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I'm a few hours into DQIX and have gained the Egg On ability to raise a party member's tension. I scoured the manual trying to figure out exactly how tension works and what it does, but I couldn't find any explanation. I think I saw that tension gives a damage bonus, but that's about all I can tell.
Assuming I didn't miss something in the manual, can someone explain it to me?
The higher your tension, the more damage you'll do. Tension can be at 0, 5, 20, 50 or 100. The higher it is the more damage you'll do, the more likely you are to hit, and critical* hit. At 100 you do MUCH more damage (about 2x I think)
*not positive about the critical.
For me, with a normal uber falcon blade strike I do ~250 dmg. With 100 tension I do 1999 dmg (regular max. Dmg) If you attack with tension, it has increased power and your tension goes back down to 0. Tension can be gained using Egg On, Phsyche Up, Tension Boost (Gladiator Coupe de Grace) and Feel the Burn Stance. Only the hero can use Egg On. Phsyche Up is learnt by the Martial Artist skill tree, Focus. Feel the Burn Stance is learnt by the Gladiator skill tree, Guts. The effects of Tension cannot go beyond 100, and can be removed by enemy using Disuptive wave or lowered using Morale Masher. Tension is only a temporary buff; it is not carried over into the next battle. Tension cannot raise damage over the regular max. Dmg limit, with a few exceptions. Using Oomph, 100 Tension, Double Up and Double-Edged Slash will kill you, and most probably the enemy. You are more intimidating to an enemy with more Tension, increasing their chances of fleeing the battle, making it a bad tactic for fighting metal slimes. Enemy can also raise their tension using all the skills listed above, with the exception of Tension Boost, as enemy are unable to use Coupe de Graces.
if i remember correctly Tension in DQ9 maxes out at 100. If a character has maximum tension they will deal significantly more damage on their next attack (melee for sure, not certain on magic).
Tension boosts damage and healing power of attack,most skills and spells, early on before changing vocations it is best if you use it on martial artist since they can reach 20 tension in one turn if you get pschye up and use egg on, feel the burn(chance to raise tension if hit,excellent on tanks and solo players than gladiators imo), roar of tirade and luminary cdg raise tension by one and stun all enemies for one turn, tension boost raises tension to 50 or 100 on higher levels gladiator cdg,
Tension damage boost 5× 1.7×damage. 20x 3xdamage 50x 5xdamage 100x 6xdamage
Tension gets removed by disruptive wave, get knocked out, stun, sleep or paralysis.
High end skills like gigaslash, solar flair, should kill most bosses in the story or deal nice damage without any buffs if they are weak to the element
, high level spells like kafrizz have higher damage than weapon skills,All weapon skills and spells have caps so that tension isn't abused a few vocation skills can reach 9999 damage cap, have a ball and blind man's biff with fource at high strength or oomph or double up with ufb are a few of those skills.
