Renkei



Also know as Skillchain. Abbreviation: SC

Two or more Weapon Skills used in the correct order within a 3 to 4 second time frame to produce additional elemental damage.

You can come up with Skillchains that fit your party by using a chart, or by using tables. The easiest way is to use the chart and just follow the arrows, but if you are the kind of person that needs to know the "how" and "why" there's a full explanation below the next section.

Using a Skillchain Chart
Say there are two, one-handed sword wielders, and they both have Fast Blade and Burning Blade. Now find the Weapon Skill on the Skill Chain Chart. Burning Blade is in the Fire section; and Fast Blade is in the Earth section. There is one arrow connecting them. Notice that the arrow is double ended. This means that you can start in the Earth section and go to the Fire section, or you may start in the Fire section and go to the Earth section. Both ways will result in a Skill Chain. If you start in Fire section and go to Earth you get an Earth Scission Skill Chain. Going the other way (Earth first followed by Fire) you get a Fire Liquefaction Skill Chain. The A-B-C lettering after some Weapon Skills are are a priority check for the game. Sometimes, a particular Weapon Skill can Skill Chain to more than one listing of the same Weapon Skill. A good example is Fast Blade (Earth) having a link to either Red Lotus Blade A (Fire) or Red Lotus Blade B (Wind). The game will always create the link to Red Lotus Blade A (Fire) when forced to choose between these two links. So you will always get a Liquefaction (Fire) effect. However, had the first attack been Keen Edge (Dark), there is no link to Red Lotus Blade A (Fire), but you can link to Red Lotus Blade B (Wind). Thus, you will create a Detonation (Wind) effect.

Some Skillchains listed on the chart are more powerful than others, these Renkei encompass two different element at the same time, generally multiplying the damage from the Renkei and correponding Magic Burst by a substantial amount. The LVL 2 Skillchains are as follows: Fusion, Fragmentation, Distortion, and Gravitation.

Three or more Weapon Skills
You can do two or more skill linked chains. With three Weapon Skills the first two go as normal and the third Weapon Skill then follows, the timing remains the same for each part of the chain.

At higher levels it is possible to unlock weapon skills that can preform two LVL 2 Skillchains in sucession, leading to a LVL 3 Light or Darkness Skillchain. See also Magic Burst for even more damage.

Level 1 Skill Chains
Each weapon skill is associated with an element. Each element is associated with a latent elemental effect. The elements and their effects are as follows:

 Fire: Liquefaction Earth: Scission Water: Reverberation Wind: Detonation Ice: Induration Lightning: Impaction Light: Transfixion Dark: Compression 

These effects can be harnessed during battle (to do extra damage to an enemy) through using weapon skills in certain orders. Doing only 2 or more weapon skills can possibly release the element that the last WS (weapon skill) is associated with. Skill chains can only be made by combining elements in certain orders. Not every combination will unleash a skill chain. Here is a table showing which elements can be combined to create a skill chain.

For those of you that are more are more "list-oriented," this is for you:

So they only work in certain combinations - the order in which you do them is important. A skill chain takes on the elemental effect of the second weapon skill that is done. With this in mind, to create a skill chain you need to do a weapon skill that has an effect from the left of the chart first, and follow it with a weapon skill from the top of the chart that can combine with it.

 2.0 Level 2 Skill Chains   Ok. Now let's look at level 2 skill chains. Level 2 skill chains consist of 2 elemental attributes. There are only 4 level 2 SC (because the 8 elements are being paired up, leaving us with 4 pairs! ^_^ ). Here's how it goes: Figure 2.1 

Fus ion = <font color="#CCCCCC">Light + <font color="#FF0000">Fire <font color="#FF33FF">Fragme <font color="#33CC33">ntation = <font color="#FF33FF">Lightning + <font color="#33CC33">Wind

<font color="#333333">Gravi <font color="#CCCC00">tation = <font color="#333333">Dark + <font color="#CCCC00">Earth <font color="#0000CC">Disto <font color="#66FFFF">rtion = <font color="#0000CC">Water + <font color="#66FFFF">Ice

</b> Note that these are not the elements used to make the skill chain happen! These are merely which elements are in the skill chain...hope that makes sense. ^_^ Now here is a table telling you which effects are needed to make a level 2 skill chain. Remember, in order to make a skill chain at the top of the chart, you need to do a skill chain on the left that matches up with the desired chain first. Do the left one first, followed by the top one.

<a name="fig2.2">Figure 2.2</a> -- : skills don't chain    |     -- 2 -- : level 2 chain