a green tinted menu screen with the head and shoulders image of a young man with long, dark hair in the middle. the word "Abilities" is in the top left corner. there are nine gray shields arranged around the image of the man, though some are colored in green. the highlighted ability is called "Luck Boost"

Screenshot via Square Enix

The DioField Chronicle: How To Play As Iscarion

Iscarion is a core party member in The DioField Chronicle and one of the best units when trying to dish out damage in battle.

Hayden Epstein

Published: Oct 4, 2022 08:44 am

The DioField Chronicle is Square Enix’s latest RPG, and it offers a fresh spin on the tactical subgenre that features real-time battles and a wide range of strategic options. You’re in command of a small squad of mercenaries, and each character boasts a unique set of skills and abilities. Iscarion is the first Sharpshooter unit you’ll have access to, and his ranged attacks are among the strongest in the game.

How to Play as Iscarion

Iscarion is a true ranger class unit and should be treated as such. He’s incredibly squishy, which means you’ll need to keep him away from enemies pretty much all that time. That means you’ll need a tank that can effectively draw aggro like Izelair or Donovar to keep Iscarion safe. When he’s not being targeted though, he’ll deal bonus damage thanks to his Surprise Attack ability.

If an enemy does manage to close distance with him, don’t panic. His Backflip skill is perfect for getting out of a tough spot, and it leaves the targeted enemy immobilized which prevents them from continuing their chase. Iscarion also excels at hitting large groups of enemies, which makes him a great complement for Fredret, as the latter can group enemies together with Vicious Swing.

Skills like Rain of Arrows and Fontail Formation are excellent area-of-effect attacks that can also inflict debuffs like Delay and Wither. Iscarion can also use the Trap Caster skill to set up a tripwire, which is perfect for dealing a chunk of damage to enemies before you’ve even entered the battle. You can even set up the Trap Caster behind enemies, then push them back into using the Cavalier class’ Mounted Charge skill.

Iscarion’s ability set is largely built around critical hits and damage output. Critical Rate Boost and Critical Damage Boost make his critical hits more likely and more powerful, while Lone Wolf Archer reduces his skill cooldowns for every critical hit he gets. Aggressive EP Recovery is arguably his best ability though, as it essentially ensures that he’ll never run out of energy points.

Skills

a battle menu with a list of available attacks on the left and a video demonstration of the selected skill on the right. the selected skill is called "Rain of Arrows." in the middle is a small image of a man aiming a bow toward the sky. on the far right is a portrait of the man with long dark hair and an ornate coat. on the bottom of the screen are four smaller portraits with green health bars below them — Screenshot via Square Enix

Fantail Formation	Assume fantail formation and continuously attack the target area.
Rain of Arrows	Deal damage to enemies in the target area, inflicting delay.
Backflip	Deal damage to an enemy and move behind them, canceling their next action and inflicting immobilized.
Trap Caster	Set a tripwire trap. Enemies who come into contact with the wire take damage, which increases as the cooldown timer ticks away.
Stun Shot	Deal damage to a target, inflicting stun.
Concentrated Volley	Deal damage to a target. Magickers take extra damage.

Abilities

Luck Boost	Increases luck.
Critical Rate Boost	Increases critical hit rate.
Critical Damage Boost	Increases critical hit damage.
Cavalier Killer	Deal 1.2x damage to Cavalier unit type.
Awaken	Expands skill’s target area and range by 10%.
Surprise Attack	Increases damage dealt to enemies in combat with another unit by 30%.
Aggressive EP Recovery	Recovers 3 EP after dealing damage.
Auto-Attack Boost	Increases auto-attack damage.
Lone Wolf Archer	Reduces cooldown time by 1 second upon landing a critical hit.

The DioField Chronicle is available now for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.

Author

Hayden Epstein

Hayden is an avid gamer, writer, fitness enthusiast, and fan of speaking in the third person. He dabbles in most game genres, but his heart belongs to JRPGs. When not gaming, Hayden can be found working out, reading, watching television, or getting into heated political arguments with bots on Twitter.