History VideoGame / TowerOfFantasy

** Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion was announced to be the next crossover and it's confirmed to be available for the Global version. Asuka and Ayanami Rei are confirmed to be recruitable units.

** Abyssal:Harrah and Crystal Hoof:Culton retained their health values from the CN version of the game during their first release, resulting in the two bosses having an absurd amount of health points compared to player strength. It was very common for an entire channel to fill up yet players still dealt scratch damage to said bosses. This was since patched and players nowadays have enough gear to bulldoze their health.
** The limited-time raids Zhuyan and Gluttonous Feast raid also have an absurd amount of HP that requires mechanics to chip their health down, this causes DPS resonance to become useless and players have to cooperate as just missing one mechanic is enough to cause a wipe.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: During the prologue, the character's companion who was not chosen is never seen or heard from again, though there are hints that they hadn't survived the ambush.

* TraumaInducedAmnesia: [[spoiler: Alyss was Saki's former captain called M-Sec 002, but she was gravely injured protecting Mirroria from a Grayspace invasion and lost all her memories as a result. Everyone who knew her before was given a gag order not to reveal her true identity and to call her M-Sec 2000 to protect her mental state. It's revealed that this amnesia is caused by abyssants trying to invade her mind, but she has them locked in a stalemate. However, the stalemate has led 002 to become bound to the Abyssant holding her captive, and defeating this Abyssant also causes 002 to disappear, so Alyss never recovers her memories.]]

* WellIntentionedExtremist: The Heirs of Aida aim to cause a massive planet-wide time retracement to [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong prevent the Cataclysm by halting Omnium research from the get-go.]] However, they do this without considering the humans who have adjusted to the post-Cataclysm environment, and they also have not considered the consequences of a second failed time retracement. In the Affinity conversations with Frigg's Simulacrum, the player character goes into a long tirade against the Heirs about their misguided goals.

* YouAllLookFamiliar: Many generic [=NPCs=] share the same model which is noticeable in Vera, where you can see the same models in every building.

* {{Crossover}}: Bai Yuekui and Marc from ''Animation/LingLongIncarnation'' appear as recruitable characters in the Chinese version of the game. Sadly, [[NoExportForYou they're not available to the global version]] for licensing reasons.

* AntiPoopSocking: In addition to FreemiumTimer and PlayEveryDay mechanics, the early stages of the game like to control the player's progression:

* AntiRageQuitting: Frontier Clash hard features a penalty where quitting before the mode ends would still use up their attempts for the week and lose whatever equipment they gained during the round. Additionally, the first player to exit while it's ongoing will be barred from queueing for 10 minutes.

* TheFourGods: The characters released in 3.0, aside from Lan who released a patch earlier, are based on the Four Gods in Chinese Mythology, with their weapons named after the god they are based on:
** Lan is themed after the Vermilion Bird, as she has a phoenix motif in her clothes and attacks. Her Japanese name is Suzaku, which is the name of Zhūquè in Japan.
** Yulan is themed after the White Tiger, with her black and blue motif and she even summons a tiger in one of her attacks. Ling Han's skills also evoke the White Tiger itself.
** Ming Jing takes many themes from the Black Tortoise, with his weapon named the Onyx Tortoise. His title is Lord Xuanwu, which is derived from the name of the deity itself.
** Huang/Mimi takes after the Azure Dragon with her color scheme and dragon motif. Her attacks even involve summoning dragons to attack enemies with her.
* FriendlyPlayfulDolphin: Phantom Dolphins won't attack as long as they're not attacked, and will even turn friendly and follow you if you approach them.

** The Simulacrum AI disguise is turned off during story dialogue and thus, it doesn't affect the story whatsoever.

* GatlingGood: Hilda wields a pink gattling gun called Terminator, and it also can turn into a mini turret via the skill button.

* GrapplingHookPistol: A variant with the cybernetic arm, this can be used to pull enemies close, pull closer to the target, deal damage, or access hard-to-reach areas.

** Vera has a similar mushroom puzzle, but this one requires players to match up the colors instead, and doing so will yield one nuclei.
** Joltvile has large floating mushrooms that usually have one energy orb on top.

* ImprobableFemaleCast: The playable simulacrums lean in this direction as female characters hugely outnumber the male characters nearly thrice as much, not counting the playable character. It's to a point that a limited male simulacra can be summoned after 5 or 6 female simulacra has been released.

* CookingMechanics: Players can collect ingredients or kill wildlife and cook at various cooking stations around the map, usually in shelters, near ruins, or boss arenas. Recipes are discovered by combining ingredients and while only one ingredient is needed to unlock them, chances rise up the more ingredients are added, even if it's not part of the recipe. Failing will usually result in creating an awful stew and losing all ingredients used.

** An exploit was discovered where it's possible to transfer items from one character to another if one is able to get a player's UID, usually by teaming up in cross-server, causing affected players to lose weeks or months' worth of items. This affected only a few servers but other players began to avoid cross-matching and even other players in the same server in fear of losing their hard-worked items. Hotta quickly issued an emergency maintenance a few hours after its discovery to remove the exploit, banned the offending player/s, and offered rollbacks to affected players.
** After the 2.0 patch was launched, some servers were affected by a bug that puts them on a non-existent queue that made it impossible to transfer to a solo or party instance, making daily activities virtually undoable. This was patched after a few days.

** The player's suppressors can't ever be broken. In fact, it's one of the leveling methods that grant increased stats by collecting upgrade items.

* CookingMechanics: Players can collect ingredients or kill wildlife and cook at various cooking stations around the map, usually in shelters, near ruins, or boss arenas. Recipes are discovered by combining ingredients together and while only one ingredient is needed to unlock them, chances rise up the more ingredients are added, even if it's not part of the recipe. Failing will usually result in creating an awful stew and losing all ingredients used.

* NighInvulnerability: Opposite of [[CastFromHitpoints Tian Lang]], it's not an uncommon sight to see Lyra players take 0 damage in a team run. Her RapidFireFisticuffs regenerates health so fast that one can go from low to full health in mere seconds. Her extra healing turns into shields for herself or for the team, and it's easy to maintain it as long as she keeps healing in Benediction stance. Her fifth advancement also negates any fatal damage to her teammates as long as one has Forgiveness or Enlightenment guard buffs.

** Lan has the ability to teleport up in the air up to a certain distance and [[ParasolParachute slowly glides down with her parasol.]]

** Fei Se and Ling Han can store charges of Light Steps that regenerate over time. With them, attempting a third jump after the double-jump will instead launch them into the air, and holding forward afterwards lets them glide forward until you release the movement key or hit a solid surface.

* {{Phonymon}}: The Beast Capture system introduced in patch 3.1 allows Wanderers to capture and tame specific enemies, and said enemies can be raised in beast pens in Artificial Island. Fully tamed creatures can be sold for Dominium points.

** Lyra's Vesper weapon is a huge pair of robotic arms floating beside her, and she can dish out respectable damage even if she's a support character.

* PuzzleBoss: The limited-time Zhuyan and Gluttonous Feast Raids take ScratchDamage from all attacks until both bosses generate its shield and "challenges" the player that has aggro on it to a duel. The dueling player gains a massive attack bonus, and everyone else can contribute by shattering Zhuyan's shield, which also deals a large amount of damage to it. The strategy thus becomes loading up on Tank and Healer players and waiting to break its shield, rather than just stacking DPS and beating it with brute force.

** Certain weapons have an elemental resonance passive that grants a bonus to its element (and enable other skill effects) if you also have a weapon of the same element in your loadout.

* AllThereInTheManual: The character and game trailers from Lyra onwards usually detail a Simulacra's backstory alluded to within the game.

** [[spoiler:After the battle in Aesperia, Zeke lost his memory as a side effect of being flung in the time-space. He took up the identity of Ming Jing after finding himself in Domain 9.]]

** Shiro's appearance and attitude strongly resembles a cat, even pretending she is a cat when interacting with people.
** Fenrir has a canine motif, with her name referencing the monstrous wolf of Norse mythology. Her hair has flaps that looks like dog ears, her weapon animations has her pouncing and clawing at enemies, has two dogs she keeps as pets, is deathly allergic to chocolate, and likes to make cute dog noises.

** Alyss' design is inspired by dragonflies with her alternate sprint transforming her into one.
** Nan Ying is associated with black butterflies, befitting its symbolism with death and terror that she creates after her defection to the Darkness.

** Gold and Red Nucleus and Matrix banners have a [[BadLuckMitigationMechanic "pity" mechanic]] that guarantees an SSR every 80 pulls (40 for matrices). If a player is lucky enough to get an SSR prior to this point, progress towards pity doesn't reset. With Limited banners, pity progress transfers from one Limited banner to the next (but Flame Gold converts to regular Black Gold) so that you're not encouraged to exhaust pity progress if you want to stop pulling.

** There are a lot of points of interest to find across the overworld maps, each of them yielding Black or Gold Nuclei used for the [[{{Lootboxes}} gacha system]], and contributing to exploration progress achievements that give extra rewards. There's very few physical barriers that prevent you from straying off the beaten path so you can theoretically navigate to a quick-travel point on the other side of the map if you know where to go. That said, several chests and interest points meant to be discovered far later into the plot will be inaccessible for a set period of time (some as long as a few weeks!) and this time-gate is player-dependent. It forces players to pace themselves with exploration as opposed to scrounging everything from the map in one go. Fortunately, these time-gates are only present within the Aesperia region.

** Stat-lockers allow you to block off one of four stats in an equipment when upgrading (the blocked stat will not receive the upgrade), reducing the odds of a bad roll.

** Brevey's trailer has Archon Elric lambasting her for causing the bug that made various Wanderers grow abnormally giant while videos of said bug plays in the background.

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Tsubasa's simulacrum log labels the real one as a friendly person who can get along with anyone, but has a tendency to switch sides as quickly as she joins a group. It's noted she first joined the Hyenas, then ran away to apply for Hykros then backstabbed them after her training to join the Heirs of Aida. Her AI counterpart even questions why her real self can't get attached to anyone and doesn't want to stay in one place.

** The Aesperia continent, where the reactor in the Tower of Fantasy exploded, has it and the surrounding city completely destroyed and everything is filled with broken-down technology and mutated monsters. The surviving 20% of the population has stripped the planet bare of resources to construct shelters to survive and must heavily rely on their suppressors or cybernetic enhancements to withstand radiation or they will mutate into aberrants. The surviving Hykros scientists are more resistant to the radiation, but they [[TimeAbyss never aged a day afterwards in exchange.]]

** The limited-time raids Zhuyan and Gluttonous Feast raid also have an absurd amount of HP that requires mechanics to chip their health down, this causes DPS resonance to become useless and players have to cooperate together as just missing one mechanic is enough to cause a wipe.

** Grayspace Portals dot the desert of Vera, and once you reach level 74 you can use them to enter Grayspace itself, a parallel version of the Vera desert with its own exploration points, overworld mobs, and field bosses.

* PuppeteerParasite: [[spoiler:It turns out that a few types of Abyssants like Abyssant:Jormungandr has the ability to control humans, as she was able to take over Umi's body and sabotage outpost 10. Unfortunately, it did such a poor job hiding its actions that Lin and Tian Lang were able to figure out that "Umi" was the one who caused the attack.]]

* QuicksandSucks: The southern region of the Vera desert, aptly named Quicksand Belt, has huge quicksand pools scattered throughout the area. Getting trapped in one will slowly sink players down while making it difficult to trudge to safety, and failing to escape is instant death. However, sinking in slowly swirling vortexes in certain quicksand pits will instead deposit you in underground caves to explore.

* SetAMookToKillAMook: Due to her connection with the Hive Queen, Rubilia has the ability to convert an enemy Grayspace entity into an ally for a limited amount of time and make them fight other enemies.

* ShrinkingViolet: It's not very obvious, but under her cool and calm exterior, Meryl is actually so shy that she has a hard time communicating with other people. Unfortunately, her frosty attitude and way of fighting also made it hard for others to relax around her and many prefer to distance from her instead.
* SinisterScythe: KING's weapon of choice, called the Scythe of the Crow, adds to his already intimidating figure and has the ability to temporarily extend its reach by acting like a chain whip, allowing one to pull enemies closer so it's easier to break the enemy's shields.

** The lizard-type enemies (including Sobek and Magma) in Aesperia and Vera are copy-cats of each other, with only a few differences in attack animations. The in-verse reason for the similarity is that Aesperia lizard-type enemies are actually robotic versions of the wildlife in Vera.

** Terribears and Horror Beasts are one and the same, with only a few minor differences in color like how the former has darker fur.

* WelcomeToCorneria: The dominium NPC shops in Tianhe Bazaar all speak the same handful of phrases when talking to them.

* GatlingGood: Hilda wields a pink gattling gun called Terminator, and it also has the ability to turn into a mini turret.

* GrapplingHookPistol: A variant with the cybernetic arm, this can be used to pull enemies close, pull closer to the target, deal damage, or to access hard-to-reach areas.

* HiveMind: [[spoiler:The Grayspace Entities are discovered to share thoughts with each other, which is how Rubilia tries to communicate to Lin via the Puppet Singer and Ruby. Unfortunately, this also means that the Hive Mother is also aware of what she is trying to accomplish.]]

* ImpossiblyLowNeckline: Many of the female outfits have a tendency to show off the neckline and even a lot of cleavage, though most of these outfits are [[{{Microtransaction}} also locked in a paid gacha event.]]

** Fenrir's weapon is tailored to be a DPS weapon yet she has a decent shatter rate, which lets her shatter shields close to what tank weapons can do, and great self-healing, having the ability to heal herself so fast that she is less reliant on supports.

* LoveAtFirstSight: Crow's messages show that he immediately developed a crush on Shiro. In the next message, it's revealed he made a fool of himself by approaching and making cat noises to her, which Shiro doesn't really appreciate.
* LovecraftLite: In Gnonno's story quest, she snuck away to explore the site where a meteorite was supposed to strike as noted in her grandfather's notes. [[spoiler:It slowly goes through mindscrew territory after the Player Character gets dragged to a cave, first with Gnonno accompanied by what looks like a ghost child only she can see. The Player Character also receives visions of Gnonno's grandfather slowly going insane while surrounded by octopuses after reading his ApocalypticLog, and later, the entire cave gradually fills up with octopuses. It's hinted that the Gnonno the player character is with may not be Gnonno herself.]]

** Rubilia has the most mobile weapon as she has the ability to launch herself up at high speeds, the highest out of all the released characters, and can also dive down at an angle just as quickly, allowing her to traverse terrain with ease.

** Abyssal Harrah's theme starts off with a choir chanting at the start before transitioning into a mix of Rock and EDM.

** Entering Zeke's Selfless Realm gives the player the ability to instantly execute a non-boss enemy 3 times in succession, with a 200-second cooldown in exchange. This is helpful in dealing with minibosses and other elite enemies.

* OutlivingOnesOffspring: [[spoiler:Banges Tech's president Kolador wanted to cure his son Theo from a disease so he colluded with the Heirs of Aida to subject his own son to their experiments just for a chance for survival. Unfortunately, Theo didn't survive and Kolador became remorseful for even agreeing to subject him to the experiment and giving him a painful death.]]

* PremiumCurrency: Two types in the game: Dark Crystals and Tanium. Dark Crystals are your main item shop currency used to purchase nuclei for your gacha pulls among other things, and can be acquired by playing the game, exploring the maps, and participating in limited-time events. Tanium can only be purchased through microtransactions, and is used to purchase premium outfits or special red nucleus packs in the in-game store.

* StarterEquipment: You start with the EM Blade in the prologue, pick up the Combat Blades as the Discharge skill combat tutorial, and then the Composite Bow to fully fill out your three loadout slots. They (and the Frost Spear) serve as ComMons in the Special Orders.

* TalkToEveryone: Many exploration points in the Mirroria expansion require talking to nearly all [=NPC's=] to acquire their rewards. There are also some hidden quests that will require going back to the same character everyday.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: The Heirs of Aida aim to cause a massive planet-wide time retracement to [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong prevent the Cataclysm by halting Omnium research from the get-go.]] However, they do this without giving consideration to the humans who have adjusted to the post-Cataclysm environment, and they also have not considered the consequences of a second failed time retracement. In the Affinity conversations with Frigg's Simulacrum, the player character goes into a long tirade against the Heirs about their misguided goals.

* {{Wutai}}: Domain 9 has a traditional Chinese aesthetic. While Mirroria has such elements as well, it's more of a NeonCity.

* YouAllLookFamiliar: Many generic [=NPCs=] share the same model which gets really noticeable in Vera, where you can see the same models in every building.

** Yan Miao's trailer breaks has a part where the trailer itself rewinds on a recording software and the shoplady asks to add subtitles to Yan Miao's dialogue. Later on, the game interface is shown while Yan Miao is mining ores.
** Brevey's trailer has Archon Elric lambasting her for causing the bug that made various Wanderers grow abnormally giant to happen.

** Version 3.4 introduced the Balanced Difficulty for Joint Operations that standardizes weapon stats and boosting damage for older weapons, allowing more diverse builds to be used and for new players to deal damage similar to veteran players.

* FakeLongevity: The limited-time event design is not one of the game's strengths. Side events are often criticized for being a slog to play through or requiring ''several'' plays just to accumulate enough event points to buy the limited-supply resources you're going for. Often, the points exchange stores are also structured such that you cannot simply just focus on the rare items and be done with it, while the game also has a points cap (that slowly rises daily) to keep you from mashing the event repeatedly from day 1 and buying out the store immediately. Impatient or tired players are known to try to AFK-farm such events.

** Like Genshin, it's possible to acquire a specific character even if you have not properly met them yet, For example, it's possible to get King's Simulacrum data in the first rolls and use the skin even before you meet him later in the Arena.

* GlobalCurrencyException: As you progress out of Aesperia, you'll find your gold reserves to be almost worthless as the other cities use a different currency. Mirroria's services use Mira, Domain 9 uses Field Energy that differs in locations, and Joltville trades using Dominium.

** You may notice that the CS recommendation for the Hard difficulty Ruins goes through the roof, higher than most players can realistically achieve. However, those Hard Ruins can still be cleared with a CS of about half the recommended (or lower) if you fight smart and use all the tools you have available.

* AllThereInTheManual: The character trailers usually from Lyra onwards usually detail a Simulacra's backstory alluded to within the game.

* GlobalCurrencyException: As you progress out of Aesperia, you'll find your gold reserves to be almost worthless as the other cities use a different currency. Mirroria's services use Mira, Ignisville uses Vermilion Field Energy, and Joltville trades using Dominium.

* GrapplingHookPistol: A variant with the cybernetic arm, this can be used to pull enemies close, pull closer to the target, and deal damage or to access hard-to-reach areas.

* MagicMusic: As shown in the 3.0 trailer, Nan Ying plays her ''xiao'' to revive fallen animals and soldiers and make them fight for the Grayspace Entities.
* MechanicalHorse: The Monocross mount is a unicorn version, and its parts can be found in the Crown and Warren region via quests and drops.

** A sidequest in Domain 9 unlocks the Smart Servant system, where you can now pick between one of seven robot buddies (Mi-a included) who will participate in battles.

* XRaySparks: If your character takes [[ShockAndAwe Volt]] damage, this will happen to them.

** The 2.0 update adds the ability to use multiple Void Rift/Frontier Clash attempts in one sitting, reaping proportionate rewards for a fraction of the time. The same can be done with blue keys to reduce the need to hunt password chests. The 2.2 update extends this convenience to purple password keys and Interdimensional Trials.

** The 2.2 update adds height indicators to let you know if you're above or below an object of interest, which is a big game-changer in exploring Vera's maps.

** The Global version of the game starts the players at an [[AbsurdlyLowLevelCap abysmal level cap of 18]] for the first day of launch, but then slowly raises it with each passing day. While the level cap lifts at a quick rate, going to 24 on day 2 and then rising 3 levels each subsequent day, the increments slow down after the first week -- going at 2 levels every couple of days and then slowing down to 1 level every 3 days, until things taper off at its highest cap of 80. Since equipment upgrades and various gameplay features are also level-gated, this practice discourages players from rushing through content as they risk losing excess experience from story quests (which yield enormous bursts of experience) once they're at the level cap.

* ArtAttacker: Liu Hou wields a giant paintbrush as her weapon that leaves trails of fire to attack enemies. She even paints calligraphy in the air as a way to attack her enemies.

** Elemental weapons can destroy crystal formations of their matching elements, yielding elemental ores for weapon upgrades. Fire weapons can burn Kerosenia, Tar Pits, and Thornvines that block chests and orbs containing nuclei. Ice weapons are useful to cool off lava puzzles and gain nuclei.

* ConvectionSchmonvection: Once the Dragon Breath Volcano far beneath Innars erupts, the area lights up in active lava flows, and trying to revisit the place subjects you to a deadly DamageOverTime effect due to the heat, and you need to finish a newly-unlocked sidequest to be able to survive the depths. However, you don't have this problem with the lava flow in the Great Trench in Innars.

** For Deepsea Stronghold, equipping Meryl's maxed Simulacrum trait or spamming Frigg's Fimbulwinter can create ice platforms players can stand on, negating the difficulty posed by the water. Using any weapon that can pull enemies, like King's dodge attack, will prevent Thunder Wings from flying everywhere and make it stay close to the ground.

** Trying to explore a region when your level or suppressor rank isn't high enough, or trying to go out of bounds via the sea, will expose the player character to harmful Omnium radiation, slowly reducing your health until you die or get out of the place fast enough. Vera doesn't have this problem as the researchers found a way to strengthen the populace's resistance to the radiation and the radiation gradually subsided in that region.

** Yulan is themed after the White Tiger, with her black and blue motif and she even summons a tiger in one of her attacks.

** Alyss can stay in the air during her latent state if she transforms in the air, allowing her to float even after going over a cliff and continue flying until her stamina runs out

* {{Phonymon}}: The Beast Capture system introduced in patch 3.1 allows Wanderers to capture and tame specific enemies, and said enemies can be raised in beasts pens in Artificial Island. Fully tamed creatures can be sold for Dominium points.

** Yan Miao's trailer has the old shoplady mimicking [[Manga/Gintama Gintoki's shocked face]] and later on, Yan Miao similarly wails like [[Manga/BocchiTheRock Bocchi]] in her office.

*** Claudia's weapon and matrices in the Global version were given a significant attack boost in their values instead of being nerfed like the other limited weapons released. Thanks to this, her weapon and matrices are still viable even after the other weapons and matrices released in her generation are rendered obsolete by the PowerCreep.
*** Ming Jing's weapon and Trait were reworked during the anniversary of the Global Version, giving Onyx Tortoise flame resonance to work with flame weapons. This allows it to boost two resonances (physical and flame) at the same time and opens for more rainbow team compositions.
*** With the release of the first anniversary, Annabella's weapon stats was given a significant buff that it can compete with the newest released flame character, Liu Huo, at similar advancements.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: One sidequest in "Apartment Anecdotes" has an in-game Hotta employee suddenly [[WriterOnBoard ranting about the complexities of using Unreal Engine 4 and that many of them have never been home for many days]]. This suddenly cuts to a [[FreezeFrameBonus 2 second note]] from the devs thanking the players for sticking to the end and apologizing for all the issues.

** Claudia's weapon and matrices in the Global version were given a significant attack boost in their values instead of being nerfed like the other limited weapons released. Thanks to this, her weapon and matrices are still viable even after the other weapons and matrices released in her generation are rendered obsolete by the PowerCreep.
** Ming Jing's weapon and Trait were reworked during the anniversary of the Global Version, giving Onyx Tortoise flame resonance to work with flame weapons. This allows it to boost two resonances (physical and flame) at the same time and opens for more rainbow team compositions.

* BoringButPractical: Some of the SR relics are more favorable to use than some SSR relics due to various factors:
** The Couant relic is the most recommended combat relic for many players as it creates a shield for 5 seconds that can absorb decent damage. Once it breaks, it provides many buffs (speed increase, final damage increase, damage reflection, decreasing enemy speed) at maximum advancements while only having a half-minute cooldown. Fully upgrading the Couant is also much easier than most SSR relics.
** The Strange Cube can deal decent damage while sending enemies up in the air before increasing damage dealt by 10% for ten seconds up to three charges. As it also has a half-minute cooldown period per charge, it's possible to keep a 100% uptime if timed correctly.
** The Jetpack and Cybernetic Arm are among the first relics you unlock, but go unchallenged as the best mobility tools in the game even though they don't contribute to combat much. None of the SSR relics give that much mobility!

* DramaticShattering: Successfully shattering enemy shields is punctuated with a slow-mo effect as a signal for the player to go for the kill.

* PuzzleBoss: The limited-time Zhuyan Raid in August 2023 takes ScratchDamage from all attacks until it generates its shield and "challenges" the player that has aggro on it to a duel. The dueling player gains a massive attack bonus, and everyone else can contribute by shattering Zhuyan's shield, which also deals a large amount of damage to it. The strategy thus becomes loading up on Tank and Healer players and waiting to break its shield, rather than just stacking DPS and beating it with brute force.

** A sidequest in Domain 9 unlocks the Smart Servant system, where you can now pick between one of five robot buddies (Mi-a included) who will participate in battles.

* {{Wuxia}}: Domain 9 is also a love letter to many Wuxia themes and tropes while at the same time combining it with a Cyberpunk aesthetic. Characters released during this phase are either themed from TheFourGods or lifted straight from Wuxia novels like Ling Han and Nan Ying.

** Ming Jing's weapon and Trait were reworked during the anniversary of the Global Version, giving Onyx Tortoise flame resonance to work with flame weapons. This allows it to boost two resonances (physical and flame) at the same time and allows players to wield multiple elements.

** The Wormhole mechanics is reworked with mechanics similar to a solo battle royale. In this mode, Players must find weapons, relics, and equipment scattered all over or by killing elite enemies before the time runs out.

* BubblegloopSwamp: Miasmic Swamp is a location in Vera where only genetically enhanced animals can thrive. Some parts are covered with an airborne toxin that makes it hard to explore the poisonous areas unless you do some footwork to disable the toxic konjac emanating the poison. It's also the only part of Vera that rains and when it does, it would fill up the lowest parts of the swamp, rendering some exploration points inaccessible until the rain stops and the water slowly drains.

** Lin's Shadoweave is a huge hand fan capable of generating wind currents in the shape of flowers to attack enemies at long range, can pull enemies together with her discharge, and create a huge field where she can float out of enemy attacks with her skill.

* CompanyCameo: Hotta Studio's logo is usually splashed on screens around Aesperia. They also have an in-universe version of their studio located in Mirroria City beside the Oasis Club, and the player character can join them as a temporary worker helping the overworked employees in designing boss monsters before the deadline.

* SuperMovePortraitAttack: If you use a weapon's discharge skill while wearing the matching Simulacrum skin, the camera will shift and zoom for cinematic angles of the attack.

* TraumaInducedAmnesia: [[spoiler: Alyss was Saki's former captain called M-Sec 002, but she was gravely injured protecting Mirroria from a Grayspace invasion and lost all her memories as a result. Everyone who knew her before was given a gag order not to reveal her true identity and to call her M-Sec 2000 to protect her mental state. It's revealed that this amnesia is caused by abyssants trying to invade her mind, but she has them locked in a stalemate. However, the stalemate has led 002 to become bound to the abyssant holding her captive, and defeating this abyssant also causes 002 to disappear, so Alyss never recovers her memories.]]

** The limited-time raids Zhuyan and Gluttonous Feast raid also has an absurd amount of HP that requires mechanics to chip its health down, this causes DPS resonance to become useless and players have to cooperate together as just missing one mechanic is enough to cause a wipe.

* UndergroundMonkey:

** Huang/Mimi's trait extends and crit rate boosts by 25 seconds when using 3 volt weapons, turning Crow and Fenrir into heavy hitters.

** The limited-time event Zhuyan and Gluttonous Feast raid also has an absurd amount of HP that requires mechanics to chip its health down, this causes DPS resonance to become useless and players have to cooperate together as just missing one mechanic is enough to cause a wipe.

** If you run down the timer in a Wormhole stage, the game will indicate your Suppressor is "overloading" and inflict a damage-over-time on your character, forcing you to finish the stage before your character dies.
* FishingMinigame: Introduced in the 2.2 update, where you can catch fish from various bodies of water in both regions and trade them for fishing tokens to redeem the side mode's rewards or to keep as pets in your personal aquarium.

* GattlingGood: Hilda wields a pink gattling gun called Terminator, and it also has the ability to turn into a mini turret.

* InsufferableGenius: Zero is a ChildProdigy talented enough to hack Hykros' security system at a young age so easily that the organization sent a team of Executors to catch him. He certainly likes to brag about his superior mind, even programming his creations to shill himself, and tends to look down on whoever is asking for his help. That said, he is amenable to requests as long as one gives him [[FoodAsBribe ice cream.]]

* Necromancer: Nan Ying is this all but name with her ability to revive dead soldiers thanks to her connection with the Grayspace Entities.

* PuppeteerParasite: [[spoiler:It turns out that a few types of Abyssants like Abyssant:Jormungandr has the ability to control humans, as she was able to take over Umi's body and sabotage outpost 10. Unfortunately, it did such a poor job hiding it's actions that Lin and Tian Lang were able to figure out that "Umi" was the one who caused the attack.]]

** One of the [=NPCs=] in Mirroria will tell the player to [[Series/BetterCallSaul "Better call Swall"]] and replicates some lines about bringing (shady) justice as a lawyer from the show.

* UndergroundMonkey: The lizard-type enemies (including Sobek and Magma) in Aesperia and Vera are copy-cats of each other, with only a few differences in attack animations. The in-verse reason for the similarity is that Aesperia lizard-type enemies are actually robotic versions of the wildlife in Vera.

* Necromancer: Nan

* DeliberatelyMonochrome: Activating Zeke's Selfless will turn everything screen into monochrome for a few seconds until it expires or the executes are used up.

** For Limited Banners, Claudia is one of the earliest Limited SSR characters and only made her debut in patch 2.5. Lan, a character from Domain 9, also made a cameo during the later parts of the Vera storyline.

** Saki Fuwa's CN trailers has her mimicking the famous [[Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar Chika dance]] while fawning over her favorite figurine.

* StarfishAliens: The Grayspace Entities in Vera are robotic creatures that resemble aquatic animals and came out of nowhere after the Catalycsm, with no hints where they come from. [[spoiler:Later variants found in the Compounding Abyss begin to resemble HumanoidAliens and even have human-like qualities like the Abyssal Puppet, Harrah, and Jormungandr.]]
* StarScraper: The titular Tower of Fantasy in each region is the tallest architecture in every region that can be seen anywhere in the map. It is possible to scale the Asperia Tower of Fantasy; what's waiting for the player at the top is a very breathtaking view of the whole region and a supply pod containing a title and an avatar frame.

* SuperArmor: Various effects can give the player this effect, denoted by their character model glowing gold. It keeps the character's attacks and movements from being interrupted by enemy attacks or status effects.

* TalkToEveryone: Many exploration points in the Mirroria expansion requires talking to nearly all [=NPC's=] to acquire their rewards. There are also some hidden quests that will require going back to the same character everyday.

* ThemeNaming: A few overworld minibosses are named after a few figures in Greek Mythology. Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa in Vera are named after the Gorgon sisters and the minibosses in the Warren are named after the 12 original Titans.

* {{Wuxia}}: Domain 9 is also a love letter to many Wuxia themes and tropes while at the same time combining it with a Cyberpunk aesthetic.