Table of Contents

Row Mechanics

Both the party and the monsters in a fight have a front and back row.

Party

The party's front and back rows are readily apparent, and can be changed in menu and in battle.

It does not matter whether there are any characters in the front row; the back row is treated as the back row regardless.

Monsters

Monster rows are determined by the positions of their sprites on the screen.

These rows are updated every time a character or monster executes a command.

Example: The 2 Baron Guards are both in the front row. However, if they are Toaded or Sized, only the closer one will be in the front row.

The backrow bit

(a.k.a. the long-range bit)

When a character equips a long-range weapon2) - and takes an action, if this is done in battle - then their backrow bit is set, and they will not incur penalties when attacking from the back row or attacking back row targets.

If the Gbackrow flag is enabled, then this bit is never unset, and the character will remain backrow glitched for the rest of the game.

Monsters never have the backrow bit set.

Effects of the back row

Physical defense is doubled when in the back row. The backrow/long-range bit has no effect on this.

If an attacker using a physical attack does not have the backrow/long-range bit:

These can be combined when attacking a back row target from the back row, leading to 1/4 accuracy.

Note that Jump bypasses these accuracy penalties.

1)
Or their sprite's left side, if this is a back attack
2)
harps; whips; bow+arrows; Boomerang/Full Moon; Dwarf Axe