How do you tell good gear from bad?

[Terrigood]

Yeah, I don't know what else to say... There are like 5-6 stats, none of which I understand, and on top of that, there's also stuff like "Mutable DEF -10%" which, I mean, seems obviously bad... unless it means the enemy? I have absolutely no idea how to evaluate gear, so I just never bought anything or crafted anything, and just kinda stopped playing about 3 hours in, even though I really liked the characters and the gameplay. Nevermind the fact that you have... either three or six weapons equipped on one character, I honestly can't figure that out either. Or maybe even 8, I haven't yet gotten anything in that bottom slot. And I also read somewhere on here that there's a way to recruit multiple characters into your party? Holy god.

So like... Is there a guide anywhere to what all these stats mean? Or can someone just tell me which stuff to craft? I just saw a bunch of subject lines of other posts about stacking Versatility, so I guess I'll go with that? Or maybe just things that have raw stats?

[Terrigood]

Also, how do you even tell what slot a particular piece of gear goes in? They all just have these weird pixelated icons next to them that could mean absolutely anything, like one that's either someone being crucified, an ankh of resurrection, or the hilt of a sword, then another one that's either a skull, a light-bulb, or the joystick at an arcade cabinet...

[Gemini]

You can check every stat description in menu > status. For Mutable DEF, it says "Damage taken from Mutable attack is reduced by this amount. Negative values will result in taking bonus damage."
And, I'm sure you don't need to worry about buying or upgrading bad equipment. The game gives you enough stars to test many item combinations. Still if you feel that's insufficient, you can grind later to earn them.

[Ghostel]

Welp lemme help (Finished game 3 times for all endings)... even if it is kinda 2 weeks late... But eh...

BE WARNED - LOTS OF LETTERS BELOW - YOU MIGHT NEED TO READ - GET YOUR ALPACA FOR STRESS RELIEF.

Ok first if you really want to break the game - go to the guide section - there is a way to get virgo and her team nigh undestructable - short version you can get loaded with Versatility and Patience stat boosting items, get high on them and steamroll through the game.

Anyway about stats as I UNDERSTAND:

ATTRIBUTES:

Heart - Well HP, duh.
Purity - Well Energy Shields, duh. If you have this stuff before enemy attacks - you'll enter in a counter attack mode after it. Also if characters weapon has CRUX bonus effect - it will use your current Purity - Basically if you want abuse CRUX attack modfier - get higher Purity, activate shields and the higher number you get in battle - the bigger OOMPF from CRUX modifier you'll get.
Cuteness - is apparently universal defense stat - the higher it is the cuter you are so enemies can't bring themsevles to hurt you.
Destiny - this one defines Critical ATK (aka bonus damage added on top of regular attack if you CRIT) and Influence stat (aka DMG from Damage over Time debuffs like BURN, POISON or One Time Bonus Damage from weapons with attack modifiers like HOLY, HEART ATTACK, SWEEPING)

Ok the woozy part - RGP STATS:

Patience (red) - Increases FIXED (Red weapons) damage and your MAX HP by 1% per point.
Versatility (green) - Increases MUTABLE (Green weapons) damage and your MAX HP/MAX SHIELDS by 0.5% per point.
Ambition (Purple) - Increases CARDINAL (Purple weapons) damage and your MAX SHIELDS by 1% per point.

Basically each point in these stats gives you a PERCENTAGE bonus to attacks with specific type of weapons and your HP/SHIELDS.

ATTACK STATS:

This stats usually depend on your gear - look for them in the first place if you want to kick ass in battle:

PURGE ATK - The higher it is, the harder you hit DURING YOUR TURN with all your weapons (before adding bonus % from RGP stats depedning on weapon color).
COUNTER ATK - The higher it is, the harder you hit DURING COUNTER ATTACK TURN with all your weapons (before adding bonus % from RGP stats depending on weapon color).

This means that some gear bonuses can lead to your characters to be USELESS at direct offense but ENEMY'S WORST NIGHTMARE on Counter attack.

INFLUENCE - bonus dmg from Damage-over-time (Poison etc) and Instant effects (Holy, Sweep dmg etc) - affected by Destiny stat.
CRITICAL ATK - bonus dmg when you CRIT. Depends on gear and Destiny stat.
CRITICAL RATE - chance of CRIT occuring - depends on your gear.

SPEED - this also depends on your gear and thiss tuff hear decides the turn order. Cat Priests in Leo's Realm have TONS of it which usually leads to team getting suburns unable to put up shields first.


DEFENSE STATS:

Mutable DEF (green) - Cardinal DEF (Purple) - Fixed DEF (Red)

Ok this stats are % - they show how hard different types of damage will hit YOU. Unlike enemies who actually follow PAPER/ROCK/SCISSORS system estabilished between these colors - how your characters will be damaged by attacks of different colors solely depends on how their gear modifies these stats. Seriously, my Spica while having close to 0 bonuses for other types ended up with NEGATIVE 77% DEFENSE DEBUFF FOR FIXED (RED) DAMAGE - cue him exploding from any Red attack - so yea - try to keep this stuff at least balanced and close to 0 if you can't get it into positive %.

Hearts/Turn - this is how much % of your MAXHP you character regenerates (or loses if negative) per turn. Sometimes it is worth it to get items that give your negatives on this stat - Algol really likes weapons with -% Hearts/Turn stat which also usually hit like a TRUCK but have a long CD and not usable at the start of battle. So pick your poison, I suppose?

Shields/Turn - this stats is by DEFAULT is NEGATIVE - not very much but this is a reason why you lose part of your PURITY SHIELD each turn. If you manage to kick it into +% digits you'll indeed actually REGENERATE you SHIELDS each turn.

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Welp this is kinda it. My best advice - focus on BALANCE - Get decent PURGE ATK and COUNTER ATK, try keep your DEFENSE bonuses so you'll be close to 0% of bonuses from attacks on you.

Well... of course you can go for specialty build and focus each character on their own element (and to be fair characters have some affinity for specific styles of play with Algol having more Red and self-harming stuff than others or Spica easily becoming a Tanky boy)

Have fun. This is not an 10/10 game... But a very GOOD game nonetheless (also wishlist KEYLOCKER from devteam).

[rambo_fox]

Originally posted by Ghostel:

My best advice - focus on BALANCE - Get decent PURGE ATK and COUNTER ATK, try keep your DEFENSE bonuses so you'll be close to 0% of bonuses from attacks on you.

Would you recommend getting 1 color weapon for each character (green, purple, red), so long as they have good purge, counter and defense bonuses? Is it worth boosting / baking / breaking equipment?

[anglerman]

Most if not all equipment that you get from recipes can't be found otherwise. No piece is intended to be a straight upgrade from another item so it's all about which status effects / qualities / base attack stats you want to focus.

General rule is Purge Attack build with any non-damaging debuff you'd like;
Counter Attack build that focuses on keeping purity up at all times to counter attack more often;
Critical Attack build with either constant Reckoning buffs or bonus Crit Chance;
Influence build that focuses on poison/burn/instant damaging effects;
Defensive build with Heart Regen, base Heart/Purity and situational Defense%, overlaps a bit with counter builds.

These would most likely find use in any situation, though a generalist would be rather weak later on if you didn't run too many black holes.

Many items that help fulfill one of those roles in your party can only be acquired by crafting, but it's absolutely not required to craft anything to beat the game (except this one potion this one time).

Keeping one quality per character might work very well while they're together but is risky once the party must fight separately from one another. The quality of Palette you use determine which attribute is raised the most per level, but the base stats from equipment you use will be the most important factor in combat.

And yes, boosting is heavily recommended but it'll also raise the negative stats an equipment will take from you so it's once again a tool for specialization.

Hope it helps anyone missing something about the stat system, keep in mind all enemies have the same stat types as the player characters so a stat-changing buff/debuff will work identically for both sides.