Ability Points
- "Ability Points (AP) are used to learn new skills. AP is earned after battles, and can be used in the Skills menu."
- ―In-game tip, Epic Battle Fantasy 4
Ability Points (AP for short) are a gameplay feature in the Epic Battle Fantasy series, introduced in Epic Battle Fantasy 3. They are special points earned after each victorious battle, used for learning and upgrading character's Skills, which makes them vital for improving a character's capabilities in battle.
Earning AP
AP are awarded automatically to all living party members at the end of each successful battle, similar to gold and experience. The amount of points received depends on the type and level of the enemy, with stronger foes yielding more AP. Each character receives the same amount of AP, including those in the backup slots, which helps prevent a single character from heavily falling behind the rest of the team.
In areas where foe levels scale with the player's levels (such as Battle Mountain in EBF4 and the Grand Gallery in EBF5), AP will not be awarded, along with gold and experience.
Spending AP
AP are used to teach the character new skills, expanding his/her available moveset, or to upgrade character's skills to higher levels, improving their power and effects. The AP cost of each skill depends on how advanced it is and what level it is at.
In EBF4, special skills (those learnable by more than one party member) can be unlearned at any time, which resets their level. Until recently, this did not refund any Ability Points spent on them; that was fixed in the Steam beta branch update, allowing you to spend them on a different skill.
In EBF5, special skills keep their level when unlearnt, so moving a skill to another character is no longer an AP sink. The Dinosaur Egg Flair can also increase the amount of AP received from battles if equipped.
Trivia
- The green orb used to represent AP in the Skills menu and battle reward screen is reused for Mana orbs in Adventure Story.