Dead End Beam

Dead End Beam follows a girl who enters a place where light has never reached, searching for “something.” In the darkness, shadows change shape and attack her, while light answers her call by becoming a blade. She carries that light deeper into the dark, where she seeks what she came for.

Timeline battles

The battle timeline displays the actions of enemies and allies. When an icon reaches its right edge, that character acts. Attacks and defensive commands each take time to execute and leave the user briefly unable to act afterward.

Each wave consists of three enemies. Defeat them all to receive a reward and advance to the next wave; the final wave has a boss, and defeating it takes you to the next stage.

Configure your tactics

Before battle, you set conditions that determine which commands appear on your turn. Conditions can take account of enemy actions and the time until they begin, the health and SP of enemies and yourself, or random factors. The game checks conditions in order from the top block of a pyramid-shaped setup, then presents three commands during battle. These include attack, defense and passive commands, and can be configured to suit the situation, such as defending when an enemy is about to attack or attacking or healing while it is recovering.

Each command has one of three stances, which strengthen different types of action:

• Aggressive: enhances attack commands.
• Insight: enhances defensive commands.
• Overdrive: enhances EX commands.

Attacks and effects

Attack commands have three attributes. Light attacks have short recovery and leave little opening. Solid attacks have basic performance and cancel the startup of enemy Light attacks. Brutal attacks are more powerful but have longer recovery, making you more vulnerable to counterattacks; they cancel the startup of enemy Light and Solid attacks.

Attacks can gain damage bonuses based on their timing: hitting an enemy as it prepares an attack triggers a Counter, interrupting its preparation triggers a Break, and hitting it during recovery triggers a Punish. You can also use status effects such as burns and freezes to gain an advantage.

Growth and rewards

You allocate experience earned in battle to strengthen the three stances. Raising a stance’s level unlocks new skills. Battle rewards also include Echo, which have various effects that can produce powerful combinations.

Retry with a flame

If you lose a battle, you can spend a flame to retry. Study the enemies’ traits, revise your tactical setup and try again with commands suited to the fight.