How to Set an Enemy’s Action Patterns

RPG MAKER WITH allows players to make fights in their game unpredictable by letting them set enemy behavior through the Action Pattern feature. Read on to learn where to find the Action Pattern function, as well as how to set multiple Action Patterns.

What are Action Patterns?

Sets Enemy Behavior During Battle

Action Patterns allow you to create or edit enemy behavior during battle. This is important if you want enemies to use different skills and frequency. For example, you can set the enemy to start using strong skills at low health to make the battle more challenging for players.

If you want your enemy to take specific actions during battle, setting its Action Patterns is the answer.

How to Set an Enemy’s Action Patterns

Locating Action Patterns

1	Press the ZL Button and go to "Database."
2	From the Database, move your cursor to "Enemies." and select the Enemy you want to set a behavior for. For this example, we will set three Action Patterns for the "Drone" enemy.
3	Once you selected an enemy, move your cursor to "Act. Patterns." This will allow you to set the behavior of your enemy during a battle.
4	Select "Attack" and press the A Button. This is where we can edit an enemy's Action Pattern. Before setting the Drone's Action Patterns, let's talk about the Skills and rating system.

Choosing Skills

Skills are straightforward. By pressing the A Button on the "Skills" option, you can select various Skills to give to your enemy characters.

Skill Creation Basics

Rating System

Rating Skills allow users to set how often an enemy uses a particular Skill. In RPG MAKER WITH, you can rank your Skills from 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest. There are also three important rules in assigning Skill ratings.

Conditions

Setting "Conditions" restrict an enemy from using Skills until specific criteria are met. For example, you can configure an enemy to use its most powerful Skill only when its HP drops to 10% or below. Setting Conditions is important when creating unique battles for players.

Setting One Action Pattern

1	From the Act. Patterns Menu, select the "Attack" Skill and press the A Button.
2	Select "Skills" and move your cursor to "[0021-0040]." Choose the "0027 Eye Poke" Skill. After that, press the X Button and select OK.
3	You do not have to adjust its rating because the Drone will only have this Skill.
4	Set the Condition to "Always" and you will have an enemy with a single Action Pattern.

Setting Two Action Patterns

1	From the Act. Patterns Menu, select the "+ icon" and press the A Button.
2	Select "Skills" and move your cursor to "[0061-0080]." Choose the "0071 Poison" Skill. After that, press the X Button and select OK.
3	Since Eye Poke's rating is 5, then we will set Poison to 4. The ratio will be 3:2 for Eye Poke:Poison, which means that the Drone will use Eye Poke 60% per turn, while Poison only be used 40% per turn.
4	Let us also set a Condition for the Poison Skill. Select "HP" and set it to 50% and 100%. Using this condition will alter the probability of the Poison Skill. On top of occurring 40% each turn, Poison can only be used when the Drone is within 50% - 100% HP.
5	Once done, press the X Button and select OK.

Setting Three Action Patterns

1	From the Act. Patterns Menu, select the "+ icon" and press the A Button.
2	Select "Skills" and move your cursor to "[0021-0040]." Choose the "0030 Toxic Fog" Skill. After that, press the X Button and select OK.
3	We will give Toxic Fog a rating of 3. Considering 0027 Eye Poke's rating is 5 and Poison's is 4, the probability will also change for them as well. The ratio will be 3:2:1 for Eye Poke:Poison:Toxic Fog. This means that the Drone will use Eye Poke 50% per turn, Poison is 33.33%, and Toxic Fog is 16.66%.
4	Let us also set a Condition for Toxic Fog Skill. Select "Turns" and set the first box to 1 and the second to 3. Aside from having a 16.66% chance, the Drone can only use Toxic Fog in one turn and must wait for another 3 turns before using this Skill again. This condition applies until the battle ends.
5	Once done, press the X Button and select OK. Congratulations! You created an enemy with three different Action Patterns.

Setting Enemy Action Pattern Tips

Review Enemy's Action Patterns on the Database

There are different ways to design an enemy's Action Patterns. Reviewing the enemies from the Database will give you an idea of what patterns are possible, once you create your own enemies.

For example, the "Demon King" has five Skills but only used 5 and 4 ratings. This enemy will use "Attack" and "Triple Attack" Skills 60% of the time. Since there are two Skills, each will have a probability of 30%. On the other hand, the Skills "Armor Curse" "Toxic Fog," and "Nuke I" will be used 40% of the time. Since there are three Skills, the final probability for them is 13.33%.

How to Make Enemies

Use Action Patterns to Balance Enemies

Action Patterns can be used to balance powerful enemies. If you give an enemy a powerful Skill, you can limit its use by adding Conditions. For example, the "King of Wasps" can only use "Wind II" when its HP drops between 10% to 1%. In doing so, this enemy will not spam powerful Skills, which will increase the difficulty, and might negatively affect the player's experience.

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