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battle_timers

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Battle Timers

All battle participants (characters and monsters) have a variety of timers that determine when events occur in a battle. In order of priority, they are:

Stop, Action, Sap, Poison, Stone, Wall, Count

On each tick, every active timer counts down by one1), and any timers that reach zero are flagged as expired. Only one expired timer for one participant can be handled in a given ATB tick, and they are checked in order. If none of that participant's timers are expired, the next participant is checked. If no participants have any expired timers, no events occur during that tick.

For more details on how ATB ticks work, read the (currently non-existent) article on ATB.

Timer Details

Stop: If this is active, all other timers for that participant are frozen until after it expires.
Action: This is the primary timer, used to determine when participants are ready to queue and execute actions. See the section below.
Sap: Determines when the HP leak effect expires.
Poison: Determines when Poison status will deal damage.
Stone: Determines when Gradual Petrification will advance.
Wall: Determines when Wall will expire.
Count: The visible time for Count. Only counts down every second tick.

Reference Chart

Timer Effect while active Effect on expiration Used by Duration
Stop Stop status; other timers are frozen Stop status is removed Stop, HrGlass1/2/3 Spell's power * 3 2)
Sap HP leak (2 HP per tick) HP leak effect is removed Virus, Big Bang, etc. Either 30 ticks or a random number of ticks
Poison Poison status Damage (1/8 max HP) Venom, Poison Gas, etc. Vitality + 20
Stone Gradual Petrification status Petrification advances Ray, Petrify Vitality + 20
Wall Wall (Reflect) status Wall status is removed Wall, StarVeil, MoonVeil Spell's power + 30 3)
Count Count status Death Count (Plague, FatalEye) Spell's power (10 Count ticks, which is 20 ATB ticks)

The speed modifier affects the initial value set for all timers except for Count.4). Changing the speed modifier does not affect existing timer values.

Each time the Poison and Stone timers take effect, they are reset to their initial value. Changes to the speed modifier do not affect this.

The Action Timer

All actions must be queued before they can be executed. The Action Timer is used to determine when both of these steps can happen.

At the start of battle5), and after executing an action, a participant's Action Timer is set to their Modified Relative Agility. When this timer is handled after expiration:

  • If this is a character, they enter the Menu Queue.
  • If this is a monster, the next step of their script is handled. This queues a command (though that command may be “Do Nothing”)

After a command is entered, the Action Timer is set to a value that depends on the command.

  • For monsters, the base value is always 1.
  • For many commands like Fight, Parry, Change, Item, Hide, Bluff and Sneak, the base value is 0.
  • For spells, the base value is set to the spell's cast time.
  • For Twin, Kick and Dark, the base value is 2.
  • For Jump, Aim and Dart, the base value is 4.

The speed modifier is then applied to the base value, and the Action Timer is set to the resulting value. When the timer is handled after expiration, the action is executed.

Sleep and Paralyze

The Sleep and Paralyze status effects both work by setting the Action Timer to a high number, preventing the target from acting until after it expires.

Chains

When a monster starts a Chain, all other battle participants' timers are paused until the Chain ends.

1)
With the exception of Count, which decrements every second tick
2)
This results in 30 ticks for Stop, and 150, 300 and 600 ticks, respectively, for HrGlasses 1, 2 and 3
3)
This results in 30 ticks for Wall, 50 for StarVeil, and 70 for MoonVeil
4)
A fully slowed actor will have these timers doubled. A maximally fast character will have these timers multiplied by 3/4, then rounded down
5)
barring Strike First, Surprise, and Back Attacks
battle_timers.1631914637.txt.gz · Last modified: 2021/09/17 21:37 (external edit)