1. What are stats for
- Damage formula: Damage = Offense² × Skill Potency ÷ Mitigation
- Offense is Attack and Mitigation is Defense for physical attacks, while Magic and Mind serve the respective purposes for magical attacks.
- Because Offense scales by its square, always buff your offensives and debuff enemy offensives first, then buff your defensives and debuff enemy defensives later. For the same reason, concentrate on only one Offensive for each character or else you will be bad at both: a numerical difference of 20-30 can mean literally less than half damage. An exception is that if you want a main caster to get survivability from Counter Attack + HP Drain, the Weapon Master crystal buffs both the Magic you want for your main attacks as well as the Counter Attack retaliation damage that feeds your HP drain.
- The HP stat increases survivability directly but is harder to heal back. The Defense and Mind stats only increase one side of survivability but don't affect the difficulty of healing - and the Mind stat in particular increases healing by its factor. An endgame healer after buffs will dump out 304 AoE healing for a normal skill, so in general much more HP than that becomes difficult for the healer to sustain without support. Use the armor-specific bonuses first always as they scale better post-equipment, work on all sources of damage *and* don't make your character any harder to heal.
- The best support to healing is to stick HP Drain on every character so that they can do non-healing actions and still keep themselves topped off. You will generally deal much more damage than you take, so this is mostly self sustainable even without a healer, and tanks will be able to sustain with both a healer and HP Drain.
- Agility affects the number of turns you get linearly up to 50 base stat. After that you can only affect it further beyond 50 with buffs. Debuffs and buffs don't scale with any other stat, so generally it's better to stick extremely high Agility on characters focusing on these.
- Critical hits both increase physical damage by 50% as well as gives you the same Overdrive boost as a single skill used. So a skill that crits thrice essentially has 4 times the Overdrive boost of a skill that doesn't crit at all. Accessories are available later to let heals and magic crit, while early on it affects *only* physical attacks. The Overdrive boost of crits is only a thing for characters with multiple attacks - otherwise, you're far better off charging Overdrive by exploiting elemental weaknesses. In addition, because critical damage is generally 50%, if you don't double this with Crit Damage up, the damage contribution per Critical Rate passive is only 7.5%.
- Overdrive increases both damage and healing by 25%, reduces damage taken and halves TP usage so you want to stay in this zone at all times.
- Counterattacks count as a physical attack in every way, including Overdrive effects, threat creation, HP drain and TP restored, with a potency of 1. Because of this, they're a lot less effective on characters with crappy Attack stats.
- Passives that do not modify the Attributes on the character screen will never stack, passives that do will always stack, and More Rare Drops and Increased Drops in particular always applies as long as its bearer is in your 8-man party (it does not apply if its bearer does not enter combat).
- Due to square scaling with Attack/Magic and linear multiplicative scaling with other stats, Offense stats normally scale at 25% for the first passive, 22.5% for the second, 20% for the third and 18.5% for the fourth. You can't have more than 4 since you can only have 1 passive per equipment piece, 1 if it's an innate passive and 1 from a class emblem. For this reason, unless it's used by mages for Counterattack leeching, Weapon Master usually isn't used unless you have at least three or more passives of the same type.

2. Buff extension and stacking
- Buffs and debuffs of the same name don't stack. If a weaker buff/debuff is applied later, it simply extends the earlier stronger buff/debuff. You can kill yourself fighting a Tadeye if you attempt say, All Break on it before using the item.
- When extending a buff or debuff, with the exception of the Overtime ability, in all cases when it does is set buff/debuff duration to its duration as if it was applied. Because of this, you 'waste' part of a turn extending buffs at 1 instead of waiting for them to tick down to zero (so this is only worth it if your extension skill is weaker than the skill that applied it), and for CC debuffs that only act on the enemy turn, you waste a complete turn.
- Buffs and debuffs of different names stack additively, and the base they act on is the *final* (post-accessory, post-crystal, post-passive) stats of a character going into combat. This differs from items, crystals and passives, which act on the *base* stats of a character before anything is equipped - so while the 4th +15% Atk passive on a level 48 Glenn only adds 17 Atk to a 3-passive base of 192 (i.e. a physical damage increase of 16%), a +15% Atk active buff skill acting on a 3-passive base of 192 is a 32% physical damage increase.
- CC debuffs (Paralyze, Blind, Inact, Silence) first apply directly to enemies, and then the number of times required to apply it again increases by 1 each time it is applied/extended. Because of this, you may want to reapply it during the resistance period to deplete resistance first in the timespan you know the enemy can't be hit with it, and save the last application for after the resistance fades.

3. Teambuilding
- Because you want to debuff enemy Offensives as soon as possible and buff your own Offensives as soon as possible, you will want to stick First Strike on as many of your frontliners are possible so they start with turn count zero, then *immediately* either apply their debuff/buff (debuffs are preferred as they persist on enemies even if you swap, while buffs only work on the characters if you keep them on the field), or swap to the character in the backline who will apply their debuff/buff. The order of characters acting is the order of their Agility, so if you want someone to buff before someone else buffs/debuffs, you will need to manipulate agility accordingly. AKA, you want exactly four Strike First users in your entire party. Debuffs/buffs are also not reliant on your stats minus agility, so they are exactly as effective early as during Overdrive, while you want your damage nukes to only hit during Overdrive to benefit from the damage bonus.
- The Wet/Dry/Oil/Heavy debuffs double damage taken from their element and immediately disappear and are not subject to resistances, so you should never have a character applying this on the same slot as a character exploiting it, or they won't chain properly.
- In each 'slot', you should have as many move types as possible to be less item reliant for Overdrive manipulation.
- In each 'slot', you should have one physical and one magical attacker, so you can still do *something* even if enemies use the Physical Resist or Magical Resist traits to nullify all damage of one type.

4. Ultra Moves
- Almost all characters deal the exact same damage potency - 300% AoE or 500% single target, to 400% and 700% respective with the Ultra Move up passive.
- Glenn does 200% AoE but does a quadruple Break with it too. Good for opening where damage is lower anyway for not being in Overdrive.
- Sienna has a 25% agility and critical buff on top of normal potency.
- Robb erases CC resistance when used and can thus permanently chain-CC targets that exceed your stats.

5. Aggro
- AoE and buff skills attract aggro from all enemies. ST and debuff skills attract aggro from affected enemies. Defending reduces aggro. Because only single target skills from enemies care about aggro and half the time they ignore aggro and randomly target anyway, skills that affect the Aggro value are basically worthless, and you should rely on skills that either pull damage from others regardless of who is targeted, or the skills that FORCE enemies to target the tank.

6. Character specific guide
- This section includes spoilers because you can't talk about characters without mentioning them, and the act of mentioning them is a spolier in itself. I'll arrange this in the order the characters show up for the most part so stop reading once you reach the point in the game you're at. Between your Crystals, innate skills and inherited Class Emblem skills, you can only have a maximum of 4 passives of the same type (and 3 if the character has no innate passive of that type), and a total of 11 passives: 3 per equipment piece and 5 in skills.

Glenn
- Attack-only character. Should use Heavy Armor for the defense.
- Quadruple Break from the point Ultra Moves are unlocked, later unlocks the ability to extend the Breaks indefinitely with All Break.
- Can be built either as a physical damage dealer or a debuffer (to be switched out immediately after Ultra Move/All Break for a damage dealer in the backline).
- Damage dealer: Sword Master + Atk Up x4 + HP Drain + Break Extender + Counter Attack + HP Sacrifice + Shield Ally + Agi Up/First Strike/Poison Hit. You want the Breaks at highest priority, Attack Stance, Cross Slash, Restrain and Whirlwind Strike. You're too slow for Oil Slash to be of any use.
- Debuffer: Agi Up x3 + HP Drain + Break Extender + First Strike + Shield Ally + TP Cost Down + Counterattack + 2 of Paralyze Hit/Caretaker/Increased Drops/Rare Drop Up. You want the Breaks at highest priority, Oil Slash, Lend Energy and Restrain, then you'll swap out to another character, and swap in only to extend Breaks. All Break has a max effect of 15% which is lower than the Ultra Move, but can extend the Ultra Move's effect indefinitely.
- Accessory: Stylish Accessory/Glasses.

Kylian
- Attack-only character. Should use Light Armor for the healing boost.
- Doesn't have multihit skills to make his Ultra Move worth chaining into Crit.
- Should be built only as a healer + debuffer (to be switched out immediately after Leg Aim and Alfreed's Will are applied).
- Build: Agi Up x2 + Dry Strike + Wet Strike + Break Extender + First Strike + Mnd Up x3 + HP Drain + Counterattack. You want Leg Aim and Alfreed's WIll at highest priority followed by the passives and stat boosters.
- Accessory: Glasses.

Lenne/Celestia
- Magic character. Should use Light Armor for the defense boost.
- Your first main caster. Use elemental skills to exploit the Dry/Wet applied by luck by Kylian's and whoever else's passives or the enemies' innate weaknesses.
- Build: Spear Master + Mag Up x4 + Specialist + Ultra Move + HP Drain + HP Sacrifice + 2 of Gain TP after Kill/TP Sacrifice/Counter TP Regen/Counter Mag Up. Note that Ultra Move and Ultra Move Up are NOT the same thing. First Strike is not recommended unless you intend to use Third Eye.
- Accessory: Rubber Duck/Comfy Scarf.

Robb
- Attack-only character. The best CC user in the game bar none. Should use Light Armor for the defense boost.
- Due to lack of multihits, not worth using as a charger. Due to lack of high potency skills, not worth using as a damage dealer.
- Build: Agi Up x4 + Increase Drops + Paralyze Hit + HP Drain + Counterattack + Break Extender + 2 of: Sleep Extender/Strike First/Paralyze Extender/Rare Drop Up. Prioritise Soul Parasite, Leg Shot, Sleep Powder, Throat Cut and Nature's Mirror. Soul Parasite can turn no-weakness monsters into monsters weak against *everything* except their Strength, which results in significantly increased Ultra Move charge rate if you're specced to exploit it.
- Accessory: Silph Armlet/Winged Cape/Glasses.

Sienna
- Attack-only character. No choice on armor.
- One of the only 2 crit-based characters in the game. Also has a self crit buff on Ultra Move making her the best crit-based character in the game. Also the only 100% success thief in the game (without accessory use). Also the best evade tank in the game. She pretty much *will* be in your party at all times as nobody can replace her.
- Build: Katana Master + 3x Atk Up + HP Drain + Counterattack + Crit Up + Crit Damage Up + 3x Agi Up. Stacking her Ultimate and Heroic Ode on this gives her 95% crit rate and overcapping would be a terrible waste, and this is the exact number required to hit the 50 agility cap.
- Dragonfang has been nerfed to be an attack with a random number of hits from 1-5 and no longer scales with agility, so it's up to you if you want to use it for the Ultra Move charge potential or Iaijutsu + Petal Storm (aka Senbonzakura) for the better average potency. Aside from that, Kesa Giri, Blade Reflection, Lightning Rod and Quickstep are compulsory. Shadowstep vs Quickstep is up to personal preference.
- Accessory: Life Thread.

Victor
- Best buffer in the game. Sucks at both Magic and Attack, so forget about using him for damage. Also the only HP Shield source, so he must wear Robes to boost that.
- Kinda sucks in base Agility, but because of Heroic Ode and how swapping works, he will *always* be buffed with Heroic Ode - plus he will only place his buff after literally every other Strike First user, so the first Ode will always go to the final characters after your first action - which is exactly what you want.
- Build: Mnd Up x3 + Agi Up x3 + TP Cost Down + Ultra Move + Strike First + Counter Mnd Up + Robes Bonus. The only character in the game who doesn't use HP Drain - because none of the moves you will use with him deal any damage at all, and if you want to deal damage with his slot after unloading his buffs you really should swap to someone else - which uses THEIR HP bar instead. Prioritise Heroic Ode, Poetic March, Efreet's Song/Sylph's Tale (which manufactures Weaknesses in the same way Rob does) and swap him in for Shielding Mazurka before an enemy ult.
- Accessory: Silph Armlet.

Ba'Thraz
- Useful for quite some time until Lenne gets access to Heaven's Tear. Caster.
- Heaven or Hell can't kill him if he's in the backline because time doesn't pass on buffs/debuffs in the backline, so it's a good way to boost damage early before using someone else for the lategame fight. Stack with Berserker for a stupid amount of burst damage with a 2 round prep time. Elemental Orbs is also a good skill to prevent party wipes to very strong attacks by optional bosses.
- Build: Amulet Master + Mag Up x4 + SOS Mag Up + HP Sacrifice + Silver Lining + Specialist + Ultra Move + HP Drain. You'll need to use someone else like Kylian or Glenn to swap into him as he doesn't have enough slots for Strike First.
- Accessory: Rubber Duck/Comfy Scarf.

Tomke
- One of the hardest characters to use in the game as you have to hunt all over the place to get skills for him. While technically with Hybrid stats, only his Physical skills are worth using, so build him like a physical attacker. Wear Clothes because you won't use him much anyway and the other armors are worth more.
- Spinach Power, Sharing is Caring, Clap on the Back, Sailor's Song, Spinning Swirl and Broken Accordion are some of the only useful skills, which is lucky because you only have 6 slots. Most players use only Spinach Power before switching him out (because it's both Aura and Shield in one action) unless he takes enough damage for Broken Accordion to be worth using, or Spinning Swirl is incentivized by a perfectly timed Overtime requirement, then switch him in to restore TP for a main character since he won't be using his much.
- Build: Agi Up x3 + Atk Up x2 + Counterattack + Anchor Master + HP Drain + HP Up + Silver Lining. The 11th slot is dependent on what you're fighting (check the bestiary); swap him in with the Killer trait that matches what you're about to fight.
- Accessory: Swift Sandals.

Amalia
- Best healer in the game, but doesn't do that much aside from healing. Wear robes for healing.
- One of the hardest characters to kill between Silver Lining and Cres Block.
- Build: Atk Up x3, Pistol Master, HP Drain, Counterattack, Silver Lining, Cres Block, and Mnd Up x3. Overinvestment into Mnd doesn't help that much since the % increase decays faster due to Mnd not being squared like Atk and Mag are. Increasing Max HP makes it more likely she dies because Silver Lining cannot trigger. It is also possible to go with only 2x Mnd Up and take Robes Bonus instead.
- Risky Heal is a trap because you'll likely already full heal everyone between their HP drains and her raw Heal All multiplier. Medical Water will be her main skill for triggering your mages when you're not healing - which should be the majority of the time. Cres Transform is useful for one fight.

Egyl
- Your first tank you get like 70% into the game. Physical only. Heavy armor.
- Often used as a swap for Tomke as that places the Aura + Shield that he can then use with Heroic Tank.
- Build: Atk Up x4 + HP Drain + Heroic Tank + Kiai + Counterattack + Spear Master + Shield Ally + Heavy Armor Bonus. The only skills you'd actually use are Wind Gust, Luring Bang, Self-Made Medicine, Iron Will, Shield All and First Aid, of which Wind Gust is the most commonly used.
- Accessory: Defense Gorget or Knight's Honor

Mikah
- Physical only, the only other Crit character - except she doesn't have the Crit on Ultra Move that Sienna has. However, she does have AoE Attack and Agility boosts.
- There's two builds for her - Either go full speed and crit, buffing and then crit spamming Starfall to generate Ultra Move... or go full speed and damage, buffing and then using her combo skills for extreme damage. Double Steps and Strength Dance are compulsory for both, but beyond that you'll either spam Starfall or do one of the Dragon/Tiger Combos ending in Final Blossom. Because of the sheer number of good AoE attackers, I opted for the Tiger combo.
- Speed Crit: Agi Up x4 + Ultra Move + Counter Attack + Crit x3 + HP Drain + Strike First/Crit Damage with Life Thread accessory.
- Speed Damage: Atk Up x4 + Agi Up x4 + Counter Attack + HP Drain + Claw Master with Blind or Strike First accessories.

Raphael
- Mage tank. Physical only. Heavy armor.
- Never in the same party as Egyl as they block different kinds of attacks as main. Played like Tomke, except with Breaks (duplicating Glenn) instead of the more useful Wind Gust Tomke has.
- Build: Atk Up x3 + HP Drain + Heroic Tank + Counterattack + Aura Ally + Heavy Armor Bonus + Fear Chains + Greatsword Master. The last slot is a flexible Elemental resistance slot depending on what you fight - it matters for him because spells are normally aspected, while Egyl gets to ignore it as most physical attacks are elementally neutral.
- Accessory: Defense Gorget or Knight's Honor. Knight's Honor is more useful for him than Egyl since Egyl possesses Kiai.

Magnolia
- Strongest AoE mage in the game. Weaker than Lenne against single targets. Because she's only reliable with Falfalaran precast, you'd want her with Strike First no matter what. Generally you open with Magnolia, and once Falfalaran ends swap to a single-target damage dealer behind her. Like Mikah.
- Build: Mag Up x4 + Specialist + Silver Lining + Ultra Move + HP Drain + HP Sacrifice + Strike First + Card Master.
- Accessory: Rubber Duck/Comfy Scarf.

This guide is accurate as of the date of post, will not be updated, and was created as a love letter to the game, to save time for other players intending to challenge the entire game at maxed difficulty settings.