Battle Guide: How the Combat Flows [Updated]

Strength of the Heart:

Much like the actual Persona Games, the combat on New Arcana is heavily stat driven, as a Turn-Based JRPG at its core, with Table-top RPG Elements to determine things like Hit-Rate and Crit-Rate. Before we go into the specifics, let me give you a run down of the stats that drive combat.

All Characters Start with the Following Statistics:

HP: 50
SP: 30
PEnd: 0%
MEnd: 0%
Ppstr: 6
Pmstr: 10
Dx: 3
Lk: 2

HP, or Hit Points, determines how much damage your character can take before falling in battle. It's also the primary resource used to fuel Physical Persona Skills.

SP, or Spirit Points, is the primary resource used to cast all manner of spells and abilities that aren't strictly speaking physical attacks. Once you run dry, you won't be able to manifest magical abilities until you've restored enough SP. This can be done by either using SP Restoration Items, or by simply spending a Turn Guarding. Doing so restores 10% of your Maximum SP Reservoir.

PEnd (Physical Endurance) and MEnd (Magical Endurance) are the metrics we use to determine how resilient your Persona/Character is towards either physical or magical damage. These are driven through a percentage reducion. Every 12 Points put into HP and SP will raise the corresponding Endurance by 2%. HP increases Physical Endurance, while SP enhances your Magical Endurance.

PmStr (Persona Magic Strength) is your Persona's Magical Potency. The higher this stat gets, the more damage you're capable of dishing out using magical abilities. For example, if you were to successfully land a hit on someone with a Elemental-based attack, you would cause this much damage to their HP. Personas have a max range of 5 meters from their user. They cannot go any further than this. However, for every 20 points in your Pmstr you gain an additional meter.

PpStr (Persona Physical Strength) is your Persona's raw strength, which determines how much damage it can do with physical attacks. The higher this number gets, the higher the damage output. It also affects how much your Persona can lift and throw. If your PpStr is high enough, your Persona could lift big vehicles and other large and heavy objects by itself.  

Dx. or Dexterity is the main metric used to determine damage dealt with your Soulbound Weapon, and Side-arm (Unless specified otherwise). The higher this gets, the more damage is ultimately dealt.

Lk, or Luck is our "Agility" stat. This will determine your chances of landing a critical attack on the opponent. The staff members will be the ones to deal with this when you're in battle. The higher the number, the higher the chance to land a critical attack. ** In Player vs Shadow battles, this also translates to your chance of dodging an attack. When at Lk Parity, both parts have a 10% chance to crit, and a 10% chance to miss. Every 10 luck your opponent has higher than you, you have a 10% chance to miss, starting with 10% before the luck difference is 20. Conversely, every 10 luck higher you are than the enemy, your crit chance is increased by 10% starting with 10% until the luck difference is 20. For example if your luck In Player vs Player battles, this will also determine how fast your Persona can move in combat. The higher the number over the opponent, the faster. However, if the numbers are within 20 digits of one another, then their speed will still remain on the same playing field. Basically the Lk stat swallows both the Luck and Agility stats from the actual Persona games. When it comes to your Persona's speed, it comes down to the amount of Luck stat you have. If your luck stat is high, it will be rather fast compared to other Personas and objects in the environment.

Starting Stats, Rank-ups and Levels:

Before you venture into your first fight, you have a total of 24 points which you can distribute into any of your Main Stats (HP, SP, PpStr, PmStr, Dx, or Lk) on top of the Base statistics shown above.

After that every time you meet a rank-up requirement on your Persona Sheet, you'll gain 24 extra HP and SP, along with a +8 to PpStr, PmStr, Dx and Luck, along with 8 points which you can distribute as you wish. This is true for everyone starting out. Once your Potential Evolves to its second stage, every rank-up from then on grants a +24 to HP and SP, along with a +10 To everything else, and +10 to distribute freely.

Your character also levels up on their own through Experience as they overcome various obstacles on their Journey. Each time a Character Levels up, the player gets to make a choice: Boost your Stats (+10 to HP and SP, and +5 Points to distribute where you'd like) OR Pick up what's known as an Umbral Skill (Read more about them here.)

Soulbound Weaponry and Side-arms:

Every character starts out their Journey with what's referred to as a Soulbound Weapon. Much like a Persona, this weapon can be summoned at will, and does damage to the Soul (AKA, HP damage) much like a Persona or Shadow would do. A Soulbound Weapon meets no resistance when used against mundane objects and armor. A Soulbound Sword for instance could cut through the armor of a heavy tank as if it was made of Butter. This incredible destructive power comes at the cost of them being unable to cause Mundane Harm. A Soulbound Weapon cannot cut through flesh and do harm to someone wielding a Persona. Instead the damage done there is similiar to what that of a Persona attack would do.

Soulbound Weapons can deal 3 types of damage: Slash, Strike and Pierce, just like in Persona 3. A Soulbound Weapon can in theory be anything, but for the sake of PvP balance, we keep Guns separate from Soulbound Weapons.

Your Side-Arm is a long-range option which shoots bullets. They interact with the world in a similiar way to that of a Soulbound Weapon, in that they render any sort of mundane armor or protection completely useless. They Deal Gun damage to enemies, and come in three different Styles.

Precision Fire (Fires a single shot with a 10% Boost to Crit rate)

Automatic Fire (Fires multiple rounds at multiple targets with a 10% Accuracy Penalty.)

Burst Fire (Fires 2 Rounds at a single target with a 30% accuracy Penalty).

Sidearms come with a Magazine Size, and a Reserves Size. These are detailed in the Character Sheets. When you run out of Ammo in a Magazine, you have to spend a turn to reload if you wish to fire again. This can be done both in and out of combat. Reloading takes a full mag out of your Reserves.

Skill Tier and Damage Calculation:

If you've checked out the Persona Skill List, you might've noticed there are different skill tiers. Casting a Stronger skill means you do more damage. Each Skill Tier increases your Damage by a set -%. amount.

Tier 1 Skills uses the raw stat relevant for the Skill in question as its damage. Physical Skills use PpStr. Magical Skills use PmStr. Dexterity Attacks use Dx.

Every tier above Tier 1 adds a +50% to the skill's damage output. So tier 2 Skills do 50% more damage. Tier 3 Does 100% More damage and Tier 4 does 150% more. Makes sense yeah?

Combat Styles:

On New Arcana, there are four predominant ways that combat will be resolved:

Player Versus Shadow (PvS): A Turn-based Combat System like in the Actual Games. Strike an enemy weakness or with a critical hit to knock them down, and gain an extra turn. Knock all enemies down to open up the option for an All Out Attack.

Player Versus Player (PvP): Combat between two opposing players, or a Player fighting against a Notable NPC. This is more free-flowing combat, and demands a bit more out of you from a writing stand-point.

Skirmish: A More strategy focused way of fighting, on a grid-style map. Fire off skills against your targets, using the environment to your advantage.

Raid Boss: Bosses so big they need an entire battle-style to themselves. The Boss itself is segmented into parts that'll need to be taken down. Depending on the boss, taking out parts in a specific order can have drastic effects on Combat.

If you need more Information, click the hyperlinks. They'll forward you to the section you want.

Player Versus Shadow Combat:

PvS is the Standard Combat Phase for New Arcana. Its players versus the DM's creations, and acts pretty much like the Persona Games do. When your turn starts, you can choose one of the Following Actions:

Attack: Strike a target of your choosing with your Soulbound/Demon Weapon, or your Sidearm. If you use your Side-arm, make sure to deduct the proper amount of ammunition from your Magazine. This action takes up your turn.

Skill: Cast a Persona/Soul/Umbral on a target (or multiple). Deduct the proper amount of HP or SP. This uses up your whole turn.

Item: Spend a turn using an item.

Guard: Spend a turn guarding. Doing so halves incoming damage, and you cannot be knocked down, preventing Once More's. Guarding also restores 10% of your Maximum SP.

Swap Persona/Soulbound/Side-arm: You can once per turn swap between any Unlocked Persona/Soulbound/Sidearms. This uses up your turn.

Flee: Try to Escape from the Battle. Failure results in your turn being spent doing nothing.

Hit Rate, Crit Rate and Striking Weaknesses:

Should you choose to attack, in any way, be it though a Skill, Side-arm or Soulbound, we use "ten sided die" to determine if you hit your attack or not. If you're at Luck Parity (I.E less than 20 points above or below the target's luck) with your target, you always have a 90% hit rate. If your Luck is 20 points below the intended target's luck, your hit-rate drops down to 80%. After that first threshold of 20 points, from there on its every ten points below that lowers hit rate by 10%. If your Luck is higher, you end up getting the opposite effect: Attacks agains you are more likely to miss. If they have a chance to miss against you, that extra miss chance is added to your crit chance (In respects to Luck Difference alone. Buffs like Sukukaja does not affect Crit Rate). If My luck is 20 points higher than my target, I now have a 20% chance to land a critical hit. Miss and Crit-rate cap out at 60%.

Example:

So what Happens if I land that Critical Hit, or strike the enemy with an attack they're weak to? Well, you knock them down. Doing so grants you the ability to Act again. The DM will notify you of when this happens. If you manage to knock down all enemies before any of them have a chance to recover, you can initiate an All Out Attack.

All-Out Attacks takes the team's collective Dexterity Stats, adds them together and multiplies the result by 3. All-Out Attacks always deal Almighty Damage, meaning enemies cannot be resistant or immune to it.

Getting Knocked Down:

If you were to get hit by a Critical Hit or by an attack you're weak to, you'd get knocked down. While Knocked down, your PEnd and MEnd both drop to 0%, and attacks can no longer miss on you while knocked down. Same goes for the enemies. Once your turn comes around, you stand up and are free to act as normal. If you're struck with a Crit or hit with your weakness again while already knocked down, you're turned Dizzy, and have to spend your turn getting up, rather than being able to recover and act on the same turn.

Player Versus Player:

It is inevitable that players will be put in battle against Shadows and possibly other players aswell. This is why a battle system has been formed. The battles on this site can be compared to the battles seen in Persona 4: Arena. By this I mean, once you summon your Persona it will do an attack/defense before vanishing back within your subconscious or remaining stationary on the battlefield. Persona act basically as "ghosts" and cannot be used as shields to protect yourself from direct enemy attacks unless using a skill. (Such as blows from Shadows or weapon attacks from other human players, such as a knife or blade.) Attacks from a Persona also bypass real world armor (such as bullet proof vests, steel plates, etc) as it attacks the soul directly. It takes another Persona to parry an attack from a Persona, or special skills/accessories. HOWEVER; Personas can now be hit by Dex attacks and broken if too careless.

 To parry an attack from another Persona, the user would only need to summon their Persona by using a skill. If the enemy Persona was to use a physical Tier 1 skill against you, you could summon your Persona and have it do a physical Tier 1 skill aswell. By doing this, you can clash with the opposing Persona. Now since both attacks are both Tier 1, they would be equal in strength. This is excluding any bonuses the user may have in strength, however. For example, if both Persona were to launch a fire based attack, and one of the Persona have a 15% boost in fire based skills and the other does not; that Persona with the boost will over power the opposing Persona (this does not count for Mind Charge or Power Charge). This basically means their attack will go through the defense and continue on its way. If the skill is a special attack that attacks more than once, then the Persona will continue to attack that same post until it ends. If you clash with someone that is equal strength as you, you will be able to continue your attack after your first hit clashes against their own. However, if their skill strength is above your own, you will fail to break through their attack regardless of how many attacks you throw at them with one skill.

 Elemental skills clash with other elemental skills. Physical skills clash with other physical skills. However, elemental skills and physical skills do not clash with one another. Almighty Skills clash with anything, no matter the type of skill it is.

**NOTE - It is now possible for a Tier 2 to beat or clash with a Tier 3. If the total boost is the same, the Tier 2 can clash with the Tier 3. For example, a Tier 2 gets a 50% boost from Tier 1, and a Tier 3 gets a 100% boost. Now if the Tier 2 user also had an amp move that boosts the skill another 50%, then it'd be a Tier 2 skill that has a 100% boost vs a Tier 3 with the same level boost. The two skills would cancel each other out.

 In battle, only one Persona skill can be used at a time. This means only one Persona skill can be used each post. Take note, each attack used by a Persona will remove SP. If you run out of SP, you can not summon your Persona again until it fills up to an adequate amount, unless you're using physical based skills. This means if you spam heavy hitting moves, you may find yourself vulnerable towards the end. Every post you remain stationary and don't attack, you will recover 10% of your total SP.

**NOTE: When a Persona uses a skill, you may be creative on how they carry out the skill. For example: If your Persona uses Agi it does not HAVE to fire a fireball. It could bumrush someone as the fireball itself, or even do a fire punch into someone. It could even be the Persona picking you up and throwing you like a fireball (as long as it manipulates the flames so it does not burn you aswell). As long as the damage is calculated correctly, you're free to use your imagination on how the attack is performed. However, use common sense. If it's a small attack, it wouldn't be that extravagant. If it's something like a Tier 3 or 4 move, then it may destroy the surroundings and the like. Your Persona MUST use a skill to interact with the environment. If they do not, the only thing they may do is remain on standby. Even if you want them to cut a string, you need to use a skill to perform the deed. Now it can be any skill, physical or elemental, but a skill none the less.


**NOTE - A Soul Skill and a Persona Skill can be used in the same post for PvP. However only one or the other can be used in PvS per turn.

When attacking with your own weapon and not your Persona, you have the ability of attacking alot more during a post. This can range from two to four attacks per post (four if your character is faster by a skill or strength used, two/three if not), depending on the situation and how skilled your character is in combat. Of course these attacks aren't on the same scale as your Persona's and can be parried by other weapons, but they are relatively faster and don't cost a thing to use. These Soul Bound weapons perform basic Tier 1 damage at all times unless stated otherwise by an accessory or Persona skill.

**NOTE - Each Character has a Death Counter in PvP. They all start with five. The counter goes down only by Hama and Mudo skills if they hit the target. Once the counter hits zero, the next Hama and Mudo skill is a guaranteed instant kill when hit.

These skills can cause damage like the rest of the elements and can be influenced by their respective boosts and amps. If you are weak to either Hama or Mudo, the counter goes down by two. Rolling for instant kill is to be reserved for PvS scenarios.

Persona Breaking:

As you can see, Human vs Human battles will be quite something. Now, it is possible for your Personas to attack one another, and there is a downside to if your Persona is successfully damaged. If your Persona takes three successful hits from the opposing party, it will break. Break simply means it will disappear back within your subconscious and need three turns to be able to be summoned again. Once those three turns are up, it would have rebuilt itself and can take another three hits (and can also be summoned again). So be careful not to put your Persona in too many dangerous situations in battle.

**Note - Alright, so just to clear some things up. Real world objects can damage characters, but it won't be based on stats. It'll be based on real damage. So let's say you take a bat to the ribs. There's a chance you can crack your ribs among other things. This is real world damage, and won't hurt your stats (soul) but your actual physical body. Anything that is not a soulbound weapon or Persona skill will do this kind of damage.

Now soulbound attacks such as skills or soulbound weapons attack the soul directly. They are infinitely stronger than environmental weapons, so if you were to take a soulbound weapon like a sword and clash it with a real world sword, it'd slice through it like bread on butter, into the enemy. However, instead of doing physical damage, it would do stat damage to the opponent. It's more powerful and can slice through real world armor, clothes, etc with ease.

**Note - Dex attacks can now also harm Personas. However, real life attacks such as Bullets,etc, will bounce off a Persona easily. Real World damage cannot and will not harm a Persona. However, for this to occur, you still must use a skill for your Persona to be active and protect you from this real world damage.

Skirmish Combat:

Skirmish battles take place on the map where players move individually. Each player can normally move up to 4 spaces. This is doubled with an agility-boosting skill. A human-strength grants an additional space instead.

To attack an enemy on the battlefield, you have to land on a square next to their own. Depending on the terrain can determine if any skills are strengthened or weakened. Once that phase of combat is over, your turn will end. If you attack an opponent and one of your teammates are adjacent to that same opponent, you both can attack them back to back. If your entire team surrounds an opponent, all of you attack back to back with the final teammate initiating an all out attack for heavy damage. Take advantage of this team mechanic to win this battle. Enemies can also do this, so beware. If you're hit by your weakness/crit and downed, Once More and Baton Pass mechanics apply accordingly. All-Out Attacks from downing can only be done if you have two or more allies surrounding the downed enemy.

Additionally, you can use your gun dexterity attacks to attack your enemy from unlimited long range. However, you can only attack from direct line of sight. If they hide behind a barrier or some sort of obstruction, you will automatically miss. Every 2 spaces from you to your enemy will be an additional 10% miss chance to hit your enemy with your gun attack. The Sniper Rifle Weapon does not lose accuracy based on Distance. Shotguns break through cover if you're right next to the coverpiece in question. Grenade Launchers can be fired freely without a target. Anything within its blast radius will take damage (THIS INCLUDES ALLIES CAUGHT IN THE BLAST!!!). A Grenade Launcher's Blast Radius is 4 Squares in diameter. Hitting an enemy with the Grenade itself deals Tier 3 Damage, while anything caught in the blast takes Tier 2 damage instead.

Your starting area on the map will be the stars. Everyone will pick a single star to begin at and enemies will pick a Letter, so your first post you can choose a star you're starting at and post your movement. You can only travel on open areas, so areas where trees and rocks are placed are barricades you cannot travel through. Any additional barricades will be noted in a map key. Also recovery skills such as media and mediarama can only be used on your allies if you're on an adjacent square to them (unless you have remote heal). It does not take an attack post, so you can heal yourself or allies and then attack still. The same goes for buff and debuff skills.

When it comes to analyze skills, you can use this any time on the battlefield and scan any enemy, no matter the location. Auto-skills will only be applicable the first three combat phases of the battle. Meaning the first three actual battle posts you have against a specific opponent. After that, they deactivate.

Pair up allows a PC to join up with another one. They can swap who's 'active' at will. The active member gets bonuses to HP and SP, and to the highest stat of who they're paired with. In combat the secondary char doesn't normally get an action, but an RNG roll is made during the active char's Turn. If it lands on 1, and 1 was guessed, the char paired with them can attacked. You can guess more numbers based on your SL with who you're paired with, and at R10 it's a 100% chance. Also, every 3-5 posts the person you're paired with can protect you from an attack and null all damage, except Almighty.

Raid Boss:

A Raid Boss battle works in a similiar fashion to normal PvS Combat, except that your enemy is so large that you can attack individual parts of the Boss' body to cause damage. Breaking a Body-Part will temporarily disable a portion of the Boss' moveset, and lower its Endurances by a specific amount.

A Raid Boss can be beaten in generally two ways: Either by reducing the HP of the "Main Body" to 0, or by destroying all the other bodyparts. Some Bosses can only be slain in one of these two ways, while other fights may have completely different victory conditions altogether. It all depends on the context of what you're fighting, and what the scenario is like.

Area Of Effect attacks do NOT hit all parts of a boss, and only hit up to two different ones at the same time, often picked by the player.

Example of a Raid Boss:

B.S.M (Big Scary Monster):

Character Experience - Grow with Your Potential:


What is Character Experience?

Character experience correlates to your Character specifically and not their Persona. Which each battle, your character gains experience to rank up their stats. Your character will have a level, and enemies will also have a level aswell. If you succeed in defeating an enemy, you get stats based on your level, their level, their stats, the amount of party members in your party, etc. At the end of each battle, you will be given a total of stat points that will give you the possibility to grown in strength and gain more stats. However, your Persona works on a completely different set of numbers and requirements.


How to calculate your EXP:

Calculating your EXP is simple and will be listed below. To gain EXP, this only counts when you're in battle.

You will continue to add up this exp, and if it comes up to equaling or surpassing the number to rank up, you will grow in strength. It is your job to keep up to date with your EXP following these guidelines. You will keep a log of it in your compendium and link the topic where you gained the EXP for mod review when you wish to rank up.

As of this Update, major Experience Dumps come from Quests, Social Links and Completing a Dungeon, as well as Defeating Key Enemies in either story events or Dungeons.

Strength Through Bonds:

One Constant which Persona has pushed since Persona 3 is the importance of your Social Links in terms of your Character's power gain. On NA, In addition to the Special Perks you get from Social Linking allies, you also gain EXP at certain thresholds. To make sure these boons stay relevant no matter at which point you are in the story, these thresholds will give you a percentage boon to your Character Level. While in total, each Social Link is only garantueed to give you enough experience for 3 total levels (which is quite small), the total amount of Social Links one finishes adds up over time.

Rank 2: 20% of the EXP needed for your next Level Up

Rank 4: 40% of the EXP needed for your next Level Up

Rank 6: 60% of the EXP needed for your next Level Up

Rank 8: 80% of the EXP needed for your next Level Up

Rank 10: 100% of the EXP needed for your next Level Up
Level - Exp Required to Next

1-10:

11-20:

21-30:

31-40:

41-50:

51-60:

61-70:

71-80:

81-90:

91-99:

Each level up, regardless of class, will give you 10 points in HP/SP (not Pend and Mend), with an extra 5 points to be distributed across the rest how you see fit.

After you level up, your exp towards the next rank goes back to 0, and you must work towards the next level. So this means if you hit 100 and level up and the next level is 150, you'll need to get a total of 150 for the next level up. Any points left over after leveling up will be piled towards the next rank up.


**When your Persona gains a new skill, you still get the rank up points from that aswell.**