Chain

A player using square attacks, followed by a skill on triangle

Left: Damage with no chain, right: Damage with 3 chain

Chains are the main combat mechanic of Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity, allowing players to do higher damage with their photon arts (excluding bullets) and charge shots by repeatedly hitting a creature with attacks first.

Using a attack after building to at least 1 chain on a creature will grant the player a minimum of double damage, with higher damage with a higher chain.

The chain system was introduced in Phantasy Star Portable 2 to incentivise the use of regular attacks alongside attacks, as the mechanics and gameplay of Phantasy Star Universe and Phantasy Star Portable, the game's predecessors, meant that combat was mostly just pressing the same button over and over again.

Proper use of the chain system is mandatory in later stages of the game, as creature health is balanced around the chain multipliers.

Overview

Chains are increased through using multiple attacks on a creature. Once a chain has been built, a attack can be used to break the chain, granting all attacks extra damage against that creature for a limited time.

The following types of attacks will build chain:

• Normal melee attacks
• Normal ranged attacks
• Technics linked to
• R-Mag shots
• Shield attacks
• The mirage blasts Canna and Toitoi
• SUV-weapon attacks

Any hits that hit a creature on the same frame from the same damage source (e.g. 5 hits from a shotgun) will count as 1 hit for the purposes of chain building.

The following types of attacks will break chains, and benefit from the break:

• Melee photon arts
• Charge shots
• Technics linked to
• The mirage blasts Nui and Kohl

Chains only last a limited amount of time before disappearing. While increasing the chain counter, the chain may disappear if not increased or broken fast enough, with a higher chain giving the players less time before it disappears. After breaking the chain, the amount of time the chain remains in its broken state depends on how high the chain counter was built, with a higher chain lasting for a longer period of time.

Chains are shared amongst the party, meaning that players may build chains together, and a broken chain will be broken for all players in the party.

Chain building tips

As creature stats in Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity are designed around chain multipliers, it is very important for players to be able to build their chains quickly and easily.

Below are common methods used for chain building:

• Using a Technic weapon ( rods, wands, or Tech-Mags) with either Foverse, Sabarta, or Sazonde bound to square.
  • Foverse builds chain passively while close to creatures. Foverse can be paired with any other chain builder.
  • Sabarta builds chain on up to 3 creatures in front of the user. Ideal for groups of small creatures.
  • Sazonde builds chain on up to 2 creatures, and will also stagger most creatures. Ideal for single larger targets, as small creatures will become untargetable if hit by Sazonde.
• R-Mags fire automatically and will build chain passively while the player uses their right-hand weapon, such as a wand or dagger. A fast R-Mag such as Opaopa or Elenor are ideal.
• Machineguns with Meseta Fever allow the player to build chain quickly for no PP cost.
• Melee weapons, such as twin sabers, twin daggers, or twin claws, can build chain quickly on single targets.
• Twin handguns are also an effective method of building chain on a single target, and are great for many with T. Heaven Punishers.
• Partner characters, especially support characters built for chain, are helpful for building chain. If the follow command from the quick orders menu is used, partner characters will only use square attacks and never break chain.

Chain duration

Pre-break

When a chain is started on a creature, there is a set time before the chain must be increased or broken, or it will disappear and must be built again. The timer is reset when a chain is increased by 1, but the amount of time there is to increase the chain further or break it is lower the higher the chain.

Formula
${\color {White}3.{\dot {3}}-(Chain/30)}$
Chain No.	Duration (s)
10	3.00
30	2.33
80	0.67

Because of this, a chain at 100 will instantly disappear before a player can increase it, or break it, giving the chain system a maximum of 100.

Post-break

Once a chain has been broken, it will flash for a certain amount of time, depending on the final chain amount.

Formula
${\color {White}2+(Chain/10)}$
Chain No.	Duration (s)
10	3.00
30	5.00
80	10.00

Chain damage

The amount of damage multiplier provided by a chain break depends on whether there is more than one party member (including NPCs, meaning that solo play with only NPCs follows the multiplayer formula) and the number of the chain counter at the time of break.

In layman's terms, any chain at all will double all damage, with a further 12.5% or 7.5% extra damage per chain count, depending on player count.

Formula
1 player		2-4 player
${\color {White}Damage\times {\big [}2+(0.125\times Chain){\big ]}}$		${\color {White}Damage\times {\big [}2+(0.075\times Chain){\big ]}}$
Chain No.	Damage	Chain No.	Damage
10	3.25×	10	2.75×
30	5.75×	30	4.25×
80	12.00×	80	8.00×