- "Air support?! Carpet those guys quick!"
- ―Lance, Epic Battle Fantasy 4
Air Strike, parsed as Airstrike in EBF3, is a Bomb-elemental skill in the Epic Battle Fantasy series. It summons randomly-chosen missiles and bombs to strike foes from above. Depending on the type of projectiles dropped, the damage output and number of enemies targeted varies.
Description[]
Air Strike has appeared in every installment of the main series. It was one of Matt's skills in Epic Battle Fantasy 1 and 2 before becoming associated with Lance in Epic Battle Fantasy 3, 4 and 5. It is Lance's primary way of dealing magical Bomb damage and is quite often useful throughout the entire game.
Instead of having a set power, this explosive skill brings death from above by dropping randomly chosen projectile onto the enemies. There are three possible outcomes:
- A huge bomb with a peace sign lands in front of an enemy, dealing massive damage to a single foe.
- Three small missiles land in a line and explode in sequence, dealing moderate damage to all foes. Hits 3 times.
- A massive black missile with red-glowing markings lands on the enemy wave and explodes, leaving a small black void behind. This deals high damage to all foes.
In EBF5, Air Strike instead allows the player to manually choose between a single-target attack (Big Bomb) or a multi-target attack (Air Strike), while the Secret Weapon has been turned into a skill of its own in the form of M.O.A.B.
Epic Battle Fantasy[]
Air Strike is one of the skills under Matt's "Special" category. It deals damage independent of Matt's stats, but still affected by target's Magic Defence. Only two "basic" types of bombs are available in this game, the single-target Peace Bomb and the multi-target missiles.
Air Strike | ||||||
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Strikes either one foe with a large bomb, or all foes with several small ones. Is not affected by player stat changes. | ||||||
Target | Type | Element | Status Effect | MP | RdF | |
Single | All | -- | ![]() |
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-- | 50 | 10% |
Power | Status Chance | Status Strength | |
---|---|---|---|
13000 | 5400/3 | -- | -- | |
Note: Isn't affected by user's offensive stats, but still affected by target's Magic Defence. |
Epic Battle Fantasy 2[]
Air Strike is now affected by Matt's base Magic Attack and his equipped sword's Magic Attack bonus, but not by Magic Attack (de)buffs (e.g. Magic Potion will not affect the damage). Additionally, a third type of bomb can be unlocked through a skill bonus, capable of hitting entire wave of foes for massive damage and debuffing their Defence. Each unlocked bomb type has the same chance of being picked.
Power | Status Chance | Status Strength | |
---|---|---|---|
14000 | 9000/3 | 15000 | -- | -- | 100% | -- | -- | 30% | |
Note: Third bomb type isn't initially available. |
Skill Bonuses | |
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Name | Effect |
Secret Weapon | Unlocks the black bomb. |
Aerial Support | 30% chance to automatically cast Air Strike between turns. |
Epic Battle Fantasy 3[]
Airstrike is a skill in Lance's "Backup" category. Only the two usual variants are available at the start, requiring the skill to be upgraded to Level 3 in order to unlock the black missile as a possible bomb type. The third variant is still the strongest, hitting the foes at 130% of the skill's power displayed in-game.
Due to the skill's high power (possibly compensating for no weapons boosting Bomb-elemental skills) and the Bomb element being a common weakness, Airstrike can mostly replace Lance's other offensive skills until the last major area, Volcano Peak, which is the first one to occasionally include stronger enemies resistant to Bomb. As such, the skill is commonly regarded as one of the biggest balance issues in the game.
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Airstrike | |||||
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Magic power and effect varies. Level 3: Three different bombs available. | ||||||
Target | Type | Element | Status Effect | Acc | Crit | RdF |
Single | All | All | ![]() |
100% ![]() |
![]() |
100% | 90% | 100% | 10% | 10% | 20% | 20% |
Level | Power | Status Chance | Status Strength | MP | AP Cost | |
1 | 80 | 80/3 | 104 | -- | -- | 70% | -- | -- | 20% | 15 | 300 | |
2 | 110 | 110/3 | 143 | -- | -- | 70% | -- | -- | 20% | 20 | 1000 | |
3 | 140 | 140/3 | 182 | -- | -- | 70% | -- | -- | 20% | 25 | 3000 | |
4 | 170 | 170/3 | 221 | -- | -- | 70% | -- | -- | 20% | 30 | 6000 | |
Requirement(s) |
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Note: When initiated by Army Jacket, power is forced to 160 | 120/3 | 156 independent of skill level. |
Epic Battle Fantasy 4[]
All three type of missiles are now always available. The "three missiles" variant now deals full damage to one target, and 1/3 of it to other enemies. The "black bomb" variant has also been weakened, and it now deals less damage than the first variant.
Epic Battle Fantasy 5[]
The skill now starts as Big Bomb, which can only use the peace bomb variant, and upgrades to Air Strike proper at Level 3, allowing the player to choose between the peace bomb and the missiles. When used against a single target, it acts like Big Bomb. It also has a fairly long cooldown that prevents it from being spammed, forcing Lance to use it more tactically.
The black bomb variant has been made into a separate skill called M.O.A.B. (Mother Of All Bombs).
The missile variant now drops a single-target missile on each foe, dealing equal damage to all of them. When used by most foes, Weather, or as an auto/bonus spell from equipment, only a single missile is dropped.