If you’ve consumed any content related toYs X: Nordicsor progressed in the game yourself, you’ll quickly realize that combat is an integral component of it, and you’ll find yourself fighting one thing or another every few seconds. This is especially true when you’re trying to go through an island for 100 percent exploration.

While it’s quite easy to win battles against the normal mobs, you might have a hard time against the various bosses if you don’t pay attention to the combat mechanics. However, once you get used to them, nothing can stand in your path to victory.

Ys X Nordics looking at the duo skill’s mastery.

Know What Skills To Use

As you progress in the world of Ys X: Nordics, one of the main things that will overwhelm you is the sheer amount of skills you can have.There are separate skills for both Adol and Karjaapart from the various duo skills you can unlock. Each one of these skills has various mechanics and effects, making them all important in certain scenarios.

While you’re able to easily get past the early game while just using the duo skills, it’s still recommended to use solo skills whenever possible. This is due to the mastery system, which not only increases each skill’s effectiveness upon reaching 100 percent, butalso unlocks better versions of those skills in some cases.

Ys X Nordics showing the revenge gauge multiplier in Ioi boss fight

Some of these better versionsalso have a certain level requirementother than 100 percent mastery of a specific skill.

Another thing to note while choosing skills for your characters is the play style you’re going for. Generally,Adol is great at dealing damage while Karja works on breaking the durabilitybar on the enemy. However, you may reverse their roles in the late game by using different skills, even if it isn’t the most efficient.

Ys X Nordics showing box lunch in the inventory

Keep An Eye On Revenge Gauge

After a good few battles, you’ll get introduced to the revenge gauge multiplier that will beshown right below your character’s HP on the bottom right side during combat. This multiplier gets higher whenever you successfully dodge an enemy attack with duo mode, and the amount of increase depends on how well you timed the dodge.

You can also increase the maximum value of this multiplier byusing Heartfire Tome items that you can geton your adventures.

Ys X Nordics Magna Diga start of battle with screeching.

Revenge Gauge is one of the most important mechanics for boss-related combat as it cansignificantly boost the normal and durability damage of your duo skills. Keep in mind that this multiplier doesn’t work on solo skills, so you’d want to use the correct duo skill once it’s built up to not waste the extra effectiveness.

Box Lunch Can Go A Long Way

As you progress the game and interact with different merchants in Ys X: Nordics, you’llcommonly unlock Box Lunches, Luncheons, and recipes for both. Box Lunches can be eaten by going to your inventory, and they provide various buffs to both Adol and Karja. On the other hand, Luncheons can only be held on the ship to get ship combat buffs.

While you don’t necessarily need Box Lunches if you’re playing on normal difficulty,they can still help you finish your battles a lot faster. Moreover, some of these can give unique effects like higher item drop rate or luck, which will help you stack up the resources for various upgrades.

Ys X Nordics showing the debuff meter in Jord fight.

Know The Enemy You’re Up Against

Unsurprisingly, the world of Ys X: Nordics is filled with many enemies, each having their own set of skills. It’s important to know what these skills do not only for the main bosses but also for normal mobs, sincesome of them can be countered much more easilyif you understand what they’re going to do in battle.

Of course, knowing the boss you’re up against is much more important, especially in fights like the Magna Diga. This boss burrows in the ground and constantly slams the surrounding area, andthe only way to stop it is by not getting sucked into its mouth. The battles are going to be much harder if you don’t take the right steps.

Ys X Nordics showing all the bottles and other medicines.

Keep An Eye On Your Debuff Bar

One of the non-intuitive things about this game is how it shows the debuffs on your characters. There are quite a few debuffs in the game, and various enemies can apply them to you with their attacks. When a debuff is applied to your character,you’ll see a small bar filling up on the right of the characteron your screen.

If this bar fills up, the debuff will be applied to the respective character, and each one can have different effects:

Ys X Nordics showing release lines in the game.

Poison

Removes abit of a character’s HPevery few seconds but lasts for a long time.

Paralysis

Once this debuff is applied, your character willrandomly be immobilizedin battle.

When this is triggered, yourcharacter’s health drops to one.

Burn

Similar to poison except itlasts for a shorter durationwhile reducing higher HP.

Frostbite

Doubles the damage you dealto the enemy’s HP and durability.

As you can see, these debuffs can have a huge impact in battle if left unchecked. However, they can easily be cured by using the right solid medicine from your inventory. Moreover,you can also use these debuffs against the enemy. Adol and Karja can automatically build Burn and Frostbite respectively, and you’ll need specific amulets to apply other debuffs.

Ys X Nordics showing the weapon and other equipments being used by Karja.

Don’t Hesitate From Healing Your Characters

Apart from the solid medicine to remove your ailments, you’ll also have various liquid medicines stacked in your inventory. The only difference between these two is that thelatter is limited based on the total number of bottles you have. You can get more bottles whenever you find or buy a new liquid medicine.

Once you use these medicines, the bottle will be empty and stay in your inventory,which allows you to fill it back up on a crafting station. Since you have an unlimited amount of these as long as you’re able to visit the crafting station and have the required recipe, don’t be afraid to use them when you need to.

Liquid medicine can be specifically useful when one of your characters is knocked downsince you can revive them without losing HP.

Pay Attention To The Release Mechanic

You’ll get introduced to the release mechanic not long after you start getting used to the combat system, and it’s essentially the progression for each character. In this section, you’ll unlock duo skills after reaching certain level thresholdswhile you can unlock some solo skills by removing the chain from the respective nodesin each part.

You can place a special gem in each node you free, whichcan range from valor, mettle, optimism, and darkness gems. Each gem will add or remove some stats from your character while also adding to the general pool of buffs that you can see by going into ability details.

Some rainbow gems canprovide points for multiple types of gemsat the same time.

It’s important to check the release section every now and then since these upgrades are themain way to keep up with the enemy level increase.

Upgrading Equipment Is A Top Priority

Another thing that will help you keep up with the increase in the enemy’s difficulty is being on top of your equipment upgrades. You canget weapons and armor whenever you visit a blacksmith shop or open specific chests, and naturally, the power of weapons will increase over time. However, once you get new weapons, you also have to upgrade them.

This requires various materials that you’llfall short of if you haven’t been breaking barrels on landand collecting every salvage part on the sea. You’ll also get new amulets and rings with your progression, and it’s important to switch them whenever you need to.