Controls and UI Guide: Read the HUD and Find Every Menu

The combat HUD answers five questions at a glance: which hero is active, which skills are ready, whether a Signal prompt is available, what statuses the target carries, and how much stamina or resource the active hero has left. When a Signal is available, the game prompts you to switch to the hero whose skill consumes the current status; that prompt is the whole combat loop in one icon. The team builder /team-build explains which skills produce which prompts, so the HUD stops being noise and starts being a checklist.

Health and stamina management come before combo ambition. A rotation that ends with an empty bar and a dead hero is slower than a simple chain that keeps the team alive. Keep one eye on the active hero's resource bar and use normal attacks to recover between Signal windows. The hero database /heroes lists every skill and its type, so you can learn which actions are cheap and which ones cost the resource that feeds the chain.

Most progression systems are separate menu entries rather than hidden layers. Quests, the Adventure Book, Karma, Equipment, Familiars, Cooking, and the map are each their own screen, and the tutorial prompts point to each one as it unlocks. The quest database /quests lists every quest with its ordered steps, which helps when the menu description and the map marker disagree.

The menus are also where the game explains itself: tooltips on skills, Karma, and equipment show the requirements and relationships the community usually asks about. Before searching the web for a mechanism, open the relevant screen and read the tooltip, then check the database /search on this site for the full relationship. Most "hidden mechanics" in this game are a tooltip away.

The control scheme is rebindable for keyboard, mouse, and controller, including lock-on and aim assist toggles. Set up the layout during the tutorial fights, where the stakes are low, instead of during a boss. If a combo relies on a fast switch, bind the tag-in action somewhere your fingers can reach without looking, and confirm the lock-on toggle works the way you expect for single-target chains. The exact key names change with your bindings, so the hero database /heroes and team builder /team-build stay useful no matter what layout you choose.

Controller users should verify the aim assist and lock-on behavior against moving enemies early. A launcher that misses because the assist tracked the wrong target is a control problem, and it is cheaper to fix in the settings than in the middle of a Raid.

The map is a learning tool before it is a completion tool. Open the Orbis map /map early and read the region names, waypoints, and objective markers, then use fast travel between the waypoints you have unlocked to shorten the walking between story steps. Distant chests and gathering nodes are easier to return to later, when movement options open up, so the first hours should spend fast travel on the story and on the systems the story unlocks.

The Adventure Book and quest objectives reference named places; checking the map before setting out prevents the classic "I am at the marker but nothing happens" detour. The quest database /quests lists the exact steps in order, and the Adventure Book /adventure-book shows which entries are still missing, so travel can be planned around both.

Before leaving the starting region, confirm four things: the active hero switches correctly, at least one two-hero Signal handoff fires, fast travel works, and the menus for quests, equipment, Karma, and Familiars are all reachable. If any of these is missing, it is usually an unlock from the main story rather than a bug. Continue the story quest until the missing piece appears, then re-test. The quest database /quests shows the next ordered step, and the map /map shows where it takes you.

Controller and keyboard players should also verify the two input styles that change mid-fight: lock-on switching between targets and the camera reset. A launcher that misses because the lock jumped to a different enemy is a control problem, and it is cheaper to fix in the settings during the tutorial region than in the middle of a story boss. Run the checklist once more after any control change, because the habit is the point—the HUD only helps when the inputs behind it are second nature.