Fun with Numbers
Like its predecessors, Disgaea D2 requires a certain amount of recreational arithmetic. One thing the game doesn’t do is tell you exactly what every stat does, so before we start getting into the finer details, let’s break down your status screen for you.
HP (Health Points) and SP (Special Points) are self-explanatory. The one determines whether or not the unit is dead; the other is spent to fuel your Special Skills. No HP, no unit; no SP, no Skills.
Movement: This determines the unit’s ability to move across the map in a single turn. The number represents the number of panels that the unit can move in a straight line from its starting position.
Jump: This is the unit’s jumping ability, which determines whether or not it can get over certain obstacles in its path, such as fences, rocks, boxes, or cliffs.
Range: This is the unit’s basic attack range, listed in panels. As a rule, this is determined by the weapon a humanoid unit has equipped or by a monster unit’s species. Range has a hard cap of 9.
Throw: This is the distance in panels that the character can throw a Lifted item.
Counter: This is the number of Counterattacks the unit can use in a single turn.
Critical: This is the chance, listed as a percentage, that the unit inflicts a critical hit upon its targets with its attacks. Critical hits do additional damage.
Elements: These three percentages reflect the unit’s elemental affinities. This determines the unit’s ability with elemental magic and vulnerability to elemental attacks. From top to bottom, the icons represent Fire, Wind, and Water/Ice. A positive percentage represents a damage reduction, while a negative percentage represents a damage bonus. For example, a character with a 50% value for Wind takes 50% damage from attacks that utilize that element. A different character with a –50% value would take 150% damage.
ATK: This stat represents the unit’s ability to inflict physical damage. Many melee weapons derive their damage either wholly or partially from this stat.
INT: This stat represents the unit’s ability with magic. The higher the unit’s INT, the more damage it inflicts with attack spells. The basic attack from Staves functions off its wielder’s INT score. Books use the average of their wielder’s ATK and INT.
HIT: This stat represents the unit’s accuracy. The higher it is, the less chance that the unit will miss an opponent. This is important due to several factors that can influence accuracy, such as higher ground or facing. HIT also affects the damage potential of the unit’s attacks with Guns or Bows, as well as the chance of successfully stealing items from an enemy unit.
DEF: The unit’s damage resistance vs. physical attacks. The higher the unit’s DEF, the less HP is lost when it’s struck with anything that runs off of ATK.
RES: The unit’s damage resistance vs. magical attacks. The higher the unit’s RES, the less HP is lost when it’s struck with anything that runs off of INT. RES also affects the Heal family of spells, so a caster with a high RES will restore more HP when the spells are cast.
SPD: A unit’s SPD determines its chance to evade enemy attacks. It also affects the unit’s damage potential if it’s wielding Guns or Fists.
Stat Multipliers
There are many effects that can temporarily raise a character’s stats in Disgaea D2, such as Geo Effects, support spells, and Evilities. Skills that apply a short-duration multiplier to your stats, such as Shield, Braveheart, Mind Break, or Enfeeble, will cause the new effective value of the stat to appear on your character’s Status screen in blue (if positive) or red (if negative).
Some Evilities are more subtle, as they simply cause the stat to be multiplied and have no other effect to advertise their presence. For example, Lanzarote has an Evility that reduces all enemy units’ stats by 4% as long as she’s on the field. When she arrives, the game doesn’t visibly apply that modifier; it’s simply put into effect without discussion. This is often the case with Geo Effects and Evilities that directly influence your units’ elemental resistances.
Finally, Geo Effects and other Evilities don’t even do that much. If one of your units is standing on a Geo Panel that provides an Effect that causes a stat multiplier, the multiplier is invisible. It’s still there, but you won’t see it reflected in a unit’s Status screen. If you run into a unit which is weak on paper that’s nonetheless wreaking havoc, check to see if it’s benefiting from a Geo Effect or one of its allies’ Evilities. This is often the case with units like Angels, who hit a great deal harder than their stats would seem to allow because Angels A) have a number of complimentary Evilities that are often working in their favor and B) are jerks.
For most of the game, the hard caps for HP, SP, ATK, INT, HIT, DEF, RES, and SPD are set at 99,999,999; for HP and SP, you can go as high as 999,999,999. Any modifiers that would cause a stat to go over that limit are simply wasted.