FF7: Ever Crisis Damage Mechanics

Disclaimer: This article will be updated as more information comes in. I cannot guarantee total accuracy as the game hides several pieces of data, but will try my best to correct errors once they’re revealed.

I conducted the bulk of my tests in-game against the Scorpion Sentinel via the 0-stamina Character EXP Stage, as well as Tower Stage 10. 

Here are my findings:

Damage Mechanics Explained #

Basic attack: The normal attack executed by units during Attack stance. The damage appears to be 15.5% of the unit’s total ATK stat, multiplied by the Attack stance multiplier (1.25x or 1.5x, up to 1.65x in Co-op). Basic attack is always non-elemental. Different units use different base stats for their basic attacks.

• Every Unit Except Aerith: Basic attack is based off of 15.5% total PATK.
• Aerith: Basic attack is based off of 15.5% total MATK. 

Stance Multiplier: The attack or defense stance used during battle. The attack stance multiplier starts off at 25% bonus damage, and caps at 50% (65% in Coop) bonus damage when the gauge is filled. This multiplier can be further increased additively by weapons with R. Abilities that boost the stance multiplier.

E.g 80% PATK bonus from Stance R. Ability in a solo battle would be calculated as 1.5 * (1 + 0.8) = 2.7x multiplier from Stance. Insane! 

In Co-op battles, the base Stance Multiplier goes even higher (65%).

Elemental Weakness: Is at minimum a 100% (2x) multiplier to damage. The enemy must be innately weak to the element, which you can see in game. Some enemies may be even weaker, taking 150% (2.5x) or even 200% (3x) more damage. An elemental attack that hits an enemy off-weakness provides no bonus damage (1x) multiplier.

Elemental Damage multiplier: Elemental potency is another multiplier to damage. Level 5 Lightning potency boosts lightning damage by 55%. 

Cloud’s Murasame Garb comes with a passive that boosts lightning damage by an additional 35%. The final result is 55% + 35% for 90%.

Skill Multiplier/Potency: All damaging skills have a % potency. An OB10 Murasame has 750% lightning damage potency. 

It’s important to note that for AOE damaging weapons, the potency displayed on the weapon is the exact potency dealt to all enemies on the field. A 500% AOE potency skill deals 500% to all enemies on the field.

Critical Hit Multiplier: Is a 50% (1.5x) multiplier to damage. This multiplier can be increased multiplicatively by weapons with R. Abilities that boost the crit damage potency. Currently, only some non-elemental attacks can Crit and no elemental attacks can crit.

DEF Debuffs: There are 3 stages of debuffs (Low/Mid/High). I believe this is a damage multiplier, and doesn’t care about the enemy’s DEF.

DEF: So this part I didn’t personally test, but I’m going to share the findings from a JP article. 45 extra DEF (Lv 4 Def) resulted in ~20% damage reduction. 30 extra DEF (Lv 3 Def) resulted in ~11% reduction in damage.

Variance: There is always variance in the final damage that appears on the screen. From my testing, it could be 2%.

Buffs/Debuff Values discovered by Discord  #

– used on us

• attack – +-10% per level
• defense – 20%, 50%, 80%, 110%, 150% / -15% per level
• elemental resistances (these are additive, not multiplicative) – 25%, 37.5%, 50%, 62.5%, 75% / -15%, -30%, -50%, -75%, -100%

– used on enemies

• attack – 15%, 30%, 50%, 75%, 100% / -10% per level
• defense – 15%, 30%, 50%, 75%, 100% / -15%, -25%, -35%, -45%, 55%
• elemental resistances (these are additive, not multiplicative) – 20% per level / -15%, -30%, -50%, -75%, -100%

poison – 4% max hp every 1.9s against us, 2% max hp every 4.9s against enemies

sadness – 50% reduction to lb/summon gain, damage, chain bonus (possibly wrong value)

pain/fog – additionally adds 3s to auto attack timer (possibly wrong)

confusion – 50% chance, 10% self damage, not sure about physical or magical. stacking +25% chance to end every time you attack yourself (possibly wrong values)

slow – halved atb speed against us (possibly unfinished)

regeneration (not healing related) – 5% max hp every 2.9s

regen – 50% of 30% heal every 2.9s (so 15% always as there are no regens currently using any value other than 30% at this time)

haste – doubled atb speed (also possibly unfinished)

Enemy Mechanics Explained #

Enemy Defense: Most enemies have the same PDEF/MDEF. You’ll do the same damage to a Lv 13 enemy as to a Lv 63 enemy.

Higher level enemies generally just have more HP and deal more damage.

However, there are certain enemies that have hidden physical or magical weaknesses.

From my testing, I’ve found certain enemies weak to all magical attacks (you do a lot more damage) but resistant to all physical attacks (you do a lot less damage).

I’m pretty sure the opposite also occurs where the enemy is weak to all physical attacks, but resistant to all magical attacks.

Enemy Elemental Resistance: Enemies can resist certain elemental attacks. It appears to be ~80% total damage reduction. Ouch.

Enemy Level Damage Mitigation Factor: So there is a hidden factor in the game where your damage is higher or lower based on the level difference between your unit and the enemy. You deal higher damage when there is less of a level gap between you and the enemy. If you’re above the level of the enemy, then there won’t be any damage mitigation from this factor.

Enemy Self Buffs: Enemies can increase their physical or magical defense. This is a straight up damage mitigation multiplier.

3^ Arrows on Phys. Defense Up will reduce all physical damage dealt by 50%.

I am missing data on the other arrows.

Ever Crisis Damage Formula #

For Elemental attacks:

Basic attack damage (either phys or mag) x Stance multiplier x Elemental weakness x Skill multiplier x Elemental damage multiplier x buffs/debuffs 

E.g

Your Cloud has 1000 PATK and uses 750% physical Lightning skill on an enemy that is weak to lightning. You have 30% lightning potency boost. Max stance boost 50% bonus.

The calculation is as follows:

0.155 x 1000 (patk) x 1.5 (stance) x 2.0 (weakness) x 7.5 (skill) x 1.3 (lightning potency) x buffs/debuffs = 4533 x buffs/debuffs

For Most Non-elemental attacks:

Basic attack damage (either phys or mag) x Stance multiplier x Crit multiplier x Crit damage potency x Skill multiplier x buffs/debuffs

E.g

Your Cloud has 1000 PATK and uses 900% Non-elemental physical skill on an enemy. The attack crits. You have 5% crit damage potency. Max stance boost.

The calculation is as follows:

0.155 x 1000 (patk) x 1.5 (stance) x 1.5 (crit) x 1.05 (crit potency) x 9 (skill) x buffs/debuffs = 3295 x buffs/debuffs

For Limit Break attacks:

Basic attack damage is (PATK+MATK)/2. Then plug this value into the Elemental or Non-elemental damage formula shown above.

Conclusions #

While I still need a deeper dive into buffs/debuffs and datamine to figure out innate PDEF/MDEF of enemies…

Elemental damage is vastly superior if the enemy is weak to that element #

When comparing two weapons of similar levels and overboost, Elemental damage weapons that targets enemy weakness is vastly superior to Non-elemental damage weapons.

More ATK or More Elemental Potency? #

When deciding between PATK/MATK or Elemental damage potency, do simple math equations to compare the final numbers.

For example, my first build has 1000 PATK with 40% elemental potency. My second build has 1200 PATK with 25% elemental potency.

1000 x 1.4 = 1400
1200 x 1.25 = 1500

The 2nd build is stronger for elemental damage and basic damage.