The loop in one paragraph
You parry to take no damage. The parry fills FP. FP buys Bloom Arts from Koo. Bloom Arts and your own hits fill the enemy’s Down Gauge. A full Down Gauge opens a takedown. Every part of that chain is paid for by the first step, which is why a passive player runs the whole engine dry.
The Down Gauge
The second bar under an enemy’s health. Hits build it and parries build it faster. When it fills, the enemy is cracked open for a takedown finisher that does enormous damage. Fights end dramatically quicker once you play for this bar instead of the health bar above it.
FP and Bloom Arts
FP sits in the bottom right and fills on every successful parry. Spending it opens Koo’s command menu, which slows time while you choose. The abilities you pick there are Bloom Arts. Koo also has a Full Bloom state described as roughly doubling damage — we have seen it, but not measured its trigger or duration, so it is flagged rather than stated.
- FP is generated by defence, spent on offence. That inversion is the whole design.
- Time slows during Bloom Art selection, so the menu is not a DPS loss.
Fighting groups
Koo’s Taunt pulls nearby enemies off you, which is the answer to most multi-enemy encounters. Emma’s airborne options matter here too: Helm Splitter is an area attack held from a jump that does high damage and heavy stagger, and stagger is Down Gauge progress against several targets at once.
What is still open
Full Bloom’s exact trigger and duration. Whether the turn layer can be declined. Both are being played rather than inferred, and neither will appear here as a number until it has been.