Status Effects Reference
During battles, creatures can be affected by beneficial effects (buffs) or harmful effects (debuffs). Understanding what each status does is critical for building teams and choosing abilities.
Offensive Status Effects (Debuffs)
These effects harm the creature they’re applied to.
Poison
Effect: Damage over time during battles.
Applied by: Creatures with poison-type abilities; some plant-element creatures have inherent poison abilities.
Defense: Support creatures with cleanse/purify abilities can remove poison.
Strategy: Poison is slow but persistent damage. Against poison-heavy teams, prioritize support with cleanse abilities.
Paralysis
Effect: Reduces the creature’s action speed (takes longer turns, acts less frequently).
Applied by: Electric-type creatures, speed-reduction abilities.
Defense: Electric resistance, speed buffers, or creatures naturally fast enough to overcome the penalty.
Strategy: Paralysis can completely shut down fast attackers. Stack speed-boosting creatures if facing electric teams.
Sleep
Effect: Creature cannot act (skips turns) until status wears off.
Applied by: Water-element creatures, sleep-inducing abilities.
Defense: Wake-up items, creatures that clear status effects, or support that grants damage immunity.
Strategy: Sleeping a key attacker can turn a battle. Support creatures that clear sleep are essential in endgame content.
ATK Reduction (Debuff)
Effect: Creature deals reduced damage on attacks.
Applied by: Support creatures with debuff abilities, defensive archetypes.
Defense: ATK-boosting buffs, creatures with high base damage that can overcome the penalty.
Strategy: Reduces burst damage from enemy attackers. Stacking ATK reduction on enemy damage dealers limits their threat.
DEF Reduction (Debuff)
Effect: Creature takes increased damage.
Applied by: Attacker creatures, armor-break abilities.
Defense: DEF-boosting buffs, creatures naturally tanky enough to overcome the penalty.
Strategy: DEF breaks on enemy tanks make them vulnerable. Combo with high-damage attackers to burst down enemy frontline.
Beneficial Status Effects (Buffs)
These effects help the creature they’re applied to.
ATK Boost
Effect: Creature deals increased damage on attacks.
Applied by: Support creatures, damage-boosting abilities, self-buffers.
Duration: Lasts several turns; multiple stacks can accumulate.
Strategy: Stack ATK buffs on your strongest attacker to burst down tough enemies. One well-buffed creature often outperforms multiple unbuffed ones.
DEF Boost
Effect: Creature takes reduced damage.
Applied by: Tank creatures, defensive support, self-buffers.
Duration: Persists across multiple enemy turns.
Strategy: Stack DEF on your tank or healer to make them unkillable. A well-defended support keeps your whole team alive longer.
SPD Boost
Effect: Creature acts more frequently (shorter turn timer).
Applied by: Speed-boosting abilities, some balanced creatures, fast-focused teams.
Duration: Several turns.
Strategy: Speed wins early battles. A fast team can eliminate threats before they act. Later content requires tankiness + speed.
Healing / Regeneration
Effect: Restores HP each turn.
Applied by: Healer creatures, regeneration abilities, passive skills.
Duration: Typically 2-3 turns for one-time heals; indefinite for passive regen.
Strategy: Healing on your tank or highest-damage creature keeps them alive longer. Stacking healing support multiplies your team’s effective HP.
Shield / Damage Prevention
Effect: Blocks a set amount of damage (absorbs hits before HP decreases).
Applied by: Support creatures, barrier-type abilities.
Duration: Until shield breaks or wears off.
Strategy: Shields on your backline support prevent one-shots. Shields on your tank let them tank multiple big hits.
Status Effect Immunity and Cleanse
Creatures That Can Cleanse (Remove) Status Effects
Cleanser Support: Some support creatures have abilities that remove negative status from your team or apply preventative immunity.
Strategy: Always keep at least one cleanser on your endgame team. Common status effects (poison, paralysis, sleep) are too dangerous to leave active.
Creatures with Natural Resistance
Resistance: Some creatures are naturally immune to certain statuses (e.g., poison-type creatures are immune to poison). Use this to your advantage when building element-diverse teams.
Status Effect Interactions
Stacking Effects
Multiple Status: A creature can have multiple status effects active at the same time. For example: poisoned + paralyzed + ATK-reduced.
Combo Strategy: Debuff-heavy teams stack multiple negative effects on key enemy creatures to reduce their threat.
Removal Priority
When choosing which status to cleanse with limited actions:
- Sleep/Stun first — Prevents any actions
- Paralysis second — Slows your fastest creatures
- Poison third — Damage accumulates but is less urgent
- DEF breaks last — Can tank through with buffs instead
Team Building with Status Effects
Debuff-Heavy Teams (Control Playstyle)
- Multiple creatures with paralysis, sleep, or ATK-reduction abilities
- Slower progression but extremely safe
- Works well against aggressive enemy teams
Buff-Stacking Teams (Burst Playstyle)
- One powerful attacker that gets multiple ATK buffs
- Support creatures that layer ATK, speed, and shield buffs
- Fast progression but risky if enemy survives the burst
Mixed (Recommended for Beginners)
- One tank with DEF buffs
- One attacker with ATK buffs
- One cleanse support
- Two balanced creatures filling gaps
- Most flexible for varied content
See Guides for ability strategy and Battles for combat mechanics overview.