Combat Fundamentals: Loadout Building
One of the first things you must understand before entering combat is loadout building. Building your loadout will determine how you perform in combat. While an exceptionally skilled player can perform with a bad loadout, the average player will struggle.
50% of combat is deciding what Jutsus, weapons, and items to take into battle.
Step 1: Playstyle
Before you can even begin thinking about what Jutsus to take into combat, you must first understand what playstyle you're going for. Your playstyle will dictate your loadout choices.
The easiest place to start is your Bloodline. Each Bloodline favors a specific playstyle, and you can build your loadout around what that Bloodline is naturally good at.
You can also choose to go against your Bloodline's intended playstyle, but this isn't recommended unless you've fully grasped combat, as building an effective loadout this way can become much more difficult.
If you have an S-Rank Bloodline, it's generally easier to deviate and build around multiple playstyles. Even then, each S-Rank excels at something specific—unless you have Cosmic Ascendant.
Step 2: Think It Through
Once you've chosen your playstyle, there are several important questions you should ask yourself when selecting your Jutsus:
- What does my Bloodline excel at?
- What effects do my Bloodline Jutsus carry?
- How can I complement those Jutsus?
- Where is my damage coming from?
- Do I have answers to my counters?
These are only a few things to keep in mind, so let's break them down.
Understand What Your Bloodline Does
If you've decided to work with your Bloodline's intended playstyle, this part is relatively simple.
If you have Taiyo Kami, your Bloodline wants to deal a lot of damage. If you picked Heavenly Sonata, your Bloodline wants to tank a lot of damage. If you picked Teno Yuki, you want to outlast your enemy through healing and reducing their damage.
Once you understand what your Bloodline is good at, look at your Bloodline Jutsus and the effects they provide. This will help you understand how the rest of your loadout can complement them.
Complement Your Bloodline Jutsus
When we talk about complementing your Bloodline Jutsus, we mean finding ways to get the maximum value out of them.
Using the example from before, we know Taiyo Kami wants to output damage. So now we need to think: if I want to deal damage, how can I accomplish that?
I might need effects that increase my damage or effects that make my enemy take more damage.
One of the key tenets of combat is understanding how to layer and stack effects toward your intended outcome. However, you don't want to stack too heavily in one direction.
If I use two buffs, I'm practically screaming to my opponent that I'm preparing to deal a massive amount of damage. My opponent can recognize this and counter me by Clearing those buffs.
A good loadout will usually have a healthy mixture of buffs and debuffs so that your entire strategy doesn't collapse to a single answer.
Where Is Your Damage Coming From?
Let's assume you're in combat and your enemy has strong Damage Reduction (DR) active while you don't have many offensive buffs available.
A good loadout should have multiple sources of damage.
These can come in the form of Recoil, Residual, Afterburn, or other damage effects. You should always ask yourself:
Outside of my 60 AP Jutsus, where is my damage coming from?
If your entire ability to deal damage depends on one or two Jutsus, it becomes much easier for an opponent to shut down your game plan.
Have Answers to Your Counters
Nothing in combat goes perfectly according to plan.
If your strategy is to blow someone up with massive damage, what happens when your opponent decides to stall the fight?
Do you have an answer?
This is what we mean when we ask whether your loadout has answers to its counters.
Do you have items, consumables, weapons, or Jutsus that can help you when Plan A isn't working?
Combat is heavily about timing and resource utilization. Sometimes you need to force your opponent to waste important resources before you can land the killing blow.
Step 3: AP Utilization
Each player has 100 AP to use in combat. When building your loadout, you need to make sure you have options that allow you to maximize how that AP is spent.
A good loadout should have a useful blend of 20 AP Items, 40 AP Jutsus, and 60 AP Jutsus.
For example, let's say I use Replacement Technique to move closer to my opponent. I've spent 20 AP, leaving me with 80 AP.
I then use a 60 AP Jutsu to deal damage, leaving me with 20 AP.
In some situations, I might simply have to end my turn. However, if my loadout has a good mixture of 20 AP options, I can still use that remaining AP.
I might deal additional damage, use an item, or activate a consumable that increases my damage or reduces my opponent's damage going into the next round.
Good AP utilization means getting as much value as possible out of your 100 AP every round.
Step 4: Secondary Effects
60 AP Jutsus are more than just damage dealers.
They can carry secondary effects, whether those are alternative damage sources such as Drain, Poison, Residual, or effects that increase or decrease damage.
When building your loadout, make sure your 60 AP options complement what you're trying to accomplish or provide answers to counters that you might face.
For example, maybe your 60 AP Jutsu has Lifesteal, allowing you to sustain yourself while dealing damage. Maybe it applies a debuff that allows you to take less damage afterward.
Don't look at a 60 AP Jutsu only for its immediate damage. Consider the total value its secondary effects provide to your overall strategy.
Step 5: Putting It All Together
Now that we've selected some Jutsus, items, and weapons, how do we put everything together?
This is where we borrow a concept from fighting games:
Combos.
A combo in TNR is essentially the order in which you perform your actions to gain the maximum amount of value from them.
When making your loadout, try to visualize your combo:
- If I do this and then this, what is the outcome?
- If my opponent reacts with this, what can I do to counter it?
- If they stop my original plan, what is my next option?
Timing is extremely important.
If your playstyle revolves around burst damage, you need to make sure you have enough buffs and debuffs active so that when you finally use your main damage-dealing Jutsu, you get the maximum possible value from it.
But remember: your opponent isn't just going to let you execute your combo.
Their job is to disrupt your strategy, just as your job is to disrupt theirs.
Combat becomes a game of cat and mouse. You're managing your resources, watching theirs, forcing reactions, and trying to set your opponent up to fall into your trap.
Closing
Loadout building takes time to understand. You aren't expected to immediately know the perfect combination of Jutsus, items, weapons, buffs, and debuffs.
But once you understand the fundamentals behind building a loadout, you'll be able to adapt to different opponents, different metas, balance changes, and future patches.
Don't just ask yourself whether a Jutsu is strong.
Ask yourself:
What does this Jutsu do for my loadout, and how does it help me accomplish my game plan?
Once you start thinking that way, building and refreshing your loadouts becomes much easier.
