Weapons: What do the target and exploding target symbols with percentages mean?

[By-Tor And The Snow Cat]

Hi, everyone! Bought this game the other day, and I'm now three hours in and loving it! It's my very first experience with an ARPG, and I'm so glad I chose VV as my initiation into the genre.

Anyway, I have a question, the answer to which I haven't been able to find either on google or in the Steam forum guides for the game: when you look at a given weapon, two of the stats involve a target symbol with a corresponding percentage -- one is a plain target symbol, while the other has a sort of explosion on top of the target. The one with the explosion is always (at least in my short experience so far) the one with a significantly higher percentage; for example, in one of my weapon's stats, the regular target symbol has a corresponding 7%, while the exploding target has 210%. I have no freaking clue what any of that means :\

Could someone please explain the meanings of these symbols and their corresponding percentages, and how they affect the weapon? I would greatly appreciate it, so much so that I might just be willing to slap you lightly on both cheeks with a fresh salmon as a thank you (provided you live close by)! There is no greater reward than a brief physical altercation with a lifeless fish initiated by another person as a demonstration of gratitude -- this is something we all know. It has been known since the days of the Python of Monty.

Thanks, everyone!

Ooh ooh, I just thought of another question! So I have this scythe for which the damage stat is 6-104. Does this mean that any given hit will deal an enemy anywhere from 6 to 104 points of damage? Why the hell is the range so enormous, as opposed to every other weapon I have which all generally have a difference of only about ten to twenty damage points between their lowest and highest numbers (e.g. my current shotgun is something like 50-62, current sword is something like 32-48, etc.)? Damn RPGs and their stats! Ridiculous amounts of stats and their management are the reason I have been so apprehensive about playing true RPGs (as opposed to very light RPGs like Fallout 3 and New Vegas) for all these years.

OK, seriously, I'm done with the questions for now. I promise!

Ooohh wait I just thought of another! *mumbles* No, Ben, NO! You promised! Leave these good people alone!

Ok, ok, I'm calm. I'm calm. No more questions. Don't ask any more questions. You'll scare them off....

Phew. Ok, I'm cool, everybody. I'm cool. Everything is fine. Just gonna pop a Xanax and have a glass of wine....


P.S. If you have any general tips for a newbie like myself, let 'em rip!

[Jhonny G]

To answear your first question.. The weapon symbol that's just a target represent the critical strike chance of the weapon. The target with a small explosion next to it represent the critical strike damage dealt duing a critical strike. ( Using the numbers in your example it would mean a 7% chance to inflict a crit hit dealing 210% of the weapon's base damage. )

If ever in douth check the game codex. There's a list of every icon followed by a short description.

And regarding the scythe.. My guess would be it's to keep it in balance with the other weapons. It got an average swing speed, can hit multiple target in an arc and even lets you reduce cooldowns with timed attacks. The huge damage range is the only thing keeping it from being overpowered as it is good against swarms of minions, but somewhat sucks against single strong opponents. Anyway, that's just my thoughts.

[Caleon]

Codex > Hints > Item values (page 2)
Target is critical chance
Target with explosion is additional damage on critical hit

@scythe damage: think of other games where you have different damage types like fire, ice, lightning, magic. The lightning usually has a low minimum damage and high maximum damage, making it possible for high spike damage but at the risk of low damage. The scythe damage is similar. Unreliable but with good potential.

[By-Tor And The Snow Cat]

Ah, thanks to both of you! When would you like your salmon slapping?

I didn't know this stuff was in the codex, as I figured it would be under the weapon descriptions and didn't notice them there. Silly me....

One more very short and easy questions: aren't critical strikes automatic once an enemy is vulnerable (what I mean is when a particular enemy has a red target surrounding it, like when you hit it with the third strike of a sword (I think that's what happens with the third strike of a sword...))? Once it's in that "red" condition, isn't the next strike you give to it automatically critical? If so, does the crit % for a given weapon mean the chance of a critical hit regardless of an enemy's condition?

Building off of that, how important would you say a weapon's crit percentage is? Because I have some weapons that are really great at dealing damage, but have a very low crit %. I also haven't been using any of the destiny cards that increase crit chance %, instead selling them off and opting for destiny cards that increase health, damage, armor, etc.

Thanks again! Sorry for being such a noob :P All of these concepts are completely new to me as someone who has never played "true" RPGs. Critical hits, damage ranges, etc. The closest I've ever come to any of this is choosing which weapon to use in a given situation in God of War games...

[HoneyBadger]

Vulnerability (the red target) guarantees a critical hit against that mob.

The critical chance of the weapon indicates the percentage of time that the weapon will crit.

There are different builds that may or may not require high critical chance weapons to work. The Vigilante outfit, for instance, likes high crit chance weapons. The Zealot outfit, on the other hand, has no particular bonuses toward crit chance so you have to balance the base damage of the weapon against its critChance*CritDamage product (average additional damage due to crits).

[Jhonny G]

Like HoneyBadger said, you are guaranteed a critical hit against any target inflicted with vulnerability (the red mark) no matter what the weapons normal crit chance is. The damage dealt to a vulnerable target is still based on your weapon stats though.

Also, a crit to a vulnerable target doesn't have to be done with the weapon that applied it. ( example; you can attack a target 3 times with a sword to apply vulnerability to it, then switch to your secondary weapon and still be guranteed a critical strike ).

Personally I wouldn't say that crit percentage really matters in VV unless you build your character around it. There are numerous weapon and even destiny cards that can apply vulnerability on hit, and then you're guaranteed a crit anyway.

The sword is an excellent example of this and my primary weapon of choice.. Open with dash to stun the enemy (if necessary), then 3 hits, slash crit, 2 hits, another slash crit, 2 hits, slash crit and so forth.. You can smack an enemy across the map and just keep going as long as you hit the target ^^

[By-Tor And The Snow Cat]

Thanks, you're all super helpful :)

Originally posted by Dogmatius:

The sword is an excellent example of this and my primary weapon of choice.. Open with dash to stun the enemy (if necessary), then 3 hits, slash crit, 2 hits, another slash crit, 2 hits, slash crit and so forth.. You can smack an enemy across the map and just keep going as long as you hit the target ^^

Isn't the rapier the one with the dash move? And the sword the one with the vulnerability effect on the third strike? I think you might be combining the two, unless the rapier also provides vulnerability on the third strike.

Ooohh, I'm starting to feel like I actually get this stuff, in large part thanks to all of you in this thread.

[Jhonny G]

Well.. The sword applies Vulnerability to the enemy on the third strike and got two skills which is called Slash and Dash (Dash actually causes Daze and doesn't make you "dash" anywhere)

The rapier gives you an Enraged buff if the fourth attack kills and have two skills called Charge and Coup De Grace (Charge on the other hand makes you do a "dash" move forward)

Come to think of it, it's actually somewhat confusing.

Never the less, you seem to be getting the hang of it pretty fast. I'm sure you'll nail it in no time.

Edit: Typo

[By-Tor And The Snow Cat]

Ah of course, the rapier's charge is what people would actually call a dash, and the sword's dash is what people would probably call a charge (well, they would probably call it neither of those things, but instead something like "strong swing")

Using his words was never Victor's strong suit.

That's why they gave him a narrator :P