Alchemist Code Arena Guide

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alext96
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alchemist-code-arena-guide

Arena Guide

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Acknowledgments:

I’d like to thank all the data miners in the TAC Discord community for providing the evidence that made this guide possible, as well as the Discord #arena channel community for keeping this game mode interesting. (thanks metlsp@z, for the emotes)

By Gagging

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What is Arena?

This is an automated PvP mode. You are limited to 5 attacks a day, but can be attacked an unlimited number of times a day. 

Like any other non-skill based PvP mode in any mobage, this usually requires a fucking lot of some money investment into the game to compete in the top ranks. There are exceptions if you have invested enough time into the game and have enough luck to get very viable units/gear.

So why bother with automated PvP? Foremost, it’s a game mode that gives rewards and has a very active community around it (at least in discord). This is more content for the player to play with. 

Furthermore, contrary to popular belief, the fight is not random. What occurs happens for a reason (outside of % based skills like evasion/status proc chance). If you know how the AI works, you can influence the way your and the opponent’s units move. Everything is predictable.

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Basic Arena Information

  • Arena rank reward calculation happens at 20:01:00 game time. 

This is 4 hours before the day resets. It also occurs exactly 1 minute after the hour. So if you want the best rank rewards, you will need to hold that rank at this exact time.

  • The team shown in defenses that attacked your team is the opponent’s defense team, not their attack.

There are no replays either, so you will not know what was used to attack your team unless you can ask the person directly.

  •  There is a 5 minute delay between attacks.

Obvious but related to reward calculation. Keep this in mind when sniping a rank near reset or defending yourself at reset.

  • Result of the fight is determined the moment you press Fight, not after you finish watching the fight or when you press skip.

You should watch your fight anyways to see what exactly happens.

  • Arena map changes every week (usually).

The arena map changes. This completely changes the way units travel across

the map. There may also be conditions per map. Pay attention.

  • Attack has an overwhelming advantage over defense.

Because you can long click on an opponent’s portrait to see their composition/unit builds before entering battle, it’s very easy to plan accordingly. Don’t get frustrated over losing defenses. Arena life is hard.

  • If both sides have units with the same agility, Attackers will go first.

Furthermore, if units on the same team have the same agility, then the order of unit turns are slot 1 > slot 2 > slot 3. 

  • In auto-battle, AOE skills with cast time are cast onto the ground, whereas single target skills are locked onto targets.

Self-explanatory.

  • Static tier lists are useless here.

A lot of people ask what’s good for arena. The answer will always be “It depends.” Every map has different unit spacing, and elevations that will influence which strategies are viable or not. A unit might be good on attack but terrible on defense. The more common a defense is, the more likely it is that people will know or learn how to beat it, even if the defense uses “good” units. Stop asking.

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Basic AI information

The AI will act according to the information it has at the exact moment. It will not make plans beforehand. As a result you can usually map out what occurs in a fight turn by turn.

Generally, every job has a set of AI action priorities. Here all the possible actions besides moving. (Link to list of AI for each Job)

  • “Support” = use of any buff skills that increase or decrease stats. Dances/songs are included.
  • “Damage” = any skill that does damage. If the skill also inflicts a status, it is considered this, not “failcondition”.
  • “Failcondition” = any skill that inflicts status WITHOUT damage. This includes positive effects like Quicken/Health Regen. There are some strange exceptions/cases.
  • “Heal” = any skill that heals.
  • “Disablecondition” = skills that nullifies status effects (panacea/poison pill), usually for a couple turns.
  • “Curecondition” = skills that cure status effects (antidote/heart choker WA) once.

Because the developers are rather lazy when it comes to the order in which these AI priorities present themselves, usually damage is on the top of the list of priorities. “Support” does not exist for a majority of units.

General List of jobs that have “Support” AI:

  • Blacksmith (includes unique blacksmiths like miuna + usalia)
  • Magic Swordsman 
  • Ranger (including hunter + unique bow users)
  • MOST Mage-like jobs (typically staff wielders, but there are some exceptions like Rin/Illya)

Usually, every Job has everything but “Support”, so you can typically categorize units as either Attackers or Supporters. Supporters are just Attackers that will use buff skills when no enemies are within moving attack range (there are exceptions where “Support” is above “Damage” in priority: Enchanters, Geomancers, Astrologers).

 So what does the AI do?

Units will first check if any enemies are within range of any of their skills. I commonly refer to this as their standing attack range. If there is an enemy, they will attack and end their turn. If not, they will move.

Units will typically move towards the closest enemy based on tile count. As for the exact pathing, it’s hard to say. It depends on the map, but they will typically try to take the shortest route. They will move that turn until an enemy unit is within range of any of their skills or until they reached their max Mvt. I commonly refer to this as their moving attack range. They will select attacks based on specific rules. Obviously, if there are no enemies in range after moving, they will end their turn.

AI target priority:

  • If the unit is unable to kill the enemy unit, they will use the skill that deals the most damage (not necessarily will be the skill with the highest multiplier).
  • If the unit is able to kill the enemy unit, they will use the weakest skill possible.
  • If the unit has an AOE attack, they will attempt to hit as many units as possible.
  • If the unit has a choice between hitting multiple targets or killing one target, they will prioritize killing one unit.
  • If the unit has a choice between killing either one of two units, the will prioritize killing the unit with MORE HP, regardless of how much damage they can do to either.

AI attack skill priority:

  • If the unit has two or more skills that do the same damage, they will use whatever skill costs the least jewels.
  • If the unit has two or more skills that do the same damage and cost the same jewels, they will use whatever skill is the lowest level.
  • If the unit has two or more skills that do the same damage, cost the same jewels, but have different status effects, they will pick the status effect that is highest on their priority list (check other document with exact priority lists)
  • If the unit is unable to deal damage equivalent to more than 10% of the enemy’s HP, they will opt to inflict a status effect (failcondition skill) over damage based on their status priority list.
  • The unit will typically attempt to be the farthest distance possible when it has decided on a skill but only if it requires the unit to move in the first place to reach the target.

What the AI doesn’t care about when attacking:

  • The unit will not take into consideration if the enemy unit can block, evade, or dodge.
  • The unit will not take into consideration the accuracies of their skills.
  • The unit will not take into consideration the cast speed of their skills.
  • The unit will not take into consideration whether there is a spell being cast on a tile they are moving to if they are not in the AOE at the start of their turn, but will move out of the AOE if they are in the AOE at the start of their turn.
  • The unit will not take into consideration the status effect the enemy unit has outside of not casting the same status effect twice. However, this means the AI will attack units that are charmed/sleeping, which makes these status effects not very reliable.

So lets say what happens if there are no enemies in sight, but your unit is a Supporter? There are set of rules as well as to how Supporters act with regards to buff skills. These rules also apply to “failconditions” that target allies such as quicken. In a sense, Attackers with failcondition skills such as Chronomancer sub, Wonder Chronos gear, Regroup (Ignis main skill), etc, will act like pseudo-supporters if no enemies are in moving attack range on their turn.

Support skill Rules:

  • For single target buffs, standing casts have higher priority than moving casts. 

For example: Unit A has a buff skill with 3 range. If unit B is 3 squares away, and unit C is 4 squares away, Unit A will always cast the buff skill on unit B.

  • For single target buffs, Distance from the unit casting is the highest priority for standing casts. The farther the unit is, the higher their priority is. 

For example, If unit A is 3 squares away from unit B and only 2 squares from unit C, unit A will cast the buff on unit B over unit C in all cases.

  • For single target buffs, if both targets are equidistant from the caster, slot 1 > slot 2 > slot 3 in terms of priority.

This one is self explanatory.

  • For single target stat buffs, the stat buff that is highest priority for the target unit will be cast.

Each job has a priority of stat buffs it will receive in auto battle. For example, Holy cavaliers have PDef as the highest priority buff, and as a result, enchanters will prioritize Pdef buffing them if they are the priority target.

  • For AOE stat buffs, the unit will prioritize buffing as many units as possible within the AOE.
  • For AOE stat buffs, the unit will prioritize slot 1 > slot 2 > slot 3.
  • For AOE stat buffs, the unit will prioritize moving over standing casts.
  • For AOE stat buffs, the unit will prioritize buffing based on stat preference of the main target (see stat priorities).
  • As long as no enemies are in range, the unit will continue casting buffs as long as they have non-overlapping buffs to cast.

This is why units with enchanter subs tend to just stay in place forever.

  • Typically main stat buffs (patk/matk) are prioritized over secondary stat buffs (movement, max HP, accuracy, etc).

This is why you should not use certain gear on units with stat buffs (using Divine Arrow on Othima with Enchanter sub or Miuna with Blacksmith sub).

check your units please

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Formulas

Some math for those who care. 

Damage Formula::

Base Damage = (Class multiplier x Skill multiplier x (1 + (ATK type bonus + Sum of Elemental advantage/disadvantage + Elemental Special ATK + Elemental ATK + Race Bonus + Height damage modifier – Attack Type Resistance – Enemy Elemental Resistance)/100))

Defense = (Target Base PDEF/MDEF x (100% – % IGNORE DEF))

Total Damage = (Base Damage – Defense) 

Height damage multiplier = 5% more damage if target is on a lower height tile, vice versa is true.

Elemental Special Atk = Stat that specifically increases damage against that element. (we don’t have this yet)

Elemental Atk = Stat that increases damage for that element (Miuna’s lead for example).

Race Bonus = Extra damage against humans or whatnot.

Sum of Elemental Advantage/Disadvantage = 35 extra per elemental advantage. For example, If a unit is fire and their skill is fire, it will do 35 + 35 = 70% extra damage multiplicatively against wind units. However, if a unit or skill is fire, and the other element is neutral, it will only be 35% extra damage multiplicatively against wind units. Likewise, if the unit/skill is fire, and the other element is thunder, it will be 0% extra damage against wind units.

Attack type resistance = Self explanatory. (Holy Cavalier JEs have this stat)

Elemental resistance = The element that is used during defense calculations is dependant on the element of the skill. If a wind unit uses a fire skill, it will be reduced based on the defending unit’s fire resistance. If a wind unit uses a non-elemental skill, it will be reduced based on the defending unit’s wind resistance instead. After 2.0 patch, elemental resistances no longer apply twice additively. 

FOR MULTI-HIT SKILLS:

((Class multiplier x Attack multiplier x Advantages/Resistances) – PDEF/MDEF ) x Combo Damage Rate x Combo Hits

For example: Edward’s WA has an Attack multiplier of 2.0. The combo damage rate is 0.35 and combo hits is 4. Advantages/Resistances are the same as the normal damage formula (the part after skill multiplier).

Example:

VS

Let’s say Aranea is lead, which means she has a bonus 30% pierce ATK. Let’s say she uses Dive Attack IV (modified) which has a class multiplier of 1.4x PATK and skill multiplier of 150%. Because the Aranea is Dark and her skill is elementless, and Uzuma is Wind, the sum of Elemental Advantages/Resistances is = 0. There is no elemental special atk bonus in this case. Let’s assume they are both at 0 height, so there is neither a 5% increase or decrease in damage.

Uzuma with Telekinetic Speed gains +50% Pdef, which = 321 Pdef. Aranea’s jump does not ignore defense. Uzuma has no pierce resistance. Aranea’s skill is elementless, which means it will default to being her own element, which is dark. Uzuma has 13 dark resistance.

Base damage = (1.4 x 806 x 1.5 x (1 + (30 – 13 + 0 + 0 + 0)/100)) = 1980

Defense = 321 x (100% – 0%) = 321

Total damage = 1980 – 321 = 1659

(the Aranea in the picture has a Curious Doll on as well, but that should not influence damage)

Alternatively, you can just test things out in Live Friend PvP with a friend (if you have any) instead of doing math.

Chance of getting dodged Formula:

4 + (Enemy Agi – Self Dex/2) x 0.12 + √((Enemy level – Level)/2) + (Sum of enemy evasion Passives and/or Buffs) – (Sum of Hit Rate Passives and/or Buffs) – (25 if attacking from side or 50 if attacking from back)

Dodging is different from Evasion. Dodging is influenced by various factors as seen above. Evasion is an additional check after the dodge check, and comes from reactives. These reactives are known as Perfect Evasion reactives and usually affect only physical attacks or both physical and magical attacks. Perfect evasion chance is absolute and cannot be increased or decreased.

“Will I land this on a unit that moved?” Formula (courtesy of W0lf):

e < 1.8*(cs * M)/(cs+M)

e = enemy Agi

cs = Cast Speed of your skill (1.5x the CS if swift charge is equipped)

M = caster Agi

This formula assumes the enemy has moved before you and has ended their turn without attacking on turn 1. If the value you get is greater than e, then the casting skill will finish before the enemy’s turn comes again.

For a more complex understanding of CT, see VicariousExp’s CT planning guide.
(honestly though you won’t need knowledge of this depth for arena, but it’s an interesting read).

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Resources

Most of the information necessary for being competitive are listed on the priority document or AlchemistcodeDB.com.

Resources for mechanics that may be helpful:

Here’s some random stuff you may or may not know that may or may not be helpful.

  • Attacks are categorized either as magical or physical. Magic DMG is a type of attack like Missile DMG and Slash DMG, but can be classified as physical or magical (Spy main skills are physical magic DMG for example).
  • Height exists for skills. Check them. AOE skills can “step up” or “step down” For example, Tiger tremor (2 height) can be cast on a 2 height tile by a unit on a 4 height tile. The AOE itself can hit anything within 2 height, and as such can “step down” to hit a unit on 0 height.
  • Divine Arrow is a very viable gear for strategies. It has no cast time and lets you immediately add +2 to a unit’s attack radius. You will need a “supporter” unit that has no other buff skills however.
  • Most missile skills (there are exceptions with and without) have a flag called EnableHeightRangeBonus. Basically, for every 2 height advantage or disadvantage, the skill gains or loses 1 range respectively. Check database if unsure. EnableChangeRange just means the skill is affected by range increasing passives.
  • Fun Fact: Martial Masters and Shadow Assassins prioritize failconditions over everything else, even doing damage.

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