Quickenings and Chain-Ins

Quickenings, returns in FFXII: CoT as a similar usage and basis, yet with the additional helpful special features. In Final Fantasy XII: Constelle of Transcendence, Quickening are series of MP consuming power that has the power to obliterate the enemy for it's devastating effects. Quickenings, now uses a new system over previous systems, still involving the real-time input of button commands, requiring fast reflexes to chain together attacks before a timer depletes yet now with the additional features like Character Chain-Ins which respectively responds with the sequence of Quickenings use by each character.

Unlike previously, the Time Limit is now has additional 1 second after each Chains, that is after the time left has been calculated. Also, using Chain-Ins for other characters will not reduces the Time Limit, as for penalty, the Base Power of the Chained-In Quickenings are halved from the Base Power of the level of Quickening previously used.

Appearance
Quickenings are still divided into three levels, with each level being more powerful than the previous and requiring more Mist Charges to use. Quickenings are found on the License Board and each requires 50 LP to unlock. Quickening squares on the License Board automatically teach the recipient their next level technique and cost the same amount of LP regardless of the Quickening's level. Certain Quickenings are automaticly learned, yet requires several prerequisites to operate it.

Quickenings boost the recipient's max MP when unlocked - Level 2 Quickenings double the recipient's original MP, and Level 3's triple it. The party member's MP bar takes on a gold color to represent how many "Mist Charges" they have. The MP bar grows longer as more Quickenings are learned, and will consist of one, two or three golden bars depending on the user's Mist Charges. The bars represent all (zero or 1 charge), 50% (with 2 charges) or 33% (with 3 charges) of the user's max MP. Using a Quickening costs a number of Mist Charges equal to the Quickening's level; for example two Mist Charges to use a level two Quickening. Quickenings are learned on the License Board.Using a Quickening takes no Charge Time. When a character uses a Quickening, normal gameplay stops as the character executes the attack. A timer appears along with a blue bar and button icons corresponding to any of the three current party members who know any Quickenings. Characters who are KOed, life shackled, petrified, stopped, disabled, fainted, stunned, deft, berserked, silenced or confused can't use Quickenings. Although, any character that responds towards Quickening Chaining who had any of the status except for KOed, life shackled, petrified, disabled and silenced are able to execute Character Chain-In only, and other statuses like confused, stopped and berserk will be removed(only if they execute a Chain-In).

As the attack executes, the timer and blue bar deplete, and the player must quickly press a shown button to have the next character execute another Quickening. This is called a "Quickening Chain". The player may press R2 to "shuffle" the shown commands for the other party members, randomizing the commands they can be given.

If a character has the "Mist Charge" option available, using it will restore the character's Mist Charges to full and allow more Quickenings to be chained. The faster the player inputs the next command, the more time they will have to input another command during the next attack. Assuming the player can react quickly enough, and they get lucky in having the Mist Charge command appear, there is virtually no limit to how long a Quickening chain can get. When the chain ends, characters lose MP equal to however many Mist Charges they used in the chain, and any characters who used the Mist Charge command lose all their MP. Note that PDP member also may use Quickenings, but the chance to have them appears as one of the chains are 33% of any ADP members, but when they execute their Quickenings, they immediately and randomly execute an instant Character of their's depending on the level of Quickening used previously before them.

Time Limit
The player must input the command for the next Quickening in the chain within a time limit, and the faster the player selects a new Quickening more time they have left.

The exact formula for time allowed in hit k+1 is: The player always has six seconds in the first hit. If the player is fast they get more time in subsequent hits as well.
 * Quickening_Time_Limit_Calculation.png
 * T(1) = 5 seconds.
 * X(k) is the time the player spends to make an action in hit k.
 * X(k) is the time the player spends to make an action in hit k.

Example:

Mist Charge
The chance for "Mist Charge" to appear as an option depends on the number of Quickening participants. If the character has all bars full, the option of Mist Charge does not appear.
 * Level 1 Quickening Participant: 2/7
 * Level 2 Quickening Participants: 2/8
 * Level 3 Quickening Participants: 2/9

Damage Calculation
Every Quickening uses the user's Strength and Magick stat, but because they are executed using MP they cannot be used if the character is unable to perform magick. Despite their appearances, all Quickenings and Concurrences are non-elemental and break the damage limit, allowing them to do up to 99,999 damage. Level 1 Quickenings have a power of 90, level 2 a power of 140, and level three have a power of 230.

Damage done is equal to a random number between 1 and the power of the Quickening multiplied by a random number between 1 and the character's Strength. Thus, a character with 50 Strength using a level 2 Quickening will do random damage between 1 and 7000. Damage dealt with Quickenings is unaffected by Reverse.

Depending on how many Quickenings the player chains, and what levels they are, a Concurrence may occur when the Quickening chain ends. Concurrences are power attacks that affect not only the target of the Quickening chain, but all enemies nearby as well. If the player fulfills the conditions for more than one Concurrence to occur, the strongest one will take priority. Executing every Concurrence unlocks Judge Gabranth in the Sky Pirate's Den, granting the player the title of Mist Walker.

The damage of each quickening hit is:

POW is a fixed number that depends on the Quickening level. STR is the Strength of the character performing the hit. The damage of each Quickening is summed up at the end to produce the total damage. Regular Quickening hits only damage the target enemy. Certain enemies can reduce received damage, including damage from Quickenings. Althoug, since the battle system are slightly more different now, the original Base Power are 90, 140, and 230. In this case, the original Base Power has been reduced 1/3 as normal damages now are also reduced by 1/3 unlike previously.
 * POW (Lv1) = 60
 * POW (Lv2) = 95
 * POW (Lv3) = 155

If the party performs enough Quickening hits they can trigger a Concurrence. Concurrences have a radius of 50, so it also damages enemies in an area range of (500cm) from the target.
 * T(1) = 5
 * X(1) = 0.6 (the player spends 0.6 seconds to initiate the second Quickening)
 * T(2) = T(1) - X(1)/2+1s = 4 - 0.2 = 4.0 (4.0 seconds is left to initiate the next Quickening)
 * POW x Lv(enemy)
 * POW x Lv(enemy)

For example, for a level 99 enemy, a Black Hole alone would deal a damage of 253 x 99 or 25,047.

Trivia

 * Aside from the fact that the Base Power for the FFXII: CoT Quickenings are now reduced by 1/3 as for penalty about the massive number of allies in one battle scene, after executing the next Quickening or Chain-In, the player may skip the long animation to make it slighter shorter in sequence.
 * Previous playable characters still have the same Quickenings, still they have slight modified style, appearance and effects and the fact they all have Chain-Ins Quickenings including the previous Guests like Larsa.
 * All optional and additional character are either have or doesn't have Quickenings or Chain-In Quickenings, except for additional character that serves as a supporting character like Lindsay and Archadd.
 * Like Basch, Rend also doesn't have an obvious speech(besides grunting and cries) accept if he executes Chain-Ins or using his Level 2 Quickening.
 * Marryl, Freesia, Ashe, Balthier, Cya, Fez and Lindsay are the only notable character that possesses Quickenings and have different lines to use in each one of their levels of Quickenings.