Hey all. I am wondering if anyone here knows of exactly how some of the mechanics work in this game (damage formula mostly and what the real difference is between swords and their special attacks).
The only thing I really could tell so far by looking at some of the RAM values (theorizing anyway) is that each enemy has the same amount of HP (255 from what I can tell) and you deal damage to that enemy based on the number of LS you have minus a defense value of the enemy. When that enemy reaches a certain threshold (I've had it die before that number reaches 0, so I am not sure where it is), it dies.
I also noticed that a fully charged Thunder Sword deals more damage than a fully charged Gaia Sword (about maybe 1/2 or 2/3 the damage of Thunder).
Other than that, I don't know the ratio of LS to Damage. I don't know if it is an exact 1-to-1, but knowing some of the details could aid in LS routing.
Sagaz put together this spreadsheet that indicates the damage dealt (# of swings) based on LS and Thunder Sword (I believe). The Thunder Sword is the strongest in the game contrary to it not being the last. I believe this was also discussed on other websites such as GameFaqs.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bvb_4qVh4YpNMb2CeMxfYUeg-LSfKsTATB-Xr4lbQto/edit#gid=0
Sagaz might be able to provide more detail.
This spreadsheet is very helpful. Do you think we'd be able to put it under the Guides section? Also, do we know exactly what multiplier we get on a full charge on each sword? By the looks of the formula, the Thunder Sword gives about a 37% increase in damage, but do we know of the others? I somehow guess maybe 25% increase, but I could be wrong.
The second board is the damage you need to do to kill a monster according to your Life stocks, the Magic sword deal 1.5 charge damage per swing, the Thundersword deal 1.75 charge damage, the others swords deal less. I don't really remember for the Ice sword but the gaia sword deal 1 damage (just have the annoying AOE thing that take forever).
With this you can think how many life stock you need to save time, not sure if my route was the fastest but having 61 LS is what i aim for runs (because you start Fire Elemental with 59 LS and it's a big damage gap to fight him).
I found the original thread (it was actually on TASVideos forum, not GameFAQs). Looks like the original author of the sheet was Truncated, sorry. This goes over all the findings on the sword damage in detail.
Thanks everybody! I didn't realize growing up that Thunder Sword was so much more powerful. Definitely not worth getting Sword of Gaia then (I did test that out vs. Fire Elemental, which took well over 30 attacks at 59 LS in order to bring him down, and about 2-3 Golden Statues, compared to 19 attacks with Thunder Sword + Golden Statue).
This should help quite a bit in the end routing I'm looking at.
One other thing to note that was mentioned to me from another runner: If you immediately start swinging once Golden Statue is filled up and never stop swinging, it will last longer. So you could probably get away with using less golden statues depending on how well your hands/arms hold up with all the swinging!
