IfTheatrhythm: Final Bar Lineis a music/rhythm game, does that mean musicality is all that matters? Not exactly. But, of course, racking up rainbow Critical trigger hits will deal substantial damage, save you from enemy attacks, and ultimately help you clear a music stage with a high letter grade. However, your team will need more oomph if you wish to take down more enemies and reach the final boss.

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Regarding power and proficiency, Abilities are precisely what your party needs to reach their full potential. You’ll encounter many unique abilities in Theatrhythm, from character-specific skills to classic attacks from the Final Fantasy catalog. And with twelve ability slots in total, the possibilities of what your party can do are limitless.

What Are Abilities?

Abilitiesare skills and attacks your characters can equip to provide your party with a heightened offense, defense, speed, luck, or support. While each music trigger you hit tallies damage points toward your opponent, ability attacks can impart more damaging attacks proportionate to your character’s stats. Ability skills take on various forms. These talents can protect your party from enemy damage, multiply your party’s attack power, or cure your party from damage and status ailments.

Ability Attributes

Abilities have defining qualities, called attributes, which convey the nature of a skill or attack. It is crucial to track the ability attributes you equip in a party and how they interact with enemy strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, sometimes a series quest’s damage effects may boost or decrease the effectiveness of specific attributes. Ability attributes fall under two main categories,MagicandPhysical.

Magic Abilities

Magic abilities include attack and support spells. Plenty of magic abilities cause elemental damage, of which there are four types:

However, several magic abilities do not have elemental attributes. These abilities include support spells likeCureandPoisona. Furthermore, non-elemental attack spells, likeUltimaorGravity, impart normal damage.

Yuffie activates the All Creation ability during a battle inside a theatre in Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line.

Physical Abilities

Physical abilities are melee or ranged attacks. There are three types of physical damage:

Furthermore, physical abilities sometimes cause elemental damage as well. For instance, attacks likeAero Blade,Thunder Blade, andBlizzard BladedealAir,Lightning, andIcedamage, respectively. However, if a physical attack has no elemental or physical damage attributes, it will impart normal damage.

Guy attacks a knight in a field with his Barrage ability in Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line.

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Ability Conditions

In a typical Final Fantasy game, you must meet an MP point requirement to use abilities. However, there is no MP gauge in Theatrhythm. Still, each ability has uniqueTarget,Times Usable, andActivation conditions.

Learning ability conditions is critical to preparing for the battle ahead. For instance, if an ability has a high-chain activation requirement, but the music stage lacks triggers, you may want to switch it out for an ability with a low-chain requirement. Or if a series quest requires you to defeat a boss under a set time, you’ll want to equip several abilities that activate immediately when the boss appears.

The Magic Ability Attribute Tutorial from Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line.

How To Unlock Abilities

The more common method to unlock new abilities is leveling up your character. Each character has unique abilities and paths they will learn as they level up. While you won’t know what abilities they’ll grow into, reading their character description can give you a clue.

For instance,Paine, from FFX-2, has the following description:

“A skilled swordswoman who can deal ice damage while making summonstones easier to come by.”

Sure enough, Paine’s ability set includes three physical ice attacks,Blizzard Blade,Blizzara Blade, andBlizzaga Blade. Furthermore, her ability set also touts theDiscerning Eyeskill, increasing how often enemies drop summonstones. Let’s review. Ice damage? Check. Easy summonstone collection? Check.

The Physical Ability Attribute Tutorial from Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line.

The second method to unlock new abilities is throughAbility Scrolls. These items teach your characters specific abilities if they have not learned them already. you’re able to unlock Ability Scrolls by completing series quests, acquiring treasure chests, and passing Rhythmia checkpoints.

How To Equip Abilities

Equipping abilities to your character is straightforward. In theEdit Partymenu,three small slotsare under your character’s profile picture. Selecting one of the slots will open aside windowwith all your character’s abilities. If you already equipped an ability to a different slot, it will don a green checkmark in the side window. Choose the ability you wish to equip and fill the slot. You may equip up to three abilities simultaneously.

A highlighted section of the Ability menu showcases the Toad ability’s conditions in Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line.

Yuna, Paine, and Ciaran jump for joy after learning new abilities in Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line.

The Assigning Abilities Tutorial from Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line.