Battle FAQ
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Don't forget there are in-game tutorials! If available, just click on the "Tutorial [?]" link on the top right of the page.
On this page you can find the answers to the most frequently asked questions about battles in Estiah.
What is a battle?
Lots of game events involve a battle with players and NPCs (Non-Player Characters). Gears, or composition of Charms, are used during battles to decide the outcome. Since Charms cannot be measured in pure strength, battles are not always won by those with the "best" Charms. Players need to think over which Charms to use and how they are combined together, surprising and clever mix of average Charms usually works much better than picking only "powerful" Charms.
What is a Charm?
Cleric Blessed Rod
18 Magic (50% P)
16 Ward (cumulative)
Decrease opponent's melee attacks by up to 4

Requires Level 30
193 Int   181 Con
Cleric (R2)
Holy (R3)
5
According to the story, the lands of Estiah are affected by the terrible Curse that makes the use of weapons, spells and armors impossible. And Charms are a (temporary) workaround to the Curse.

In the game, Charms are represented by cards like the sample at the left. This sample Charm is called Cleric Blessed Rod, it is a class Charm that can only be used by players specialized in Cleric. The number at the bottom indicates how many instances of the same Charm you have, and there is a limit to how many of the same Charms you can acquire.

The middle part shows the effects the Charm has. Cleric Blessed Rod has three effects here:
1) it deals 18 magic damage with 50% of it being penetrating (ignoring armor/ward).
2) it grants 16 ward (protection against magic damage) to the user, armors and wards usually don't stack unless explicitly mentioned with "cumulative" note.
3) it weakens opponent's melee attack, and this effect lasts through the whole battle. But it can be removed if opponent uses a charm with "cleanse" effect.

This is a rather powerful charm, so there are some requirements to use it.
1) the user must have level 30 or higher.
2) the user must have 193 intellect and 181 constitution. These fundamental attributes are explained in the character FAQ.
3) the user must have learnt skills Holy Rank 3 and Cleric Rank 2. Class skills are automatically acquired when you specialize in a class, you cannot learn it through battles or jobs.

And at the bottom you have a Holy Rune icon. It shows the Charm's affinity with Holy magic. Runes will be explained in detail later because it's a quite advanced topic.

After reading this far, you must have understood that Charms are actually your tools for battles and you should pay good attentions to their effects because they are your character's strength and weakness.
What is a gear?
You'll acquire quite a lot of Charms during your adventure, and you'll not be able to use all of them at the same time in battles. So you will have to choose the ones you want to use in battles, and the composition of chosen Charms is called a "Gear". You can have several gears at the same time, but you can only use one of them in an instance of battle. You can also define gears to be used when you are attacked by surprise or when you are forming a party.

If Charms are ingredients, then Gears are recipes; no good dish will come out without good ingredients and good recipes. It's entirely up to you how to build your gears; offensive, defensive, balanced, spirit-based gears are all equally effective, and they are just some basic examples.

The maximum number of Charms in a Gear is the character's Spirit attribute. It increases when the character levels up or learns some special skills.
How do battles work?
Battles in Estiah are turn-based, it means when a battle starts, characters involved will use charms in their selected gear, one after another, much like a classic trading card game. However, some Charms have stun or extra action effects, so the playing order is not always the same.

After a charm is being used, the effects will be applied to targets. Targets can be self, opponents, allies, even all of them. Without special mention, effects are applied to a random single opponent. In advanced battles, characters will use target modifiers such as "Protect" or "Focus", they allow to force opponent's target to self or designate an opponent to focus. Target modifiers are very important in group fights, and hard to manage.

A Battle ends when all members in a team are defeated, and members in the opposing team are all victorious, even though some of them may be defeated during the fight.
How to defeat an opponent?
There are two ways to defeat an opponent:

1) The opponent loses all his hits points. (defeated)
2) The opponent uses up all his Charms in his selected Gear for the battle. (exhausted)

That's why you can win either by hacking your opponent's hit points down or destroying his Charms only. But be careful, most dungeon bosses have unlimited number of Charms, so they cannot lose by being exhausted.