Pre-Battle Setup
Before every soldier-phase fight, you pick your party, arrange them into positions, and get a preview of the opposition. Whatever you decide here is locked for the fight - you can't reorder your party mid-battle.
Choosing Your Soldiers
The party includes your avatar plus up to three soldiers. Which soldiers you can bring depends on the content:
- Dungeons - the dungeon's required habits determine your party. Only soldiers from those specific habits are eligible.
- Multi-phase adventure quests - you pick freely from your good-habit roster, typically up to three soldiers.
If you don't have enough eligible soldiers to fill three slots, the party goes in under-strength - the remaining formation slots stay empty, and the fight still proceeds.
Setting the Order
The order you arrange your soldiers in is the order they end up in once the battle starts. This is how formation is decided - the first soldier fills the front slot, the second fills the middle, the third fills the back.
A few common layouts:
- Knight, Mage, Healer - conventional tank / damage / sustain. The Knight takes hits, the Mage attacks from safety, the Healer stays furthest back.
- Knight, Healer, Mage - same idea but flips middle and back. Use if you want the Mage's Arcane Bolt to come from the deepest position.
- Bard, Knight, Mage - Bard up front. Unusual, but the Bard's dodge floor can make this work when you need them to act early and absorb a hit to do so.
Party order is a planning decision, not a last-minute tweak
Once you hit start, positions lock. If you're about to enter a dungeon with specific enemies, think about who should be where before you commit. You can always back out, re-order the party, and re-enter.
Previewing the Enemy
The pre-battle screen shows what you'll be fighting - monster portraits, class, and level. You can inspect any of them for the full breakdown: combat stats, skills, and status effects. Knowing what you're up against is the difference between "bring a Bard" and "wish I'd brought a Bard."
HP at Battle Start
Every soldier starts the fight at their source habit's current HP percentage. A habit at 100% produces a full-HP soldier; a habit at 60% produces a soldier at 60% of their max HP. If you have a few minutes before entering a tough fight, logging a habit or two to bring its HP up is a legitimate in-game action.
The avatar starts at full HP regardless of what came before.
Confirming the Fight
Once the party and order are set and you've looked at what's across the table, you start the battle. From there, the UI switches to the battle view - turn timeline along the top, formation grid, action bar for the current unit.