Fuga Melodies of Steel: Character Combat Guide

As Fuga is a strategy RPG type of game, you’ll be dealing with various statistics for damage output, HP for counting down to death, and SP which limits skill use. The objective is to do enough damage to enemies so that they go down before you do. As the game progresses you’ll eventually be able to manage your HP and SP in a way that keeps you in tip-top shape against any enemy you come across.

Screenshot from the game’s Store Page.

HP stands for Hit Points, which if they go down to zero, the target is destroyed.
SP is for Skill Points, a resource necessary to use skills.
Attack modifies the damage dealt to an enemy. More of this, more damage.
Speed is generally how often your character is allowed to act. The lower the Speed, the longer you have to wait between actions, also called delay.
Luck is essentially critical hit rate. From my experience, I believe it adds 0.05% critical rate per 1 Luck, but it’s not easy to confirm at a glance. With 2000 Luck, I’ve never failed to get a critical, however. Criticals deal +50% damage.

The timeline is the most important part of the turn-based combat. On using any form of action, player or enemy, delay is incurred, pushing the user towards the right. After a turn is made and the last action’s delay is set, all of the icons start moving left. When the icon of the corresponding child or enemy reaches the Taranis, it’s their turn to act. If a child and an enemy are at the same point on the timeline, the child always goes first.

When you highlight an action, you’ll be able to see a mini icon on the timeline for the currently active child. This is the delay that action will incur. Be sure you are watching how much you’re using, so that you could potentially make another action before an enemy or enemies.

Some children and some enemies have faster or slower speeds than normal, and using skills can have greater or lesser delay than using a normal attack.

Each child has a specific type of gun they use. Machine Gun, Grenade Launcher, and Cannon are the three, given blue, yellow, and red coloring for visual ease.

Machine Guns have high accuracy and low attack. The users of these focus on reducing enemy armor, combating flying enemies, and buffing allies, and all of them have high speed. The standard hit rate for Machine Guns is 160%.

Grenade Launchers are the middle weapon in each respect. These users have many ways to deal status effects, making combat far easier to deal with. The standard hit rate for Grenade Launchers is 130%.

Cannons are the big guns with big damage and low accuracy. They’re all about putting out big numbers, whether on multiple or single targets. The standard hit rate for Cannons is 100%.

Delay markers, as seen on the right, are considered the weakness of the enemy machine in question. When hitting the enemy with the matching color weapon, a clock is removed. When all of them are removed, the target experiences a delay penalty, pushing them back on the timeline. The clocks only refresh once the enemy takes an action, but they will not reset unless all of them are gone first. You can only remove one clock at a time, no matter how many hits a child performs at once, with sole exception to Boron.

Affinity is important not only for developing these cute characters, but each level also increases the potency of the Support Effect for each child, so that they can better help their partner on the gun. I’ll be detailing each of those in the character sections.

These make or break your combat experience. Take care to handle them well.

These are all mostly explained with the in-game Help menu, but I’ll place them here for thoroughness and further explanation.

Courage: The owner’s Attack is raised by 1.4x.

Fortune: The owner’s Luck is raised by 2.5x.

Accuracy Up: The owner’s accuracy is raised by an additive 30%.

Fortitude: Injury resistance is increased. This appears in the Help menu, but it doesn’t seem to actually appear when the Protection skill is activated. Unknown if it is still in effect.

Link Attack: The gauge for when a Link Attack is preparing between two children that have had their link events. Once maxed, you can use an attack that strikes all enemies, an additional effect of which is different based on the support gunner. The gauge increases a little by being hit, a bit more by doing normal attacks, and the most by using skills.

Hero Mode: After fulfilling a wish at the Taranis during an Intermission, the child can attain Hero Mode status during combat. Each child has their own special trait to enhance their effectiveness in combat during this time. The gauge is increased by both dishing out and receiving damage. It lasts for 5 turns taken by the owner. They will all reset once reaching another Intermission, where you will have to fulfill their wishes again.

Fear: The owner’s hit rate is halved. This applies multiplicatively and after any accuracy increases.

Depression: The owner cannot use Skills or Link Attacks. This status can only be cleared during an Intermission, where you will have to use AP to test your friendship by cheering them up. If you don’t give the ‘correct’ answer, you will have to use more AP.

Injury: The child is injured. You can clear this status by having them rest at the Dormitory during an Intermission. Injured children can’t go on Expeditions.

KO: The child is knocked out, and unusable for combat or anything else. KO is applied if a child would be injured while already carrying the status. You can clear this status by having them rest at the Dormitory during an Intermission.

Enemy Debuffs

Burn: Enemy takes damage after every action they take. Normal enemies take damage equal to 15% of their maximum HP, while bosses take 5%.

Smoke: Enemy’s accuracy is decreased. Unknown by how much, but it does make a difference in this game.

Shock: Invokes a large delay on an enemy, approximately 80% of the timeline. There’s no indicator to when the status will expire, so be sure you take into account when the enemy may move again.

Weakness: Enemy’s damage is decreased by about 25% or so.

Bad Luck: Enemy has a 30% higher chance to receive a status effect. Some enemies are still normally immune to certain statuses even after applying Bad Luck.

Armor Rank: A number given to an enemy, reducing damage by more and more based on its number. Use Piercing Shot available on Machine Guns or the Pierce Ammo item to reduce its armor.

Wrath: Increases the owner’s Attack by 50%.

Speed: Reduces the delay after actions slightly.

Stealth: Increases the owner’s evasion rate by an additive 30%.

Reinforcing: The enemy will call an additional enemy into combat. When used by bosses, the additional enemy or enemies are called immediately. Standard enemies require an additional turn, so eliminate them before they get the chance.

• He’s the oldest.

Malt uses a Cannon, and has a good damage output. He’s quite slow, though. His skills overall are damage or damage buffs, very straightforward. It should be fitting that his Support Effect as a support gunner is also a straight Attack increase to his partner, and certainly one of the best supports at that. He’s a solid character, perhaps not the best, but he IS the oldest.

His Link Attack is Brave, which deals straight damage; since it doesn’t have a special effect, it deals extra damage instead compared to other Link Attacks.

Hero Mode: Doubles the damage of his normal attacks. Simple like the rest of his kit, but effective.

The Attack increase will stack multiplicatively with other Attack increases, such as food and buffs.

• The nicest big sister slash mother figure.

Hanna is the sort of token White Mage character for your party. She has heals and status effects to weaken the enemy’s damage output. Her Support Effect also gives a minor heal for every attack you do, which can add up in a pinch. As the main healer, you’ll want to rely on her if you’re taking lots of damage.

Her Link Attack is Healing, which gives a 25% heal to the Taranis on use.

Hero Mode: Doubles the amount of healing the Taranis receives when using one of her healing skills.

The healing will only apply once, regardless of the number of hits.

• Bratty prettyboy from the city.

Kyle as the first Machine Gunner is a middling speedy fighter, able to dish out decent damage while offering you solid options for removing enemy armor and dealing with aerial enemies. He gives you the earliest access to Piercing Shot 2, which will likely be one of the most frequent skills you’ll be using along the course of the game. His Support Effect gives extra accuracy, a real boon to cannoneers dealing with pesky fliers. Overall, he’s a solid character, and a lovable grump.

His Link Attack is Pierce, which has a chance to reduce all targets’ armor by 1. The chance is somewhat small, perhaps about 25%.

Hero Mode: All attacks become critical hits. This loses usefulness once you get access to higher tiers of Luck-boosting food, but it’s still useful for ensuring good damage output.

The boost is an additive bonus. Applies to any form of attack on enemies, including Ammo items. Applied before the Fear status, which will still reduce the total hit rate by half.

• The biggest, sweetest, goodest boy.

Boron is all power, while having some supportive skills. He’s the strongest, but the slowest. Quite straightforward; if you need to blow something up, he’ll do it quickly. His Support Effect supposedly increases resistance to the injury status, but it’s very difficult to figure out how effective it is. While he’s slow and has a questionable Support Effect, he possesses some of if not the best Link Attack and Hero Mode in the game.

His Link Attack is Heavy, which induces a large delay to enemies, as a separate effect (and stacks with) the weakness delay mechanic.

Hero Mode: Boron’s normal attack removes all armor rank and delay icons from an enemy. Incredible boss buster.

Unknown effectiveness.

• Brainiac with a heart of gold… circuits.

Socks offers you your first taste of status debuff support early on. With his various types of status, you can control enemies to your liking, just be wary of RNG. His Support Effect is substantial, adding a base Luck boost to his partner, and criticals are a great way to get your damage up. He also boasts the second highest Luck stat for his own criticals. Overall, Socks is as solid as the rest of the starter children. You can’t go wrong with what he offers.

His Link Attack is Smart, which can inflict Smoke, Burn, and/or Shock. I’m not positive if it can inflict more than one at a time.

Hero Mode: Normal attack inflicts Smoke, Burn, or Shock, chosen randomly. This status effect will ignore immunity and inflict the status regardless of enemy’s resistance to the best status skills. However, there’s a chance that the attack can attempt to use a status that the enemy already possesses, which said status will then fail.

Will be multiplied by other luck increases, such as from food or buffs.

• The cutest smol with a machine gun you’d ever see.

Mei is the speediest character in the game, and can even add more speed to her allies. Her damage output is the lowest in the game, but she far makes up for it with her best skills, making her potentially even more effective than straight stronger options. She offers great support, her only real weakness being no access to shaving off more than one armor rank at a time.

Her Link Attack is Cheer, which increases the other two pairs’ Link Attack gauges by 30%.

Hero Mode: Double action speed, or halved delay with any of her actions. This applies before any other speed boosts, such as from food or skills.

Very difficult to gauge, but it reduces delay of normal attacks by a fixed amount rather than a percentage, so faster children actually benefit more.

• A mature lady wrapped up in tiny corgi fluff.

Chick is possibly the best character in the game due to her skillset and good stats on top. She controls the battlefield better than anyone else with her many Shock skills, her status rate being able to be boosted by her access to inflicting Bad Luck, which means she can also assist anyone else with status skills. Not only that, her Support Effect and Hero Mode save you a lot of SP. The girl even has Lullaby so you can always stay in tip-top shape. If you want to win, you’ll take this puppy.

Her Link Attack is Weak, which has a chance to inflict Weakness status.

Hero Mode: All of Chick’s SP costs are reduced to 0. Spam those stuns, or get some free healing.

The SP cost reduction stacks with the food effect, allowing for up to -5 total. SP cost for skills can’t go under 1.

• Pranky boi with an appetite for booms.

Hack is the fastest Cannon user by a long shot, and it shows, as he can deal a great amount of damage… but only to one target. His unique skill Burning Trigger has no equal to damage output and it also has low delay, but he is a bit lacking in area coverage compared to the others. He’s a one-trick corgi in this respect, but if you need to melt a big target, he’s your kid. Hack also has one of the best Support Effects, increasing skill damage by a large amount.

His Link Attack is Pyro, which has a chance to inflict Burn status.

Hero Mode: Normal attack delay is reduced to one-third. He can put out a lot of hits in a short time, but remember, this will interrupt Burning Trigger’s damage bonus.

I had to calculate this anecdotally, it may not be perfectly accurate.

• A magical kitten as shy as she is precious.

Sheena is mildly speedy and somewhat lacking in damage output, but her main usefulness is in her supportive skills, which are quite varied. However, once you don’t need that support, it may be advisable to switch to someone with a higher damage or support output as a fight evolves. She fulfills her specific niche very well when you need her. Her Support Effect also helps your SP efficiency, and would be worth taking her along for long stretches of combat. Sheena’s Hero Mode is up on top among the best in the game. However, her biggest weakness is that she is the only child that doesn’t have a multi-target skill of any kind.

Her Link Attack is Spirit, which restores the Taranis’s SP by 25% of its maximum.

Hero Mode: Act right away after using a skill. That’s right, all of her skills have ZERO delay for 5 turns, allowing her to act up to 6 times in a row. Make sure your SP looks good before you send out for the pain train.

The recovery will only apply once, regardless of the number of hits.

• Angry doggo of mechanical knowledge.

Jin is by far the strongest Grenade Launcher user, and has a slew of strong skills to go with it. With his Hero Mode doubling his skill damage, he can get some serious damage output, and even on multiple targets, so long as they’re on the ground. You’ll want to take him along for clearing out annoying tanks with ease.

His Link Attack is Carbon, which can inflict Smoke status.

Hero Mode: Skills deal double damage. Very strong Hero Mode.

Unknown effectiveness.

• She’s the leader, as well as a stinker, in more ways than one.

Wappa is a bit on the weaker side for Cannons, but her best asset is her enormously high Luck, and thus critical rate. It’s quite easy for her to get a lot of them and even max out the rate, particularly with Luck-boosting food and Socks support. Her kit generally revolves around chancing RNG like so, and building a rapport with her teammates. She’s the leader, after all. With most of her skills having multiple hits, she also chances her way towards taking out more evasive types if you need to.

Her Link Attack is Crazy, which has no special effect, but similar to Malt’s in that there’s only a damage increase. Hers is randomly higher, though.

Hero Mode: Normal attack becomes 2 hits. Nothing special to say about it, but it doesn’t really compete with her skills unless you’re using a Support Effect to add something to normal attacks.

Difficult to determine. Multiplicative increase from the standard means of normal attack, skill, or receiving damage. Does not affect Chit-Chat.

• He’s just a poor boy, he needs no sympathy.

Britz is the strongest Machine Gun user, and with Speed nearly as good as Mei’s, his general effectiveness is solid. He has a good skillset to deal with armor as well as dealing Shock as an alternative source to a grenadier. His Support Effect is useful for anyone, given you spend the time to raise his affinity levels. He’s a strong kid, and useful in most any situation thanks to his kit.

His Link Attack is Spark, which has a chance to inflict Shock.

Hero Mode: Normal attack becomes 6 hits, essentially being a double attack.

Very difficult to gauge, but it reduces delay of skills by a fixed amount rather than a percentage, so faster children actually benefit more.

If you want to go hard damage, use Malt, Socks, and Hack as supports. Sheena and Chick as supports help to maintain your SP. These five cover general use that’s effective in any situation. The following pairings would be for more interesting and unique setups…

Kyle assures Malt can hit aerial targets, and Malt gives him a Machine Gun’s much-needed damage boost, taking advantage of that high speed to really make a difference over time. Plus, they’re clearly bros.

A sisterly pair, these two can ensure you get some good bonus HP or SP when you have free moments to do normal attacks, while also having their great support skills on hand when you need them.

Socks gives Wappa a major Luck boost that would also get multiplied by food or buffs. It’s a cinch to max out her critical rate so that she can always do maximum damage.

Britz is very fast and can lay on normal attacks particularly with Mei’s speed boost, and in exchange, Mei can put out a ton of skills, especially Encouraging Shot for more and more speed for everyone. Speedy pair!