More FF1 game mechanics

[RingsOfReznor]

Following on from the last thread about Rally the Troops, I dug around the other various damage types and recorded some other fun interactions in the base game:


Physics damage

Damage type is ranged crushing. Although undodgeable it can be stopped by active and passive defences. This includes thrown/moving objects and knockback collisions.

Damage dealt by physics depends on the momentum of the collision; i.e. the weight of the object and the speed at which it hits another object/surface. Strength determines maximum lifting weight and speed of throw. Heavy lifter adds +3 strength for this calculation. Best heroes are The Ant & Order (9 Lifting strength)

Although there is a velocity cap for throws, there is none for knockback- induced physics. Using a high Rally stack with a power like shove or repulsion can snooker objects for higher damage.


Density Max

Disables flying, drops flyers, slows movement, triples mass. Mass increase not enough to give meaningful knockback resistance (repulsion will still knockdown Order at 990lbs)

Loss of speed also impacts attack animations. Can't remove this with alteration or commute sentence. Compatible with Freeze.

Regarding knockback - if a character's mass changes during knockback (i.e. due to Density Max being applied during the movement) the physics engine recalculates momentum on the next contact assuming the mass did not change. Therefore the character's speed will increase (triple!) on the next contact and take way more damage, as it's now moving faster and with more mass.


Energy Leech

Drains target energy and generates user energy. Putting enemy energy far enough in the negative will result in 100% stun chance on any power use. Since AI won't risk overdrawing EP this disables all skills on all AI.

Man-Bot can use this on repeat (C key in FF1) to lock down any target - even timemaster.


Irradiate / Acid Burn

Curable with alteration. Compatible with freeze but the damage breaks ice.

Can be swapped and either extended/shortened by Commuted Sentence. High commute will cure on receiving or extend on transmitting; low commute will have less/no impact on duration.

Damage depends on duration and has a hard cap of 5 Dmg on the first tick, then 4 4 4 3 3 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 (~38 max dmg total)

When applying these effects to a target that's already afflicted, the duration is extended. This means that a weak damage over time can snowball to the maximum by consistent re-application. Since flight spawn projectiles have a tendency to hit the same target multiple times, closing in with sea urchin allows her to deal consistent, long-lasting acid burns with a single bubble swarm. Eve can do extreme damage at range by interlacing regular and acid arrows, particularly to a blinded target.

Unlike other damage types, irradiate doesn't break Mental Blank. Mentor can exploit this to safely take out enemies solo, or in combination with Microwave.


Clone Target

Creates allied clone on enemies or an enemy clone on allies. Clones cannot be cloned. Clones start on 50% max HP but can be healed. Out of combat clones rapidly de-spawn. Works on frozen targets.

Clones use default unlocked abilities, unless they have been enraged - then their AI is permanently set to the base skills. (For instance, cloning El Diablo will only use swift punch and tongues of flame, irrespective of his skill progression - custom characters have no such restriction) Never uses specials, flight, clone target or active defences.

Clone target clones benefit from the game difficulty enemy damage multiplier (approx 4x damage on Very Hard) and will fight for you If hypnotized.


Genetic Damage

All target resistances set to Vulnerable (x2) making the campaign a cakewalk. In FFvTTR this swaps resistances to vulnerabilities and vice versa - works on heroes too. Vulnerability to radiation means targets like bullet are easy for microwave to fortify against his energy/rad/acid weakness, and can make wraiths of chaos weak against mundane damage, which opens up a lot of new campaign strategies.

Like with Density Max, this effect doesn't swap due to Commuted Sentence.


Freeze

Target disabled. Need to deal 15 damage to break the ice or wait it out. Ending freeze results in a forced knockdown. Broken by Acid Burn/Irradiate. Overwritten by purgatory. Blocks EP drain (ice gets the drain instead, achieving nothing). Blocks mental states except power null.


Stasis

Target stops moving until they take damage, including from Acid Burn / Irradiate. This leads to some anti-synergy between Man o' War's net and Sea Urchin's bubbles, and Eve's powers. Dodge disabled. Freeing from stasis results in a forced knockdown. Does not commute. Freeze overwrites stasis.


Blind

Target stops dodging (unless they have Danger Sense) and gets lower ranged & melee accuracy. Commutes and is compatible with Freeze. Removed by alteration.


Hex

Target gets slowed and suffers a very high chance of having stun applied upon attempting to use a power. Commutes and is compatible with Freeze. Removed by alteration.


Alteration

Purges acid burn/irradiate, hex, blind and power null, but not Density Max. Applies a control-loss state. Won't apply any state if the current state has higher precedence.

Precedence: Hypno<Panic<Rage<Blank<Stasis<Freeze


Purgatory

Target gets phase shifted and cannot act at all. Highest priority disable, replaces freeze.


Balance

HP split between user and target. Pushes your health and the target health towards the 'balance point' = HP total/2, up to the power strength at once. Affected by fluctuation & rally but will not transfer beyond the 'balance point'.

In the case of a balance area attack, the calculation is done for the user and all targets at one time - makes it entirely possible to fully heal the user against healthy high-HP targets, or to instantly kill the user if targets similar max HP and have high HP loss.

Damage dealt from balance breaks freeze instead of affecting frozen target. Can farm health off a high HP target that is kept frozen.


Rage

My favourite effect in campaign - it disables all dodge. Mentor fully covers Minuteman's weakness with this skill. Removes stun and grants stun immunity. Rage replaces stun, hypnosis, panic. Blank, stasis, freeze, purgatory all replace rage.

Target gets basic aggro AI and uses only base hero attacks with overpower (e.g. El Diablo enraged will only ever use swift punch & tongues of flame). Will not use attacks that exceed energy (no abusing that stun immunity), and will do nothing if already holding an object/club.

Enraging clones will permanently overwrite the attack AI of all your clones forever. They will only use hero default skills even after the effect ends.


Panic

Target gets silly civilian AI. Removes stun and grants stun immunity.


Hypnosis

Target switches sides until they take HP damage, for instance acid burn/irradiate.

Cannot affect allied units. Blackbird has this as an area attack, so it's safe to use with heroes nearby.


Mental Blank

Target gets calm civilian AI until they take HP damage, EXCEPT acid burn/irradiate.

This is a neat synergy between Mentor's Cortical Suppression and Modulating Beam. Also cools down raging targets.


Power Null

Target loses 1 power, unless it would result in having no powers. Re-applying rolls a new power to remove. Probably good against some bosses. In FFvTTR this removes all energy-consuming powers - nasty.

Unlike other mental damage types this one can commute and is compatible with freeze.


Rally the Troops

As discussed in previous thread, this multiplies the next hit (any damage, not just melee) by a factor depending on the power strength. The calculation is Multiplier = (Power/25), with a minimum of 1. In the case of 300-Percenter it's a 3x multiplier (i.e. 75 rally damage by that formula)

Will stack with Rally from other characters, and from 300-Percenter (Minuteman is the best campaign hero for this reason alone). Testing revealed some further spaghetti code - in the danger room any kind of power can stack the damage boost but in campaign only area attacks do it.


Commuted Sentence

Very, very interesting power. Swaps some states between user and target(s). Effects can lose/gain duration based on CS power, and whether removing or applying an effect. Benefits from overpowering & 300-Percenter/Rally the Troops to extend the duration when applying effects. When stealing effects the opposite is true - it's in your interests to increase magnitude to reduce the effect duration, or to decrease magnitude to retain effect duration.

Commute works on acid burn, irradiate, blind, power null, hex, energize & energy surge (i.e. all "secondary effects" except density max & genetic damage). Also transfers the Empathy and Cloak of Shadows special effects.

Area commute can be used aggressively to pass these effects to a bunch of enemies while fully bypassing their defences (as this is a special type), transmitting empathy to give your team damage resistance, or passing the Cloak of Shadows invisibility buff.


Cerebral Balance

Cures mental states, except power null.


Energize / Energy Surge

Both effects boosts EP regen and stack with each other. Duration is also boosted by Rally the Troops / 300-Percenter, so heroes with expensive powers can get long-lasting benefits and operate further from the team.

These effects are also commutable, so Law can pass Bullet's / Man-Bot's boost back to the user. Just be sure to underpower the Commute as these are treated as negative effects.

Bullet's version reduces stun resistance (probably 2x) which affects both application chance and the duration. Man-Bot's version strobes a weak (very-low) area energy every 5 seconds. Rally on the recipient will boost the next explosion damage & knockback strength.

Can be used offensively by energizing a bunch of enemies close to each other so they all blow up. Rage can be used to keep the group together while they all explode. These explosions count as having come from the enemy, so they actually benefit from higher difficulty levels.


Speeding Bullet

Deals direct HP damage listed as crush damage, i.e. it fully ignores resistances, active and passive defences, although colours appear as if it was crush.

Power dependent on distance covered (from 0-14). NO damage/knockback fluctuation. Damage dealt in an area upon arrival. Ground only. Knockback direction is calculated at the start of the run, not at the end.


Mercy

Subtracts health from the user and restores 2x that amount to allied targets. This skill makes Law a top-tier pick on almost any mission, as you can move any team damage to yourself at a 2:1 ratio, then heal yourself with a canister/hero point.

Easy to exploit - hitting yourself with an area projectile will result in health gain for yourself.


Transfer

Grants EP (energy points). Despite the description it doesn't require a loss of EP on the character using the skill - it just straight up restores the target. This restoration also applies to targets with an active defence on and is not reduced by flying.

Man-Bot has this as a beam, and can use the continuous-fire key (Hold 'C' when you select the power) to repeatedly beam another hero with energy. This power restores ~50-70% and man-bot can sustain constant fire with his high EP regen, particularly when grounded. This allows heroes with medium-high cost abilities to also continuous-fire - for instance Liberty Lad can plant a minefield of prroximity grenades in seconds, unlimited minute missiles, ball lightnings, whirlwinds, etc.

As with Mercy, making a custom area projectile lets you generate energy on yourself. With the Proximity flag you can bank up a few of them, then repeatedly throw high-EP abilities.


Empathy

Note: This effect is only available through the specials group of powers.

Applies a buff to yourself that does 2 things:
1. Reduces incoming damage from the basic damage types to half. This includes damage that has been boosted by 300-percenter and Rally the Troops, overpowering, and from the game's difficulty modifier. Does not affect physics damage, thrown objects, traffic lights etc.

2. Also inflicts half the base incoming damage at the aggressor, which considers the above but does *not* consider damage bonus from 300-percenter/Rally the Troops. This damage instance is affected by damage fluctuation separately to the portion dealt to the unit with empathy, so there is some variation. Note that base damage means resistances are calculated after the hit, so you don't share more damage by being weak to the attack, and the enemy does not take less damage by you resisting the attack.

Therefore it's in your best interest to always use this when available, get hit by attacks that you are resistant to and especially that the enemy is weak to.

In FFvTTR Eve resists pierce - she can cast empathy and walk through enemy gunfire to clear out a room with minimal consequence to herself. Eve can also return damage to Wraiths of Chaos at a 1:4 ratio, but she's only around for a couple of missions with them. Note in this game the empathy damage dealt does not consider ANY effect beyond the power's magnitude at 1/5 (i.e. a medium strength attack will always deal 5 damage of its element to the attacker, with no variance) - this means it will deal disproportionately high damage at low difficulties and disproportionately low damage at high difficulties.

Empathy returns damage while frozen (you won't take any damage) but not when blocked by an active/passive defence.

Casting empathy does not consume the Rally/300-percenter buff. Empathy is not removed when applying an active defence. Does not return acid burn/irradiate, speeding bullet, mental/mystical, stun/knockback, special types (like mercy).

Empathy can be passed to another target using Commuted Sentence. When passing empathy, Commuted Sentence increases the duration, so make sure to receive 300-percenter & Rally the Troops first to maximize the effect. When taking empathy away, you'll want to underpower commuted sentence, as it will 'cure' the remaining duration of empathy.

In campaign, have Eve use Empathy normally/underpowered. Then have Law underpower commuted sentence on eve to receive Empathy. Then have minuteman use 300-Percenter and overpowered Rally the Troops near Law, and finally Law overpower Commuted Sentence on any other hero. This will result in a very long duration empathy on the hero of your choice.


Area commute allows for sharing this effect with any number of units, so you could position a number of enemies with rage, then empathy them all to increase the total damage dealt - or pass to a number of clones and let an enemy hit them with an area attack.



Hope you all enjoyed the fruits of my rummaging. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2025!

[RingsOfReznor]

Oops I forgot about projectile interactions. Next post will be about the kind of fun you can almost have in the campaign.

[Epimethee]

A lot of interesting finds, Rings! And some spectacular exploits too.