Difference between revisions of "Jack-o-nine/Gameplay/Combat"

Latest revision as of 23:27, 24 January 2024

Helpful post from user Drix at ULMF forums: [1]

" The great secret to combat is in alignment(or multipliers). Every attack can either cause a buff or debuff or deal double damage for attack of the same color. So what you want is to align an attack to cause the biggest damage of the same color. A simple example is while you have furry(2x red) while the enemy is unbalanced(2x red) and the enemy is blocking(2x red) if you strike it with a roundhouse special skill(lots of damage) he is toast. You can kill pretty high level monsters with this.

To defend yourself want to use halve damage buffs and debuffs. Slow and steady is also good for more manageable opponents. You generally only want to strike with same attack color as their defense only when you have so power backing you(multipliers). For defense I usually leave it green since you get a buff at the start of combat with this character(from fetish or vigor?) "

Combat Basics

Both the slaver and their enemy have 3 colored hearts that dictate their status. When any of them reach 0 or less the fight is over. Going into a fight with 1 energy

• Red heart for health - person dies. Starting value based on Strength.
• Green for stamina - person collapses and is unable to continue fighting. Starting value based on Energy. Damage may reduce Energy.
• Purple for morale - person flees combat. Starting value based on Personality. Damage may reduce Mood.

Different weapons and attacks have different effects on the hearts, for example a whip doesn't do much physical damage (red heart), but causes a lot of pain so decreases morale (purple heart).

In general, unarmed attacks and blunt weapon attacks don't do HP damage and so cannot kill an opponent in this game, while slashing and piercing damage do hp damage and therefore can kill your opponents.
("Roundhouse Kick" is not necessarily an unarmed attack despite the name; it does whatever type of damage is dealt by the main-hand equipped weapon at the time it is used - so if main-hand weapons are removed to reveal the jab and uppercut attacks, "Roundhouse Kick" deals nonlethal damage like any other unarmed attack.)

In border of the fogs, enemies (especially minion-types) might die regardless of which heart is reduced to zero.

If a weapon-type damages certain heart-gauges at all, it affects all damaged heart-gauges to the same degree.

The fact that attacks and defences have colours which correspond EXACTLY to the colours of the heart-gauges is irrelevant and potentially misleading. Red attacks do not do damage to the hp gauge especially or necessarily, while blocking (a red defence) does not either protect or expose the hp gauge particularly.
For example, whips ONLY do Morale damage, and yet they ONLY have red and green attacks.

Armour works by applying a flat minus after all other modifiers have already been applied, though attacks always deal at least 1 damage.
So if for example the damage-type dealt is slashing, and the armour has 5 resistance against slashing, you will take 5 less damage than you would otherwise take. Attacks that would have dealt 6 damage deal 1, and attacks (eg doubled by defence-type or buffs) that would have dealt 12 damage deal 7, etc, but attacks that would have dealt 1 damage still deal 1.

One special trait of minion-types is that they are the only enemy-type that you can miss: you have to apply modifiers so that you would be doing at least double damage to the minion in order to hit.

Note:

There seems to be something extremely strange in the armour code or somesuch thing: if you wear, for example, Gothic Plate for a few fights, it seems that the armour bonus becomes innate to you, so even if you take the armour off you still take less damage. And if you keep the armour on, you continue to take less and less damage over time. Something about the Slaver's defence values is extremely unclear. (Tested in Sandbox mode.)

Offense and Defense

Underneath the portrait of both combatants is the type of defense and a list of any buffs/debuffs that character has. If you attack (or get attacked) by a type with the same color the attacker gets a 2x damage multiplier in addition to any multipliers gain from status effects. You can cycle your own defensive type by clicking the arrow next to it and take advantage of any defensive buffs you might currently have or to avoid offensive buffs on your enemy.

You also have the option to defend to remove all harmful status effects and restore some stamina.

When it comes to attacks and defence-styles, red stands for heavy attacks, green stands for swift attacks, and purple stands for precise attacks, while the colour of a defence-style shows the attack-type against which it is WEAKEST in terms of pure damage.

When a regular attack-type (as opposed to a special technique) encounters a defence-style, the wheel of effects is as follows:
Block (Red Defence): Purple attacks buff attackers, green attacks debuff defenders, and red attacks doubly damage defenders.
Evade (Green Defence): Red attacks buff attackers, purple attacks debuff defenders, and green attacks doubly damage defenders.
Counterattack (Purple Defence): Green attacks buff attackers, red attacks debuff defenders, and purple attacks doubly damage defenders.

As can be seen and used as a mnemonic by looking at the colours of your 3 always-available unarmed attacks: the attack which is one step above the defence colour will buff, the attack which is two steps above will debuff.

Note:
1) The in-game description of blocks is incorrect: speed attacks debuff the defender as noted above, as opposed to buffing the attacker as the in-game description suggests.

2) The Baseball bat's "knock out" red regular attack has no effect on purple defences: as an inexplicable anomaly, this must be an oversight.

Injuries

The slaver's condition going into and coming out of a fight will carry over. If you go in with lots of energy, you'll have a higher green heart. If you're not trained for combat and have poor health, or have been previously injured, you'll have a low red heart. Coming out of a fight with low health (red heart) will leave you injured and hamper both your mood and energy recovery until it's healed.

Injuries will heal naturally over time, but you can speed up the process by going to the Medical Center and paying sparks relative to the degree of injury, or consuming healing balms made through alchemy, which will heal the injury by one rank per application. The best option, however, is to use a healing balm in combat right before finishing off your opponent.

On a similar note, when the Slaver fights rebellious slaves, injuries can result depending on the kinds of weapons used.
Bruises and "traces of beatings" which severely decrease beauty can result to a slave, and stamina damage to a slave translates to much less energy being available post-beating to that slave.

Whips and other morale-damage-only weapons are therefore potentially the best types to use in slave-fights if one has skill with them, because
(1) they do not leave bruises or traces of beatings, unlike other types of weapons, and because
(2)they do not decrease the energy of the defeated slave, unlike weapons which do stamina damage.

Naturally, unless the slaver happens to be of a particularly sadistic bent, this is the quintessential time to avoid using slashing, piercing, or other fatal-damage type weapons, because a mis-step with any fatal-damage type weapon can easily result in the slaver killing his slave.

Buffs and Debuffs

Every regular attack has 3 possible outcomes depending on the defensive style of your opponent.

If the color of the attack (Power, Speed Precise) matches the color of the defense (Block, Evade Counter), double damage is dealt.
If it deviates, the attacker receives a buff or the defender a debuff.

A buff will either double damage dealt with a style of attack, or halve damage received from that style.
A debuff will either half damage dealth with a style of attack, or double damage received from that style.

Whether the applied buff or debuff is the offensive or defensive variant depends on weapon or special skill used (see weapon stats below).

Buffs

Debuffs

Special Techniques

Special Techniques are powerful attacks with special effects that can only be used once each per battle.

They are taught by Lanista at the Coliseum.
The total number you can learn depends on your Fighter skill: 1 at Brawler (D-), 2 at Brawler (D-) while wearing an Aketon, 3 at Duelist (C-), and 4 at Combatant (B+) and beyond.

The cost to train increases with each skill learned: $10, $40, $90, $160 Some abilities are always available, while others require a specific weapon type. Learning an ability requires at least 3* of energy and will take all day.

Weapon Types and abilities

Weapons must be equipped, and can then be chosen to be wielded at the start of combat.
At the cost of a turn, the wielded weapons can be changed to any other set of equipped weapons during combat.

Which weapons are wielded determine the available attacks.
The weapon chosen first (main-hand weapon) contributes both of its attacks to the moveset, the second (off-hand) weapon contributes only its first attack.
Equipping an off-hand weapon identical to the main-hand weapon grants no benefits and wastes the third weapon attack slot.

In addition to these up to three weapon attacks, the three basic attacks are also available for a maximum of 6 regular attacks to choose from during combat.

Damage types

Weapon damage comes in four types: Slashing, Piercing, Blunt, and Morale.

Which damage type is dealt is defined exclusively by the weapon used.
The different attack types (Power, Speed, Piercing) use the same color scheme, but are completely unrelated to damage type.

Slashing and Piercing damage is dealt to ❤ Vitality, ❤ Stamina, and ❤ Morale.
They are therefore the most useful damage types for defeating enemies, but since ❤ Vitality damage causes wounds and scarring, and can even kill, it should never be used on a rebellious slave.

Blunt damage is dealt to ❤ Stamina and ❤ Morale.
This is less versatile than Slashing/Piercing, but will never kill an opponent. Keep in mind, though, that ❤ Stamina damage still causes bruising and drains energy, and can therefore severely reduce the Beauty and Endurance of a rebellious slave.

Morale damage is dealt only to ❤ Morale.
It is therefore the least versatile damage type and least capable of defeating enemies, but it causes no lasting harm to rebellious slaves.

Damage types are resisted differently by different types of armor.

(Elemental damage also exists in the system, but is unused with the exception of the Dragon Fire Staff Relic which deals Fire damage. Fire damages all 3 health types.)

Damage stats

Weapon damage often depends on the stats of the wielder. This is calculated differently for Masters and Slaves, and differently still by slave age.

Basic attacks

Basic attacks are always available regardless of which weapon you're currently using.

They deal Strength + 0 Blunt damage.

Unarmed attacks

Unarmed "weapons" encompass only the Fist, a special weapon that is equipped by default in the right and left hand if no other weapon is equipped in these slots.

Unlike basic attacks, the fist has to be equipped and explicitly wielded like any other weapon to be used in combat.

Unlike other weapon types, a fist in the off-hand contributes no attacks.
It can, however, be used as a primary weapon and supplemented with another weapon in the off-hand.

Secondary

Equippable in any slot except shoulder holster.

One-Handed

Equippable in left or right hand.

Two Handed

Equippable in shoulder holster. Uses both main-hand and off-hand when wielded.

Armor

Armor is worn on top of clothes.

Only the Vatican Champion uses magical attacks (and only fire), therefore only the first three defense modifiers matter.

Tips

If your Strength is very low, consider which weapon you choose

• If you can afford them, the Mace and Greataxe will do high base damage even with low strength, and the Rapier will do 6 damage regardless of stats.
• If your Flagellation skill is much higher than Strength, consider the Whip and/or Lash which do damage based on that skill instead.
• If every spark counts, go for the Dagger or Butcher's Cleaver, which do respectable damage even though they're cheap.
• You can raise Strength through Sparring in the Colosseum or through other daily activities
  • It took about 3 sparrings vs Unarmed slave to raise Strength from Weak to Unfit, 10 sparrings vs Wardress to go from Unfit to Strong
• Buy an Aketon ASAP and make sure to equip it before combat, it's only $10.
• If you start without armor, you can have Isabella unequip her Leather Armor and wear it for at least a little protection at start.

Devastating Combo (single target)

• Equip a Flamberge.
• Hit the enemy with a Dashing strike for Unsteadiness[99] (2x red damage)
• Use Battle Cry to gain Fury (also 2x red damage)
• Attack with Short Blow until they defend by Blocking (Red defence, thus 2x red damage)
• Hit them with Roundhouse Kick for 200 damage.
• Wipe the blood off your clothes.

Jack Original

Glitch Notes:
1. There seems to be something extremely strange in the armour code or somesuch thing: if you wear, for example, Gothic Plate for a few fights, it seems that the armour bonus becomes innate to you, so even if you take the armour off you still take less damage. And if you keep the armour on, you continue to take less and less damage over time. Something about the Slaver's defence values is extremely unclear. (Tested in Sandbox mode.)

2. If you lose a colosseum battle with weapon-type specific special techniques available and unutilised, sometimes the special techniques glitch, and permit you thereafter to use them with inappropriate weapons. When this happens, you can also use them without limit, until you use them with an appropriate weapon. Upon using them with an appropriate weapon, they are once again correctly unusable for the rest of the fight, and the glitch corrects itself for that special technique until the glitch is reactivated.

(When this glitch occurs, the ability - even if utilised with an inappropriate weapon - still does the kind of damage which would be done by the appropriate weapon. So eg a glitched heavy blow used with a machete will not do HP damage. And a glitched dashing blow with a baseball bat will.)
For purposes of special techniques, a dagger seems somehow not to be the "appropriate" type for either slashing or stabbing attacks.

3. Note:
1) The in-game description of blocks is incorrect: speed attacks debuff the defender as noted above, as opposed to buffing the attacker as the in-game description suggests.

2) The Baseball bat's "knock out" red regular attack has no effect on purple defences: as an inexplicable anomaly, this must be an oversight.

SPECIAL TECHNIQUES

Special Techniques are taught by Lanista at the Coliseum, and you can learn up to 5, 1 per level of current Fighter skill (so 5 at "Master Swordsman" fighting proficiency). The cost to train increases with each skill learned: $10, $40, $90, $160 and $250. Some abilities are available regardless of weapon type, while others require a specific weapon type. Learning an ability requires at least 1* of energy and will take all day.

Secondary

Equippable in any slot except Shoulder Holster.

One-Handed

Equippable in any slot except Sleeve or Boot holster.

Two Handed

Only Equippable in Shoulder Holster.