Alongside the city building and caring for your Digimon, there's a third activity that will keep you busy - battling. In Digimon World: Next Order, you'll often be caught up in a fight while exploring the world surrounding Floatia. Fights can be seen coming a mile off as there are no random encounters, but that doesn't mean a battle will be a walk in the park.
You've hatched yourself a killer Digimon, and you're roaming the wilds. In the distance you see a pocket of materials glinting, but between you and the bounty of goodies is a large monster that looks like a potato. It's time to fight.
You Can Go Hands-Off
If you choose, fighting in Digimon World: Next Order can be almost completely left to the Digimon and their AI. If you decide to let them fight it out with no input from you, they will constantly use their basic ability. This uses MP, a resource that replenishes slowly, over time. The only thing your Digimon can't do is heal themselves or use more advanced abilities such as buffs to attack daౠmage.
For low-level fights, it's usually easier to let them fight how they want as you'll only get one or two hits in before winning the battle anyway.
Change Tactics
By Selecting the tactics menu, you can choose your Digimon individually, and change up how they fight. You can use one of three options which alter how aggressively they use their MP reserves. Lowering the use of MP will require more input from yo𒊎u and the use of OP, as they will activ꧙ate their own abilities much less.
You'll also notice, in this menu you can choose to escape the fight. Another quirk of Digimon World: Next Order is a penalty system for escaping a fight. Choosing to escape a difficult fight will teleport you to the entrance of the current area you're in. Not only that, but your relationship with your Digimon will decrease, so choose wisely.
Cheering Is Helpful
Digimon World: Next Order utilises a cheering system that encourages your Digimon during a fight. It's as simple as pressing a button. Cheering like this generates and stores OP - Order Points - which are used when you queue up an ability you'd like your Digimon to use. This could be an extra basic attack, defending themselves, or a buff. These maneuvers use up the listed amount of OP.
Cheering has a cooldown, so you can't spam the button for more resources, and you must time your cheering well. If you cheer while your Digimon is wandering the arena, you'll receive less OP than if they've just landed or tanked a hit. Each fight they will start with a small pool of OP based on your relationship with them.
Wait And Watch
You'll notice that your Digimon will move around the battle area with no prompts from you. They roam around getting themselves into different positions. Sometimes they back off, other times they get in the face of the enemy. The key is to watch their moves like a hawk. There's no point in queuing up a melee ability if they've retreated to the other side of the circle as you'll end up wasting OP.
You'll also need to constantly keep an eye on your Digimon's HP and MP reserves standing ready with throwable consumables. You'd be surprised how quickly these can deplete in a tough fight.
Combo Ability
Using up a large chunk of OP - around 150OP - you can activate a combo ability. This forces both of your Digimon to workꦗ together and deliver a large chunk of damage. The combo uses its most🔜 powerful attacks in unison, rather than having you choose both separately.
This submenu also contains the ability to fuse your Digimon together, if they are compatible, to form an even more devastating attack. This is a rare occurrence due to the various Digimon types, but if you have the option, it will help agains🧸t thought opponents.
Gauging A Fight
One of the game's slight bugbears you'll encounter is a lack of information regarding the level of your Digimon. It's not like other companion games where you can see a number informing you handily of your monster's power. This makes it very difficult to gauge whether an upcoming fight will be a struggle or not. You can however see the enemy's power level before you engage them, but as you've got nothing to compare it to, each fight is a bit of a gamble.
If you have a high-level enemy ahead, it's worth doing a quick save in case you get wiped out, because if you lose a fight in Digimon World: Next Order, you're sent all the way back to Floatia.