FINAL FANTASY RESONANCE Combat Guide and Stagger Rules

Battles in FINAL FANTASY RESONANCE are turn-based with no real-time clock, and they are decided by one number: the enemy's stagger gauge. Every fight in the game is won by draining that gauge before the enemy's devastating attack lands, which is why this combat guide starts there rather than with damage formulas.

The FINAL FANTASY RESONANCE combat guide covers four systems

1. The turn order, which tells you who acts next.
2. The six roles and what each one is for.
3. The stagger gauge, the Bonus Phase and the Sweeping Stagger.
4. Buffs, debuffs and the bonuses you collect at the end of a battle.

Turn order and who acts next

The turn order runs left to right across the top of the screen, with allies in blue and enemies in red. You plan around who acts next instead of reacting, which means a character who acts later in the round is often the right one to leave at low HP for a healer to pick up.

Roles and damage types

Six roles decide what a character is good for:

Every hero has one role and every Vision carries one too, so a hero's own role and their Vision's role can reinforce each other or cover a hole. Physical heroes — Rain, Lasswell, Lid and Jake — hit through Phys. Atk., while magic heroes — Fina, Nichol, Dark Fina and Sakura — hit through Mag. Atk.

Limit Bursts work like this: fill the limit gauge, then unleash it. A level 2 Limit Burst needs a fuller gauge but hits harder, and two characters carry two gauges that charge to 200%. Rain's Infinity Drive deals Fire physical damage and 50% more against a staggered target. Lasswell's Null Moon deals non-elemental physical damage and makes the target easier to stagger for 3 turns. Fina's Holy Ray deals Light magic damage to all enemies and scales with sanctity. Nichol's Formation: Steeled Advance fills allies' limit gauges when they act.

How to stagger enemies

• Every enemy carries a stagger gauge. The bullet icon on a skill is its stagger power, and the number next to it is how much gauge the hit takes off.
• A hit on the enemy's elemental weakness is worth triple the stagger of the same skill on a neutral target.
• The gauge preview appears before you confirm the attack, so you can compare options instead of guessing.
• A staggered enemy loses its turn and takes more damage than usual.
• The character who landed the break gets an extra action at the end of the round, the Bonus Phase.
• Stagger every enemy in the same turn for a Sweeping Stagger: the whole party gets an extra action and the round ends with a Vision Resonance, the equipped Vision's signature attack.
• A stagger cancels a devastating attack the enemy was charging.
• Higher-level enemies are harder to stagger. If the gauge barely moves on a weakness, compare levels before anything else.

Stagger numbers you can plan around

These are the gauge values on Normal, so you know how much you are trying to move: Belmodar 145, Hell's Rider 200, The Hunger rematch 450, Siren 550, the Marauder 600, Gilgamesh 1,000, the Ochu 1,800, Shinryu 6,000, Ultima Weapon 5,000 and Omega 15,000. Every story boss also has its own level, hidden weakness and devastating attack, and the full table is on the bosses page.

Mastery Rank abilities add stagger power directly. Tronn at MR 7 gives Stagger Power +20% for 40 AP. Clive at MR 1 gives Vigorous Staggerer, +30% while at full HP, for 20 AP. Cecil at MR 7 gives Staggeringly Risky, +50% at the cost of 50% more MP on physical attacks, for 40 AP. Zidane at MR 3 gives Insult to Injury, +30% against debuffed or status-ailment targets, for 20 AP. Lightning at MR 5 gives Bonus Phase Stagger Boost, +40% during the bonus phase, for 20 AP.

Buffs, debuffs and status ailments

Buffs last a few turns: Bravery raises physical damage by 50%, Faith raises magic damage by 50%, Protect and Shell raise the two defenses, and Haste raises speed. Debuffs lower the same values, and unlike status ailments they cannot be removed by Esuna or by items — you wait them out or cast the opposite buff.

Status ailments — Poison, Confuse, Petrify, Sleep, Silence, Charm, Berserk and Instant Death — are cleared by Esuna or by items such as remedies. A confused or sleeping ally is also cured by hitting it with a physical attack.

Ending a battle well pays

Win without taking damage for a x1.2 EXP bonus. Defeat all enemies during the bonus phase and land a follow-up attack for a x1.3 gil bonus. Defeat the last enemy while it is staggered for a x1.3 Mastery Points bonus.

The endgame fights are separate

The story bosses are only part of the fight content. After chapter 8 there are 60 optional bosses, from cave masters at level 15 to Omega at level 99, and each one has its own weakness and its own gauge. The optional bosses page has the breakdown.