Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

• Use No Guard.
• Use Auto targeting.
• Use the Homing counter aura.
• Don't let the AI cast any spells.
• Don't use attack magic (except Thunder Flare).
• Expect characters casting magic to be targeted by any nearby enemies and make sure they don't get interrupted.
• Get Regeneration Symbols for all three characters.
• Use SP to increase the MP skill to Lv5 for Fayt, Cliff, Roger and Albel. Put the rest of your SP into HP, and possibly Attack if the character is in AI control (the Attack and Defense skills do *not* increase attack power or defense power). Keep Defense at Lv1 to avoid enabling self-preservation, which does more harm than good.
• Get familiar with enemy attacks, their timing, duration, area of effect, whether you can block them or not. Use this knowledge to create opportunities to punish the enemy (whiff punish, block punish, evade punish, distract punish).
• Get accessories that block status ailments (Amulet of Freedom, Anti-Freezing Amulet).
• On Disc 2, customize your weapons with Blue Talismans, Red Talismans and Rings of Mental Power.
• Equip Bunny Shoes or Rings of Haste to increase movement speed (or customize your weapons with RoH if you don't mind farming some money).
• Minimize Sophia's (or Adray's) casting time with Quick Symbol and a Star Necklace.
• Create a bunch of Healing Devices, especially if you don't have Sophia or Adray in your active party.

Battle System & Mechanics

The game features a substantial margin of error, meaning you don't need to be intimately familiar with its systems to progress, but doing so can enhance your enjoyment. It is recommended to at least review the AI sections to understand concepts like self-preservation, stealth, and magic attract.

Contents

• Normal Attacks
• Parrying
• Fury
• Frame Advantage
• Targeting
• Damage Calculation
• Skill Setup
• Death
• Canceling / Chaining
• Healing
• Skip-Canceling
• Status Ailments
• Blocking
• Characters
• Sidestepping
• Battle Bonus
• Magic
• Battle Trophies
• AI
• Difficulty Levels
• Enemy AI
• Bugs
• Hitstun

Normal Attacks

There are two attack buttons: Confirm (Minor/weak) and Cancel (Major/strong). Attacks vary based on distance to the enemy, with some characters having aerial attacks. Confirm attacks are fast but blockable, often with a 1.0 base damage multiplier (ATP minus DFP). Cancel attacks are stronger and unblockable but slower.

Fury

All actions consume Fury, with a maximum of 100 that cannot be increased. Fury recovers at 100 per second when resting (standing still). Guard breaks incur a two-second delay before recharge. Flinching allows slow Fury recovery (about 10 per second). Killing an enemy grants 30 Fury. Enemies have a minimum Fury value of approximately 10, allowing them to always perform certain attacks. While moving, max Fury is 99. Enemies do not always recover Fury when standing still. Many attacks deal Fury damage; enemy Fury damage is always 50. The enemy's Fury is indicated by a green bar on the HUD (Heads-Up Display), and it's beneficial to acknowledge when it's full.

Targeting

Auto targeting selects the closest enemy automatically. Manual targeting requires pressing the Disintegration button to switch targets, which does not pause the action. It is strongly advised to use Auto targeting unless employing ranged attacks that don't hit multiple enemies easily, or when needing to focus on a specific enemy in a multi-enemy boss fight. You can press and hold the Disintegration button while the battle menu is open to check targets.

Skill Setup

You have four battle skill slots (SR Confirm, LR Confirm, SR Cancel, LR Cancel) and two support skill slots. Activated skills are initiated by holding the corresponding button for about 0.2 seconds. Confirm skills can be blocked, while Cancel skills cannot. Battle skills, especially those using MP, require mindful management. Skill power and activation rate increase with use, with Lv10 multipliers being 1.5 times base Lv0 values. Most skills require 1674 uses to reach Lv10, which can take 2-3 hours of grinding.

• To perform a skip cancel, you must be in optimal range for the next move in the chain at the end of the cancel queue window.
• The cancel queue window for the current move must end before the cancel queue window for the next move begins.

Blocking & Counter Auras

Blocking occurs when a character with 100% Fury is hit by a blockable attack. Each blocked hit reduces the attacker's Fury by 30. Unblockable attacks are indicated by a purple aura around the enemy.

Blocking prevents damage and can trigger a counter aura (also known as Anti-Attack Aura / AAA). There are 7 types of counter auras, most learned from Textbooks, with one requiring an accessory. Selling a Textbook prevents future characters from learning that aura but does not remove learned ones.

The most common enemy counter aura causes a stun for 4 seconds or until a physical hit. Enemies with damaging counter auras like Homing and Wide Area Homing become more frequent after Disc 1. Sidestepping can help avoid damage from these if you regain control of your character before they hit.

The first counter aura learned is a basic stun. Be aware that Force resistance still applies to tougher enemies even when stunned. The Homing counter aura is recommended as it reflects half of the damage you would have received and floats the enemy, leaving them vulnerable.

Some attacks are not interrupted when blocked. Magic and counter auras cannot be blocked. If a character with 100% Fury is hit by an unblockable attack, their guard is broken, and they lose 50% Fury.

You can use a party character (PC) as a 'shield' by setting them to Manual and having them stand near an enemy while you attack. A blockable attack can break a subject's guard if they are afflicted with a special stun, like a grapple or the spinning effect of Whirling Heat.

When an elemental attack is blocked and the blocker would have fully absorbed the damage, the counter aura deals no damage. Counter auras are always non-elemental, regardless of the blocked attack's element.

Sidestepping

Sidestepping grants invulnerability to physical attacks and counter auras for a very short period (about 0.25 seconds) at the beginning of the move, lasting about 0.65 seconds total. It's a useful tool to avoid damage when timed correctly, though less effective against multi-hit moves.

While sidestepping doesn't protect against magical damage, it prevents flinching from it, helping to avoid guard breaks from spells like Fire Bolt or mitigating damage from Lightning Strike.

By default, sidestepping requires holding L2 and moving the analog stick. It is recommended to rebind this to the d-pad.

Magic

Spells can be set as battle skills for Sophia and, to a limited extent, Adray, allowing them to be cast without a casting time, though with a slight 1.5-second delay. Spells have a Major multiplier of 1.3 and cannot be blocked, even when set to Confirm. Magic is generally not a good source of damage except for Sophia and Adray. It is advised to disable offensive spells for other characters in the Symbology menu to prevent the AI from casting them.