Welcome to CrossCode!


Spheromancer
You are a jack of all trades. And a master of none (Yet~ Hopefully). Take This To Heart reguardless of your gaming experiance. CrossCode will simpily not work on you just spaming offense. You have to master the 4 base actions you have, Reguardless of your build. It may be somewhat forgiving at the start but this quickly changes overtime.


Builds
In CrossCode when it comes to building your char you will most likely fall into 1 of the 5 catagorys despite being a jack of all trades class, It does not really matter which you go with but it will most likely dictate your valid strategy's and just how easy of a time you will have. With everything i know this would be my verdict on Tiers in terms of BOTH practicalness and easiness throughout the game.

I could explain why for the sake of guide length id rather not. At the end of the day the player can make up any problems with his own creative thinking and actions.


Spheromancer Melee- S (For those who are generally fast)

Spheromancer Ranger- A+ (For those who like true distant DPS)

Spheromancer Dasher- A (For those who like to be different)

Spheromancer Hybird- B+ (For those who should know what their doing)

Spheromancer Defender/Regen- B+ Or A ...ish (For those who generally suffer from reflexs/finger pain and still want to push to play legitly)

Melee

Imo Melee is the best way to go build wise and for damage. You will also be forced into melee situations quite often. Most higher level Melee arts also offer great offensive dodges. Note the 3rd and 4th strike deal the most damage. So you shouldent spam dash cancel unless to advoid.

The 4th swing is indeed a 360 Arc




Range

Range is mostly for kite damage and SP gain. I slightly disfavor focusing on shot builds because,
-Offers no base stun (But still has some knockback)
-Slow moving distance when move firing compared to slashing overtime.
-Charge shots are optimal to reduce Form Heating instead of its DPS small shots.




Dash

Dash arts....-Are okay, Still overall i think its inferoir to melee and shooting and adds nothing of value in terms of damage and the probabilty of landing it in deep combat. its probably best left abandoned for at least early on. I do understand the superior Aoe and First strike and ultility it offers however but still those can be left behind.




Sheilding

I would highly suggest not to advoid practicing sheilding and perfect guards or advoiding guard arts like i did at the start.

What a successfull perfect guarding itself offers-
-Target stuned for about a full 3 seconds.
-No damage.
-Adds Extra SP to your bar (Avenger stat passive)

Which all 3 are amazing to have right from the near start and throughout the entire game as a tool. Obviously though, Perfect guard takes practice to master. However very worth it. It does have a minor downside though. You can only perfect guard direct attacks.

As for sheild arts most of them offer nice Invincbilty frames (Sort of) and counter measures.
And finally, Half of the enemies in the game speed rates will outdo yours in situations that not even dodge might help and even if it did, Perfect guarding is very more ideal if able.

Its a simple detail but when blocking consider you can use walls or corners to reduce the possible directions needed.

Skills

As you probably guessed are for more damage, However they are also used for costly offensive tactical dodging if you really need it with tier 2-3 skills. And potentail bypass phase'ers when appiled right. There are some terminologys in CrossCode you should know.




Pin Down
Most enemys hit by a 2-3 Tier skill will be pinned downed for a certain amount of time depending on the skill you have used, Meaning they will be forced to lockdown before moving onto there next phases. If you deal a signifigant amount of damage during this- Good timing can net you a great advantage in passing phases you dont like on a boss. And when used/matched correctly allows you to cross counter enemys in certain cases.

Pin Up
Generally you and your target are in the air by most likely by a melee 2-3 art, You may not have invincibilty at this point but very likely anything below will not have any tracking attacks that will elavate to your current height. A Pin up imo is slightly better a Pin down because they do not lose lockdown untill they land.

Skill Invince Frames
Tend to be VERY short in CrossCode, Barley even a second in most cases. You can even be cross counterd out so try not to challenge or wager skill vs skill in general because you will most likely lose out horribly. Aside from Guard Arts.

Invincibilty In Dashs
You may have heard some myth that theres i-frames in dashs. Which in fact there is, However only starting from the center of the animation, Having high Focus+Flash step will only add a few decimals/inchs expanding both ways. Since the idea is to dodge cleanly in the first place its ironicly almost worthless. The only time i have ever found it worth anything is when i dash through a snowman body onto the otherside advoiding snowball swarms.

Perfect Guard Stance
Some Guard arts as you notice put you into a guard stance untill you are directly hit upfront by melee.

Whats neat about this it does not apply to range on heat and ice forms. So you can perfect guard every heavy stream of range attacks for a full 4 seconds (Or your builds threshold on sheilds), Not only will you get away with no damage when paired with avenger passive you will retain a great amount of SP since they all count as maximum conversion. Because of this detail i can almost recommend for sure the tier 1 perfect guard stances on heat/ice just to use it for guarding swarms of range attacks morely then using it as intended. -You dont have to though. Just the option is there.

An example of this method would be- Frozen Stance/Recoil trumpet+Quickly switch to Wave (For 100% perfect SP gain from avenger stacks)



Whats The Damage Type For Dash Arts
Unforchantly, Depends on the skill as some is made up of range, While others are melee type. For the most part i believe its melee in general though overall.

Ultimate lvl 3/Tier 3 Skills
The best of the best, Theres not much to note here other then whats unique to tier 3 melee skills is that you have some form of Super Armor (Can still be hit but have a stun resistance threshold)

I will not go over nearly all of them, Because they all do the same thing for the most part, Which is make something dead.

Lea has 4 forms (5 if you include base, Which i do consider it to be one)


Stats
Base Lea skill tree stats WILL transfer/combine to any of the 4 forms (Effective 50%), However a form passive stats WONT combine with other forms. Only your base and current form will have the total sum stats. So Base Lea stats distrubtion is VERY important.

The Downside Stats You should really, REALLY take note that you're going to get a -50% res on a logical weakness on a form, You're going to take a full 1.5X dmg if your not carefull.

Base actions in Forms
I think the most common mistake done in a form is to throw DPS balls constantly. You can when you need to or when going for a Break Point on a target -but otherwise it adds so much heat points you will be kicked out really fast Compared to meleeing. Idealy i think its best to melee+charge shots to maximize time in a form in terms of offense.

Art/Skill picks
Its really up to you on how you want to go about it. Whenever you want them to be stand alone or combinable into other forms either way will be fine.

When to revert back to lose heat
Idealy, Over 60% when you complete your current combo stream. Or whenever you think you can quickly switch in base Lea for a few base action hits.

Overheating
Some may not notice due to the aggresive nature of the game but you can tech stay in a form forever (You still prob shouldent though) without reverting back so long as you do one of the 3 things that reduce heat.
-No action/Only moving.
-Charge shots do not add heat points (Oddly)
-Guarding.

Base Form Base Lea eventually becomes inferior because it has no ultimate lvl 3's, Still its your only form of defense if you overheat so its okay to have skill arts from here. Lea's base form has alot of nice key unique stats though, Such as X Counter, Bullseye, Pin Body, HP regen and etc. Lea's Base Form also is one of the best ways to build SP with DPS shots.

Best Arts Would prob be the guard art Blade Sphere/Guard Sphere ironicly, Since its the only self buff and an effective one. And can be transferd into any form and without damage penalty potential from just staying base. What it actually does though is it ignores hit stun and gives damage reduction and gives you range type spinning blades all for about 8 seconds. You can attack all in with melee with no consequence. The only downside is however, Its not a great starting skill exactly, Overtime it will grow more helpfull though.



Guard Sphere Without its blades in itself is even useful. If you know you messed up your positioning badly on a boss and you're sure your going to get hit hard, You have the option of using Guard Sphere as a saver at a mere cost of 1 SP. You can even quickly eat an item instantly after casting it safetly. If you use this for offense on average you can get away with 8X melee strikes before backing off safetly as well.

Ultimatley its also the heart and shape of a Spheromancer and is used as an extention to help fill in gaps in between within your skill use to ensure success of crucial moments with your offensive measures since we lack Invince frames.


HEAT/WAVE/SHOCK Forms Avenger passive also works with Guard Sphere, So if you immediately switch to Heat Form after casting you will absorb SP per hit on yourself. This is one of the best ways to stall for time if you constantly cycle this for whatever reason you need to.

Alternatively when switched to ICE form and you have alot of pin body passive stack you can reflect alot of pain, If you cant reach an enemy with neither shooting or melee or the attack pressure is to high this is a nice way to keep your offensive going for a bit. Though a few bosses are immune to this.


-BE WARNED THOUGH-
While it is a great versatile defensive measure it is NOT the most efficient use of your SP defensive skill wise, As its SP return no matter what you do will be nowhere as good as perfect guard stancing in ice or heat forms later on. So it will hamper your overall offense at the end of the day if used too much.













First Cut If you for some reason went with dash arts, First Cut works on really well on cows as a starting skill as cows are pretty annoying to deal with early on. It pins them down and you pass over them dealing damage directly from the back, Leaving it the only one of the few direct foward attack skills you can make on them well. Credits to Favmir on this from the comments.

Becareful though if you do it while they or any other enemy is making an attack animation you may be traded with a hit despite pinning them down visually and even might be inflicted with a stun hit. A Guard sphere can help reduce this as you probably thought.

First cut is also the only few tier 1 skill that pins down, Making it interesting to have as a cheap ultility.

HEAT Form Overall as you guessed this is an offensive form. It offers not much ultility other then "more dmg" for the most part. The problem with Heat mode is its leave flaming AoE's or mines on the ground, Its just not that practical. Passives are also not practical with beserker in giving you more damage near death or +1 passive surviving a last hit. Heat mode may not be a bad last stance to be on but why plan on it? Avenger passive however is very nice, Along with its ability to stack multiple assault's. And Its burn stats offers not bad degeneration. Overall, This form highly favors melee builds.

Best Arts So far, Id say the Lazor ones because it confers alot of safe height. As for the rest of the arts i personally prefer everything and anything that inflicts burn stats. With exception of the melee art on Tier 2 because both the animation and pindown is faster then its counter part and even may be used to pull in distant targets into the correct positioning of the skill.




Calamity Trigger This skill right here, This skill is my GOD when it comes to heat form and a melee build. First it pulls, Then it pins down, And then you spin foward, All with an decent sized AoE, The animation time is very fast as well leaving not much time waisted on a targets stuned state. Because of all of this i think this is one of the best offensive skill pindown you can have, Aside from Ultimates.

Dashing foward and landing a melee hit quickly after the full amount of hits will allow you to chain on.

Anytime in pvp when a target back's off or clings against the wall i have used this to either re-grab or use it as an finisher and it almost never fails me.






Lazor/Flare Burn/Fanfare If you're a range build these are good skills for you, For its the only skill that i can recall that will immeditly elavate yourself up without touching a target allowing not much to hit you and can be used as an offense counter measure, Better yet certain target types you will hit might be dragged completely away from you if they survive.






Flame Jab For just 1 SP, It is a useful and slightly overlooked offensive utility skill form fire, As it minor AoE's, Knockback and inflicts burning stats while being very fast. Which may not sound like much but it may also be used for other ways.

If your a range Spheromancer you'd use this to simpily shove a target away defensive wise, Back dashing quickly after will expand your distance even more if you choose so. And for a mere cost of 1 SP.

If your a melee Spheromancer you may use this to catch things against walls, As the target you hit and knockback against one will not suffer any reduced airtime, Leaving your target easily chained/pickup on after. Really helpful for PvP combo starters.





Burning Pulse Another often overlooked ultility skill, Unlike its Tier 1 or Tier 3/Ultimate version it emanates a second wave that inflicts a AoE short hitstun consistently. I cant figure out for the life of me why this is the case. But its a very important detail and can be used as a defensive to offensive measure (Preferably casted when something in near you and used as a first hit stun). Or to help lockdown things that try to rush you.

This skill + Jolt stats and/or melee strikes if you choose will give you the best possible non pindown/pinup stunlock in the game, As you will have 2-3 overlapping sources of stun rates, Including 4+ different damage sources. Making you very hard to deal with upfront or to approach. When you decide to spread the flames of chaos.

If you know for sure you're going to make a serious upfront base action melee push, This skill casted first and then combined with Blade Sphere works really well.

Note, The radius of the circle displayed is the distance of the hitstun will inflict up to.

ICE Form Clearly a defensive mode and a superior one at that. Not only does it raise your defense in general you can make your own Ice walls and prisons, That not only block missles but also damages enemys that walk on it offering alot of anti swarming options. Because of this its one of the best times to use items if you need it since they have a long use time. Ice form also has a unique 360 degree block all passive including the ability to stack alot of pin body percent damage. Chill stats isnt bad either it reduces All speed and is great for adding a few more seconds of time for damaging when a boss getting back up. Overall this form favors range builds, But still offers very nice ultilitys to any other possible build.

Best Arts Generally anything that creates Ice walls. Even to a pure melee build i find them valuable just for the hit stun alone. When you switch forms the ice walls DO NOT fade instantly only until its time expires, Making them more of value. You can make as many ice walls you like as long as its a Throw tier 1 art however for some odd reason the Guard art ice walls have a limit source of 1, (I- guess to prevent straight out fortressing) And even more nonsense when you use a Throw wall+Guard wall the Throw wall will be destroyed, On the reverse when you Guard wall+Throw wall both will remain. LOGIC!

Mainly what i like to use ice walls for (The throw tier 1 version in this case) is to just lay them all around for a group of flying range units to eventually at some point just to move into them and get distracted/prevent some of their fire, If there's a pillar around you that elavates your shots, You can throw art wall into that and it will explode AoE the above area. Providing you hit something.

Keep in mind a point blank throw wall on a target upfront is just as effective as a distant one, And will provide you a circle of cover.

Ice walls, As you might have logically thought. Are really great for most of the defense type quests in the game as well.




Icy Bastion and Fimbulvetr (Uiltimate version) Guard walls are interesting skills for sure. The description is a bit misleading as what it does on the end part is it grants you a Guard Sphere that still works with pin body (Also still works with avenger too). So your coated with double protection when you count the ice around you, It comes with an interesting cost as well of your speed being set down by half, Even when dashing until the skill ends. And obviously, Eating an item is a very valid choice if you need it. If you're good on health its a great time to eat a buff.

The half speed drawback will also will effect your skill distance. So if you use a dash art you will only go about half distance, Meaning you can use this to intentionally shorten where you land.

Highly favored by range Spheromancers who want to anchor down on a spot for uninterrupted streams of DPS shots.

If you are melee when used offensively its best to sandwich your target against a wall or corner. As your slow down should not matter at that point and the ice around you makes it hard to escape.







Frozen Star/Blizzard Hawk Is a great bossing skill. While i used to hate it at first -I cannot deny some people are fans of this skill and that it has uses. Such as opening it up as a first move on non hostile creatures, And very much so if its weakness related will net you a really good first strike to began with on single lone targets. Credits to Ghaleon in the comments that i should bring this up.

Keep in mind if you want to "Force" this skill in by ignoring hit stun any Guard sphere can help you with negating its dangerous wind up time. Although a bit SP costly. Still, That last hit might be the life or death moment you need to prevail.

Alternatively, A successful base action perfect guard stun time is also long enough for you to land the skill cleanly on a single target.

Also a attack buff seems to highly go well this skill, Once paired and used on a boss your HP phase bypass attempt should increase dramatically. The best in the game in fact i think.






Ice Tornado The counterpart to Blizzard Hawk is also a nice skill, Having a very long range, A consistent pindown, Long skill time to help you buy some time with regen or items. And knocksback everything away on finish.

A throw wall as shown can help negate its knockback if you want it to on a single target, Your target should bounce twice and land nearby you.

You may also catch a target afterwards with a quick cancel dash and use a wall on the end afterwards to chain on.






Hail Flurry Hail Flurry might not seem like much in terms of damage, But believe it or not its a great ultility skill as it is also as useful as its counterpart skill choice.

Unlike most other skills it has a short delay setup on it when used, Lingers on the screen, Has fast cast animation and it even bounces once. And suprisingly has hit stun. The main appeal of the skill is to use it as an opener or as a range offensive extender for its stun in between your skills to either expand your range skill lands or close into your targets. Its a highly great pvp skill when used right, And works its absolute best on a single target with chill stats.



Interestingly enough the velocity of Hail Flurry closely matchs the speed of a dash art, So you can use this to cover your initial pre-landing of a dash art if your highly fast enough.

SHOCK Form Pretty much a Multi hitting SP gain form. Whats unique to shock is that you have the ability to Channel lightning or make expensive spheres/Sentry Balls that shoot out apart from yourself, For sure its the best form to gain SP through offensive base actions. Also the best form to land criticals/stack critical damage multipliers. Jolt stats with its random stuning can help you out sometimes in keeping things away from you or getting hit. Overall this form favors ALL builds.

Best Arts Tier 2 melee Battery skill might be the best pinup/bossing skill in the game in its catagory. And the sheild arts are very useful for obvious reasons since it slows down time. Im also a huge fan of Amber strike/breaker dash arts as unlike other dashs it displaces you and/or your target away and you get the fastest recovery.




Glitch Time A powerful guard art that gives you multiple options. You can set up projectiles, Melee everyone in a row to death, Eat an item, (And, Run away i guess~?) W/e you can think of. Just becareful any enemy projectiles on the screen will still in fact harm you if you walk into them. Also casting any skill will automaticly end the effect.

You still get a 1-2 second advantage though in the skill you cast, So ending on a skill may not be a bad idea (Unless a throw art). Very much not so if it links to a pindown/pin up skill. Above is an example of Glitch Time as i peacefully sunset some birds with just melee.

This is also one of the most easiest ways to destroy/deal with samurai bugs imo if you ever have trouble with them.





Amber strike/Amber break Unlike nearly all other dashs Amber strike and Amber breaker highly displaces a target away (I think Tier 1 Amber dash is slightly better in this case). And additionaily you get a almost seemingless recovery afterwards. On top of that the animation is fast as well.

As shown above what i like to do myself sometime is Tier 1-2 throw wall+Either Amber dashs (Mainly Amber break) as the target will/should bounce twice against the walls leaving Chill and Jolt stats on high. If you want to come in from a distance. And very likely your target will land direct in front of you allowing you to chain on.





Alternatively, Guard wall+Amber break works as well. If your targets in front of you.

Dash wall when lined correctly will work too as you might have thought.

WAVE Form An support mode, Its not really ment to be used as offense but rather a utillity for reforging your current life bar back higher or pulling targets towards you/shoving them away. And making decoys, As well its the best form to stack avenger stats. If you're a range build nearly all what wave has to offer is in your favor. Its Mark stats is very useful for those targets you want to range down as it gives bonus to your shots/throw arts espicilly relating to range ultimates.

It's probably clear though just to make sure, If you are really great with base action perfect guarding, You only want to block during this form if able to get 100% maximum SP gain conversion.

Best Arts Since this is a form almost entirely based on bag of tricks i cannot for sure say what clearly stands out as great, I Am in favor of its Pull/Push Throw/Melee arts if i must decide. And even all though i dont like dash arts i think the dash arts here are somewhat nice, Just...not a good use of my combat SP.




Ether Snipe -I guess ill talk about Ether Snipe. Since its a very great range skill that you might not expect that exist in Wave's tree, Although an ultimate its a very good skill to have. Once you land a mark stats, Eat a buff before hand, Know the targets weakness related, And then get all 3 bounces off walls you will get the most out of its maximum damage. The skill itself slows down time greatly as well to help you land it. Below is what i can land as a pure melee build and no weakness relation.






Wave Motion Beam The Counter part of Ether Snipe is interesting as well. As opposed to Ether snipe thats a sniper round, Wave Motion Beam is a repeating shotgun and much easier to aim. While even before the skill activates you have a large pull in radius in the area you have selected. Unlike other range ultimates its a close range one and alot more dfficult to miss, While being the only one with a consistent AoE. I would have not brought this up if Ekimmak had not said something in the comments.

Without a doubt the main strength of the skill is the ability to pull in and hit multi targets. If you use it for anything else your not getting the full use out of your SP or the skill.

It does deal damage to yourself, HOWEVER- This seems to scale to only 33% of your maximum life close to the general amount of what you should have with Wave form regen as well as the skill time is close to 6 seconds. Also, It will only count for one target no matter how many you pull in and hit. Or enhance your damage.

To be a True Spheromancer, We must be know our forms inside and out and how we built them. Ready to switch on the fly without pause, Having set rules for each one for knowing when and what to be, And mix attacks flawlessly.

This is not a requirement of the game and for sure you can just main 1 form, But for the few people who seek Fun, Combo wizardry, Or i guess are try hards. We'll probably seek continuous improvement.

I dont know if ill reach the state myself though if i do ill share what i know, Providing i dont think its redundant.

Performing An Advance switch/Switching forms when using skills
Basicly, Switch forms during a skill immeditly after starting one pressing any Form key when you let go after casting/charging a skill. (Or after when you let go spacebar by default) In doing so you will flawlessly move into another form while attacking from the start of your skill at the same time and may perform another skill afterwards linking them in quick succession.

An example of an simple Advance switch combo would be- (Sorry for my lazyism not posting a gif or something)

Base lea Spin Dance, Advance switch to Ice, Then Ice Twirl


Min maxing damage
Changing to a form using an advance switch to a form with more attack stats more then your current like Heat when using a skill will optimize damage in nearly all cases. Simpily because your higher attack stat would be added over instantly.

I have not tested this but it should be the same case for changing to Shock form when you want to attempt to give other skills better critical lands/damage if you're in that build.


Maximizing attack skill speed use
It should be clear, But the fastest links you can perform is usually a dash cancel skill after any other type of skill use. As if you want to go speed demon on everything you should practice-

X skill- Cancel into dash art- X skill- Cancel into dash art. Etc~

This is just a section explaining some imo important unique stats in detail. I will prob only go over Base Lea and maybe a few others.

Note you can reset your skill points at the INFO shop at the docks though currently its an akward process as in its requirements to do so. Sadly restarting might be for the best for a few select new people if they really messed up.



Base Lea Passives



Assault Is probably the most important unique stats to melee and base imo, Since it adds 20% (From your actual base attack stat I believe). What the skill description does not tell you is on the 4th swing 2 of these fire out. Adding a possible frontal 40%. It can crit, And as well take advantage of elem weakness. If you happen to have this stat from an equipment and different skill tree sources, You would get more X base projectiles.

*Note* -idiot5k down in the comments says it works differently then i have stated. Whenever true or changed/outdated from when i played i don't know. But you may want to look at his breakdown of it.








X Counter Idealy you're suppose to stop and dodge when an enemy is charging or attacking. However i still think its useful when you get your few hits in. As a bonus Ice Form's Chill lowers attack animations and benefits more from this. And due to the aggressive nature of enemys. Alot of oppurtunitys to tick it in.




Pin Body An Oxymoron that the more def you have the less damage you reflect back, Still though the 30% dmg you reflect back can be enchanced, Such as landing a crit and damage modiftyer benefits. Its also 100% accurate and never misses. Interestingly enough this also ticks when you get hit during Guard Sphere art. Unforchantly it does not add SP.





HP Regen You probably want it, Just so you regen in every Form. JUST SAYING! Unless your a evasion or low damage intake god~ Admitingly it might lose value in late game due to Wave Form. Arguably, Also the worst stat infliction that you can get is burn/shock dmg which this would help counter/halve out as well.





HEAT/WAVE/SHOCK Passives



Avenger A Great passive to have that absorbs SP, It works with Guard Sphere allowing you to absorb every hit when you switch to the form quickly after casting from Base Lea. Works with Perfect guard stance as well.

Note, If from an gear peice, I believe the double effect still plays on as well.



ICE Passives


Bastion Its self explantory on what it does, I just wanted to note when you change forms while holding this out you will still retain it. Allowing you to hulker in any form if you desire to 360 block along with having other forms passive benefits.

(Below is what a 360 degree sheild looks like out)








Break the game passive's

Okay, Ive been keeping this to myself for a while. If you really want to break the game and roll everything over. Just get this. What it does is it increases your threshold on sheilds (Not important) And pretty much grants your sheild 32% Damage reduction, Yep! Thats right. A full 32% damage reduction. Matched with guard sphere. You are basicly god at this point. Idk what they were thinking. Its a simple and overly bad oversight. It's just how it is. Im sure it will be nerfed at some point.




This is a unique endgame gear stat that can only be gained through from Rhombus Square (At least as far im aware) Its pretty vague but what it actually does it increases a stats proc/tick. I brought this unique stat up because this is Spheromancers dream to inflict absurdly free painful charge shots/skill stats inflictions.


So if example relating to jolt that would land a stun shock 10X times with 20% stat it will be around 12X+ instead.

In relation with Wave stat it will increase the amount of percent damage debuff higher.

In relation to burning burn speed DPS increases (I Think)

In relation with Chill stats the slow rate increases.

Items And You
If you're going to need to use any items thats a sign you are doing pretty bad, But hey its okay. We all are not 24 hr pros~ Using items in CrossCode is dangerous as it leaves you pinned down for a full 5 seconds. AND you may even be canceled out of your item for the first 1-2 seconds. Overall you dont want to be at the point of using anything at all, Still If you must and are able to just make the simple steps of-


-GUARD SPHERE
-EAT ITEM














-Or- (And lesser preferred)

-WELL TIMED ICE WALL
-EAT ITEM


You can also simpily just time it right, Or wait to trade an attack opportunity for an eatting one, Though idealy you don't really want to im sure.

Buffs And You
When it comes to buffing in CrossCode it is never a bad idea to. Either before a boss or in a acceptable moment during one. Some buff items, Even comes with other effects such as immediate healing. Or unique stats later on.

Its not a requirement to do at all, And your free to ignore that you have the option to do so. It will make your boss'ing easier though if you decide to learn and use it. If you want to attempt true min-maxing damages.

The rules are fairly simple, You can eat/have a base of 2 buffs sources however if you eat 2 and one of the 2 buffs has a same stat, That buff will be overwritten while the buff slot will be as well.


Effective Time/When To Buff
Aside from before the boss fight, The best time to buff offensively imo is before whenever your going to attempt a major/solid HP bypass. Or land a pindown/pinup skill ultimate/Tier 3 skill. Though i would never try to buff during a break/downed state on a boss unless on the end when hes getting up or on a very rare exception such as late game buffs.

Offensive wise. The most 2 favorable stats early on would be, Attack -for more damage, And Focus. For a chance to crit and to play off your buffed attack.

Defensive wise. I suggest early on HP Regen + Max HP, As they both also work with each other well. Since you would get more HP in your regen to hold.


Enhancing Buffs
There are passives that may increase the effect of buffs, Mainly relating to base Lea (Can be gear wise as well) such as-









You might be concerned about when Lea switchs forms and gets only a 50% base Lea stats transfer. When relating to these both they will stay in full effect and suffer no penalty.

It did not really occur to me that maybe i should go over PvP, I want to try to keep it Spoiler free but for those who know what im refering to, My record would be 5-0, 5-0, 5-1 (I lived with my failure as i was legitly impressed XD) 5(+1)-0. As a pure melee build, Blind/No re-do's. I can only speak from that perspective and way. I also do not want to pretend i know relating to other Spheromancer paths as i have not played them first hand. Sorry if it does not relate or pretain to you build wise.




The worst thing you can do
The absolute worst thing In pvp imo is to throw DPS balls at anybody in a non over extended state, What usually happens is they dodge, You get stuck with moving at whatever your shooting move rate is, And they dash foward gaining a great distance advantage over you. Instead, What you should do is charge shots only instead because there AI seems to be not able to sense a charge projectile to well, Including if it has bounced off a wall. It does not mean you should aim to trick shot every one you fire, Just let enough bounce around to add pressure.

Knowing when to hit with base actions
Most people will know that during a red glowing over extended state thats when you should attack.

Alot of others though dont know the 4th Strike in a melee attack with NO SP is also a window of opportunity of attack, As they suffer the same short recovery penalty as you when they spin and they dont know how to cancel dash out unlike yourself.

You may simply run around in circles along the wall while not attacking at all, They will eventually overextend on there own.




The idea when melee pvp'ing
This is just a personal prefrence, But my general standards is to be the offense rather then let them move/do anything as a melee build, Alternating between Offensive tier 2 melee pindown arts, And a bit mix of (usually) cheap tier 1 guard arts.

Its also a good idea to have any number of icewalls up on the screen at all times as they are very versatile in offensive and defensive purpose's.

Suggested pin downs: Calamity Trigger, Ice Tornado

Suggested Guard Arts: Guard Sphere, And any you prefer really



YOU DONT, Want to blindly base action melee them upfront. If that is what you want to open with guard sphere before hand to null their possible counter attack.

YOU MAY, Initiate with a tier 2 melee pindown skill, But this will leave them a pretty good chance to counter slash back, Mainly you want to re catch them with a tier 2 melee pindown when they attempt to back off from whatever you are doing to them to lock them down again, Or simpilly finish them off.

ITS DEBATABLE, If you should ultimate/use tier 3's or not, I wouldent suggest it unless you really need to go for the kill. Its much better to instead go with/have-

Tier 2 skill, Tier 2 skill, Tier 1 any and maintain flexabilty with your SP.





If you really don't give a- about pvp rules and just want to win
Just guard sphere anytime they want to rush you/move close, And swing back. Really, Thats all there is to it if you have a decent amount of def stats and melee dmg. You may have to improvise a little but really not much.

You may also eat buffs before hand~ As the game does not seem to have a pre-removal feature.

Techs
A list of stuff that you arent suppose to really be able to do but can.








COMBAT

Falling Evasion During some bosses with falling you can use this to your advantage to trade a larger blow from a boss with a falling down damage instead, Im unsure how fall damage is caculated (Should be about 8-10% on average) but this gives you about 4 seconds of invincbilty and may be much more worth it then taking a large damage boss hit.

Infinite Dash Count As you might have noticed your limited to 3 dashs untill you peform a base action or shortly wait afterwards, The most fastest and convenient way to bypass this is to hold your dash button during any dash to raise your sheild animation as you "almost" can infinitely dash seeminglessly with this since that will also count as a 3 count reset.


FIELD

Long Jump You can perform a slightly longer jump if you jump while still holding the direction- Perform a base action (Other then dash), And then dash cancel immeditly. Causing you to go further then intended, With this you can get to places you are not suppose to.

A dash art midair could also work when used right.

Corner Jump Knowing the long jump you can get to certain corners as well with it by simpily moving in the direction of cancel dash.

Lazor Jump This is a compilcated process of getting hit intentaily by a enemy bird in later areas that charges up to attack you, When a bird stoics you charge a lazor from heat form, While you're in the air you get hit by the bird and because lazor involves you going to max height you get hit before the Iifting frames, Letting the hit knock you back onto whatever's behind you landing above.


TOWN

Black Market Trading With using only a keyboard you may trade for items and sell items...discreetly, Im trying to keep this lowkey and vauge for reasons. At the same time, Press with left click and backspace during somewhere during any shoping to cause something that might go wrong after you make a selection in X amount of quantity.

This is the end page of everything, GOOD LUCK! I expect nothing but S'es from this point!

Though really i hope you got helped in some way. Hang in there, You're going to make it through.

-Spheromancer Templar-




If you don't...well- You tried!

Codes that im aware of that work

WoN-Boots: Gives you cosmetic star sparky boots.




Holiday-Man: Unlocks Santa One Punch Man cameo in snow town. If you complete his tedious quest you can get a santa hat cosmetic. And sometime later in the game when you get around to more temples, He gives you holiday sparky boots.

(Example of both on + Shock elem)













Best-VA: Unlocks terrible April Fools VA. If you dare to do this. You can disable this by entering it again.




Caramelldansen: Unlock that meme dance on idle/not moving Lea for a little while.

A list of questions you might have and answers i might provide that i do not think that would quite fit anywhere else while also being combat related. Im still going to assume you know the basics of the game such as how to use a skill so sorry if that is what your looking for.





How do i get One Punch Achievement?

It's an several answer process that comes with many possible steps.

-Be at endgame
-Melee art Blizzard Hawk or higher.
-Low lvl enemy with ice weakness.
-Berserker stacks from gear + Using water/falling to get into the required state for it to work.
-Brawler stacks from gear
-Spicy buff + any FOC related buff from Rhombus square
-Not be in a party OR have party members in Do nothing mode. (Because damage scaling)




Are critical builds valid and if so how do they work?

-No and Yes, No as in not so much early on but is workable later.

The way landing criticals work is your FOC vs enemy FOC. The more you have higher, The higher chance of landing a critical and the ability to resist them on vice versa. With Shock form being a sort of late game elem and related you will have to wait a while to have anything efficent going. As well as rely on FOC buffing + Attack alot.

Even if you dont land a critical hit keep in mind having a high FOC will increase your SP gain per hit anyway as well. So no non crit is an entire loss.



How come you have not gone over X Skill?

Either they are very simple/obvious and needs no more further explanation, Or i dont have enough reason imo to bring them up.



What is the most realistic char lvl i can get to in the game? And is there anyway to get perma CP?

level 60-64 with endgame boosters from Rhombus square (Enables hard mode in an area) is what alot of people will end up on reasonably when they push for it. And you may get perma CP with endgame related quests, Or some long chain ones, Such as Henrys.



I get zero exp when i kill things, Why?

In late game there are gear peices that gives NO EXP unique stat.



The game is still too hard for me, What can i do?

You may fine tune the game at your liesure with the option menu using sliders. That lowers enemy attack damages and such. Apollo might not be to happy about it but eh, Just tell him to go away~

Touching these wont effect your abillity to get any achievements.

This is a section of some links to and of other Spheromancers who clearly have masterd their class and craft and are just examples of what you can possibly do. Its not that they take no damage is what makes them great, Rather the different strategys and answers they hold on how to get there or close to.

Obviously, This section has Spoilers. So dont scroll down unless you dont care or just use the tabs on your right cause im a very lazy formatter.























Favmir

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy8Y8yKfEzk


Gellot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLJYyU5zYsI


Xdragon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxhWTU_9yFk


Borgmo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwerctaaZFA


影子

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3Tno--DIcI


Zen Advent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgjrGd3mZjg


One more hour

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CftIyGpQRwk

This will be an awkward attempt to translate my build and style into words. This is just for fun and i suppose a refrence to a possible melee style type variation. This is not the go to or must do for a melee build and is just an example. Nor something you should probably care to look at if your not interested.




The Bread And Butter I play a super aggressive glass cannon DPS, Based around on assault stats and somewhat to a degree maining Heat form while ofc, Having a high attack stat. Why assault passive? What can just some little projectiles do for you? Well. Assault has several key factors to it that makes it great. The main ones are-

-Takes advantage of elem weakness and changes accordingly to your form.
-Increases break rate
-Can crit.
-Can X Counter (Unsure if this changed)
-Will always about 90 degree spawn outward in front of your face direction
-Absurdly projectile stackable as you progress through the game.



How to get more assault projectiles

-Base Lea tree.
-Mainly Heat tree/Other forms
-Each gear peice.
-4th Strike in Leas melee swing

^You see that blinding light? I don't even know how many im throwing at the end strike. But all i know is, Its ALOT.



-The Way To Survive/Expand DPS melee lands-

Theres 3 key defensive skills that i depend on for both defensive and offensive purposes. As well as buy more time for regen ticks.

360 sheild passive + Frozen Stance, Glitch Time, And Guard Sphere

All which can help in both surviving or dealing more damage at the same time according to your leisure. Once you get the base lea passive Solid Guard that gives 32% dmg reduction to all sheilds and increase sheild threshold, You can began droping your gear quailty for any assault passive stacks. As to offset the overpowering defense (During blocking anyway) you will now have can now be traded for it.


Frozen Stance- Is a blessing, Mainly used to eat range shots to feed you SP. And even when not used for that purpose apply Slow effect on anybody who lands a melee hit on you, The effect can never be resisted, Including bosses.

Guard Sphere- Used to give your sheild threshold a break. Also there are just some cases where your not going to get a Counter block skill. You would use this instead.

Glitch Time- If your overflowing with mana its the best offensive measure you can take so long as your ready to end on a tier 2-3 skill








-The Way To Offensive Skills-

Theres 3 offensive skills i highly favor in general situations.

Calamity Trigger, And Ice Tornado

Mainly, To re-pin/pindown and deny anybodys escape attempt within an AoE, Help bypass bosses HP bars, Or just shove multi targets away.

Battery Assault (How ironic :p)

Which is the better bypasser for HP bars, The best finisher of the 3, And a great skill to end Glitch time on.








The Way To Forsake/Sacrifice Skill Picks

In most cases. I abandoned dash arts and range arts. There are some exceptions like with heat tree just so i can reach another assault. Or in wave to reach 100% perfect guard avenger. And throw ice arts for ultilitys, Or shock art throws just for the stats rush passive. But for the most part the rest are irrelavent to me so i left them behind.



The Way Of The Rush

Since this build lacks solid range damage, I have taken all rush stats to help make up for this. As landing charge shot stats is a very nice alternate way to deal with anything out of true reach.





The Way To End Bosses

Its probably clear~ Still i have to make sure though, Landing a Chill stats during a boss in break state/Downed state is a very great idea if able. Most bosses have a getting up animation so you will delay a base and average of 2+ seconds once inflicted. In my builds case a simple frozen star at the beginning to mid section time works fairly well, As the charge time you used to cast it will be returned and is almost a free skill land.

Depending on some factors you can increase the effectivness of your Chill time/Slow output and add more seconds to damage bosses.

One which i all ready listed above with stats rush, The other with the stats rush on gear at endgame.

Combined with your high break rate from assault stacks and your abillity to delay a wake up, You will be a aggressive force to be feared. Not even counting if you attack buffed before hand.




The Way Of Unique Stats

There is some i favor highly but it should be obvious which ones.

X Counter- You will be head to head with quite a bit of enemys, Including during guard sphere.

HP Regen- Im a no item man, But also know that eventually no matter what during a blind playthrough im going to mess up or get hit at some point.

Avenger- For SP conversions that will happen.

Pin Body- Since alot of blocks will be made. More damage.



The Way Of The Keyboard And Mouse

I know its certainly not for everyone. But i have used KBM with all of its default settings. I can confirm that it is eventually- natural/can be masterd assuming your a good or higher player. I had very little problems meleeing after a while though admitingly i was not the best at range to melee or melee to range attacks at the start.


Keys That You Should Probably Ignore

There are keys that i purposely ignore though to- (Or at least attempt) To increase efficiency, Like

-Elemental Wheel-, Reasoning- 1-4 Selection is just more accurate imo.

-Neutral Reset-, Reasoning- Just tap the same elem to revert to minus 1 less key. Or double press on one.

-All Base action keys-, Reasoning- Mouse being binded with all 4 is more efficent, Admitingly difficult for those who arent used to Multi button purpose (Which in this case its 2 actions each) thinking but better to learn it then forsake.







In Conclusion

Knowing all of this above, The damage of my normal swings absolutely FLYS on everything i touch during heat form or other wise. And high survivabilty so long as your reaction time is great in casting skills.

On average, Everything non boss i have touched dies within 8-15 seconds. And most bosses during my blind playthrough would be 1-3 mins.

It's also the most consistent adrenaline fun way to enjoy the game that i can think of. If your a precision speed melee nut like myself.






THE TRUE END OF THE GUIDE/OUTLOOK

I seriously hope you enjoyed your time with CrossCode and even if you dident thats cool too. Peace to all Spheromancers.