Battles

Battles in Asphodel Prologue happen automatically, with the actions your Taruchi takes being affected by things such as their stats, their Battle Spec, and more.

Spell actions are a bonus on top of another action type; when they fire, your Taruchi will cast a Spell before picking another action to do in the same turn.

It's not possible for both Taruchi to Guard simultaneously; if both Taruchi pick Guard, they'll decide who actually Guards based on their Harmony, and the other Taruchi will pick a new action.

How Stats Work In Battle

Every Taruchi has four stats, which all play a role in battle.

Stat	In battle
Health	Your HP pool, and the fuel for the HEAVY move. A big pool also makes the Fortify ability stronger.
Violence	Drives STRIKE damage. The straightforward aggression stat.
Power	Triggers and fuels your SPELL, and breaks ties: when both fighters act at the same priority, the higher-Power one goes first.
Harmony	Drives GUARD, both the damage it blocks and the damage it reflects back. Also walls incoming STRIKEs, softens your own HEAVY recoil, and defends against SPELLs.

Battle Specs

Before your Taruchi fights, you must allocate bonus points into its Battle Spec: an in-battle layer of extra stats on top of its trained base. The budget grows with your league:

League	Spec points
Rookie	10
Veteran	20
Champion	30

These extra stats allow you to compensate for weaknesses, or enhance strengths. You can change this before every battle, and your previous Battle Spec will be saved between matches.

Special Abilities

Your Taruchi will also be granted a Special Ability, which depends on which stat you allocate the most points to in your Battle Spec.

Dominant stat	Ability	What it does
Violence	Bloodlust	Every 3rd attack deals bonus damage equal to 10% of the defender's max HP, and heals you for 50% of the damage dealt.
Power	Sorcery	Every 6th turn, your SPELL is guaranteed to fire at 300% damage.
Health	Fortify	While below 35% HP, you take 20% less damage from every source (except Sudden Death) and deal bonus damage equal to 1% of your max HP on every hit.
Harmony	Attune	Every time you GUARD, gain a charge. At 3 charges, the next GUARD will reflect double damage and heal you for 10% of your Harmony.

Offensive Special Abilities can be guarded against. You can only have one ability active at a time, and if you split points equally between skills then the priority will be whichever is highest overall.

The Moves

Your Taruchi uses four moves in battle. The active Special Ability works alongside them.

Move	Scales Off	Priority	Notes
Strike	Violence	Normal	Reliable damage. Scales better against low-Harmony defenders.
Heavy	HP (yours + opponent's)	Always last	Highest damage, but recoils on you. Heavier Taruchi hit harder, but take more damage.
Guard	Harmony	Always first	Reduces incoming damage AND reflects a % back at the attacker. Both effects scale with your Harmony.
Spell	Power	Pre-Action (before other moves)	Each turn, has a chance to fire before any move. Bypasses type matchups, but a raised Guard blocks and partly reflects it, so Harmony is a real answer to magic. Damage scales Power vs Power.

Sudden Death

If nobody has won after 30 turns, the battle enters Sudden Death: both fighters lose 10% of their max HP every round until one falls. Fortify does not protect against this. If both fall in the same round, the winner is a coin flip.