Editing How to Force Basically

[[File:Sazonde.png|thumb|A FO's wetdream]]

== General Gameflow ==
''A type that relies on Technics for attacking and providing support. The type's high TEC and MND make it adept with Technic weapons. For advanced players.''

"haha Sazonde go BRRRRRRR"

== tl;dr ==
[[File:Force Sample Palette.png|thumb|269x269px|A sample palette for Forces]]

* Weapons
**BEEG {{Triangle}} DAMAGE GO BRRRRRR: [[Rods]] -> [[Gifoie]], [[Gizonde]], [[Sazonde]], [[Diga]], [[Gidiga]], [[Nosdiga]], [[Damgrants]]
**Press {{Square}} a lot: [[Sazonde]], [[Sabarta]], [[Nagrants]], [[Foverse]]
** Utility: [[Anti]], [[Resta]], [[Jellen]], [[Shifta]], [[Deband]], [[Zalure]], [[Longbows]]
**Sample Palette on the right:
***[[Longbows|Longbow]] ({{Square}} [[Chousei-sou]] {{Triangle}} Charge Shot I)
*** [[Double Sabers]] ({{Triangle}} [[Tornado Dance]])
***[[Rods|Rod]] ({{Square}} [[Sabarta]], {{Triangle}} [[Sazonde]], R+{{Square}} [[Foverse]], R+{{Triangle}} [[Gizonde]])
***[[Rods|Rod]] ({{Square}} [[Sazonde]], {{Triangle}} [[Nosdiga]], R+{{Square}} [[Zalure]] , R+{{Triangle}} [[Diga]] )
***[[R-Mags|R-Mag]] + [[Wands|Wand]] ({{Square}}[[Nagrants]], {{Triangle}} [[Damgrants]])
***[[Rods|Rod]] ({{Square}} [[Anti]], {{Triangle}} [[Resta]], R+{{Square}} [[Shifta]], R+{{Triangle}} [[Deband]])
* Notable Abilities
** Full-Charge Shot (Ranger Lv2): Vital if you use any ranged weapons.
** Hi-Speeds (Force Lv11 to Lv17): Follow Hi-Speed and Assist Hi-Speed is bad, allocate others based on your preferred element.
** Advances (Force Lv23 to Lv28): Hell yeah more damage.
** Half Defense (Vanguard Lv8): Clutch
** Auto-Heal Half/Critical (Default): when combined with Half Defense, makes you basically invinicible.
** Healing Item Boost (Hunter Lv2): Saves you some monomate uses.
** Yohmei Fan (All Lv5): Did you know yohmei makes every force weapon?
** PP Escape Save (All Lv3): Makes dodging easier.
** Partnership (Vanguard Lv6): Makes your partners better.
* Tips
** <big>SAZONDE GO BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR</big>
** Learn how to strafe cast with wands.

==Perks and Drawbacks ==

=== Perks ===

* Small amount of required [[Extend Type]] use (only 2 or 3 weapon categories), allows uses of many weapon outside of the types' expertise.
* Technics provides a huge range of coverage, between large amounts of attributes and various ways of damage.
* Significantly better [[Shifta]], [[Deband]], and [[Zalure]] gives the player higher damage and makes excellent support.
* Weapons are very customizable and easily repurposed, allows the player to get by large parts of the game with a few weapons.

=== Drawbacks ===

* Low HP and low DEF results in the player being easily killed.
* Low ATK is very poor with melee weapons and some ranged weapons.
* Reliance on [[Photon Arts]] levels results in weak early-game and a longer grind than others.

== Termology ==
'''Casting Time / Casting Speed:''' The amount of time between pressing down the button and the Technic coming out. 

'''Tri-casting:''' By casting multiple Technics in succession, the casting time of the Technics past the first one is shortened. Can apply to a maximum of three presses (hence tri-casting). Applies to [[Rods]] and [[Wands]], but does not apply to [[Tech-Mags]]. Some Technics are incompatiable with Tri-cast.

'''Strafing:''' movement while holding L. Some weapons can be used while moving this way, such as [[Handguns]], and, more importantly for us, [[Wands]] and [[Tech-Mags]]. Only the Technic on {{Square}} is usable, though. Some Technics are incompatiable with Strafing.

'''Strafe Casting:''' A glitch that allows the the player to basically skip the casting time, and quickly spamming Technics, by casting while alternating between strafing and not strafing (pressing and not pressing L). Applicable to both [[Wands]] and [[Tech-Mags]], but can only be used with {{Square}}. 

'''[Attribute] Hi-Speed/Advance:''' [[Abilities]] which enhances Technics of the mentioned attribute. Hi-speed shortens the casting time of those Technics, and Advance provides a high damage boost.  

'''Empower Attribute:''' Instead of [[Status effects]], Technic weapons have Empower [Attribute] abilities, which provides a flat damage boost to Technics of that attribute. 

'''Damage Multiplier:''' The TEC % on Technics. 

'''ailment Matching:''' If an enemy has a status ailment, a bonus 35% damage is added to a Technic attack that has an attribute corresponding to that ailment. The corresponding ailments are: 

{| class="wikitable"
!Attribute
|Fire
|Ice
|Lightning
|Ground
|Light
|Darkness
|-
!ailment
|Freeze
|Burn
|Confuse
|Shock
|Infect
|Sleep
|}

==Technics==
Unlike Melee and Ranged weapons, Technic Weapons do not have inherent attacks. Instead, Technics must be linked to a Technic weapon for it to be able to attack. Similar to Melee and Ranged Weapons, attacks from {{Square}} accumlates chains, while attacks from {{Triangle}} breaks chains. Obviously, you would want {{Square}} to be linked with multi-hit attacks to deal chains quickly, while {{Triangle}} is linked with high damage, multi-hit, or multi-lock attacks.

As such, Technics are the centerpiece of a Force strategy. Choosing the right Technics is more important than using the right weapons, even.

=== '''tl;dr:''' ===
Chainers: Sazonde, Sabarta, Foverse, Nagrants

Chain-breaker: Diga, Nosdiga, Sazonde, various Gi-spells

Utility: support Techs

Strafe Casting targets: various projectile Technics, Nagrants, Sazonde 



Technics are separated by elements, and can be loosely categorized based on their effect:
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!
!Fire
!Ice
!Lightning
!Ground
!Light
!Dark
|-
!Projectile 
|Foie
|Barta
| Zonde
|Diga
|Nagrants
|Megid
|-
!Midrange AOE
|Rafoie
|Rabarta
|Razonde
|Radiga
|Grants
|Ramegid
|-
!Close-range AOE
|Gifoie
|Gibarta
|Gizonde
| Gidiga
|
|
|-
!Hold for Damage
|Damfoie 
|Dambarta
|
| Damdiga
| Damgrants 
|Dammegid
|-
!Hold for Tracking
|
|
| Noszonde
|Nosdiga 
|
| Nosmegid
|-
!Hold for AOE
|
|
|
|Diverse
|
|Megiverse
|-
!Persisting Damage
| Foverse 
| Sabarta 
|Sazonde
|
|
|Samegid
|-
!Support 
|Shifta, Jellen 
|Deband, Zalure
|
|
|Anti, Resta
|
|}
''Note: despite the naming convention, Foverse works very differently from Diverse and Megiverse, and is more akin to the Sa-spells.'' 

We will discuss these Technics from two angles: Attributes and Effects.

There's a few reasons Attributes are very important for Forces:

===Empower Attribute===
Unlike Melee and Ranged Weapons, Technic Weapons does not have attached [[Status effects]], and instead have Empower [Attribute], which boosts the damage of offensive Technics of that Attribute from the weapon. The boost is a flat boost, and applies regardless of enemy attribute. '''Since each weapon only Empowers one attribute at a time, ideally we want to fit multiple Technics of that attribute onto that weapon to maximize the damage boost.'''

===Attribute Based Type Abilities===
Forces gain 16 [[Abilities]] related to Attributes: Hi-speed and Advances for offensive Technics of each Attribute, [[Resta]], and Support Technics. Hi-speed shortens the casting time of Technics of the designated attribute, while Advance provides a sizable damage boost to all offensive Technics of the designated attribute. Bringing every attribute ability is not realistic, since we don't have the room to fit all the abilities. '''Instead, we want to focus on a few Technic schools, so we have more room to stack bonses and damage.'''

===Attribute Bonus===
Attribute Bonus is a rather big part of damage. By matching up the correct attribute, the player can gain a hefty bonus to their weapon ATK. Unlike other weapons, Technic Weapons has three stages of attribute bonus stacking:  

#the attribute of the Technic used is matched with the attribute of the enemy. If the attributes match correctly, the weapon gains a 30% attack boost.
#For each Technic equipped to the weapon that has the same attribute as the Technic used (including itself), a further 5% is added.
#If the attribute of the weapon used is the same as the attribute of the Technic used, the % of the weapon is also added.

Example cases:
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!
!Weapon Used
!Technic Used
!Enemy Attribute
! Result
|-
!Example #1
|Wand (Neutral 0%)
Barta, Foie
|Barta
|Fire
|Barta is the correct matchup against a Fire enemy, thus providing a 30% weapon attack boost.
Since there's 1 Technic equipped with the same attribute as Barta (Barta itself), it gains a further 5% boost,

for a total of 35% boost.
|-
!Example #2
|Wand (Fire 25%)
Barta, Foie
|Barta
| Fire
|Same reason as above, for 35% boost.
The attribute of the weapon used is not checked if it's not the same as the Technic used. Even if it's the same as the enemy's. 
|-
!Example #3
|Wand (Fire 25%)
Barta, Rabarta
|Barta
|Fire
| Barta is the correct matchup against a Fire enemy, thus providing a 30% weapon attack boost.
Since there's 2 Technic equipped with the same attribute as Barta (Barta and Rabarta), it gains a further 5x2% boost, for a total of 40% boost.
|-
!Example #4
|Wand (Ice 25%)
Barta, Rabarta
| Barta
|Fire
|Barta is the correct matchup against a Fire enemy, thus providing a 30% weapon attack boost.
Since there's 2 Technic equipped with the same attribute as Barta (Barta and Rabarta), it gains a further 5x2% boost.

Since the Wand has the same attribute as the Technic used, the weapon's % is added, for a total of 65% boost.
|-
!Example #5 
|Wand (Ice 25%)
Barta, Rabarta
|Barta
|Ice
|0%. Attribute boosts does not apply if the matchup isn't correct.
|}


'''In other words, for optimal damage, we should aim to strap Technics onto [[Rods]] of the same attribute, and then match it up against the correct enemies.''' While it's beneficial to have a lot of Technics with the same attribute for that 5% bonus, it comes up too little and increases so little that the damage is barely noticable, so don't feel obligated to use only one attribute on one Rod.

With these, building Technic Setup is fairly straight forward: pick an attribute, fit Technics onto a Rod that empowers that attribute, and equip the appropriate Hi-speed and Advances.

Which attribute do we pick then? Technic Schools are not born equal. Some attributes have very good Technics so strong that you'd use them on every enemy, while others either have nothing notable, or barely have one half-way decent one. It's not really worth gimping yourself just to hit Attribute weaknesses, and, if you need to use a specific Technic often, you want to avoid bloating your palette with Technics that you wouldn't usually use.

Another thing to mention, is the importance of PA levels for Technics. Technics gets a huge upgrade at Lv11, and another at Lv21. Besides the usual improved damage, they also gain improved range, improved pp efficiency, improved hitbox coverage, and in some cases, improved hit count. This is a big reason why Technics are so much more devastating in the hands of a Force than other types. Obtaining high Lv PAs, then, is incredibly important, and directly affects the viability of many Technics. 

Anyway, let's first look over the effects of each technic category and see how they work out.

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<div style="font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;">Projectiles</div>
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Projectile Technics, in general, throws a thing straight for a very small PP use on press. However, there's a lot of distinct differences between each Technic, which results in them having different uses.

Barta, Zonde, and Megid all goes in a straight line and pierces enemies. However, all three of them has low damage multiplier, so they aren't great for damage output. '''While they are in theory useful for putting chains on multiple enemies, there're plenty of Technics more efficient than 1 chain per press.''' Especially for Megid, which casts slower and flies slower than the other two, further hindering its efficiency.

Nagrants is one of the Technics more efficient than 1 chain per press. Nagrants fires 3 shots, each with piercing, and has an incredibly long range. '''Nagrants is one of the better Technics for chaining, and can be safely spammed from very far distances.''' However, Nagrants has a steeper pp cost than most Technics, which means it needs a bit more workaround than others to spam long term.

Diga and Foie does not pierce. Instead, they have sky high damage multipliers. Diga in particular has the highest on paper multiplier out of all Technics, '''making it incredibly good as a single-target chain breaker.''' It also knocks down enemies it hits, giving it additional utility value. However, it casts slowly and flies slowly. It also flies in a projectile motion curve as opposed to a straight line, which gives it a shorter and weirder effective range than other technics. Foie has lower damage than Diga (still quite high), but is much easier to use, with faster casting, longer range, and a more predictable straight line flying path. '''It's a more reliable chain breaker if you prefer long range combat.'''

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<div style="font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;">Midrange AOE (Ra-)</div>
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Ra-spells in general hits a short to mid-range away, and has 3 locks. Generally they have middling damage multipliers, and average casting speed. '''They are fine but nothing to write home about, basically.''' Since they have 3 lock, they can do decent work against enemies with multiple targets ([[Boss creatures]]) or groups of enemies. But due to being 1 hit per lock, it's not great against single targets.

Damage-wise, Radiga has a slightly higher multiplier than other Ra-s, while Rabarta and Grants have slightly lower multipliers.

However, Ra-spells also has issues with connecting with enemies closer to the player than the default range. The L lock-on is recommended. Notably, Grants, unlike other Ra-spells, can hit enemies even at melee range just fine.
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<div style="font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;">Close-range AOE (Gi-)</div>
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Gi-spells in general takes a longer casting time, but hits up to 4 targets within a short range centering the player. '''They usually have respectable damage, and works well against groups of enemies.''' However, it being 1 hit per lock makes it not great against single targets. While being theortically good against enemies with multi-locks, such as [[Boss creatures]], it being close-range and requiring a longer casting time can make it risk to use, especially against Dragon-Type bosses.

Note that, prior to Lv21, Gi-spells have very small range that makes them quite poor to use. A below Lv21 Gizonde, in particular, has the chance of whiffing its hitbox even if the player is right up to the enemy.  

All Gi-spells knocks down enemies, which makes them quite good against groups of enemies, allowing safe tri-casts or running away in a pinch. 
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<div style="font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;">Hold for Damage (Dam-)</div>
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Dam-spells are supposed to be continuously firing attacks. They have a few important properties:

*If the player flinches or gets knocked down during the casting, the Technic cancels.
*The player needs to hold the button for the attack for continue. If the player only presses the button once, the attack will appear for a second or two and then go away.
*The Technic cannot be triple-casted, and cannot be casted while strafing, even when used with single presses.
*While holding the attack, the player cannot move, use items, guard, or evade.
*While holding the attack, the player can use the analog stick to move the attack's hitbox in a fairly sizable range in front of the player. However, the player cannot change its direction.
*PP is consumed every second, and will be consumed as long as the attack persists. The hit rate of the attack is irrelevant to the consumption of PP.
*If the player is knocked down, the attack will be cancelled.
*The attack will automatically go away after being held for a certain period of time.

Dam-spells are...unwieldy. Their hit rates aren't great, their range is short and wonky, and there's a lot of ways to whiff with it. The pp cost can also quickly stack up for races with lower PP regen rates. '''They can be useful for chaining or breaking in some situations, since quickly stacking up hit count is always good, but they are generally overshadowed by vastly better Techs''' (especially the Sa-spells).

Out of these ones, notably, Dambarta has a decent freeze rate, and has a fairly wide hitbox, even able to hit behind or besides the player sometimes. It can be fairly useful for crowd control purposes. Damgrants has a much longer hitbox than others, and has a higher hit rate and faster casting time, but has issues connecting with enemies right up to the player, which is very problematic.
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<div style="font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;">Hold for Tracking (Nos-)</div>
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Nos-spells track enemies while the button is held down. They have a few important properties:

*If the player flinches or gets knocked down during the casting, the Technic resolves but goes into the ground (thus fizzles).
*The Technic cannot be triple-casted, and cannot be casted while strafing.
*The attack fizzles when it hits an obstacle or stage element, such as a wall.
*During the attack, the player cannot move, use items, guard, or evade.
*During the attack, the player can use the analog stick to move the weapon in their stance, similar to Dam- spells. This doesn't do anything.
* If the player is knocked down during the attack, the attack fizzles.
*The attacks used will automatically attempt to track enemies, and can go a whole different direction, including behind the player.

Noszonde and Nosmegid shoots an orb which tracks enemies. They have similar properties: 

*When casted, an orb will automatically track the nearest enemy, and can be detonated to deal damage and launching them when it reaches that enemy.
*The player is unable to switch the target of the orb.
*The orb can track enemies regardless of Z axis. It can track enemies down the stairs, or into the air, or up platforms, or even outside of player accessible areas (such as outside of an [[Onmagoug]] arena), as long as there's no walls in the way.
*If the Technic is used by pressing the button once, the orb will fizzle after some distances. It will automatically detonate upon coming into contact the enemy. It will also not detonate anywhere else, including at the end of its travel distance.
*If the Technic is used by holding the button down, the orb will persist an incredibly long distance. Long enough to follow [[Onmagoug]] around the entire arena a few times. The orb will also only detonate when the player lets go of the button. If the player does not let go of the button, the orb will simply spin around the bottom the enemy.
*If the Technic is used by pressing the button once, while no enemies are in range, the orb will fly a long straight line before automatically detonating.
*If used by holding the button down, while no enemies are in range, the player can remotely detonate the orb by letting go off the button, but it can only be detonated after passing the automatic detonation distance.
*When used on a enemy closer to the player, the orb will spin under the enemy for a bit before detonation. This occurs regardless of automatic or remote detonation. The closer the enemy is to the player, the longer period of time it spends spinning.

Nosdiga, on the other hand, works far differently:

*When casted, three explosion beams will automatically track the nearest enemy, dealing damage and launching them on contact.
* The three beams fan out in a wide shape at the beginning. If any of the beams hit an obstacle, it will fizzle, while the others will persist.
*It's possible for each of the beams to hit a different enemy.
* If the Technic is used by pressing the button once, the beams will fizzle after some distances. If the Technic is used by holding the button down, the beams will persist a longer distance, but not much longer.
*The beams are able to travel up or down stairs and slopes, but they are unable to go into the air.


Nosdiga has a quite high damage multiplier and three hits, which totals up to incredible amounts of damage in a single cast. It's also usable at a longer distance than others, and can be used from a variety of angles. It has potential both as a chainbreaker (due to high damage) and a chaining tool (due to high hits per cast).

However, it comes with a variety of issues: its inability to be triple-casted means it will be casted less times compared to the Technics that could, its automatic tracking can direct it to the wrong enemies, and it fizzles quickly in tight rooms (such as the corridor at the start of [[Maximum Attack Cross I]]). While being close to the desired enemy allows landing all 3 hits, the Technic fizzles out if the player gets hit during casting time. '''While Nosdiga can be very effective, it's a Technic that needs some practice and easing into.'''

Noszonde and Nosmegid, on the other hand, are not just more awkward to use, but also...doesn't really have a purpose. 1 hit per press along with a high flying time makes them very inefficient at both chaining and chain breaker. Not to mention that it takes them extra time to hit closer enemies (due to the spinny property), and it fizzles if you get hit. They can potentially stunlock groups of mobs, but that aspect is overshadowed by the vastly superior Sazonde. They do have a niche in being able to reliably track notoriously difficult to hit [[Boss Creatures]], but since these situations are few and far between, '''Noszonde and Nosmegid are like the hook on a Swiss army knife. It exists, it could be useful, it's just that it's unwieldy for every other purpose.'''

Oh yeah, Nosmegid also has Rage effect for some reason, so uhh...Nosmegid Adverse Spirit build when?
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<div style="font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;">Hold for AOE (-Verse)</div>
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''Note: despite Foverse's naming convention, it function vastly differently from Diverse or Megiverse, and is categorized under Persisting Damage instead.''

Megiverse and Diverse is a midrange AOE centered around the player. The player can hold its button to extend its duration, and while the Technic is up, it will deal damage (Megiverse) or steal PP (Diverse) from all enemies in range, once every other second.

Both Megiverse and Diverse has a few properties:
*When casted, the first hit takes a second or two to appear. The hits afterwards are significantly faster.
* If the player casts the Technic by pressing the button once, the attack will finish after the first hit.
*If the player hold the Technic by holding the button, the attack will automatically disappear after a long period.
*During the attack, the player cannot move, use items, guard, or evade.
*During the attack, the player can use the analog stick to move the weapon in their stance, similar to Dam- spells. This doesn't do anything.

Megiverse deals damage to all enemies within the area of effect, and ticks quite quickly after the initial hit. '''It can be a good chain dealer once it gets going, and potentially a good chain breaker too.''' The Drain Lv5 comes up handy sometimes too. It suffers from the same weakness as Dam-spells and Nos-spells, in that you can't move, evade, guard, etc, and you are vulnerable to getting your attack cancelled. Other than that it's a fairly competent Technic.

Diverse, on the other hand...

Let's discuss what "PP Drain" even is. Visually, it's shown as an enemy getting dealt PP damage (a purple number) while the player gains PP back. However, as of currently, no adverse effects for enemies have been observed: enemies that got their PP drained will attack all the same, including Technic attacks. In other words, this is a glorified PP recharger that costs PP per second, requires you to be standing still, while in range of enemies. It also deals no damage and thus doesn't flinch the enemies at all. Yeahhhhh.

Also, the amount of PP it drains/recovers is based on TEC score, so it will be even worse at lower levels or on worse weapons. Diverse also has a huge gap between its PA levels: at Lv21+, Diverse can drain PP from two enemies; at lower than Lv21, Diverse can only drain PP from one enemy, making it half as effective. '''See, you could put in that much effort for Diverse, or you can just use a slicer.'''
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<div style="font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;">Persisting Damage (Sa-)</div>
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So, quick to the chase here:
'''Sazonde is extremely broken, Foverse is less broken but still broken, and Sabarta is fine. Also Samegid is completely useless.'''

Sazonde and Sabarta both deal 5 hits per cast, with a maximum of 3 lock. Sazonde has range similar to Ra-spells, but it automatically tracks instead of requiring L lock-on. Once cast, Sazonde launches all enemies hit into the air, and stuns them until all 5 hits finish. Sabarta instead creates a persisting fan-shaped hitbox at the player's location.

Needless to say, '''5 hits per cast makes Sabarta and Sazonde incredible chain tools, especially with Sazonde that can single-handedly stunlock enemies.''' On top of that, both of them can stack up to 3 times (15 hits in total in a triple-cast), and can be used in combination with other attacks for even more chains. While they have a high PP cost, there's a lot of ways to remedy that, which we will touch on later.

Chaining is not the only benefit to Sazonde, though. Sazonde is also incredible as a chain breaking tool, and absolutely shreds anything with more than 1 target: at 5 hits per cast (can be triple-casted for 15 hits), 3 locks, effectively you can have Sazonde damage resolve on a [[Boss Creatures]], or a group of mobs, 45 times in a simple triple-cast combo. '''As a result, Sazonde is the primary Boss/Mob killer for Forces, while being a little too overkill for single-targets.''' a Sabarta theortically can work as well, but it has a much lower damage multiplier compared to Sazonde, meaning it's not as good.

'''Samegid, on the other hand, is pathetic''' Samegid, when cast, generates a stationary ball where the player is, and deals damage to any enemy that touches it. In theory, this sounds potentially good. Except its hitbox is awfully small (so small that it flinches enemies away from itself), enemies can just go around it (which they will, they are very mobile in this game), and you can only have one of them up at a time. Oftentimes, you would need to run up to an enemy to cast it, and even then it only hits once or twice. For a hefty cost of 50 PP. (For reference, Zonde costs 8 pp, is easier to use, and somehow has higher attack than Samegid does). Theortically you can use it on a stationary enemy, but with a stationary enemy, even triple-casting projectiles is probably more efficient to use, compared to running up to it and casting Samegid.

'''Foverse is one of the most useful Technics in the game, regardless of level or type.''' It creates persisting fireballs around the player which deals damage to any enemy at close range. In other words, it's a Technic that passively adds chains, that can be prepared ahead of time, and can be stacked with other chaining methods. Forces get Lv30 Foverse, which makes Foverse chains significantly faster and persist significantly longer than other types. It can also stack with Sazonde or Sabarta, and works very well with Gi-spells.
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<div style="font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;">Support (Others)</div>
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Buffs, Debuffs, Heal, and ailment Restore. Not much else to say besides "Bring them with you!"
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Once we understood how Technics work out, let's see how each school of attribute performs. Attribute is important to how we distribute Technic setups, weapons with Empower effects, and Attribute Advance/Hi-speed abilities, after all.
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<div style="font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;">Fire</div>
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'''Fire, to put simply, is generally competent.''' Foie deals good damage to a single-target, Rafoie and Gifoie are slightly above average damage-wise, and Foverse is incredibly good. This is enough technics to round out a fire-based [[Rods]], with good coverage on different types of targets. Gifoie combos well with Foverse too. All Fire Technics (except for Jellen and Shifta) also has a chance of inflicting Burn, which can complement its damage output. 

Speaking of Foverse, note that Foverse provides an unique function and cannot be substituted; as such, Foverse will most likely be used against every type of enemy, including Fire ones. It may be a good idea to avoid placing Foverse on a Fire Rod, so that it will suffer less penalities against Fire enemies.
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<div style="font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;">Ice</div>
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'''Ice, unfortunately, walks on thin ice.''' Across the board, Ice Technics suffers from lower than average damage scores. Sabarta provides good chains and combos well with Rabarta. Dambarta also can provide some uses in crowd control. '''However, Ice doesn't have a very competent chain-breaker, save for perhaps Gibarta.''' As such, building Ice for damage, even with Empower Ice and Ice Advance, seems underpowered compared to others. Between Zalure, Sabarta, and Dambarta though, it can be a good support attribute to focus around.

Ice across the board inflicts Freeze. Due to the fact that Freeze expires after taking three hits, it will most likely disappear during a triple-cast combo, maybe even the same one it was inflicted in, which severely limits its usefulness. Also Sabarta doesn't inflict any special effects for some reason.
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<div style="font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;">Lightning</div>
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'''Sazonde must have a lot of backpain from carrying this attribute.''' Sazonde is nuts both as a chainer and a chainbreaker, thus Lightning Advance and Lightning Hi-speed are often used just to optimize Sazonde. The other spells are an afterthought in comparison.

Speaking of which, both Razonde and Gizonde are average, so they produce decent results as an extra on your Sazonde-focused builds. Zonde flies extremely quickly and can be used well when combined with Strafe Casting, but its damage is too low to be notable compared to other projectile Technics.
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<div style="font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;">Ground</div>
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'''Ground is generally assumed to be the best attribute.''' It has access to huge damage dealers like Diga and Nosdiga, as well as above-average damage on Gidiga and Radiga. Overall it has good coverage, good damage, and can be used against most enemies. Since Ground is the opposing attribute matchup to Lightning, it also complements your Lightning Rods well.

Diverse? What's diverse?
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<div style="font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;">Light</div>
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'''Light is good, but lacks enough Technics.''' Nagrants is very good, both Grants and Damgrants can be good in various situations. But they lack the utility or the coverage to be really good: the lack of a Gi-spell, and the lack of a good single-target breaker (Damgrants can fulfill this purpose but might be too risky due to requiring the player to be close up and standing still). The Technics themselves are individually good and can have good uses, but as a technic school it's difficult to build around.
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<div style="font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;">Dark</div>
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'''Despite having a large number of Technics, Dark is, to put simply, quite poor.''' Megid is slow and low damage, Ramegid is only average, Nosmegid is too situational, Samegid is borderline useless, Megiverse is competent but risky to use, and Dammegid is Megiverse but almost strictly worse. Unlike Light which lacks some important coverage, Dark lacks basically everything. 

It's a shame too, since so many high level [[Rods]] insist on having Empower Dark.
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=== Ailment Matching ===
Didn't know where to put this, so here this is.

If an enemy has a [[Status effects|Status effect]], a bonus 35% damage is added to a Technic attack that has an attribute corresponding to that status ailment. The corresponding ailments are:
{| class="wikitable"
!Attribute
|Fire
|Ice
|Lightning
|Ground
|Light
|Darkness
|-
!ailment
|Freeze
|Burn
|Confuse
|Shock
|Infect
|Sleep
|}
The damage bonus is incredibly massive, and can pair with various [ailment] Strike abilities for more damage. However, this mechanic is far too unwieldy: 

First, ailments inflicted are dependent on the Technic themselves. Some attribute schools are too spread out ailment wise, and may require the player to use sub-par Technics, which is counter-productive. For example, [[Sabarta]], the best Ice Technic, does not inflict any status ailment at all. For Dark Technics, only [[Megid]] and [[Dammegid]] inflicts Infect; [[Ramegid]], [[Nosmegid]], and [[Megiverse]] have Poison, Rage, and Drain attached respectively instead. 

Second, due to the way ailments are attached to attribute schools, you may wind up using Technics on enemies of badly matched attributes, which is once again counter-productive. For example, if you want to amplify your Ice Technics on a fire enemy, you'd have to inflict Burn on them, which is only attached to Fire Technics.

Third, ailment inflict rates are pretty bad and unrealiable. The rates on Technics are generally quite bad, and even weapons with 50% or more status rates, such as the [[Frost Shot]], are still unrealiable. Not to mention a Force needs to go out of their way to set one up. 

'''So like, keep this thing in mind. It's an inherent mechanic, so it doesn't cost you anything to use it when it comes up, (in multiplayer especially), but don't dedicate yourself to it.'''

==Weapons==

=== Rods ===
''Read More: [[Rods]]''

Rods is the primary Technic weapon of choice for Forces. It can equip 4 Technics, has vastly more TEC than [[Wands]] and [[Tech-Mags]], and is triple-castable. '''They are the primary choice when it comes to chainbreaking, as they have by very far the highest TEC out of the three Technic weapons.''' In fact, the damage difference is so much that you should probably always use a Rod to break chains.

When it comes to chaining, though, it has a major weakness: Rods cannot cast while Strafing. The lack of ability to Strafe Cast affects chaining somewhat: while does not affect some tools such as [[Foverse]] (only stacks once) and [[Sazonde]] (only stacks three times, so a triple-cast), it does affects other more spammable Technics, such as [[Nagrants]] and [[Diga]]. You should keep that in mind while equipping Technics.

Also, if the R-side of Rods is not linked with any Technics, R would allow the player to Guard instead. Quite a good feature if you like Guarding.

=== Wands ===
''Read More: [[Wands]]''

Wands go on the right-hand, allows equipping 2 Techs, and has significantly worse TEC scores than Rods (usually around half). Wands' casting speed is faster than Rods, allow both Triple-Casting and Strafe Casting, which allows it to cast quickly whether you are standing still or strafing.

'''Wands are primarily used for Chaining, since they can cast significantly faster than Rods.''' It also pairs well with [[R-Mags]] for passive chain during a Strafe Casting spam session. Another popular choice is [[Shields]], which allows Guarding while strafing. Since chainbreaking damage is better off left to Rods, support Technics such as [[Zalure]] is a popular option for {{Triangle}} on Wands.

=== Tech-Mags ===
''Read More: [[Tech-Mags]]''

Tech-Mags go on the left-hand, allows equipping 2 Techs, and has significantly worse TEC scores even compared to Wands (usually around half).  Tech-Mags' casting speed is faster than Wands, and allows Strafe Casting but not Triple-Casting. In other words, it's slower than Wands when standing still, while being faster than Wands when Strafing. Tech-Mags also commonly have 80% PP usage, and 60% PP usage in some cases, which makes them much sustainable for strafe casting Technic spams. 

Similar to Wands, Tech-Mags has such low TEC compared to Rods that chain breaking on one is really not recommended. Support Technics such as [[Zalure]] is a popular option on Tech-Mags as well.

'''The biggest problem with Tech-Mags, though, isn't the Tech-Mags themselves, but rather, what to put on the right-hand.''' Right-hand are almost all melee weapons, none of which Forces care about. Save for maybe [[Daggers]] for [[Shisoku Tenkai-zan]] as a travelling PA, or maybe [[Slicers]] in some cases. You can use [[Wands]] too, but in my opinon, at that point you are probably better served by either splitting them up or just use a Rod. 

=== Longbows ===
''Read More: [[Longbows]]''

Longbows are a Ranged Weapon that uses TEC instead of ATK for damage. It's basically a budget [[Rifles|Rifle]] for Forces: its normal shot fires 1 shot pre press in a straight line, but has a small lag after fire; its Charge Shot 1 shoots a big shot, similar to Rifles, but instead of exploding for 2~3 hits, it pierces enemies for 1 hit per enemy; its Charge Shot 2 has the player jump up, and fire 4 shots directly downwards in front of the player, and pierces (not that it's gonna pierce anything at that angle). Its range is also slighter shorter than Rifles for some reason.

'''Despite sounding really poor, Longbows are actually fairly useful.''' As a Ranged Weapon, Longbows don't need any Photon Arts to be effective, which makes it very useful for early game, where players don't have their Technics leveled yet.  

Longbow's CS1 is fairly useful for early game, where smaller mobs can often be killed between one or two Charge Shots. With piercing, it's possible to kill two or three enemies in one or two Charge Shots, even without chains.  

Longbow's CS2 is pretty useful as a chainbreaking option. While it doesn't outdamage crazy Technics like Diga and Sazonde, it makes a good alternative single-target damage option for attributes without such strong Technics, such as Ice, Dark or Light attributes. It also works well with Foverse.  

Longbow {{Square}} is very bad, but at least you can use FPS mode for switches, which is something Forces may otherwise struggle to setup. 

The issue with both Longbows and Ranged Weapons on Force in general, is that they require additional resources to optimize that you wouldn't otherwise need to get. Technics don't miss, so there's no reason for Forces to put any [[Rebirth]] into ACC. However, Longbows not only requires ACC to hit things, but also requires it as a part of its damage, meaning to use Longbows long-term, Forces will have to go out of their way to rebirth for a stat they otherwise would never need. At least Full Charge Shot is incredibly easy to get. 

=== Cards ===
''Read More: [[Cards]]''

Cards are also a Ranged Weapon that uses TEC instead of ATK, but it's far more janky than Longbows are. For starters, Cards gain an additional bullet for its normal attacks and Charge Shots if the PA level is above 21, which basically immediately locks the weapon type to mid-late game. Then, both its normal shot and Charge Shot 1 fires 2 to 3 bullets, that stays in place for a second before auto-tracking a close-by enemy. The range for its track is quite short, and usually would require a Range Extension to hit anything without being right up to them. Theortically it can do a lot of damage with Charge Shot 1, but the delay and short range can hinder its effectiveness. Charge Shot 2 fires multiple shots at a long distance. It's pretty cool, but similar to [[Rifles]] CS2, it's slow, not as much damage as you'd like, has weird ranges, and fizzles if you get hit. Fancy but unwieldy. 

'''So uhh, it exists, I guess.'''

==Other Weapon Considerations==
....Other Weapons? What other weapons?

=== Whips ===
''Read More: [[Whips]]''

So, Sega, let me get this straight:

As support for Force, a Type with the weakest melee damage, you decided to give them a weapon that's incredibly slow, chains poorly, and has one of the lowest melee damages out of all melee weapons? 

Why?

By the way, Whips provides a category bonus to TEC. Having more TEC is good, except that Whips are a right hand weapon, meaning the only things that gain benefits from this TEC boost is [[Tech-Mags]] (which already has such low damage that you shouldn't be using it for damage purposes), [[Cards]] (which are jank), and [[R-Mags]] (for which any damage above 1 might as well be the same). So yeah.

Man, [[Ursula Laurent|Ursula]] really is a compliation of "the weakest hits of Force", eh. 

=== Twin Daggers ===
''Read More: [[Twin Daggers]]''

I guess you can chain well with it when combined with [[Foverse]].

Not much of a reason for Force to use a low damage melee weapon, though.

=== R-Mags ===
''Read More: [[R-Mags]]''

Works well with [[Wands]] and Strafe Casting. It being left-hand makes it difficult to fit with other weapons, though.

== General Tips ==

* Since Photon Arts Level is extremely important to Forces, it might be a good idea to use another character of high level (preferably at least Lv100) to obtain Lv21+ Technics first before starting a Force character, and then use the [[Shared Storage]] to pass them to the Force character.
*Each Technic can be linked to a Technic weapon once; for example, if Sazonde is linked to the {{Square}} of a Rod, you cannot link another copy of Sazonde onto the Rod.
** As such, if you want multiple copies of Technic, you need to bring at least two Technic weapons.
* Since everything on a Technic weapon consumes PP, it's not a bad idea to bring something that restores PP.
** [[Slicers]], for example.
** Newmans actually have high enough PP regen that they can self-sustain without a PP restore weapon after you bring some sort of PP reduction ability/weapon.
*Since you already gain 30% Attribute bonus from matching up the right Technics, it's fine to mismatch your the attribute of your Technics and Technic weapons. 
**While not optimal, it can be a viable strategy to using only a few Technic weapons and swapping out the Technics equipped to match the attributes.
**For Technics such as [[Foverse]] or [[Sazonde]], which you will likely use against most enemies, even the ones of the same attribute (fire and lightning respectively), it could be valuable to avoid matching the attribute of Technics and the weapons deliberately to lessen the attribute damage reduction.
**On the other hand, Empowers are very powerful, and should be played for and built around.
*Since [[Zalure]], [[Jellen]], [[Shifta]], [[Deband]], [[Anti]], and [[Diverse]] do not deal any damage, the TEC and PA% of the weapon used for them is irrevelant.
*Despite the Empower Healing present on many [[Tech-Mags]], the amount they heal for with [[Resta]] usually ends up being lower than [[Wands]] of equal rarity anyway, due to their lower TEC. Even [[Wands]] would heal for less than [[Rods]], for a similar reason.
**However, it's possible for the heal amount to be far above what the player would realistically need to ever heal for (for example, if a high-level player Restas from a Rod while not having [[Rebirth|Rebirthed]] for any HP yet), making optimizing the heal amount unnecessary. 
*Technics do not miss, therefore any ACC boosts is useless unless you are dipping into ranged weapons, such as [[Longbows]].

* 

==Type Abilities==

=== [Attribute] Hi-Speed ===
Increases the casting speed of the Technic of the attribute by 50% for 1 slot. Very good for Technics of that attribute.

Note that Light Hi-speed does not make [[Resta]] faster; instead, its speed is increased by Follow Hi-speed.

=== [Attribute] Advance ===
Increases the damage of Offensive Technics of that attribute by 8% for 1 slot. Incredibly good, of course.

It's best to line-up chain-breakers with the damage boost. Chainers also get a sizable boost but not really necessary if you can't make the space for it. 

=== Technic Hi-Speed + ===
Increases the casting speed of all Technics by 20% for 3 slots.  

Worse than specific hi-speeds in terms of efficiency, but it has a much bigger coverage. Normally, a player would bring [[Resta]], [[Shifta]] & [[Deband]], and two or more attributes of offensive Technics. To boost all these would require Follow Hi-speed, Support Hi-speed, and two or more Attribute Hi-speeds, which would total up to more than 3 slots. Boost for Resta, Shifta and Deband isn't really necessary, since most of the time you would be casting them outside of combat situations, but a boost for them can be convenient. 

Ultimately down to preference. 

=== Technic Advance + ===
Increases the damage of all Offensive Technics by 4% for 2 slots. Not really good, as 2 slots for 4% is not cost effective, and it's much worse than the [Attribute] Advances if you are using less than 2 sets of attributes. It's not the worst thing to strap if you aren't using the slots for anything else, though.

=== Full Charge Shot ===
If you intend on using [[Longbows]], definitely grab Full Charge Shot (Ranger Lv2) to heavily improve its damage. 1 slot is pretty easy to spare. 

=== Half Defense ===
If your HP is above 33%, and take damage that deals more than 50% of your HP, you will be left with 1 HP. Costs 3 slots from Vanguard Lv8. Very convenient ability for Forces, who naturally has very low HP and low DEF. Also allows you to forgo [[Rebirth]] bonuses to your DEF and HP for TEC. 

==Racial Differences==

=== Human ===
Human is probably the second best Force next to Newmans: the second highest PP total at 200~220 PP, the third best TEC, and decent PP regen. They also get a boost to [[Blast#Mirage Blast|Mirage Blast]], since it scales off TEC. Human performs better defensively than newmans, but performs significantly worse everywhere else due to significantly lower PP regen and TEC. '''In other words, human Force can work well early-game, but becomes much worse toward mid and late-game.'''

=== Newman ===
The absolute kings of Force, with a colossal 230~250 PP, insane PP regen, and sky-high TEC. Even [[Blast#Mirage Blast|Mirage Blast]] scales off TEC!

'''If you wanna play Force, you should probably play Newman.'''

Unfortunately, Newman does have very poor HP and DEF, which is made especially apparent by Force's low HP and DEF multiplier. Some defensive abilities, such as Half Defense, should be obtained to remedy that.

=== Cast ===
Casts has the lowest TEC out of all races, and gets their [[Blast|SUV Weapons]] gimped, as they scale off ATK. The fact that Technic do not miss also wastes Casts' high ACC.

'''So yeah, don't.'''

=== Beast ===
Beasts has the second lowest TEC out of all races, and gets their [[Blast#Nanoblast|Nanoblast]] gimped, as they scale off ATK. '''So yeah, probably don't.'''

But hey, at least the fact that Technics do not miss covers up Beasts' weakness in ACC.

=== Deuman ===
Deumans have good TEC, and a pretty good [[Blast#Infinity Blast|Infinity Blast]] on Force. They can do very good damage, potentially even higher damage than Newmans while using their Blast.

However, Deuman's extremely low durability, which is further amplified by Force's low multipliers, makes a Deuman Force extremely risky to play. Deuman also has the lowest PP regen out of all races, which means they will need a lot more setup than others in order to remedy that weakness.

'''You can give it a shot if you'd like.'''

==Notable Weapons==
[[Mr. Ecoeco Stick]]: Extremely easily accessible Rod with a 70% PP usage and respectable TEC score. Incredibly useful early-game, and with an Extend Code, also incredibly useful mid-to-late-game. 

Quick mention to the Kubara replica weapons: they have 110% PP usage and 90% PA damage, which makes them extremely bad for Forces. Replica [[Longbows]], though, can very easily avoid the downside by simply not equipping a PA, which can be valuable to use.

==Where to go from here==
Get higher level photon arts discs, of course. That is more important than landing more [[Rods]] and Levels. 

Speaking of [[Rods]], look into getting the [[Psycho Wand]]: 70% PP usage, very high TEC upon extending, and gets to empower any attribute. Really indispensible for Forces.

Getting higher type level is also important, as Forces have a lot of great abilities at high levels, such as PP Technic Save and various Advances. Speaking of, PP Technic Save is generally a lot better than Spellslinger, since Spellslinger doesn't cover Strafe Casting, Single-cast Technics (such as Nos-, Dam- and [[Foverse]]), and doesn't cover [[Tech-Mags]]. However, they stack, so if you have the spare slots you can bring both.

[[Rebirth]] for TEC too, of course.

==Other Notes==
{{Getting Started}}