Wartales : Advanced Character Stats Guide

Guide full of data to help you understand how works the character stats. Enjoy!

Intro

Before anything else you have to keep in mind that some data come directly from the game while others and formulas come from extrapolations.

I'm not a native english speaker and I will gladly correct every mistakes/misunderstanding you may point out. Don't hesitate! ;)

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Sun Tzu:

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles"

Link toward the discussion in the forum

Help sharing knowledge If you like it :

Relations and Progression

Relations between stats

• Strength increases damage of strength based attacks and also increases Critical Damage.
  
• Dexterity increases damage of dexterity based attacks and also increases Critical Hit Chance.
  
• Constitution increases the amount of health a unit has. Additionally, for humans and ponies constitution increases the amount of Carrying Capacity which is the weight of inventory that can be carried.
  
• Willpower increases the starting amount of morale at the beginning of combat (the blue bar at the top). This influences how quickly your troop reaches the galvanize bonus and enemy fleeing options. Additionally, willpower provides Critical Hit Chance and if a unit has above 12 willpower they will survive with 1 hp the first hit that would normally put them into the dying state.

Stat progression

Stats can be increased/decreased by equipement, jobs, traits, starting bonus/malus and aptitude points you earn. They also increase naturally with levels according to a unit's class.

Everytime your mercenary levels up, he earns directly :

• STR
  
• DEX
  
• CONST
  
• WAGE

And because those are related to others, you may also earn indirectly :

• CRITICAL DAMAGE
  
• CRITICAL HIT
  
• CARRYING CAPACITY

Aptitude Points & Career Plans

Aptitude points can be spent to further increase a stat of your choice beyond a units normal growth as it levels. Leveling up grants one aptitude point to a unit each level. Additional aptitude points may be earned by acquiring a unique title on the unit, "Fast Training" Knowledge on new recruits, as well as with certain dialogue choices from camp conversations (also known as confessions).


Career Plans is a very helpful general knowledge that should be one of your first 3 to unlock. It allows you to spend your aptitude point in whichever stat you like at the cost of influence, and allows you to achieve the maximum increase of two "+" into a stat with each aptitude point spent.

Damage Stats

As stated earlier, on top of being primary damage stats Strength and Dexterity also provide secondary damage stats as they increase.

Primary Stats

• Strength provides an increase to Critical Damage at a rate of (Strength ^ 0.6), with a maximum Critical Damage contribution from Strength capping out at 30%. Note: All animal and human units have a base Critical Damage of 25%, and as an example this means that Critical Hits would deal the maximum damage range on a weapon * 1.25.
  
  
• Dexterity provides an increase to Critical Hit Chance at a rate of (Dexterity ^ 0.6), with a maximum Critical Hit Chance contribution from Dexterity capping out at 30%. Note: Most animal and human units have a base Critical Hit Chance of 0%. Recruited prisoners that are Medium or Heavy armor classes are an exception and have a base Critical Hit Chance of 5%.

Most Light armor classes use Dexterity as their Primary Damage Stat and favor Dexterity in their natural stat growth. Recruited prisoners that are Runner units from the Tracker faction are an exception, using Axes which are a Strength Primary Damage Stat weapon.

Medium armor classes use Strength as their Primary Damage Stat and favor Strength in their natural stat growth.

Heavy armor classes use Strength as their Primary Damage Stat and most favor Constitution primarily in their natural stat growth with a secondary emphasis on Strength. Recruited prisoners that are Wrongdoer units from the Bandit faction are an exception, they favor Strength in their stat growth the same way Medium armor classes do.

Critical Hit/Damage and Willpower

• Spending aptitude points into Critical Hit increases both Critical Hit and Critical Damage 1:1 linearly without any cap.
  
  
• Willpower increases Critical Hit Chance 5:1 linearly.
  Why is Willpower considered a damage stat?
  Willpower contributes towards your troop gaining the Galvanization status during battle, which increases every one of your units' damage dealt by 50%.

• This Willpower bar is divided in 10 sections (10% each)
  
• Galvanization (+50% damage) occurs when you reach 70%
  
• Enemies flight occurs when you reach 85% (not displayed here)
  
• The blue bar is the weight of your current team WILLPOWER
  
• The remaining bar is the weight of your enemy WILLPOWER

The more enemies you kill, the greater the weight of your WP becomes compared to your enemy's. And therefore the blue bar grows.

Blue bar = total amount of ally WP / ( total amount of ally WP + total amount of enemy WP )
Blue bar = WPa / (WPa + WPe)

Baseline Willpower

Base Willpower can vary in a range +/-5 from a specific value for different unit types and a minimum of 1.
• Humans, Alpha Wolves, Bears, and Dominant Sows: 10 +/-5
  
• Boars, Crocswine, and Wolves: 7 +/-5
  
• Mole-Rats and Mosquitoes: 5 +/-5
  
• Plague-Ridden Rats: 3 +/-5

See the last section Willpower Case Study or Dorim's Data for additional information.

Helpful Traits To Look For On New Recruits

Strong (Strength), Nimble (Dexterity), Bloodthirsty (Critical Hit Chance), Confident (Willpower)

Utility Stats

Constitution, Health & Carrying Capacity

Constitution is the stat associated with a character's Health and for both Humans and Ponies also controls Carrying Capacity.

Health is calculated as 2 times Constitution, with the exception of Bears whose "Enhanced Vitality" trait causes their health to be calculated as 4 times Constitution.

Carrying Capacity is the amount of inventory weight your troop can carry. Only Humans and Ponies have natural Carrying Capacity which is calculated as 30% of Constitution. Additionally, Ponies have a base capacity of 35 and gain another 20 when specialized into Pack Ponies at level 3.

Other animals can gain some amount of carrying capacity by equipping them with the saddlebag accessory, which will give them a static +10 to capacity.

Movement

Controls how far a unit can move each turn. Hands down the most valuable stat in game until a character reaches the range of 14-16 movement after armor bonuses/penalties.

1 Movement = 1 meter on the battlefield.

Tip : When you're about to move your character, each point between you and the position where you're heading is equal to 0.5 meter. This should help you anticipate where you will be able to move. Additionally, mousing over the move Icon on your Toolbar will give you a preview of how much further your unit can move this turn.

Baseline Movement

• Humans except for Archer Mercenaries, and Bears: 10
  
• Archer Mercenaries: 6
  
• Boars, Crocswine, and Dominant Sows: 8
  
• Alpha Wolves, Mole-Rats, Mosquitoes, Plague-Ridden Rats and Wolves: 12

Helpful Traits To Look For On New Recruits

Brawny (Constitution), Stocky (Carrying Capacity), Quick (Movement).

Terror

TERROR IS NOT related to WILLPOWER

Once your mercenary has stacked 5 terror, he'll leave the battle (but remain in your team)

GAIN :

• Every time your mecenary is attacked by a ghost wolf/boars, 1 Terror is applied on him.
  
• Every time your mecenary attacks a Nightmare, 1 Terror is applied on him.
  
• Binding of Terror (Nightmare ability) apply 3 Terror at the end of your turn. It's removed as soon as the 2 mercenaries affected stand next to each other.

LOSS :

• Every time your mecenary kill a ghost wolf/boars, he cleanses 3 Terror on himself.

Size

Humans / Rats / Mole-rats / Mosquitoes : 1.5m
Alphas / Wolves / Dominant sows / Boars / Bears / Crocswines / Ponies : 2m
Nightmare : 2.5m
Broodmother : 3m

Range

Range effects attacks classified as either "Shot" or "Area" - typically Archer's bow shots, throwing weapons and AoE abilities. It does not effect "ranged" melee attacks such as spears.

1 range = 1 meter in the battlefield

Tip: The range of a lot of skills can be increased, so it has utility for classes other than only Archers.

Precision

Precision is the stat that controls an archer's chance of hitting targets in their line of fire other than the intended target for anything within a 30 degree arc of their target.

Note: Adjacency with friendly units allows you to avoid counting them as being in line of sight, so best practice to avoid friendly fire is have your archer fire standing directly behind your front-liners.

Guard

Guard reduces the damage taken by X% so long as the unit has health left on their armor.

Starting armors, rags and light armor don't have any guard value.

• It means, 1 armor point = 1 health point

Only Medium and Heavy armors have a guard value.

• It means, 1 armor point = 1 armor point / (1 - guard value) health point at least

Example with 100 armor points and 20% guard :
100 armor points = 100 / (1 - 0.2) Health points = 125 health points

Here's a table showing how much health bonus at least are going to provide your armor.



A tank with 60 health points + 70 armor points & 50% guard (140 health bonus) = a total of 200 health points

Conclusion :

• Survival comes more from Armor and Guard than Constitution

Tip 1: Attack from behind ignores 50% guard value.
Tip 2 : A shield providing guard are going to be applied on any armor point, even if your current armor don't have any guard value
Tip 3 : If it only remains 1 armor points on your mercanary, the guard value will be applied on the whole damage value coming from the next enemy attack.

Experience

Allowing enemies to flee will not yield as much experience as killing everyone, so don't allow your enemies to flee if you're grinding experience.

The amount of experience (XP) displayed at the end of the battle is the amount earned by each companions (equally).

Experience To Level

• Level 2: 200
  
• Level 3: 260
  
• Level 4: 580
  
• Level 5: 980
  
• Level 6: 1660
  
• Level 7: 2600
  
• Level 8: 3900
  
• Level 9: 5400
  
• Level 10: 7100
  
• Level 11: 8900
  
• Level 12: 10900 (Currently Unavailable To Players)

Wages

Starting Wages vary between 14-19 and will increase by 4 per level. Additionally, a companion promoted to Captain or Lieutenant will have an increased wage of 3 or 2 respectively.

Helpful Traits To Look For On New Recruits

Volunteer, Freed Slave (Recruited Prisoners Only)

Food consumption

Rat, Mole-rats : 2
Human, Mosquitoes : 3
Ponies, wolves, boars : 4
Dominant sows, Alphas : 8
Bears :12

Note: Asectic is a very helpful trait to attempt to earn as it allows you to keep "free" animals or additional mercenaries.

Difficulty settings

For each difficulty setting, a multiplier is applied to all enemies you will encounter (also applied to units before recuitment in tavern/prison/stable).

EASY : +10% STR, DEX and CONST
NORMAL : +30% STR, DEX and CONST
HARD : +40% STR, DEX and CONST

Example : If you fight a bear level 5 on HARD difficulty :

STR = 33 * 1.4 = 47 STR
DEX = 16 * 1.4 = 23 DEX
CONST = 221 * 1.4 = 310 CONST

Recruit levels in Inns/Stables/Prison

Recruitable units found in Inns, Stables and Prisons will be 70% of the level of your highest level unit - for example at level 10 you'll only find level 7 mercenaries in any Inn.

Weapons & skills

Most of the weapons & skills in the game have a range of damage based on a percentage of your primary stat. The damage value is randomly chosen into this range.

For more detailed information about weapons and skills please visit Dorim's Data:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2882315862

Willpower Case Study

• First, the next graph has to be read from bottom up.
  
• Second, for some unknown reasons the blue bar in game is a bit off (by around 2 to 4%) compared to the spreadsheet's. (I was able to reproduce almost exactly the game bar with some adjustements I won't detail here, but the rule remain the same)

When can I hope to trigger Galvanization (+50% damage) ?

Galvanization occurs when :

WPa / (WPa + WPe) = 70/100 = 70% = 0.7

WPa : The total amount of your team WP
WPe : The total amount of your enemies WP

Therefore you can calculate the threshold below which the galvanization will be triggered (meaning the amount of enemy WP (WPe) below which it will be triggered) :

WPe = (WPa * 0.7) - WPa



Example : If your team WP is equal to 60, galvanization buff will be triggered once your enemy WP will be down to 26. And it will remain on the battlefield 2 human enemies or 3 animal enemies (on average) no matter the amount of enemies at the begining of the fight.


Let's set 2 extreme situations now :

• First situation : 4 Merc with 5 WP each (total 20 WPa) fighting 4 human enemies.
  
  • Orange column (20) tells you the threshold will be 8 WP (blue column). Meaning you won't trigger galvanization before the end of a battle against human (yellow column)
• Second situation : 4 Merc with 15 WP each (total 60 WP) fighting 4 human enemies.
  
  • Orange column (60) tells you the threshold will be 26 WP (blue column). Meaning 2 human enemies will remain once you have triggered galvanization (among 4 here but it could be anything else)

Tip 1 : Recruiting merc with high WP not only gives you a chance to trigger galvanization sooner, it also provides CRIT. HITS to your merc.
Tip 2 : Terror IS NOT related to WILLPOWER. This is a whole different mechanic.

[Engel]

@Lampros
If you're still looking for answer, you get most of the main stat from weapons, so don't bother aside from specific builds. (i.e. destroyer with auto-crit)
Willpower 15 (14 if you'll get a Lute with a Bard) > movement 16-20 depending on your positioning > crit till capped (with careful planning not to go overboard) > str\dex.

Even on tanks constitution is avoidable.

[Lampros]

Dorim,

Hmm, now I am confused. The popular Steam build guide says you should focus on critical hit on DPS classes - except for Brutes?

[Dorim]

@HozzMidnight It's really up to your preference, a good rule of thumb is main-stat if below 100 and crit once main-stat is over 100

[HozzMidnight]

When building a DPS character is their primary damage stat or critical hit a better point investment?

[Dorim]

Yep, subclasses that can wear a maximum of medium armor will have stat growth that emphasizes strength and those with a maximum of heavy armor will have stat growth that emphasizes constitution

[Romain]

@Reikou & FLY.

When you upgrade your mercenary you choose a specialisation which also define what will be the heaviest armor he/she can put on. (medium or heavy)

This will impact the stat growth of your mercenary (no matter what armor you are wearing)

[Reikou]

FLY paladin, what he says isn't stat growth via armor, but that some types of armor GIVE stats. Growth is only by the class as I understand.

[FLY paladin]

Just have a little bit confusion here, so the primary stats growth is depending on the class who actual wears the type of armor for leveling or depending on the class specifications(skill trees) ? Like my heavy armor skill swords man who uses the medium armor during the whole game, could you make it clear please ?

[Orbital Drop Spicy Taco]

May I ask how the normal damage is calculated for STR and DEX characters? Just plain normal damage based on player craft weapons. I'm not sure whether the bonus Str/Dex would be better or bonus damage would be better because damage part is not clear from this game.

[erniftw]

In conclusion. Bear is OP