This a guide that goes over the basics of combat and how things work.

There are currently two difficulties, "Normal" and "Story"
Story mostly makes enemies a bit weaker but most importantly makes all timing minigames easier by increasing the success zones.

YIIK is a turn based RPG with the following commands:

• ATTACK
  A Standard Attack, can be changed in the options.
  
• SKILLS
  Special Abilities that typically consume a resource.
  
• ITEM
  Item menu
  
• DEFEND
  Defending increases your Defense stat and makes it so if an attack where to kill you instead it would leave you at 1 HP.
  
• RUN
  When used you'll play a auto side scroller minigame.
  
• SWAP
  Swaps Your party members, this doesn't take up your turn.

A couple of characters work a bit differently than others
Rory has no offensive abilities
Essentia uses her Health as a resource for all of her attacks.

Time Energy is unchanged but I know it's use isn't documented very well.

Pressing Left Trigger slows combat, this will use up some of the Time Energy in your bar.
This allows you to easily time attacks or dodges, also with some attacks it allows you to get even more hits in.
How you gain Time Energy is based on how much damage you take.
Dodging attacks will also give you a little Time Energy.

You can enable unlimited Time Energy by activating "Assist Mode" in the "Conifg" menu.





Also the Right Trigger speeds up combat, this doesn't consume any time Energy.

The original combat style had Minigames for every attack.
Well now those Minigames are special moves called "Beat Down"


Your base attack is replaced with a shorter one almost like a QTE with a perfect zone.
(Think like Gears of War's reload, or Rhythm games)
Hitting this 'Perfect' zone refills your PP by 4 as well as dealing more damage.
Hitting the 'Miss' zone or allowing it to time out will result in the attack doing nothing.

If you want to revert to the old style of combat for that "Original YIIK" experience just enable "Deep Strike" in the "Stats".
This is enabled on a per character basis so if you want everyone to work this way you'll have to enable it for each character.

A lot of character abilities have been reworked or tweaked so I feel it would be good to go over them how they've been changed and how they work.

Keep in mind that Beat Down attack minigames are affected by which weapons you have equipped.


BEAT DOWN: RECORD SCRATCH
Base Skill (PP: 2)
As the record spins you'll want to press the action button at the same time as the yellow and red lines pass over the record needle

You can hit these zones mulitple times to deal more damage!
Red ones make the record spin again but for how long is based on what you have equiped

TIP: if you're struggling with the timing look at the bolt on the arm of the record player it will change color when you need to press the button

PANDA BARRIER *BIG CHANGES*
Learned when Panda is found (PP: 5)
Panda is an amazing tool, He's only out for two turns but this allows Alex the chance to attack as well! Most importantly he blocks all attacks even ones that normally would be unblockable.
Sounds OP right?
Well now he has a health bar so he can only block so many attacks before being destroyed. Once he's destroyed you won't be able to summon him again until you leave that fight, so use him wisely!

SMOOTH JAZZ
Learned at Level 4 (PP: 5)
It works kind of like Alex's Beatdown, except instead hitting the sections multiple times you only have to hit it once. This will usually put the enemy to sleep for a turn.

EP STRIKE
Learned at Level 16 (PP: 7)
This works just like "Smooth Jazz" except instead of putting them to sleep it does a decent amount of damage.

LP TOSS
Learned at Level 8 (PP: 5)
LP Toss has you play a mingame similar to Space Invaders, the enemies are scrolling across the screen. While considered an AOE attack what enemies it does damage to are based on which little spring enemies you hit in the minigame.




BEAT DOWN: PHOTO REEL
Base Skill (PP: 2)
Press the buttons in time with the cursor. On "Story Mode" this will only use one button.





PHOTOSHOOT
Base Skill (PP: 4)
An AOE attack that spreads the damage among all enemies randomly so mash away!





GLAMOUR SHOT
Learned at Level _ (PP: 2)
You take a photo of an ally's face resulting in various status effects

• "BAD": Deals a small amount of damage and make's them "Sick", dealing damage over time.
  
• "FLIRTY": Lowers Attack and Raises Defense
  
• "GOOD": Raises Attack and Defense

MUG SHOT
Learned at Level _ (PP: 3)
You take a photo of an enemy's face resulting in various status effects

• "BAD": Deals a small amount of damage and make's the enemy "Sick", dealing damage over time.
  
• "FLIRTY": Lowers Attack and Raises Defence

BEATDOWN: KEYTAR STRIKE
Base Skill (PP: 2)
Hold back until the last segment is green.






HEALING SONG
Learned at Level 9 (PP: 4)
Restores health to allies based on how many correct keys you press. Any extra is converted into PP.




FEEDBACK
Learned at Level 11 (PP: 12)
You play a short game of "Pong" and then the attack will deal damage to EVERYONE yes INCLUDING YOUR ALLIES.




BASS DROP
Learned at Level 15 (PP: 15)
You pick the Amp and throw it at the enemy dealing a good amount of damage.





BANISH
(PP: 1)
This move is only effective on the mysterious entities you encounter in the game and not standard monsters. You play a top down "bullet hell" minigame where your objective is to swing your weapon against your foe.




PACIFISM
Instead of attacking Rory defends your entire team! You'll still have the defense minigames but if a teammate would take damage it would be hit by Rory instead!
Though this won't work if someone gets revived after or if they swap out with someone else.

When an enemy attacks him and Rory dodges, the entire attacking enemy party will take shame damage from attacking someone who doesn't mean them any harm.

STAT SWAP
Base Skill (PP: Swaps)
Rory switches his HP and PP, this makes Rory super useful because that means PP restore items are basically health items for him.

PROTEST
Learned at Level 10 (PP: 2)
Has a chance of lowering the enemy's luck.

HOLY HEAL
Learned at Level 12 (PP: 4)
Rory heals the entire party dividing up all the damage he's taken as health

SACRIFICE
Learned at Level 12 (PP: 25)
Rory revives an ally in exchange for his health.

TALK
Learned at Level 17 (PP: 0)
Rory attempts to reason with the monsters to get them to stop fighting.





BEATDOWN: TRICKSHOT
Base Skill (PP: 2)
The cursor drops down sliding toward the hilt of the blade, if you hit the "perfect" zone the attack becomes a high damage AOE.



BUSHIDO
Base Skill (PP: 0)
A simple minigame, input the directions shown within the timer to deal more damage.






BEATDOWN: HULA WHIP
Base Skill (PP: 2)
The cursor will spin along the hoop and you just press the buttons whenever they point to it.
This attack is affected by Chondra's Stance




STANCE CHANGE
Chondra has four stances that affect the way her attacks work. Keep in mind that changing her stance DOES NOT take up her turn.

• HULA STANCE Base Skill (No cost) This is Chondra's base stance.
  
• DEVIL STANCE Base Skill (15% of HP and PP) This will completely kill a party member but will deal high damage.
  
• STRONG STANCE Base Skill (10% of HP) This deals more damage but at the cost of Chondra's health.
  
• WILD STANCE Base Skill (10% of PP) This deals slightly more damage at the cost of more PP per attack.

SPREAD ITEM
Base Skill (PP: 2)
This will spread the effect of an item to all members of the party
CHUCK ITEM
Learned at Level 18 (PP: 0)
This throws an item at an enemy to deal damage.





BEATDOWN: QUEEN'S BLADE
Base Skill (EN: 1%)
Press the button as the cursor slides over the green sections of her sword.

SELF DESTRUCT
Base Skill (EN: 100%)
The Essentia will temporarily die, when she revives she'll deal a high amount of damage to o EVERYONE INCLUDING ALLIES.

MISSILE LAUNCHER
Base Skill (EN: 50%)
A high damage AOE attack
MACHINE GUN
Base Skill (EN: 25%)
A low damage AOE attack

SLEEP SHOT
Base Skill (EN: 15%)
The Essentia attacks a target putting it to sleep

The "Affinity System" is like any other weakness system except what happens when your type matches.
The enemy will display a "+" "-" or a "+/=" based on what their affinity is to any characters attack.

One of the beta testers @Starlightlune On Twitter made this type chart to more easily understand how the affinity system works.





Additionally if you'd want to turn off the "Affinity System" you can turn it off on a per character basis like the "Deep Strike" in the same config menu pictured here.

I'll link to another chart put together by @Starlightlune
This has information on character stats, and other items as well.
LINK[docs.google.com]

If you don't want to read through all of that here's a few key pieces of Equipment and Items to look out for.

Now That's What I Call Music LP
An LP you can get in Frankton's Record Shop in Chapter 3, It's easily outclassed by the story given Mystical Ultima LP Legend however having something this good early is always nice.
The reason it's so powerful is because it allows you to have 6 Spin Cycles on Alex's Beat Down.

Kani Digital Camera
This is found in the Mt. Town Cave, in a room with three chests.
This is one of Michael's best cameras that you can find pretty early.

Cowboy Hat
This is found in Chapter 4 at the Sports Store. It has the Highest PP boost of any equip-able hat.

Football Helmet
This is found in Chapter 5 at the Sports Store. It has the Highest Strength boost of any equip-able hat.

Fur Lined Coat
This is found in Chapter 4 at the Sports Store. It has the best defense stat of purchasable body equipment.

With consumables your staples will be Smelling Salts and Birch Beer.

Swapping party members doesn't take up their turn!

If you use the "Defend" command you won't die to an attack that would normally kill you, it'll only bring you down to 1HP

Michael's "BAD" Mug shot is the best

It's good to use Panda early when you're unsure of a monster's affinity so you can use weaker attacks to search for it. (Or even build PP to deal more damage later)

Focusing a PP heavy build for Alex allows him to summon Panda and build up enough PP to summon him again if you're playing at lower levels.




WARNING THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD

Lv 100 Roommate: Wilhelm
His main attack is "unblockable". Sammy is most effective, using her beat down and having Alex summon Panda makes this fight simple

Mysterious Vella
This fight is unwinnable

Golden Alpaca
Recommended Level: 10
He will summon soul survivors and consume them, this fills the WARNING METER.
It takes 3 to completely fill his bar.
After it's full he'll do an "unblockable" attack that will completely kill your party.
The Alpaca is able to attack twice, this means Rory will die, a lot. Using Panda when Rory dies to revive him is the easiest way to approach the fight.
But this means Panda can be destroyed very quick.
Vella is most effective so making her your main attacker while having Rory and Alex play support might stretch out the length of the fight but if you're struggling it will make it much easier. Michael clashes with Alpaca making him slightly more effective than Alex.

Gothic Entity
Recommended Level: 25
They have a "wildcard" affinity so they'll be changing their affinity constantly.
They have an "unblockable" attack that will drop you down to 1 hp. They also have the ability to call onto their soul survivor friend for protection. This makes it so they cannot be damaged, the only way to make it so they can be damaged is to use "Banish" on them.
Rory and Chondra and Vella are staples for this fight. I recommend only Using Panda to protect your friends when Rory dies, and swapping your party often to take advantage of current weaknesses.


Uzu Imajo
Recommended Level: 35
The robot to his side heals him overtime, and after it dies after a few turns it'll reactivate.
Yuzu's Health pool is a bit large so being aiming for around Level 35-40 makes this fight better. Use Alex and Essentia's Beatdown a lot using time energy to deal the most damage.
Having only the Essentia and Alex makes this battle harder. I wouldn't bother using any Essentia attack other than her "Beat down", her mechanic based on using health for resources makes anything else dangerous.

Proto-Comet
Recommended Level: 40
This fight is unwinnable.

The Twisted Beings
During the first fight with them make sure to break the knights to their sides to destroy them in the overworld.