General information | Combat Final Fantasy XV Guide

Combat in Final Fantasy XV differs severely from the previous installments of the series - everything happens in real-time and the results of encounters depend both on the stats of the characters, as well as the manual skills of the player. In this chapter you will learn about health points, health point regeneration, MP and you will find descriptions of all of the character stats.

• Character stats
• Health Points (HP) and their regeneration
• Consequences of losing HP - Danger and Death
• Mana points (MP) and their regeneration
• Resistances

Character stats

All of the characters in the party are described with a number of stats that have an impact on their combat effectiveness. The following table represents all of the stats available for each character.

Icon	Name	Description
	HP	Health Points of the character. When this value reaches 0 points, the character will become incapacitated and will enter "Danger" state - if the character won't be healed in time it will be knocked out until the encounter ends. If, however, it happens to Noctis, the game will be over and you will be forced to load a save state. More on that can be found in the further part of this chapter.
	MP	Mana Points. A stat exclusive to Noctis, allowing the prince to perform special actions and use his abilities. More on that can be found in the further part of this chapter.
	Stamina	A hidden stat - you first have to activate it from the option menu, otherwise the bar won't show up. This stat, similarly to MP, is exclusive to Noctis. It allows the character to sprint and to hang on from a point to which you blade-warped.
	Attack (Weapon power)	It directly influences the amount of damage the character deals. The value is further increased by the Strength stat.
	Defense	A stat that directly influences the amount of damage a character receives from enemy attacks. The value is further increased by the Vitality stat.
	Strength	The strength stat of a character. This value directly influences the amount of damage the characters in the party can deal, as well the amount of damage the enemies can deal.
	Vitality	Vitality influences the amount of physical damage received from enemy attacks - the higher the value, the less damage a character will receive from that source. Note - this value does not influence the amount of health points a character has.
	Spirit	Spirit influences the amount of magical damage a character receives - it's the "magic equivalent" of vitality.
	Magic	A stat influencing the amount of damage dealt with crafted spells, as well as some weapons.
	Fire resistance	Fire resistance decreases the amount of damage receive from fire-based attacks. It's a percentage value - 50% fire resistance will decrease fire damage by 50%.
	Ice resistance	Ice resistance decreases the amount of damage receive from ice-based attacks. It's a percentage value - 50% ice resistance will decrease ice damage by 50%.
	Lightning resistance	Lightning resistance decreases the amount of damage receive from lightning-based attacks. It's a percentage value - 50% lightning resistance will decrease lightning damage by 50%.
	Dark resistance	Dark resistance decreases the amount of damage receive from dark-based attacks, mostly coming from daemons. It's a percentage value - 50% dark resistance will decrease dark damage by 50%.
	Ballistic resistance	Resistance to damage received from firearms, mostly coming from Magitek soldiers. It's a percentage value - 50% ballistic resistance will decrease ballistic damage by 50%.

Health Points (HP) and their regeneration

Health bar is divided into several segments.

Health points (HP) stat is the most important in the game, however it's not explained in the game at all. Let's start with the fact that health bar is divided into three parts:

• White part - it represents the current health points of a character. The white part of the bar represents the amount next to the "HP", above the bar. If this part reaches zero, the character will enter "Danger" zone - which will be explained shortly.
• Gray part - it represents the health points that are automatically regenerated, slowly turning into white part. The gray part of the bar regenerates automatically (slowly in combat, significantly faster while out of combat or when taking cover). Additionally, it can be instantly restored with any healing item in the game.
• Black part - it represents the health points that won't be regenerated automatically, the ones that are "lost", at least at the moment. The bar changes into black when taking damage from Daemons, as well as when the character is in the "Danger" mode. Black part will be turned into white once the character rests, or after using an Elixir item (every version of it).

Combining those three parts will give you the whole health bar.

As it was mentioned, Noctis and the rest of the party will automatically regenerate lost health points (turning the gray part of the health bar into the white one). In most cases Noctis will regenerate 0,4% of max health each second, while his companions recover 3% per second. This value can be increased by entering cover (hiding behind cover and holding the defend button) - Noctis will then regenerate 4% of max health each second (14% if you unlock Rapid Regen from the Recovery Ascension tree).

Consequences of losing HP - Danger and Death

Losing health points leads to one of the two modes - Danger or Death. The first one activates when the health points of the character reaches 0 - the health bar of the character will then start flashing red, the character won't be able to do anything (aside from using a healing item) and the health bar of the character will gradually change, turning into black. This state can be escaped from by:

• Using a healing item;
• Receiving help from a teammate or offering it to the fallen party member;
• At the end of the encounter - when all of the enemies are defeated or when Noctis leaves the combat zone (gets outside the red circle on the mini-map).

Characters that entered Danger zone should be healed as quickly as possible.

When a character receives help, it will return to combat with a specific amount of health points - depending on the healing item used to recover. You won't be able to avoid getting into this state - sometimes you make a stupid mistake, other time the enemy will simply be too powerful. What's important is to leave this state as quickly as possible - each second spent in it decreases the amount of health points the character will have after recovering. However, the black part of the health bar can be turned into white by using Elixir-like items.

When the health bar turns completely black, the character will enter Death state. In the case of Noctis' companions it will simply knock them out of combat. To get them back in action you will need to use a Phoenix Down or Mega Phoenix item, or simply leave the combat zone (leave the red circle on the mini-map). This isn't the case when it comes to Noctis - the prince can leave this state only by using one of the two mentioned items. If you won't do it, or you lack any resurrection items, the game will greet you with "Game Over" screen after a few seconds, forcing you to load a saved game.

Mana points (MP) and their regeneration

Warp-strike is one of the abilities that costs MP.

MP are basically mana points, a resource available only to Noctis - the rest of the party lacks this stat. It's thanks to MP that Noctis can use various unique abilities. Those are:

• Blade-warp and warp-strike - a short-ranged teleport and a teleport followed by an attack. Those actions always cost 30 MP.
• Defend - when the Defend button is held Noctis will automatically avoid most enemy attacks, but with each second this will cost him more MP, capping at 15 MP/s.
• Defend with a shield - each second Noctis defends behind a shield will cost him 3 MP.
• Actions performed in mid-air - some of the abilities from the Combat Ascension tree allow Noctis to perform and avoid attacks in mid-air. Each action like that costs 20 MP.
• Using Ring of the Lucii - this item gives access to two types of magic, Holy and Death, using 10% of mana each second for the former and 5% for the latter.

Losing MP doesn't affect Noctis' combat capabilities in any way, but completely depleting the reservoir does. In that case Noctis will enter Stasis mode. Once it happens, the prince won't be able to use any of the above listed abilities - if he tries, the character will trip, become vulnerable to attacks and you will lose any control over it for a short moment. Additionally, MP regen will be stopped for a few seconds after the last ability usage. To leave this mode you can wait for a few seconds for MP to start regenerating, use one of the items that recover MP (Ether and all types of Elixirs), hide behind cover or perform a blade-warp to one of the points in the area - the last maneuver will completely replenish MP.

Resistances

There are 5 resistances available in the game - Ice, Fire, Lightning, Dark (attacks coming from Daemons) and Ballistic (firearms). Those differ from the decreased damage coming from Spirit / Vitality quite significantly - resistances offer percentage decreases in damage, which is extremely powerful. Even a small, 20% resistance is significant, not to mention a situation in which one of your characters has, for instance, 50% resistance to Dark - all of the Daemon attacks, regardless of their levels, will deal 50% less damage to the character.

Even though you won't be able to increase all of the resistances to an absurd level, there's still an easy method to constantly modify those values. A large number of weapons and items (Gear) will give at least one resistance. If you are planning a hunt and your main enemy deals significant fire damage, all you need to do is to equip your team with items giving fire resistance, even when it will costs them some other stats. This will allow you to constantly modify the amount of damage your party receives - especially given the fact that you can alter their equipment even during an encounter.