Reverse: 1999 – Combat Mechanics Guide

Guide to Combat Mechanics

Damage Formula

The Damage Formula is defined as follows:

• Final Damage: Attack and Defense Factor *  DMG Bonus * Incantation/Ultimate/Ritual Might * Critical Bonus * Afflatus Bonus * Inherent Skill Damage Multiplier

Attack and Defense Factor

This item is calculated as follows:

Attack and Defense Factor = Effective Attack Value  * (1 + Attack Bonus) – Enemy Defense Value * (1 + Defense Bonus – Defense Reduction) * (1 – Penetration Rate)

The attacks provided by Resonance, Psychubes, etc. are calculated into the Effective Attack Value before entering battle. The current version of the Attack increase only appears in Insight Passives.

As of writing, there is no Attack reduction effect; should it exist, chances are it will be superimposed.

The percentage increases for Attack and Defense provided by Resonance and Psychubes will only increase the character’s own Attack and Defense values, namely:

Effective Attack Value = Base Attack Stats * (1 + Resonance Attack Percentage Increase  + Psychube Attack Percentage Increase ) + Resonance Fixed Attack Stats + Psychube Fixed Attack Stats

For instance, if the character has 600 Attack and the Psychube “Her Second Life” (350 Base Attack, bonus stat is “Attack +10%”), the Effective Attack Value would be:

The same is true for Resonance and Psychubes that provide Defense.

Corresponding Defense: Only Reality DEF will take effect when suffering Reality DMG, while Mental DEF will take effect when suffering Mental DMG.

Only the Penetration rate of the attacker affects this value; the Penetration Rate of the attacked side is not involved in the calculation.

When the calculation result of this item is less than (Effective Attack Value*(1 + Attack Increase)*10%), this item is changed to:

Attack and Defense Factor = Effective Attack Value*(1 + Attack Percentage Increase)*10%

Note that the Attack Increase still needs to be calculated. This is a test result that has not been released yet.

DMG Bonus

Current formula:

• DMG Bonus = 1 + Caster Damage Increase – Target Damage Taken Reduction

This item currently involves the most cards. Most card descriptions that include “Attack Damage Increase/Decrease”, “Damage Taken Increase/Decrease”, “Damage Bonus Increase/Decrease”, “Damage Taken Reduction Increase/Decrease” all fall under this category.

The above statuses are calculated additively in this section. “Caster Damage Bonus increased”, “Caster Attack Damage increased”, “Target Damage Taken increased”, “Target Damage Taken Reduction decreased” values will be added together, followed by subtracting the value of “Caster Damage Bonus decreased”, “Caster Attack Damage decreased”, “Target Damage Taken decreased”, “Target Damage Taken Reduction increased”.

The lowest possible value of this item is 0.3; hence, it is impossible to achieve complete damage immunity through stacking buffs like Damage Taken Reduction.

Incantation/Ultimate/Ritual Might

Current formula:

• Incantation/Ultimate/Ritual Might = 1 + Incantation/ Ultimate/ Ritual Might

Incantation Might increases Incantation Damage of the character, while Ultimate and Ritual Might boost Ultimate Damage.

This item’s value can go below 1, but there are currently no Debuff cards that reduce Incantation/Ultimate/Ritual Might; it can also be reduced to 0, making you deal 0 damage.

Critical Bonus

Current formula:

• Critical Bonus = 1 + Caster Critical Damage Bonus – Target Critical Defense

This item only applies when the caster scores a Critical hit.

All Critical Damage Bonus and Critical Defense calculations are additive/subtractive.

Example:

The character’s total “Critical Damage” is 180% and we receive a “Critical Damage Increase” buff of 15%, and the enemy receives a “Reduce Critical Defense” debuff of 20%.

Since the enemy has a base stat of 10% Critical Defense, the final calculation would be: 

This item’s value cannot go below 1.1.; this means the lowest Critical Damage a caster can perform upon scoring a Critical hit is minimally a 10% increase from the original value.

Afflatus Bonus

This item only applies when the caster has an Afflatus advantage; in such cases; this item’s value increases from 1 to 1.3, translating to a 30% DMG increase.  

The Afflatus Cycle is shown below.

Inherent Skill Damage Multiplier

This item references “Skills”, which includes Incantations and Ultimates. Refer to the specific multiplier of the casted Incantation or Ultimate.

For instance, this item’s value is 1.5 with a 150% multiplier, 1.6 with 160%, 1.7 with 170% and so on.

Genesis Damage (True Damage) Formula

Genesis Damage is calculated as follows:

1. Attack-based Genesis Damage = Base Attack * (1 + Attack Increase) * Skill Multiplier
2. Defence-based Genesis Damage = Base Reality Defense * (1 + Reality Defense Increase – Reality Defence Reduction) * Skill Multiplier

As of writing, only the above types of Genesis Damage exist. The former is seen in the kits of characters like Voyager and Dikke, while the latter is seen in the kits of characters like Ms. NewBabel and Balloon Party.

Healing Formula

The Healing Formula is defined as follows:

• Final HP Recovery = (Attack * (1 + Attack Increase)) * (1 + Healing Done) * (1 – Healing Reduction) * Critical Strike Factor * Skill Multiplier
• Critical Strike Factor = 1 + Critical DMG * 0.3 [only applies when a critical heal occurs]

The Critical Strike Factor only applies when a critical strike occurs.

• Critical DMG includes:
  • Inherent Critical DMG of the character (130% + Critical Technique/20)
  • Critical DMG provided by Resonance and Psychubes
  • Critical DMG provided by Buffs and Debuffs

For example, if a character has an inherent Critical DMG stat of 150% and receives a 10% increase in Critical DMG from a buff, the actual Critical Strike Factor for healing would be: 1 + (0.5 + 0.1) * 0.3 = 1.18.

Do note that certain characters like Sotheby cannot land Critical Hits with their healing cards.

Percentage Healing Formula

The Percentage Healing Formula is defined as follows:

• Final HP Recovery = Lost HP * (1 + Healing Done) * (1 – Healing Reduction) * Critical Strike Factor * Skill Multiplier
• Critical Strike Factor = 1 + Critical DMG * 0.3 [only applies when a critical strike occurs]

Same rules from the original Healing Formula will apply. A good example of a card which utilises this formula would be Balloon Party’s Skill 2.

Shield Formula

The Shield Formula is defined as follows:

• Final Shield Amount = Attack * (1 + Attack Increase) * Skill Multiplier

As shown above, Shield Cards cannot land Critical Hits and are unaffected by Healing Done and Healing Reduction. An exception would be Necrologist’s Ultimate, which also follows this formula, but can be influenced by Healing Done.

Attributes

Attack

All characters have an inherent Attack stat which increases as their level goes up. The Attack% provided by Resonance and Psychubes only affects this inherent Attack Stat; hence, flat Attack bonuses are only added to the total stat obtained after the percentage increase has been calculated and added.

HP

All characters have an inherent HP stat which increases as their level goes up. The HP% provided by Resonance and Psychubes only affects this inherent HP Stat; hence, flat HP bonuses are only added to the total stat obtained after the percentage increase has been calculated and added.

Reality DEF

All characters have an inherent Reality DEF stat which increases as their level goes up. The Reality DEF% provided by Resonance and Psychubes only affects this inherent Reality DEF Stat; hence, flat Reality DEF bonuses are only added to the total stat obtained after the percentage increase has been calculated and added.

Mental DEF

All characters have an inherent Mental DEF stat which increases as their level goes up. The Mental DEF% provided by Resonance and Psychubes only affects this inherent Mental DEF Stat; hence, flat Mental DEF bonuses are only added to the total stat obtained after the percentage increase has been calculated and added.

Penetration Rate

Penetration Rate causes the character to ignore part of the target’s Reality/Mental DEF to cause DMG.

When there are multiple sources of Penetration Rate, they are calculated cumulatively, with (1 – Penetration Rate) being multiplied by the target’s Reality/Mental DEF.

Critical Technique

All characters have an inherent Critical Technique stat; flat bonuses to this stat are only awarded through increasing Insight.

Critical Technique can be considered a “pseudo-stat”, and provides bonuses for a character’s Critical Rate and Damage (refer to entries below).

Critical Rate

A character’s inherent Critical Rate stat is defined as Critical Technique/30, and Critical Rate obtained through Resonance, Psychubes etc. are added on from there.

For instance, if the Critical Technique of a character is 315, their inherent Critical Rate would be .

The character’s actual Critical Rate in combat is their current Critical Rate – Target Critical Resist Rate; on a 1:1 scale, a decrease in Target Critical Resist Rate is equivalent to an increase in Critical Rate and vice versa.

Critical Resist Rate

All characters have an inherent Critical Resist Rate stat of 0, which can be increased through Resonance, Psychubes etc.

Refer to the entry above regarding Critical Resist Rate’s effect.

Critical DMG

A character’s inherent Critical DMG stat is defined as (130% + Critical Technique/20), and Critical DMG obtained through Resonance, Psychubes etc. are added on from there. [The Critical DMG base for all characters is 130%.]

For instance, if the Critical Technique of a character is 315, their inherent Critical DMG would be  

The character’s actual Critical DMG in combat is their current Critical DMG – Target Critical DEF; on a 1:1 scale, a decrease in Target Critical DEF is equivalent to an increase in Critical DMG and vice versa.

Critical DEF

All characters have an inherent Critical DEF stat of 0, which can be increased through Resonance, Psychubes etc.

Refer to the entry above regarding Critical DEF’s effect.

DMG Bonus

All characters have an inherent DMG Bonus stat of 0, which can be increased through Resonance, Psychubes etc.

DMG Bonus is rather complex; we would recommend checking the Damage Formula section for further understanding.  

DMG Taken Reduction

All characters have an inherent DMG Taken Reduction stat of 0, which can be increased through Resonance, Psychubes etc.

DMG Taken Reduction is rather complex; we would recommend checking the Damage Formula section for further understanding.  

Incantation Might

As of writing, the only universal method for characters to obtain Incantation Might is through Psychubes; it affects Incantation damage as a separate multiplicative factor of (1+ Incantation Might).

Incantation Might affects neither a character’s healing nor their Ultimate DMG.

Ultimate Might

As of writing, the only universal method for characters to obtain Ultimate Might is through Psychubes; it affects Ultimate damage as a separate multiplicative factor of (1+ Ultimate Might).

Ultimate Might affects neither a character’s healing nor their Incantation DMG.

Healing Done

As of writing, the only universal method for characters to obtain Healing Done is through Psychubes; it affects Incantation heals as a separate multiplicative factor of (1+ Healing Done).

Leech Rate

Leech Rate allows the attacker to recover HP proportional to the damage dealt; this healing can be boosted by Healing Done. As of writing, Leech Rate is a rare stat which can only be obtained through specific character buffs, while some skills and ultimates come with inherent Leech Rate e.g. Eternity’s Ultimate.

DMG Heal

DMG Heal allows the recipient to recover health proportional to the damage received; this healing cannot be boosted by Healing Done. As of writing, DMG Heal is a rare stat which can only be obtained through specific character buffs.

If you have knowledge from other MMORPGs, you may recognize that the essence of “DMG Heal” is not actually healing, but rather another form of Damage Mitigation.

For instance, if the original damage taken is 1000 points and is mitigated by 50%, the damage taken is now 500 points; if 20% healing is received, it would heal 100 points after the hit is taken, resulting in a net decrease of 400 points. Assuming the 20% is another multiplier for Damage Mitigation, the actual damage taken in this example would be: 

Do note that DMG Heal can only occur if the character is still alive after taking damage. 

Card Types

In the current combat system, there are six major categories of cards: Attack, Health, Debuff, Buff,  Counter  and Ultimate.

• The categorisation of cards is independent of their actual effects and mainly determines what control skills can affect them.
• Debuff Cards may still have damaging effects, while Attack Cards may even have healing effects; nothing is set in stone.  
• The same skill may have different card types at different star levels.
• For example, the 1-star card of the skill “Commandment V” is categorised under Attack while the 2-star and 3-star cards are categorised under Debuff.
• Skills that have “additional effects if certain conditions are met” will not change the card type when triggering the additional effects.
• For example, Kanjira inflicts [Confusion] with her Skill 2 when in [Pearl’s Fortune] state but the skill will remain an Attack card upon inflicting this [Neg Status].

Attack Cards

• Nothing happens when the caster uses Attack cards under the following statuses (Moxie is still gained and hand is still cleared):
  • Petrified
  • Frozen
  • Nightmare
  • Daze
  • Disarm
• There are few characters without Attack cards, explaining why Disarm only affects Attack cards.
• AoE Damage cards will target another random enemy.

Health Cards

• Nothing happens when the caster uses Health cards under the following statuses (Moxie is still gained and hand is still cleared):
  • Petrified
  • Frozen
  • Nightmare
  • Daze
  • Silence
• These are cards that directly recover HP; cards that provide shields are considered Buff cards.

Debuff Cards

• Nothing happens when the caster uses Debuff cards under the following statuses (Moxie is still gained and hand is still cleared):
  • Petrified
  • Frozen
  • Nightmare
  • Daze
  • Silence

• Debuff cards can be categorised into Stats Down, Neg Status and Control.
• Debuffs can be cleansed by the enemy.

Buff Cards

• Nothing happens when the caster uses Buff cards under the following statuses (Moxie is still gained and hand is still cleared):
  • Petrified
  • Frozen
  • Nightmare
  • Daze
  • Silence

• Buff cards can be categorised into Stats Up, Pos Status and Shield.
• Buffs can be dispelled by the enemy.
• The effects of Buff cards and Debuff cards do not correspond one-to-one; the control of Debuff cards should correspond to the right category of Buff cards.
• Among our current characters, there are 11 variations of Insight Buffs. The following Attribute Improvement Buffs may appear in the future:
  • Attack Increase
  • Healing Done Increase
  • Critical Rate Increase
  • Critical Resist Rate Increase
  • Critical Defense Increase

Counter Cards

• Nothing happens when the caster uses Counter cards under the following statuses (Moxie is still gained and hand is still cleared):
  • Petrified
  • Frozen
  • Nightmare
  • Daze
  • Silence

• Counter cards have different effects such as reflecting damage, counter-attacking and healing.
• Counter effects are triggered by the enemy’s actions, and can be dispelled by the enemy.

Ultimate Cards

• Nothing happens when the caster uses Ultimate cards under the following statuses (Moxie is not lowered and Ultimate is returned to your hand):
  • Petrified
  • Frozen
  • Nightmare
  • Daze
  • Seal
• It’s important to note that Ultimate cards are a distinct category and are not automatically classified as Attack cards just because most of them deal damage.

Enemy Card Types

• Before the start of each round of battle, different numbers of card patterns will appear above the enemy’s HP bar, indicating the number of actions and the type of cards used by the character in this round.

• The red sword represents Attack cards.

• The green leaves represent Health cards.

• The purple diamonds represent Debuff cards.

• The blue funnel represents Buff cards.

• The yellow shield represents Counter cards.

• The black arch represents Ultimate cards.

• Some enemies only have 1-star cards while most enemies have 2-star cards (currently no enemies have 3-star cards as of v1.1). 2-star cards have a silver gradient with a line on the right as shown. 3-star cards have a golden background with a line on the right as shown.

• When the enemy is controlled and the corresponding skill cannot take effect, the icon will have a “Forbidden” symbol as shown, and their moxie gain will be calculated at the end of the round.

Buff Effects

Commonly known as “Buffs”, Buff Effects are the beneficial effects for the caster and/or their teammates.

Not all Buffs are applied by Buff cards; they may also be applied by Health and Counter cards.

Buffs fall into the following categories: Stats Up, Pos Status, Shield, and Counter.

Stats Up

Currently, 6 types of Stats Up Buffs have been implemented, which can be subdivided according to their functions:

• Affects the Attack and Defense item in the Damage Formula

• Reality Defense Up: Increases Reality DEF
• Mental Defense Up: Increases Mental DEF
• Increased Penetration Rate: equivalent to a decrease in the enemy’s Reality and Mental DEF
• Affects the DMG Bonus item in the Damage Formula

• Increased DMG Reduction: The enemy’s Damage Increase item is reduced when they attack. Cards described as “Reduced Damage Taken” will provide such a Buff.
• DMG Bonus: Self-explanatory; increased damage when performing attacks. Skills described as causing “Increased Damage” provide such Buffs.
• Affects survival
• Increased DMG Heal: When the caster is injured, HP will be restored based on a certain proportion of the damage.

Multiple Buffs of the same type cannot coexist. They follow the two principles of higher effects replacing lower effects and, if they have the same effect value, longer duration replacing shorter duration.

Insight Levels will also provide hidden Buffs for the above attributes, which will be superimposed when the Buffs of the corresponding attributes exist at the same time.

For instance, when an Insight bonus of “when entering combat, Reality DEF and Mental DEF are increased by 10%“, and a Buff of “Reality DEF increased by 25%” is obtained, the caster’s Reality DEF is increased by a total of 35%.

Pos Status

Pos Status Buffs provide a special status to the character. It is also possible for these Buffs to improve attributes, but this does not conflict with Stats Up Buffs, as Pos Status and Stats Up are superimposed  when affecting the same attribute.

For instance, The Fool’s “Fool in the Play” is a Pos Status Buff with the effect of “DMG Taken Reduction and Critical Resist Rate +25%“. It can exist at the same time as the Stats Up Buff of “DMG Taken Reduction +15%“. The final result cumulates to 40% DMG Taken Reduction.

Different types of Pos Status Buffs can also coexist, and they are calculated in the same way when they increase the same attribute.

Pos Status Buffs can be subdivided into 4 categories:

• The effect cannot be stacked and the duration will be reset after repeated casting.
• The effect cannot be stacked; when casted repeatedly, the effect accumulates in layers. After taking effect, the number of layers will be reduced by X.
• The effect can be stacked and the duration of each layer is calculated independently.
• The effect can be stacked; when casted repeatedly, the effect can be stacked up to X layers. 

Shield

When a shielded character takes damage, damage is absorbed by the Shield and the corresponding value of the Shield is subtracted.

From this, we can tell that even if the Shield completely absorbs damage, it still falls within the category of “after being attacked, damage is received” and hence can trigger counter-effects such as “Balloon of Innocence”.

On the other hand, dodging an enemy attack wouldn’t be categorised as “after being attacked, damage is received”, so counter-effects such as “Balloon of Innocence” will not be triggered.

Shield Buffs are not considered Stats Up/Pos Status, so they do not meet the conditions of “when in [Stats Up] / [Pos Status]”.

Counter

Counter is an effect launched when the enemy attacks, which can currently be subdivided into 2 categories.

• Interference before being attacked by the enemy: Taunt
• Interference after being attacked by the enemy: Counterattack, HP Recovery, Moxie Reduction

Note that “after being attacked” here actually means “after being attacked and damage is received”; see the previous entry for details.

Counter does not belong to Stats Up/Pos Status, so it cannot meet the conditions of “when in [Stats Up] / [Pos Status]”.

Counter Buffs are not necessarily provided by Counter Cards, and Counter Cards do not necessarily provide Counter Buffs only.

For instance, Voyager’s Skill 2 also provides a Counter Buff of “Interstellar Blessing” and a Pos Status Buff of “Sturdiness”, so after Voyager casts this skill, the “[Stats Up] / [Pos Status]” condition is satisfied.

Debuff Effects

Commonly known as “Debuffs”, Debuff Effects are the adverse effects applied on enemy targets.

Excluding Insight Passives and Ultimates, skills that apply Debuffs will be classified as Debuff cards, meaning there is slightly less nuance as compared to Buff cards.

Debuffs fall into the following categories: Stats Down, Neg Status, and Control.

Differing Debuff types lead to different effect eligibility; for instance, the trigger condition for the Psychube “Blasphemer of Night” is “the target has 2 or more [Neg Status]”.

Stats Down

Currently, 6 types of Stats Down Debuffs have been implemented, which can be subdivided according to their functions:

• Affects the Attack and Defense item in the Damage Formula

• Reality Defense Down: Enemies’ Reality DEF is decreased
• Mental Defense Down: Enemies’ Mental DEF is decreased
• Affects the DMG Bonus item in the Damage Formula

• Increased DMG Taken: The value of the DMG Bonus item is increased when the caster attacks. Skills described as “increase damage received” will provide such Debuffs.
• DMG Bonus Reduction: The value of the DMG Bonus item is increased when the enemy caster attacks. Skills described as “reduced damage dealt will provide such Debuffs.
• Affects the Critical Bonus item in the Damage Formula

• Critical Rate Reduction: Enemy Critical Rate decreases
• Critical Resist Rate Reduction: Equivalent to increased Critical Rate for our side
• Critical DEF Reduction: Equivalent to increased damage from our Critical hits

Multiple Debuffs of the same type cannot coexist. They follow the two principles of higher effects replacing lower effects and, if they have the same effect value, longer duration replacing shorter duration.

When the enemy’s attributes are reduced to a negative number, it is equivalent to a corresponding improvement in our attributes.

For example, if the enemy has a built-in 10% Damage Reduction and a “Damage Reduction -20%” Debuff, while the caster has a “DMG Bonus +15%” Buff, this is equivalent to a total of 25% DMG Bonus for the caster.

Neg Status

Similar to the relationship between Stats Up and Pos Status, Neg Status can exist at the same time as Stats Down, and will be superimposed when affecting the same attributes.

When the enemy’s attributes are reduced to a negative number, it is equivalent to a corresponding improvement in our attributes.

Neg Status Debuffs include, but are not limited to:

• Poison
• Corrode
• Confusion
• Enchanted
• Weakness
• Rigidity

As shown above, with the exception of Control Status, all Debuffs with a “special displayed name” in their descriptors are likely Neg Status Debuffs.

Neg Status Debuffs can be subdivided into 4 categories:

• The effect cannot be stacked and the duration will be reset after repeated casting.
• The effect cannot be stacked; when casted repeatedly, the effect accumulates in layers. After taking effect, the number of layers will be reduced by X.
• The effect can be stacked and the duration of each layer is calculated independently.
• The effect can be stacked; when casted repeatedly, the effect can be stacked up to X layers.

Control

The following types of Control Debuffs currently exist:

• Daze: Unable to act.
• Petrify: Unable to act, cleansed after being hit by Reality DMG.
• Freeze: Unable to act, cleansed after being hit by Mental DMG.
• Nightmare: Unable to act, cleansed after being hit by any form of DMG.
• Disarm: Unable to use Attack cards.
• Silence: Unable to use Buff, Debuff, Health, and Counter cards.
• Seal: Unable to use Ultimate cards.

While different Control Debuffs can coexist, “Unable to act” Debuffs are inclusive of the effects of “Unable to use” Debuffs to begin with.

A Debuff like “Rigidity” is considered Neg Status; it only becomes a Control Debuff when it reaches 2 layers and is converted into “Petrify”.

Round Process

Each round is divided into 6 stages:

1. At the beginning of the round, the condition “at the beginning of the round” is fulfilled, and Debuff and Buff durations are reduced by 1. If a character retires and there is an Assist character, the Assist character will appear at this stage.
2. During the replenishing stage, if the number of cards in your hand does not reach the upper limit due to reasons such as the character retiring, or Moxie reduction and the resultant disappearance of Ultimate cards, your hand is replenished at this stage. If your hand is full, this stage is skipped.
3. During the action stage, you may consider:

• the order of playing cards
• the target of playing cards
• which cards to play
• whether to use Tuning
• which cards to merge  

4. In the combat stage, you will witness the results of your decisions made during the action stage.
5. During the card drawing stage, your hand is replenished with cards. If your hand is full, skip this stage.
6. At the end of the round, the condition “at the end of the round” is fulfilled.

Our Buffs are mostly settled at the beginning of the round, while enemy Buffs are mostly settled at the end of the round.

Due to the order of settlement at the beginning of the round, a 3 round Buff triggered “at the beginning of the round” can actually take effect 3 times:

• The Buff is applied during the first round of the combat stage and the buff shows the remaining 3 rounds.
• Triggered for the first time at the beginning of round 2, the number of rounds the buff lasts is reduced by 1 and the Buff shows the remaining 2 rounds.
• Triggered for the second time at the beginning of round 3, the number of rounds the Buff lasts is reduced by 1 and the Buff shows 1 round remaining.
• Triggered for the third time at the beginning of round 4, the number of rounds the Buff lasts is reduced by 1 and the Buff disappears.

It is speculated that after the last stage is settled, all stages become consistent for both sides for the following rounds (excluding replenishing stage).

During the combat stage, the enemy follows the card priority below:

1. Ultimate cards
2. Buff/Counter cards
3. Health/Attack/Debuff cards

At the same priority level, 2-star cards are played first; if all cards are of the same star level, the order is determined randomly.

As mentioned above, the enemy’s round process does not have a replenishing stage, and their actions are determined in the action stage of the previous round. Even if the number of enemies are reduced or controlled, their actions will not be modified.

Card Dealing

Card Stash Limit

• 1 Character on field : Card limit = 4
• 2 Characters on field : Cards limit = 5
• 3 Characters on field without support unit: Card limit = 6
• 3 Characters on field with support unit: Card limit = 7
• 4 Characters on field : Card limit = 8

When entering a battle, the system will try to deal one of each different cards from each character into your card stash.

If your card limit is 7, then the card added to your stash from the left will be the same as your rightmost card.

Thus, when your cards are all 1 star in a card limit 7 battle, you will be able to combine a card every single round.

This is the most efficient dealing state because a battle with card limit of 6 and card limit of 8 both cannot make this happen. A battle with a card limit of 5 can allow this to happen, but you will lose AP, thus proving to be inefficient.

If your cards in hand are below the card limit, the system will deal cards into your hand until it hits the card limit.

During this process, if the leftmost 1 star card is the same as the newly dealt 1 star card, they will merge into a 2 star card and give 1 moxie to the respective character.

If a character’s moxie becomes full during this dealing stage, the system will immediately deal the character’s ultimate card into your hand.

Thus, if a character’s moxie becomes full via cards merging automatically during this dealing phase, the character will get their ultimate in the same round.

When a character leaves the field or has their moxie reduced, which causes the ultimate card to disappear, then one additional card will be dealt to get your hand back to the card limit in the replenishment stage of your turn.

When the support unit enters the field, the first two cards dealt to your hand will be the support unit’s incantation 1 and 2.

Except when first entering the battle or when a support unit enters the field, every card dealt to your hand will be random but with a pity system.

This ensures that the amount of cards dealt will almost be the same for each character.

Enemy Card Dealing

This is still mostly unexplored territory and is not fully understood yet.

We know that the enemy has their own hand of cards and follow some rules to play them, combining cards also adds a moxie to their respective character.

This is still a speculation and unreleased test below.

First, the enemy’s hand might be fixed as 5.

The enemy will prioritize playing ultimate and 2 star cards. If the 2 star card is a buff card and if they already have the respective buff activated on themself, the 2 star buff card playing priority may be modified.

If the enemy’s first move triggers a combine, the enemy will get 2 moxie after their move.

If the enemy’s second move triggered a combine, it might increase their moxie before their move.

The situation above can’t explain why getting max moxie during the dealing phase won’t allow the enemy to use their ultimate until the next round. Requires further testing.

Tuning

Tuning is Vertin’s ability. There are 2 types as of now, First Melody and Grand Orchestra.

Using a tune will cost “Timekeeper’s Moxie.” The maximum “Timekeeper’s Moxie” is 99 and can be obtained via the following methods:

	First Melody	Grand Orchestra
Using arcane skill	4	4
Moving arcane skill	3	5
Merging incantation	2	6
Recovery per round	5	0
Starting moxie	15	0

As seen above, the preferences for gaining Timekeeper’s Moxie is obvious and the respective efficiencies can be shown via 2 different scenarios…

Playing 3 cards every round:

• First Melody: 4 + 4 + 4 + 5 + 17
• Grand Orchestra: 4 + 4 + 4 = 12

Moving a card, combining them and playing 2 cards every round:

• First Melody: 3 + 5 + 4 + 4 + 5 = 21
• Grand Orchestra: 5 + 6 + 4 + 4 = 19

The 2 scenarios depicted above assume a 7-card limit, with no ultimate card present and the worst possible draw with no automatic combinations. This also suggests that as long as the entire hand consists of 1-star cards, you will always be able to combine two of them.

Next, we will take a look at an analysis of the two different tuning sets.

First Melody

• Skill 1: Generates a special incantation which can be upgraded by fusing with any 1-star incantation.
• Skill 2: Retains the tiers of all current Incantations and randomly changes them into new ones.

Skill 1 consumes 40/ 50/ 60/ 70 Timekeeper’s Moxie, increasing after each use with a limit of 70.

Skill 1 generates a special incantation which disappears at the end of the round if not used, but can be merged with other cards. The merged card will not lose a star-level even at the end of the round.

Skill 1 can only be used once every round.

Skill 2 consumes a fixed 25 Timekeeper’s Moxie.

Skill 2 will randomize your hand using the same logic as the cards dealt at the start of the battle.

When there is an ultimate card in your hand, it will be retained. There is no limit to how many times this can be used per round.

You can use Skill 1 Snd skill 2 together every round as long as you have enough Timekeeper’s moxie. As the maximum Timekeeper’s moxie you can have is 99, this is of course only possible if your Skill 1 costs 60 or less.

Skill 2 does not provide any direct or obvious benefit from a numbers perspective. In a fight, Skill 2 is typically used to reroll your hand using the logic from the starting deal to ensure that you find cards for a specific character. In other words, the calculation of Skill 2’s benefit is mainly based on the difference between your “ideal” card and your current hand.

Skill 1 obtains a single target attack multiplier equivalent to 100%*attack or the effect that this multiplier creates. If a 1-star card and a 2-star card are fused into a 3-star card through skill 1, and 1 extra point of moxie is actually obtained in the process, in which case, this use of Skill 1 will single target attack multiplier equivalent to 200%*attack. Each point of Timekeeper’s Moxie can be converted into a single target attack multiplier of 2.5%/2.0%/1.7%/1.4%, and the conversion rate when fusion is triggered is 5.0%/4.0%/3.3%/2.9%.

Grand Orchestra

• Skill 1: Generates a special incantation which can be upgraded by fusing with any 1/2-star incantation.
• Skill 2: Can move an Arcane Incantation once for free. This movement does not generate Moxie.

Skill 1 consumes 60/ 70/ 80/ 90 Timekeeper’s Moxie. Increasing after each use with a limit of 90.

Skill 1 generates a special incantation which disappears at the end of the round if not used, but can be merged with other cards. The merged card will not lose a star-level even at the end of the round.

Skill 1 can only be used once every round.

Skill 2 consumes a fixed 35 Timekeeper’s Moxie.

While Skill 2 states that the movement does not generate moxie, this is referring to character moxie. The movement still generates Timekeeper’s Moxie as per normal. As a result, in reality, Skill 2 technically consumes 30 Timekeeper’s Moxie. If said movement is used to merge incantations, this further generates 6 moxie, bringing the consumption down to 24 Timekeeper’s Moxie.

Skill 2 can only be used once per action phase.

Skill 1 obtains a single target attack multiplier equivalent to 200%*attack or the effect that this multiplier creates.

In extreme cases, it is only used to upgrade 1-star cards, then it is actually equivalent to a single target attack multiplier equivalent to 100%*attack. Each point of Timekeeper’s Moxie can be converted into a single target attack multiplier of 3.3%/2.9%/2.5%/2.2%.

When only 1 star card is upgraded, the conversion rate is 1.7%/1.4%/1.3%/1.1%. There are adjacent 1-star cards and 2-star cards. If you choose to use skill 1 to upgrade the 1-star card and then fuse it, calculation is the same as directly upgrading the 2-star card. But in actuality, this is equivalent to “burning” a 1-star card without taking up the card action and replacing it with 1 moxie, which can increase the number of cards drawn in the next round.

There are three possibilities after skill 2 moves:

1. No fusion,
2. Single fusion,
3. Double fusion.

 The actual benefits are equivalent to:

1. No benefit (consuming 30 Timekeeper’s Moxie), 
2. Fusion obtaining 1 moxie (consuming 24 Timekeeper’s Moxie),
3. Fusion resulting in an increase of 100% single target attack multiplier and obtaining 1 moxie (consuming 18 Timekeeper’s Moxie).

If we were to convert this into single target attack multipliers:

1. 30 Timekeeper’s Moxie for 0%
2. 24 Timekeeper’s Moxie for 100%
3. 18 Timekeeper’s Moxie for 200%.

In actuality, it is impossible to come across case 1. In these situations, you will instead choose not to activate skill 2, so you will only encounter situations 2 and 3. In case 2, each point of Timekeeper’s Moxie can be converted into a single target attack multiplier of 4.2%, and in case 3, it is 11.1%. By comparing skill one and skill two, we can see that the Grand Orchestra mainly needs skill two to realise their value.

It can be seen from the comparison that the two laws are applicable to different situations.

Let’s take Hearthstone as an example. First Melody is suitable for aggro and combo decks. The value in the deck is concentrated in certain high-value cards, and you can get started stably by shuffling the cards.

Grand Orchestra is suitable for medium and slow tempo and resource decks. The average quality of single cards is higher, which is reflected in the fact that the overall cards are mainly 2-star cards, and the team’s ultimate move is quick to turn around.

There is currently no obvious difference between the two, and both are irreplaceable in their respective fields.

Special Mechanics

Role: Overflow critical hit rate is converted into critical hit damage.

Appearing on characters such as Regulus and Eagle, the overflow critical hit rate will be converted into critical hit damage at a ratio of 1:1.

Role: When you lose your moxie

Appearing on characters such as Centurion, the number of triggers only takes into account the number of times the moxie is lost, and has nothing to do with the actual amount of moxie reduced each time the moxie is lost.

Role: All characters on the field will be cleansed immediately

Appearing on characters such as Sotheby, it will resolve all poisoning and healing done by both the enemy and ourselves, including the poisoning done by the enemy to us and the healing done by the enemy to the enemy.

The damage/healing that is resolved in advance maintains its original characteristics. For example, a critical hit that was not originally possible will not be critical when resolved in advance, and so on for other attributes.

Role: Spell Enhancement

Appearing on characters such as An-an Lee and Bette, it will only strengthen the cards of the characters with buffs.

Role: Counterattack

Appearing on characters such as Voyager and Balloon Party, it will only be triggered if you survive after being injured. At the same time, it cannot be triggered if you are in a state such as [Daze] when you are injured.

The damage dealt will be determined by the attributes of the caster, but in the damage statistics, the damage dealt will be attributed to the character who was attacked.

For example, Voyager applies counterattack to Regulus. The damage triggered by the counterattack is only related to the attributes of Voyager, but the damage triggered by the counterattack is counted in the damage caused by Regulus.

Character Insight: Refrain

Appears on Voyager. After taking 3 actions, they will enter the Refrain state. Only by taking 1 more action can the Refrain be converted into Silence.

So actually the negative status [Silence] is triggered every 4 actions.

Character Buff: Prayer

Appearing on Necrologist. The healing amount of the prayer is increased by the healing rate and cannot be critically hit. It can save the character who self-destructed through the ultimate move. When it exists at the same time as the Balloon of Innocence, the prayer is settled first and then the health value after the prayer is restored.

 Character Ultimate: Forest Eulogy

Appearing on Nick Bottom, he loses his own health. All buffs are given to the shielded teammate. The time for obtaining moxie is at the beginning of the round instead of at the end of the round. See here for

Character Insight: Arcane Stamp

Appearing on Twins Sleep. It can be triggered in the first round of the battle, and then it will be triggered in every odd-numbered round.

Character Insight: Glory Restored

Appearing on Darley Clatter, it will only be triggered when the damage is taken and HP is still less than 50% after the health recovery is calculated.

Character Ultimate: Uninvited reviewer

It appears on Bkornblume. The current actual effect is to seal it for 3 turns. It is changed in CN to 2 turns.

Psychube: Brave New World

Skills that do not cause damage will also consume the buff. When performing consecutive ultimate moves, the buff can be superimposed on the next skill. The buff can be saved across rounds.

Psychube: Luxurious Leisure

There is no DMG increase for the first ultimate move used.

Psychube: Her Second Life

Can be triggered by any mass ultimate move, including mass attacks, mass heals, mass buffs and mass debuffs.

If the unit retires during the ultimate move, “Her Second Life” recovery will still be calculated after retiring.