Utawarerumono: Mask Of Truth Battle Tips And Strategy

Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth throws you into the thick of a raging civil war between the rightful heir of the Mikado and a cabal of deadly usurpers. Unlike the previous game, you’ll spend a sizable portion of the 70+ gameplay hours in turn-based combat, with some battles taking well over an hour to complete. Fresh off our playthrough, we’ve put together some tips and strategies to make sure you come out ahead every time.

Planning Ahead and Combat Basics

• Once you have the option to play Red vs. White Training matches in Ennakamuy, take advantage of it. You’ll see a handy boost in your party’s abilities early on, and each battle should net every member of the crew a level or two. Be careful, though. As the story progresses and you get stronger optional equips (in the form of Scrolls and Codexes), you may find your own party members pretty damn tough to kill.
• If you’ve got knack for timing, you can score criticals with well-timed button presses. You can practice your timing with criticals through Munechika’s Trials.
• Don’t feel bad if you suck at timing, though. (True confession: I played most of the game with Auto-Chain.) You can toggle Auto-Chain on and off in the System menu, under Settings. Battle options appear on the second page.
• While you're playing around in the battle settings, for the love of god, make sure you have the Turn Order Display on. This will help you to plan when to run for cover, attack, buff and heal.
• If you make a mistake or find yourself in a no-win scenario, you can rewind the battle up to 50 turns. If you’re really outmatched, you can restart the battle entirely, but still carry over any experience gained. No excuse for a game over!
• If you gain a level during battle, you’ll automatically restore all your HP. While the blue bar beneath each character's portrait indicates how close they are to leveling up, you likely won't know until after it's happened. It might be worth rewinding a bit if you've ended up wasting a turn on a healing spell, especially if it came from someone who’s also a decent attacker.
• When you’re about to attack an enemy, press Triangle to see the forecasted result. This will let you know if you’ll inadvertently trigger some of the enemy’s passives. For instance, if your attack could result in significantly boosting an enemy’s ATK or DEF, consider another move, targeting another foe, or by pressing square to switch off part of your attack chain (if using Auto-Chain).

Scroll and Codex Pointers

• If you’ve got a save file from Mask of Deception, be sure to select it when prompted as you start a new game of Mask of Truth. Your characters’ levels and stats won’t carry over, though you will retain all the equippable items you earned in the previous game.
• You can’t have enough Dodging or Guarding items, which allow you to evade (or significantly diminish) the damage you take on the battlefield. No matter how many of these you have in your inventory, you should be using most or all of them. The game will tell you if your setup is redundant.
• Equip Anju with Codex: Surging Heart immediately, which increases her range of movement and makes her far more useful in battle. If you’ve got another one laying around, put it on Jachdwalt, Nekone or Uruuru and Saraana.
• Codexes that negate status ailments -- like Antidaze, Clear Mind and Impervious -- are good bets for some of your healers. If you find yourself in a tough spot, you’ll want your healers ready to go.

Use Overzeal State Strategically

• Sometimes, it’s better not to use a whole attack chain in one go. Often, the last move in a chain will cost Zeal, rather than earning it. If you’re about to hit overzeal, doing a four-out-of-five attack chain followed by a boosted second attack is a much wiser choice than cycling through the turn order again. This technique works particularly well with Ougi’s Shiden Issen, which earns 30 Zeal on a 4-chain and 20 on a 5-chain.
• If an enemy is near death, you also might benefit from reducing your attack chain. You might be wasting Zeal by killing a foe with three blows, where just one will do. Even if you’re not near overzeal, those extra points you save could make a big difference in a turn or two.
• Overzeal strikes can be particularly powerful as Co-Op Final Strikes in late game battles. Check out the possible damage outcomes from various angles of striking the enemy; sometimes multiple party members can assist, depending on where you position yourself relative to your foe.

Passive Abilities Are Your Friend

• Rulutieh becomes a pretty formidable tank in mid to late game, with her high HP, innate auto-regen (Natural Healing), and solid defense.
• Use tanky characters like Rulutieh or Jachdwalt to keep big bosses and particularly tough foes pinned down with their Zone of Control passive, which prohibits baddies from moving away once they’re next to each other. This allows you to send in your close-range brawlers to whittle away their HP while keeping those with lower health and defense (like your archers and mages) a safe distance away.
• For particularly challenging battles (or any scenario where you’re a substantial distance away from enemy forces), consider waiting a turn with your party members huddled up. This will allow you to benefit from your party’s passive area-of-effect buffs, like Kuon’s Permeating Vigor (+10 Zeal with a three-space range). Some of these passives can also be equipped as scrolls or items, like Lightning Speed. Taking a turn away from the fray can also let you set up some buffs, like Rulutieh’s movement-boosting Hanakagura or Kuon’s ATK / DEF up move, Nuedori.

Got any more tried-and-true techniques for victory on the battlefield in Mask of Truth? Let us know in the comments!