Illusion Connect · Systems
Combat mechanics
How damage, classes, control, rage, positioning, and the summon pools actually work. The math behind every fight.
The damage formula
Every hit in Illusion Connect resolves through one chain. Read it left to right: a raw stat gap, then a stack of multipliers. Because the terms multiply rather than add, a weakness in any one of them quietly taxes everything to its right.
Damage = (ATK − DEF) × Multiplier × Type Advantage × Critical × Damage Modifiers × AoE / Single-Target Bonus
Your attacker’s attack value, after percentage bonuses and reductions, minus the target’s defense after its own percentage modifiers. This is the seed the rest of the chain multiplies.
The skill’s own ratio. Normal attacks, Specials, and Uniques each carry their own multiplier, which is why a high-ratio Unique can out-hit a full burst of normals.
The class wheel modifier: +20% when you hold the advantage, −10% when you are disadvantaged, +5% for Light and Spell pressing any other class.
On a crit, base 150% damage plus your CRIT Power bonus. Non-crits skip this term entirely.
Damage Rate raises outgoing damage and stacks without limit; Reduction Rate lowers incoming damage and caps at 90%. The two net against each other before the final number lands.
Single-target skills carry a focus bonus; AoE skills trade per-hit damage for spread. The same character reads very differently on a packed board versus an isolated leader.
Eden of Gaming analysts treat this as a multiplier ladder, not an addition problem. Do not over-invest one rung while another sits at zero. A carry with a monster ATK gap but no Damage Rate and a class disadvantage is leaking damage at two points in the chain at once. Even out the ladder first, then push the rung that is cheapest to raise.
The class advantage wheel
Three classes form a rock-paper-scissors loop. Two more sit outside it as pressure classes, and two have no wheel position at all. The modifier this produces is small on paper but compounds against everything to its right in the damage chain.
Holds the advantage into Sorcerer. The front-loaded carries of the loop.
Holds the advantage into Attacker. Tanks that punish the very class trying to delete them.
Holds the advantage into Guardian. Spell damage that melts the front line.
Counters Light and pressures every other class. One half of the off-wheel pressure pair.
Counters Spell and pressures every other class. The other half of the pressure pair.
No type advantage. Value comes from board presence and summon utility, not the wheel.
No type advantage. Sustain class; its math lives in the heal column, not the wheel.
Wheel modifiers:
The +20% is real but it is the smallest lever on this page. Do not throw a match to chase a favorable triangle. The lasting lesson is the off-wheel pair: Light and Spell never sit at a disadvantage, so a Light or Spell carry is the safest blind pick into an unknown defense.
Damage Rate vs Reduction Rate
These are the two stats new players misread most. They are not the same number with a sign flip. Damage Rate is an attacker stat with no ceiling; Reduction Rate is a defender stat that hard-caps at 90%. Every Partner starts both at 0%.
All companions start at 0% in both pools. Neither is a base stat you level into; both come only from skills, leader buffs, or equipment, which is why a single rate-heavy unit reshapes a whole team.
Reduction Rate is why EOG values defensive anchors like Nicola so highly. A pool that subtracts from incoming damage and caps near 90% does not just shave a hit, it can flip a one-shot into a survivable trade and buy your carry another rotation. Stack Reduction Rate toward the cap on the unit your enemy most wants dead, and stack Damage Rate without restraint on the unit doing the killing.
Critical and Block
Treat crit as a paired investment. Crit rate with no crit power, or the reverse, wastes half the term. Block is binary and unscalable for now, so read it as a flat 30% damage gate that procs on guardians rather than a stat to chase.
Control effects
Control wins the games that raw damage cannot. Each effect has a sharp edge and a quiet exception, and the whole category is gated by two opposed accuracy stats.
Whether an effect lands comes down to two opposed stats:
The Stun-still-gains-Rage rule is the trap that catches new players: you stun the enemy carry, feel safe, and eat its ultimate the instant the stun drops. Silence is the cleaner answer when the threat is one specific ultimate. Against control-heavy enemies, a little Effect Resistance on your leader pays for itself the first time a key stun misses.
The rage system
Rage is the clock on every ultimate. Max Rage is 1000, and the ultimate fires the moment a unit fills. The leader and companions fill on entirely different schedules, which is the real reason leader-focused and board-focused teams feel so different to play.
| Rage source | Leader | Companion |
|---|---|---|
| Normal attack | +50 | +300 |
| Normal / Special attack | n/a | +300 |
| Taking 10% max HP in damage | +85 | +85 |
| Ally knocked out | +150 | n/a |
| Defeating a target | n/a | +150 |
| Passive regen | n/a | ~12 / sec |
Companion attacks build Rage roughly six times faster than the leader’s, and companions also tick passive regen the leader does not get. Equipment can push companion gain higher still.
Among companions sitting at full Rage, ultimate order is set by a priority stat. When priority ties, the more forward position fires first.
Because companions arm their ultimates so much faster, Rage manipulation is one of the strongest edges in the game. Draining or stealing enemy Rage delays an ultimate you cannot otherwise survive, and feeding your own carry Rage pulls its payoff forward by a full rotation. When you build a burst comp, mind the priority stat: it decides which of two ready ultimates lands first, and that order often decides the fight.
Positioning and action order
Each side fights on a 3x3 grid. Position 8 is your protagonist, mirrored to the enemy’s position 8. Where a unit stands is not cosmetic: it sets when that unit acts and how targeting finds it.
Position 8 is the seat that wins games. Because losing your protagonist ends the match, the layout question that matters is not where to put your damage, it is what stands between the enemy and your position 8. Taunts, shields, and Reduction Rate all earn their keep by buying that seat time, which is exactly why the targeting and taunt rules below decide so many matches.
Taunt targeting
Taunt is the lever that forces the enemy to hit what you want hit. It bends both single-target and AoE targeting, and it follows a strict priority order when several taunts are live at once.
- Forced targeting. While taunted enemies exist, both single-target and AoE attacks prioritize them over everything else.
- Priority among taunts. When several taunts are active: same column beats adjacent, adjacent beats distant. Position order breaks any remaining tie.
- Reversed-order skills. A few skills (Haruka, Glauce) invert this, prioritizing reverse position order when multiple taunts are present.
Taunt is how you protect position 8 without simply out-tanking the enemy. Place a taunt guardian in the same column as the threat to win the priority order, and pair it with Reduction Rate so the forced hits barely register. Know the reverse-order exceptions too: against a Haruka or Glauce, the taunt you expect to soak the hit may be the last one targeted, not the first.
Summon pools and rates
Five summon systems, each with its own odds and guarantee structure. The headline rate is only half the story; the guarantees underneath it are what actually decide where a planned account spends.
The Featured pool is the most account-friendly: its front-loaded guarantees mean a focused saver lands a featured SSR well before the headline 3% would suggest. The Selected pool trades that early payoff for a flatter 100-pull plan, so commit to it only when you can fund the full guarantee. Read the UR Equipment pool as a 4000-diamond-per-pull luxury lane, not a default spend. Bank toward whichever pool’s guarantee you can actually reach, rather than chasing a high headline rate you cannot afford to pity out.
Combat math, class wheel, control effects, rage values, and summon rates summarized and translated from the Illusion Connect China wiki (biligame, wiki.biligame.com/mjljakm). Some values can differ between server versions; EOG analysis layered on top is our own read.
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