by in
COMBAT DX
This mod is a substantial expansion to Sonic Frontiers’ existing combat system, featuring an in-combat Ranking system, Buffs, Skill Links, a new attack and much, much more.
The goal of this mod is to draw out the strengths of the existing combat system while adding a plethora of new features to encourage, and enhance, long and flashy combos. If you’ve wanted the chance to push combat to its limits and be appropriately rewarded, read on.
Combat is now centered around the Phantom Rush gauge. Your regular damage is significantly lower, but your Phantom Rush damage is significantly higher. Move Staling has been introduced, so repeatedly spamming the same attacks will grant less and less meter, and you’ll be graded during combat based on how stylish your combos are.
A new Skill Link system has been implemented, allowing you to gain powerful buffs after a combo, and many moves have received slight tweaks to enhance their unique qualities.
Video Showcase
General Changes
- Regular damage greatly reduced.
- Phantom Rush damage massively increased.
- Tutorial reworked to explain the new mechanics.
- Skill Link system added.
- Style system added. Points are accrued with each attack and deplete over time. Higher points grant higher Combo Ranks.
- Taunt system added. Hold crouch during combat to activate a Taunt at the cost of some Phantom Rush meter. Taunts increase your Style Score.
- Sonic will now say a line after combat based on your Combo Rank.
- Difficulty scaling added to the new systems. On Hard, Super Sonic fights become stricter, Meter gain is lower, missing a Parry is more punishing, etc.
- Moves now stale, granting lower Style Score, Phantom Rush, and Quick Cyloop meter.
- Exp is now awarded after combat based on your Style Score and Combo Ranks.
- The scrapped attack, Pursuit Kick, has been restored.
- Grand Slam, Cyclone Kick and Cross Slash are now unlocked via new combat achievements.
- Soldier type enemies made much stronger.
- Ninja type enemies made much, much stronger.
- Super Sonic’s Phantom Rush gauge is now a Special Attack meter.
- Giganto and Knight have had slight HP buffs.
- Most attacks have been slightly rebalanced.
- Cyloop will now grant 1 item drop per minute when used outside of combat. Awards 600 exp instead of 200 upon a Skill Piece drop.
- Max rings reduced. Starts at 200, caps at 400.
Move Changes
- Parry: Window reduced to 0.5 seconds. Missing a Parry will halve your Phantom Rush meter (affected by difficulty scaling).
- Drop Dash: Powerful Finisher.
- Sonic Boom: Damage reduced. Teleport distance reduced. Projectile speed increased. Now stalls enemies in the air. Grants 20% more Phantom Rush gain on your next attack.
- Wild Rush: Camera and zigzag angles changes. Zigzag speed slightly increased. Deals very light upwards knockback.
- Homing Shot: Acts as a powerful Finisher.
- Spin Slash: Duration slightly increased. Generates no meter. Last hit is an extremely strong finisher.
- Recovery Smash: Damage reduced.
- Stomp (ability/basic attack): Spikes the enemy downward.
- Loop Kick: Moderate finisher. Knocks the enemy away and downward.
- Quick Cyloop: Meter fills faster. Extends Skill Links. Starts at 1 use, caps at 3 consecutive uses, increasing with Link Level.
- Grand Slam: Damage reduced. Unique unlock requirement: Parry 10 attacks in 1 encounter. Missing a parry or taking damage resets the counter.
- Cyclone Kick: Damage reduced during the Looping phase. Unique unlock requirement: Use 200 Kick-Type attacks in combat during your playthrough. Pursuit Kick, hits 2 and 4 of the basic combo, Stomp and Loop Kick all count towards this.
- Cross Slash: Damage (relatively) reduced. Teleport distance reduced, making this an effective Warp tool during combos. Unique unlock requirement: Use Sonic Boom 100 times in combat during your playthrough (NOTE: Must be 100 unique activations).
- Forward finisher: Upwards knockback effect increased.
- Backwards finisher: Downwards knockback effect increased.
- Pursuit Kick: Re-added to the game. To activate, press the right button (B on an Xbox controller) during/after a Homing Attack, Stomp, Loop Kick, Spin Slash, Homing Shot, Cyclone Kick, hits 2/4 of the standard combo, or a dodge. Can also be used after Aerial Quick Cyloop by pressing the left button (X on an Xbox controller).
Explanations
- See the mod’s README for a more detailed breakdown.
Style System:- Every attack generates Style Score and fills your Quick Cyloop/Phantom Rush meter by the same amount. Using the same attack consecutively will stale the move, granting lower returns but unstaling your other moves by 1 phase. Moves can stale up to 5 times.
- The following moves are not affected by the Style System (they do not grant points and will not stale or unstale): Homing Attack, Manual Cyloop, Spin Slash, Spin Jump, Drop Dash.
Quick Cyloop will neither Stale nor Unstale, but it is tracked (more on this in Skill Links). - Taking damage will halve your Style Score (affected by difficulty scaling), though an immediate Recovery Smash will offset this.
- After gaining a high enough Style Score, you’ll gain a Combo Rank.
- Style Score depletes over time after a certain threshold (faster at higher ranks, sooner on higher difficulties).
- At the end of combat, you’ll receive exp equal to your highest Style Score in that battle multiplied by your current Combo Rank.
Skill Link
- After successfully Parrying an attack, your next 3 move will be tracked. Upon using the third, you will receive a Bonus.
- Your first move determines the type of Bonus, the second determines the potency, the third determines the length.
- Bonus can be multipliers to meter gain/style score, an immediate boost to one of those aspects, an injection of rings, or unique effects like infinite Phantom Rush and halting meter depletion.
- If Quick Cyloop is the third move used, the Link Level increases, letting you use another 3 attacks and granting access to stronger effects, higher potency and longer length. Also increases the number of consecutive Quick Cyloop uses for the rest of combat. Link Level caps at 3 and resets once a Skill Link finishes.
Finishers
- While not technically a new mechanic, certain moves receive significantly higher damage multipliers during Phantom Rush than others. These moves generally have lengthy animations and grant little to no meter, so use them strategically to end encounters quickly.
Drop Dash, Homing Shot, Loop Kick and Spin Slash are all powerful finishers.
Known Bugs
- Upon exiting combat after attaining a Combo Rank, your quest target (blurb of text, e.g. “Search for Friends”) may disappear.
- Super Sonic’s Phantom Rush meter may think it’s active when it’s not. Using Sonic Boom or taking a hit should resolve this.
- If you gain meter without having a combo active, the combo meter will display “0000009”. This is harmless and will go away once you hit an enemy.
Notes
- While the Tutorial does introduce the new mechanics, if you’re playing on a fresh file the full combat system will not be active until you grab the blue emerald on Kronos and see the pop-up explaining Style Score.
The player_common merge tool should allow physics changes to be used with Combat DX. The new systems will still work even if you replace the player_common rfl entirely, but combat will be horrifically unbalanced if you do so.
Combat DX has a companion version built specifically for Hedgehog May Cry. This is a stripped down version of the main mod that only includes the Style System (along with English voice lines) and Elder Koco fixes. The Style System in this companion mod has been reworked to account for HMC’s faster pacing.
Good luck, and happy combo’ing.