In SINoALICE you will play as a number of characters from classic fairy tales. Alice, from Alice in Wonderland, is the title character, but you can play as Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and more. You’ll be able to customize your equipment with your standard categories for weapons and armor, but you’ll also be able to equip Nightmares to your character.

How Nightmares work

Nightmares operate very similarly to summons in other popular JRPGs. You can earn nightmares as rewards for completing story missions, raids, or through the Medal Exchange (a system under the Grimoire tab that lets you trade any earned gold for different rewards). In your Gear tab you can equip up to five Nightmares. Each one is usable a single time in a battle. While Nightmares can’t act as combatants, they do provide extremely useful buffs and perks in any given battle.

Their perks fall into these following categories:

  • Elemental buffs (for self and allies)Boosts specific elemental weaponsStat buffs (for self and allies)Increases stats like physical attack, magic defense, etc.Stat debuffs (for enemies)Weapon-specific buffs (for self and allies)Weapon-specific debuffs (for enemies)Cool-down decrease (for self and allies) Allows you to use skills fasterCool-down increase (for enemies)SP boosts (for self and allies) Restores SP, decreases SP cost, etc.

Like other gear, Nightmares have different rankings—SR, S, A, B, and so on—so it’s in your best interest to equip high ranked (SR) Nightmares if you have the option. Keep in mind that each Nightmare has different skills for Story mode and Coliseum mode. These can be reviewed by pressing details when equipping a Nightmare. You might have to un-equip the Nightmare first in order to see the stat menu.

  • Boosts specific elemental weapons

  • Increases stats like physical attack, magic defense, etc.

  • Allows you to use skills faster

  • Restores SP, decreases SP cost, etc.

In this menu you can also review the SP cost of the Nightmare and how long it takes for the Nightmare to charge and go into effect. You’ll want to keep an eye on all these stats to make the most of your Nightmares for your team and against your enemies.