Sometime last month, I launched 6.700-6.703 into the development build of the game. These updates focused mostly on updating skills and states. At some point in one of those four tests, the ArmorScaling plugin which handles ability damage calculations became unstable and started throwing errors. Since I don't know how to resolve the core issue, I've disabled the plugin and had to go back through every single Skill programmed into the game and add a subtractive half of the damage formula.
For example, where A is the attacker and B is the defender, most skills use something like this:
(a.atk * 4) - (b.def * 2) = damageOutput
But with the ArmorScaling plugin, the -(b.def) part didn't need to be included, because it did some internal magic using defense and other things like that. Since it's broken, the latter half of all damage calculations has been manually re-added to most abilities. The ones that do not take the target's defense into account are now considered as Piercing.
There are four key takeaways from this change:
- It is now possible for attacks to do 0, if the result of the damage calculation is less than or equal to 0. (Ex: ((a.atk * 4) - (b.def * 2) <= 0)
- It is now possible for attacks to do fixed damage regardless of the target's defense. (Ex: 20)
- It is now possible for attacks to do fixed additional damage if the first half of the damage calculation results in <= 0. (Ex: (((a.atk * 4) - (b.def * 2)) + 15) will always do at least 15 damage, with that 15 considered as Partial Piercing) (Ex: (((a.atk * 4) - (b.def * 2) + (a.luk) will always do at least the attacker's Luck worth of damage, with that amount considered as Luck Piercer.)
- It is now possible for attacks to do damage without regard for the defender's defense. (Ex: (a.atk * 4) = damageOutput, where this entire value is considered Piercing.
Because of this, Piercing and Stat Piercer are new key terms shown in ability tooltips. Additionally, Partial Piercing may be noted in patch notes but is typically not visible in tooltips. - It's simply too many characters to display on screen. Because of the character limit, some skills may not reflect that they have Piercing or Stat Piercing, but updates to the game (like these patch notes right here will always include specific changes to ability damage formulas.
With all that being said, here are the two major patch notes from 6.7 and 6.8, with additional data from 6.701-6.703. Note: in the 6.8 notes there's several mentions of 1:1 or 2:1 damage formulas, this is effectively (a.atk - b.def) vs ((a.atk * 2) - (b.def)). tldr; higher number on the left does more damage.
This update will release on the public branch later today and will more than likely result in some things breaking. Please report any issues ASAP as a response to this post. Any battle that has suddenly become insurmountable due to formula changes will need to be addressed independently.
6.700 [Build #162, Release Date: March ???, 2025]
Updates & Changes:
- Arcane Shock II now hits twice.
- Double Magick Shock -> Magick Shock II
- Triple Magick Shock -> Magick Shock III
- Sharpgusts -> Shear
- Poisoning -> Poison
- Confusion -> Confu.
- Fascination -> Fascin.
- Petrified -> Petrify
- New icon for Stun.
- Modified icon for Petrify.
- Poison, Burn, Bleed, Heal, Shear, Air Current, Soak, Stun, Rage, Confu., Fascin., Sleep, Silence, and Blind now reset turns to a fixed turn amount when reapplied instead of adding varied turns.
- Soulbroken, Disable, Poisonfear, Blizzard, Thunderstorm, and Arcstorm now reset turns to their variance when reapplied instead of additing turns.
- Blind's turn variance is now 2-3, down from 3-5.
- Barrier is now added with a fixed 20 turns, up from 5.
- MP & TP Degeneration states are now fixed at 3 turns, changed from 2-4, and now reset when reapplied.
- Shear III now causes immunity to Air Current and chance to reapply Shear III is set to 250%, down from 500%.
- Shear now increases the chance of Shear II to be applied by 500%, up from 200%.
- Shear II now increases the chance of Shear III to be applied by 500%, up from 300%.
- Shear and Shear II no longer increase the chance for Air Current to be reapplied.
- All classes can now equip General Armor. They retain their previous additional equipment restrictions from first generation armors.
- Updated tooltips for Wind & Poison skills.
- Updated tooltips for Zephyrite & Reaver.
- Data added for Faithless General Armor set.
- Leather Strips -> Leather Scraps
- Fixed disassemble and synthesis pool for Anemo Plague set.
- Tattered set now can also disassemble into Leather Scraps (30%).
- Tattered Gray set now can also disassemble into Leather Scraps (40%).
- Torn set can now disassemble into Leather Scraps (40%).
Notes, Known Issues & Other:
- On March 2, 2025, the Cross of Auria official facebook was deleted due to lack of use.
[6.700] Full Patch Notes posted.
[6.701] Fixed passability, added battleback, and added custom bgm to Mountainside area.
[6.702] ArmorScaling set to OFF - game crashes when Eurus is hit at low level when it's on.
[6.703] All skills require the addition of -b.def due to ArmorScaling turn off.
6.800 [Build #166, Release Date: April 20, 2024]
Updates & Changes:
- During update 6.702, we discovered an issue where the Armor Scaling plugin no longer functioned at low levels - sometimes causing outright crashes. To address this, the plugin has been disabled and most skills and abilities have been manually given a subtractive half of their damage formula. However, I've decided to change how some of these skills functioned and have them effectively ignore target defenses. Skills that do not have subtractions in their damage formula now have the keyword "Piercing" in their tooltips. Piercing skills cannot do 0 damage.
- New concept: Stat Piercer. The previous benefit from the stat in the damage formula now comes after defenses are factored in, preventing an ability from doing 0 damage. Stat Piercing percentages are not shown in the tooltips, but will be reflected here in patch notes and future updates. Stat Piercing abilities are guaranteed to do some percentage of the attacker's stat as the final damage number, so increasing that stat is effectively a permanent increase to that ability's damage, whereas increasing your attack may not be enough to overcome the target's defense.
- Cleave+ now has an additional partial piercing effect.
- Swift Kick now has Luck Piercer (12.5%).
- Heart Strike now has Luck Piercer (100%).
- Fury Strikes now has Piercing.
- Blitz now has Luck Piercer (25%) instead of +25% Luck to attack.
- Shatter now has Piercing.
- Prime Shot, Shoot, Arcane Shot, Rapid Shot, Volley Shot, Multi-Shot, Impact Shot, Poison Shot, Fire Shot, Ignition Shot, Lifelink Shot, and Beast Shot are now Certain Hits.
- Volley Shot now has Piercing.
- Cure and Regeneration line abilities now factor in target magic defense.
- Cure III, IV, and V have an additional 500 flat piercing effect not reflected in the tooltips.
- Remedy, First Aid, and Stitch now deal a flat 20 in healing in addition to other effects.
- Healing Wind, Healing Wind II, and Resurrection have Piercing without tooltip mention.
- Magick Siphon now is a 1 to 1 magick attack that absorbs MP when the users MAT is stronger than the defender's.
- Backstab and Knife Twist now has Piercing.
- Energy Shock now has Piercing.
- Prepare Sacrifice now is a 2 to 1 magick HP Drain attack, as opposed to 2x Piercing.
- Bite damage formula reconfigured.
- Chomp now pierces 10.
- Lick now pierces 5.
- Burst Shot now has Piercing.
- Removed "Gains damage and TP cost per Mastery Level" from Tail Strike tooltip. It now has Piercing in addition to those hidden perks.
- Lucky Strike now has Luck Piercer (100%) and its overall damage formula has been reconfigured.
- Breath of the Dying now pierces 200.
- Hailstorm now has Piercing, but is not displayed in the tooltip.
- All primary elemental Skills (Emberstrike, Vaporstrike, etc) now have damage mitigated by 1x enemy defense and 1x enemy magic defense instead of 2x enemy defense alone.
- Icefall line damage formula reworked.
- Swarm and Infect now have Piercing, but is not displayed in the tooltip.
- Gust damage formula reworked.
- Venom-Coated Strikes now has 10 piercing per hit with a 1:1 damage formula.
- Kinetics now has 5 piercing per hit with a 1:1 damage formula.