Basic Boss Fight Guide

First of all, the roles in this game mean nothing. For example, a Breaker can serve as a great Debuffer (e.g., Bun-chan SS1), and an Attacker can significantly contribute to increasing dr (e.g., Ruka SS2) and even a Defender or Healer can be an excellent Attacker (e.g., Aoi SS2, Chie SS2, Maria SS1),

One of the biggest misconceptions among beginners is believing that their team must include a Healer, a Breaker for breaking shields, a Blaster for increasing dr, and an Attacker for finishing off enemies, with the remaining slots being filled by Buffers or Debuffers.

However, the correct strategy should involve one style for breaking shields, one for increasing break rates, and one for finishing off enemies. Ideally, these three functions should be handled by a single style whenever possible.

This is because, starting from Chapter 3 bosses and beyond, including Score Attack or Orb Prism stages, it is no longer viable to clear content with just a few buffs and debuffs when your team level is low. In the traditional team composition, after allocating slots to Attacker, Breaker, Blaster, and Healer, there are only two remaining slots for Buffers and Debuffers. Even with the strongest Seika SS2 and S Aina, you would only have access to crit dmg up, dmg up, def down, and fragile—these four core damage-boosting abilities. This setup lacks elemental def down, elemental dmg up, fields, as well as later abilities like hitcount up or elemental crit dmg up.

In some cases, you might even need an additional Healer to ensure survival. Therefore, it is clear that compressing DPS roles as much as possible is the optimal choice.

Therefore, a proper team composition strategy should consist of one DPS, one Healer, and four Buffers/Debuffers to maximize damage amplification as much as possible. Depending on the situation, adjustments can be made, such as assigning an additional Healer, a Blaster (when the boss's dr is really high), or an Overdrive (OD) accelerator for multi-target scenarios (e.g., Ruka SS2, Yuina SS2).

The problem now becomes very simple: we only need to focus on two things—choosing a suitable DPS and maximizing damage amplification as much as possible.

How to Choose a DPS
You can visit hbr.quest to check the ult multipliers for each style, or you can simply pick your waifu as your DPS.

Basic Damage Calculation
Damage is calculated as a piecewise linear function, which works as follows:

When your stats are less than the enemy's stats:

The damage function is a linear graph with:
x-axis ranging from (enemy stats - 0.5 × cap) to enemy stats.
y-axis ranging from 1 to the lower limit of the skill multiplier (e.g., 3,627).
For example, if the cap is 147, the x-axis spans from (enemy stats - 73.5) to enemy stats, and damage scales linearly within this range.

When your stats exceed the enemy's stats:

The damage function becomes another linear graph with:
x-axis ranging from enemy stats to (enemy stats + cap).
y-axis ranging from the lower limit of the skill multiplier (3,627) to the upper limit (14,761).

Beyond the cap:

If your stats exceed (enemy stats + cap), the damage no longer increases and caps at the maximum multiplier (14,761 in this example and this calculation excludes damage boosts provided by tears.).

The enemy's stat value, often referred to as the border, is typically a fixed number. On the other hand, our stat value is calculated differently depending on the character's style.

Even though I initially mentioned that roles "mean nothing," there are still general trends in how stats are calculated for each role:

Typically, an attacker's ultimate skill will have an effect that increases HP dmg by +30% or +50%. This means the character's stats are calculated based on (2×STR+DEX)/3.
Typically, a breaker's ultimate skill will have an effect that increases DP dmg by +30% or +50%. This means the character's stats are calculated based on (STR+2×DEX)/3.
For other characters whose ultimate skills are based on vitality (VIT) or intelligence (INT), such as Tenne SS1 and Aoi SS2, their stats are just their VIT or INT values.
For characters whose ultimate skill does not mention a specific effect (like HP or DP scaling), and who are neither dependent on intelligence nor vitality, the stats are calculated based on (STR+DEX)/2.

However, there are exceptions. For example, Bun-chan SS1's ultimate skill does not include a DP scaling effect, but his calculation follows (STR+2×DEX)/3.
Therefore, it's essential to check hbr.quest to verify exactly how the stats are calculated for the style you're using.

Damage Taken
It's important to note that the damage dealt to us by enemies also follows the same formula. In this case, our stats are calculated as (2×VIT+SPR)/3 or (VIT+2×SPR)/3. Generally, the enemy's single-target attacks are calculated using the first formula, while their AoE attacks use the second. However, there are exceptions, so it's essential to check hbr.quest for specific details.

This brings up an important point: If the enemy's attack cap is very high, it means the damage curve is relatively shallow. Even if our stats are 10 or 20 points lower than the enemy's border, we can still withstand the damage. However, if the enemy's attack cap is low, it means that even a small difference in stats will result in a significant increase in the damage we take. Therefore, it's best to ensure that your character's stats are higher than the enemy's border.

The remaining consideration is our buffs and debuffs, which is straightforward: stack as many relevant buffs and debuffs as possible.

Key Points About Buffs and Debuffs
Mind's Eye and Fragile only apply if you are countering the enemy.
Whether you're countering depends on the formula: if 1×(1+weakness)×(1−resistance)>1
For example, if the enemy is weak to fire (150%) but resistant to slash (50%), using a fire-slash attack will still counter them: 1×2.5×0.5=1.25>1

Buff and Debuff Stacking
Buffs and debuffs generally stack up to two layers.

Additionally, if you check the skill descriptions for buffs and debuffs on hbr.quest, you will find that they also have skill multipliers, caps, and such. Normally, if your stats reach the cap of a buff, you will get the maximum effect. However, for debuffs, your stats need to reach the enemy's border plus the debuff's cap to get the maximum effect. This is quite difficult to achieve. Therefore, we can simplify by assuming that buffs will always reach their maximum value, while debuffs will always take the minimum value. Thus, one layer of Mind's Eye or Fragile increases damage by approximately 50% and 35%.

Example Damage Calculation
If your original damage is 14,761, and you are fighting the above enemy with two layers of Mind's Eye and two layers of Fragile, your final damage would be:14,761×1.25×(1+0.5×2)×(1+0.35×2)=62,734 (There is a ±10% damage variance in practice.)

Adding further buffs like def down, crit dmg up, elem crit dmg up, hitcount up, etc., can easily push the damage into the 10 million, 100 million, or even 1 billion range.

This leads to an important conclusion: focusing all buffs and debuffs on a single nuke attack is much more effective than evenly distributing them across multiple attacks.

Example:
Buff setup: Two layers of atk up (50%), two layers of def down (30%), two layers of Mind's Eye (50%), and two layers of Fragile (35%).
Weakness: 125%.
Distributed Buffs (Two attacks):
Each attack deals:14,761×1.25×1.5×1.3×1.5×1.35=72,859
Total damage:2×72,859=145,718
Single Burst (One attack using all buffs):14,761×1.25×2×1.6×2×1.7=200,749
The single burst delivers almost 30% damage, and the gap widens significantly when additional buffs are considered.

In addition, if your attack triggers a critical hit, your stat value increases by 50 for damage calculation, along with an additional 50% attack bonus. This is why characters like Seika SS2 and Seira SS1 are so crucial.

The Impact of Critical Hits
The 50-point stat boost is often enough to significantly change the damage calculation. For example:
If your initial damage starts at 1, the extra 50 points can easily increase the base damage to 100.
While this might seem like a simple 99-point increase, don't forget the effects of other buffs and debuffs. With the multiplicative nature of these factors, this small boost can result in a 100x increase in total damage.

Finally, it's worth mentioning that you may have noticed a key difference: buffs are usually consumed when a character uses a skill, while debuffs typically last only for one turn—specifically, one enemy turn.
However, OD (Overdrive) provides additional turns for your team(ally trun), which means that during these extra ally turns, debuffs will not expire.
Note: Seira SS1's ult lasts for ally turns rather than enemy turns.

Standard Boss Fight Strategy

1. Shield Breaking with Minimal Buffs and Debuffs: Use as few buffs and debuffs as possible to break the boss's shield while increasing their dr.
2. Pay attention to SP management and OD gauge accumulation during this phase.
3. Once your OD gauge reaches 2 or 3 bars, activate it.
   Apply all available buffs and debuffs at this point (ensure enough action slots are allocated!) and let your DPS unleash a massive nuke attack during the Overdrive phase.

The final damage you deal is calculated as:

Base Damage * [(1 + #% DP/HP)] (Only effective when your attack hit dp/hp) * (1 + atk up * 2 + elem atk up * 2 + charge + other atk up) * (1 + def down * 2 + elem def down * 2 + other def down) * [(1 + mind's eye * 2) * (1 + fragile * 2)] (Only effective when you counter the enemy) * [(1.5 + crit dmg up * 2 + elem crit dmg up * 2)] (Only effective when a Critical Hit occurs) * (1 + Weakness) * (1 - Resistance) * [(1 + Field)] (Only effective when the skill's element matches the field element) * (1 + hitcount up * 2 + Passive hitcount up) (Each hitcount up increases 10% damage and dr, each Big hitcount up like S adelheid increases 40% damage and dr) * (1 + token * 0.16) * dr (Only effective when the enemy's shield is broken) * 0.9 ~ 1.1 (Damage variation).

Final
Since this guide is intended for complete beginners, I've tried to keep it as simple and easy to understand as possible. Of course, the trade-off is that there might be some unnecessary details. HBR is a game that is very easy to start but extremely difficult to master. What I've covered here is just the most basic part of the game. There are still many other calculations, OD acceleration, OD looping, necessary follow-up, and countless little details.

However, for players who only want to enjoy the main storyline, mastering the concepts above is more than enough to easily clear Chapter 3 and progress through Chapters 4 and 5. Achieving the basic rewards in Score Attack and Clock Tower is also well within reach. Feel free to make corrections to any mistakes or suggestions for improvement in this guide.