Concepts
Aside from the use of regular attacks and abilities, other options and strategies are open to characters in combat. In this newsfile, these concepts will be expanded upon.
Alternate Combat Commands
There are a few alternate combat commands of note available. First of these is +defend. Use of this command halves the damage your character takes from the next attack directed at them, although it ends your turn automatically.
Another combat command open for use while in combat is +cover <target>. This will give you a chance, dependent on your agility score, to jump in and take an incoming attack for another person. This command can be used at any time and will not take up your turn, although you can only cover one person at once. To remove any active +covers targeted on yourself, use +uncover.
'Spotter' type characters--those whose Persona powers revolve around detection and support--have access to another command. +analyze takes a round and targets one person, but grants detailed information as to that character or monster's combat statistics.
Switching Personae also plays a vital role in the flow of combat. Personae are summoned into their respective slots before combat starts. You can switch between them with +persona #, where # indicates M, 1, 2 and so on. Personae can only be switched between once a round.
Knockdown and Critical Hits
Striking a weakness carries with it a certain advantage for a character in a fight. That, along with landing a critical hit, will inflict the status Knockdown. Until their next turn, a character who is knocked down is more easily hit by incoming attacks, and in particular takes more damage from attacks with the tag 'knockdownattk'. A character inflicted with knockdown need not physically be 'knocked down'; despite the name, it reflects that the character is in a much more vulnerable position.
It should be noted that critical hits and weakness hits do not stack. That is, it isn't possible to critically hit someone already struck in their weakness.
Boss Mode
Boss Mode exists as a way for a character to spoof a stronger enemy of some sort, whether it's as themselves or as something else. It's made use of through the use of the command +heal/boss #, where # is generally used to equal the number of opponents the player is facing as a boss. This enables Boss HP, effectively raising the value high above the character's natural maximum in relation to how many they are facing. Boss Mode is exited, if normal combat has not taken the character back down to their normal range of HP, through use of +heal, which resets your character's HP to their natural maximum.
Characters in Boss Mode can make as many attacks per round as there are participants, divided by two or a minimum of two attacks per round. For that reason, disabling auto-round (+autoround/off) before combat begins and using +round manually once all attacks have been completed is strongly recommended.
