Built to enhance combat with a moment-to-moment tactical resource, give every weapon a distinct set of finishing techniques, and reward the time you invest in a chosen weapon. Sits alongside Attack and Cast — nothing about the existing combat loop has been removed.
An Arte is your swing with a multiplier. Every bonus your basic Attack carries — weapon skill, stance, one-shot damage buffs, rune damage, guild relics, defence rend — rides every hit of an Arte too, on top of the Arte's own multiplier and its round cooldown. A kit technique is therefore always worth more than a plain Attack on the click you spend it; the cooldown is its price.
Tactical Points (TP)
A new resource bar — purple, between MP and XP on the stat panel — representing the momentum and focus you build during combat.
- Starts at 0, caps at 3000.
- Every landed hit — melee strike or damaging spell — grants +130 TP.
- Every hit you take grants +60 TP — sustained fights reward you for staying engaged.
- Persists between back-to-back fights — chain combat encounters to save TP for a boss opener.
- Decays out of combat — after a 30-second grace window, you lose 100 TP per second until empty. The bar lives with the fight; you can't bank a full TP bar overnight.
Weapon Artes
Spend TP on a Weapon Arte — a multi-hit, stat-scaled finisher specific to your equipped weapon's type. Your Artes are slotted on the Hotbar: click ✎ Edit on the bar (or open Combat ▾ ☴ Hotbar) and the Weapon Artes list in the editor shows every Arte of your equipped weapon and what each costs in TP. Drag one onto a slot, then click its tile or press its key during a fight.
- Each weapon type has three Artes at progressively higher tiers (1000 TP, 2000 TP, 3000 TP).
- Higher tiers deal more damage and have richer effects.
- Spare TP above the tier minimum scales the damage further — saving a near-full bar for a Tier 1 Arte adds bonus damage on top.
- An Arte that cannot fire says why. On the hotbar its tile turns red when you are short of TP or holding the wrong weapon, and grey, with the rounds still to go shown on it, while it recovers; hover over the tile and its tooltip names the reason (for example Need 2000 TP (1450 current), requires a Dagger or COOLDOWN: 2 rounds remaining). An Arte pressed before you have its Weapon Skill or level is refused, and the combat log names what it needs; the press costs no turn. The requirements of each tier are listed below.
Proficiency & Level Unlocks
Artes are gated by your Weapon Skill proficiency in the matching weapon type — the same proficiency you train by landing hits with that weapon (see Weapon Skills). Practising with a weapon is the path to unlocking its repertoire.
| Tier | TP cost | Proficiency | Character level |
|---|
| I | 1000 | 30+ | 5+ |
| II | 2000 | 150+ | 25+ |
| III | 3000 | 300+ | 50+ |
Damage Formula
An Arte's damage is calculated using the weapon's primary stat (STR, DEX or INT depending on the weapon), the enemy's defence, and the Arte's multiplier:
- Base damage uses the same attack curve as your weapon — (primary stat + weapon damage) played against enemy Defence — × the Arte's multiplier.
- TP overflow bonus — extra TP above the tier minimum adds extra multiplier. A Tier 1 Arte at 2999 TP hits noticeably harder than the same Arte at 1000 TP.
- Multi-hit Artes roll an independent hit check per swing, so a 5-hit Penta Lance can both pull off the full chain and partly miss in the same use.
- Elemental flavour — some Artes carry an element tag (Fire, Wind, Light, Dark, Lightning, Earth, Water). Tile and weather bonuses on elemental-tagged Artes are reserved for a future update; right now the element is flavour only.
The Artes Catalogue
Every weapon type has its own progression: Tiers I–III unlock through Skill Proficiency 30 / 150 / 300, and a Tier IV finisher crowns each weapon at Proficiency 450 and character Level 100. Tier IV artes cost the full 3,000 TP — your entire gauge behind one strike:
| Weapon | Tier IV Arte | Hits | Element | | Weapon | Tier IV Arte | Hits | Element |
|---|
| Sword | Crystaria's Oath | 1 | Light | | Staff | Aether Cataclysm | 1 | Light |
| Hand Axe | Skysplitter | 1 | Wind | | Knuckles | Hundred-Fist Finale | 5 | Light |
| Dagger | Thousand Cuts | 3 | Dark | | Spear | Heavenpiercer | 1 | Lightning |
| Club | Final Judgement | 1 | Light | | Whip | Tempest Requiem | 2 | Lightning |
| Great Sword | Worldrender | 1 | Dark | | Harp | Apotheosis Aria | 1 | Light · song-scaled |
| Great Axe | Titanfall | 1 | Earth | | Crystal Blade | Voidrend | 1 | Dark · needs 4+ Hex Stacks |
| Bow | Starfall Volley | 3 | Light | | Katana | Last Blossom | 1 | Wind |
| Great Katana | Heaven Parted | 1 | Light | | | | | |
The full Tier I–III catalogue:
Sword (STR)
| Tier | Name | Hits | Element | Effect |
|---|
| I | Twin Fang | 2 | — | A swift two-strike combo. Solid opening Arte once you reach proficiency 30. |
| II | Emberblade Edge | 1 | Fire | A single searing strike. Higher mult, fewer rolls — rewards committing. |
| III | Spiritrend | 1 | Light | A finishing blow channelling the weapon's spirit. The Sword endgame. |
Hand Axe (STR)
| Tier | Name | Hits | Element | Effect |
|---|
| I | Cleaving Roar | 2 | — | Two brutal swings driven by a battle cry. |
| II | Stonebreaker | 1 | Earth | A crushing overhead blow that rends armour. |
| III | Galewhirl | 1 | Wind | A whirling strike carrying a gale. |
Dagger (DEX)
| Tier | Name | Hits | Element | Effect |
|---|
| I | Hornet Flurry | 3 | — | Three rapid stabs. Lowest base mult but highest hit count — great vs low-defence foes. |
| II | Shadowfang | 2 | Dark | A venomous two-strike combination from the shadows. |
| III | Final Mercy | 1 | Dark | A single precise thrust to end the encounter. |
Club (STR)
| Tier | Name | Hits | Element | Effect |
|---|
| I | Dawnstrike | 2 | Light | A radiant double-tap. |
| II | Halo Crush | 1 | Light | A blessed crushing blow ringed in holy light. |
| III | Verdict | 1 | Light | A final, holy reckoning. |
Great Sword (STR)
| Tier | Name | Hits | Element | Effect |
|---|
| I | Tempest Arc | 2 | — | A spinning two-stroke slash. |
| II | Earthshatter | 1 | Earth | An overhead slam that splits the ground. |
| III | Voidreaper | 1 | Dark | A reaping arc of pure shadow. Highest single-hit damage in the game. |
Great Axe (STR)
| Tier | Name | Hits | Element | Effect |
|---|
| I | Gale Reaver | 2 | Wind | Two thunderous wind-laden swings. |
| II | Ironvortex | 1 | Wind | A full-body spin that mauls the foe. |
| III | Sovereign Cleave | 1 | Light | A regal cleaving blow. |
Bow (DEX)
| Tier | Name | Hits | Element | Effect |
|---|
| I | Embershot | 1 | Fire | A single fire-touched arrow. |
| II | Hawkstrike | 1 | Wind | A curving precision shot guided by the wind. |
| III | Skypiercer | 1 | Light | A perfect arrow that pierces the heavens. |
Staff (INT)
| Tier | Name | Hits | Element | Effect |
|---|
| I | Skyfall Arc | 2 | — | A weighty two-handed sweep. The only INT-scaling melee Arte. |
| II | Tidebreaker | 1 | Water | Pierces the enemy's magical defences with a tide of force. |
| III | Stonefall | 1 | Earth | Rends the very ground beneath the foe. |
Knuckles (STR)
| Tier | Name | Hits | Element | Effect |
|---|
| I | Fivefold Fury | 4 | — | A four-strike rapid combination. |
| II | Cascade Flurry | 6 | — | A flurry of six lightning-quick strikes. Highest hit count in the game. |
| III | Worldbreaker | 1 | Light | A devastating concentrated punch. |
Spear (STR)
| Tier | Name | Hits | Element | Effect |
|---|
| I | Twin Pierce | 2 | — | Two crisp thrusts. |
| II | Five-Point Lance | 5 | — | Five rapid thrusts in a star pattern. |
| III | Stormpierce | 1 | Lightning | A blue-lightning piercing strike. |
Whip (DEX)
| Tier | Name | Hits | Element | Effect |
|---|
| I | Lashing Strike | 2 | — | Two sharp cracking blows. |
| II | Stormcoil | 2 | Lightning | A coiled lash carrying static charge. |
| III | Headshatter | 1 | Dark | A final overhead crack. |
Harp (INT)
| Tier | Name | Hits | Element | Effect |
|---|
| I | Resonant Strike | 1 | — | A resonant strike that extends your active Song durations by one round. |
| II | Chord Burst | 2 | Light | A cascading chord — two hits that ring out across the battlefield. |
| III | Grand Opus | 1 | Light | A flawless performance. Damage is amplified by the number of Songs you have active — layer your melodies before the finale. |
Crystal Blade (INT/STR)
| Tier | Name | Hits | Element | Effect |
|---|
| I | Hex Slash | 1 | Dark | A dark channelling strike. Grants 2 Hex Stacks on hit. |
| II | Shatter Pulse | 1 | Dark | Releases all Hex Stacks in a dark burst — each stack spent adds ×0.5 to the multiplier. |
| III | Crystal Requiem | 1 | Dark | The heaviest blow in the Hexblade arsenal (STR-scaled). Requires 3+ Hex Stacks to activate. |
Katana (DEX)
| Tier | Name | Hits | Element | Effect |
|---|
| I | Crescent Draw | 2 | — | Draw and cut in one motion, and the return stroke before it has finished. |
| II | Falling Petal | 1 | Wind | A single descending cut, as light as the thing it is named for. |
| III | Moon on Water | 1 | Water | The cut lands where the reflection is, and the reflection is never wrong. |
Great Katana (DEX)
| Tier | Name | Hits | Element | Effect |
|---|
| I | Horizon Cut | 2 | — | One level sweep out and one level sweep back, the length of the blade doing the work. |
| II | Mountain Wind | 1 | Wind | An overhead cut that arrives with the air it pushed in front of it. |
| III | Cloud Divider | 1 | Wind | A rising stroke long enough that it seems to go on after the blade has stopped. |
Tier V — the Voidheart artes
Every weapon type has a Tier V arte, unlocked at full Skill Proficiency (500) and character level 1,000. They cost the full 3,000 TP and strike for roughly 35% more than the Tier IV finisher, keeping the same stat and element as the rest of that weapon's line.
Every family carries the ladder, including the newer ones: the Echo Shard and Wand (Mimic), the Rune Hammer and Two Handed Club (Runesmith), the Flintlock (Skypirate), the Astrolabe (Astromancer), and the Katana and Great Katana (Bushin).
