Bravery (Dissidia 012)

Bravery is a gameplay mechanic in Dissidia 012.

Overview

Bravery is one of the core gameplay elements that is directly tied to the game's damage systems. Indicated by a number above the character's health bar, bravery represents how much damage an HP attack will inflict if it connects with the opponent. This number is fundamentally influenced by connecting bravery attacks on the opponent and sustaining bravery attacks by the opponent. Other factors such as equipment, character's level, summons and banish traps also influence bravery.

Bravery Attack

These are attacks performed by pressing Circle that raise the character's bravery when they connect on the opponent. The characteristics of these attacks can vary greatly between characters, but fast speed and low priority are very common traits.

Bravery attacks cannot end a match by themselves. However, since they affect the damage inflicted by HP attacks, their properties and application play a vital role in defining a character's strength in gameplay. Each character page goes into detail about these attacks.

As many bravery attacks have low priority, they will lose to blocking and cause the character to be vulnerable to a counter attack. This is a fundamental aspect of the game - Players are encouraged to raise the bravery with attacks that are difficult to react to and defend against them.

Each character has three slots available for equipping bravery attacks performed on the ground and another three slots for bravery attacks performed in the air. Characters such as Cecil and Lightning can equip more through their dynamic loadouts (Dark Knight and Paradigm Shift respectively), but using them requires changing into it while fighting. Some characters such as Warrior of Light and Cloud can equip followup attacks that deal HP damage, while Prishe can equip an additional bravery attack followup of player's choice.

Bravery Break

If a character's bravery goes below 0, they will suffer a Bravery Break. This will reward the attacker with the bravery that is shown between the characters' health bars and leave the opponent's bravery in a "broken" state.

During this time, bravery will gradually regenerate to it's base value as indicated by final stats. Connecting bravery attacks depletes the opponent's bravery and will speed up the regeneration process by the amount of damage they inflicted. Likewise, the character suffering from bravery break may also have their bravery depleted, but it can never go below 0 for another bravery break. Landing an HP attack causes 0 HP damage, but will remove the bravery break status regardless of it's remaining duration. After that, the base bravery will once again quickly regenerate to it's base value from 0, but bravery break is also possible if the bravery is depleted quickly.

The extra ability Gambler's Spirit grants a 100 % critical hit rate to all bravery attacks connected by the character suffering from bravery break.

During EX Mode, Lightning's Omega Weapon effect allows her to automatically bravery break the opponent when depleting their bravery that is below 200. The amount of damage is irrelevant, the effect will activate.

Damage Formula

All bravery attacks as well as HP attacks inflicting bravery damage will have their damage calculated by the Damage formula.

Stage Bravery

This is the number shown between both characters' health bars at the bottom center of the screen. When Bravery Break happens, this is what the attacker is rewarded with.

The value is commonly 1999, but it can fluctuate greatly and spontaneously when using a summon or when played in an Omega variant of a stage.

The stage bravery provides a massive boost to HP damage output and as such, is often desireable in fights. Characters with high bravery damage output such as Sephiroth, Garland and Kain can quickly establish advantage with a single assist combo.

EX Bursts can still cause bravery break and are commonly used to increase damage with stage bravery or secure victory altogether. Gabranth and Lightning are known to take good advantage of this fact due to their frequent access to a full EX gauge and Omega Weapon effect (Lightning only).

Banish Trap

A negative, bravery depleting stage effect exclusive to World of Darkness (omega), Pandaemonium, The Rift, Planet's Core, Ultimecia's Castle, Crystal World, Dream's End, Sky Fortress Bahamut and Orphan's Cradle.

Being positioned in certain parts of the stage forms a dark effect around the character that depletes their bravery. Failure to move away from these sections will forcefully move the player character to the nearest position with solid footing within a couple seconds and deplete a portion of their bravery. This depleted bravery is then added to the stage bravery pool.

Banish traps cannot bravery break. However, they can interrupt attacks regardless of their state. Gabranth especially benefits from this, as he can accumulate EX with his EX Charge HP attack without the fear of suffering a lot of damage from a combo.

Touching banish traps will also reset the available air jumps. This can be taken advantage of to retain movement options when the pace of a fight won't allow a player to land on solid ground.

The special accessory Winged Boots can be equipped to greatly reduce the amount of bravery depleted by banish traps.

Summons

Using a summonstone that has been equipped calls forth a summon that influences bravery to some effect. A variety of effects can be found within these summons.