Atelier Ryza 3 has a pretty deep and interesting battle system. There’s actually a stunning amount of strategy to it. From Battle Mechanics to preparation, learn all about the basics of battle by using our Atelier Ryza 3 Combat Guide!
Getting AP
AP or ‘Action Points’ are arguably the crux of Atelier Ryza 3‘s Battle System. You need AP to perform skills and other things. We’ll Get into other use cases in a more specific manner soon.
Using Abilities
So you need AP to use your Skills. These are your big damage dealers and tie into two other battle mechanics; ‘Action Orders’ and ‘Tactics Level’.
Remember: you can go into your ‘Battle Preparations’ menu and set skills to whichever buttons you please!
Action Orders and Order Drives.
Action Orders are requests from your two other battle members. They will ask you to use a physical or magical attack. Your skills are marked with a fist (physical) or a staff (magical). Using the requested attack to get some free attacks from your active battle members.
A little later on you unlock Order Drives. You’ll earn a point for each successful Action Order. When you stockpile enough points you can, at will, use a special skill from a party member to help turn the tide of battle. You can customize these in your Battle Preparations menu and they aren’t limited to active battle members either!
Tactics Level
Tactics Level is really simple to understand. The higher the level, the more Max AP you can stock up. This is useful for coordinating large usage of skills to really dish out some damage. Also, Tactics Level needs to be a certain level to do certain things. We’ll discuss that in the appropriate sections.
Your Tactics Level does drop a level for every party member knockout and getting stunned. So, challenging fights can cause a struggle to keep your Tactics up.
Battle Mode
By tapping up or down on the D-pad you can swap what mode your AI companions fight in, since you can only control one character at a time. In ‘Support Mode’ your companions will only use regular attacks to build up AP and in ‘Aggressive Mode’ they will also use skills. Your timing in mode switching could be the difference in victory or defeat.
Swapping Characters
In Ryza 2 you had one support character you could swap to. However, in Ryza 3 you have a “Back Row” with 2 characters. You hold ‘L1’ or ‘L’ and then tap a corresponding button to a character to swap.
The depth doesn’t end there! You can do a string of normal attacks, use skills, THEN swap to a character, and use THEIR skills. This lets you build up HUGE combos.
Core Items
Ok, so you use normal attacks to build AP, you use AP to use skills, and you use skills to deal big damage while increasing your Tactics Level. Sounds like that’s it right? WRONG! Using Skills also gives you ‘Core Charges’ (CC). CC allows you to use items you put into your Core Crystal. These can be powerful attack items, helpful buff items, and crippling debuff items. Core Items can really give you the edge in battle!
In the state of an emergency you can spend 10 AP to instantly use your Core Crystal when it isn’t your turn. Also, keep in mind that using items will extend your ‘Wait Time’ to your next turn.
Keys
Keys can do one of two things in battle: be created or be used. To create a Key just make sure your target enemy is at 80% or less HP, open your Core Crystal menu, and tab over to ‘Key Creation’. You will have certain percentage of success to create a key. To use a key you tab over to ‘Key Modification’ in you Core Crystal menu. This gives you and your party various battle benefits or buffs.
Preventing Enemy Special Attacks
Enemies will, under certain conditions, get ready to pound your skull in by charging up a special attack. The camera will pan over to them and they will be gushing out red energy. During this state they will not attack. They will unleash their most powerful attack when their ‘Wait Time’ Gauge fills completely.
During this phase, you need to try to stun or kill them in order to prevent this attack. Use your items, skills, action orders, order drives, and party members strategically to quell your rampaging foe! If you succeed you prevent the attack and get a short time to wail on them.
Fatal Drives
You unlock these powerful and flashy attacks at Level 50 for each character. When you reach Tactics Level 5 you can hold the attack button to unleash this attack. Sit back and enjoy a bombastic scene where your character looks cool and deals tons o’ damage!
Ryza 3 Combat Guide Related Links
Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key is an amazing time that I highly recommend. So please consider checking out the Atelier series and the other Ryza games.
