Every skill hit rolls the following pipeline:
Damage Formula and Defense
How the game turns your ATK into damage, which defense stat actually gets checked, and why DEF Down is the strongest debuff in the game.
The Core Formula
damage = skill% x ATK x defense multiplier x level multiplier x battle ratio
- skill% is the skill's damage coefficient (the percentages on skill pages).
- ATK is the attacker's stat chosen by the skill type, see below.
- defense multiplier comes from exactly one defense stat on the target, see below.
- level multiplier is the level difference rule, see the Level Difference page.
- battle ratio is a per battle global, normally 1.
Critical hits, weakness attacks, and buff effects multiply on top of this base.
Which ATK Is Used
| Skill Type | ATK Stat |
|---|---|
| Melee skills | Melee ATK (Strength scaling) |
| Shooting skills | Shoot ATK (Dexterity scaling) |
| Arcane / magic skills | Magic ATK (Intelligence scaling) |
Which Defense Is Used
This is the part most players get wrong. A skill's elemental property decides the defense stat, and it replaces physical defense entirely. Cora's Heat damage never touches Slash DEF: it rolls against the target's FireResist.
| Damage Type | Defense Stat Checked |
|---|---|
| Fire (Heat) | FireResist |
| Ice | IceResist |
| Lightning | LightningResist |
| Poison | PoisonResist |
| Odd (Immaterial) | OddResist |
| Hack (Slash), physical only | HackDefense |
| Stab (Pierce), physical only | StabDefense |
| Blow (Blunt), physical only | BlowDefense |
Practical takeaway
A boss with heavy physical DEF but low elemental Resist takes far more damage from elemental
attackers. When a wall boss stops you, check which Resist is lowest and bring that element,
it can be worth more than raw ATK.
The Defense Multiplier
With the matched defense stat D, the multiplier is 1 - D / (D + 1000):
| Defense | Damage Taken |
|---|---|
| 0 | 100% |
| 125 | 88.9% |
| 250 | 80% |
| 500 | 66.7% |
| 1000 | 50% |
| 1500 | 40% |
| 3000 | 25% |
| 9000 | 10% |
It has diminishing returns: the first 250 defense removes 20% of incoming damage, but going from 3000 to 9000 only removes another 15%. Defense can never fully nullify damage.
Negative DEF: The Real Reason DEF Down Is Broken
When DEF Down pushes a target's defense below zero, the game switches to a separate formula: 1 + |DEF| / 1000. That is flat damage amplification with no cap:
| Defense | Damage Taken | Note |
|---|---|---|
| -250 | 125% | |
| -500 | 150% | |
| -1000 | 200% | |
| -1140 | 214% | Palekar [Unstable] |
| -1340 | 234% | Palekar [Unstable] with Evasion scaling |
Why Palekar enables one shots
Her [Unstable] from Verse of Ordeal cuts All DEF by 1140, up to 1340 with her Evasion scaling.
On a boss whose defense drops below zero, the whole team hits at 2.14x to 2.34x damage, on top of
the increased DMG Taken the debuff also applies. That is why DEF Down is a bigger damage amp than
most attack buffs.