Alice Gear Aegis CS/Controls

Button Actions

Alice Gear Aegis CS is a game with a lot of buttons you have to assign, in fact all the buttons of the gamepad are used by the default configuration. In this section we will describe each of these buttons in the order you can see them in the options. Here is the default button configuration (for control type A): File:AGACS Layout.png

Dodge (Step in Japanese)

Abbreviation : step

Press once to quickly move your Actress a short distance in the direction you were holding the left analog stick towards. If you pressed the button without holding a direction, they’ll dart straight forward. Performing this action has faster startup animation and movement speed that’s faster than Boosting. Like Boosting, Dash Stepping is tied to a game mechanic that prevents you from recklessly using it.

Roll

Your Actress can perform a second Dash Step anytime during the peak and end of the first Dash animation by holding a direction on the left analog stick and pressing either the Step button again or Ascend/Descend. During a roll, your Actress will do an aileron roll animation during which you cannot do anything.

Vertical Step

If you hold Ascend/Descend prior to a step press, your character will do a more rigid vertical step from which you cannot attack or go into a roll.

Boost

Abbreviation : boost

Boosting accelerates your Actresses’ default movement speed. There’s a game mechanic that prevents you from using this all the time, so keep that in mind when using this during the heat of battle as its usefulness is pretty obvious during those moments. See the Control Type section to know how to activate it.

Shield

Abbreviation : shield

Summons a "bubble" shield arounds your actress which protects her against incoming attacks. While shielding the actress get red damage that she can recover after switching to another one. Shields have their own HP that is represented by its color (from blue to red), a guard break will result with the erasure of that red HP.

Evade

While holding shield, if you are in shield stun and double press step (dodge) your character will perform an invicible evading animation. This evade leaves you vulnerable as it consumes your entire boost gauge.

Ascend/Descend

Abbreviations : ascend, descend

These buttons allows your character to do vertical movement, it can be used with step (dodge), boost and shield.

Firearm Gear

Abbreviations : F, F-Gear, shot

F-Gear is your main far range weapon and is ammo limited (see figure below). It has 3 levels of charge that depends on how long you hold the button before using it: No charge, Half charge, Full charge. Each charge have different beahaviour and ammo usage. File:AGACS AmmoExample.png

Clash Gear (Cross Gear in Japanese)

Abbreviations : C, C-Gear, melee

Clash Gear is your melee attack button. It should be considered part of your movement options since most Cross attacks will automatically make your Actress close in on your opponent if they’re not already within striking range. What the tutorial didn’t mention about this feature is that there’s more than one type of Clash attack:

• Left analog stick neutral + Clash Gear: The default melee attack. If your Actress is not in striking range of the target when this button is pressed, she will autopilot Boost towards her target a predetermined distance and then stop moving before swinging her weapon either when she’s in striking range or has reached the max distance. You can swing her weapon manually during this process by pressing the Cross button again. Most neutral Clash Gear weapons have three swings to them, so you have to press the Cross button two more times to complete it after the first swing.

• Left analog up + Clash Gear: Your Actress will travel a greater distance forward (and usually faster) and will swing their weapon while they still have some momentum in their movement. This can either be used to attempt hitting fleeing opponents or if your Actress needs to cover more ground than what a neutral Cross attack could reach. Depending on the weapon, all of the swings might be done automatically without your input.

• Left analog left + Clash Gear or Left analog right + Clash Gear: Your Actress will Boost strafe horizontally in a 90 degree angle either left or right of your target, and if they are still out of range, autopilot Boost towards them before attempting to swing. Most weapons have 2 swings that you must manually press down to confirm you want to continue the combo.

• Left analog down + Clash Gear: Your Actress will immediately use their Clash Gear. They will have also minor knock back resistance during their attack animation, and depending on the weapon, will position themselves in a way that will make the opponent completely whiff their attack. This melee attack has the fastest startup and is typically used when your opponent is closing in on your Actress with their own melee strike.

Torso Skill (Top Skill in Japanese)

Abbreviations : T, T-Gear

The Torso or Top Skill is the attack tied to the gauge at the left of the ammo on the game screen (see figure). If you look at the gauge, you can see an up arrow in it (pointing to the Top). You may either use the full gauge with a charge by holding the button or part of it (if the gauge is at least green) by tapping the button.

Leg Gear (Bottom Skill in Japanese)

Abbreviations : B, B-Gear

The Leg or Bottom Gear is the attack tied to the gauge at the right of the ammo on the game screen (see figure). If you look at the gauge, you can see a down arrow in it (pointing to the Bottom). Unlike T-Gear, you can only tap the button as there is no charge level for it.

SP Assist For./Back

Abbreviations : sp assist, assist

Uses 1 SP gauge (see figure below) to summon a non active actress in your team, said actress will after a short delay perform an assist attack depending on her equipped F-Gear.

SP Recharge

Abbreviations : sp recharge, recharge

Uses 1 SP gauge to skip the ammo recharge time of the current actress with a small animation

SP Clash

Abbreviations : sp clash, lv2

Uses 2 SP Gauges to perform an invicible (except against lv3) melee sequence. Dependent on your equipped C-Gear.

SP Skill

Abbreviations : sp skill, lv3

Uses 3 SP Gauges to perform an invicible super which behaviour varies on your character.

Control Types

The primary mechanic that Alice Gear Aegis CS players live and die off of is its Boost and Dodge (or Step in Japanese) mechanics. This mechanic is so important that there’s a special section in the controller options reserved for how Boost and Dodge activate.

Control Type A

The default setting. How it works is as follows:

• Tilting the left analog stick slightly in any direction will make your Actress move normally
• Pushing the left analog stick all the way to the edge in any given direction will activate Boost movement
• You can disable automatic Boost by holding down the Boost button. The default location of this action is the left analog stick’s internal button, but can be remapped to somewhere else on the controller
• Pressing the bottom face button on your game pad (B for Nintendo controllers, and X for Sony ones) activates Dodge

This control scheme is recommended for players who have good mechanical control of their left thumb to do those very precise tilts on their analog stick during the heat of battle.

Control Type B

The inverse of Control Type A. This scheme works as follows:

• Your Actress will move at normal speed regardless of how far you tilt the left analog stick.
• Boosting is only activated by holding down the Boost button, with the default location being the left analog stick’s internal button. This action can be remapped to somewhere else on the controller.
• Pressing the bottom face button on your game pad (B for Nintendo controllers, and X for Sony ones) activates Dodge

This control scheme is recommended for players who want to hold a button down to trigger Boost activation instead because the mental strain of remembering to be gentle with the analog stick just to move normally is one more thing they don’t want to worry about.

Control Type C

This is a good way to throw off a Senko no Ronde player's muscle memory. This scheme works as follows:

• Boosting AND Dodge Step is mapped to one button. By default, this is the controller’s upper-right trigger button (R for Nintendo controllers, R1 for Sony ones). Since you now have two actions mapped to one button, the left analog stick’s internal button does nothing now. It is possible to remap it to that location if you want to though.
• Tapping this uniquely programmed button activates Dodge as intended
• Holding down the same button for a few moments ignores the Dodge command and activates Boost movement instead for as long as it’s held down

The Japanese wiki says that this Control Type is reminiscent of Sega’s Border Break series, but the trade off is you do not get instantaneous Boost activation like you do with the other types, and a few of the default actions for the first two Control Types were moved to different buttons on this configuration for some reason.