ARChan
Mar 12, 2010, 03:32 PM
Hey everyone! I'm just going to list the stuff that I found out by either experimenting myself or found by word of mouth. I'm taking this off from FON's website, where I'm practically doing the same thing there. So yeah. Go ahead and add some things if you found out something else. I'll add it to my list and add who found it under the "Requirements" area if I find it worth mentioning. Because it states "Found By" doesn't mean that it was the first recorded information on the site. It just means that I found it from this person first. Anyway, yadda yadda. If you're still reading this, hello, how are you? :D
(?) = Still investigating
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PA Scapegoat
Requirements: Non-stationary PAs
There's something funny about rolling or using mobile PA like Huge Cross, Spear Ride, or Mine Sneak. The tendency of non-boss hostiles (with exception of Heavenly Mother's Grants) is that they focus their attack on the place where the roll or PA was used. Yes, that means if you're using Mine Sneak and work past a hostile, they'll run by you and attack where you initialized it and get blown up. If you're curious about this, use mine sneak and get blown up by a freeze trap at the peak of the crawl. The result is that they will attack where you initialized the PA. Note that this also works with the roll. Try it out!
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PA Enhancements
Requirements: Weapons with PAs
PAs usually have a higher flinch rate than the heavy attack from the weapon. However, PAs with a status effect (like Thriller Combo or Magical Sign) are prolonged in comparison to the usual status effect from a standard element attack.
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Handgun & Mechgun Charge
Requirements: Handgun or Mechgun, technique or PA
With Handguns and Mechguns, you can keep your techs or PAs charged while strafe shooting. Yes, while you're moving and attacking, you can charge your techs and PAs and keep them fully charged until unleashed or do a regular shot. The way you do this is hold down any chargable tech or the heavy attack and use your normal attack while strafing (while holding "L" and moving around). You should notice that your charge should go normal like any other and stay charged. If you time it right, you can also combo from your strafe shot into your charged tech/PA. Simply release the d-pad and then release your charged attack. This should work any time, like when you're still shooting. The sacrifice is a prolonged standing frame.
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Set AOE PA
Requirements: Any PA that has an AOE effect
While using my wand with my FOmarl, I noticed something rather funny about the Magical Sign PA. When locked on the enemy, it's not the fact that you start skipping off the stairs. The AOE (Area Of Effect) location does not move one bit although you may be locked onto the enemy. So, if I were to give suggestions on how to use this PA, do NOT lock onto the enemy, considering it's useless and you're just going to be running toward the enemy. This is kinda also the case for the rifle's Mine Sneak PA. With any weapon with such an effect, I shall repeat: do NOT lock onto the enemy when you're using it!
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Useless Flashy Bangs
Requirements: Mechgun w/ PA (Spinning Death preferred)
Here's another fun fact about PAs. This one is practically useless but it's pretty fun to know. Mechgun PA bullets fling all over the place when you use it to transition out of the area. You won't see it personally but everyone who's standing near you before you transition will notice it. It's pretty funny, especially with Spinning Death. All the shots fire in all directions from where you disappear in one instance but do not connect to any targets whatsoever. Fun fun fun!
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Frozen Thriller Combo Effect
Requirements: Handgun w/ Thriller Combo
Oh, here's another fun fact regarding handguns, but this is a good fact. When using Thriller Combo and then frozen while you're using it, you'll freeze in place but the paralyzing AOE effect of the attack will still take place, even though you're frozen. When you get out, you'll do all the other hits afterwards. By this fact, I hereby declare that Thriller Combo hits 4 times.
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Frozen PA Effect
Requirements: Weapons w/ AOE PAs
Do note that Frozen Thriller Combo Effect also happens with several other PAs where the attack will still happen while you're frozen. These usually happen with a set-location AOE like the Magical Sign PA. One instance of this odd happening is the rifle's Mine Sneak PA, where everything will just get hit for some wierd reason. Once you go, there will be explosions, but alas, no damage. Just funny enemies attacking where you initialized it.
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Chain Blasting
Requirements: Consistent accuracy
You know about odd caption that states stuff like "6 CHAIN" or "46 CHAIN", right? The number directly influences the the charged techs or PAs. Yes, this is one way to make one weak charged tech or PA into your strongest attack. For instance, when I'm using my Tartaros Cannon and using Divine Ray without a combo chain, I should take away 246 from a Stagg. If I use Divine Ray onto Stagg hit by a 5 chain, the damage increases to 332. When I used Divine Ray onto a Stagg hit by a 15, I inflicted 497. See what I'm saying? The way you can tell if you hit an enemy with a combo chain, instead of the usual orange-red hit sprite, you'll see a blue hit sprite. It's only a few frames to see but you can't miss it.
What's also good about this trick is that it does not stay on only one target. For instance, if I used Hollow Snipe on an enemy and killed the enemy with the first barrage of hits, the second and third barrages still inflict the same combo chain number on the others unless if another enemy has a higher combo chain number. If you use Divine Ray on a batch of enemies and one of the enemies has a combo chain number, everything will be inflicted by that number. In this case, having a high ATA would benefit others in this fashion.
Here's the catch about the trick, if someone hits the enemy with a charged tech or PA, the chain number returns to zero and you have to work up to the number again. Do note that I'm saying CHARGED tech. A regular tech will not be affected by the combo chains. Also, the caption stating the chain number will have to stay up when you connect with a charged tech or PA. If it goes away before your charged tech or PA connects, tough luck. Try again later.
The higher the chain count, the shorter the standing duration for a charged tech or PA to connect. That means you'll have to get it down quickly or have an accurate teammate on your case and help you out.
*NOTE: This does not apply to PBs.
[Update @ 5/3/2010]
This trick also applies to Act Trick. Technically, it's a PA. Also, I'll officially put down that this applies to any chargable attacks.
[Update @ 5/12/2010]
When doing Handgun & Mechgun Charge, you can turn your strafe shots into a part of the Chain Blasting effect. What you have to do is have the charged attack and your normal attack in the same palette. Charge your PA/tech while strafing. Once you unleash a strafe shot, unleash your charged PA/tech. The strafe shot should have Chain Blasting capability.
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Alternating Chain Hits
Requirements: Double Saber, Mechgun, Dagger, Slicer, or Claw
there are some fun things that you could take notice of. One of those is that a combo chain number can increase to a 5 chain in one melee combo when you mimic the attack scheme of another person. Try this out with Reve and have a double saber out. If you mimic him just right, you should notice the chain number go up rapidly and immediately to 5.
To summarize what I've said, if you alternate the hits of the third part of the standard combo, you should notice the combo number increasing. If you end up hitting the target one after another, the number won't increase as long as no one chooses to hit the enemy with their own hits of the third part of the combo. Weapons with this funny capability are: Double Saber, Dagger, Claw, Mechgun, and Slicer.
How slicer? It's kind of a glitch on the weapon attack scheme. As the slicer is flying through the air, you can still melee attack an enemy beside you or practically inside you. Yes, this means you can't punch at an enemy when they're in front of you. You'll just have to flap your arms at them and hope it connects. Trust me, this is a glitch you're better off not mastering because it's just... well... weird.
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Counter Argument For Gunblade Infinite
Requirements: Gunblade
When you go swing-swing-shoot, you look straight ahead, right? When you go swing-turn&swing-shoot, you turn straight back to the direction where the first swing was directed. Does this change a lot for those who love to abuse the infinite combo with the gunblade? In other words, while you're doing your infinite combo on a target that's straying away from your linear path, you'll just have to stop and work your way in the other direction. Does this make the gunblade infinite combo crap? Yes indeed. Not only that, the swing-swing-shot combo does not contribute to the combo chains whatsoever. This should only be used for shitty lonesome players who like to brag that they mastered a damn glitch whereas all the other players do their own thing. Just know I don't look down upon people who use the swing-swing-shot combo. The infinite combo, I just love to see people do epic fails with it. Haha!
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Combo Recovery
Requirements: Weapon
With all weapons, you can cancel recoil attack animations by rolling. You should notice that some of the animation time to head back into standing position time is reduced. If you want to see something very evident in this manner, you should try daggers 2nd and 3rd part of combo, saber's 3rd part, claw's 2nd and 3rd part, mechguns, and double saber's 2nd part. You should notice with some that you could roll immediately after the hit or last hit is made of the dagger combo.
*NOTE: Most are less apparent than others.
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Multiple-Hitting Lasers
Requirements: Laser Cannon
Believe it or not, the Laser Cannon could hit one target at least two times per shot. Yeah, that's right. TWO!!! It's more of a chance thing than anything else. Basically, if you connect with a moving target that's running away, you can hit them twice. However, there are occasions against the Reyburn when you can hit the poor dragon's head four times when it roars to shake its head. Basically, the situation of this finding is that the tip hits the target, target moves out of the shot and back into it to get hit again. OR the other situation: The enemy runs within the shot and stays inside it for approximately 1.1 seconds. With exception of the Reyburn, you can hit every fast target twice.
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Incapacitation Counting
Requirements: Teammates
Whenever one of your NPCs die, it adds to your incapacitation count. Now you know why the count is so high when you've only died a total of 0 times within the last week.
I've yet to confirm if this applies to online teammates as well.
[edit @ 4/22/2010]
Confirmed that online teammate deaths rack up the numbers.
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Gun Misfires
Requirements: Guns (not gunblade swing)
Believe it or not, a poison status has a subtle effect that can have the shooter refrain from shooting. Basically, to have this happen, shoot just before you take poison damage. You should notice nothing coming out of your gun as your character does his/her shooting animation for that part of the combo.
*NOTE: Techs and PAs are not affected by this.
[Edit @ 5/15/2010]
Whenever you take any kind of hit and you don't flinch, the animation will happen but no bullets will launch.
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Wall Stalling
Requirements: Mobile AOE PAs
When using a PA like Mine Sneak or Magical Sign, the AOE is left in one place, right? However, when you run into a wall, that bump marks as your new "initial point". In other words, when you use Mine Sneak and bump a wall when crawling, where you bump will be where the collision boxes will be happening.
After taking all this in, you know what this means, right? When you bump a wall when using techs, your initial point will be moved to where you bumped the wall. Yes, that means the enemies' targetting reticule will go right back onto you. Therefore, when you're using such PAs, be aware of the walls.
I shall name this odd thing! It's called "Wall Stalling" because you basically stall when you bump the wall. Use Mine Sneak with your back against the wall. Yes, you'll basically stall because, technically, you bumped the wall.
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Menu Recovery
Requirements: Items, traps
Y'know those moments when you're accessing your inventory and you get knocked down? Believe it or not, you can immediately recover from your knocked-down state by changing your weapon. You should notice your char immediately standing in a neutral standing position immediately after.
Believe it or not, you can still access your menu when you're frozen. Before you get frozen, press start to call up your menu. You should notice yourself still able to use everything and switch weapons while you're frozen. You should notice that you could use a Sol Atomizer while you're frozen. This trick is useful against Humilias.
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Revenge Phantom Slash
Requirements: Melee weapon, non-friendly targeting basic tech [confirmed with Jellen, Zalure, and Zonde]
Basically, when you are knocked down before you're able to connect with your melee attack, use Jellen immediately when you get up. You should notice that while your target is taking one of the hits of your combo while the enemy is powered down. Try this out with the other two and you should find the same result, although it can be a little tricky to notice with Zonde due to clashing damage numbers. However, the damage is there. You can also do this with the other techs but you have to be at point-blank range to connect.
[edit @ 4/22/2010]
Works with any tech as long as the enemy has a target reticule on it. This only works on the main target, not subtargets.
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Revenge Shot
Requirements: Gun (not gunblade), any basic tech
Basically the same idea as Revenge Phantom Slash but use a gun and any tech. This one is far more apparent.
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Successful Canyon/Wall Shots
Requirements: Gun w/ ranged PA
Getting tired of having enemy targets guard your attacks when shooting over a canyon or wall? Never fear! Just use your PA. You should notice that there won't be any guarding from the enemy. However, you can still miss. Watch out for that. The most effective PAs for this are Quick Draw, Hollow Snipe, Wipeout, Spinning Death, Sector Line, Divine Ray, Bio-Panic, and Crazy-On. The PA list is not in order of which is best, though Hollow Snipe and Divine Ray produce the best results.
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How to Use Mine Sneak for Dummies
Requirements: Rifle with Mine Sneak PA
Recommended add by: John Wolf
No, I'm not calling those who don't know how to use Mine Sneak properly a dummy but I'm getting goddamn tired of people bashing on this PA. So, I'll add my own input on here. If you've noticed, there's a whole lot of tricks that can also be used by Mine Sneak. It's set AOE, which means it won't move from its location unless you wall stall. This AOE has a radius from where you initiated it to just barely behind you when the first explosion goes off. Locking onto your target when using this PA will have your target pushed out of the radius and thus have the opponent unscathed. The only way you can hit an opponent outside the radius is if you wall stall (look at the section called Wall Stalling for details). Of course, the lazy way is to just turn tail in front of the enemy and use it to get away. However, I've seen people do this and accidentally wall stall and die because of this lazy way. I prefer to use the PA to hike right by the opponent. Look at the section called PA Scapegoat for details.
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Auto Guard
Requrements: Shield
Found by: The_Pup
(Copied & Pasted from page 3 @ 9:25PM PST 5/02/2010)
Equip a shield. Face general direction of enemy. Hold L and press Start. Character should automatically face enemy while guarding, though normal standing pose is in effect.
Only uses I can think of are for those who are too lazy to hold down L, ability to safely use items in the middle of battle or to allow players to regenerate HP (less so with PP) while going to the bathroom in the middle of a fight.
(My input)
This actually applies because the lock-on function of the L button is still active without the chase camera function. You should notice your char spinning in the direction of the target until it goes into a state where you can't lock onto it [such as a Rohjade's bounce property]. While you're in the menu, you can access your items, switch items, toss items, etc.
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Manual PA Rotation
Requirements: Weapons with PAs (There are some exceptions)
Confirmed Find by: Broken_L_Button
(Copied & Pasted from page 4 at 3:03PM PST 5/04/2010)
The main thing about it is the fact that, when you're not locked onto a target while executing a PA, you can "move" the PA's AOE or your character around, making the PA produce different results. For example, if you "move" around while executing Million Rave (pressing left or right on the control pad will make your character rotate while slashing), you can extend your range to enemies to either the left or right side instead of being restricted to striking stuff in front of you (nearly a 200+ degree range instead of a 120 degree one), which is useful when mobs sneak behind you. Another example of this can be seen with Mine Sneak and Sonic Raid; you can adjust to PA's movement to curve towards the left or right, adjusting your position after the whole movement to take full advantage of the PA scapegoat effect.
For stationary PAs like Divine Ray, Hollow snipe and OE, you can fine-tune your aim by rotating your char during the animation (with this, you can make OE strike mobs the are creeping to your side...or, if you're fast enough, you might be able to turn around completely and strike enemies behind you). Anyways, I'm not sure how useful this is, since I'm sure everyone knows it/doesn't bother to use it...
(My input)
With certain PAs, you can have the camera chase directly behind the character by pressing and holding L when the PA is initiated. This is confirmed with Hollow Snipe and Divine Ray. With all others, doing it sometime in between will have the camera fall stationary again, having you have to continuously press L to have it move behind the char. If you press the L button too early in a locked-on function, you should notice that you'll chase the enemy or simply unable to manually rotate left and right.
Also, although you can rotate, location AOE PAs will not rotate accordingly and stay where it was used initially. Check out Set AOE PA.
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Bullets That Bend Rules
Requirements: Gunblade with Bullet Dance
Found By: Broken_L_Button
(Copied & Pasted @ 1:03PM PST 5/5/2010)
You all know that to the list of usual elements (fire, ice, lightning, light and darkness), PSZ adds 2 more, which are relative to gun shots and blade attacks (or Ranged and Melee elements, if you prefer), giving monsters a certain resistance value to each.
Thanks to those elements, using bullets on the enemies present in most areas (except Ozette Wetlands, Rioh Snowfield and Makara Ruins, where the enemies are ridiculously weak to Ranged attacks) was highly unadvised. But, there's one type of bullet that disregards that rule: those fired during the Bullet Dance PA. Instead of being tied to the "Ranged" element, these bullets are, surprisingly, doing "Melee" damage to foes.
You can try it yourself; use Bullet Dance on enemies in Gurachia Valley and you'll see that you're doing slightly more damage than a normal Gunblade swing (thanks to the 125% ATP modifier), while, if you use the same PA on enemies from Rioh Snowfield, your damage output will be significantly lower than that of bullets fired normally from a gun of the same ATP value.
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Shots That Bend Rules
Requirements: Laser Cannon
Okay, I've noticed that there are certain angles and distances that has a Laser Cannon being unable to be guarded with the normal and heavy shots. I'm currently looking into this.
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2-Elements Theory
Requirements: Multiplayer function and PA with an elemental infliction (such as Thriller Combo)
Flaws: Weapon element and PA element are the same (?)
This one's hard to prove because the game only shows what should be there. However, there are subtle things that you have to keep in mind. There's the primary element that's attached to your weapon or tech. That you should know. The secondary element is the element that's inflicted by your PA.
The primary element is the universal element. It shows on all DS games being played. This overrides the secondary element if the primary takes place.
The secondary element is the part that is harder to prove. It would help if you have two DSs in view. When doing Thriller Combo, you should notice a stun effect on the enemy. Right... On the other DS that did not use Thriller Combo, you should notice nothing.
If a primary element was inflicted before to the secondary element, only the primary element will show on all other DSs. If the primary element was inflicted after the infliction of the seconary element, this will override the secondary element and display the primary element.
Keeping the relationship of primary and secondary elements in check, if the primary element was a slow element and the secondary element is a burn, would the infliction happen? Universally yes but no in display. The DS that inflicted the burn via secondary element will show the damage no problem. On all other DS, it is non-existant. Now, if the primary element was a burn and the secondary element was a slow, the DS that inflicted the slow would not see the burn damage but all others will. The damage is there and it is being inflicted but not everyone will notice it.
Now, keeping this in mind, if the primary was a dark and the secondary was a burn, the poison damage will stay with the other players and the secondary will show the burn. Can this work on multiple DSs? Yes it can but it is kind of hard to have multiple people doing it. Somewhere in there, someone might end up overriding the secondary elements of other people with an unintentional primary. So, people with your Celeb elements, stay with it while us people who like using the other elements do our own way to kill a boosted Phobos Dyna!
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List of elements used by monsters:
-Blaze Helion: Burn (Adapts Heavenly in SH)
-Garahadan: Dark
-Garapython: Stun
-Ghowl: Burn
-Reyburn: Burn & Slow
-Hildegao/ghana/gigas: Ice
-Stagg: Ice
-Hypao: Stun
-Octo Diablo: Dark & Slow
-Pomarr: Stun
-Porel: Dark
-Vespao: Stun
-Mobius: Slow
-Froutang/Frunaked: Slow & Light
-Ishirak-S6/Asherowa-B2: Light
Batt: Stun (might be mixed with Bullbatt)
Bullbatt: Light (might be mixed with Batt)
Arkzein/Arkzein R: Burn
Finjer B: Ice
Finjer G: Stun
Finjer R: Burn
Humilias: Slow, Ice, & Light
Korse/Akorse: Light
Derreo/Zerreo: Burn (switches to Dark in SH)
Phobos/Zaphobos (Dyna): Dark
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Things I frown upon:
-Gunblade Infinite (swing-swing-shot is okay)
-Handgun/Mechgun Rapidfire (when doing it to pass the time is okay)
-Unlegit Unlimited _____ (fill in the blank, will ya?)
-People bashing about how one class is far superior or how one sucks.
-People who join a group and don't contribute to the group in field.
-People who like to show pornography on shortcuts. -glares at everyone with the Tifa thing-
-People bashing on all the elements except Celeb. Why not try a Light element on an Ishirak and see what happens?
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Things currently being looked into:
Chain Blasting w/ Assist Tech
Basically, do Chain Blasting with a charged support tech. What'll be the result? Hmm...
(?) = Still investigating
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PA Scapegoat
Requirements: Non-stationary PAs
There's something funny about rolling or using mobile PA like Huge Cross, Spear Ride, or Mine Sneak. The tendency of non-boss hostiles (with exception of Heavenly Mother's Grants) is that they focus their attack on the place where the roll or PA was used. Yes, that means if you're using Mine Sneak and work past a hostile, they'll run by you and attack where you initialized it and get blown up. If you're curious about this, use mine sneak and get blown up by a freeze trap at the peak of the crawl. The result is that they will attack where you initialized the PA. Note that this also works with the roll. Try it out!
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PA Enhancements
Requirements: Weapons with PAs
PAs usually have a higher flinch rate than the heavy attack from the weapon. However, PAs with a status effect (like Thriller Combo or Magical Sign) are prolonged in comparison to the usual status effect from a standard element attack.
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Handgun & Mechgun Charge
Requirements: Handgun or Mechgun, technique or PA
With Handguns and Mechguns, you can keep your techs or PAs charged while strafe shooting. Yes, while you're moving and attacking, you can charge your techs and PAs and keep them fully charged until unleashed or do a regular shot. The way you do this is hold down any chargable tech or the heavy attack and use your normal attack while strafing (while holding "L" and moving around). You should notice that your charge should go normal like any other and stay charged. If you time it right, you can also combo from your strafe shot into your charged tech/PA. Simply release the d-pad and then release your charged attack. This should work any time, like when you're still shooting. The sacrifice is a prolonged standing frame.
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Set AOE PA
Requirements: Any PA that has an AOE effect
While using my wand with my FOmarl, I noticed something rather funny about the Magical Sign PA. When locked on the enemy, it's not the fact that you start skipping off the stairs. The AOE (Area Of Effect) location does not move one bit although you may be locked onto the enemy. So, if I were to give suggestions on how to use this PA, do NOT lock onto the enemy, considering it's useless and you're just going to be running toward the enemy. This is kinda also the case for the rifle's Mine Sneak PA. With any weapon with such an effect, I shall repeat: do NOT lock onto the enemy when you're using it!
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Useless Flashy Bangs
Requirements: Mechgun w/ PA (Spinning Death preferred)
Here's another fun fact about PAs. This one is practically useless but it's pretty fun to know. Mechgun PA bullets fling all over the place when you use it to transition out of the area. You won't see it personally but everyone who's standing near you before you transition will notice it. It's pretty funny, especially with Spinning Death. All the shots fire in all directions from where you disappear in one instance but do not connect to any targets whatsoever. Fun fun fun!
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Frozen Thriller Combo Effect
Requirements: Handgun w/ Thriller Combo
Oh, here's another fun fact regarding handguns, but this is a good fact. When using Thriller Combo and then frozen while you're using it, you'll freeze in place but the paralyzing AOE effect of the attack will still take place, even though you're frozen. When you get out, you'll do all the other hits afterwards. By this fact, I hereby declare that Thriller Combo hits 4 times.
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Frozen PA Effect
Requirements: Weapons w/ AOE PAs
Do note that Frozen Thriller Combo Effect also happens with several other PAs where the attack will still happen while you're frozen. These usually happen with a set-location AOE like the Magical Sign PA. One instance of this odd happening is the rifle's Mine Sneak PA, where everything will just get hit for some wierd reason. Once you go, there will be explosions, but alas, no damage. Just funny enemies attacking where you initialized it.
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Chain Blasting
Requirements: Consistent accuracy
You know about odd caption that states stuff like "6 CHAIN" or "46 CHAIN", right? The number directly influences the the charged techs or PAs. Yes, this is one way to make one weak charged tech or PA into your strongest attack. For instance, when I'm using my Tartaros Cannon and using Divine Ray without a combo chain, I should take away 246 from a Stagg. If I use Divine Ray onto Stagg hit by a 5 chain, the damage increases to 332. When I used Divine Ray onto a Stagg hit by a 15, I inflicted 497. See what I'm saying? The way you can tell if you hit an enemy with a combo chain, instead of the usual orange-red hit sprite, you'll see a blue hit sprite. It's only a few frames to see but you can't miss it.
What's also good about this trick is that it does not stay on only one target. For instance, if I used Hollow Snipe on an enemy and killed the enemy with the first barrage of hits, the second and third barrages still inflict the same combo chain number on the others unless if another enemy has a higher combo chain number. If you use Divine Ray on a batch of enemies and one of the enemies has a combo chain number, everything will be inflicted by that number. In this case, having a high ATA would benefit others in this fashion.
Here's the catch about the trick, if someone hits the enemy with a charged tech or PA, the chain number returns to zero and you have to work up to the number again. Do note that I'm saying CHARGED tech. A regular tech will not be affected by the combo chains. Also, the caption stating the chain number will have to stay up when you connect with a charged tech or PA. If it goes away before your charged tech or PA connects, tough luck. Try again later.
The higher the chain count, the shorter the standing duration for a charged tech or PA to connect. That means you'll have to get it down quickly or have an accurate teammate on your case and help you out.
*NOTE: This does not apply to PBs.
[Update @ 5/3/2010]
This trick also applies to Act Trick. Technically, it's a PA. Also, I'll officially put down that this applies to any chargable attacks.
[Update @ 5/12/2010]
When doing Handgun & Mechgun Charge, you can turn your strafe shots into a part of the Chain Blasting effect. What you have to do is have the charged attack and your normal attack in the same palette. Charge your PA/tech while strafing. Once you unleash a strafe shot, unleash your charged PA/tech. The strafe shot should have Chain Blasting capability.
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Alternating Chain Hits
Requirements: Double Saber, Mechgun, Dagger, Slicer, or Claw
there are some fun things that you could take notice of. One of those is that a combo chain number can increase to a 5 chain in one melee combo when you mimic the attack scheme of another person. Try this out with Reve and have a double saber out. If you mimic him just right, you should notice the chain number go up rapidly and immediately to 5.
To summarize what I've said, if you alternate the hits of the third part of the standard combo, you should notice the combo number increasing. If you end up hitting the target one after another, the number won't increase as long as no one chooses to hit the enemy with their own hits of the third part of the combo. Weapons with this funny capability are: Double Saber, Dagger, Claw, Mechgun, and Slicer.
How slicer? It's kind of a glitch on the weapon attack scheme. As the slicer is flying through the air, you can still melee attack an enemy beside you or practically inside you. Yes, this means you can't punch at an enemy when they're in front of you. You'll just have to flap your arms at them and hope it connects. Trust me, this is a glitch you're better off not mastering because it's just... well... weird.
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Counter Argument For Gunblade Infinite
Requirements: Gunblade
When you go swing-swing-shoot, you look straight ahead, right? When you go swing-turn&swing-shoot, you turn straight back to the direction where the first swing was directed. Does this change a lot for those who love to abuse the infinite combo with the gunblade? In other words, while you're doing your infinite combo on a target that's straying away from your linear path, you'll just have to stop and work your way in the other direction. Does this make the gunblade infinite combo crap? Yes indeed. Not only that, the swing-swing-shot combo does not contribute to the combo chains whatsoever. This should only be used for shitty lonesome players who like to brag that they mastered a damn glitch whereas all the other players do their own thing. Just know I don't look down upon people who use the swing-swing-shot combo. The infinite combo, I just love to see people do epic fails with it. Haha!
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Combo Recovery
Requirements: Weapon
With all weapons, you can cancel recoil attack animations by rolling. You should notice that some of the animation time to head back into standing position time is reduced. If you want to see something very evident in this manner, you should try daggers 2nd and 3rd part of combo, saber's 3rd part, claw's 2nd and 3rd part, mechguns, and double saber's 2nd part. You should notice with some that you could roll immediately after the hit or last hit is made of the dagger combo.
*NOTE: Most are less apparent than others.
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Multiple-Hitting Lasers
Requirements: Laser Cannon
Believe it or not, the Laser Cannon could hit one target at least two times per shot. Yeah, that's right. TWO!!! It's more of a chance thing than anything else. Basically, if you connect with a moving target that's running away, you can hit them twice. However, there are occasions against the Reyburn when you can hit the poor dragon's head four times when it roars to shake its head. Basically, the situation of this finding is that the tip hits the target, target moves out of the shot and back into it to get hit again. OR the other situation: The enemy runs within the shot and stays inside it for approximately 1.1 seconds. With exception of the Reyburn, you can hit every fast target twice.
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Incapacitation Counting
Requirements: Teammates
Whenever one of your NPCs die, it adds to your incapacitation count. Now you know why the count is so high when you've only died a total of 0 times within the last week.
I've yet to confirm if this applies to online teammates as well.
[edit @ 4/22/2010]
Confirmed that online teammate deaths rack up the numbers.
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Gun Misfires
Requirements: Guns (not gunblade swing)
Believe it or not, a poison status has a subtle effect that can have the shooter refrain from shooting. Basically, to have this happen, shoot just before you take poison damage. You should notice nothing coming out of your gun as your character does his/her shooting animation for that part of the combo.
*NOTE: Techs and PAs are not affected by this.
[Edit @ 5/15/2010]
Whenever you take any kind of hit and you don't flinch, the animation will happen but no bullets will launch.
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Wall Stalling
Requirements: Mobile AOE PAs
When using a PA like Mine Sneak or Magical Sign, the AOE is left in one place, right? However, when you run into a wall, that bump marks as your new "initial point". In other words, when you use Mine Sneak and bump a wall when crawling, where you bump will be where the collision boxes will be happening.
After taking all this in, you know what this means, right? When you bump a wall when using techs, your initial point will be moved to where you bumped the wall. Yes, that means the enemies' targetting reticule will go right back onto you. Therefore, when you're using such PAs, be aware of the walls.
I shall name this odd thing! It's called "Wall Stalling" because you basically stall when you bump the wall. Use Mine Sneak with your back against the wall. Yes, you'll basically stall because, technically, you bumped the wall.
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Menu Recovery
Requirements: Items, traps
Y'know those moments when you're accessing your inventory and you get knocked down? Believe it or not, you can immediately recover from your knocked-down state by changing your weapon. You should notice your char immediately standing in a neutral standing position immediately after.
Believe it or not, you can still access your menu when you're frozen. Before you get frozen, press start to call up your menu. You should notice yourself still able to use everything and switch weapons while you're frozen. You should notice that you could use a Sol Atomizer while you're frozen. This trick is useful against Humilias.
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Revenge Phantom Slash
Requirements: Melee weapon, non-friendly targeting basic tech [confirmed with Jellen, Zalure, and Zonde]
Basically, when you are knocked down before you're able to connect with your melee attack, use Jellen immediately when you get up. You should notice that while your target is taking one of the hits of your combo while the enemy is powered down. Try this out with the other two and you should find the same result, although it can be a little tricky to notice with Zonde due to clashing damage numbers. However, the damage is there. You can also do this with the other techs but you have to be at point-blank range to connect.
[edit @ 4/22/2010]
Works with any tech as long as the enemy has a target reticule on it. This only works on the main target, not subtargets.
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Revenge Shot
Requirements: Gun (not gunblade), any basic tech
Basically the same idea as Revenge Phantom Slash but use a gun and any tech. This one is far more apparent.
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Successful Canyon/Wall Shots
Requirements: Gun w/ ranged PA
Getting tired of having enemy targets guard your attacks when shooting over a canyon or wall? Never fear! Just use your PA. You should notice that there won't be any guarding from the enemy. However, you can still miss. Watch out for that. The most effective PAs for this are Quick Draw, Hollow Snipe, Wipeout, Spinning Death, Sector Line, Divine Ray, Bio-Panic, and Crazy-On. The PA list is not in order of which is best, though Hollow Snipe and Divine Ray produce the best results.
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How to Use Mine Sneak for Dummies
Requirements: Rifle with Mine Sneak PA
Recommended add by: John Wolf
No, I'm not calling those who don't know how to use Mine Sneak properly a dummy but I'm getting goddamn tired of people bashing on this PA. So, I'll add my own input on here. If you've noticed, there's a whole lot of tricks that can also be used by Mine Sneak. It's set AOE, which means it won't move from its location unless you wall stall. This AOE has a radius from where you initiated it to just barely behind you when the first explosion goes off. Locking onto your target when using this PA will have your target pushed out of the radius and thus have the opponent unscathed. The only way you can hit an opponent outside the radius is if you wall stall (look at the section called Wall Stalling for details). Of course, the lazy way is to just turn tail in front of the enemy and use it to get away. However, I've seen people do this and accidentally wall stall and die because of this lazy way. I prefer to use the PA to hike right by the opponent. Look at the section called PA Scapegoat for details.
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Auto Guard
Requrements: Shield
Found by: The_Pup
(Copied & Pasted from page 3 @ 9:25PM PST 5/02/2010)
Equip a shield. Face general direction of enemy. Hold L and press Start. Character should automatically face enemy while guarding, though normal standing pose is in effect.
Only uses I can think of are for those who are too lazy to hold down L, ability to safely use items in the middle of battle or to allow players to regenerate HP (less so with PP) while going to the bathroom in the middle of a fight.
(My input)
This actually applies because the lock-on function of the L button is still active without the chase camera function. You should notice your char spinning in the direction of the target until it goes into a state where you can't lock onto it [such as a Rohjade's bounce property]. While you're in the menu, you can access your items, switch items, toss items, etc.
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Manual PA Rotation
Requirements: Weapons with PAs (There are some exceptions)
Confirmed Find by: Broken_L_Button
(Copied & Pasted from page 4 at 3:03PM PST 5/04/2010)
The main thing about it is the fact that, when you're not locked onto a target while executing a PA, you can "move" the PA's AOE or your character around, making the PA produce different results. For example, if you "move" around while executing Million Rave (pressing left or right on the control pad will make your character rotate while slashing), you can extend your range to enemies to either the left or right side instead of being restricted to striking stuff in front of you (nearly a 200+ degree range instead of a 120 degree one), which is useful when mobs sneak behind you. Another example of this can be seen with Mine Sneak and Sonic Raid; you can adjust to PA's movement to curve towards the left or right, adjusting your position after the whole movement to take full advantage of the PA scapegoat effect.
For stationary PAs like Divine Ray, Hollow snipe and OE, you can fine-tune your aim by rotating your char during the animation (with this, you can make OE strike mobs the are creeping to your side...or, if you're fast enough, you might be able to turn around completely and strike enemies behind you). Anyways, I'm not sure how useful this is, since I'm sure everyone knows it/doesn't bother to use it...
(My input)
With certain PAs, you can have the camera chase directly behind the character by pressing and holding L when the PA is initiated. This is confirmed with Hollow Snipe and Divine Ray. With all others, doing it sometime in between will have the camera fall stationary again, having you have to continuously press L to have it move behind the char. If you press the L button too early in a locked-on function, you should notice that you'll chase the enemy or simply unable to manually rotate left and right.
Also, although you can rotate, location AOE PAs will not rotate accordingly and stay where it was used initially. Check out Set AOE PA.
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Bullets That Bend Rules
Requirements: Gunblade with Bullet Dance
Found By: Broken_L_Button
(Copied & Pasted @ 1:03PM PST 5/5/2010)
You all know that to the list of usual elements (fire, ice, lightning, light and darkness), PSZ adds 2 more, which are relative to gun shots and blade attacks (or Ranged and Melee elements, if you prefer), giving monsters a certain resistance value to each.
Thanks to those elements, using bullets on the enemies present in most areas (except Ozette Wetlands, Rioh Snowfield and Makara Ruins, where the enemies are ridiculously weak to Ranged attacks) was highly unadvised. But, there's one type of bullet that disregards that rule: those fired during the Bullet Dance PA. Instead of being tied to the "Ranged" element, these bullets are, surprisingly, doing "Melee" damage to foes.
You can try it yourself; use Bullet Dance on enemies in Gurachia Valley and you'll see that you're doing slightly more damage than a normal Gunblade swing (thanks to the 125% ATP modifier), while, if you use the same PA on enemies from Rioh Snowfield, your damage output will be significantly lower than that of bullets fired normally from a gun of the same ATP value.
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Shots That Bend Rules
Requirements: Laser Cannon
Okay, I've noticed that there are certain angles and distances that has a Laser Cannon being unable to be guarded with the normal and heavy shots. I'm currently looking into this.
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2-Elements Theory
Requirements: Multiplayer function and PA with an elemental infliction (such as Thriller Combo)
Flaws: Weapon element and PA element are the same (?)
This one's hard to prove because the game only shows what should be there. However, there are subtle things that you have to keep in mind. There's the primary element that's attached to your weapon or tech. That you should know. The secondary element is the element that's inflicted by your PA.
The primary element is the universal element. It shows on all DS games being played. This overrides the secondary element if the primary takes place.
The secondary element is the part that is harder to prove. It would help if you have two DSs in view. When doing Thriller Combo, you should notice a stun effect on the enemy. Right... On the other DS that did not use Thriller Combo, you should notice nothing.
If a primary element was inflicted before to the secondary element, only the primary element will show on all other DSs. If the primary element was inflicted after the infliction of the seconary element, this will override the secondary element and display the primary element.
Keeping the relationship of primary and secondary elements in check, if the primary element was a slow element and the secondary element is a burn, would the infliction happen? Universally yes but no in display. The DS that inflicted the burn via secondary element will show the damage no problem. On all other DS, it is non-existant. Now, if the primary element was a burn and the secondary element was a slow, the DS that inflicted the slow would not see the burn damage but all others will. The damage is there and it is being inflicted but not everyone will notice it.
Now, keeping this in mind, if the primary was a dark and the secondary was a burn, the poison damage will stay with the other players and the secondary will show the burn. Can this work on multiple DSs? Yes it can but it is kind of hard to have multiple people doing it. Somewhere in there, someone might end up overriding the secondary elements of other people with an unintentional primary. So, people with your Celeb elements, stay with it while us people who like using the other elements do our own way to kill a boosted Phobos Dyna!
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List of elements used by monsters:
-Blaze Helion: Burn (Adapts Heavenly in SH)
-Garahadan: Dark
-Garapython: Stun
-Ghowl: Burn
-Reyburn: Burn & Slow
-Hildegao/ghana/gigas: Ice
-Stagg: Ice
-Hypao: Stun
-Octo Diablo: Dark & Slow
-Pomarr: Stun
-Porel: Dark
-Vespao: Stun
-Mobius: Slow
-Froutang/Frunaked: Slow & Light
-Ishirak-S6/Asherowa-B2: Light
Batt: Stun (might be mixed with Bullbatt)
Bullbatt: Light (might be mixed with Batt)
Arkzein/Arkzein R: Burn
Finjer B: Ice
Finjer G: Stun
Finjer R: Burn
Humilias: Slow, Ice, & Light
Korse/Akorse: Light
Derreo/Zerreo: Burn (switches to Dark in SH)
Phobos/Zaphobos (Dyna): Dark
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Things I frown upon:
-Gunblade Infinite (swing-swing-shot is okay)
-Handgun/Mechgun Rapidfire (when doing it to pass the time is okay)
-Unlegit Unlimited _____ (fill in the blank, will ya?)
-People bashing about how one class is far superior or how one sucks.
-People who join a group and don't contribute to the group in field.
-People who like to show pornography on shortcuts. -glares at everyone with the Tifa thing-
-People bashing on all the elements except Celeb. Why not try a Light element on an Ishirak and see what happens?
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Things currently being looked into:
Chain Blasting w/ Assist Tech
Basically, do Chain Blasting with a charged support tech. What'll be the result? Hmm...