Spirit Beast Battle Guide

This page is meant to help all players understand and win in Spirit Beast battling. Please feel free to discuss any suggested changes on the #spirit-beasts official Discord channel (find the link to join on the home page of this wiki). Based on original work by Hymore and Obelin.

Overview

Why you should be a Spirit Beast battler

People play with the Spirit Beast system for multiple reasons. One reason is the joy of finding and collecting rare or interesting spirit beasts from various parts of the world. Another reason is for the rewards, which include experience and gems. A full list of rewards can be found here.

Where do I start?

First, make sure you have read the main Spirit Beast page to gain a basic understanding of how the system works. Next, the Spirit Beast stats page has a list of all known spirit beasts to see which spirit beast you might want to use. Finally, you must decide how much you want to get out of the Spirit Beast system:

• If you just want to collect spirit beasts as pets and have fun, then you won't need any in-depth help or preparations. All you need is a talisman!
• If your goal is the daily experience bonus (75 experience per loss or 150 per win, up to 10 times per day) then any spirit beast will do because you gain experience win or lose. As long as you do training matches in Talondown, your beast will not lose loyalty either.
• If you have your eye on the gem pouches sold in Talondown Arena, then you will want a strong, reliable spirit beast to consistently win in the arena to get as many redsteel marks as possible since wins award 48-53 marks while losses award 12-15 marks.

To participate and win the weekly challenge for a gilded lockbox (and another 2050 weekly experience), you will want a high level spirit beast and a reasonable amount of skill to defeat all seven opponents. Using ampoules and armaments are not necessary but can help against bad matchups. A level 16 or higher spirit beast is recommended, and can be a good way to finish leveling a particularly strong beast, but will be especially difficult.

Lastly, to get the gilded lockbox from listed fights (and the final 1000 experience), you need to be in the top three players for the week and can only lose 3 times before you are out. Combined with the fact that the level 20 Spirit Beasts you fight are much tougher than the training and weekly fights, you will need to do everything in your power to win. Having a perfect quality, level 20 Spirit Beast with a potent armament and maxed stats from ampoules is recommended.

Actions

Action	Description	Cost
Attack	The default, automatic action. Spirit Beasts will attack every round unless other orders are issued. It can score critical hits and activates certain special abilities, but it can be blocked by buffs (Fortify, Airwall, Bone Shield, Sympathy, Reflect). The ATTACK command is only used to reset an outstanding order. Critical Hits deal additional damage based on your target's maximum Health Points.	No cost
Detect	Tells your spirit beast to check for stance advantage. The result is fairly automatic, adjusting to the correct stance on its own. It's important to watch and make sure that your beast is not currently outmatched. This action is very quick, being followed almost immediately by your next action, but you can issue new orders in between if you need to (including a second DETECT).	No cost
Fortify	Raises your dodge chance against ATTACK only, it doesn't do anything against LASH or SPECIAL, and lasts for three of your actions, including HEAL or DETECT. Dodging attacks has a very high chance of generating Special Charges for the defender.	One Action Point
Heal	Restores Health Points, works better the lower your health is. Healing while at Critical or Verge of Defeat will heal for up to twice as much. HEAL also has a 1/3 chance of ending a negative status effect (Stun, Bleed, Madness, etc.) and will not activate (or reduce the duration of) the negative effect on that round, but is not generally recommended solely for this purpose. Healing while under a status effect will also override any standing orders issued before the effect began.	One Action Point
Lash	Deals automatic, guaranteed damage based on spirit beast level, adjusted for stance and attunement advantage and generates one guaranteed Special Ability Charge.	One Action Point
Special	An ability specific to each spirit beast which is guaranteed to succeed, usually dealing damage based on spirit beast level, and in the cases of some uncommon and most legendary spirit beasts, having additional effects.	Variable Special Ability Charges

Core Strategies

When to Attack

• You have stance advantage from Detecting.
• You want to generate Special Ability Charges.
• Your opponent is not under the effects of a protective ability (eg. Fortify).
• You have no other choice.

When to Detect

• You think you've lost stance advantage because your opponent's Attack is dealing more damage.
• You KNOW you've lost stance advantage because your opponent's Lash is dealing more damage.
• Before you Fortify.
• Before you Special.
• You're under a beneficial effect that activates every time you take an action (eg. Regen).

When to Fortify

• You think your opponent will Attack.
• Your opponent's Attacks will deal a lot of damage (eg. Attunement advantage or high Power).
• Your opponent is out of Action Points.
• Your spirit beast has high Defense and/or Speed.
• Your spirit beast isn't about to die.
• Your opponent is under the effects of Haste.
• Your spirit beast is under the effects of Slow.

When to Heal

• Your condition is at verge of defeat.
• Your condition is at critical and your opponent hasn't used their Special Ability recently.
• Your condition is at critical and your spirit beast is kind of a wimp.
• You are under the effects of a breakable status effect (eg. Stun), low on health, and will definitely lose before it wears off naturally.
• Don't heal at condition bad or better unless it will win the fight.

When to Lash

• You need a Special Ability Charge.
• You need guaranteed medium damage.
• Your opponent has an active protective ability (eg. Fortify).
• You're ahead and want to press your advantage.
• Your spirit beast has low Power and Accuracy.

When to Special

• Using your Special will win the fight.
• You have enough charges to use your Special more than once and using them all will win the fight.
• You have eight or nine special ability charges.
• Your Special will cause a status effect which will give you a significant advantage (eg. Stun).
• You're about to die anyway and it beats doing nothing.

Suggested Priority Highlights - Expand/Collapse
Spirit Battle
focuses its energy on defending
prepares to defend itself
defensive position
focus on defending
spectral energy
Spectral lashes
special ability charge
superior fighting stance
currently in a superior stance
currently outmatched
already countering
surges with speed

Additional Useful Highlights - Expand/Collapse
bones form a shield
protective wall of air
shine with sympathy
restorative sparks of energy
succumbs to the effects of Sympathy
Reflective energy
berserker rage
bones swirling around
begins to seep life energy
flames roar up
restorative energy die down
cease to glow with sympathy
twinkles away
glitters away
ceases to bleed
fires burning around
verge of breaking catastrophically
tenacity of a troll
revels in the spilled essence
shakes off the stun
shakes free from slumber

Selecting a Beast to Train

To start: Capture 10 common spirit beasts and then 15 more common or uncommon spirit beasts. Try to get a variety with different highest stats. Focus on learning the combat system with any of perfect or robust quality first and experiment with lower quality spirit beasts as well. Practice with other players or in training matches at Talondown Arena, learn what the commands do, get your highlights in place, etc. Focus on learning to identify which spirit beast has stance advantage.

Advantage: Beasts that have stance or attunement advantage (or both) will deal significantly more damage on all offensive actions, so learning to anticipate how much damage your own spirit beast will deal when it has one or both advantages is helpful to determine whether your opponent has taken the advantage or is simply more powerful. Lash damage is a reliable indicator because it is guaranteed to hit and only affected by Level, Stance, and Attunement.

Simple Starters
Landing - Thrak, Manticore
Solhaven - Lobster, Alleycat
Icemule - Striped Snowcat, Timber Wolf
Teras - Wind Wraith, Cinder Wasp
Ta'Vaalor - Bobcat, Wolfshade
Ta'Illistim - Kiramon, Pampered Tomcat
River's Rest - Aardvark, Pirate

After the Basics: Once you've learned the basics of the battling system, the commands, and the stats, you will want to start working on your first competitive spirit beast. Try to find one that starts with the stat spread you prefer, and obtain the best specimen you can find. A common or uncommon with one of the "standard" special attacks (3 charges for 100% damage) is highly recommended for your starter.

Quality does matter, but not very much. The difference between the worst unimpressive and a perfect is about the equivalent of three levels, so don't hesitate to use a less-than-perfect spirit beast. Merchants and radiant bestial soulstones can be used on any spirit beast to improve it. Focus on earning redsteel marks, getting comfortable, and reliably winning training matches in Talondown Arena.

Advanced Selection and Legendaries: Because starting stats and growth rates are known for most current spirit beasts, it may make sense to select your spirit beasts based on their projected level 20, perfect stats. Aberrations, arthropods, and beasts in particular have significantly weighted growth rates which can cause their most successful strategy to drift as they level up; compare the thrak's defense and accuracy at level 1 (D:112/A:93) and level 20 (D:150/A:150). Focus on reaching level 16+ with a few spirit beasts and completing weekly challenges.

Once you reach Talondown Arena Level 5, you will routinely face legendary spirit beasts, many of which have non-standard special abilities which may do extra damage, have lower costs, or cause additional status effects. While general strategies will remain the same, these status effects will significantly impact your strategy. Two spirit beasts with identical stats, one of which has a 3 cost special that deals reduced damage and grants Regeneration will play very differently from one which has a 4 cost special that deals standard damage and inflicts Bleed.

Before entering listed matches, you may wish to familiarize yourself with the meta (the selection of Spirit Beasts you are likely to face), as of this writing, this is similar to the appropriate Talondown Arena level training meta, but NPC Trainers will use their preferred spirit beast exclusively:

Grandmaster (7)	Preferred Beast
Bronik	Ghostfin
Flaish	Whiskey Spirit
Kolita	Featherdancer
Leusys	Titanic Shaman
Millaus	Ancient Jeweler
Sureit	Hanged Man
Ysaea	Rotting Seductress

Master (6)	Preferred Beast
Beatrix	Pyrelord
Carnus	Hulking Blademaster
Huanda	Demonic Echo
Kayos	Great Machinist
Pidro	Dread Stallion
Roslyn	Prim Navigator
Tiren	Jantalarian Piper

Arena Champion (5)	Preferred Beast
Gloseil	Lady of Skulls
Faun	Starseer
Rammil	Questionable Warcat
Raknarak	Stone Guardian
Reina	Dwarven Zealot
Snokalosus	Sunderer's Titan
Twytch	Ancient Jeweler

Stats

Stat	Description	Secondaries
Power (POW)	Increases ATTACK damage (and the base critical hit damage), minimal effect on LASH and SPECIAL.	None
Defense (DEF)	Increases HP, but does not reduce incoming damage. Higher Defense makes Fortify more effective.	Health Points, Focused Defense
Insight (INS)	Increases stance detection and special charge generation.	Stance Detection, Flash of Insight
Accuracy (ACC)	Increases your chance of hitting with ATTACK and your chances of a successful attack being a Critical Hit. Critical Hits deal damage based on the target's maximum HP.	Hit Rate, Critical Strike chance
Speed (SPD)	Determines the time between actions.	Surge of Speed, Evasion chance
Skill (hidden)	Provides +1 to each stat, can be indirectly observed as Quality.	None
Luck (hidden)	Positively affects every roll, seems to be a fixed value for each type of spirit beast (eg, every Lady of Skulls has high luck). Spirit beasts which appear lackluster on paper may have high luck to offset obvious weaknesses.	All

Importance of Stat Combinations A spirit beast's highest stats mostly serve to determine the strategy and commands you'll use to generate special ability charges and when you'll want to use your special abilities. The more extreme a spirit beast's stat spread, the more reliable they are with a specific strategy but the less flexible they are in bad matchups.

Combination	Description
POW + DEF	High Attack damage and high HP, early Lash and late Fortify are good choices. At high levels can survive most special attacks even at Critical. Be prepared to double-detect, and early Specials can force your opponent to Heal.
POW + INS	High Attack, high special ability charge generation, stance advantage. Reliably generates special ability charges through Attack and Fortify, Lash should only be used to avoid Fortify or defensive Specials, mostly wins through attrition and back-to-back Specials.
POW + ACC	Glass Cannon; attack, attack, attack. Even with stance or elemental disadvantage, your attack will deal substantial damage. With both advantages, expect to see 30-40 damage attacks regularly. Can be very fragile, relies on well-timed Fortify or Heal to survive.
POW + SPD	Relatively rare, more likely to be an awkward leveling combo caused by growth rates on a spirit beast that is changing from one combo to another or an all-rounder. Strategy should be based on tertiary stats.
DEF + INS	Low power and low accuracy mean mostly plinking attacks, so special generation should be handled by maintaining Fortify and stance advantage. Lash if you're ahead, Heal if you're behind, try to land two or three back-to-back Specials.
DEF + ACC	Tankbuster. Fortify and critical hits make this the ideal counter to a POW + DEF Spirit Beast, these are extremely difficult to finish off and can easily land a lucky blow that turns the tide of the match.
DEF + SPD	Nonexistent as of this writing. More likely to turn up as a transitionary combination or all-rounder. Extremely powerful Fortify, but easy to burn through Fortified actions rapidly. Excellent against Spirit Beasts that stun.
INS + ACC	Your goal should be to maximize the number of Attack actions you take to score critical hits, and use Lash to press advantage. Multiple back-to-back Specials are your most likely path to victory.
INS + SPD	Kind of an odd combo, be prepared to double-detect against Lucky enemies, your winning strategy is almost always going to be surviving until you've built up enough special ability charges to start a chain. At 7 charges, you can reliably Fortify, Special, Special, (Lash if needed), Special again for a huge amount of damage.
ACC + SPD	Crit Fisherman. Plays very similarly to POW + ACC, but with more reliance on Special to deal reliable finishing damage.

Intermediate Strategies

Automatic attack/Crit Fishing

• Detect to gain/maintain stance advantage, rely on Attack for most actions.
• Good for spirit beasts with high Power and/or Accuracy.
• Rely on Attack or Fortify to generate special ability charges.
• Use action points primarily for Fortify or Heal because Attack will deal more damage than Lash.
• Weak against Fortify, Reflect, Airwall, and Bone Shield.

Detect/Fortify Loop

• Detect, Fortify, Action, Action, repeat.
• The action following Detect happens very quickly, but orders can be issued in between.
• Fortify lasts for three of your actions. If you know that your Fortify will expire on your next action, you can Detect and then issue a Fortify order immediately after in order to maximize time Fortified.
• Weak in early combat, when opponents mostly Lash.

Aggro Lashing

• Lash, Lash, Lash, Special, repeat (or Lash x6, Special x2)
• Good for low Power, low Accuracy or high Insight spirit beasts.
• Good for applying fast, high pressure.
• Weak against high HP, healing, or other attrition spirit beasts.

Armaments

Spirit Beast armaments come in three tiers; lesser, sturdy, and potent, and are largely restricted to specific classes.

Class	Armament
Humanoid	Ring
Beast	Collar
Elemental	Rune
Arthropod	War-paint
Aberration	Rune
Undead	Sigil
Beastman	Fetish

Lesser armaments are usable at any level and provide a net +5 to stats. Sturdy armaments are usable by level 10 or higher spirit beasts and provide a net +10 to stats. Potent armaments are only usable at level 20 and provide a net +20 to stats.

Special Effects

• Leech's hunger has a 20% flare to return half of ATTACK damage (including criticals), and costs 10 stat points. Has no effect on LASH or SPECIAL.
• Troll's tenacity has a high chance of reviving your beast by healing a substantial portion of HP if it would be knocked out, and costs 10 stat points. Has no other effect.
• Feeling oddly drained causes your beast to take extra damage, and grants 10 additional stat points.

Armaments can also grant, remove, or change elemental attunement.

Which Armaments to use

Armaments are cheap, reusable, and have a high chance of being generated for the class of your selected spirit beast when purchased. Since they will always offer a net positive, you should always have an armament equipped on a beast you intend to battle with, even if it's not ideal. Equipping an armament will also prevent you from accidentally releasing a spirit beast.

Armaments should be selected to either emphasize a beast's strengths (adding power to a beast with an already high power) or to shore up significant weaknesses (adding speed to a particularly slow beast). Because leech's hunger is proportional to ATTACK damage, it should only be used by spirit beasts with especially high power or accuracy, or the berserk status effect. Similarly, the oddly drained effect is best-suited to beasts with particularly high defense and healing specials.

Ampoules

Color	Effect
Red	+1 Power
Orange	+1 Defense
Yellow	+1 Insight
Green	+1 Accuracy
Blue	+1 Speed
Black	Reset stat potion boosts
White	Bonus experience

Which stats should I boost?

Ampoules are limited to +20 total, with no more than +10 to a single stat. Similar to armaments, ampoules should be used to emphasize strengths or offset weaknesses. Adding +4 to each stats provide an effect similar to gaining a level, for example. When in doubt, add +10 to your spirit beast's highest stat and +10 to speed or insight, whichever is lower at level 20.

Status Effects

Detailed explanation and strategies can be found at Status Effects.

Positive Status Effects

• Airwall
• Berserk
• Bone Shield
• Haste
• Regen
• Reflective Shield
• Rebirth
• Stat Boost

Negative Status Effects

• Bleed
• Distract
• Immolate
• Madness
• Slow
• Stun
• Sympathy
• Unconscious