Ys vs. Sora no Kiseki: Alternative Saga/System
Damage
Each attack in YvK does a variable amount of damage. This number depends on the attacker's STR stat, as well as the defender's DEF stat. This number can vary from 5 to 8 digits.
For example, Adol's normal attacks against Estelle will deal between 98 and 106 damage. However, since it rarely hits extreme values, these attacks will usually deal around 113 damage.
For simplicity's sake, this wiki will write average damage numbers
Tankiness Rating Chart
This chart groups all characters in several tiers depending on how many hits can each character take on average. The numbers equivalates to Adol's maximum damage on his normal attacks. Ordered within tiers.
(0.79%)
(0.85% to 0.87%)
(0.90% to 0.96%)
(1.03% to 1.07%)
(1.26% to 1.30%)
(1.48% to 1.50%)
(1.57% to 1.63%)
Note: Joshua and Kloe have the same tankiness rating (1.30%)
Stages
Items
Most stages have breakable props and/or openable chests. Once broken (hit it once or thrice), each prop has a chance of dropping an item out of the following:
- Health Potion - Restores a bit of health
- Skill Potion - Gives some SP
- Zeram Capsule - Gives some EXTRA
- Marle Flower - Restores stamina
- Roda Leaf - Cures all status effects
Chests and props will eventually respawn after a certain time.
Hazards
There are 2 types of stage hazards: traps and pits.
- Traps are found on Ice Ridge of Noltia and Segram Flame Shrine. They continually deal 1% of a character's max HP's worth of damage as long as they keep standing on the trap
- Pits are found on Axis Pillar and Serpentina. Falling in one takes 10% of a character's max HP away from them
Defense
Blocking
The game's main defensive mechanic. By holding the block button, the character will stay in place and will block every incoming attack. Every blocked attack will lock the opponent in 11 frames of blockstun. This set blockstun can be exploited in order to avoid certain Skills, although it can also force you to take extra hits.
Blocking will slowly drain the character's stamina at a steady rate. Trying to block while out of stamina will stun the defender, leaving them vulnerable to high damage punishes.
- Leaving a blocking state will also cost a set amount of stamina
- Without accessories, every character can block for 15 seconds before they run out of stamina.
Flash Guard
This game version of a perfect guard. In order to perform it, a character needs to guard 5 frames before an attack hits them. If successful, the defender won't take any stamina damage and will repel the attacker, creating a punish opportunity in the process. The defender also gains guaranteed crits (+50% damage per hit) for a short time. The attacker won't gain the resources they would've gotten if the defender simply blocked their attack
- The attacker will not be repelled/pushed away if the defender Flash Guards a Skill or a projectile attack
- Several accessories changes how Flash Guard works
Burst
By pressing all face buttons, a character can perform a Burst: an invincible maneuver that pushes everyone away from them, in exchange for 20% of their max HP. It is possible to cancel every attack (except EXTRA Skills) into a Burst.
While meant to be used defensively, Bursts can also be used offensively, since they causes a hard knockdown on hit. This makes them surprisingly good as combo extenders, depending on the character.
- Several accessories gives additional properties to Burst
Resources
Each character has to manage 4 different resources while in a match: SP, Stamina, EXTRA, and Support
- SP is one of the most important resources, since half of a character's moveset is locked behind it. SP is obtained by either landing non-Skill attacks or getting hit.
- Stamina is just as vital as SP, as it is required for blocking, dodging and dashing. Any of these actions can't be performed, if a character don't have enough stamina.
- EXTRA is essentially a super meter. Once full, each character can unleash their EXTRA Skill (super). EXTRA is obtained by landing Skills or getting hit.
- Support is a one-time use buff which can be chosen while customizing a character. More details here.
Note: Several accessories affects how resources are obtained and/or consumed.
Stun Bonus
Hitting a stunned opponent doesn't give additional damage. However, it does increase a character's resource gain. For example, Kloe's Charge Attack on stunned opponents will grant 55 SP instead of the usual 32.
Skills
Scaling
While it doesn't look like it at a glance, Ys vs Trails actually features scaling. During a combo, the game will gradually reduce the attacker's damage and SP gain depending on several factors
- Damage will only be scaled down when a character combos a Skill into itself. Each time this happens, the next hits will deal 10-20 less damage. This effect will stack until each attack does roughly 10 to 20 damage. Damage scaling is reset once the combo counter disappears
- Each time an attack hits, this attack's SP gain will be scaled down. This is most easily seen with Charge Attacks, although every attack is affected by that. SP scaling resets once the attacker stops gaining SP or using Skills for long enough.
Rehits
Cancelling a normal into a Skill (or EXTRA Skill) with enough freeze frames will sometimes cause said attack to hit twice. Since this also resets hitstun, it can be used to create new combos.
- While it's impossible to cancel attacks into assists, it's possible to use them in order to make some projectiles rehit
Cooldown
Once a character uses a Skill, said Skill will enter a cooldown period, in which it can't be used until this timer goes to 0. This is made to prevent Skills to be cancelled into themselves, forcing players to be more creative with their combos. Cancelling a Skill into another one will instantly reset the Skill's cooldown.
The following actions will freeze a Skill's cooldown:
- Getting hit
- Blocking
- Airdashes
- Burst
Teching
When in hitstun, a character can perform a "tech" by pressing the dash/dodge button. This will make them actionable way sooner than if they didn't do anything. As a rule of thumb, falling while in hitstun means you can tech. This also applies to attacks that knocks down, such as Charge Attacks.
One important thing to note is that techs only have 5 frames of invincibility, and can't be cancelled either. Thus, even if the combo isn't "true" anymore, the attacker can still hit the defender almost right after they teched out of the combo. This is known as a tech trap. However, always teching is still generally a good idea since the opponent will have a harder time continuing their combo.
Another thing to consider is that techs can't be buffered. The defender needs to press the dodge button the moment he wishes to tech. This allows the attacker to perform otherwise impossible combos, as getting out of those situations becomes extremely hard.
Attacks
Properties
Some attacks may have special properties among the following:
| Name | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Soft Armor | The character can armor through all attacks that doesn't make the opponent float in the air | Basically, it only works on normals and Rising Attacks. Note: We're not 100% sure of how exactly it functions |
| Hard Armor | The character can armor through anything | - |
| DEF Increase | The character takes less damage during the attack's animation | Only seen on some soft armored Skills |
| Invincible | The character's hurtbox will completely disappear during the attack's animation | - |
| Projectile | The attack is detached from the character | The attacker won't be affected if the projectile gets Flash Guarded |
| Homing | The attack (usually a projectile) will track the opponent's position on the stage | - |
| Stagger | On hit, makes the character tumble. During this state, they can't do anything until the effect wears off. The character can mash buttons in order to make it wear off quicker |
- |
| Drain | The attack drains more resources than usual (either the opponent's SP or the character's HP) | - |
| Draw-In | Nearby characters are drawn towards the attacker or a set point | - |
Status Effects
Characters can inflict up to 10 status effects on their opponents, either via landing a certain Skill or by equipping certain accessories. While they can't be stacked, reapplying an already active status effect is impossible. Here are every status effects:
| Name | Effect | Duration | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
 Poison |
1.12% damage over time | 30 to 35 seconds | Does 0.07% damage every two seconds |
 Burn |
4.4% damage over time | 3 seconds | Does 1.5% damage per second |
 Freeze |
Prevents the target from moving (Short) The target will always take critical damage |
1 second | - |
 Petrify |
Prevents the target from moving (Long) The target is vulnerable to critical damage The target takes 65% less damage |
5 seconds | Duration can be greatly shortened by mashing directional inputs Crits on Petrified opponents ignore the DEF boost and instead deals 3x the usual damage Attacks with the Stagger property will deal 5k damage to Petrified opponents while cutting in half attack damage from subsequent hits |
 Confusion |
Reverses the target's directional inputs | 3 to 6 seconds | - |
 Heavy |
Slows down the opponent's movement speed and jump height to extreme degrees | 10 to 15 seconds | Launchers also sends the target lower to the ground. This opens some new combo routes, while shutting down some others |
 Paralysis |
Prevents the target from attacking. However, they can still move and block | 3 to 6 seconds | The target will stand still for a little while if they try to attack while paralyzed |
 Blind |
Puts a black filter on the screen that makes it harder to see | 15 to 20 seconds | Exclusive to Tita |
 Rage |
Target DEF -35% Target STR +30% |
25 to 30 seconds | Exclusive to Cruxie |
 DEF Down |
Target DEF -10% | 10 to 15 seconds | - |
Cancels
Everything is cancellable in this game at any point, whether an attack lands or whiffs. Below are the game's cancel rules.
| Action | Skills | Jump | Dash/Dodge | Walk | Block | Burst | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ground normals | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Rising Attack is considered a normal, and as such can be kara cancelled into Skills |
| Air normals | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | ✓ | ✓ | All normals can be kara cancelled into Skills |
| Skills | ✓* | ✓ | - | ✓ | - | ✓ | A Skill cannot be cancelled into itself Skills can be kara cancelled into Burst |
| EXTRA Skills | - | - | - | ✓* | - | - | Only some EXTRA Skills can be walk cancelled |
Additional notes:
- A character can only jump cancel once in a combo. Once they touch the ground again, they get to perform another jump cancel
- If a character is out of airdashes when dash cancelling an attack, the character will instead dodge
Advanced Techniques
Pushback Manipulation (PM)
A technique that allows the attacker to control in which direction a character is going to get pushed back. The game handles this in a very simple way (for most attacks): the defender gets pushed away in the same direction the attacker was facing when the attack connected. However, if the attacker was moving in another direction before the hit landed, the game will think the attacker is facing that direction, and thus will push the defender in that direction. This technique is mostly useful during combos, in order to land a few more hits.
- PM can be used on all normal attacks, as well as some Skills
Block Cancel
A technique that makes normal attacks much safer to throw out in neutral. Holding the block button during a normal attack's startup will make the character instantly block a few frames after the attack becomes active. The most interesting aspect of block cancels is that, since the game's hitboxes are tied to vissual effects, the hitbox will stay active while the character is blocking. This can be exploited in order to make a character's pokes impossible to whiff punish.
- Ranged characters can't block cancel their grounded projectiles
- Repeated use of this technique can quickly empty a character's stamina
Walk Cancel
For some reason, it's possible to reduce recovery from all grounded attacks by simply walking. While this has some niche combo uses, its main use is to make attacks safer to throw out in neutral, as walk cancels allows the character to block or dodge on frame 1.
- Walk cancelling an attack with any sort of protection (armor, invincibility) will remove said protection from the user
- Air attacks can't be walk cancelled, unless the character makes contact with the ground
Charge Storage
A technique that is exclusive to female characters (Aisha, Cruxie, Mishera, Estelle, Kloe, Tita and Renne), since it requires Void Stance, a female-only accessory. While charging Void Stance's multiplier, the user can release the button during any action that isn't cancellable by a Charge Attack (blocking, Skills, EXTRA Skills) in order to "store" the current multiplier. Once released, the multiplier will go up by at least 50% before stopping itself. This allows Void Stance users to keep access to their entire moveset without losing out on the multiplier.
- If the attack button is released too late, the multiplier will be reset, even though the user didn't use her Charge Attack
- During assist calls, the multiplier will keep increasing. However, this can't be exploited, since the user will use her Charge Attack once she gets to act.
