Just Starting Out - Battle and Timing

If you're having trouble figuring out why stringing together combos is so hard, you're reading in the right place.

So.. You're progressing along in White Knight Chronicles when suddenly a prompt appears on the screen. The prompt suggests you put together some well timed combos to down your enemies more quickly and efficiently. So suddenly, you're staring at that attack wheel, perplexed, mashing buttons, slowly pressing buttons, and everything in between.

Simply pressing x at the right time is only the start. Well, rather, the middle. If you want to perform multi-hit combos, you first need to set up that combo manually.

Leveling up grants skill points which can be assigned to different battle commands, allowing you to learn spells, buffs, and a variety of attacks with the corresponding weapon. I suggest learning at least 3 attacks with whatever weapon you choose, even if you're a magic user. This allows you (AC permitting) to do a decent amount of physical damage every few turns.

So assuming you have at least three skills to assign to a combo.. Let's begin!

Open up your main menu. Choose combat setup. Select a character from the list. Choose edit commands. Use the L1 and R1 buttons to cycle through the tabbed list of weapon types. By default, sword skills are shown first. Tab over to the very last tab, titled Combos. Choose, Create A Combo. Now tab over to your preferred weapon. You'll see a list of skills. The skill name is shown first, then the AC cost, then attributes.

The first combo you create should have a low overall AC cost, so you can use it frequently. To start, choose a skill that costs 0 AC. Any skill flashing is a skill you can select for the next combo slot. Your combo can have as few as 2 skills and as many as your weapon mastery allows. Choose about 2-3 to start, with a low AC cost. You probably want it to cost 4 AC at the most.

When you're finished, press TRIANGLE on your controller. Name your combo! Select done. Now your new creation is listed as a skill would be in the combo tab. Select your combo. Click Install In Slot. Choose an empty slot on your combat bar and hit X to confirm.

Your combat bar is actually made of four layers which you can cycle through in this menu and during combat with the up and down directional buttons.The fourth section will contain commands like ITEM and TRANSFORM and cannot be changed. Remember, even when Leonard becomes the White Knight, he can use items.

Now, using your combo! That's an entirely different story!

When you have enough AC to perform your combo, select it as you would any command. The character will automatically perform the first attack you chose for your combo. Just as the character swings down and strikes your opponent with the first skill, you'll see the next skill in your combo appear in the attack wheel and the attack wheel will glow gold. This is when you hit X again to perform that next skill. And so on and so forth until you complete the combo.

Each attack has a unique animation, meaning the timing for each segment will be different. It might take a few tries. Button mash X for your first attempt, just so you can watch the speed of each skill and try to learn the timing. Do not rely on button mashing to execute your combo forever! It has been proven that timing your button presses accurately during the combo causes the damage dealt to be much greater.

Be patient and attentive and you'll learn in no time!

Combos are great because they allow you to execute numerous attacks at one time without waiting for your attack wheel to refill. This can cut battle times in half and keep you alive when you're against particularly difficult baddies!

I'll be adding a video/screenshots to this guide to help illustrate as soon as I figure out how! Check back and leave me a comment if you need extra explanation/help.