authored potency for the selected Skill version.

The regular Technique catalog

Open a Discipline to compare its currently enabled Techniques. Each entry gives the actual current definition; modular groups stay separate with their own cost, effects, targeting, prerequisites and limits. The Technique Preview and battle forecast provide contextual legality and final outcomes.

Basic and auxiliary Skills

Move and Basic Attack have editable definitions, as do every auxiliary Skill. Your build equips one auxiliary Skill in its final slot; this guide lists all currently enabled choices. A battle retains its captured versions. Basic Move may charge per traversal point and obeys remaining ordinary Movement. Attached Move uses the Skill’s authored distance and overall cost without spending ordinary Movement or extra walking AP. Root, Jump, terrain, occupancy and the effect’s entered-tile cap still apply.

Controlled timing primes the whole selected Manual action for free, once per character and ability per battle. When a legal release is ready, the Skill artwork lights up. Release pays the full action cost once and starts its cooldown; an invalid release keeps the prime. Cancel discards the prime without renewing its allowance. Other supported effects may use Controlled timing when their definition and timing policy permit it.