Alongside the city building and caring for your Digimon, there’s a third activity that will keep you busy - battling. InDigimon World: Next Order, you’ll often be caught up in a fight while exploring the world surrounding Floatia. Fights can be seen coming a mile off as there are no random encounters, but that doesn’t mean a battle will be a walk in the park.
RELATED:Digimon: The Best Antagonists From The Anime
You’ve hatched yourself a killer Digimon, and you’re roaming the wilds. In the distance you see a pocket of materials glinting, but between you and the bounty of goodies is a large monster that looks like a potato. It’s time to fight.
YouCanGo Hands-Off
If you choose, fighting in Digimon World: Next Order can be almost completely left to theDigimon and their AI. If you decide to let them fight it out with no input from you, they will constantly use their basic ability. Thisuses MP, a resource that replenishes slowly, over time.The only thing your Digimon can’t do is heal themselvesor use more advanced abilities such as buffs to attack damage.
For low-level fights, it’s usually easier to let them fight how they want as you’ll only get one or two hits in before winning the battle anyway.
Change Tactics
By Selecting thetactics menu, you may choose your Digimon individually, and change up how they fight. You can use one ofthree optionswhich alter how aggressively they use their MP reserves. Lowering the use of MP will require more input from you and the use of OP, as they will activate their own abilities much less.
You’ll also notice, in this menuyou can choose to escape the fight. Another quirk of Digimon World: Next Order is a penalty system for escaping a fight. Choosing to escape a difficult fightwill teleport you to the entrance of the current areayou’re in. Not only that, but yourrelationship with your Digimon will decrease, so choose wisely.
Cheering Is Helpful
Digimon World: Next Order utilises acheering systemthat encourages your Digimon during a fight. It’s as simple as pressing a button. Cheering like this generates and stores OP -Order Points- which are used when you queue up an ability you’d like your Digimon to use. This could be an extra basic attack, defending themselves, or a buff. These maneuvers use up the listed amount of OP.
Cheering has a cooldown, so you can’t spam the button for more resources, and you must time your cheering well. If you cheer while your Digimon is wandering the arena, you’ll receive less OP than if they’ve just landed or tanked a hit. Each fight they will start with asmall pool of OPbased on your relationship with them.
Wait And Watch
You’ll notice that yourDigimon will move around the battle areawith no prompts from you. They roam around getting themselves into different positions. Sometimes they back off, other times they get in the face of the enemy.The key is to watch their moveslike a hawk. There’s no point in queuing up a melee ability if they’ve retreated to the other side of the circle as you’ll end up wasting OP.
You’ll also need to constantly keep an eye on your Digimon’s HP and MP reserves standing ready withthrowable consumables. You’d be surprised how quickly these can deplete in a tough fight.
Combo Ability
Using up a large chunk of OP -around 150OP- you’re able to activate acombo ability. This forces both of your Digimon to work together and deliver a large chunk of damage. The combo uses its most powerful attacks in unison, rather than having you choose both separately.
This submenu also contains the ability tofuse your Digimon together, if they are compatible, to form an even moredevastating attack. This is a rare occurrence due to the various Digimon types, but if you have the option, it will help against thought opponents.
Gauging A Fight
One of the game’s slight bugbears you’ll encounter is alack of information regarding the level of your Digimon. It’s not like other companion games where you can see a number informing you handily of your monster’s power. This makes it very difficult to gauge whether an upcoming fight will be a struggle or not. You can however see theenemy’s power levelbefore you engage them, but as you’ve got nothing to compare it to,each fight is a bit of a gamble.
If you have a high-level enemy ahead,it’s worth doing a quick savein case you get wiped out, because if you lose a fight in Digimon World: Next Order, you’re sent all the way back to Floatia.
