Ability Points, or AP, are used to unlock new abilities. AP is earned on a per-Class basis, meaning each individual class will have an AP pool that can be spent to learn abilities in that specific class.
Earning AP[]
After finishing an encounter, each unit deployed in that encounter receives a base of 140 AP, although this base amount will be reduced if the average level of your units is higher than the level of the map. The base AP received for an encounter is multiplied by 1.75 for story missions (for a maximum of 245 AP). A story mission is essentially any encounter that isn't a patrol, and can only be completed once - it doesn't have to be an encounter required to beat the game.
Several other modifiers are adding on top of the base AP, often depending on the specific encounter:
- You receive extra AP if Kyrie is deployed and never died in the encounter. The bonus is equal to 10% of the base AP.
- Killing a Zotzit will reward 100/200/350 AP depending on its tier.
- Keeping a guest alive in a patrol will reward bonus AP, depending on the map. Typically the amount is between 30 and 50 AP. If the guest died and is later revived, you don't get this bonus.
- Some patrols have monsters that award small amounts of bonus AP when killed. These monsters are not guaranteed to spawn.
- Various story missions offer bonus AP for certain actions. For example, closing the door in The Crossroads awards 30 AP.
- A single unit deployed may be designated the MVP if they performed many beneficial actions. This bonus is equal to 35% of base AP. Note that purposefully attacking your own units or helping enemy units too many times will prevent anyone from getting the MVP bonus.
Vicarious AP[]
In addition to gaining AP in their main class, units gain a small amount of AP based on which other classes were deployed in battle. Specifically, a unit will gain 15% of an encounters base AP in each class deployed by the player. For example, in a standard patrol worth 140 AP, if 2 Menders, a Wizard, a Mercenary, and a Knight were deployed by the player, every single unit deployed in the battle will gain an addition 21 AP in Wizard, Mercenary, and Knight, and will gain 42 AP in Mender. Units will even gain vicarious AP in classes that they don't qualify for, although they won't be able to spend this AP until they meet the class's requirements.
Vicarious AP cannot be earned for Badge Classes or for Story Classes.
With Missions and Monsters installed, Story Characters will also vicariously receive 15% of AP rewarded from missions in the respective class. For example, if a Mender comes back from a mission that awards 100 AP, all story characters will receive 15 AP in Mender.
Benched AP[]
Even units not deployed in an encounter earn a small amount of AP. Benched units receive 50% of the base AP earned in the encounter, and 80% of the vicarious AP earned. Keep in mind that this is only a percentage of base AP, so bonus AP (from Zotzits for example) will not benefit benched units in any way.
AP for new recruits[]
When recruiting a new unit in the Guild, AP is not determined by the new recruit's level or even their primary class. AP is instead calculated by taking the average AP earned by your 6 units with the most total AP in that class. This amount is then multiplied by 0.4 to determine their total AP in each class.
For example, if your 6 units with the highest AP in mender have earned 800, 700, 500, 500, 300 and 200 AP, a new recruit (regardless of what class they're recruited into) would have 240 AP (mean of the previous amounts times .4).