Astral Chain Guide: Advanced Combat Tips, Advice, And Everything You Need To Know

Tips to Help You Master Astral Chain's Combat

Platinum Games' is a developer known for creating satisfying combat mechanics, and Astral Chain's has continued this tradition with a unique and exciting combat system. While it has a decent opening tutorial system to help you along, there are several tactics and maneuvers that the game doesn't quite tell you early on. To help you become the ultimate anime cop, we've gathered some handy tips below.

Hopefully, these combat tips will give you the fighting edge against the vicious Chimeras! Those beasts can be a handful if you're not careful, so definitely study what we've highlighted to ensure your survival during the game's tougher encounters. For a look at how S+ rank combat looks, watch the video above. Otherwise, refer to the table of contents below to jump to the tips you want to hear about most.

Table of Contents

• Organize Your Squad
• Unleash the Beast
• Must-Have Legion Skills
• Learn the Unique Attacks
• Become the Chain Master
• The Runaway King: Ride the Beast Legion
• Be Ability Efficient
• Cheese Damage with Cutscene Animations

For the uninitiated, Astral Chain is the latest from Platinum Games, a studio most known for its work on top-tier action games like Bayonetta, Nier: Automata, and Vanquish. It's possibly one of the developer's best titles; GameSpot editor Michael Higham gave it an X/10 and said: "Astral Chain's underwhelming story doesn't overshadow what it does best. It's an incredible execution of a fresh take on the stylish-action foundation. And its own anime-inspired swagger makes the satisfying battles all the more exhilarating."

If you enjoyed this Astral Chain guide and want more, be sure to let us know in the comments below. And don't hesitate to discuss any additional tips you've found while out on the battlefield.

Organize Your Squad

In Astral Chain, one of your primary weapons is your Legions, which are living weapons that stand beside you. They're central to combat, each possessing their own unique attacks and abilities that help you dispatch enemies. As you progress the story, you gradually gain more Legions, ending up with a total of five. To switch between these Legions, you can either hold Y to bring up a menu, or tap Y to quickly change to the next Legion.

If you want to fight more effectively, learn to layer and combine Legion skills that complement one another. Once you get a flow of which Legion's attacks and abilities best follow up another's, reorganize them to suit your strategy. This way you can tap Y to seamlessly switch to your Legion without pulling up the wheel menu--though remember that you'll switch between them in clockwise order. Organizing your squad to create preset skill combos can help you unleash devastating attacks that maximize crowd control and damage output.

Unleash the Beast

Every Legion can learn a skill called "Hit Rush," which unchains the Legion to attack autonomously. While underwhelming since it removes control over the Legion, it's incredibly useful because you can summon another one to the field while the other is engaging on its own. Use this combat technicality to your advantage when you're looking to unleash absolute hell on your enemies, or if you need to put aggro elsewhere and retreat when you're near death.

Must-Have Legion Skills

Two of the most valuable skills you can access early are Axe Legion's Blue Shield and Beast Legion's Howl. Both are essential in buying you time to heal, set up a combo, or attack an opponent without risk of getting interrupted during tougher battles. Blue Shield allows you to tank three hits without taking damage, allowing you to plow through the enemy without worrying about being interrupted. It can also be used defensively to ensure your healing animation is uninterrupted.

The power of Chain Binding weakens after subsequent uses on the same enemy, and by the third Chain Bind, they'll be unaffected. Unlike chaining an enemy, however, Howl's effectiveness does not weaken upon each use and can be used throughout the fight for offense and defense, making it an invaluable skill.

Learn the Unique Attacks

As fun as it is to wail on the ZR button and smack enemies around, there are more efficient and flashy attacks in your arsenal. As you upgrade your X-Baton and Legatus, you'll learn multiple unique command attacks to perform with your Legions, such as a spin attack, delayed attacks, and charge attacks.

The Sword Legion's spin attack or the Axe Legion's delayed attack are some of the more impressive offensive maneuvers. There are many unique weapon and Legion combinations, so go to the training hall and experiment with them to get a better grasp of how they work.

Become the Chain Master

Be sure to practice managing your chain's multiple abilities in a fight. Having smooth control of Chain Dashing, Chain Binding, and Chain Pulling is essential in combat. Also, some skills cancel if you dismiss your Legion, so sometimes it's better to chain pull your Legion out of danger and send them back out. Learn the ins and outs of chain control to manage the fight.

The Runaway King: Ride the Beast Legion

Although the Axe Legion can shield you while you heal, in a pinch, riding the Beast Legion to reposition and stall may be a better option. While mounted on the Beast Legion you're almost invincible, automatically dodging every attack without you touching the controls. You can also use this tactic to timer scam the enemy and let your skills recharge, or retreat to a better spot farther away from all of the mayhem.

Be Ability Efficient

As you progress, you acquire ability shards that you can use to customize your Legion with unique traits, such as increased chain range or the ability for a Legion to self-destruct after running out of energy. These abilities rank from one-to-three stars, but each possesses additional perks that improve your stats and characteristics.

While you might be tempted to equip powerful two-to-three-star shards, it's better to slot in one-star shards that have two bonus perks. Higher-star shards may be powerful, but they quickly eat up the five points worth of shards you can equip. If anything, it's quite difficult to find a 3-star ability that's worth the slots. You're better off fitting five one-star shards with great complimentary perks to maximize your Legion's potential better.

Cheese Damage with Cutscene Animations

Some Sync Attacks go into cool one-to-three-second animations, which are surprisingly beneficial during fights. You're entirely invincible during these attacks so that you can deal damage without worrying about getting hurt. Try using Sync Attacks to your advantage while in a hectic situation!

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