But what does all that really mean? Read on...

This just tells you what section of the menu this is.

The name of the character whose status you are viewing.

The class of the character whose status you are viewing. Internally, this determines usable equipment and commands, but here it's just to add depth.

The character's level. This provides a good general idea of how strong the character is. Spells are typically learned at certain preset levels, and level also plugs into a few formulas. HP, MP, and basic attributes typically increase as level increases, but there are exceptions.

The character's dominant hand. Most characters can only equip a weapon in their dominant hand, though ambidextrous characters can wield two one-handed weapons, one in each hand. Bows and arrows are an exception and may be equipped with the bow in either hand, regardless of handedness, but the wielder's attack is cut to 80% if the bow is in the dominant hand.

This is merely trivia, since the only naturally ambidextrous characters can't use bows, but data modification shows that ambidextrous characters suffer the attack penalty for bows no matter which hand the bow is in. And incidentally, I remember the proper way to wield bows as, "the pointy part goes in the weapon hand."

Hit points. The measure of how much damage a character can withstand before becoming Incapacitated. Displayed as current/maximum.

Magic points. How much energy the character has to cast spells or use similar skills. Displayed as current/maximum.

Monsters do not consume MP when using spells or skills. However, they still have MP, equal to 1/16 of maximum HP (rounded down).

How much combat experience the character has. Kill monsters to get more. Experience gained is split evenly between surviving characters.

Characters who leave the party and return later continue to gain experience while away, equal to the amount each actual party member gains in each battle.

How many more experience points the character needs to reach the next level. This entry disappears upon reaching level 99 (the maximum).

Just a heading.

Strength affects attack and HitX.

Agility affects turn order, delay between actions, HitX, EvdX, and MEvdX.

Stamina affects defense and HP recovered when revived, and also slows the effects of certain status effects.

Monsters have no stamina attribute, and instead use maximum HP to ward off applicable status effects.

Intelligence affects MHitX and MHit for all magic except White Magic. It also affects MEvd and MEvdX.

Monsters have a single magic attribute that functions as both intelligence and spirit.

Spirit affects MHitX and MHit for White Magic. It also affects MEvd, MEvdX, and the duration of some status effects.

Monsters have a single magic attribute that functions as both intelligence and spirit.

How hard the character hits. This opposes target defense when calculating damage inflicted.

Attack is calculated differently depending on what type of weapon the character is using, and sometimes depending on handedness.

Normally, attack = (weapon attack) + (str / 4) + (level / 4). With no weapon, weapon attack is zero and attack equals simply (str / 4) + (level / 4).

Yang, a special case, instead uses (2 * (level + 1)) + (str / 4), regardless of equipment. This gives him the equivalent of a weapon with (2 + (level * 7/4)) attack, or 3 attack at level 1, 72 attack at level 40, and 176 attack at level 99.

For an ambidextrous character who is not Yang, attack = (left hand weapon attack) + (str / 4) + (level / 4) + (right hand weapon attack) + (str / 4) + (level / 4), as long as they're using two weapons (the strength and level bonuses apply twice). With only one weapon, attack = weapon attack (no strength or level bonus).

Bows are different from everything else. If equipped with a bow but no arrows, or arrows but no bow, attack = 1 + (str / 4) + (level / 4). Otherwise, attack = (bow attack / 2) + (arrow attack) + (str / 4), as long as the bow is not equipped in the dominant hand. If it is, multiply the above by 80%.

Attack for monsters = (monster strength).

Attack is normally capped at 255, but effective attack may exceed that value on a given attack because of a critical hit, striking a weakness, etc.

The maximum number of hits the character can make when attacking. This combines with hit rate to determine the number of hits actually attempted, and indirectly opposes target EvdX. To give a brief example, if the character has 10 HitX and 90% hit rate, the character rolls 10 times with 90% success to attempt to make attacks. On average, this character will attempt 9 hits, which are then subject to target evasion. At best, the character launches 10 hits.

For player characters, HitX = (strength / 8) + (agility / 16) + 1, for a maximum of 19 hits. Monsters instead have a preset value.

How likely the character is to actually attempt each hit allowed by HitX. This combines with HitX to indirectly oppose target evasion rate.

For player characters, hit rate = (weapon hit rate) + (level / 4) if armed, or 50 + (level / 4) if unarmed. Ambidextrous characters wielding two weapons use the average of the hit rates of the two weapons. Monsters use hit rate = (monster base hit rate) + (level / 4).

Hit rate is normally capped at 99% (for characters) but may exceed that for a given attack when using certain commands.

How well the character fares when being hit. This opposes attacker attack when determining damage taken.

For player characters, defense = (sum of equipment defense powers) + (stamina / 2). Monsters instead have a preset value.

Defense is normally capped at 255, but effective defense may exceed that value on a given attack if the target is Defending or when a back row is involved.

The maximum number of hits the character can dodge when attacked. This combines with evasion rate to determine the number of hits actually avoided, and indirectly opposes attacker HitX. To give a brief example, if a character with 8 EvdX and 50% evasion rate is targeted with an attack that attempts 9 hits, the character rolls 8 times with 50% success to attempt to avoid hits. On average, this character will get 4 dodges, reducing the final attack to 5 hits. At best, the character succeeds on all rolls to reduce the attack to one hit.

For player characters, EvdX = (agility / 8), plus an additional (level / 16) if and only if a shield is equipped. This gives a maximum of 18 with a shield or 12 without one. Most monsters have 0 to 5 EvdX, and since their evasion rate isn't loaded properly, even those with 99 EvdX can't actually dodge any hits.

How likely the character is to succeed at each dodge allowed by EvdX. This combines with EvdX to indirectly oppose attacker hit rate.

For player characters, evasion rate = (sum of equipment evasion). Each empty armor slot (head, body, arms) counts as 10% evasion rate. In an apparent glitch, any equipped armor piece with the "immune" flag automatically sets evasion rate to 99%.

Evasion data exists for many monsters, except that, as The Cutting Room Floor reports, enemy evasion is not loaded correctly. This makes it always 0% unless an in-battle script sets it to something else, which only happens when Cainazzo turtles and when Barbariccia starts spinning.

Evasion rate is capped at 99%.

How well the character fares when being hit with magic. This opposes spell power when determining damage taken.

For player characters, magic defense = (sum of equipment magic defense). Monsters instead have a preset value.

Magic defense is capped at 255.

The maximum number of hits the character can avoid when targeted with magic. This combines with magic evasion rate to determine the number of hits actually avoided, and indirectly opposes MHitX. Other than functioning for magic instead of physical attacks, this works like EvdX.

For player characters, MEvdX = (agility / 32) + (intelligence + spirit) / 32, for a maximum of 9. However, MEvdX is treated as 0 when the spell is cast by a player character (mainly to prevent attempts to dodge healing spells). Most monsters have 0 to 10 MEvdX. Since their magic evasion rate isn't loaded properly, though, even those with 99 MEvdX can't actually dodge any hits.

How likely the character is to succeed at each avoid allowed by MEvdX. This combines with MEvdX to indirectly oppose magic hit rate.

For player characters, magic evasion rate = [(intelligence + spirit) / 8] + (sum of equipment magic evasion), for a maximum of 24% without equipment bonuses. Each empty armor slot (head, body, arms) counts as 0% magic evasion rate.

As with evasion rate, enemy magic evasion rate is not loaded correctly, even though most monster data includes some. This makes it always 0% except when an in-battle script sets it to something else, which only happens when Barbariccia starts or stops spinning.

Magic evasion rate is capped at 99%.

How hard magic hits. Determined entirely by the spell being cast. Refer to spell power on the Magic page.

The maximum number of hits a spell may make. This combines with MHit to determine the number of hits actually attempted, and indirectly opposes target MEvdX. Other than functioning for magic instead of physical attacks, this works like HitX.

Some spells ignore this value and always attempt only one hit, and spells cast by items always use their own internal value instead.

MHitX = 1 + (spirit / 4) for White Magic, or 1 + (intelligence / 4) for all other magic.

How likely the spell is to actually attempt each hit allowed by MHitX. This combines with MHitX to indirectly oppose target MEvd.

MHit = (spell's base hit rate) + (spirit / 2) for White Magic, or (spell's base hit rate) + (intelligence / 2) for all other magic. The lead character (appears in the center of the formation) and lead monster (usually appears in the front) get an additional bonus, increasing MHit to 5/4 of the value used otherwise.

While not shown on the status screen, row is plainly visible both on the main menu and in combat. The back row is a more defensive position, and monsters may also have a back row depending on the monster formation.

Specifically, when a target in the back row is attacked, the attacker's hit rate is halved and the target's defense is doubled. On the flip side, characters attacking from the back row have their effective hit rate halved, which stacks with the half hit rate for targeting the back row when applicable. The exception is that a character wielding a ranged weapon is unaffected by any of these penalties when attacking.

In an odd bit of poor design, an ambidextrous character counts as using ranged weapons if and only if the weapon in their right hand is ranged—the left-hand weapon has no effect on whether the attack is considered ranged or not. Furthermore, it appears that the "long-ranged" flag is not correctly cleared when a weapon is changed or removed, making any character who has ever used a long-range weapon permanently have a row-ignoring attack for the rest of the game.

Most characters have a small chance of landing a critical hit when attacking, which inflicts extra damage. The Jump and Kick commands, any monster attacks, and characters with Minikin or Toad status will never get critical hits.

Critical hit rate appears to depend on an undisplayed stat that each character has. The value is initialized to 0 for Fusuya; 1 for Rydia, Tella, Yang, Palom, and Porom; 2 for Dark Knight Cecil, Cain, Gilbert, and Rosa; 3 for Paladin Cecil; 5 for Cid; and 8 for Edge. Possibly it's chance out of 32 or 64?

Critical hits yield an attack bonus of (weapon attack / 2) in most cases. Ambidextrous characters wielding two weapons use the weapon with the higher attack (not both weapons). Yang is an exception and always gets a 50% bonus to his entire base attack, regardless of equipment, thus benefitting more than anyone else. Finally, a critical hit with a bow and arrow provides an attack bonus of (bow attack) if the bow is not in the dominant hand and (80% of bow attack) if it is.

There's a weapon flag that was long thought to prevent critical hits, but after further testing, it doesn't actually do that. Characters with artificially inflated crit rate still get frequent critical hits even with one equipped. It's possible that it might reduce the chance, potentially dropping the rate to 0 for characters whose rate is already fairly low? I'd need to do more testing to be sure, or find a disassembly of the algorithm.

Some weapons inflict elemental damage, and some armors also have elemental properties. Possible elements are Flame, Ice, Thunder, Dark, Holy, and Projectile (some weapons are flagged as Draining, but this is treated as a special property of the attack and isn't an attack trait as such. The same flag can appear in trait resistances, but it upgrades them into Absorptions rather than indicating a resistance of its own). No monster physical attacks inflict elemental damage.

If the target is weak to the element used, attack is doubled. If very weak, attack is multiplied by 4 instead. If the target is resistant to or absorbs the element, attack is halved (physical attacks cannot actually be absorbed, except in the case of Undead monsters and Draining attacks). If immune, attack = 0 (except on critical hits when not Minikin or Toad; attack is then 25).

When the attack has more than one element (possible with various spears and bow/arrow combinations, and of course when using two weapons), only one elemental trait takes effect. Therefore you can't, for example, exploit multiple weaknesses by using multiple elements.

Things get more complicated when the elements disagree on which way the damage should go. Weakness always takes precedence over immunity, which always takes precedence over resistance or absorption. So, for example, if Yang, equipped with a Flame Claw and a Thunder Claw, attacks a monster that resists Thunder and is weak against Flame, the weakness takes priority and his attack is doubled.

Similarly, if the target has two different reactions to the same element, weakness overrides immunity, which overrides resistance and absorption. This leads to something rather peculiar. Since elemental armors are inherently weak to the opposite element, a character wearing an Ice Shield and Flame Armor is both resistant to and weak against both Flame and Ice. What result does this have? For physical attacks, the character is effectively weak against both Flame and Ice! But since no monster uses elemental physical attacks, it rarely matters.

Some weapons are especially effective against certain races of monsters, and some armors also have racial effects. Possible races are Dragon, Machine, Reptile, Spirit, Giant, Slime, Mage, and Undead.

When a character with a weapon strong against a race attacks an enemy of that race, attack is multiplied by 4. Multiple racial multipliers do not stack.

However, racial modifiers do stack with elemental multipliers, so, for instance, the Thunder Claw (Thunder damage, strong against Machines) would multiply attack by 8 if attacking a Machine monster that is weak against Thunder (and never mind that there is no such monster, probably in large part because the Thunder Claw and Thunder Arrows both get a racial bonus against Machines). The concept isn't purely academic, though. There are a number of Reptiles weak against Ice (not that the Ice Rod is much of a weapon, but it's amusing to see a little girl or a feeble old man hit something with a stick and significantly hurt it), a few Mages with elemental weaknesses (combine the Elven bow with approrpriate arrows, or the Mage Masher with a claw on Edge), a Dragon that's weak against Projectiles (Wyvern Spear or Artemis Arrows; the EasyType also makes Artemis's Bow strong against Dragons for additional options) and let's not forget that most Spirit and Undead monsters are also weak against Holy (try the Ragnarök for Undead, the Holy Lance for Spirits, and Holy Arrows for either). Some monsters are even very weak against an element that you can pair with a racial modifier, for a ludicrous 16x bonus. Even an unskilled archer can use Holy Arrows to slaughter a Draculady (VampGirl) in the Magnetic Cave, for instance.

When a character wearing any armor strong against a certain race is attacked by a monster of that race, the monster's effective attack power is halved. Since that reduced attack is then subject to the same defense power, the final damage will generally be noticably lower than half.

Final damage is determined only after applying every applicable modifier from any applicable element, race, status effects, and command to attack, defense, HitX, hit rate, EvdX, and evade. Refer to the character classes page for details on commands.

Number of hits is determined by calculating the number of attempted hits by using HitX and hit rate as described above, calculating number of dodges by using EvdX and evade as described above, and subtracting successful dodges from attempted hits. On average, the result is (HitX * hit rate) - (EvdX * evade). Use the fully modified values for all of these, of course. Note that the game gives no direct indication of how many times an attack hits for most attacks. However, when attacking with a harp or bow and arrow, the number of missiles shown and heard do indicate the actual number of hits.

This multi-hit attack scheme is the main reason it's extremely rare, especially late in the game, to see an attack miss entirely.

Damage per hit is [(fully modified attacker attack) * (100~150)/100] - (fully modified target defense).

Final damage is (damage per hit) * (number of hits). If this value is negative, set it to 0. If the result is now 0, set it to 1 if the number of hits is at least 1 (this is why immune targets still take minimal damage). Finally, if the target is Undead and the attack is Draining, make the result negative (heals target).

The exact formula is unknown, but the following values are believed to affect success rate: attacker agility, attacker unmodified hit rate, target agility, and target unmodified evade. A status effect will never be inflicted if the attacker is in Minikin or Toad status, the target already has the status, or the target dies from the attack damage. Additionally, no status is inflicted if the target is immune, of course, but what's stranger is that when the attack can inflict multiple status effects, immunity to even one of them prevents all of them from having any effect.

Many spells inflict elemental damage, and some armors also have elemental properties. Possible elements are Flame, Ice, Thunder, Dark, Holy, and Projectile (some spells are flagged as Draining, but this is treated as a special property of the attack and isn't an attack trait as such. The same flag can appear in trait resistances, but it upgrades them into Absorptions rather than indicating a resistance of its own). No spell causes Dark or Projectile damage, though the item effect of the Crystal is considered to be a Dark magic attack.

As with physical attacks, if the target is weak to the element used, spell power is doubled, and if very weak, quadrupled instead. If resistant to it, spell power is halved. If immune, spell power = 0. If the target absorbs the element, spell power is unchanged.

If the attack has more than one element, only one elemental trait takes effect. Therefore multiple elements can't, for example, exploit multiple weaknesses.

Things get more complicated when the elements disagree on which way the damage should go. Immunity always takes precedence over absorption, which always takes precedence over resistance, which always takes precedence over weakness. So, for example, a Flame / Thunder attack against a target that resists Thunder and is weak against Flame has its spell power halved.

Similarly, if the target has two different reactions to the same element, immunity overrides absorption, which overrides resistance, which overrides weakness. Taking the same elemental armor example as for physical attacks, a character wearing an Ice Shield and Flame Armor is both resistant to and weak against both Flame and Ice. What effect does this have? For magical attacks, the character is effectively resistant to both Flame and Ice, and the weaknesses don't matter.

Spells generally become less effective the more targets they have. This affects only spell power, not MHit or MHitX.

Specifically, spells that default to a single target have their spell power reduced to (spell power) / (number of targets) when multi-targeting. This stacks with elemental multipliers. However, spells that always target all enemies or all allies retain their full spell power regardless of the number of targets.

Whenever a player character casts a spell on a player character (including themself), it ignores MDef and MEvd, treating these as 0. This primarily ensures that healing and enhancement spells aren't weakened or dodged. However, they may still miss on their own with a low enough magic hit rate.

Final damage is determined only after applying every applicable modifier from any applicable element, and status effects to spell power, MDef, MHitX, MHit, MEvdX, and MEvd.

Number of hits is determined by calculating the number of attempted hits by using MHitX and MHit as described above, calculating number of dodges by using MEvdX and MEvd as described above, and subtracting successful dodges from attempted hits. On average, the result is (MHitX * MHit) - (MEvdX * MEvd). Use the fully modified values for all of these, of course. The exception is that hit/miss spells allow only 1 MHitX and 1 MEvdX. Note that the game gives no direct indication of how many times a spell actually hits.

In the case of spells that somehow alter status (causing status effects, increasing defense, etc.), the effect is applied if there is at least one successful hit. However, if the target is immune to any status the spell causes, then none can be applied, even if the spell causes multiple effects and the target is not immune to all of them.

Damage per hit is [(fully modified spell power) * (100~150)/100] - (fully modified target MDef).

Final damage is (damage per hit) * (number of hits). If this value is negative, set it to 0. If the result is now 0, set it to 1 if the number of hits is at least 1 (this is why immune targets still take minimal damage). Finally, if the target is Undead and the attack is Draining, or the target is NOT Undead and the spell is healing, or the target absorbs the element, make the result negative (heals target).

Instead of spell power, these spells have a built-in HP divisor used to determine normal damage, which is (target's maximum HP) / (divisor).

If the target resists or is immune to the spell element, the divisor is ignored and damage is (target's maximum HP) / 10. If weak to it, the divisor is still ignored, but damage becomes (target's maximum HP) / 2.

Things get a bit strange if the target absorbs the spell element. In this case, the spell is treated as a normal spell with spell power = divisor * 4.

Instead of spell power, these spells have a built-in HP divisor used to determine normal damage, which is (user's current HP) / (divisor), plus a random factor from 0 to either 255 or half the calculated quantity, whichever is less.

If the target resists the element, damage is halved. If weak, doubled (or quadrupled if very weak). If immune, final damage ends up as 1.

Things get a bit strange if the target absorbs the spell element. In this case, the spell is treated as a normal spell with spell power = divisor * 4.

Healing spells use a completely different formula outside of combat. This alternate formula tends to favor weaker spells.

The amount healed is [(spirit / 8) + 2] * [(spirit / 2) + (spell power)], divided evenly among all targets if multi-targeted.

How does this compare to the formula used in combat? Since all healing spells have 100% MHit and are handled like any other spells, and since typically these are cast by characters on characters so that MDef and MEvd are treated as 0, the combat formula reduces to: (spell hits) * (spell power) * (100~150)/100 = [1 + (spirit / 4)] * (spell power) * (100~150)/100, and again, that's split evenly among all targets if multi-targeted.

Okay, so those formulae are too different to compare well. How about a table with sample spirit values for comparison?

In summary, the stronger spells are typically more powerful in combat than out, while Cure is amazingly effective out of combat, especially with high spirit.

What about MP efficiency? Here's another table to show how much healing you get for your MP.

To summarize the most important points, although Cureda is always the most efficient healing spell during combat, Cure wins the efficiency award out of combat for all but the lowest values of spirit, and the margin just increases as spirit grows. In short, use Cure to heal between battles.

In all fairness, there is one more case we haven't considered yet. When cast to a single target (whether during combat or not), Curega always restores the target's HP to maximum, regardless of spirit. So, how does this affect things? We'll consider the most extreme possible case: A character with 9999 maximum HP and only 1 current HP. In this case, a single casting of Curega heals 9998 HP, for an efficiency of 249.95 HP per MP spent. Yet refer to the table above. This efficiency is no better (on average) than Cureda at 98+ spirit during combat, but more to the point, the lowly Cure spell handily beats it out of combat for high spirit! If this is what happens in the most extreme case, think what Cure can do for you in more ordinary situations...