Helpful Tips

This page is a list of information about game mechanics that could be difficult to remember as Paradox is rife with them.

Regarding Attack Types

 * Physical Types - Can be dodged, can be countered, can be reflected. Most non holy/dark/magic attacks are these.
 * Magical Types - Can be dodged, but most spells have a base hit chance of 100%, can be evaded ("The attack had no effect!"), can be reflected.
 * Auto-Hit - Can be dodged, altough only extremely late in the game. Physical Type Auto-Hits (Makina, Empty Sky, Non Holy/Dark attacks) can be nullified. Elemental Type Auto-Hits (no Physical type, aka Breath skills, Nature Spells, Die for Me!) can only be nullified/absorbed if you are completely immune to all elemental types in the attack. In the same way, Auto-Hits can only be reflected if you completely reflect all elements in the attack.
 * Chaos Element - Mostly only in the LoC (Nuclear and Page of the End have a Chaos Element, Nuclear and Demise respectively). Bypasses any elemental absorbs/reflects/nulls. Still affected by the type of attack it is on.
 * Untyped - Recently added with 2.40, this type is affiliated with psychic attacks and ignore any type of defense.
 * Rape - Not an official attack type, but attacks with these tags ignore any defense a character has.

List of Chaos Elements

 * No element: Galactic
 * Physical: Carnage
 * Pleasure: Nightmare
 * Fire: Nuclear
 * Ice: Quantum
 * Lightning: Ion
 * Wind: Hadron
 * Earth: Terra
 * Water: Nano
 * Holy: Eternal
 * Dark: Demise
 * Bio : ?
 * Sonic: ?

Regarding Weapons and Skills

 * If the skill has a ^ or an or (e.g. Att or Dex for Ninjutsu) in the calculations, its taking the highest of the stats listed.
 * Likewise, a skill with a + (e.g. Att+Agi, for spears) takes the sum of the two.
 * After choosing a target, if you have multiple elements on your attack, it will take the one that will deal the most damage. Unless the enemy possesses an absorbtion, in which case he will absorb the whole lot.
 * However, if you have multiple "[Element Type Here] Damage +15%", it will take the HIGHEST of them, even if that boost is NOT what is being used against the enemy.
 * Weapon Type Skills, (Swords, Bows, Guns, Etc.) deal roughly 50% more damage when used with their proper weapon, and somewhat only slightly lower damage if the weapon is close enough, (+40% for club skills with an axe, +40% for sword skills with a katana, the lowest is base skill damage)
 * Deflectors are affected by dispels!
 * If your person has a deflector on them and they die from Climax/Ascension/Death, they keep it upon being revived.
 * Self harm damage (Edging, Punishment (Godfather),? (Samurai Skill)) will be blocked by deflectors.
 * Non damaging Talk/Dance/Song Skills are Auto-Hit.

Regarding Buffs

 * Buffs start their countdown on the turn you use then, so 4 turns means the turn you cast it plus 3 more afterwards. Buffs generally last until end of turn.
 * Buffs that appear separately on the status bar stack with each other, if they don't, its not being stacked.(Transform + Inner Focused Mind will stack. Song of Offense + Enchant Magic will not.)
 * In Part 2, Will and Hero's Song/Mass Omni Enchant are the same buff, and therefore will not stack

List of Dispels
These are skills that remove buffs. Typically there is a 5 turn cooldown between dispels. Some notable dispels are:
 * Disruptive Wave - No cost for enemies.
 * Mass Dispel - Costs MP, Magical, but will still dispel if reflected
 * All Cancel - Costs MP, Certain Hit
 * Zero Shift - Also removes debuffs on enemy side, costs MP
 * Dispel Dance - Magical, no cost for enemies

Regarding Difficulty
For quick reference, this is what each of the difficulties do to the stats of enemies.
 * Very Easy = 50% HP, 50% Attack/Magic/Dexterity, 50% Defense, 50% Agility (And also regen health for party/damage enemy for a percent of max hp at end of turn)
 * Easy = 75% HP, 75% Attack/Magic/Dexterity, 75% Defense, 75% Agility
 * Normal = 100% HP, 100% Attack/Magic/Dexterity, 100% Defense, 100% Agility
 * Hard = 125% HP, 125% Attack/Magic/Dexterity, 125% Agility, 115% Defense, 75% Death Vulnerability
 * Very Hard = 150% HP, 150% Attack/Magic/Dexterity, 110% Defense, 125% Agility, 50% Death Vulnerability
 * Hell = 200% HP, 200% Attack/Magic/Dexterity, 125% Defense, 150% Agility, 25% Death Vulnerability
 * Paradox = 300% HP, 500% Attack/Magic/Dexterity, 150% Defense, 200% Agility, 10% Death Vulnerability

LoC

 * All exits will appear in the same place, but which exit is "Active" is randomized.


 * The cap on rare points is 20000, with all points earned afterwards becoming rabbit points. See Labyrinth of Chaos for more details.


 * Rarely, enemy monsters can revive themselves at higher rare points. Note that killing them on the first turn seems to prevent them from doing this


 * There is a checkpoint for the main labyrinth every 100 floors, ending at the 601st floor. You get 3000 X Check Point Number for starting at them, so starting at floor 601 starts you at 16000.


 * Blue chests in the trials always give the equipment that the trial would give, aka Endless Chaos would always give gems, while Sea of Truth will give bows/guns/whips...


 * All legendary gear of the same type have base effects that they always have, once you know what it is (Or look it up on this wiki), the other effects are what is random (So you can decide if you want to try for another equipment of the same type with better effects)

Other

 * If all front line members are under a status effect that will not end naturally and prevents action (e.g. Petrified), you will lose the battle (even if they can still revive themselves)


 * Monsters have MP as well, and can not cast spells that use them if they run out. Especially angels, whose holy attacks all need MP.


 * In Part Two, certain characters gain Haste: [Skill] (Reina gains Haste: Dance, for example), Hasted skills ALWAYS go first, if there are two hasted skills, its random which one goes first.