Additions are the base of any battle. Additions allow extra damage with attacks, and help your party, later on, gain SP. With SP, you get Dragoon levels. So all in all, additions are probably the most useful thing you can do. Sadly, some Additions are very difficult, namely, the strongest ones. However, the hardest ones are usually the most powerful.

There are usually two to three types of Additions a character has. Usually there are the uber powerful ones that do around a LOT of damage. These uber powerful ones usually dont give much SP at all. Then there are the weaker attacks, but they give the most SP (one of them gives over 200). Last, but certainly not least, there is the balanced additions. The balanced additions are probably the best, but it all depends on your play style.

Additions are done by pressing the "X" button when the attack strikes. There is usually a little blue area around the center of the attack, and when the blue gets to the center, which is a white box, you press X. Sometimes, the attack slows down for a second, and the boxes turn Orange. This means an enemy is going to counter you. When this happens, you need to press the "O" button instead of the "X" button. If you get it of correctly, then the addition goes on as normal, if you don't do it correctly, the enemy will end the addition by attacking you, and you take damage. After the counter (as the yellow is called) and you do it correctly, you will need to finish the Addition with the X buttons, as normal.

Each character has a different type of attack style, and you need to learn those before you can truly master additions. Take Rose and Dart for example. Since Rose attacks with a smaller, faster blade then Dart does, Rose's attacks and additions are naturally going to a lot faster then Darts, who must hold his blade with both hands. Rose also will have some odd timings since she can jump around in her additions.

Dart, Lavitz, and Kongol have the slowest additons. Meru, Rose and Haschel have the fastest additions. Of course, not all of the fastest characters have fast additions, and not all of the slower characters have slow additions. This is a base for you to work with. Shana and Miranda have no additions.

To get each characters final addition (usually 7 strikes, but Kongol's is 5), you have to have gotten 80+ on every other one of the characters' additions. Once you do that, then you will learn the characters' final addition. Which is usually their best addition, but it's the hardest to successfully do.