New to the series and struggling to understand the stats.

[defeatedbythecat]

This is my first entry into the series and I am struggling a bit to work out some of the mechanics. The stats and how I should be interpreting them.

As my characters fight I am seeing numbers going up and I sort of understand strength means my physical attacks are going to be stronger etc. But in the last fight I had some enemies in armour and a few of my characters weren't doing any damage to them.

There are a few stats in before I attack that show how much damage I am doing, but I can't seem to see where it tells my why a particular unit isn't being effective. Or if the feedback is there I just don't know how to interpret it. I know there used to be a weapon triangle to determine who should be used against who. But in this instalment it feels like I am just guessing.  Perhaps I have missed a tip screen?

Also the benefits of ranking up  social ranks with characters also doesn't seem that clear. If I have a rank C with two characters and they're adjacent on the battlefield, what effect is that having?

Is there a guide somewhere that answers these questions, perhaps giving me a non spoilery primer on what enemy types are going to cause certain units trouble because of X reason? Or something that can help guide me a little on how I should be training my units in a particular direction?

Thanks in advance. 

[Vince777]

This won't help so much, won't be complete and maybe not even accurate and I haven't paid so much attention to how exactly the mechanics work this time around as it always changes slightly from one game to another but generally supported units will give each other stat boosts during combat when fighting in proximity.

These enemies in armour likely simply had a very high defense stat. You can use magic (as they generally have a low resistance stat) or armor-breaking weapons like the Mace/Hammer or Armorslayer sword to deal with them. Flying enemies are particularly strong in this game, I found, but you can capitalize on their weakness to arrows, which are very good in this game. 

Attack, Defense, Magic and Resistance are pretty self-explanatory, Speed will allow you to double (and avoid being doubled), and Dexterity (Skill in past games) affects your hit rate.

Luck traditionally I believe had various smaller effects on hit rate/avoid and critical hit chances. Charisma affects the battalions in some ways. It's a new stat and battalions are new.

 

 

Edited August 9, 2019 by Vince777

[Humanoid]

At its core, the game is simply comparing your Attack vs the relevant target defensive stat, depending on whether the attack was physical or magical. Fundamentally you want a balance between physical and magical attackers in your selected team or you might have a bad time with certain enemies.

Attack is your Strength or Magic stat plus the inherent "Might" value of the weapon or spell that you're using plus some modifiers if applicable (generally not). Physical attacks are compared against the target's "Protection" stat, magical attacks against its "Resilience" stat.

Protection is calculated as the sum of the Defense stat plus modifiers (e.g. terrain, bonuses granted by equipped shields/batallions). Resilience is Resistance plus modifiers, same deal. To overcome a high stat in one of these, you instead either use a type of attack that instead compares against the other stat, or you use a Combat Art (essentially like a special move in fighting games) that can overcome the deficit.

Attack Speed is your Speed stat reduced by (weapon weight - 20% of your Strength, rounded down). If you Attack Speed is 4 or more points higher than your target's, you attack twice.

Hit and Crit rates are determined by the Dexterity stat in an altogether more complicated way, suffice to say more is better.

Edited August 9, 2019 by Humanoid

[defeatedbythecat]

Thank you both!

That really gives me some things to think about as I am going into battles. I've done a little bit of grinding on a couple of maps (playing on normal for my first time) as I noticed that certain characters were a few levels below the others. 

The one other thing I am wondering, is, is it possible to be underleveled to the point where you'll struggle to continue the game? Ie you get to a mandatory story fight and can't win, but without being able to go earlier in the calendar you can't fix it? 

 

[Humanoid]

3 minutes ago, defeatedbythecat said:

The one other thing I am wondering, is, is it possible to be underleveled to the point where you'll struggle to continue the game? Ie you get to a mandatory story fight and can't win, but without being able to go earlier in the calendar you can't fix it?  

In Normal mode XP is technically infinite since there are Auxiliary battles that don't cost any activity points. I suppose it's technically possible to get to the day of a Story mission and find yourself unable to complete it, but I would find this scenario almost impossible in reality unless you're also playing Classic (permadeath) mode and managed to get multiple units killed somehow.

Even when you do the bare minimum amount of fights, and allocate the XP inefficiently (by giving all the kills to a single character, for example), there's so much XP just from that mandatory content so you stay on, if not well above the level curve.

[Vince777]

My guess is the game probably remains easy even if you are slightly underleveled anyway.

The time-rewinding mechanic pretty much ensures that nobody ever dies so it'd be surprising if one were so bad to lose multiple units and be stuck with a much reduced roster. Plus... you can probably solo (duo) the game with Byleth+chosen lord anyway.
 

Edited August 9, 2019 by Vince777

[wslegolas]

You want to be looking at the combat summary of enemies where it shows their Atk (str or mag plus weapon str/mag), AS (attack speed, which you need to be 4 higher to double) Crit (triple damage attack) Avoid (used against enemy hit rate to get the enemy hit percentage in battle)

You'll also want to look at the enemies def and resistance because they aren't in that summary (which is located above the stats screen section). 

 

The keys are reviewing AS to see if you'll be doubled or if you can double, how much Atk the enemy does against your defense (plus terrain and other modifiers) and then how many enemies are in range of attacking and how much damage they'll also potentially do. I don't really rely on dodging attacks when assuming how much damage a unit can take. 

 

If your units are close enough to the enemy, go ahead and walk them next to the enemy and view the combat forecast so you can see the easy summary of expected damage/attacks. Then you can back out and look at others.

As for supports they generally give a couple points in str/hit/avoid. You can view the support effects when in the support screen at base (I'm not sure if you can view all the support effects in battle, if you press X and hover over a stat or text you may see the additional modifiers, if your stat is blue for example).

 

Definitely try and utilize the strengths of your units and weaknesses of the enemies. As someone above said have magic users fight high def units, speedy one range units, and units in terrain cover. Have your physical units generally attack mages if they can one round them without taking damage or have high resistance. 

 

Also make sure to check out the weapon stats you're using, if you're only on training weapons you may be doing less damage than you expect.

[Shadow Mir]

Like stated, those armored enemies have a high defense stat, which is to be expected. Therefore, physical attacks usually won't do much. However, you can use anti-armor weapons, like the Armorslayer, to fight them. Also, armored enemies tend to have low resistance (which protects against magic attacks), which makes mages a good option against them. In the same vein, pegasus knights and mages in general tend to have high resistance, but low defense. In addition, you'll want to look at your AS (Attack Speed; you need 4 or more over your opponent to double attack them. In this game every 5 points of strength you have decreases the effect of weight by 1; ergo, if you have 10 strength and speed and use an Iron Sword, which has 5 weight, you lose 3 speed and thus have 7 AS), and that of your opponent as well. Dexterity affects hit and crit rate. Luck affects crit chance and crit evade.

[kremelover]

C support units, standing near each other will: be more likely to hit the enemy, less likely to be hit, and sometimes deal extra damage!  

[De Geso]

If you press x on a character's stat screen and highlight each stat they have descriptions which tell you how they work.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

Before you attack the foe, the battle forecast window will show how much damage you'll do (and whether you'll double, and what the hit and crit rates are). You can switch among weapons, magic, gambits, and combat arts with certain buttons (IIRC L/R, and ZL/ZR) before settling on an attack. Also, if a matchup looks unfavorable, don't attack, just back out with the B button.

Apologies if you know all this, but this stuff took me an embarrassingly long time to realize on my own first playthrough. Good luck!