Part 10

Understand critical hits, ATP/DFP modifiers, elemental resistances, and death mechanics in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time.

Critical Hit Mechanics:

Critical hits in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time have specific multipliers for HP and MP damage. Critical hit rolls can increase HP damage by approximately 12.5% and MP damage by about 6%. Enemies have a critical hit multiplier of 4/3. While your characters cannot perform critical hits natively, support skills like Critical Hit HP/MP can enable them, though these do not inflict stun. Enemies have varying critical hit rates, commonly around 8% and sometimes as high as 34%.

ATP Modifiers:

Attack Power (ATP) can be affected by several factors during battle, with a maximum cap of 9999. These include Power Up (1.5x), Angel Feather (1.2x), Might Tablets (1.2x to 1.4x), Power Dance, and Anger (2.0x). If Angel Feather is active, casting Power Up changes the multiplier from 1.2x to 1.5x. Might Tablets provide a permanent effect for the rest of the battle, even if the character is incapacitated. Other temporary buffs like Power Up and Anger (which lasts 45 seconds and can be triggered by an ally's death) require specific conditions or equipment like Auto-Anger to persist.

DFP Modifiers:

Defense Power (DFP) can be modified by Protection (1.5x), Angel Feather (1.2x), Acid Rain (0.5x), and Reducer (0.7x). Enemies generally have lower DFP, typically ranging from 50 to 200 even in the post-game.

Elemental Resistances:

When an attack has multiple elements, the highest level of resistance takes priority (weak < halve < immune < absorb). A programming error causes neutral resistance to take priority over other resistances if it occurs later in the damage calculation sequence. The elements are processed in the order: Earth, Water, Fire, Wind. This means Wind neutrality overrides other resistances, Fire neutrality overrides Earth and Water, and Water neutrality overrides Earth.

Death and Damage Colors:

Death, or incapacitation, occurs when either HP or MP reaches 0. Petrified characters are also considered dead. The game uses specific colors to indicate damage and healing: White for HP damage, Green for HP healing, Red for MP damage, and Blue for MP healing. If a character is HP killed by an attack that also deals MP damage, no MP damage is sustained. When an attack deals both HP and MP damage, only HP damage will be visible if an HP kill occurs. Enemies with a high HP:MP ratio (above 10:1) are vulnerable to MP kills, which can be faster than HP kills, especially on Disc 1 and Disc 2 post-game. However, later in the game, the best waza (special moves) often outperform dedicated MP killers due to higher damage-per-second and stopping power, even if they primarily deal HP damage. There is a chance for a character to resist death and remain alive with 1 HP/MP, even when already at low HP/MP, and this chance can be higher with certain attacks. If a character is killed while one of their attacks is active, that attack becomes harmless.

Healing Items and Methods:

Common healing items include Blueberries (30% HP), Blackberries (30% MP), Fresh Sage (Revive w/ 30% HP/MP), Ripe Berries (30% HP for all), Perfect Berries (60% HP for all), and Magical Berries (90% HP for all). For MP, there are Physical Enhancer (50% HP), Mental Enhancer (50% MP), Analeptic (Revive w/ 30% for all), Aquaberries (Poison), Basil (Paralysis), Sage (Petrification), and Lavender (Freeze). Enhancers and Analeptics become available on Disc 2. Multi-target berries are available in limited quantities. There is no item to heal MP for multiple characters simultaneously unless they are revived. MP regeneration is the best way to heal moderate MP amounts, with the Regeneration Symbol accessory being the primary source on Disc 1. Other healing items can be created through Compounding, and Elixirs for this process are available at stores. Many Food healing items can be created via Cooking but are generally usable only outside of battle. The support skills First Aid and Standby Healing can also provide healing. Standby Healing heals a small amount of HP (20 at Lv1, 400 at Lv10) every 4 seconds when on neutral, but its proficiency gain is capped at 8 points per battle, making it inefficient. First Aid offers a small chance of recovering 20% HP when receiving physical HP damage.