Stats, Defense and True Damage Explained

A verified reading of combat stats, including the order that decides Defense, True Damage and later reductions.

• Applies to 1.0
• Checked August 11, 2026

True Damage is added after elemental resistance and the Defense calculation. It therefore does not lose value to those two steps. It is not the end of the hit, though: Toughness, the one-damage floor, shields, MP shields, Super Armor and the target’s remaining HP are handled later. This guide follows that verified 1.0 order and keeps unknown interactions out of the answer.

Read the unit before the value

The character panel mixes flat points, percentages and rule switches. The label tells you how a number is read.

This distinction matters most for Defense. Adding 20 Defense does not mean taking 20% less damage. Evasion works the same way: its displayed score is an input to a curve, not the dodge chance itself.

Separate damage pool, source and move

A hit can read several lines at once. Physical, Fire, Cold and Lightning Damage are the four damage pools, and a run starts each at 20. A hit then reads the modifiers that match its source and move. A Cold Artifact hit can use Cold Damage, Artifact Damage and a relevant move modifier without turning into Weapon Damage.

Damage amplification is a separate percentage attached to the matching pool. The current data confirms the flat stat and amplification are distinct, but does not close every stacking rule, so this page does not turn them into one universal damage formula. Use the Artifact overview to see which records supply a stat, and the status-effect guide for Burn, Freeze and the other projected effects.

Defense, Ignore Defense and True Damage

For positive Defense, the reduction term is:

damage × ln(Defense / 40 + 1) × 0.445

Negative Defense uses damage × Defense / 100, which makes the reduction negative and raises the damage instead. Ignore Defense is applied with the target’s Defense at this stage. Only after elemental resistance and this Defense step does the game add True Damage.

These are the verified curve anchors for a 100-damage input. The Evasion column is shown here so the two point scores are not mistaken for percentages.

Defense 339 is the first integer where the reduction term reaches the full incoming amount (100.065% before rounding). It is a formula boundary, not invulnerability. True Damage is added afterward, and later stages still run.

A compact view of the middle of the chain is:

max(1, post-resistance-and-Defense damage + True Damage - Toughness)

That is an intermediate amount before shields and Super Armor, not a final damage calculator.

Evasion and Ignore Evasion

Ordinary Evasion also follows a logarithmic curve. The curve stops reading additional ordinary Evasion above a displayed score of 100, where it contributes 76.8% before rounding. Absolute Evasion is added after that curve, so 76.8% is not a universal cap on the final chance.

Ignore Evasion then multiplies the resulting chance by its remaining share. For example, 50% Ignore Evasion changes the 76.8% curve result to 38.4%; it does not subtract 50 points from the displayed Evasion score. Dash invincibility, guarding, Protection Points and MP shields are separate checks, not part of this random roll.

Resistance, Toughness and Protection

Fire, Ice, Lightning and Physical Resistance act before Defense. Positive resistance is capped at 99. When a hit carries a compound element, the highest matching resistance is used rather than adding every matching resistance together.

Toughness is different from Defense: it subtracts a fixed amount after True Damage has been added. The minimum-one step follows that subtraction. Protection Points are handled earlier than the main damage chain; the official rule says they ignore damage equal to the number of points. Current evidence does not justify adding a broader promise about every special hit.

Recovery and costumes that rewrite a stat

Life Steal has one published conversion: each point restores HP equal to 0.1% of the damage you inflict. The current evidence does not settle whether companion damage counts, whether another falloff applies, or which intermediate damage value every special case uses. Those details are left open here.

Costumes can change how a panel line behaves:

• Crocodile receives no damage reduction from Defense and instead increases damage dealt by the increased reduction rate.
• Scholar Lizard fixes Max MP at 80, prevents MP from decreasing and fixes Max HP at 20.
• Wingless Bat grants Life Steal +5 and fixes Dash Count at 1. White Wolf grants unlimited Dash but disables Dash invincibility.
• Red Fox carries a 50% Healing Penalty. The current record does not define which healing sources it covers, so this guide does not widen its scope.

See Characters and Costumes for the full published modifiers. Talent levels can also add stats or unlock a separate effect, so check the Talent database instead of assuming every milestone is another copy of its per-level line.

Verify a number without changing its meaning

When a card changes Defense or Evasion, compare the score before and after on the same curve. The combat calculator is a secondary way to reproduce those two conversions; it does not model the entire hit or decide whether a stat fits a build. For full damage ordering, continue to damage math.

Keep the question attached to the stat: pool, source, move, defensive step or written rule. That is enough to read the panel accurately without turning an unverified interaction into advice.