Head scratchers

I've been toying with the idea of SP concepts and uses for a while now and have found myself stumped by a few scenarios, hence the topic:

Question 1:

Say my SP is wood type and my navi is fire type, they are both currently on lava terrain. The SP is equipped to the navi (possibly in the form of riding on the navi's shoulders), does the SP take terrain damage? Essentially, are SPs subject to terrain when equipped?

Question 2:

Do 1-hit shields take up a hand in terms of weapons? (Does a navi need a free hand in order to have a one-hit shield?)

Thanks in advance.

1: Yes, your Wood SP can take refuge on your Fire Navi (size permitting), but don't be surprised if the SP gets knocked off at some point.

2: Yes, shields of any number of hits take a free hand to wield.

Thanks for that

Just remember that you have two "hands" for the purposes of shields/attacks.

Does that mean if someone uses a x-hit shield sig and then Guard battlechip their hands are full?

Their hands are full for the purposes of using these (Advanced Rules - Defense Layering):

4: Wielded Gear (Items you could feasibly use to defend yourself with. You can have more than one of these items active at once, but only as many as you can physically wield. As a general rule, this means only two can be used at a time.)
---Shield
---Guard
---Reflect
---Block
---Iron Shield
---RiskyHoney
---Counter
---Slasher
---Any Weapons

"Weapons" generally mean things that you'd use a hand for normally, stuff like Cannon or Hammer. As far as I know, summoning things with virus chips, object chips and the like don't use up hands.

Quote (LanceKalvaz)

Does that mean if someone uses a x-hit shield sig and then Guard battlechip their hands are full?

Yes. Two shields would fill up both "hands" and prevent you from taking any "attack actions."

And yes, summoning viruses and objects do not use "hands" to perform.

Back again, what ever happened to SP junctions?

They're not a thing anymore, as they were silly. While you CAN still junction to an SP, per se, it's little more than fluff, aside from the fact that having a SP on you can take hits on your behalf or what not. At least I think that's how it goes now. Anti-motion sickness medication can really mess with your head. :'D

Thanks for the clarification; I suppose leaving for 2 years the returning can cause a bit of a lapse in up-to-date information haha. Any sort of way to cause a more stable attachment of an SP to a navi? Perhaps some sort of summoned equipable baby-harness?

It takes one action from either the Navi or the SP to equip to one another.

Equipping [Action]: Your Navi and Support Program enter a state where they are acting together. If an SP is carrying the Navi, lifting the Navi, holding the Navi, riding on the Navi, or other direct supportive action of that nature, they are considered Equipped. If the Navi is likewise carrying, holding, wielding, wearing, or riding the SP, the SP is considered Equipped. Note that the SP functions the same as if it was not Equipped, so it still has HP, actions, attack power, an element, a subtype, and so on.

They can be equipped together indefinitely.