How Garment Grids Work
A Garment Grid is the board that holds a character’s dresspheres. Each character equips one grid at a time, and the grid decides which dresspheres she can switch to in battle and what she gains along the way.
Nodes
Every grid is made up of nodes, and a dressphere sits on each one. Grids differ in how many nodes they carry and how those nodes are arranged, so a larger grid holds more dresspheres but is not automatically the better choice. At the start of a battle a character stands on the node holding the dressphere she is wearing.
Spherechange
Spherechange is the command that moves a character from her current node to another one, changing her dressphere as she goes. The move takes a turn, and the new dressphere brings its own abilities, stats and equipment slots with it.
Gates
Gates sit between the nodes. Passing through one activates its effect for the rest of the battle, and the effect applies whether it is a stat boost, a status defence or an extra ability to cast. Gates come in four colours:
Red Gate
Green Gate
Yellow Gate
Blue Gate
Some effects need more than one gate. Where a grid lists several colours against a single ability, every one of those gates has to be passed before the ability becomes available. Gates reset when the battle ends, so the effects have to be earned again each fight.
Equip Abilities
Many grids also grant an ability just for being equipped. These need no spherechange and no gates: they apply from the first turn, which makes a grid such as Highroad Winds useful even if nobody moves off her starting node.
Creature Abilities
In the International and HD Remaster releases, a grid can also be handed to a captured fiend in the Creature Creator. The creature learns the ability listed against the grid rather than using its gates.
Choosing a Grid
A grid is worth picking for what a character will actually do in the fight. A short grid that reaches a useful gate in one move often beats a long one whose best ability sits four spherechanges away. Grids can be swapped freely outside battle, so there is no cost to changing between fights.