KF3:Beginner's Guide

Friends
The units you use in Kemono Friends 3 are the Friends, of course. Friends have a wide variety of stats and unique attributes, but by far the most important is their typing. Friends can have one of six types:

Each Type is weak to another type, and strong against another. The circular types (Funny, Friendly, and Relaxed) are in a closed loop, as are the hexagonal types (Lovely, Active, and Carefree). Therefore, Friends with circular types are neither strong nor weak against enemies with hexagonal types, and Friends with hexagonal types have the same relation to the circular types. However, within those loops, each type has both a strength and a weakness. For example, a Funny type Friend will be weak against a  Relaxed type Friend, and strong against a  Friendly type Friend. Additionally, a Friend's skills may be extra effective against the type they are strong against, even applying extra status effects.

Stats
In addition to typing, Friends have several unique stats that affect their performance in battle.


 * Kemostatus (けもステータス) is an aggregate number that indicates the overall strength of a Friend. While Kemostatus by itself has no bearing on combat ability, it is a useful tool in determining how powerful your Friends are or the strength of your party composition.
 * HP (たいりょく) represents how much damage a Friend can take until they are defeated and give up.
 * Attack (こうげき) affects how powerful attacks used by Friends are.
 * Defense (まもり) affects how much damage a Friend receives.
 * Evasion (かいひ) affects how likely a Friend is to dodge an attack and therefore take no damage. Unlike HP, Attack, and Defense, Evasion is represented as a percent value indicating the chances of that Friend dodging an attack.
 * Plasm (ぷらずむ) is a unique stat that affects how much of the buff from Try Flags (see here) is distributed to that particular Friend.

While Plasm is a fixed stat and Kemostatus raises as you upgrade a Friend, HP, Attack, Defense, and Evasion can be improved by doing many things, such as increasing their Wild Release Level, unlocking nodes in Labyrinth, or leveling up a Friend. Additionally, through the Labyrinth and Wild Release, you can also upgrade a secondary trait that adds a slight percent multiplier to all Order Flags of a certain type by a given Friend. You can view the damage multiplier on Order Flags via a Friend's overview, accessible via the upgrade menu and the Friend List. For more information, see the section on making your Friends stronger.

Skills
In addition to stats, Friends each have five unique skills which help them to stand out among other Friends.


 * Kemono Miracles (けものミラクル) are powerful skills that require an MP charge to use. Kemono Miracles can be upgraded up to five times and boosted by using them with their Miracle+ Flag. For an in-depth explanation, see here.
 * Beat Skills (とくいわぎ) are the skills that a Friend uses if they attack with a Beat Flag. Beat Skills often have unique benefits, such as buffing, debuffing, or applying status effects.
 * Standby Skills (たいきスキル) are used when a Friend isn't chosen to attack on a given turn. They often provide a strategic benefit, such as allowing you to perform an extra attack by having the Friend join a Chorus, buffing the party, or charging MP. Some Standby Skills are infinite use, while others can only activate a select number of times per battle.
 * Unique Traits (とくさい) are passive traits that are always active on a Friend. Unique Traits are usually buffs to either the Friend or the party. A Friend cannot use their Unique Trait until they have achieved Wild Release Level 2.
 * Miracle Traits (キセキとくさい) are different from the other skills. While most Friends have Miracle Traits, not all do, and their method of operation differs between Friends. Some are passive buffs like Unique Traits, while others can only activate so many times a battle, similar to Standby Skills. Miracle Traits tend to be the most powerful of the three passive skills, and the hardest to unlock. Unlocking a Miracle Trait requires unlocking the second Photo Pocket on a given Friend.

Combat
Combat in Kemono Friends 3 is turn-based. A typical turn in the game plays out as follows: At the beginning of (Turn 1), the player queues three moves by selecting Order Flags, which then play out in succession as soon as the player selects the third move. There is no confirmation; the selected moves are immediately used. Then, the enemy takes their turns, performing one move per enemy. At this point, the turn ends, and (Turn 2) begins with the player being presented their Order Flags for this turn. The player then queues an additional three moves, and the cycle repeats until either the player or enemy team has been wiped out.

This is the basic, stripped-down version of a typical battle. However, both the player and enemies have a variety of tools at their disposal to influence the outcome of battle.

Order Flags, Choruses, and One More
Order Flags, selected when the player taps on a Friend, have a variety of beneficial effects. There are three types of Flag: Beat, Try, and Action. Each Flag type has a unique effect.


 * Beat Flags will use a special Beat Skill, unique to each Friend. Beat Skills have a wide range of effects. Some are simply stronger-than-usual normal attacks, while others inflict status effects or attack every enemy at once. Familiarizing yourself with what each Beat Skill does can help you plan your team's success.
 * Try Flags will build up a damage buff that will be applied the next turn. While Try Flags have no immediate effect, they can be used to make your next turn especially powerful, making them ideal for forward-thinking strategy. Try Flags come in three varieties: Low (neutral face), Medium, (smiling face), and High (winking face). The stronger the Flag, the higher the bonus applied to your next turn. Keep in mind, however, that the buff is not distributed evenly, but is instead based on the Plasm stat. Friends with higher Plasm receive more of the buff.
 * Action Flags charge the MP (Miracle Points) of the Friend that used the Flag by the specified number. Action Flags are required to use Kemono Miracles, so be sure to use them often!

Each Friend has five Flags that get added together at the start of battle, creating a pool of up to 25 Flags that can appear. The player can view how many Flags of each type are in the pool prior to battle in the party composition menu. Try to create a balance of Flags! A strategic usage of each Flag type allows the player to get the most out of their Miracles and Beats.

If you use two or more of the same type of Order Flag in a row, a Kemo Chorus occurs. Kemo Choruses have many beneficial effects. When a Kemo Chorus occurs, the One More (おかわり) meter in the top left of the screen fills up. Once this meter is full, the player can tap on the meter to be granted an additional action that turn. Up to three charges of the meter can be stored at one time, though only two charges can be used in one turn, for a maximum of five actions per turn via One More. A Kemo Chorus of two Flags will fill up the meter 1/3rd of the way, and three Flags will fill it up halfway. A Kemo Chorus made out of five Flags from using charged meter can completely fill the meter back up again! Keep in mind, however, that a Friend can only participate in a Chorus once. If you start a Beat Flag Chorus with and, then the third, fourth, or fifth participants cannot be Dhole or Meerkat. The exception is if a duplicate Friend was chosen as your Support Friend. In this case, a duplicate Dhole could join in on this Chorus - but the original Dhole would not be able to. Attempting to use another Beat Flag with the original Dhole would break the Chorus.

Kemo Choruses also have additional benefits, depending on the Flag type it is made up of. While only two Friends are required to begin a Chorus, the more Friends that participate in the Chorus, the better the benefit!


 * A Beat Chorus will apply a damage multiplier to every attack in the Chorus. Note, however, that it does not apply any special effects to healing or buffing Miracles.
 * A Try Chorus will strengthen the buff granted to Friends on the next turn.
 * An Action Chorus will grant extra MP to every Friend participating in the Chorus.

Using Order Flags, Choruses, and One More, you can gain a definitive edge in battle.

Kemono Miracles
Kemono Miracles are essentially a Friend's "super ability", roughly analogous to Noble Phantasms in F/GO or Super ATKs in Dokkan Battle. They are particularly powerful moves that can turn the tide of a battle, and using them effectively is often required to attain victory in some of the game's harder challenges. A Friend must have full MP to use their Kemono Miracle; most Friends start the battle with zero MP, and must fill it via Action Flags or certain Skills. They can then be used by tapping on the Friend's MP gauge. Kemono Miracles use whatever Order Flag that Friend currently has (unlike F/GO's Phantasms, which are always a particular type), and can be used in Kemo Choruses just like normal attacks.

While no two Kemono Miracles are technically the same, they tend to fall in one of a handful of categories:
 * Single-Target Miracles, which deal an extreme amount of damage to one enemy. These may or may not have a secondary effect/s, such as debuffing the target or buffing the Friend. These are extremely important for dealing with bosses, which generally have surpassingly high HP that is troublesome to deplete with normal attacks. Examples include Lion and Jaguar.
 * Area-of-Effect (AoE) Miracles, which deal a fairly high amount of damage to every enemy, and can also have additional effects. These are helpful for quickly clearing troublesome trash waves, or taking out adds in a boss wave. Examples include Greater Lophorina and Blackbuck.
 * CC Miracles, which deal relatively low damage (typically only slightly stronger than a normal attack, and sometimes even less), but have a high chance to inflict a debuff or status effect on one or all enemies. These can buy you valuable time if an enemy is ready to use a threatening Miracle. Examples include Sheep and Shoebill.
 * Buff Miracles, which give buffs and/or beneficial status effects to one or more teammate/s. While most buff miracles boost Attack, there are a handful that reduce incoming damage or boost Evasion, among other benefits. Attack-buffing Miracles are typically used in conjunction with single-target Miracles to deal tremendous damage to bosses. Examples include Silver Fox and Southern Sea Otter.
 * Healing Miracles, which restore HP to teammates, sometimes with additional benefits. These can be key to completing particularly protracted stages or boss fights. Examples include Fennec Fox and Plains Zebra.

It is important to have a balance of Miracles that work well with each-other. A team full of buff Miracles will flounder against bosses without a single-target Miracle to take advantage of the extra damage, but a team of single-target Miracles won't be able to reach their full damage potential without at least one buff.

Additionally, all Miracles have a "Miracle+ Flag"; when used with a particular kind of Order Flag, they will be more powerful than normal. These must be unlocked before they can be used, by upgrading that Friend's Miracle Level to 5 and then completing the EX chapter of their Friend Story.

Kemono Miracles aren't exclusive to the player, however. Friends in Strength Contests have access to Kemono Miracles, and the player should be wary of being on the receiving end of one. While tough bosses may have enough HP to survive a Miracle, a Friend on the player's side of things typically lacks the HP to withstand even a weak one. Even further, some Celliens enemies also have access to Miracles. Typically, Celliens with a black color such as Fang Cells will have access to Miracles, and so will boss Celliens. Celliens charge MP not through Action Flags but through being attacked and making actions. Because Boss Celliens usually get more moves and take more damage to defeat, they will oftentimes be able to attack you with a Miracle before you are able to defeat them. Luckily, Cellien Miracles are not as powerful as Miracles used by Friends. However, they can still turn the tide of battle and leave the state of combat at your disadvantage. The player can mitigate the effect of Cellien Miracles by using Friends that have type advantage to the boss; thus reducing the amount of damage your team will take. Some Cellien Miracles, however, can inflict devastating status effects like Sleep, Stun, or Exhaustion. In these cases, the player's carefully planned strategy might fall apart as Try boosts, buffs, and built up Miracles go to complete waste. Never underestimate a Cellien Miracle.

Status Effects
Icon is a yellow star with a circle underneath it. Stunned units are completely unable to act for X turns. They cannot attack or use their Miracle, and their Standby ability is disabled. Icon is three green bubbles. Poisoned units take damage at the end of each turn within the effect's duration. Friends, small Celliens and medium Celliens (non-bosses with MP bars) take damage equal to 10% of their max HP, rounded down to the nearest whole number. Bosses ('large Celliens') take 2% of their max HP instead. Units can be KO'ed by Poison. Icon is '💤'. Sleepy units are completely unable to act for X turns, in a manner similar to Stun. However, the next hit that unit takes will deal 1.5x damage, and will remove the effect. It is unknown how this interacts with multi-hits. Icon is '🚫'. Exhausted units cannot use their Kemono Miracle for X turns. They can still attack normally, use Standbys and gain MP. Try not to confuse くらくら with くたくた! Icon is '❄️'. Frozen units cannot use their Kemono Miracle or Standby, but can still attack. They also have reduced evasion, and take 5% LESS damage from enemy attacks. Unlike other status effects, Freeze does NOT wear off over time. Instead, Frozen units have a counter (usually starting at 3) that ticks down by 1 whenever they attack or take damage. The debuff is immediately removed when this reaches 0. This effect can and WILL chug your device, often resulting in crashes. Remember that the game will automatically retire you from battles if you restart and re-enter 3 times in a row; if you know you'll be up against Freeze, then play as quickly as possible! Icon is two Band-Aids in a cross. When a Pained unit attacks or uses a Kemono Miracle, they will take damage at the end of the turn. Attacking multiple times in a turn increases this damage additively. Friends take damage equal to 8% of their max HP per action, rounded down to the nearest whole number. Small and medium Celliens take 15%, and Bosses take 1%. In general, Pain is more effective than Poison when used by the player. Units can be KO'ed by Pain, as with Poison. Icon is a green heart with a red cross over it. Additionally, the empty section of the affected unit's HP bar will turn an off-white colour with greyish spots. Units with Bravado cannot receive healing from ANY source. This includes lifesteal, photos, and healing triggered by going below a certain HP threshold (e.g. Ostrich). Healing blocked by this effect will show up in-game as a 'MISS'. Any MP or charges spent on a blocked heal are NOT returned, effectively meaning they are wasted. (N.B. Main Story 8-12-1, 9-1 and 9-2 will inflict Bravado on the player's team at the start of the battle for 12 turns, ignoring all immunities/resistances.) Icon is the MP gain icon (the letters 'MP' inside a bluish-green circle) with a red cross over it. Additionally, the affected unit's MP bar will be crossed out and highlighted in red. Amnesiac units cannot gain MP from ANY source. However, they can still use their Kemono Miracle if it was fully charged prior to the effect being inflicted. Using Action flags while under this effect will list the mana gained as '+0'. Other in-game text involving MP gains (e.g. Standby effects) are unaltered. Icon is a red cross on top of a yellow up-arrow and orange paw icon. Gloomy units cannot benefit from buffs (+damage, +accuracy, +evasion, -damage taken) for the duration. Any active buffs will be temporarily disabled during Gloom, and will be reinstated after Gloom wears off (assuming their own durations do not run out during Gloom). However, attempting to apply a buff during Gloom will show in-game as 'INVALID', nullifying them completely. Gloom does NOT block the Captain Skill attack buff, nor does it block Try bonuses. Does not have its own icon; the unit will simply gain the 'Resistance' versions of every status effect (i.e. the effect icon inside a grey hexagon with two orange up-arrows in the top-right). The affected unit gains resistance or immunity to all of the status effects listed above (so, every effect from Stun to Gloom inclusive). If/when more status effects are added to the game, this effect is updated to resist those as well. While this is technically a composite of several Resist effects and not a separate effect in and of itself, it is important to keep an eye out for the specific usage of "状態異常". Some instances where resistance to multiple effects is imparted (such as the upgraded Hanamaru Animal photo) do not resist ALL status effects, and will consequently list which specific effects are blocked. Considering this as its own effect will also help to distinguish it when compared to... Icon is a red cross on top of a blue down-arrow and purple paw icon. Joyful units are unaffected by debuffs (-damage, -accuracy, -evasion, +damage taken) for the duration. This is the opposite effect to Gloom. Attempting to apply debuffs during Joy will be 'INVALID', and it is presumed that debuffs active prior to Joy will resume after Joy wears off (the 'presumed' is because this status currently only exists as a passive, and consequently can never be applied AFTER a debuff). And just like that, you now know the difference between status effects and debuffs. See, I told you listing 状態異常 separately was going to be helpful! Icon is a shield with an arrow bouncing off of it. Pierce has the same icon, but with a red cross. When a Reflecting unit is attacked, their attacker will receive a portion of the damage dealt. Piercing units do not receive any Reflect damage; when attacking, the message "無効！" will appear and the reflected damage will miss. Reflect can last indefinitely, or it may only reflect X attacks before wearing off (sort of like the Freeze counter). It will always reflect TOTAL damage; multi-hits or multi-stage attacks do not result in multiple, smaller reflected hits, and they will only decrease the duration by 1. Piercing attacks will also decrease the counter by 1 as normal. The amount of damage reflected varies, and is specified on the Friend's ability card. Dojo bosses reflect 30% damage. A hit that KOs a Reflecting unit will NOT be Reflected, nor will it decrease the counter. This will happen regardless of whether a Piercing unit dealt the final blow. This is important in Dojo, as a boss with Reflect will still have the effect even when it is KO'ed and respawned. Reflect is a stackable effect; in this case, being hit will decrease the counter of both effects, and the reflected damage will essentially double. Icon is an amber shield with movement lines to the right. Guarding units have an unspecified chance to take attacks that are aimed at their allies. If the Guarding unit is targeted, this effect does nothing (meaning that any damage reduction bonuses from Guarding will also not apply). AoE/Frontline attacks can trigger Guard, in which case the unit will prioritise protecting allies that would be KO'ed by the hit and/or have the lowest max HP% remaining. Guarding units can still dodge attacks while protecting an ally, nullifying the attack as if the ally had dodged it themselves. If the attacking unit has a skill that requires the opponent to have an attribute (for example, a Funny unit with a Beat that Stuns Friendly units), it will only consider the attribute of the unit being guarded. In other words, it is not possible to prevent attribute-specific effects with Guard, nor is it possible to trigger them accidentally. Icon is a purple 'bunny head' icon with angry eyes, and either orange up-arrows (Threat) or blue down-arrows (Camouflage). Threat and Camouflage are akin to 'aggro' from other games. Units with Threat are more likely to be targeted by enemies (who normally choose random targets), and Camouflage has the opposite effect. If multiple units have Threat or Camouflage, the stronger effect will take precedence (Threat and Camouflage are divided into "slight/moderate/high" levels on ability cards). Threat and Camouflage have no effect on AoE attacks and frontline attacks. As you can probably guess, enemy Threat/Camouflage has no effect on human players such as yourself, unless you are using Auto mode.
 * Stun (くらくら)
 * Poison (どく)
 * Sleep (すやすや)
 * Exhaustion (くたくた)
 * Freeze (ひやひや)
 * Pain (ズキンズキン)
 * Bravado (からげんき)
 * Amnesia (ぼんやりうっかり)
 * Gloom (しょんぼりきぶん)
 * Resist All Status Effects (全状態異常耐性)
 * Joy (ルンルンきぶん)
 * Reflect/Pierce (はねかえし、はねかえしむし)
 * Guard (かばう)
 * Threat/Camouflage (いかく, かくれみ)

Overheat combines the effects of Pain and Exhaustion.
 * Overheat

Paralysis has a chance to cancel attacks and Standbys.
 * Paralysis

Discord prevents Friends from joining a chorus.
 * Discord

Lost Flag obscures a Friend's flags with ???. Can still join a chorus. Checking the next two Order Flags by selecting two moves on a different friend allows you to see what the next two Flags will be even though you can't see them on the afflicted Friend.
 * Lost Flag

Tickle has a chance to cancel an enemy Friend's miracle and set their MP to 0. Does not work against Celliens.
 * Tickle

Counter-based status which causes friends to take extra damage, with a stack being removed each time they take damage like Freeze.
 * Marked

Invitations
Gacha.