Combat Mechanics (Cold Steel I and II)

This page explains the basic mechanics of combat in Trails of Cold Steel I and II.

Entering Combat

When the party makes contact with an enemy in the overworld, the game changes to the battle field and combat is entered. Depending on the way contact is made, the battle can start normally, with up to triple advantage on the party's side, or ambushed by the enemy. Combat can also be entered from a scene, from extermination confirmations or from opening a chest, which save exceptions start battles without advantages on either side.

The active party member can attack enemies on the field. Each party member has a different attack, and striking an enemy in the back while on the field will stun them for a few seconds. If the attacker's highest weapon type is strong against the enemy (at least 2 stars of efficacy), they will faint instead. Striking an enemy in the front will alert them or briefly stop their movement. If the attacker is at least 10 levels higher than the enemy, when they notice the party they will run away instead of towards them, and field attacks will stun them regardless of facing. A second attack while stunned will instantly defeat them, granting a small amount of sepith depending on the enemy.

Normal battles start with the enemy on one end of the field and the party in the other, according to the formation set in the Tactics menu. Each unit will have a random delay until their first turn comes (explained later).

Single Advantage

If combat is entered through contacting an enemy from their back, the battle will start with single advantage: the enemy will have a much larger delay until their first turn, allowing for more party turns before they're able to act. Escape chance will start at 100%.

Double Advantage

If combat is entered through contacting an enemy stunned from a field attack, the battle will start with double advantage: the enemy will have a much larger delay until their first turn, and the party will gain 10 CP. Escape chance will start at 100%.

Triple Advantage

If combat is entered through contacting an enemy that fainted from a field attack, the battle will start with triple advantage: the enemy will have a much larger delay until their first turn, the party will gain 10 CP and all enemies will take 15%-20% of their max HP as damage. Escape chance will start at 100%.

Enemy Advantage

If combat is entered through the enemy contacting a party member's back, the battle will start as an enemy ambush: formations for both enemy and party will be ignored, and the enemies will surround the party members in a circle on the field. The party members' combat links will start severed, and they will have a large delay before their first turn, which will likely allow the enemy to act before any of the party members. Escape chance will start at 30%.

Delay and Speed

The Action Time Battle system determines the order in which the units will take turns. For this, the game uses AT Units (AT for short) as a measure of the time it takes for a unit to have their next turn. Every action has a different Base Delay associated with them in AT units:

• Moving (or not being able to act due to status effects) has a base delay of 15 AT.
• Regular attacks have a base delay of 20 AT.
• Using an item has a base delay of 20 AT.
• Failing to escape has a base delay of 20 AT.
• Crafts each have a different base delay, expressed in the tables.
• Arts have two base delays: the Cast delay before the art takes effect, and the Delay after casting before the caster can act again. Cast quartz will reduce only the former, rounded up, while master quartz and Bell quartz will reduce only the latter. In Cold Steel only, these reductions stack additively instead of multiplicatively.
• Using an S-Break to interrupt a turn will make the user suffer only the normal delay of the S-Craft, discarding any delay they had before.
• Some attacks can inflict an additional base delay as part of their effects, which is added to the current delay of the target. Each source of delay (quartz or crafts) will roll its own chance according to the vulnerability, and if any succeed, the delay applied will be the sum of all sources.
• Some skills can reduce the delay of allies to zero (AT Advance or Accelerate), making their turns happen immediately after.
• After switching a character in, their next action will have the base delay increased by 25%.

However not all units take the same time to process the same base delay. Depending on their SPD stat, the base delay will be modified to obtain the real delay before the unit can act:
$Final\ Delay = 100\times\frac{Base\ Delay}{Unit\ SPD} \text{(rounded down)}$

Hit Chance

While arts and S-Crafts are guaranteed to hit, normal attacks and most crafts have a chance to miss and have no effect. First, the attacker's ACC% is used to determine whether the attack automatically hits (or misses if it's negative). If they don't, the target's EVA% is used to determine whether the target evades the attack (or automatically gets hit if it's negative). If this also fails, the chance to hit then depends on the attacker's DEX, and the target's AGL:
$Chance\ to\ hit = 100\%\times\left (1- \frac{Target\ AGL}{5\times Attacker\ DEX}\right )$

Counter

If a unit misses an attack or craft against another unit that can attack back (i.e. within range and not channeling arts or otherwise unable to attack), they will perform a counterattack against the attacking unit, which cannot miss, but also cannot hit units other than the attacker. The counterattack is always normal attack in case of player characters, and it cannot unbalance, but enemies may have a different skill to use automatically as a counterattack.

If multiple units avoid the same attack, only one unit that evaded that can counter will do so.

Unbalance

See also: Weapon types and Combat link.

Regular attacks and some crafts have the ability to unbalance an enemy if the attacker is linked with a party member that isn't incapacitated. Depending on the attacker's weapon type ranks, the enemy's vulnerabilities to them, and any bonuses to unbalancing chances, a chance for a link attack can arise. Choosing to follow up grants a Brave Point (BP) which can be later used for rush or burst attacks.

If multiple enemies are unbalanced by one attack, only one enemy will be the target of a follow up.

Unbalance Chance

For each weapon type, the unbalance chance is as follows:

$Final\ Chance = (Rank\ Base\ Chance + Craft\ Bonus + Insight\ Bonus)\times Star\ Rating$

Type Rank	Chance		Star Rating	Vulnerability
S	25%			×4
A	15%			×2
B	10%			×1
C	5%			×0.5
D	3%			×0.1

• Only the highest chance between all the weapon types available will be used to determine whether unbalancing occurs.
• A critical strike from an attack that can unbalance will always do so.
• Insight status grants a +10% bonus before star rating in Cold Steel.
• Balance Down status doubles star rating vulnerability (+1 star except at 0 stars).

During Mech Battles, unbalancing works in a different way: each part of the enemy has a different vulnerability, and targeting a more vulnerable part has a chance to unbalance the enemy with a critical strike with 25% bonus damage and let Valimar follow up or use a finisher. The enemy can assume different stances, changing the vulnerability of each part, and they can unbalance Valimar as well. Crafts and counters do not target a part, and instead have an innate chance of unbalancing. Attacking parts with low vulnerability may result in the enemy guarding to reduce the damage by 70% or avoiding the attack and countering.

Star Rating	Critical	Normal	Guard	Counter
	100%	0%	0%	0%
	55%	45%	0%	0%
	15%	60%	25%	0%
	10%	35%	40%	15%
	0%	0%	45%	55%

Damage

The formulas for physical and magical damage are the same, with the only difference being the stats used. Every number in each step is rounded down. A reflected attack considers the target to be the same as the attacker.

$Base\ Damage = 2.5\times Attack\ Power - 1.25\times Defense\ Power$
$Final\ Damage = Base\ Damage + Random$
$Attack\ Power = (Attacker\ (STR_\text{ (Physical attacks)}\text{ or }ATS_\text{ (Magic attacks)}$$\times Elemental\ Efficacy)+ Attacker\ Status\ Modifier)\times Skill\ Power$
$Defense\ Power = Target\ (DEF_\text{ (Physical attacks)}\text{ or }ADF_\text{ (Magic attacks)})$$+\ Target\ Status\ Modifier$

• Skill Power is the power of the art or craft used (normal attacks have a power of 100%).
• Status Modifiers for the relevant stat take into account the full value of the stat, including equipment and quartz bonuses, unlike previous games.
• Random is a random factor between -Base Damage/15 and Base Damage/15.
• A Critical hit (due to quartz or AT bonus) multiplies the final damage by 1.5.
• Using an S-Craft with 200 CP multiplies the final damage by 1.5.
• In Cold Steel only, the maximum damage for one attack is 49999.

Healing

Healing arts and crafts not based on maximum HP have a formula: Cold Steel: $Base\ Healing = Skill\ Power\times\left (1+ \frac{User\ ATS}{100}\right )$ Cold Steel II: $Base\ Healing=Skill\ Power\times \left(1+{\frac {User\ ATS}{500}}\right)$

Switching Links and Members

On a party member's turn, they can be switched out with one of the support members. The member that switched in will be automatically linked with the partner the previous member was linked with, and will be able to act immediately, but their next action's delay will be increased by 25%. Only one member switch can happen per turn.

On a member's turn, they can also freely switch their link partner (or establish a new link). Switching links is free, and if all other members were linked previously the new links will switch to keep all active members linked.

Ending Combat

Combat can end in various ways: the victory condition is met (usually defeating all enemies), the party runs away, time runs out or a defeat condition is met.

Victory

The victory condition for the majority of battles is the defeat of all enemies present. In other cases, only specific enemies need to be defeated, or the enemy must be taken below an HP threshold. When the victory condition is met, the party is taken to the battle results screen.

Ending a battle with a victory grants the items and sepith dropped by the enemies as reward, as well as experience to characters not K.O.'d. The Student Notebook as well as enemy lists note the various rewards for defeating enemies.

The experience each party member gains from each enemy depends on the level difference between them and the enemy. For each level the party member is above the enemy, the experience is reduced by 20%, until a minimum of 10% of the original experience. For each level the party member is below the enemy, the experience is increased by 10%, until a maximum of twice the original experience. Afterwards the experience is increased by any tactical bonuses obtained.

Retreat

Most battles can be ran away from, with the exception of battles entered from scenes such as story-forced battles. The Run option can be chosen on a party member's turn, which will cause the battle to end without granting any items or experience if successful.

Escaping, if possible, is not necessarily guaranteed to succeed. Instead there is a escape chance, the percentage chance of escaping on that turn, and it can be modified by various actions:

• The chance starts at 60% on a normal battle.
• Any advantage makes escape guaranteed.
• Enemy advantage gives a 30% starting escape chance.
• Attempting to escape and failing raises the chance by 10%.
• Using a Smoke Grenade is guaranteed to immediately escape the battle.

Afterwards, the enemy will disappear from the field as if it had been defeated.

Defeat

The defeat condition for battles is all party members being K.O.'d. In most situations a defeat results in a game over, with the option to retry the battle, lowering the difficulty for the battle before retrying or go back to the menu to load a save.

Some battles allow for a defeat that doesn't result in a game over, with victory being optional for bonus rewards or the outcome not affecting the story. Items and experience aren't granted in these cases. Other battles are not meant to be won, with the enemy being unable to be defeated, remaining at 1 HP at minimum.

Time Out

In a few cases the battle has a time limit. If a certain amount of turns pass without reaching either a victory or defeat condition, the battle will end without warning or granting any rewards. In these cases victory before the time limit is optional for bonus rewards.