Advanced combat
Your Aniimo don't feel weak because their stats are low. They feel weak because you're leaving multipliers on the table. Here is every one of them, in the order to stack them.
Every number below was measured in-game by Kairos without touching stats or personalities. They multiply together, so each one makes all the others bigger.
Break, element advantage, Turbo, Glacy, talents and a maxed held item.
Add a double weakness and elemental resistance debuff stacks.
None of this needs upgrades. It's all team building and timing.
"About ten times your damage, without stat upgrades or personality changes." The full breakdown is in his video Watch
When an enemy's shield breaks, it takes 2.5× damage, or 2.75× with the Measured Strike talent. The window lasts about 6 seconds, until the break gauge fully recharges.
Almost every damage loss in Aniimo happens here. Players break the shield at the first chance, then spend the window with an empty EP bar. Prepare the window before you open it.
Breaking the shield with your ultimate, or with no EP banked, wastes the 2.5× window. If the shield is close and your EP is low, wait. 1:40
Break damage benefits from element advantage too. In Kairos's test, Helion (60 Might, 150% break) took a Dark shield a bit past halfway in four casts. Blazen has less Might and the same 150% break, but it has the advantage, and its four casts emptied the bar almost completely with the same EP.
Breaking with whatever is on the field. Swap to a Break unit that hits the shield's weakness. 3:03
Attack does nothing for Break units (Kairos tested it), but crit does increase break damage. Build breakers for Break, then Regen, then crit, not ATK. 19:00
Hitting a weakness gives +60% damage, and it applies to break damage and DPS damage. If the target is weak to your element twice over (for example, a dual-element Prismana), the two stack: 1.6 × 1.6 = 2.56×.
Prismana Fulmintis is Lightning + Light, and both of those are weak to Dark. A Dark DPS such as Stellarys hits it for 2.56× before any other buff.
Helion and Lunara get +30% damage against elements they have no advantage on (Kairos's figure; Game8's trait text says +20%). That makes them great catch-alls early, but 30% is half of a real 60% advantage.
Build one DPS for every element, and a Break unit for the common shield types. It matters most in Holo-Battle Sim and Holo-Battle Interlink, where the rewards scale with clear speed. 3:59
These buff any element. They stack with each other and with break and element advantage, so they belong on almost every team.
+15% damage and +15% break efficiency for 20s, doubled to +30% with Shrouded in Mist. It gains a counter on every hit and needs 4. Counters keep charging while Turbo is off-field, so pop it as soon as the icon flips from 3 to ready.
Glimmer Shot: +15% team damage for 20s. You can take it as your free Prismana at level 40, or spawn one after level 51 at the Driftwise Meadow Bloom. It's the safe first Prismana, and Kairos explains why everyone picks it Watch
When a support matches your DPS's element, it's better than the universal pair. Kairos's examples: Leafy for Irisalis (Grass), and Dazmand for Fulmintis (Lightning): "if you were building Fulmintis you'd 100% want Dazmand." Always cast supports inside the break window.
Your Pathfinder's talent tree holds three damage multipliers. Max these first. The tree also has Revive, Heal and Quick Twine, but these are the damage ones.
| Talent | Effect | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Enhanced Twining | +10/13/16/20/25% damage after Twining. Auto-battling in Command Mode gives this up. | S |
| Elemental Boost | +3/6/9/12% elemental counter effect (Game8; Kairos quotes +10%). Max it. | S |
| Measured Strike | +10% damage during break (2.5× becomes 2.75×). | S |
| Fast Charge | Ultimates charge 10% faster: more ults per break window. | A |
| Boss Breaker | +5% damage to Alphas and Omegas. | A |
| Swoleshroom (active) | Enemies take +20% damage, but the buff ends when you Twine. Cast it in Command Mode before Twining in. | A |
The 25% Twined bonus is why Command Mode feels weaker in hard content. For bosses, Twine into your DPS for the break window. 8:38
A maxed damage-amplification held item on your DPS is its own multiplier. Don't max items below top rarity: feeding an upgraded item into another loses 20% of the upgrade value. Wait for the top-rarity one.
Base crit rate and crit damage. There is no crit stat to level: extra crit only comes from the Nimble personality (+5%), a few held items (Floral Rainbow Feather) and kits. Crit-based DPS such as Fulmintis pair it with Heartseeker Pendant.
Some effects stack an element's resistance down by 1% per stack, up to 20 stacks (−20%). Kairos shows it by standing in water: the stat screen reads −20% Water resistance at 20 stacks. In combat, a few ultimates apply stacks that a matching DPS can cash in. It's niche, because it needs a DPS kit that doesn't consume the stacks, but it's the last 20% in the 20.8× total. 11:08
Matches the boss shield's weakness. Build Break, Regen and crit. Skip ATK.
Maxed damage-amp held item, Energetic + Practical personality (Nimble for crit kits).
Fills EP before the break and stretches the window with a time-pausing ultimate.
Typeless +15 to 30%. Use an element-matched support when you have one.
The Regen stat only refills EP while the unit is on the field, so swap your battery in to refill, then swap out. Kits that scale off Regen, like Somniwing's and Besauce's buffs, are the exception. Healer, Regen and Support damage scales with level, so they don't need ATK investment either.