Combat in Magical Vacation

This is a combat guide for Magical Vacation.

Overview
In the game, battles occur randomly in the overworld, by interacting with certain things, or during scripted events. Once a battle begins, the player's team of up to six party members are placed on a 3x2 grid opposite of the enemy's, and will then recover magic points based on their individual MP% stats (this occurs at the start of every turn). Battles are turn-based, meaning that there are no action elements or timers. The player selects the party members' moves in the order of their respective agility stats, and the combat phase commences once the characters' actions have been selected.

Spirits and elements
Magical Vacation has a total of sixteen elements, each represented by a spirit. Thirteen of them (the ones that are chosen at the start of the game) follow a rotation of super-effectiveness. Striking an elemental weakness inflicts 2x more damage, using an element the enemy resists inflicts 0.5x damage, and attacking with a spell of the enemy's element inflicts 1 damage.

When casting magic, the damage can be amplified by having spirits of the same element on the field - a Spirit Combo. The spirit(s) disappear once a spell of their element has been cast, and their power will be transferred to the spell. Any spirits on the field are free to be used by both the party and enemies, and up to seven may be present at once. If one spirit is used in a combo, the damage is doubled. If two spirits are used in a combo, the damaged is multiplied by 4. With a maximum of seven spirits, the damage gets multiplied by 128.

Spirit Combos can also remove spirits of an advantageous element. For example, by using three fire spirits to power up a fire spell while two ancient spirits are on the field, the three fire spirits will offset the ancient spirits and remove both of them from play. However, because two of the fire spirits were used to cancel out the two ancient spirits, only the remaining fire spirit's power will be used in the Spirit Combo.

→ →  →  →  →  →  →  →  →  →  →  →
 * Primary axis

→ All except and
 * Secondary axis

→

→ Neutral (no strength or weakness)

Actions
The commands available to characters are, , , , or.

s are non-elemental attacks associated with the power stat. The name of this skill varies among characters, some examples being slap, punch, and chop. While skills can be used by any character regardless of position, they only reach enemies that are in the front row.
 * Skill

unleashes elemental attacks against enemies by consuming magic points.
 * Magic

s have supportive and offensive effects in battle. They are categorized into four types:
 * Item
 * Gummy frogs restore hit points.
 * Gummy worms restore magic points.
 * Tails dispel status ailments.
 * Bombs emulate magic attacks without consuming magic points.

ing halves all physical and magical damage for one turn.
 * Guard

ing gives the party a chance to run from battle. The success rate of fleeing is based on a character's agility.
 * Flee

Stats
Level/Lv is a ranking that increases with experience points, which are gained by defeating enemies and requires active participation in battle. The maximum level for each character is 999.
 * Level

Magic level/MLv is a ranking that increases with magic experience points, which are gained by frequently casting magic. Magic levels reward party members with more spells, increase the strength of magic attacks, and reduce damage of specific elements (independent of the spirit stat). The maximum magic level for each element is 99.
 * Magic level

Hit points/HP determines how much damage a party member can take. If it reaches 0, that party member faints.
 * Hit points

Magic points/MP are used to cast spells.
 * Magic points

Power/Pow is the strength of physical skills. Its symbol is a sword.
 * Power
 * Buffed with beast magic (lion power).
 * Debuffed with insect magic.

Defense/Def is resistance to physical skills. Its symbol is a shield.
 * Defense
 * Buffed with stone magic (fluorite).
 * Debuffed with water magic.

Spirit/Spr is resistance to magic. Its symbol is a shield.
 * Spirit
 * Buffed with sound magic (spirit's march).
 * Debuffed with wood magic.

Agility/Agi determines how fast a character acts in battle, physical skill accuracy and critical hit rate, and the success rate of fleeing. Its symbol is a boot.
 * Agility
 * Buffed with wind magic (mach nine).
 * Debuffed with ancient magic.

MP% is the amount of magic points a character recovers at the start of each turn. Its symbol is a red circle outlined in yellow.
 * MP%
 * Buffed with love magic (angel's charge).

Status ailments
Certain elements can inflict status ailments when cast. The only way to recover from most of these is by waiting them out, using a tail, casting the white rose spell, or winning in battle.

Poison reduces 10%-20% of the target's hit points when a turn ends.
 * Poison
 * Caused with poison magic.
 * Recovered with depoison tail or white rose.

Paralysis halts the input of actions.
 * Paralysis
 * Caused with beauty magic.
 * Recovered with deparalyze tail or white rose.

Numb halts the input of actions like paralysis, but takes effect less often.
 * Numb
 * Caused with thunder magic.
 * Recovered with unstun tail or white rose.

Blind reduces the accuracy of physical skills.
 * Blind
 * Caused with light magic.
 * Recovered with white rose

Sleep halts the input of actions until the effect wears off, or the target is hit with an attack.
 * Sleep
 * Caused with sound magic.
 * No items recover this status.

Stone permanently halts the input of actions until it is recovered, and cannot be waited out.
 * Stone
 * Caused by stone magic (petrify, three eyes).
 * Recovered with stoneoff tail or white rose.

Fainting stops a character from executing actions until they are revived.
 * Faint
 * Caused when hit points reach 0.
 * Recovered with wakey tail or white rose.

Formation
On the battle grid, there are a total of six spaces that party members can occupy; three in the front, three in the back. Characters in the middle of the front row are more likely to get hit with attacks, and those in the back row or sides are less likely. Party members with higher physical stats (HP, pow, def) are better off in the front row, whereas characters who are proficient magically (MP, agi, spr) work best in the back row. When a party member in the front row faints, they swap positions with the character standing directly behind them, even if they are revived. The party's formation goes back to normal when combat is over.

Recommended formations:


 * Front row
 * Kirsche
 * Chocolat
 * Lemon
 * Latte
 * Chappy
 * Pot
 * Pucine the 4th
 * Gummy frog
 * Pooka


 * Back row
 * Candy
 * Cider
 * Cassis
 * Arancia
 * Sesame
 * Pistachio (Lv 40)
 * Ganache
 * Putty
 * Brown

Additional features
During command selection, certain buttons can be pressed to assist the player.
 * At the very start of a turn, pressing B shows the entire battlefield without the command interface. Pressing A or B undoes it.
 * Pressing the L button opens an elemental weakness chart.
 * While hovering the cursor over a spell or an item, pressing Select shows their effects, base strength, and area of effect.
 * Holding the A button speeds up selection and skips attack animations. Releasing it makes the battle flow normally again.

Trivia

 * In early screenshots of the game, the battlefield was planned to display a 5x3 grid during command selection.