Information On this page is mostly compiled by gamers and may not be 100% accurate.
Attack Calculation
This is how Attack (damage versus enemy players and NPCs) is calculated in the game. Attack has two components, as well as a readjustment:
- Core Attack: Weapon Base Attack + Attack gained from Flasking (upgraded attack tempers) + Attack boosts from Gear and Items
- Attack Multiplier: In-battle buffs, such as Attack x2 or Aggression (Attack x3)
These give you your total attack:
- Total Attack = Core Attack × Attack Multiplier
(See tables below)
Your Attack becomes your Total Attack or a readjusted Total Attack if this passes a certain value (200):
- If Total Attack is under or equal to 200, then Attack = Total Attack
- If Total Attack is over 200, then Attack = 200 + (1/2)×(Total Attack - 200)
- In summary, the extra attack above 200 is halved. As can be seen, this also affects the Attack x2 buff and Aggression advanced skill and all other Attack enhancers.
Example: If your Total Attack is 190, your Attack is 190. However, if your Total Attack is 210, then your Attack suffers penalty and it drops to 205. Also, if you have 180 Total Attack, and use an Attack x2 buff, the 360 Total Attack is penalized (since it is above 200), meaning your Attack is 280.
Defense Calculation
This is how Defense (resistance versus damage from enemy players and NPCs) is calculated in the game. Defense has two components, as well as a readjustment:
- Core Defense: Weapon Base Defense + Defense gained from Flasking (upgraded defense tempers) + Defense boosts from Gear and Items
- Defense Multiplier: In-battle buffs, such as Defense x2 or Strong Guard (Defense x3)
These give you your total defense:
- Total Defense = Core Defense × Defense Multiplier
(See tables below)
Your Defense becomes your Total Defense or a readjusted Total Defense if this is under a certain value (200):
- If Total Defense is under or equal to 200, then
- Defense = Total Defense + (1/10)×(200 - Total Defense)
- If Total Defense is over 200, then Defense = Total Defense
- In summary, if you have less than 200 defense you receive a small boost to it (10% of the amount you need for your defense to reach 200). If you have over 200 defense, you do not get that boost. It just equals defense.
Example: If your Total Defense is 210, your Defense is 210. However, if your Total Defense is 170, then your Defense gets a boost. Seeing as how the Total Defense is 30 away from 200, the Defense gets an additional 3 defense, making your Defense 173.
Total Attack Damage Calculation
However there are some other factors that go into the calculation of the true amount of attack damage you do to an enemy.
- Core Damage = (Attack/Enemy Defense) × Motion Damage Value
This is the base damage done. Each attack on a weapon has a corresponding "Motion Damage Value" that determines the amount of damage that attack motion does. Refer to the specific Weapons List pages for motion damage values.
- Physical Damage = Core Damage × Life Penalty
Physical Damage is the damage considering only core damage and possible life penalty. Life Penalty refers to the reduced damage that an enemy takes who has yellow or red life.
- If enemy enters 50% health, life bar turns yellow, and only takes 75% damage
- If enemy enters 25% health, life bar turns red, and only takes 50% damage
Note that the enemy has to be in yellow or red life zones for the defensive boosts to take place.
- Element Damage = Physical Damage × Element Multiplier
Elemental Damage is the additional damage you obtain on certain attacks for equipping an elemental orb or using a weapon with an element imbued in it. Each element has their own Element Multiplier and some enhance the damage more than others; the multiplier also stacks (orbs + imbued weapons, for example) and can be further augmented (weather conditions and lieutenant skills). However, the Element Damage is only added on attacks with successful elemental activation (such as some charge attacks and emblems) or Phoenix advanced skill.
- If it is a non-elemental attack, then
- Attack Damage = Physical Damage × Juggle Penalty
- If it is a (successfully activated) elemental attack, then
- Attack Damage = Elemental Damage × Juggle Penalty
Enemies who are being juggled receive a boost (damage resistance of 50%).
As you can see the amount of attack damage you do to an enemy depends on a number of factors.
For a quick computation, Attack Damage can be expressed (by factoring) as:
Attack Damage = (ATK / EnemyDEF) × (1 + EM) × JP × LP × MDV where
- ATK is Attack
- EnemyDEF is Enemy Defense
- EM is Element Multiplier (look up elements for their respective multipliers)
- JP is Juggling Penalty (1 if not juggled, 0.5 if juggled)
- LP is Life Penalty (1 if blue life, 0.75 if yellow life, 0.5 if red life)
- MDV is Motion Damage Values (see respective weapon pages for the MDV of each attack)
Damage and Elemental Multipliers
Attack Multiplier
Attack Multiplier | Attack x2 | Aggression skill | Phoenix skill without an element | Majesty skill |
Multiplier | 2 | 3 | 1.25 | 1 +(Life-50) x 0.0025 |
Defense Multiplier
Defense Multiplier | Defense x2 | Strong Guard |
Multiplier | 2 | 3 |
Life and Juggle Penalties
Description | Juggled | Life in Yellow (50% Life) | Life in Red (25% Life) |
Penalty | 0.5 | 0.75 | 0.5 |
Element Mechanics
Elements are a popular resource for many game modes in Dynasty Warriors Online, and have a system with regards to their functionality. They and their enhancers are present in orbs (battle items), weapon imbues, lieutenant skills, and bases. When properly equipped, certain attacks carry the ability to inflict an elemental ability (most common are charge attacks, see Weapons for details). The elements present in DWO are:
- Fire
- Ice
- Vorpal
- Wind
- Lightning
These elements can be characterized by
- Activation rate: the frequency in which they are activated
- Damage: serve as a multiplier in attack damage (only if the element activated)
- Effect: a status that is inflicted on the target
These are the properties usually considered in tactics depending on the game mode, and can be quite advantageous or disadvantageous.
Element Levels
Element damage works through a Levels system, and, as previously mentioned, serve as multipliers for attack damage. The higher the level, the more is added to your Element Multiplier. The Element Multiplier is calculated as such:
- Element Multiplier = Element Base ×Level
The Element Base as well as the effects for each element are listed in the table below:
Element | Element Base | Effect |
Fire | 0.175 | Adds fire status, which does damage over time as long as effect remains active (see note). |
Ice | 0.25 | Freezes target for a moment, rendering them incapable of any action while under the effect. Must be on ground for possibility of effect. |
Vorpal | 0 (see Vorpal) | Drains musou from user and target. Guarantees a fixed minimum attack damage for attacks that apply. |
Wind | 0.5 | Sets target's speed to minimum and makes them incapable of jumping. Slow speed can be countered with max speed buff. |
Lightning | 0.5 | Stuns target for a random amount of time, rendering them incapable of any action while under effect (even while being juggled, for a certain amount of hits). Stun time can be reduced significantly by hitting buttons simultaneously and repeatedly. |
How to increase elemental level (these are stackable):
- First elemental imbue on a weapon (extra imbues and elemental blue bars add to activation rate only)
- R1 Elemental Orbs add one level (fire, ice, vorpal, wind, lightning) whereas R2 Elemental Orbs adds two levels (inferno, blizzard, true vorpal, tornado, blitz)
- Lieutenant skills add one level (fire - flame, ice - freeze, vorpal - stream, wind - tornado, lightning - flash), but only if the user has an imbued weapon, an orb, or is inside same element base; otherwise it does nothing
- Bases with same corresponding element add one level
- Rain adds half a level to wind and lightning
- Snow adds half a level to ice
Example: Lightning S.Fan (one level) + Blitz orb (2 levels) = 3 levels of lightning (granting a lightning EM of 1.5). The damage is the SAME regardless of one imbue or five imbues on the weapon.
How to decrease enemy's elemental level (increase resistance):
- For any elemental attack, the level will drop according to the amount of pieces of gear with at least one imbue of that element (extra imbues and elemental blue bars add only to evasion rate only, which is the prevention of the effect!)
- The lieutenant skill Empower grants one level of resistance to all elements, and stacks with your gear
- Rain drops level for fire to 0 (and the effect does less damage over time)
- Elemental scrolls seem to nullify all levels and effects, but must be verified
Example: Four pieces of lightning gear with at least one imbue will make all lightning attacks drop four levels; two pieces of wind gear and two pieces of ice gear will make all wind attacks drop two levels and all ice attacks drop two levels
Note: Fire, like the other elements except vorpal, has an element damage (initial contact with elemental attack), but is not to be confused with the effect, which is the damage over time. To lower chances of effect, you need to increase evasion for fire (more imbues on gear)
Vorpal:
This element behaves differently from the other elements in that, first, it has no elemental base (and thusly no elemental multiplier). The perk of this element resides in its effects, in that it not only drains musou from the target, but guarantess a minimum damage, no matter the user's attack, nor the enemy's defense (it still suffers from life penalty, juggle penalty, and vorpal gear, though).
Details on vorpal element:
- One vorpal level adds +5 Attack Damage
- First vorpal imbue on weapon adds one level (guarantess minimum 5 Attack Damage in the case it is the only vorpal level)
- Vorpal Orb adds four levels (+20 Attack Damage)
- True Vorpal Orb adds five levels (+25)
- Lieutenant skill adds one level (only if user has a vorpal imbued weapon, any of the two vorpal orbs, or is inside a vorpal base; otherwise it does nothing)
- Vorpal bases add one level
- Elemental gears drop one level per gear and Empower drops one level, except at +15 minimum Attack Damage where it requires two levels top drop to +10 (requires more testing for verification).
Elemental Resistance
Elemental Reistance Bars indicate the resist rate of element effects (being frozen, set on fire, etc.) on your current gear. These are shown on the "Equip Gear" screen when selecting your gear from your wardrobe.
Each element has a corresponding bar showing how much resistance you have to said element. The bars are 104 pixels in width; for each imbue, the bar increases two pixels, and for each elemental blue bar, the bar increases one pixel.
Educated Guess: it is believed each pixel represents 1%, meaning with full imbues and elemental blue bars on all gear, you can gain an Elemental Resistance of 60%. However, it has also been mentioned that Weapon Activation can exceed 100% (some element orbs carry 100% activation, add to this weapon imbues, as well as the fact that the Elemental Resistance Bars go up to 104px, not 100px), so one must carry this into consideration.
NB. pixels count may be subject to screen resolution and until further investigation, should be considered a guide amount as opposed to a factual element.
Elemental Table Summary
Element | Fire Orb | Inferno Orb | Ice Orb | Blizzard Orb | Wind Orb | Tornado Orb | Lightning Orb | Blitz Orb |
Orbs | 0.175 | 0.35 | 0.25 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1 | 0.5 | 1 |
Lieutenent Skills | 0.35 | 0.525 | 0.5 | 0.75 | 1 | 1.5 | 1 | 1.5 |
Rainy/Snowy(Ice only) Weather | 0 | 0 | 0.375 | 0.75 | 0.75 | 1.25 | 0.75 | 1.25 |
Lieutenant Skills + (Rainy/Snowy Weather) | 0 | 0 | 0.75 | 1.125 | 1.25 | 1.875 | 1.25 | 1.875 |
Note: Fire does a set amount of damage over time for fire and inferno orbs. Fire does 4 damage per "round". In rain it is reduced to 1 damage per "round". Exactly how many "rounds" occur per second has yet to be verified.
Extra Information and Examples
Some weapons have innate fire/ice/vorpal elements attached to them. So you can have the elemental effect without imbuing the weapon or equipping an orb.
Charge attacks with innate fire element will just apply the burning effect, they will not have the multipliers listed above. Equipping a fire orb, an inferno orb and/or using the lieutenant skill "Flame" will upgrade the damage of these innate fire elemental charge attacks. If you only use the lieutenant skill "Flame" without equipping a fire or inferno orb it will still apply the elemental attribute multiplier to that charge attack that the lieutenant usually adds. (So 0.175 in this case.)
Charge attacks with innate ice element charge attacks, it will only freeze people not do more damage with the multipliers listed above. Equipping an ice orb, a blizzard orb and/or using the lieutenant skill "Freeze" will upgrade the damage of these innate ice elemental charge attacks. If you only use the lieutenant skill "Freeze" without equipping an ice or blizzard orb it will still apply the elemental attribute multiplier to that charge attack that the lieutenant usually adds. (So 0.25 in this case.)
Charge attacks with innate vorpal element will do 15 Base Damage if your base damage is less than 15. Equipping a vorpal orb, a true vorpal orb and/or using the lieutenant skill "Stream" will upgrade the damage of these innate vorpal elemental charge attacks. If you only use the lieutenant skill "Stream" without equipping a vorpal or true vorpal orb it will still apply the elemental attribute multiplier to that charge attack that the lieutenant usually adds. (So you will do 20 base damage if your base damage is less than 20, in this case.)
For true musou, your attacks will have the same effect as a level 1 fire orb. Using the lieutenant skill "Flame" will also increase your damage for true musou.
Summary
Attack Damage = (ATK / EnemyDEF) × (1 + EM) ×JP ×LP ×MDV
- Elemental Multiplier is 0 for all normal attacks. It only appears for attacks that have successful elemental activation (some charge attacks, some emblems, and Phoenix advanced skill).
- When juggled, juggle penalty is active (even against vorpal element).
- Life penalty only activates once the life bar color changes. If an opponent attacks you with 60 damage against your 61 blue life, you will receive the full damage and be left with 1 life. If the opponent attacks you with 60 damage against your 60 yellow life, his damage is penalized to 45, leaving you with 15 life. Thus, it is preferable to be with high yellow life than low blue life.
- Motion damage value is considered the base for all calculations; weapons that have certain attacks with high motion damage values are usually good candidates for one-hit-knock-out (OHKO) category.
Example
- Suppose you are in battle using a rank 4 Iron Sword. Say you also had a general that offered +7 attack, so the weapon base attack of 41 is now 48. You also have a good amount of attack gear on, providing an extra +23 attack. For the sake of the example, say you did not upgrade attack. The attack so far is 71, and since this is below 200, it does not get penalized, so your Attack is 71.
- In the battle you encounter an unflasked enemy Strategist Fan user. The standard base defense is 23 defense, and his gear only provides an additional +2 defense, giving in sum +25 defense. Since the Defense is below 200 (it is 25), enemy gets a boost, thus Enemy Defense is:
- Defense = Total Defense + (1/10) × (200 - Total Defense) = 25 + 0.10 × (200 - 25) = 42.5
- If you imbued your sword with one lightning, for any successful elemental attack, you have a value of 0.5 for your EM, which will add more damage (1.5x). If you don't have lightning imbued sword, but have a blitz orb equipped, your EM is 1. If you have a blitz orb and a lightning imbued sword, your EM will stack for a value of 1.5. Rain and the lieutenant skill Flash will add on to the EM. For this example, we will say you have a blitz orb equipped along with a one blitz imbued sword.
- Assume you didn't juggle (no penalty) and that the S.Fan user was at full blue health. JP and LP is equal to 1.
- Suppose you hit them the first time with N1 (motion damage value of 8) with Phoenix advanced skill activated (all attacks have a chance at element activation). On another encounter, you do the same (he's at full health again) but also pop on an Attack x2 buff.
For the first encounter (no attack buff), the damage done should be
Attack Damage = (71/42.5) × (1 + 1.5) × 1 × 1 × 8 = 32
For the second encounter (attack buff), due to the attack x2 buff, the Attack changes from 71 to 142 (no penalty still), so
Attack Damage = (142/42.5) × (1 + 1.5) × 1 × 1 × 8 = 65
Siege Fixed Damage Multipliers
This table was created by Aeloria of NiuBloc guild.
Each weapon in the game has a fixed siege damage multiplier. This refers to the "Damage" values on weapons that are used to determine the damage you do to inanimate objects. Inanimate objects include: Towers, Juggernauts, Urns, Catapults, etc.
Weapons | 0 temper | 1 temper | 2 temper | 3 temper | 4 temper | 5 temper |
1.6 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 1.9 | 2 | 2.1 | |
1.5 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 1.9 | 2 | |
1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 1.8 | |
Crescent Blade |
1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 1.7 |
1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.6 | |
All Other Weapons | 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5 |
Damage Value | 1 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 1.9 | 2 | 2.1 |
1 Hit | 1794 | 1632 | 1500 | 1380 | 1284 | 1200 | 1122 | 1056 | 1002 | 948 | 900 | 858 |
2 Hits | 894 | 816 | 750 | 690 | 642 | 600 | 564 | 528 | 498 | 474 | 450 | 426 |
3 Hits | 594 | 540 | 498 | 462 | 426 | 396 | 372 | 354 | 330 | 318 | 300 | 288 |
4 Hits | 444 | 408 | 372 | 342 | 318 | 300 | 282 | 264 | 252 | 234 | 222 | 216 |
5 Hits | 354 | 324 | 300 | 276 | 258 | 240 | 222 | 210 | 198 | 192 | 180 | 174 |
6 Hits | 294 | 270 | 246 | 228 | 210 | 198 | 186 | 174 | 168 | 156 | 150 | 144 |
7 Hits | 252 | 234 | 210 | 198 | 180 | 168 | 162 | 150 | 144 | 138 | 126 | 120 |
8 Hits | 222 | 204 | 186 | 174 | 162 | 150 | 144 | 132 | 126 | 120 | 114 | 108 |
9 Hits | 198 | 180 | 168 | 156 | 144 | 132 | 126 | 120 | 114 | 108 | 102 | 96 |
10 Hits | 174 | 162 | 150 | 138 | 126 | 120 | 114 | 108 | 102 | 96 | 90 | 84 |
11 Hits | 162 | 150 | 138 | 126 | 120 | 108 | 102 | 96 | 90 | 90 | 84 | 78 |
12 Hits | 144 | 132 | 120 | 114 | 108 | 96 | 90 | 90 | 84 | 78 | 72 | 72 |
13 Hits | 138 | 126 | - | 108 | 102 | - | - | 84 | 78 | - | - | 66 |
14 Hits | 126 | 120 | 108 | 102 | 90 | 84 | 84 | 78 | 72 | 72 | 66 | 60 |
15 Hits | 114 | 108 | 96 | 90 | 84 | 78 | 72 | 72 | 66 | 60 | 60 | - |
16 Hits | 108 | 102 | 90 | 84 | 78 | 72 | - | 66 | 60 | - | 54 | 54 |
17 Hits | 102 | 96 | - | - | - | - | 66 | 60 | - | 54 | - | - |
18 Hits | 96 | 90 | 84 | 78 | 72 | 66 | 60 | - | 54 | - | 48 | 48 |
Okay, so what do these charts mean exactly? For certain weapons in the game, they have a fixed multiplier that boost the amount of damage you do to inanimate objects. This boost is to counter the fact that these weapons are "slow". For every temper to "Damage" you add to that particular weapon, that fixed multiplier goes up. Some weapons have higher fixed damage multipliers than others. Find your weapon in the first table, and then find your fixed value by how many tempers or stars you have put into "Damage"(NOT ATTACK, just to make that clear).
Take that value and then refer to the bottom chart. Use the bottom chart to determine how much damage you would need to incur in order to bring down a tower in a regular melee(NOT SHOWDOWN) at musou or elite level in a certain number of hits.
Here is the formula the game uses to calculate your total Siege Damage to inanimate objects:
Base Siege Damage = Damage Stat x Advanced Skill Multipliers (From Obliterate or Majesty Advanced Skill)
Total Siege Damage = (Base Siege Damage / 6) x Fixed Damage Multiplier + 1
For example, you are using the iron blade. You have tempered 3 stars into DAMAGE. So, your fixed damage multiplier would be 1.9. In order to bring down a tower in say, 10 hits, in a musou or elite difficulty melee, you would need to upgrade your flasks in battle until you have 96 damage.