Learn how to master battle skills, chaining, and tactical skills in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. Optimize your character's performance and unleash devastating combos.
Walkthrough
- 1Battle Skills:
- All battle skills consume CP, which maxes out at 15 and cannot be increased.
- 2Some skills have range restrictions (SR only): Charge, Aerial, Lightning Blast, Earth Glaive, Efreet, and Southern Cross.
- 3Experiment with different battle skills and characters to find your favorites, ensuring your setup allows for proper chaining.
- 4SP Allocation:
- SP is used for four status skills: HP, MP, Attack, and Defense.
- 5Attack and Defense skills do not directly increase ATP or DFP; they influence AI character behavior.
- 6HP is the highest priority, followed by MP (raised to Lv5 for most fighters before HP). After HP and MP are maxed, focus on Attack. Keep Defense at Lv1 to avoid AI self-preservation.
- 7SP gain per level is approximately (Level + 1~3) until Lv39, then about 0.55 times the character's level.
- 8Max HP and MP skill levels can be reached around Lv45 (HP at Lv31-32). Total boost: 6850 HP and 1260 MP.
- 9HP, MP, and Attack can be maxed by Lv70+, all four status skills by Lv87+.
- 10Tactical Skills:
- These can be customized mid-battle. Examples include Anti-Attack Aura and Berserk.
- 11Berserk, learned by all characters, significantly boosts offense at the cost of a DFP penalty, which is minor until post-game weapon customization. It's crucial for AI character chaining.
- 12Scan Enemy and Taunt are used via the Tactical Skills menu during battle.
- 13Canceling / Chaining:
- Activate battle skills in succession to increase damage via the cancel chain multiplier by inputting the next move's command during the current move. A specific pattern must be followed.
- 14A chain must start with a Confirm attack (normal or battle skill). Subsequent moves alternate between Confirm and Cancel.
- 15Battle skills and blockable normal attacks have cancel windows and cancel queue windows. The cancel queue window allows command input before the actual cancel window, during which the next move initiates.
- 16Inputting a waza command takes about 0.2 seconds.
- 17NTSC-versions lack a cancel queue window for attacks; the button must be held during the cancel window. This makes manual control of multiple characters harder.
- 18Delay canceling if moves cause knockdown to avoid losing hits due to knockdown invincibility.
- 19Chaining stops once the target is dead.
- 20Chaining reduces recovery time and is more cost-efficient (same resource consumption for more damage).
- 21Prefer quick, minimalistic blockable battle skills with low CP/Fury costs and no knockdown for 'cancel fodder'.
- 22A typical chain uses the 'heavy hitter' (Cancel move) twice (200%, then 300%). 'Triple chains' are possible but may require Fury use -2 or -3 factors.
- 23Fury use -x stacks up to -4. The maximum from a single factor is -3.
- 24Skip-Canceling:
- This exploits a cancel window bug present primarily in the PAL-version.
- 25Requirements: Input commands for the next two moves during the current move's cancel queue window. The Cancel button must be held.
Tips
- Charge and Aerial skills do not increase in power as they level up.
- Many of the best moves cause knockdown; adjust canceling timing to avoid losing hits.
- Blockable attacks are a liability; choose quick, low-cost, non-knockdown battle skills for 'cancel fodder'.
- Fury use -x factors can stack up to -4, with -3 being the maximum from a single factor.
- Skip-Canceling is a PAL-version specific technique.
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