Break and combos

A small bar appears under a fighter's name once they are under pressure. It fills from:

• melee hits, more for harder hits
• taijutsu moves, which fill it the most of any single hit
• stuns and knockbacks, which add a big chunk
• genjutsu and fear, which fill it without doing damage
• techniques and ranged weapons, which add only a little

It fills faster when:

• several of your pawns attack the same target (each extra attacker adds a quarter, up to three extra)
• you attack from the side or from behind
• the target is low on chakra or rest

Only hostile attackers count. Fire, weather and friendly hits add nothing.

If the pressure stops for about 3 seconds, the meter drains quickly. A break has to be earned with steady pressure, not one big hit.

Tougher fighters have bigger meters. Rank sets it (a jōnin's meter is half again a genin's, a village leader's twice as big), and big creatures and mechanoids are tougher still.

• A genin fighting alone breaks after about 12 hits; two ninja flanking need about half that.
• A jōnin alone takes about 19 hits.
• A village leader alone is hard to break on purpose.

When the meter fills, the fighter is Broken: a flash, a dust ring and "Broken!" over their head. For about 3 to 5 seconds (shorter for tough fighters) they can't act or dodge. Afterwards they can't be broken again for 20 seconds, so nobody gets stun-locked.

The ninja who caused the break (or the one who put on the most pressure) walks in and runs their combo: one action after another, with the last one as the finisher, which hits for 1.25 times its normal damage. Step numbers, "Combo!" and "Finisher!" show over the target.

A combo stops early if the target dies or goes down, the ninja is downed or stunned, the ninja runs out of chakra, the break ends, or you give the ninja a new order.

Setting up a combo

Select a ninja and press the Combo button. The window has the actions the ninja can use on the left and the combo order on the right:

• click an action to add it; move it up or down or remove it in the order list
• Automatic fills the slots with a sensible combo
• Clear empties it

Combos can use melee strikes, taijutsu moves and quick jutsu: attack techniques with a short cast. Summons, heals, buffs, toggles and long casts can't go in a combo. Without a combo set, the ninja uses an automatic one.

Slots by level

Locked slots show the level that unlocks them.

On the Combat tab of the mod settings:

• Break and combos: turns the whole system on or off (on by default).
• Break speed: from 50% to 200%. Lower means fighters take longer to break.