Damage Formula (PSO2)

Information here was translated directly from [https://pso2.swiki.jp/index.php?ダメージ計算] and will require some level of proofreading.

Damage Composition and Variance

Damage Composition

PSO2's damage is divided into the following:

• Player Damage (Base Stats, Mag Stats, Special Abilities, etc.)
• Weapon Element Damage
• Weapon Damage

In the case of Techniques, "Weapon Element damage" is not applicable.

Damage variance only occurs in the "Weapon Damage" section. For this reason, there is no damage variance when attacking without a weapon equipped (AKA bare-handed). The minimum value of "Weapon Damage" section always ranges between 10% and 90%. When under conditions which are too good or too bad outside the range of 10-90%, the resulting minimum Weapon Damage will always be capped within 10%-90%. A critical hit removes this variance, resulting in 100% of Weapon Damage being applied.

Maximum damage on a critical hit (Criticals are shown as blue numbers in-game):

Player Damage

Weapon Element Damage

Weapon Damage 100%

Non-critical damage under the best conditions:

Player Damage

Weapon Element Damage

Minimum Weapon Damage 90%

Variance

Non-critical damage under the worst conditions:

Player Damage

Weapon Element Damage

Min. 10%

Variance

As shown above, the damage variance only applies to "Weapon Damage" section, thus it is less evident when observing only the total damage. Since Techniques do not have "Weapon Element Damage", it is slightly easier to notice the damage variance compared to other types of attacks.

Damage Variance

The above section can be summarized as the following table:

Maximum Damage
Player Damage	Weapon Elemental Damage	Weapon Damage 100%
		Minimum Damage	Damage Variance

To determine the Minimum Damage, there are two broad categories.

• Rare weapons ( and above) → fixed 90%
  • Note that while it was previously possible to have less than 90%, it is no longer the case currently.
  • The Invade OTs and Val series have the same minimum damage equivalent to "Non-rare Crafted Weapons".

• Non-rare, crafted weapons, Invade OTs, Val series → Calculated based on the difference in DEX between the player and the enemy, weapon rarity, and weapon grind.
  • Silver tier or higher crafts, Invade OTs, Val series → calculated minimum damage has a large modifier, resulting in generally higher minimum damage.
  • Crafts that are below Silver tier, common, uncommon, Red and Blue weapons, non-main primary types (Vibrace Weapon's tech power) → calculated minimum damage has a small modifier, resulting in generally less minimum damage.

In the case of non-rare, the value of minimum damage is not dependent on weapon attack. If we were to compare between a weapon with 500 attack and another weapon with 1000 attack, under the same surrounding conditions (same difference in DEX between the player and the enemy, same weapon rarity, same level of weapon grind), the calculated minimum damage of both weapons would still be the same.

Damage Calculation Formula

Notice: The calculation formula is based off of information that can be verified in-game, not from any official sources.

Damage Type Reference

When calculating damage, there is an implied understanding to what the damage type an attack is.

There are several PAs and attacks that differ in various ways on how they output damage.

Key:

Attack Power

The attack stat from which the damage is calculated. Increasing the specified attack stat will increase damage. Other attack stats have no effect.

Defense Power

The enemy's defense stat against which the damage is calculated. The higher the specified defense stat, the less damage can be dealt to the enemy. Similarly, other defense stats have no effect.

Weapon Element Damage

The attack stat from which the Weapon Elemental Damage is calculated. This is dealt as elemental damage and is affected by elemental part boost multiplier. For example, when attacking an enemy with fire weakness with a fire element weapon, the Weapon Elemental Damage is increased by the enemy's fire part boost multiplier.

Part Boost

The specific type of part boost multiplier used. This differs for each part on the body of the enemy hit by the attack. If the part boost is specified as "Ranged", the damage will be affected by headshot multiplier when attacking the head of an enemy. If the part boost is specified as "Elemental Attribute", the damage is considered as elemental attribute damage. Note that this is independent from Weapon Elemental Damage which is affected by elemental part boost multiplier.

Final Attack Type

The final damage type of the attack. This is used to determine the effects of class skills, Skill Rings, Potentials, etc. For example, if the Final Attack Type is "Ranged", the damage will be boosted by Ranger's skill "Weak Hit Advance".

Base

Method of Attack	Attack Power	Defense Power	Weapon Element Damage	Part Boost	Final Attack Type	Notes
Normal Strike Attack	S-ATK	S-DEF	Striking	Striking	Striking Damage
Normal Ranged Attack	R-ATK	R-DEF	Ranged	Ranged	Ranged Damage
Technique	T-ATK	T-DEF	None	Elemental Attribute	Tech Damage
Bare hands	S-ATK	S-DEF	Striking	Striking	Striking Damage
Talis Attack	T-ATK	T-DEF	Tech	Tech	Striking Damage
Takt Normals	T-ATK	T-DEF	None	Tech	Tech Damage	Attack Advance disabled
Jet Boots (Without Switch Strike)	T-ATK	T-DEF	Tech	Striking	Striking Damage
Jet Boots (With Switch Strike)	S-ATK	S-DEF	Striking	Striking	Striking Damage
Pets (Without Switch Strike)	T-ATK	T-DEF	Tech	Tech	Tech Damage	Pets stats are used in lieu of weapons, not the stats of the Takt.
Pets (With Switch Strike)	S-ATK	S-DEF	Striking	Tech	Tech Damage	Pets stats are used in lieu of weapons, not the stats of the Takt.
Pets (With Switch Shoot)	R-ATK	R-DEF	Ranged	Tech	Tech Damage	Pets stats are used in lieu of weapons, not the stats of the Takt.
Phantom Rod Normals	T-ATK	T-DEF	Tech	Striking	Striking Damage	Unlike other classes rod attacks, Phantom's is considered striking based.

Class Skills & Others

Method of Attack	Attack Power	Defense Power	Weapon Element Damage	Part Boost	Final Attack Type	Notes
Guard Arts	S-ATK	S-DEF	None	Striking	None
DS Whirlwind	S-ATK	S-DEF	Striking	Striking	Striking Damage
Katana Counter Edge	S-ATK	S-DEF	Striking	Striking	Striking Damage
Braver Combat Finish	S-ATK	S-DEF	Striking	Striking	Striking Damage
Snatch Step	S-ATK	S-DEF	Striking	Striking	Striking Damage
DB Photon Blades	S-ATK	S-DEF	Striking	Striking	Striking Damage
Hero Sword Weapon Action	S-ATK	S-DEF	Striking	Striking	Striking Damage
Ranger Tools (Traps, Bullets, Bombs)	R-ATK	R-DEF	None	Ranged	None	Standing Snipe, Moving Snipe, etc, not applicable
S-Roll Arts	R-ATK	Ranged	R-DEF	Ranged	Ranged Damage
Phantom Marker Detonation (Rifle)	R-ATK	R-DEF	Ranged	Ranged	Striking Damage
Rod Shoot	T-ATK	T-DEF	Tech	Tech	Striking Damage
Tech Explosion	T-ATK	T-DEF	Tech	Elemental Attribute	Striking Damage
Ignition Skills	T-ATK	T-DEF	None	Tech	Tech Damage
JB Double Jump	T-ATK	T-DEF	None	Elemental Attribute	None
Elemental Burst	T-ATK	T-DEF	None	Elemental Attribute	None
Hero Talis Marking Shot	T-ATK	T-DEF	Tech	Tech	Striking Damage
Hero One More Jump	T-ATK	T-DEF	None	Tech	None
DB Snatch	S-ATK	S-DEF	Striking	Striking	Striking Damage
Just Reversal B	S-ATK	S-DEF	Striking	Striking	Striking Damage
Angelic Adept	S-ATK	S-DEF	Striking	Striking	Striking Damage
Retaliating Fist	S-ATK	S-DEF	Striking	Striking	Striking Damage
Hexing Spirit	S-ATK	S-DEF	Striking	Striking	Striking Damage
Thundering Blades	S-ATK	S-DEF	Striking	Striking	Striking Damage
Mysterious Conjurer	S-ATK	S-DEF	Striking	Striking	Striking Damage
Dissipating Wave	S-ATK	S-DEF	Striking	Striking	Ranged Damage
Antique Shot	R-ATK	R-DEF	Ranged	Ranged	Ranged Damage
Soaring Brilliance	R-ATK	R-DEF	Ranged	Ranged	Ranged Damage
Auxiliary Dart	R-ATK	R-DEF	Ranged	Ranged Damage
Glance of Darkness	T-ATK	T-DEF	None	Elemental Attribute	Tech Damage	Treated as an uncharged technique
SP Auto Action (S-ATK)	S-ATK	S-DEF	None	Striking	None	Not treated the same as a weapon
SP Auto Action (R-ATK)	R-ATK	R-DEF	Ranged	Ranged	None	Not treated the same as a weapon
SP Auto Action (T-ATK)	T-ATK	T-DEF	None	Elemental Attribute	Tech Damage	Treated as an uncharged technique with weapon scaling
Photon Blast (S-ATK)	S-ATK	S-DEF	None	Striking	None	Not treated the same as a weapon
Photon Blast (R-ATK)	R-ATK	R-DEF	None	Ranged	None	Not treated the same as a weapon
Photon Blast (T-ATK)	T-ATK	T-DEF	None	Tech	None
Dash Panel Boost Kick	S-ATK	S-DEF	None	Striking	None	Power 250%, 3500%, 5000%

Photon Art & Technique Exceptions

Method of Attack	Attack Power	Defense Power	Weapon Element Damage	Part Boost	Final Attack Type	Notes
Physical Moves from TMG PAs	R-ATK	R-DEF	Ranged	Striking	Ranged
Crazy Smash Impact Slider Kick Kamikaze Arrow Kick Tritt Shooter Kick	R-ATK	R-DEF	Ranged	Striking	Striking
Kamikaze Arrow Dash	R-ATK	R-DEF	Ranged	Ranged	Striking
Hero Talis PAs	T-ATK	T-DEF	Tech	Tech	Striking
Phantom Rod PAs	T-ATK	T-DEF	Tech	Striking	Striking
Vol Graptor Explosion Banish Arrow Explosion	None	None	None	Attribute-less	Not Applicable
Zanverse Boost Effect	None	None	None	Applies Wind Attribute	None	Is not boosted by Wind Mastery skills

Maximum Damage

Maximum Damage
Player Boost	Weapon Element Type	Weapon Damage 100%
		Minimum Damage	Damage Variance

How to calculate the "Maximum Damage" as shown in the figure above:

• Replace the Attack Power, Defense Power, and Part Boost in the formula with the parameters it refers to.
• Attack Power refers to the total attack power of the weapon, excluding Special Abilities (affixes)
• 1.05 refers to the latent 5%, or colloquially referred to as the "Mystery Modifier" to the Japanese community.
  • This modifier did not exist during PSO2's intial Japanese launch, however its existence was confirmed with the release of subclasses.
  • With the exception of a few attacks, all damage is eventually modified by it. The only exception currently confirmed is the direct damage from Zonde.
• That aside, by calculating the enemy's attack power modifier (the red damage numbers when hit by an enemy's attack) by dividing it by 1.05, reveals a sharper damage value. Suggesting that there is a high probability that the even the enemies themselves are affected by this modifier.
• Final Damage is the product of all the modifiers. This includes the 1.05, PA modifier, Skill modifiers, and Potential Abilities with the exception of the Part Boost Modifier.
• For Pets, replace the Weapon ATK Power with that of the Pet's default base attack power, the Pet's rarity stat limit with that of the Special Abilities + Shifta, and the Candy modifiers with that of Special Abilities that don't require Shifta.
  • Regarding Pet rarity stat limit, this will be explained later in the section regarding buffs.

Game mechanics such as PSE and Range Decay may lead to errors in validation if you're unaware of their properties.

Total Modifier =  1.05 x PA Modifier x Skill Modifier x Potential Modifier etc
Damage Source - (Total ATK Power - DEF) x Part Boost

Attack Type
	If Striking or Ranged
		Weapon Element Damage = Weapon ATK Power x Element Percentage x Weapon Element Part Modifier
		
	If Technique
		Weapon Element Damage = 0
		
Final Damage = (Damage Source + Weapon Elemental Damage) ÷ 5 × Total Modifier

Weapon Attack Damage = (Weapon ATK Power ÷ 5) x Part Boost x Total Modifier
Player Damage & Unit Attack Damage = (Player Damage & Unit Attack Power Total ÷ 5) × Part Boost × Total Modifier
Enemy DEF Absorption Power = (DEF Power ÷ 5) × Part Boost × Total Modifier

Attack Type
	If Striking or Ranged
		Weapon Element Damage = (Weapon ATK Power x Element Percentage ÷ 5) x Weapon Element Part Modifier x Total Modifier

	If Technique
		Weapon Element Damage = 0
		
Maximum Damage = Weapon Attack Damage + Player Damage & Unit Attack Damage - Enemy DEF Absorption Power + Weapon Element Damage