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Most dungeon-crawler RPGs focus on combat, so it's no surprise that turn-based fighting plays a significant role in Labyrinth Of Galleria: The Moon Society, a game by NIS. As you go trawl the dungeons, you'll fight plenty of monsters and enemies, though the game has multiple systems that aren't always clear.

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Sure, you'll understand hitting enemies with elemental and weapon weaknesses, but what about the pact system, the vanguard and rearguard, and how they impact combat? As you take time to understand the combat and systems in place, you'll level up your puppets, fight through the dungeons, and uncover more Curios during your journey.

Combat Basics And Essentials

The player chooses their preferred pacts and puppets in Labyrinth Of Galleria: The Moon Society.

The Importance Of Your Pacts

You'll unlock more pacts to organize your party as you play through the game. While they allow you to group characters to fight enemies and strengthen each other, they also play a role in your combat abilities. As various classes level up, you gain more passive abilities, but they're limited to the active abilities available in the pacts, allowing you to mix and match pacts to build your characters how you want.

For example, the Peer Fortress class focuses on defense, drawing aggro, and staying alive. You can mix that idea with a support role by giving them the Healer pact, allowing them to heal teammates. You'll unlock more pacts as you play, so try various combinations to see what works for your playstyle.

You should try to match pacts with a class's playstyles. For instance, you'll see more success from having a Fighter pact with the Shinomashira rather than the Theatrical Star.

If you don't know what to have your classes use at first, stick with the Witch's pact. It comes with Instant Aid to heal a character 20 percent of their HP, making it useful on any character.

You can fill your party with multiple pacts and characters. As you play through the game, you'll find more Soul Vials, which allow you to make additional party members. Rush two of them as fast as possible since you start with just three party members.

Pacts have varying strength levels, so the combined number can't exceed 100.

Ensure you balance your pacts to remain under that number while having five party members when possible.

Healing In Combat Vs. Healing In The Dungeon

You can use abilities in combat to heal your characters, but you can't do the same with items without a passive ability. The same applies to traveling through the dungeons, so you can use your items, but you can't see abilities. You'll need to plan your healing based on your DP and item needs.

For example, if you know you don't have many items left, try to get your enemies low on health and heal your characters before the battle ends. You can get one enemy low and focus on healing for a few turns, then finish the battle once your health is back up. If you run low on DP, you can do the opposite with items.

Since Silver isn't always easy to find, prioritize healing in combat. Also, you can always leave the dungeon to heal your characters instantly.

If you're about to approach a red event, heal first since you'll potentially fight a boss. You can leave the dungeon and return before starting to avoid wiping out and losing Mana.

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The Vanguard And Rearguard Combat System

The player targets a Kiccolow in Labyrinth Of Galleria: The Moon Society.

You can organize your teammates into the Vanguard and Rearguard before or after combat. Each has its benefits and drawbacks you must consider as you choose one.

Position

The Pros

The Cons

Vanguard

You deal more damage to enemies since you stand closer to them.

You take more damage and have higher aggro.

Rearguard

You take less damage from enemies and get less aggro since you're farther back.

You don't deal as much damage to enemies.

The best position not only depends on their class but their weapons. If you don't have the right weapon type in the correct position, you'll suffer a damage penalty, and the message "mismatch" will appear when you attack. The only exception applies to weapons that fall into both since you can use them in either position without any damage penalties.

  • Vanguard: Hammer, Katar, Sword, and Scythe.
  • Rearguard: Crossbow and Lamp.
  • Both: Lance and Bell.

Move a character to the Rearguard if they run low on health. It doesn't take a turn to move them, and you'll decrease their odds of getting knocked out, so they may survive until they can receive some help.

Your enemies can stand in the Vanguard or the Rearguard, just like your party. That means if you attack the Vanguard, you'll deal more damage to them, so you'll want to clear the front row before you attack the back row.

The game doesn't tell you which row they stand in, but you can tell by their positions. The characters in the Vanguard will be slightly forward in battle while the Rearguard characters are slightly behind, so focus your attacks on those in the front row.

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Enemy Stance Changes

The player enters combat and notices that one monster prepares an attack while one defends in Labyrinth Of Galleria: The Moon Society.

Monsters give hints while you fight them, so ensure you don't look away during battle and pay attention to changes.

  • If they change their stance, their character sprite changes its position or pose.
  • They have specific symbols on their body that usually relate to the weapon types.
  • Their general types give hints to their weaknesses. For example, you can deal extra damage to bug monsters if you use a fire ability.

You'll come across the Tarrely, a monster inside a barrel. It stands typically with the barrel around its head the bottom on the ground, and the lid on its arm. However, it'll sometimes go into the barrel, causing you to deal minimal damage to it. Instead of continuing to attack it, you should focus on attacking other monsters until the Tarrely comes out of its barrel. You'll encounter other monsters with similar shifts and changes, so learn about them to avoid wasting time in battle.

If you ever forget a character's weapon type, check the squares in the top-left corner of their health portraits.

Their color-codes let you know if you equipped a piercing, slashing, or blunt weapon to them.

Secret Crest Special Abilities

The player has one of their Secret Crests ready in Labyrinth Of Galleria: The Moon Society.

As you equip different pacts, you'll gain access to Secret Crests. Secret Crests refer to special abilities your character can use when they have full Liberation meter. Remember, the Liberation meter doesn't carry over between fights.

That means you should use your specials as soon as they are available. Since they sometimes deal damage while applying different effects, they can turn a battle around. They also don't use other resources, so you'll save time, HP, and DP for more challenging battles.

Repairing Body Parts

The player visits the General Store and thinks about buying Junk Parts in Labyrinth Of Galleria: The Moon Society.

As you fight enemies, some of them may attack you with a gore hit, which causes you to lose limbs. You can lose either your arms, your legs, or your head. The body parts will lower your attack and defense while losing your head will cause you to get knocked out instantly.

Sometimes, this effect will happen to your characters, so you must repair your body parts immediately. You can either return to the surface to restore them or purchase a repair item from Marta. If any of your characters end up with the gore effect and lose a limb, don't continue through the dungeon. Doing so will place you at a severe disadvantage, so address it quickly and get back to exploring afterward.

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