Ship Battle F.A.Q

Threat Levels:

Green Square: Safe.A green color means you are relatively safe from attack during that round.Your opponent may fire, but if they should hit you during a 'green' round, you will take relatively little damage.

Yellow Square: Caution. A yellow color in one of these boxes indicates that you are relatively vulnerable.Your opponent will probably fire, and damage will be higher than in a green round.

Red Square:A red colored square means that you are very vulnerable in that round.Bosses will probably fire their special weapons here.Even ordinary attacks will do more damage, 200% or more of the damage they would do in a "green" round.

"Chance" Icon: A "Chance" icon indicates an opportunity for you - usually to do damage, but sometimes to take some other sort of action that will influence the course of battle. Generally, you should try to concentrate fire in "Chance" rounds.

Special Cannon Icon: This icon indicates that you may fire your special cannon during that round.Special cannons eat up a lot of spirit points, but do a whole lot of damage.



Battle Commands:

Run:This commands works much the same as it does in personal combat. You will attempt to retreat from combat. You don't always succeed, and it's not even an option against bosses. Not recommended.

Use Item:Similar to personal combat, there are a number of different items that you can use in Ship to Ship combat, including Bombs, which damage the enemy without consuming Spirit, and Repair Kits, which repair damage done to your ship. There are also items which restore spirit and perform other functions. Note that unlike personal combat, you cannot change your ship's equipment in mid-battle.

Evasive Action:Similar to Guard in personal combat. You will take less (about 50%) damage during a round in which you select evasive action. A good choice during those "Red" danger level rounds.

Attack:When you choose Attack, you are then asked to select the weapon your character will fire. There are three types of weapons: Standard Cannons, Secondary Cannons and Torpedoes. Each of these three weapons functions a little bit differently. Also, unlike personal combat, attacking in Ship to Ship combat drains the Spirit Gauge; the amount of spirit a given weapon uses is listed after the weapon's name. Each weapon may only be fired once a turn, so if you want to be able to fire, say, a Heavy Cannon twice in a turn, you'll need to have two of them mounted on your ship.

--Standard Cannons:These are the simplest weapons aboard your ship, and also the mainstay of your weaponry. You simply pick the round in which you wish to fire the cannon, and the cannon will fire and deal damage during that round.

--Secondary Cannons:Generally less powerful than primary cannons, these weapons also require less spirit to fire - and can also be fired multiple rounds in a row. To do this, select the round in which to fire the cannon, press A, and then push the controller to the right. An arrow will extend from the cannon icon into the column for the next round, and possibly beyond. In fact, it is possible to extend secondary cannon fire into the next turn! Press A again to confirm your selection. The cannon will then fire in all of the rounds the arrow crosses, in addition to any other actions taken in those round, allowing you to concentrate fire by firing multiple weapons in the same round, or to repair yourself while still firing. Note that these cannons consume spirit each round they fire, so stretching secondary cannon fire across 3 or 4 rounds of combat can be hard on your spirit guage.

--Torpedoes:When you select to fire a torpedo, you first select the round in which you wish to fire it, and then move the 'hit' icon to the round in which you would like the torpedo to hit the enemy vessel. Some Torpedos have a longer range than others - allowing them to hit further in the future. Using Torpedoes in addition to primary and secondary cannon can allow you to land a powerful 1-2-3 punch in a round in which your opponent is vulnerable. Of course, during the round in which a Torpedo is fired, you may take no other action. Torpedos also generally have a lower hit percentage than other weapons.


Magic:By selecting this command, you have the character in question cast magic. At first, the only spells which may be cast are those which affect your characters, most notably the Increm spells, which are just as effective in Ship to Ship combat as personal. Once you acquire the Magic Cannon however, you may fire magically charged cannon shots at your opponents, using any spell that normally causes damage, and some that cause effects (Sylenis or Driln, for example) Magical damage can, against the right targets, can do extreme damage. Against the wrong targets, it can be completely ineffectual. Also note that it is possible to miss with a Magic Cannon shot, and that firing magically charged cannon fire costs 1 MP per shot, just as casting spells in personal combat does.

Focus:As in personal combat, a character can focus to recharge the Spirit Bar. This is especially crucial in ship to ship combat because all attacks consume spirit, and it is generally a very good idea to maintain a good spirit charge in case the chance arises to fire your special cannon. As in personal combat, the higher the Spirit stat of the character, the more spirit will be regained by focusing (Though in Ship to Ship combat, the spirit regained is actually greater than the character's spirit stat) It is also worth noting that in the mid to late game, items become available that make focusing less important.

Special Cannon:Use this command to fire your ship's Special Cannon. This option is only available in rounds in which the "special cannon" icon appears in the top row. Try to keep enough spirit in reserve to fire your special cannon should the opportunity arise, and if you should see a special cannon icon in the next round, attempt to charge your spirit gauge to the point where you will be able to capitalize. Also, you may only fire your special cannon once a turn, even if you have spirit available, and the special cannon icon appears more than once.

Crew:The crew command lets you use the special skills of your various crew members in combat. Selecting the Crew icon brings up a list of your active crewmen and allows you to select the one you wish to have act. Some crewmen are "passive" however, and appear as greyed out in the list. These crew members are always "active", and have an effect on your ship's performance. Other crew members may be called into active service via the Crew command. Each crewman has a spirit cost to use, and may only be used once per combat.



Tactics:

-Concentrate Fire:Use Secondary Cannons (And Torpedoes, once you have them) to bring as much firepower as possible to bear in the rounds when you have a "chance". If someone ever says "We need to concentrate fire" this is what they mean.

-Stay supplied:Keep a good supply of repair kits on hand at all times. These little devices are what give you a lot of your edge over enemies, who generally have no means of repairing damage.

-Stay Well Repaired:If you have a moment's breathing room, use a repair kit to patch yourself up. If you're nearly fully repaired, you're in a better position to capitalize on your opponent's vulnerabilities because you can afford to tough it out and get hit a few times during a "yellow" round in order to return maximum fire in a "chance" round.

-Keep your Spirit Charged:Try to always have enough Spirit remaining to fire your Special Cannon. Opportunities to use this weapon arise only infrequently, so you don't want to miss one due to lack of spirit.

-Play it Safe:Don't assume that just because your threat level in a given round is low that you won't take any damage. Also, in the dialogue choices, try not to let your opponent do what he wants to.

-Use Defensive Magic:Casting Increm (Or using Apa/Apo Wax) not only gives you a 25% boost to your attack (which is always nice) but also gives you a 25% boost to you defense, which can be quite decisive (especially since this is not a 25% decrease in damage, but a 25% increase in defense. So if your defense is 400, it will go up to 500, so if your enemy's attack is 450...) Also, you can use Driln to decrease the amount of damage an enemy ship can do to you.