Introduction[]
Up to this point in the AQ mechanics series, I have concentrated upon mechanics that players cannot fully control. The player may be able to modify them in some way, but they cannot change the formula itself. For example, They can modify accuracy by applying BTH boosters or the berserk effect, but they can’t change the formula for accuracy calculation itself (see this post for how accuracy works!). From now on, however, I’ll be focusing on mechanics that the player has a substantial amount of control over. The one I’ll be discussing today is Player Stats.
This shift in focus comes alongside shift in approach. Instead of just showing you how the following formulas work, I’ll also give you some general tips around how to use them to your advantage. What I won’t be doing is providing you with ready-made templates for each build. This is partly because individual needs and preferences vary, but mainly because it runs against the spirit of these blog posts. I write these posts to provide you with the knowledge and tools to make your own informed decisions. It would undermine this goal to simply provide build templates that require little-to-no additional thought to implement. With that in mind...
Visit the Content Hub for other parts of this series
Main + Support Stats[]
There are three primary build archetypes in AQ, Warrior, Ranger, and Mage (Rogue is mentioned at the start of the game but this isn’t an archetype. Ranger is!). Each of these builds is tied to a specific stat, which are known as Main Stats (STR, DEX, and INT). Your character is generally considered to fall into one of these build archetypes if it invests in one of the three stats. However, none of the stats in AQ are mutually exclusive and you can choose to invest in more than one of them at once. If you choose to do this, your character is typically considered to be a Hybrid. Traditional Hybrids tend to combine Warrior and Mage traits, but mixing any combination of the three (or indeed, all of them) is possible. In addition to these stats are CHA, END, and LUK. These act as Support Stats, not tied to a particular build archetype, but able to provide useful additional options to any of them.
When training your stats, it’s best to first focus on training your chosen main stat(s). They are important for your damage and accuracy, and should be prioritised over any supporting stats (these ones come later). It’s typical for players to fully max out 3 stats because many items have mechanics which are modified by the amount you've invested in a stat relative to the the amount you'd be expected to have at your level. For high-level players, these mechanics typically assume your stat is fully maxed out, leading to reduced effectiveness if you only have it half-trained. Adventurers have a maximum level of 135, meaning you won’t be able to fully train 3 stats. In this scenario, it’s best to fully train your Main stat(s) over any supporting ones. However, players can and regularly do choose to spread their points more thinly for other benefits. Training stats costs gold, and some players find these costs are too high. Under such circumstances, it’s a good idea to train up your second choice stat until the main one becomes affordable again.
As of the 2024 stat update, stats now have a Style Bonus. This is a power budget of 15% melee to help provide each stat with its own identity. These kick in at 25% of their power once you invest 150 points into a stat, and scale up to full power once you cap out at 250.
Below, I discuss the details of each of the the six stats. Many of the following formulae have already been presented in other parts of this blog series, which you can access here.
Strength (STR)[]
Strength is the stat for Warriors. It boosts your damage and accuracy when using melee weapon attacks and skills. When you use one of these attacks, you receive bonus damage equivalent to:
Normal attack: STR/8 Skill/Spell: STR/4
Remember, armours have an inbuilt stat% modifier to multiply this value. Using a Melee attack at 250 STR with a level 150 armour typically provides you with an extra 173 damage (stat boost is normally 554.9% at this level). STR also boosts your accuracy with Melee attacks equivalent to:
Accuracy: STR*4/25
Another big factor associated with STR is Warrior Lean. Because Warriors don't have access to 100-proc Melee weapons (weapons with a 100% chance of firing a weapon special), they instead do x1 damage with all Melee weapon attacks in FD armours. This makes them as efficient as Rangers and Mages are in FD armours with 100-proc weapons, to keep Warriors competitive.
Style Bonus[]
- +10% Weapon damage: Simple, but effective, entirely in keeping with STR's identity of consistent damage over time. Warrior deals additional damage with standard weapon attacks. Note that this doesn't apply to weapon specials, spells, or any spell-type skills. It also doesn't apply to 'bow' attacks, which excludes many modern on-click weapon skills. However, it does apply to any weapon type (Melee, Ranged, Magic), just so long as you have enough STR!
- Backhand: Whenever you're hit by your foe, you'll strike back for a single hit of damage that follows your weapon type (Melee, Ranged, Magic), worth 2.5% Melee per hit. The more hits, the better the return!
With these bonuses in mind, STR is a must-have for anyone that wants to use Melee weapon attacks and skills.
Dexterity (DEX)[]
Dexterity is the stat for Rangers. It boosts your damage and accuracy when using Ranged weapon attacks and skills. When you use one of these attacks, you receive bonus damage equivalent to:
Normal attack: DEX/8 Skill/Spell: DEX/4
As with STR and INT, armours contain stat multipliers to increase this component. DEX also increases your accuracy:
Accuracy: DEX*4/25
DEX's base identity is defined by Opportunism. The player tracks the number of times they hit and miss with Ranged attacks. Your accuracy is then adjusted according to the number of each, with the adjustment depending on the total number of hits connected minus number of misses multiplied by 2. The resulting value, Total, is then fed into the following formula:
BTH modifier: -85*(Total) / (Total^2 + 32*Total)
I know this looks confusing, so here's an example: Let's assume you attempt four ranged hits on a turn. Before you attempt any hits, your BTH lean is Neutral (0 points, +0 bth lean, *85/85 damage). Let's now assume you landed three of those attempted hits, and missed one. Since you hit three times, you'll gain one point for each hit. Since you missed one, you'll then lose two points: 0 + 3 - 2 = 1 point:
-85*1 / (1^2 + 32*1) = -2.58 bth lean
So, how does Total work? It's an iterative and dynamic value that constantly changes, accumulating over the course of a single battle. Keep registering hits, and your accuracy lean will continue to drop (reduced accuracy, with a corresponding increase in damage). Repeatedly miss and the opposite will happen. The total BTH lean you can accrue has no cap. However, if your bth lean exceeds 20 (or -20), an additional penalty is taken without the full corresponding compensation. Essentially, the negative effect of anything outside of bounds is doubled. This mechanic doesn't get affected by autohit mechanics at all.
Take a look at the attached graph, which demonstrates your bth lean at different values of Total. While this might be obvious, keep in mind that you're expected to hit far more than you miss. So, while misses are valued twice as much as any hit on the total scale, you're going to ramp upwards significantly faster (i.e. gain an inaccurate BTH lean) than you'll ramp down.
Why would you want this? Opportunism ensures that Rangers will always be able to take advantage of the situation. Against monsters that are easy to hit, Rangers can maximise their damage output over time by taking advantage of the redundant BTH on their attacks. Meanwhile, against evasive monsters they can sacrifice some of their damage to increase their chances of landing a hit!
Style Bonus[]
- Increased Accuracy: +4.25 BTH. Fairly simple. If you're confused about how accuracy works in AQ, see here.
- Proc Mastery: Weapon specials gain a bonus relative to your weapon's proc rate:
Bonus: + [15 * log(rate) / log(100)] %
- Check out the graph to see how this works. Logarithms are essentially inverse exponents/powers. The vast majority of weapons in AQ either have a 100% chance of activating a weapon special, or have a chance set at 20% or below. While 0-proc weapons receive no boost at all from this mechanic, the full 15% bonus is given to 100-procs. This helps to distinguish Rangers from Warriors given the latter lack 100-proc Melee weapons. Proc-mastery applies to all attacks tagged as weapon-based, including weapon specials. However, it also boosts specials that don't normally receive effects from your weapons either, assuming a proc rate of 100%. An example of this type of attack is Lt. Lore's Shield.
DEX is therefore a must-have for anyone wanting to use Ranged weapon attacks and skills.
Intellect (INT)[]
Intellect is the stat for Mages. It boosts your damage and accuracy when using magic weapon attacks and skills. When you use one of these attacks, you receive bonus damage equivalent to:
Normal Attacks: INT*3/32 Skill/Spell: INT/4
You may notice that stat damage to weapons is lower for INT. This is because INT deals 75% Melee damage with weapon attacks to pay for MP-costing spells. INT also provides a bonus to bth:
Accuracy: INT*4/25
Mages are distinguished by their access to Spells, paid for with MP. A player’s MP bar scales based upon the INT stat:
Player MP: [4.1 * (32 + (6.1 + 2.3375 * Level + 0.01125 * Level^2) * MIN(1, INT / MIN(Level * 2.1462 + 5.7076, 250)))]
Style Bonus[]
- Wallbreaker: Whenever spell-type attacks strike an element below 100% resistance, it will gain damage. This damage boost is strong the lower the enemy's resistance is to your attack:
Bonus: +[(100 - [Resistance] ) / 130]%
- To show how this affects damage, see the table below. To spare you the details, above 80% resistance, it's better to use a normal element than Harm. Above 60%, multi-elemental spells will do better than harm (though keep in mind most of the enemy's resistances must be higher than 60% for this to apply). Above 35% resistance, a spell with an elecomp modifier of *1.7 will be better than harm. This mechanic directly affects the enemy's base resistance, though due to coding difficulties it won't work with most effects. Please note: This only applies to spell-type attacks. It won't work if you strike with your weapon, or using a weapon based skill.
| Base Res. | Modified Res. |
| 100 | 100 |
| 90 | 96.92 |
| 80 | 92.31 |
| 70 | 86.15 |
| 60 | 78.46 |
| 50 | 69.23 |
| 40 | 58.46 |
| 30 | 46.15 |
| 20 | 32.31 |
| 10 | 16.92 |
INT is therefore a must-have for anyone wanting to use Magic weapon attacks and skills.
Endurance (END)[]
The main benefit of END is to boost your overall HP, which is calculated as:
Player HP: [23.8 * ((5.25 + 0.5625 * Level + 0.00375 * Level^2) + (1 + 0.066 * Level) * END/16) * 1/1.4]
Endurance also provides +END/50 to status resistance (meaning you resist status effects better) and +[END/20]% HP healing (meaning you heal up to 12.5% more HP if you fully invest in END).
Style Bonus[]
- Unstoppable: Once every 10 turns, the player is able to break out of a stun effect (e.g., Paralysis, Daze, Control, Freeze) for free. This effect is applied before any other kind of unstoppable effect so you don't waste them.
END is typically favoured by defensive players. It’s one of the least popular stats overall, but still provides great benefits if you favour this kind of approach. It’s also a popular choice for backlash users, who deliberately risk more HP to reflect more damage onto their foe.
Charisma (CHA)[]
Charisma is the companion stat, boosting the damage and accuracy of your pets and guests. Pets and guests receive the following bonuses to damage:
Pets: CHA/15 Guests: CHA/15
Their accuracy is calculated as:
Accuracy: CHA*3/40 + [MainStat]*3/40
Please note that MainStat refers to the highest of STR, DEX, or INT.
Style Bonus[]
- Guest Power: The baseline power of Guests is increased by 5% to 50% Melee.
- Guest Ferocious Strikes: This essentially functions as a lucky strike mechanic exclusively applied to Guests. Each turn, the Guest has a 20% chance to perform a Ferocious strike, where its damage output is doubled. This affects everything the Guest does (not just damage. NB: This doesn't affect booster Guests).
CHA is very popular. Guests are incredibly efficient for their cost and help to circumvent damage caps. They have also received strong support for items in recent years.
Luck (LUK)[]
Luck is the “everywhere and anywhere” stat. It doesn’t have a central role like the others, but rather contributes a little in lots of different ways. Its most recognisable benefit is additional damage from Lucky Strikes, which happen 10% of the time if you have any LUK investment at all. Lucky strikes deal an additional LUK*3/8 stat damage, which is a pretty major bonus. Luck additionally plays a roll in status infliction as the minor roll in most saves (which provides a 10% leeway in success).
The player also have a LUK/50% (max: 5%) chance to attempt a Lucky Break during their turn. This mechanic essentially converts a negative status effect on the a player into a positive one. The convertion depends on the status. The lucky break effect is applied before other status break effects:
- DOTs: Bleed/Burn/Disease/Poison/Prismatic Burn/Spiritual Seed -> Regeneration (1 turn, Power: 5)
- Damage Reduction: Blind/Choked/The Cold/Panic -> Elemental Empowerment (1 turn, x1.357 to all elements)
- Inaction: Control/Daze/Fear/Freeze/Paralyse/Sleep -> 50% chance of Celerity (1 turn, player only)
- Defence Loss -> Defence Boost (1 turn, +30 blocking)
- Elemental Vulnerability -> Elemental Shield (1 turn, x0.643 damage, same element as the elemental vulnerability)
- Mindlock -> Regain Mana (any element, worth 40% of a standard spell cost for the level)
- Main Stats: Brain Drain/Buffet/Cripple/Entangle/Offbalance -> Strength Boost, Intellect Boost, or Smooth (+DEX) based on your highest stat (1 turn, up to +156.33 [Stat])
- Fragile -> Tenacious (1 turn, up to +156.33 END)
- Repulsive -> Suave (1 turn, up to +156.33 CHA)
- Unlucky -> Lucky (1 turn, up to +156.33 LUK)
Style Bonus[]
- 'Lucky' Lucky Breaks: Up to +15% chance for a Lucky break to occur (20% total).
LUK is a stat that’s nice to have, but isn’t strictly necessary. If you have other priorities, like a second Main stat, then it’s better to focus on them rather than LUK. However, LUK can still be very potent in its own right, especially if you take advantage of the Hypercritical status effect.
Which stats do I choose?[]
Warriors, Rangers and Mages are good at different things. Warriors typically specialise in consistent damage output, Rangers are opportunistic, adapting their strategies depending upon their foe, and taking greater advantage over 100-proc weapons. They're particularly ideal for a defensive approach. Mages, meanwhile, are better at dealing burst damage since they have access to MP and spells, which can penetrate enemy defences. There’s really no wrong way to play the game (unless you're using Moglotron...) so find out what you enjoy most, then invest in your stats accordingly.
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