Explain the Agility (Speed) Mechanic

[Darthclimo]

Agility or Speed 'Makes the character play more often.' Sounds great, but what does that mean? Could someone please explain it in as complex terms as possible using the numbers if possible? Urtuk: The Desolation utilizes speed and turn orders in an interesting way, but at the same time the devs did a great job of communicating how that works via the UI. I'm early in the game and I'm dumping a lot of points into Lune's Agility Stat mainly as an experiment. Thanks all.

[ForceKin]

I wouldn't mind a detailed explanation as well. I've pumped every point into it in an attempt to avoid situations where enemies get multiple turns before mine, and so far it's been solid, but I can't say for sure that the speed is the reason for that. It just seemed like the best stat for me since turn order is so important and it also boosted defense and crit chance. I use pictos to increase my hp since they're far more potent than points in vitality.

[Maltsi]

I have yet to see speed do anything. Same with slow debuff on enemies which supposedly reduces speed by 25%. There has never been any changes in turn orders

[Darthclimo]

So far all I've noticed is it changing the order in which my team goes. Gustave went 1st initially, but now it's Lune because she's taken over his Agility stat. But how does that stat relate to enemies? They must have an Agility/Speed stat too, but what is it? Where is it?

Urtuk used an interesting mechanic where it was the race to 100 (I could be wrong on the number, but you get the idea). So Speed was added cumulatively each turn and the first unit to reach 100 went next (something like that anyway). I'm really enjoying Clair Obscur, but the UI leaves a lot to be desired. Is 'Speed' used in a dice role as a multiplier of sorts? Don't know. Wish the devs would jump on and explain.

[Windfire]

Dev said they take it from a Final Fantasy game, I don't remember the number, but if you know how it work in Final Fantasy maybe you'll know how it works in this game ?

I have almost 1000 speed and I often have 2 turn in a row against ennemy.

Maybe its what you said, or its just the difference between your speed and the ennemy speed, or its a threshold.

[Sextilidan]

I think a good way to visualise this in real time is to imagine that each character has a "Turn progress" bar that fills up as time passes. Whenever someone's bar is full, it's their turn to act and then their bar resets while everyone else's resumes from current progress.
Speed determines the rate at which these bars fill up. Instead of processing turn order by having these bars fill up real time, the game precalculates the spread of events on the timeline and you have all turns happen in instant succession, unlike other games where there is a brief delay between turns as the character's bars are all filling up until one reaches 100%.

A simplified version of this would be the following:
A has speed 3, B has speed 2. Character gets their turn at 10.

1st tick A:3. B:2
2nd tick A:6 B:4
3rd tick A:9 B:6
4th tick A:10 (12) B:8 - A reaches 10 progress and gets to act their turn. Depending on the engine, after their turn, A starts over with either 0 or 2 (leftover 12-10) progress.

5th tick A: 3 B: 10 - B reaches 10 and gets to act their turn
6th tick A:6 B: 2

[Yeti]

My gustave has 100 more speed than lune, but because I accidentally removed him from the party, then readded him... he no longer attacks first anymore... its super ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ annoying because he is my popper/marker.

[㉑ Matt]

Originally posted by Yeti:

My gustave has 100 more speed than lune, but because I accidentally removed him from the party, then readded him... he no longer attacks first anymore... its super ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ annoying because he is my popper/marker.

The first character to move (first turn) is not the one with the highest speed but the one you choose first in the menu.

If you want Gustave going first remove all characters from the party minus Gustave and then add the girls back. The speed will count for the next turn and so on.

[C1REX]

Originally posted by ㉑ Matt:

Originally posted by Yeti:

My gustave has 100 more speed than lune, but because I accidentally removed him from the party, then readded him... he no longer attacks first anymore... its super ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ annoying because he is my popper/marker.

The first character to move (first turn) is not the one with the highest speed but the one you choose first in the menu.

That has changed later for me. In Act2 it's random who starts first but usually someone with higher agility. I Invest all my points into VIT and DEF so all characters have 0 AGL in stats and only get some from pictos.

[㉑ Matt]

Originally posted by C1REX:

Originally posted by ㉑ Matt:

The first character to move (first turn) is not the one with the highest speed but the one you choose first in the menu.

That has changed later for me. In Act2 it's random who starts first but usually someone with higher agility. I Invest all my points into VIT and DEF so all characters have 0 AGL in stats and only get some from pictos.

You sure? For me it has been like this the whole game

[Ratsplat]

Stronger and stronger enemies through the game have more and more agility, so if you neglect your own speed, you're going to be finding yourself overwhelmed by enemies getting lots of extra turns.

[C1REX]

Originally posted by ㉑ Matt:

Originally posted by C1REX:

That has changed later for me. In Act2 it's random who starts first but usually someone with higher agility. I Invest all my points into VIT and DEF so all characters have 0 AGL in stats and only get some from pictos.

You sure? For me it has been like this the whole game

If you do a first strike then it's like you say and it goes from left to right what can be adjusted by removing and adding members to the party.
But if you just walk into an enemy then the fastest character will act first, In my case red hair girls in slot 3.

[Pixelica]

Agility only determines how often that character will play in 1 round, just as the game describe it. It's doesn't determine who goes first in combat.

You will encountered many enemies having double turn/play in late game if your character overall agility is low.

[Kapika96]

You get to act more often. It affects the turn order. At one point I neglected Gustave's agility stat and for awhile Maelle/Lune would act, then the enemies, and then finally Gustave. Got his speed back up and he started acting before the enemies' turn again.

Can also mean you can act multiple times before the enemy can. You'd need significantly more speed than them for that though. TBH it's more useful for the opposite, to prevent the enemies from acting multiple times before you can. If you neglect speed they might get to go multiple times between your turns. Keep your speed up and it'll likely be 1 to 1 in terms of turns. I have had a character take 3 turns in a row before though (albeit one of those was from an ability that gave an extra turn), so extremely high agility can definitely get you more turns.

[LazyAmerican]

Originally posted by Ratsplat:

Stronger and stronger enemies through the game have more and more agility, so if you neglect your own speed, you're going to be finding yourself overwhelmed by enemies getting lots of extra turns.

Has this been confirmed? Would prefer some kind of UI element to show us how this stat effects turns tbh.

[Ratsplat]

Originally posted by LazyAmerican:

Originally posted by Ratsplat:

Stronger and stronger enemies through the game have more and more agility, so if you neglect your own speed, you're going to be finding yourself overwhelmed by enemies getting lots of extra turns.

Has this been confirmed? Would prefer some kind of UI element to show us how this stat effects turns tbh.

If anything, it is confirmed by the fact that putting rush on your party then putting slow on enemies causes you to get many more turns. All of which affect speed.