Spirit Beast Battle Guide

This page is meant to help all players understand and win in Spirit Beast battling.

This page is a work in progress.

Overview

Why you should be a Spirit Beast battler

People play with Spirit Beasts 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 (100 exp per fight, 1000 per day) then any spirit beast will do because you gain the 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 bloodsteel 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 2750 weekly experience), you will want a high level Spirit Beast and a reasonable amount of skill to defeat all 7 opponents. Using Ampoules and Armaments are not necessary but can help against bad match ups.

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

Attack

ATTACK is 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. No cost.

Detect

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

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

HEAL works better the lower your health is, so healing while at Critical or Verge of Defeat will heal for up to twice as much. Healing 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 for this purpose. Healing while under a status effect will also override any standing orders issued before the effect began. One Action Point.

Lash

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

SPECIAL is an ability specific to each Spirit Beast which is guaranteed to succeed, usually dealing damage, and in the cases of some Uncommon and most Legendary Spirit Beasts, having additional effects. Variable Special Ability Charges.

Status Effects

Positive Status Effects

Airwall

Airwall causes all autoattacks against the spirit beast to automatically fail. This failure will never result in generating a special ability charge for the user. Airwall lasts 10 turns.

Interactions:

• Airwall's block occurs after checking for a missing and Fortify which means the user can still generate charges defensively while Airwall is active.

Strategies using Airwall

• You are effectly immune to autoattacks while Airwall is active. You can use this time to wear down your opponent by forcing them to spend all their points using LASH and SPECIAL Swhile you HEAL and autoattack them.
• You can take your while Airwall is up to build special ability charges with autoattacks. Save your charges for when Airwall is about to end.

Strategies against Airwall

• Because it is still possible to miss the opponent and possibly give them special ability charges, you must still DETECT to maintain stance advantage.
• It is HIGHLY recommended to conserve your points until after Airwall goes up. Once it goes up, adjust your playstyle to compensate for the inability to use autoattacks.
• If you run out of points and special ability charges while the opponent has Airwall up, you are going to lose unless the Airwall is about to end. Do not let this happen.
• With some spirit beasts, you might be able to quickly kill the opponent with back to back SPECIALS or other high damaging attacks if you manage to weak the opponent enough. In most cases, you get one shot at doing this and failure means the opponent will just HEAL the damage away.

Sources:

Spirit Beast	Special Ability
Featherdancer	Stormfury
Titanic Shaman	Savage Prayer

Start Message:

A protective wall of air swirls into being around Kolita's sylph.

Activation Message:

With a single finger snap, your master arcanist attacks Kolita's winged sylph!  As your the arcanist attempts to attack the sylph, a wall of air whirls between them, driving the arcanist back.

End Message:

The protective wall of air around a serene winged sylph falls away.

Berserk

Berserk increases autoattack damage and improves the chances of the spirit beast gaining Surges of Speed and dealing critical hits. The damage bonus appears to be about +50%. Berserk lasts 6 turns.

Interactions:

• Unlike Haste, Berserk does not guarentee Surges of Speed. It only increases the chance by a large amount.

Strategies using Berserk

• Try to make sure you are in the correct stance before triggering Berserk. That way you do not have to waste a turn changing stance while it is active.
• Since your autoattack will do much more damage while under Berserk, do not LASH unless the opponent cannot be hit (FORTFY, Airwall, etc) with autoattacks.

Strategies against Berserk

• FORTFY is the best way to defend against Berserk due to the large amount of high damaging attacks
• Using a SPECIAL that that can prevent the opponent from acting such as Slow, Stun, or Unconscious can help avoid some of the danger.
• Using Sympathy can force the opponent to hurt themselves instead of you.

Sources:

Spirit Beast	Special Ability
Frostwyrm	Cold Rage

Start Message:

Your arcanist goes into a berserker rage!

Activation Message:

N/A

End Message:

The protective wall of air around a serene winged sylph falls away.

Bone Shield

Bone Shield causes all autoattacks against the spirit beast to automatically fail. This failure will never result in generating a special ability charge for the user. Bone Shield lasts 10 turns or until 3 autoattacks are blocked.

Interactions:

• Bone Shield's block occurs after checking for a missing and Fortify which means the user can still generate charges defensively while Airwall is active.
• Unlike Airwall, Bone Shield can be removed faster by attempting to attack the opponent.

Strategies using Bone Shield

• You are effectly immune to autoattacks while Bone Shield is active. While it isn't as strong as Airwall, you can use this time to gain stance advantage, HEAL, or giving you some breathing room.

Strategies against Bone Shield

• Because it is still possible to miss the opponent and possibly give them special ability charges, you must still DETECT to maintain stance advantage.
• It is HIGHLY recommended to conserve your points until after Bone Shield goes up. Once it goes up, adjust your playstyle to compensate for the inability to use autoattacks.
• Unlike Airwall, you can break Bone Shield with enough autoattacks. You can use FORTFY to maintain some defense while you chip away at the shield.
• You can use LASH or SPECIAL to pressure your opponent through Bone Shield. If they get weak enough to need to HEAL, you can take the time to autoattack and slowly remove Bone Shield.

Sources:

Spirit Beast	Special Ability
Lady of Skulls	Bonestorm

Start Message:

Spinning bones form a shield around your arcanist.

Activation Message:

Kolita's winged sylph lifts a graceful arm and sends a swirl of razor-edged feathers after your master arcanist!  A rapidly spinning bone deflects the efforts of Kolita's sylph as it tries to attack the arcanist.

End Message:

The bones swirling around a wizened master arcanist spiral away.

Haste

Haste causes the spirit beast to automatically gain a Surge of Speed on every turn for the duration of the effect including the turn it was activated. Haste lasts 5 turns.

Interactions:

Strategies using Haste

• Try to make sure you are in the correct stance before triggering Haste. That way you do not have to waste a turn changing stance while it is active.
• It is possible to use Haste twice in a row if you LASH enough to generate enough charges to use it again when the effect ends. For the Flameborn Lich this is done by: SPECIAL, LASH x 4, DETECT (last turn but DETECT is fast), SPECIAL again to activate Haste. This is powerful but unless timed correctly, your opponent might be able to out HEAL your assault and leave you with no points or charges.

Strategies against Haste

• Using FORTFY is the best defense against Haste. The flurry of blocked autoattacks can generate a lot of special ability charges.
• Using a SPECIAL that that can prevent the opponent from acting such as Slow, Stun, or Unconscious can waste turns of Haste.
• Using Sympathy can force the opponent to hurt themselves instead of you.
• Because the Surges of Speed will always happen, using Bleed or Immolate can serious injure the opponent due to how fast the damage builds up.

Sources:

Spirit Beast	Special Ability
Flameborn Lich	Time is the Fire

Start Message:

Activation Message:

End Message:

Regen

Regen causes the spirit beast to regain 10-20 health perform perfoming an action on their turn. Regen lasts 3 turns.

Interactions:

• If a spirit beast have both Bleed and Regen status effects, Regen will activate before Bleed.

Strategies using Regen

• Regen works best when you are at a mid level of health (decent, a little rough) because if your life is too high, you risk wasting some of the healing if you reach 100% health and using it at low life may not be enough to save or might mess up a HEAL by pushing your health out of critical range, resulting in less healing overall.
• Using the DETECT action will cause Regen to trigger faster due short interval between turns.
• FORTFY can be used to block hits will slowly recovering like with Regen.

Strategies against Regen

• If an opponent has Regen and you see the activation message with no action message, it means your opponent just used DETECT on your spirit beast.
• If you know the opponent has a Regen special that can only be used once, it might be a good idea to bait the special out by only doing autoattacks. They will still heal but the healing will be less overall since their health is so high.
• It is best to let Regen run its course before trying to be extremely offensive against the opponent. Even a small amount of healing can throw off a good offensive strategy.

Sources:

Spirit Beast	Special Ability
Ki-lin	Healing Horn
Moon Serpent	Lunar Charge
Mistwood Treant	Lifebloom

Start Message:

In a whirl of healing light, restorative sparks of energy surround your arcanist.

Activation Message:

Glittering sparks of restorative energy restore 13 health to a wizened master arcanist.

End Message:

The glittering sparks of restorative energy die down around a wizened master arcanist.

Reflective Shield

When a spirit beast with Reflective Shield is damage by an autoattack, 66% of the damage inflicted will be dealt back to the attacker. Reflective Shield lasts ?? turns or until 3 autoattacks are reflected.

Interactions:

• Missed or blocked autoattacks a will not trigger Reflective Shield.

Strategies using Reflective Shield

• Reflective Shield works best against opponents with high Power (raw damage) or high Accuracy (high crit chance) but can still be useful otherwise.
• Try not to use Reflective Shield offensively. The extra damage is nice but trying to bait strong attacks could get you killed if you are not careful.

Strategies against Reflective Shield

• Make sure you let Reflective Shield fall off before using SPECIAL abilities that grant Berserk or Haste. Otherwise, you might be dealing a lot of damage to yourself.

Sources:

Spirit Beast	Special Ability
Dwarven Zealot	Spirit of Adamantine
Ancient Jeweler	Jeweled Shield

Start Message:

Activation Message:

End Message:

Rebirth

Rebith causes the spirit beast to come back to life with ??% health after their health reaches 0. Rebirth lasts until it is triggered.

Interactions:

• If killed by a special move that causes a status effect, the Rebirth effect takes priority and will prevent the status effect from being applied. Both positive and negative status effects are affected.

Strategies using Rebirth

• Getting Rebirth up should be a priority but not such a great priority that you need to LASH x4 to do it. Fight normally and only resort to LASH to get Rebirth up if your opponent has taken a sizeable lead.
• Once you come back to life, you will be at "verge of death" health. You must immediately HEAL or do something to kill your opponent. At best, you will be able to survive one non-crit attack or LASH from the opponent before dying again. At worse, you will die immediately if you don't HEAL.
• Rebirth can be used to "soak" a heavy attack from the opponent such as a SEPCIAL.

Strategies against Rebirth

• Baring extreme luck or using specific beasts, it is almost a guarentee that your opponent is going to get Rebirth up.
• Once the opponent gets Rebirth up, it will not go away until triggered.Keep this in mind when determining how to fight them.
• Rebirth counters quick kill strategies such as back to back SEPCIAL by allow the opponent an extra turn to HEAL. Instead, the best option is the kill the opponent normally then SPECIAL to close out the matche once they return to light.

Sources:

Spirit Beast	Special Ability
Phoenix Hatchling	From the Ashes

Start Message:

Activation Message:

End Message:

Stat Boost

When the spirit beast use a Stat Boost special ability, one or more stats are increased. The stat boost lasts for the duration of the battle. Secondary status effects last their normal duration.

Interactions:

• Regardless of effect, Stat Boost special are only useable once per battle and will be replaced by a normal 3 charge special afterwards.

Strategies using Stat Boost

• Stat Boost SPECIAL abilties vary greatly in secondary effects. Some are just the buffs alone but others deal damage and provide other status effects. Thus, the way to use the SPECIAL vary greatly.
• In most cases, it is best to get the Stat Boost as quickly as possible. The quicker you get the boost, the longer you have to use it.

Strategies against Rebirth

• Knowning what the opponent's Stat Boost does is very important for determining how to fight it. For example, a SPECIAL that increases Power might mean it would be wise to FORTIFY at some point during the fight.

Sources:

Spirit Beast	Special Ability

Start Message:

Varies

Activation Message:

N/A

End Message:

N/A

Negative Status Effects

Bleed

Bleed causes the afflicted spirit beast to lose health before performing an action. The health lost is roughly 5% of the spirit beast's max health. Bleed lasts ?? turns.

Interactions:

• Similar to Regen, using the Detect action will cause Bleed to trigger faster due short interval between turns.
• If a spirit beast have both Bleed and Regen status effects, Regen will activate before Bleed.
• If an opponent is bleeding and you see the activation message with no action message, it means your opponent just used Detect on you.
• Having a Surge of Speed while bleeding can be dangerous due to the sudden increase of damage.
• Gaining Haste while bleeding is very dangerous and you might end up dying before you can react if your health is too low.

Sources:

Spirit Beast	Special Ability
Ghostfin	Hunger of the Deep
Rose Lord	Embrace of Thorns
Pale Woman	Bloody Precision
flayer	Crimson Offering

Start Message:

Your arcanist begins to seep life energy.

Activation Message:

Vital life energy seeps from your arcanist's wounds.
...7 damage!

End Message:

Your arcanist ceases to bleed.

Distract

Distract does not have any noticeable effect on the afflicted spirit beast but it is assumed to reduce the beast's chance to hit with autoattack as well as reduced the probably of actions succeeding by an unknown amount. Distract lasts ?? turns.

Interactions:

• It is assumed that Distract affects critical hits, blocking attacks with Fortify, Detecting the opponent's stance, and possibly more.

Sources:

Spirit Beast	Special Ability
ravenous incubus	Thirst
Drowned Lover	Heartache
Headless Pooka	Pitiful Stare

Start Message:

Activation Message:

End Message:

Immolate

Immolate covers the opponent in flames which deal damages to the spirit beast before they performing an action on their turn. Immolate deals between 10% and 15% of the spirit beast's max health when it activates. Distract lasts 2 turns.

Interactions:

• Immolate functions the exact same as Bleed except it deals higher, more varied damger over a shorter duration. Any Interactions that apply to Bleed also apply to Immolate.

Sources:

Spirit Beast	Special Ability
Pyrelord	Pyrelight
reckless firestormer	Burning Cloud

Start Message:

Magical flames roar up around your arcanist.

Activation Message:

The fires burning around your arcanist flare up!
...14 damage!

End Message:

The fires burning around your arcanist die down.

Madness

Madness causes the afflicted spirit beast to become uncontrollable and will attempt to autoattack every turn. The spirit beast cannot be commanded to take any action other than Heal. Madness lasts ?? turns.

Interactions:

• If you wait for Madness to end naturally without trying to Heal, your spirit beast will perform the action it was commanded to take. This may or may not be a good thing.
• It is recommended to immediately Detect once Madness ends because your opponent will probably have stance advantage.
• Madness does not affect the spirit beast's damage or critical chance in anyway. Spirit beasts with high Power or Accuracy might be able to use Madness to their advantage if they are healthy and have stance advantage.
• The afflicted spiri beast can still benefit from special effects such as Surge of Speed and Flash of Insight. It can also block attacks with Fortify provided the command was used before being afflicted with Madness.

Sources:

Spirit Beast	Special Ability
scaled shaper	Summon Lurks
Nightchild	Kiss of the Jackal
Demonic Echo	Sheer Fear

Start Message:

Activation Message:

End Message:

Slow

Slow dramatically reduces the Speed stat of the afflicted spirit beast. The exact amount is unknown but it is assumed to be 50%. Slow lasts ?? turns.

Interactions:

• The Slowed spirit beast will usually get 1 turn for every 2 turns the opponent.
• Detect can be used to try to rush through Slow but you might not have the time to due so if your life is low.

Sources:

Spirit Beast	Special Ability
Two-headed Snake	Double-Strike
Frost Lich	Freezing Grip

Start Message:

Activation Message:

End Message:

Stun

Stun makes the afflicted spirit beast unable to be commanded or take any actions other than Heal. Slow lasts 2 turns.

Interactions:.

• The activation message will not give you an end of round update on your remaining health. It is very easy to lose due to Stun if you are not careful.
• If you wait for Stun to end naturally without trying to Heal, your spirit beast will perform the action it was commanded to take. This may or may not be a good thing.
• It is recommended to immediately Detect once Stun ends because your opponent will probably have stance advantage.
• The afflicted spiri beast can still benefit from Flash of Insight. It can also block attacks with Fortify provided the command was used before being Stunned.

Sources:

Spirit Beast	Special Ability
painted doll	Reality Render
Whiskey Spirit	Douse
willow spirit	Boil Earth
weeping farlook	Gorgon Stare
Saltsinger	Stunning Strike

Start Message:

Activation Message:

Your arcanist stumbles about in a daze.

>DETECT
Your master arcanist is stunned and cannot heed your commands!

End Message:

Your arcanist shakes off the stun afflicting it.

Sympathy

While under the effects of Sympathy, there is a chance that any autoattack damage, including critical hits, will be dealt to the afflicted spirit beast instead of the opponent. Sympathy lasts 6 turns.

Interactions:

• It is usually better to "waste turns" by using other actions such as Detect, Fortify, Lash, or Special instead of risking the self-damage from Sympathy.
• There is no change in the damage calculation when Sympathy triggers. If the spirit beast was going to deal 20 damage to the opponent when sympathy triggers, they will instead deal 20 damage to themself.

Sources:

Spirit Beast	Special Ability
Oceanic Oracle	Mentalism
Questionable Warcat	Bellyflop
Rotting Seductress	Seduction
krolvin warfarer	Break Will

Start Message:

Your arcanist's eyes shine with sympathy for Ysaea's seductress.

Activation Message:

With a single finger snap, your master arcanist transmutes the air to water around Ysaea's elven seductress!  At the last moment, your arcanist succumbs to the effects of Sympathy and turns on itself!
...9 damage!

End Message:

Your arcanist's eyes cease to glow with sympathy.

Unconscious

Unconscious cause the target to fall asleep and cannot be commanded or take any actions other than Heal. Unconscious immediately ends if the target is attacked in any way. Unconscious lasts ?? turns.

Interactions:

• Unconscious is considered to be a weaker version of Stun due to the effect ending after an attack.
• If you put your opponent to sleep, you the opportunity to Heal, Fortify, or Detect before starting to attack again.
• It still possible to block attacks with Fortify while Unconscious.
• The spirit beast must take damage to wake up from Unconscious. If the damage is blocked by Fortify, Airwall, Bone Shield, or an autoattack misses, the spirit beast will not wake up.

Sources:

Spirit Beast	Special Ability
mournful nymph	Slumber Song
Weary Rider	Dreamstrike

Start Message:

Your arcanist falls into a drowsing slumber.

Activation Message:

Your arcanist snores loudly, unable to shake off the magical slumber.

>SPECIAL
Your master arcanist is asleep and cannot hear your commands!

End Message:

Startled by the attack, a wizened master arcanist shakes free from slumber!

Specific Strategies

Against Specific Special Abilities

   Airwall
   Sympathy
   Madness