Mabinogi Combat FAQ

Mabinogi Combat Frequently Asked Questions by kitaek27

Hello, and welcome to the Mabinogi Combat FAQ (version 2!!). Due to popular demand and a lot of questions being asked, I hoped to answer as much as possible by putting it all into one big FAQ. Please zoom through the bolded words to see if any questions concern to you.

This FAQ will cover questions as such as “What kind of battle system”, “Skills”, “Monster types”, etc etc. Because Mabinogi is so unique, it is difficult to explain it in words. You’ll be seeing visuals to guide you. ALL SNAPSHOTS, INFO, AND GUIDE HERE belong to Devcat, Nexon, and the guy who took the snapshots and put it together, ME. If you plan to take anything out I’d appreciate you giving credit, and maaaybe even telling me.

BASICS! WSAD or Click?! 

For those of you looking for a WSAD experience, I am greatly sorry to inform you that this game is a clicking game, meaning all interactions are done with the mouse, and shortcut keys. However, WSAD does come in later on in the game as controls for flight.

Is there anything I can do to make clicking easier? (edit v2)

I know clicking is a drag sometimes. And when you fight, you might accidentally click on the wrong target! Or maybe the enemy is ridiculously small and you can’t click him? But don’t fear, because thats what the CONTROL (ctrl) key exists for! By clicking one enemy and holding the ctrl key, you automatically LOCK ON to your target. From this point on, when ever you push the ctrl key again, your mouse is automatically considered to be clicking on your target (works for all sorts of skills and things outside of combat as well).

This is what locking on looks like. If I click anywhere in the screen now, my character will direct all actions against the locked on enemy. To unlock, simply press the space key to snap out of combat mode and into normal mode, or click on another monster without holding ctrl.

Wait what? Did you say combat mode and normal mode? (edit v2)

There is almost nothing different from the two, other than the way your character stands and runs. But there are a few differences. In combat mode, you’re more likely to attract attention from near by animals and monsters. You CANNOT attack in normal mode. Do not fret, because combat mode is automatically activated when you click to attack. It takes about 1/4 of a second for your character to get into combat mode.

This is normal mode.

And this is combat mode. Don’t criticize my taste in pink. Its a manly color.

Classes? Races? Stats?

Probably the most commonly asked questions revolve around these three words. There are no classes in Mabinogi, and if anyone tells you that they are an archer, it was self proclaimed by someone who uses bows very well. Everyone can learn whatever skills they want, and balance their character however they like.

Extra races are not expected to enter until later in the game. The races you can play as are Humans, Elves, and Giants. Humans are obviously the well rounded types. Elves have extra archery abilities, as such as shooting on a horse, or running faster. Giants have a larger boost of strength.

Your stats will decide a limitless amount of things in this game, but most people primarily focus on the following.

• Strength: Additional Close Combat Damage
• Intelligence:  Additional Magic Attack Damage and determines the success rate of INT related skills
• Dexterity: Additional Long Range Combat Damage, Determines the success rate of DEX related skills, Additional Balance Rate for all attacks
• Will: Determines the success rate of getting deadly status after reciving overwhelming damage. Additional Critical Rate, Determines the success rate of Will related Skills.
• Luck: Determines the rate of rare item drops, Additional Critical Rate

As you can see, all stats are required to play the game in a balanced manner. Stats can be raised by aging, leveling, training a skill, reading books, training, and eating certain foods. There are also other ways to raise stats. Also, additional stats should be mentioned:

• Health: This is your life meter. It will recover by itself slowly, but “wound damage” prevents you from healing yourself. In these cases you must use first aid.
• Mana: This is your magic meter. You will need this to use magic, or use other magic related skills.
• Stamina: Stamina plays a huge role in the game. Just about everything you do (from life skills to combat) takes stamina. Once you run out of stamina, attacks will be drastically weakened, and skills will stop working. “Hunger” takes a huge toll on stamina, slowly removing your max stamina. Always eat to keep your stamina bar in top shape.
• Defense: Decreases the damage you recieve by 1 per point.
• Protection: Decreases the percent damage you recieve by 1 per point. Also decreases the enemy’s critical rate by 1 per point.

Hit hit hit! What is so unique about this? 
The most unique part of the mabinogi combat system is that all weapons have a limited number of times it can attack. For example, a quick weapon like the dagger can attack three times, before it causes a “push back”, where the enemy is… literally pushed back. Then you both charge at each other, where you have a 33% chance of striking the enemy, 33% chance of being struck by the enemy, or a 33% chance you strike each other. There is NO missing for close ranged melee, so someone is absolutely going to take the hit. No matter how powerful your character may be, or how fast, this fact does NOT change. However, the entire point of the combat system is to prevent becoming hit. This can be successfully done by correctly activating skills.

For future references, please remember the following terms.

• Stun: The unit has taken damage, and is flinching. At this moment they are open to any type of attack, and cannot retaliate.
• Push Back: The unit was pushed back. During the push back you can use skills, or drink potions.
• Knock Back: The most powerful type of attack, a knock back, will send a unit flying and landing on their back. You cannot drink potions during this time.

Rock Paper Scissors! Predict your enemy and strike! 

Mabinogi’s combat is done to the point where monster and animal strengths seem realistic. Even a pro may fall to simple monsters like goblins if they do not use the right skills.

Combat Skills are activated by clicking the customizable shortcuts at the top left of your screen, or pushing the manually set F keys. The basic combat skills are the following. Remember that all units in the game use these skills to protect themselves (including animals and monsters)

• Defense: Blocks all attacks but knock back attacks. While this skill is activated your defense and protection severely rises, and any unit that attacks you will be open for parrying. This skill can be activated while WALKING. Once the skill is prepared you will be in walking position.
• Smash: This skill concentrates your strength into one knock back attack. An enemy taking a smash attack will be knocked back no matter what, unless they used a skill to counter it. This skill can be activated while RUNNING. Once the skill is prepared you must run up to your opponent and click to attack. The greatest weakness in this skill is that it is slow, and has a 0% chance of hitting if the opponent charges head on with a regular attack. This skill is often used to penetrate Defense.
• Windmill: This attack allows you to spin rapidly, attacking all enemies that may try to team up on you. Windmill is a click activated attack, so the timing must be precise. All units hit by this attack is knocked back. This skill can be activated any time, but the character can no longer move while its preparing, or after it is prepared. During the character’s spin, he cannot be targed for attacking. Keep in mind Windmill may be blocked by Defense.
• Counter: This skill is self working, allowing your character to return the damage of any melee attack and knock back the opponent with your own power added to it. This skill can be activated any time, but the character can no longer move while its preparing, or after it is prepared. This skill can be kept up as long as you’d like, but it drains constant stamina. Windmill and ranged attacks easily bust through this skill

To make my rambles seem somewhat more sensable, I have created a +/- list with pictures. I guess its still pretty complicated.

Thanks to the way a character walks, runs, or stays still after activating a target, you can predict your opponent’s movements and counter it with a skill of your own. The best way to trick another is to change the type of movement on purpose to confuse the enemy (ie, walk to pretend you’re using defense while you’re using a regular attack)

Monsters! What are they like?

This game seriosly lacks ideas when it comes to monsters. Their design, looks, names, and all the other things you’d expect from a monster is exceptionally brilliant, but the “types” of mosnters are rounded down to be only in the 20~30’s. This means they’ll look different, have different stats and skills, say different things, but will most likely have the same combat ai. The most common type you’ll be facing are: Wolf, Goblin, Skeletal types, because they’re probably all over the world.

One thing to note about this game is that since the combat system is so specialized to fighting one on one with strategy, things get VERY difficult when it the fighting becomes 2 against 1. Things to note is that you should not panic when you see multiple enemies, because they’re not likely to charge at once (unless they are specially programed to team up). How do you know when a monster is engaging in battle with you?

The double exclamation mark, !! above a monster’s head stats they are in battle with you.

The single exclamation mark, ! above a monster’s head means they have noticed you, found you a threat, and has taken caution. Some may even be waiting for a chance to strike.

This is an example of multiagression (being ganged up on). If you are ever in a situation where 16 Golems are after you, don’t panic. Theres nothing you can do but die anyways.

This looks like a botter’s game

Not so! This game has clear regulations on the exp you gain while killing monsters. To prevent camping, field hunting for too long will reduce the amount of exp you gain. To prevent spamming on little monsters, the enemies are given “ranks” which match your character’s overall abilities. If your character is too powerful, they will not gain any exp at all from really weak monsters like foxes. Any monster considered strong enough to give you exp will most likely be a monster you can’t let some botting ai handle for you anyways.

Dungeons are also bot proof, because they require constant attention to move about in a semi-maze like environment.

Right… Dungeon… What are they like? 

BEHOLD AND REJOICE! You no longer need to wait for your chance to “rush” a PQ again! A dungeon is created whenever you drop an item into the pedestal, and that one item creates what basically is a separate channel for you and your party members! Most people do not barge into other people’s dungeons because theres really no reward to it, and people who want to be private usually drop uncommon items anyways.

Most dungeons are very similar, so repetition is something you should probably get used to. There are a few different type of rooms.

• Marble Room: There are four marbles on each corners of the room. One marble opens the door, the other 3 summons monsters.
• Trap Box Room: Opening a chest will close the doors and summon monsters. The doors will not open again until all monsters are defeated. These rooms are REQUIRED, because a summoned monster will drop a key for upcoming doors.
• Locked Door Room: There is a locked door. Each lock has its own color, and can only be opened using the same color key.
• Predeployed Room: Monsters have been predeployed in the corridor or room, with several fake treasure boxes and one real treasure box containing a key.
• Prize Room: Sometimes a Marble Room monster drops a small key. There are several prize and trap boxes in this room which can be opened with a small key.
• Single Pole Room: There is one pole. Hit it twice to reduce the number of monsters summoned. Defeat all to pass.
• Goddess Statue Room: These are check points you may set at the beginning of each floor. When you get knocked out, you may choose to revive at the last checkpoint. However, the penalty is quite large for using a checkpoint.
• Boss Room: Biggest Room in the dungeon, can only be opened by using Boss Room Key. The boss is in this room (duh). Defeat him for a prize key and your door way out.
• Exit Room: There are treasure chests matching the number of people who originally entered the dungeon. Each player is given a key for defeating the boss, and will be able to choose the chest with the prize they want.

Dungeons are most exciting with a party, and is quite necessary in future parts of the game. There are special passes which make each dungeon significantly more difficult.

• Newbie Pass: Not introduced until later into the game, newbie passes make the dungeon much easier, for people who cannot beat the dungeon regularly.
• Lower Pass: Lower pass increases the difficulty and length of the dungeon
• Mid Pass: Mid pass greatly increases the difficulty and length of the dungeon
• High Pass: You’d be a fool to try this kind of dungeon alone.
• Boss Rush Pass: Allows you to fight the boss directly, from regular, to high pass bosses without stop. This is done without a party, and no experience is given. The prize at the end is great, and the timer records your speed and posts it in the dungeon’s Boss Rush Board.

D…Death Penalty?

Don’t worry too much. The Death Penalty is not as devastating as Maplestory makes it to be. In fact, you are given options as of where to revive. The following choices are:

• Revive In Town: Restores 100% Health, 50% Wounds, and drops Exp by a small amount. Revives you in the last town.
• Revive In Place: Restores almost nothing, drops Exp Maplestory style, and revives you right on the spot.
• Wait for Rescue: A feather sign will rise above your head, and anyone with a feather of the phoenix can revive you. The health restoration is small, but the Exp loss is very minimal. It revives you on the spot. The person reviving you will gain the amount of exp he’d earn if he was a monster who killed you.
• Revive In Lobby: Only activated in a dungeon, same as revive in town, but it brings you to the lobby of the dungeon you are in.
• Revive At Last Goddess Checkpoint: Restores moderate health, drops a good load of exp, and allows you to revive at your last check point in the dungeon.
• Call Nao for Help: Nao can come revive you to max hp, mp, and stamina, with no exp loss at all, any time of the day, anywhere, and have you ready to fight in place once again. This is a limited feature based on time intervals (once every mabinogi day, which is about 36 minutes), and MAY or MAY NOT be a cash feature in NA Mabinogi.

Why would I revive in place?

Mabinogi is a big world. Sometimes, you just don’t want to walk all the way back to where you were. But the more scary part is that you MAY lose your items when you are knocked out. To prevent losing these items, you may “bless” your item. There is a chance the bless is removed when you are knocked out, however.

When you lose an item, it is shown on the ground. Reviving on the spot, or having someone rescue you is the only way to pick it back up. Do not worry, because no one else can pick it up. If you chose to revive anywhere else, the item will be transferred to a lost and found, where you must pay half the shop value to get the item back.

As you can see in this snapshot, being thrown off by skeletons have ripped me of my robes and armor.

Great Exceptions to the Basic Combat Rules? 

Yes. There are exceptions to the basic combat rules. One very fearful exception would be armors or monsters that have “AUTO DEFENSE”.

At certain % rate, auto defense may kick in, allowing a unit to automatically activate the skill Defense upon being hit. They are then open for parrying, so you’re pretty much screwed. Some ridiculously powerful field bosses just sit there taking damage, running through without a single look of flinch at all.

The basic four skills, Defense, Smash, Windmill, and Counter, can be easily busted by advanced skills. However, all advanced skills have their weaknesses as well, and can still be broken by at least one of the basic skills.

Screw all this! I want to be a Archer or Mage and shoot from back of the line! 

This is certainly possible, but please do learn to fight without bow and magic to defend yourself if you’re to run into a close combat setting.

Bow and Arrows are powerful weapons if used correctly. However, they only do flinch damage, and can be blocked my many skills, as such as defense, magic shield, assault, etc. Also, there is a % bar that rises up slowly to show your accuracy. Arrows CAN miss, and sometimes one missed shot could mean the end of you and your party.

To make up for this however, there are specific ranged skills as such as “Magnum Shot” (as seen above), which is a knock back type shot that acts nearly identicle to a arrow based Smash Attack. Also, “Revolver”, a very advanced skill for archers, allows you to shoot 5 consecutive shots without having to reload, giving you a speedy advantage to the fight.

Magic is a bit different from ranged melee. Its range is rather much shorter, and the damage is smaller most of the time. However, magic has its own power as well. There are three main element of “bolt” magic you can use.

• Icebolt: Costs the least amount of Mana, does the least damage, allows you to stock up 5 shots to attack 5 different times. Most balanced damage, fast prepare time. It does Flinch Damage, and the third shot will make it Push Back Damage.
• Lightningbolt: Costs the most amount of Mana, does great damage, allows you to stock up to 5 shots, to shoot multiple units at once. Least Balanced damage, fast prepare time. It does Flinch Damage, and two charges or more will make it Push Back Damage.
• Firebolt: Costs a great deal of Mana, does great damage, allows you to stock up to 5 shots, to shoot one target with all the shots piled up for maximum damage. Well Balanced damage, slowest prepare time. This move does Knock Back Damage no matter what

There are other middle rank and mix magic in the game (the one in the picture above is a advance level lightning type spell), but since this is a basic guide I will not cover them. Imagine the types of combonations you could do with these spells! Magic clearly adds greatly to the combat system.

Potion Spam? Heal Spam?

If you thought you could spam recovery to win, you thought wrong. Most monster attacks will do over 10% of your max health, and some can just slaughter you in a few hits. Heal spell is great when trained, but is never fast enough to be used during combat. Potions can be spammed at about… 1 per second… but drinking too much will put you in a potion overdose status, which will severely effect potion power, and your character’s stats.

Even if you were to manage to drink potions really fast, they do not cover wound damage, which can only be cured by first aid, or a Healer Npc.

The most POWERFUL ability? 

Well all the attacks in the game are known to be quite balanced. Although advanced skills have more power, it comes with cool downs, slow preparations, or severe cost of mp/stamina.

In all personal opinion, the one ability that has saved my life the most is FAKE DEATH. This action allows me to lay down on the ground at a constant drain of my stamina. During this time, monsters will be confused into not attacking (unless I am to be hit by a area damaging attack or a splash attack). USE THIS AWESOME POWER GIFTED TO YOU.

Training my Skills?

Just like Maplestory which you all should know, skills become stronger when you train it. A skill you wish to train will ask you to do specific tasks before you are allowed to level it. When requirements are met, you have the choice to use your “AP” (ability points), to raise the skill’s rank.

The skill rank starts at practice, goes to F, E, D, C, B, A, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and finally, 1, the master rank. With each rank, the skill adds more stats to your character, and the skill becomes more powerful. The effects of the skill are enhanced, and preparation time is shortened.

By training your skills your character will become much more powerful. It is a NECESSITY in combat to always train your skills as best as you can, with cautious thoughts on which skills you spend your ap on.

Where do I get AP?

Level, age, quests, whatever. Its not really combat related. You get the idea.

What is “Balance”? (edit v2)

Balance is a crucial factor in the Mabinogi combat system. Each rank of a “Mastery” skill will raise your damage balance in the specified area of mastery by 1 point. By balancing your attack power, you will have a higher chance of hitting your max damage. Balance is determined by a few factors:

• Balance on a weapon
• Dexterity your character has
• Special effects of enchants and other magical objects
• Mastery Rank of your type of attack

By raising your balance, you do not need to worry about weapons that have a great range in damage, and you’ll never have to worry about doing small amounts of damage, when you know you can do up to much much more.

I heard something about a Auto Battle and a Manual Battle mode. (edit v2)

You are right. There are two different battle modes in this game. By Manual you play the game like you normally would imagine yourself playing this game. However, there is a special battle mode called automatic battle mode. This makes fighting a whole lot easier when pounding on weaker units, if you’re lazy, or if you just suck and need the computer to fight for you. You can change the battle mode as easily as pushing the A key. During Auto Battle, these things will change:

• Arrows will constantly fire by themselves, but will not fire until you have reached 99% accuracy, unless clicked by player. During manual mode you can choose to wait even after your accuracy is maxed out.
• Your character will constantly choose to attack reguarly. Automatic battle will NOT activate skills for you. Even if you activate a skill yourself, your character will keep moving towards the enemy for an attack, and continue if they are in range unless you move back with the mouse.
• Auto battle will NOT target enemies for you, so you must first engage in combat before it kicks in fully.
• Auto battle will cancel counter skill if it feels that a straight forward attack is better (its usually wrong about that, so you’ll get pounded)

Auto battle is useful on many occasions, especially during times of lag, but is not recommended for standard use.

What kind of weapons are there? (edit v2)

There are a few “types” of weapons in the game. There are swords, blunts, bows, and wands. Although some items may not LOOK like it, they act the same way as one of these four catagories of weapons (only exception is the giant’s knuckles and javelins). Dual wielding swords is only done by humans, and dual wielding blunts is only done by giants.

• There are small swords, which hits 3 times, and can be dual wielded (one handed), with excellent balance and critical rates. They do small damage, however.
• There are big swords, which hits 2 times, and can be dual wielded (one handed), with low balance and critical rates. They do great damage, however.
• There are two handed swords, which hit 2 times, and cannot be dual wielded or combined with a shield. It has poor rates on balance on critical, but the damage is superior. Known for amazing splash damage.
• There are rare types of swords which mixes these three basic types of swords in. There are also swords that push back with only one hit.

For bows however, things are a bit different. Here is how they work.

• There are small bows with great accuracy, but have low damage and shorter range. It is recommended that starters use these bows.
• There are big bows with lower accuracy, but have high damage and longer range.
• There is a crossbow, which has the worst accuracy, but has a balance in other stats.

Blunts are basically the same as swords, but cannot be dual wielded by humans. Their damage is highly unbalanced, but have great max damage.

Wands are the weakest and slowest weapons, but have AMAZING splash damage. They are one handed. They enhance the damage of magic, range of magic, and allows meditation while running. However, unequipping a wand will result in loss of all your mp. They break quite easily too.

Life skill items are NOT recommended as weapons, but some tend to dish out good damage. Try not to use them too often though, because you don’t want them to break too fast.

Shields can be held along with a one handed item. Shields naturally block little damage, but when combined with the defense skill, your protective rates SOAR! Use a shield if you are a defensive type.

Wait, weapons BREAK? (edit v2)

Yes. Each equip comes with their won durability limits. By using them more, the durability goes down. To repair these items you must ask an NPC to repair it for you. Each npc has their own price charts, specialties, and rate of success. When a npc fails at repair, your “max” durability is lowered.

Customizing weapons? (edit v2)

Each weapon comes with upgrade slots. By using your weapon they gain points. Spend these points on upgrades by asking a npc. There are limitless number of different upgrades. You can choose to raise stats that are bad on your weapon, or choose to power up what the weapon already boasts in points. By doing so, your weapon will become much more powerful, and will be custom made to your own liking.

You can also put a spirit inside your weapon, making it into a living being. These are called “EGO WEAPONS”. Once your weapon has enough experience without losing too much durability, you can turn your weapon into a ego weapon by inserting a spirit into it. By talking and feeding your ego weapon, they gain experience points and become stronger. However, dying too much or ignoring its demands might make it angry, and start dishing out crappy damage.

Ego weapons glow, and at higher levels can even be incarnated into using special attacks.

How does a pet assist in combat? (edit v2)

Pets all have excellent power. Most of them make fine addition to your fight. Remember that teamwork is key in this game. All pets come with a set of skills, and you can even level them up to make them more powerful. A pet runs on a designated ai, which is given when they are created, and even customizable.

As you can see in this snapshot, I made a pet ai that focuses on my cat just spamming regular attacks on whatever is closest. Credit of this code goes to Excellen or the Korean Lute Server.

Status?

Theres quite a few status effects in the game. Some go to just reducing or increasing stats, while some actually changes the amount of time it takes to charge magic, or changes the recovery rate or something. I can’t exactly get into it, but you should know that there are status like Berserker and Potion Overdose. The most common ones you’ll be seeing is the “Deadly” status, where you have been knocked into a negative amount of hp, yet retain your character’s consciousness. Its a special status that just might save your life.

KitaeK27 is awesome.

I know, but thats not a question.

I have more questions ABOUT THE COMBAT SYSTEM.

Ask away. If its asked I’ll reply, and if its asked enough I’ll add it to the guide. Also, if you find any errors with this guide, please tell me. I’m only human. Sorry about the delay in version two, I fell in love with Twilight Princess the day I was supposed to write this. Version three will include a more clear drawing of the skill weakness chart.