No matter what variation of the speedrun you wish to play, or even if you're playing casually, having the information on how damage calculation works in this game can save you time and effort when creating your route.

(Credit goes to a forum post I found on rpgdl.com by a member named Meeplelard, who gives credit to someone named Twilkitri).

-Damage of Bladed weapons-

The basic formula goes something like this:

((Character's Natural Attack + Variance) ¤ (Weapon's Attack + 2)) / 100 + (Enemy Defense ¤ 5)

or shorthand:

(NA + V)(WA + 2) / (5D + 100)

The Variance in the formula was calculated to be any number between 84 and 115.

A Weapon's Attack for these weapons is essentially the weapon's given attack stat EXCEPT for swords. The Weapon Attack for Swords is essentially 50% of what the game says it is (the game considers each hand having the weapon in it so it doubles it, which explains why all swords have an even number attack. This makes it interesting to note that two Laconian Maces for Hugh/Kain would do more damage than Rolf's Nei Sword if you didn't count in anybody's natural attack.

-Damage of Guns-

The formula here works differently as guns ignore defense altogether.

Gun Power x Variance

or shorthand:

Gp¤V

The variance is basically between .92 and 1.07, so each time damage is dealt, it is dealing between 92% and 107% of the gun's power.

HOWEVER, the attack power of guns is NOT what the game says it is, not even really close. There isn't a certain percentage point that is universal between all guns, so instead I'll just give the list that was provided in the post.

Gun Power: Silent Shot - 4 (assumed, wasn't given in the chart) Bow Gun - 5 Sonic Gun - 7 Poisonshot - 10 Acidshot - 20 Cannon - 28 Laser Shot - 35 Laser Cannon - 53 Pulse Cannon - 60 Neishot - 100 Shotgun - 10 Vulcan - 16 Pulse Vulcan - 18

Spread guns (Shotgun, Vulcan, Pulse Vulcan) work off the same formula but attack multiple times depending on the gun (Shotgun is x2, Vulcan is x3, Pulse Vulcan is x4). So the above calculation is done up to that many times and can attack that many enemies in one attack, or stack the damage onto one enemy. This sometimes can be random, but it generally favors spreading among groups (for instance, if the Vulcan attacks a group with 2 enemies, the damage will hit one of them twice and the other once). Also keep in mind that each time the spread gun calculates the attack, there is always a chance that each calculation will still produce a miss.

-Attack Accuracy-

It was discovered that Dexterity does play a role in if an attack hits or misses, as does agility. Basically, it relies on certain conditions.

AD = Attacker's Dexterity EA = Enemy's Agility

If: AD < 0.5¤EA Then Accuracy = 80% If: 0.51¤EA < AD < 1.5¤EA Then Accuracy = 90% If: AD >= 1.5¤EA Then Accuracy = 100%

-Technique Power and Accuracy-

The formula is pretty much the same for Guns as stats like Mental do nothing to alter the damage (making techniques completely useless in a speedrun unless you are playing a Glitchless run).

Technique Power ¤ Variance

Variance is anywhere from .84 to 1.15

Technique Power: Foi - 15 Gifoi - 40 Nafoi - 130 Zan - 20 Gizan - 30 Nazan - 100 Gra - 20 Gigra - 40 Nagra - 80 Tsu - 30 Githu - 80 Nathu - 150 Fanbi - 10 Eijia - 23 Gaj - 20 Gigaj - 60 Nagaj - 150 Sag - 20 Gisag - 60 Nasag - 150 Gen - 20 Sagen - 20 Megid - 400

Technique Accuracy is basically a flat percentage with no determining stat factors: Foi Series - 90% Zan Series - 90% Gra Series - 90% Tsu Series - 90% Fanbi - 100% Eijia - 100% Gaj - 100% Gigaj/Nagaj - 90% Sag Series - 90% Gen Series - 90% Megid - 100%

Brose - 50% Conte - 100% Vol - 60% Savol - 70% Shiza - 100% Doran - 80% Rimit - 50% Shinb - 100% Forsa - 50% Rimet - 40%

All healing/buffing/etc - 100%

-Damage Overflow-

This is where things get hectic. The developers never intended for anyone to discover these glitches that we use in a speedrun to super power our characters (either by the old Power Leveling method or the new Antidote Glitch method), so there was never any need to worry.

It is mostly confirmed that damage rolls over after it reaches 255 back down to 0. This is important to note in a speedrun setting when using the Antidote glitch as to which weapons will deal which amount of damage to enemies based on their defense. That being said, when you first start the Antidote glitch, your character's Natural Attack will be set at 5140. Then, whatever levels your character gains after their first victory will add a random number to that. At Maximum, your characters should not have any Natural Damage over 5200.

To find the damage in this case, you would plug the numbers into the equation like normal then divide your final result by 255. You are then looking for what the REMAINDER is, which will be your damage (or at least close to it).

So, let's take the initial battle for example after setting up the Antidote Glitch. You have Nei equipped with a Steel Bar (7 ATK) and a Ceramic Bar (27 ATK) and are going up against a Fire Ant (4 Def). Say both rolls give a variance of 100. With a Steel Bar, Nei would do 393 Damage, but after rollover it ends up being 138 Damage. Now with a Ceramic Claw, the damage she deals would be 1266, or after the numerous rollovers would end up around 246 Damage. Either way, for that enemy, it is a kill.

Now for the sake of argument, let's find something with a bit more defense. An Owl Talon has 79 Defense. Using the same math and weapons, a Steel Bar would deal 119 damage (with no rollover) whereas a Ceramic Bar would deal 384 (or 129 after rollover). In that case it would take 2 hits to still take out that enemy (145 HP).

One more example, but this time let's add in a Laser Bar for Nei (38 Attack). Mother Brain has 120 Defense. After adding everything into the equation, the Steel Bar would deal 67 Damage, the Ceramic Bar would deal 217 Damage, and the Laser Bar would deal 299 Damage, which after rollover gets dropped down to 44. So in this case, even though the Laser Claw is the strongest weapon Nei can use, because of the rollover it does LESS damage to Mother Brain than the Steel Bar!

-Conclusion- With that said, there is still a lot of research that can be done on damage. Currently, the overflow can cause a bit of slowdown in the way battles are played out, but still speed up the game immensely.

OTHER STUFF, NOT REALLY THAT IMPORTANT -Status Effects- Sleep: Essentially death, as it can cause a game over if every character is put to sleep. Paralysis: Keeps the affected from acting for up to 3 turns. Can be reapplied. Insanity: Basically, think of it as Blindness which reduces physical hit chance by 50% Silence: Not really a silence, but think of it as a Blind effect which only affects Techniques' hit chance by 50%

-Misc. Information- Below is a link to a leveling table. http://twilkitri.fewiki.net/PS2/ps2levelupdata.txt