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Signal Skills
April 23, 2026 at 08:27 PM
Expanded with Switching Signals mechanic, tag-team framing, and endless combo structure
Signal Skills are the payoff moves in DragonSword: Awakening's combo system. Chaining them from stacked Status Ailments and Active Skills is how the game produces its biggest single-hit damage, and they are the mechanical backbone of the tag-team structure Hound13 calls Switching Signals.
Hound13 uses "Switching Signals" to describe the way Heroes rotate through a combo. On the Steam store page the mechanic is written as: "Heroes weave in and out of battle in endless combo chains through Switching Signals. Build your own team with diverse combinations and craft your ultimate stylish combat."
In practice that means a Signal Skill is triggered by switching to another Hero while the target is still under the previous Hero's ailment. The incoming Hero tags in with their Signal Skill, the target stays locked, and the combo keeps going. Because every Hero has a different ailment, a well-built roster can pass a target back and forth between several different Signal Skills without breaking the chain.
A clean Signal Skill cast is the closer of a full combo. Hound13's public framing describes the loop as:
Stack Status Ailments on the target with basic attacks and ailment moves.
Chain Active Skills that extend the ailment window and build toward the switch.
Close with a devastating Signal Skill from another Hero via Switching Signals.
Used in isolation, Signal Skills are still strong; used as the end of a properly-stacked chain and threaded through multiple Hero switches, they are the game's main damage ceiling.
Named individual Signal Skills, exact charge mechanics (whether the skill is gated by ailment state alone or by a separate gauge), invulnerability frames on the switch-in, and any visible Signal Skill UI bar have not been publicly detailed by Hound13. Expect these to be broken down alongside future Hero reveals and the Steam Next Fest demo in June 2026.
Status Ailments - the trigger condition the switch feeds off.
Active Skills - the mid-combo layer that sets up the Signal Skill.
Heroes - full roster. Each Hero brings a distinct Signal Skill tied to their ailment.
