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Fallen Legion Revenants is split into two distinct parts, with each part largely being governed by different player characters - Lucien or Rowena. Whilst they share the spotlight, and their gameplay sections are narratively equal in importance, they don’t necessarily share the same amount of screen time.

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In fact, of the two, you will likely spend most of your time with Rowena, which is to say, you will be spending a lot of time dabbling with combat. Thankfully, the combat in Fallen Legion Revenants is pretty darn good. It’s fairly simple to pick up to boot, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have depth. There’s a lot going on here, and understanding it all can be quite the challenge.

Understanding How Blocking Works

Fallen Legion Revenants Exemplar landing a Perfect Parry on Vile Abatoir

We are going in hot with arguably the most important aspect of Fallen Legion Revenants combat system - blocking. Blocking is your primary way of mitigating damage - and it is arguably the main way of inflicting damage too. In short, if you don’t grasp this early, you are going to struggle. Blocking comes in three flavours, Block, Deflect, and Parry.

Blocking is simply pressing the Block button too early. You will mitigate some of the damage taken, and gain no advantage. Blocking slightly too early (so more on time than a Block result) will net you a Deflect, which negates all damage, but nothing else. Finally, a Perfect Parry is executed when you Block just before an attack hits. This negates all damage, puts melee enemies in a stunned state, and reflects any projectiles. Ideally, you want to Perfect Parry every attack.

Pay Attention To Your Enemies

Fallen Legion Revenants Whale attacking party

This ties into Blocking to a certain degree. All enemies have at least one attack - often more. Their attacks have predictable timings, as in they don’t change. This means there are no surprises in Fallen Legion Revenants - instead, it’s all about knowledge. Knowing how an enemy attacks, what that attack does, and whether or not you can block it is all part of the game.

Not only that, but understanding how enemies move is also pretty darn important. For example - ranged enemies tend to stay still and fire their weapons. Melee enemies will always leap into range of your party to attack. Tanky enemies will tend to move forwards in a formation. Sometimes, enemies don’t even attack you, they attack the earth beneath your feet - so watch out for that.

Fear Status Ailments

Fallen Legion Revenants exemplars fighting basic enemies

There are a lot of status ailments in Fallen Legion Revenants, and knowing what they are and what they do can help you deal with them. For the most part, Status Ailments will be ground-based, so standing on an afflicted tile will confer the negative effect - although this isn’t always the case. Here’s a quick guide to each ailment -

  • Weak - Deal less damage
  • Frail - Take more damage
  • Feeble - Take more damage from elemental sources
  • Burn - Take damage over time
  • Chill - AP restores slower
  • Shock - BP restores slower
  • Seal - Exemplars can’t use Deathblows and Rowena can’t use Spells
  • Fear - Units may retreat when attacking
  • Cripple - Units cannot move
  • Mana Burn - Steadily lose mana over time
  • Sap - Steadily lose AP over time
  • Doom - Take damage when moving onto an affected tile
  • Blight - Poisoned and cannot restore HP
  • Petrify - Turned to stone and cannot move or act

These are all pretty dire, so try to avoid them whenever possible. Remember that a Deflect and a Perfect Parry can negate these conditions providing they target a character and not the ground.

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Embrace Buffs

Fallen Legion Revenants Exemplar using a Deathblow on an enemy

On the flip side, buffs are excellent. If you can apply or gain a buff, then there is very little reason not to do so. There are just about as many Buffs as there are Debuffs, and understanding how each one works is pretty darn important. Here’s a quick guide to each boon -

  • Might - Increase damage
  • Shield - Increased damage resistance
  • Steel - Increased BP resistance
  • Aegis - Protected from damage
  • Soothe - Steadily restore HP
  • Lifesteal - Restore HP based on damage dealt
  • Mana Spring - Steadily restore Mana
  • Hawkeye - Increase Critical Hit Chance
  • Thorns - Percentage of damage taken is reflected onto the attacker
  • Element Imbue - Deal elemental damage based on Exemplar’s innate element
  • Fire/Frost/Electro Bane - Protected from the relevant element
  • Trance - Unlock the ability to use Hidden Abilities
  • Frenzy - Units will automatically attack

Understanding Resources

Fallen Legion Revenants Exemplars attack wildly

There are a number of combat resources in Fallen Legion Revenants, and most of these also apply to your enemies. The main ones are HP, AP, and BP. HP is the most obvious stat as it determines Health. Once this bar hits zero, the target (which could be you, of course), dies. If an Exemplar dies, you can revive them by spending Mana.

AP and BP are different, however. AP are your Action Points. This determines how many attacks or Deathblows you can unleash before you need to wait for your metre to replenish. AP can be restored by waiting, landing a Perfect Parry, or having an active buff. BP are your Break Points. If something runs out of BP, they are stunned and take increased damage from all attacks. You want to avoid running out BP whilst draining an enemy's BP as effectively as possible.

If a boss runs out of BP, your party gains infinite AP for a small time, allowing you to unleash devastating combos.

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Positioning And Dodging

Fallen Legion Revenants Exemplar attacking an enemy

Your party is not a static object, and it can be moved. In fact, it should be moving fairly often. Certain attacks can’t be blocked, so moving out of the way is your only response. Some attacks target specific tiles, so getting to a safe tile can prevent damage and ailments. Heck, sometimes your buffs affect specific tiles so moving onto them becomes a necessity.

Positioning is also important for enemies. You can’t attack an enemy in the back row if enemies are standing in front of them. Using magic or skills to reposition the enemy formation can allow your attacks to land on weaker ranged units can make combat substantially easier. This is doubly true when you consider most units don’t move naturally. If you move them, then they will stay in that vulnerable position until they die.

You can rotate which of your Exemplars is on the frontline. This is great for protecting an injured party member.

Elemental Damage

Fallen Legion Revenants facing off against a miniboss

The game employs a fairly basic elemental system that allows you to wrack up bonus damage if you strike with the right element. Not all attacks are elemental of course, and you can check which ones are by checking your Deathblow stats in the Battle Preparation Screen.

There are only three elements - Lightning, Fire, and Water. Ideally, you don’t want to bring Exemplars who are weak to a specific element to an area with enemies who are using said element in abundance. On the flip side, you want to focus on an element your enemies are weak to. The elements go like this -

Water > Fire > Lightning

Melee And Ranged Exemplars

Fallen Legion Revenants mix of melee and ranged enemies and exemplars

Earlier we mentioned positioning being a big deal. Which it is - for melee Exemplars. There are two kinds of attacks in Fallen Legion Revenants, Melee, and Ranged. Melee-focused units can typically only attack enemies who are closest to them. The trade-off is that they tend to do more damage.

Ranged units on the hand can use Aim. Aim lets you target a specific enemy tile, and then all ranged attacks will hit that tile regardless of how many enemies are in the way. This is a fantastic way to deal damage without having to reposition the enemy, or use ranged abilities to more easily reposition them. You will find that ranged attacks tend to be slightly weaker as a result.

You can take three Exemplars, so try and balance your party to take advantage of both attack types.

Killer Combos

Fallen Legion Revenants Whale roaring

You will notice when landing attacks that you are building a combo metre. This tracks how many hits you have inflicted without being hit yourself. The higher your combo, the better your score will be at the end of a mission, so keeping this high is always a good idea. In addition to avoiding damage, you will also need to land an attack roughly every four seconds, otherwise the combo will end.

There are gameplay benefits to high combos too. Every 250 hits, your damage will double. This is, obviously, a huge bonus that should never be underestimated. It’s not easy to trigger, but you should try to trigger it wherever you can. The bonus damage can trivialise most encounters - and this is especially true if you are Breaking enemies for even more damage. Land the 500 hit combo, and you are inflicting 4x damage plus your break modifier. Boss will struggle to stand up to that.

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