Mechanics Guide

Credits

Dragon Quest 8 Mechanics and General Tips Guide by Chigi_Rishin

Introduction

Hello, this is my first ever guide. I noticed a lack in explanation on

available guides about the mathematical formulas for damages and similar things,

and also some general tips to play the game, making it more enjoyable and saving

time. So I decided to create this short guide condensing some information spread

through various sources, and with my personal findings.

I did not spend a lot of time making it pretty and all, I created it as fast

as possible. I'm not much of a fan of wasting time to make things pretty, as

long as they are functional.

As I have gathered all this information for myself, and there is no similar

information organized like this, I though it was a waste not to share it, so

here it is.

Also, this guide assumes some spoilers. But most are information only people

who have already played the game will understand, it's certainly nothing major.

And using guides will probably make the game more fun to play, as it is far too

convoluted and lacking explanations that going in blind will be unnerving.

Even with guides I still took about 100 hours to do everything. Hopefully

with this guide you can do it without wasting as much time as I did.

Feel free to use this guide.

Damage and Modifiers

Damage=(ATK/2 - DEF/4)*Oomph*Tension*othermod*(rand(0.95-1.05))

All this comes from actual in-game testing.

The random variation CAN exceed 5% up or down, but is is so rare that the

effective variation is up to 5%, with more than 95% of attacks falling in that

range.

Other modifiers can include values specific for an attack, or an enemy

resistance, or attacks that do more damage to certain enemy types.

Oomph has a modifier of 1.8, and only affects physical attacks, and the first

attack if there are more. All the rest of the modifiers happen on all attacks.

Some types of attacks seem to use a more restricted random variation and applies

it to all 3 or 4 multiple attacks, just to let you know.

Available guides have detailed explanations about which attacks benefit or

not from Tension, but usually all attacks and healing do (except full healing).

Twin Dragon Slash is an awesome skill, with a 1.5 modifier, and hits twice.

With Oomph and 50 Tension, it will hit for 21x the base damage. 100 Tension

gives it 31.5x, it is even better than the dragon killer combo. Considering

this, it is the single most powerful boss killer. But Jessica has low strength

and low attack weapons until the Gringham whip, and spears for the Hero and axes

for Yangus are much easier to get. So the usefulness of this is somewhat lower

in the early game, especially if Angelo does not have Oomph yet, but it is still

very strong.

Falcon Blade has a 0.75 modifier, so with its two attacks it goes to 1.5.

Uber Falcon Blade still does that, it only has a little bit more attack (37 VS

55). So it is a waste of a meteorite bracer to make it. Falcon slash also has

the same 0.75 modifier, so usually using it is worse than most Oomphed single

attacks.

A Falcon Slash with a Falcon Blade will make ALL FOUR attacks strike for only

0.5625 damage, giving a total of 2.25 (2.7 with Oomph), which WOULD be better

than a Multithrust. But due to the low attack of the Falcon Blade, it gets

easily surpassed by it, if using a higher attack spear like Hero’s Spear, or

even Sandstorm Spear. Overall, the Falcon Blade is only useful for hunting metal

slimes, and has very little actual utility, also because it becomes available

very late in the game.

Multithrust attacks 3 or 4 times with a 0.5 modifier, so it is always at

least as good as Falcon Slash, without Oomph. Still, on average, due to the 4th

attack, Multithrust does more damage even considering Oomph.

Physical attacks are ones that actually touch the enemy, even Yangus’s axe

and scythe attacks, thus Oomph works on Parallax, Typhoeus’ Maul, Steal Sickle,

etc, and some physical attacks have an element. Magical elements are Sizz,

Frizz, Fire Breath, Ice Breath, Bang, Woosh, Crack, Strike, Zap, Sap and the

status ailments. The Dragon Quest Wiki has detailed information on which attack

are of which type, as well as an enemy’s resistance to them. Note that no enemy

I’ve seen is resistant to Zap (unless 100% for metal enemies), so Lightning

Storm is a great attack that works when Thin Air, Shining Shot, and Kaboom or

Kacrackle may fail to hit or the enemy is strong against it (but that is mostly

for enemies near the end of the game).

Tension modifiers, despite the number if the Tension itself, are 1.7, 3.4, 5,

and finally 7.5. Actually I think until 5 they are steps of 3/5, but is hard to

confirm. It is often not worth it Tensioning up to 100 due to the 1/3 chance of

it happening, it pays more to use the 50 Tension, then psyche up 3 times again,

which gets a 10x boost overall, especially if the enemy uses wave of ice or

other incapacitating attacks, at least we managed to attack once. The 100

Tension is only recommended when hunting metal king slimes, and maybe if the

character is already at 50 Tension but cannot act yet because we are still going

to Oomph them or reduce the defense of the enemy, so we psyche up again to keep

the 50 Tension or go up to 100. Remember, Tensioning at 100 keeps it there,

while awaiting the proper moment to attack.

Critical hits simply deal 2x the attackers ATK, as it ignores defense.

However, it does not benefit from Oomph or Tension. It COULD benefit from

othermods but I didn't test it.

Casting Oomph, fullheal/omniheal, using items, does not use Tension. Refer to

a skills/spells guide for more information. Acceleratle consumes Tension, and

multiplies the boost by the Tension multiplier.

All those modifiers happen AFTER the base damage calculation, which is the

attack divided by two minus the defense divided by four. And there is a 5% or so

randomized damage up or down deviation after this. That is why a large attack

can vary for those same 5%.

Dragon slash and similar attacks also apply the modifiers after. The same

with weapons that increase the damage against a monster type. So, a Dragon Slash

with a Dragon Slayer sword, with 100 Tension and Oomph, will deal 30x the base

damage. If the enemy has 0 defense, this is 15 times the hero’s attack. Very few

bosses are resistant to lowering defense (Dhoulmagus Phase 1), so usually it is

worth doing it.

This can reach around 6000 damage on the dragovian trials for example, as

even bosses still have a monster type, even if the bestiary does not show it.

Depending on defense, it deals much more damage than a Dragon Soul (around

3750 at 100 Tension).

Everyone says that magic attacks have a base damage and some may increase

with wisdom or with level. I have seen this effect, but did not determine it

exactly. It is interesting for Thin Air, for it does about 30 damage since the

beginning of the game, AND it increases with Tension, being VERY useful early

on. Available guides already have information of base and maximum damage for

magical attacks, so there is little more to say.

https://dragon-quest.org/wiki/Main_Page has a lot of information about a lot of

things. Monster information tables, damage values, equipment characteristics,

etc.

Thin Air Damage = (Level*2+30)*0.8) +/-10%

Evasion Mechanics

Agility Chance to evade

001-249 1.56%

250-499 3.12%

500-749 6.25%

750-998 12.5%

999 25%

Source- https://dragon-quest.org/wiki/List_of_character_statistics

Note: if a character has raised his or her Fisticuffs level to receive an

increase in evasion, the default is raised to 50% before stacking with all other

bonuses. The character's level must be higher than the attacking enemy's for the

boost to take effect.

I have no idea where we can find an enemy’s level. It seems this evasion applies

to all types of attacks.

While we are talking about agility, who has more agility acts first in

battle. Most often that is. There is some equation to determine how often, and I

did not test it extensively, but what I could determine is that if someone has

10% or more agility than another, some 90% of the time they act first. This goes

for enemies and party. But of course, the higher the agility, the most likely it

is to act first, reaching 100% when more than double some say. The Wiki says it

is 50%*AllyAGL/EnemyAGL, but this does not project to real in-game effects. From

what I have observed, it is a Gaussian Curve that is CENTERED at this

50%*AGL1/AGL2. But the deviation they used is like 5%, so if someone has 10%

more agility, they would be 2 deviations ahead, so 95% of the time the entity

with 10% more agility will act first. AHA, I've nailed it, I think.

This is important if we want to fine tune who in our party acts first.

That is why it's nearly impossible to act before a Metal King Slime (AGL 255),

as even with Meteorite Bracer on Jessica a high level is needed to barely reach

220. Or you need an insane amount of seeds.

Character Building

Hero

Put 18 into boomerangs to get power throw, best attack for regular enemies,

then 25 into spears for Multithrust. Now, depending if you are speeding, or

intend to hunt Metal King Slimes, it changes. Go for 59 in spears to get

Lightning Thrust, then on to 100 for Lightning Storm. Then max Courage, and only

after that start on swords. If speeding, forget spears after 25, and go directly

to Courage to get Zap, Omniheal, MP cuts, and Gigaslash as soon as possible,

because those will help the most on both encounters and bosses. Holy Protection

is the same as a Holy Water so it is a balance between saving MP or Gold.

Overall, spears are much better than swords, and stronger ones are available

faster and earlier (Sandstorm and Hero’s for example). And as I have already

proved, Multithrust is better than Falcon Slash until Falcon Blades appear. And

after that, you either are leveling up a lot (Metal King Slimes), so getting

Falcon Slash is easy, or you are nearly finishing the game and need the Courage

tree more.

Yangus

Go for 42 in Fisticuffs, getting Thin Air, which will be your main random

encounters killer. Then 6 into axes for Helm Splitter. Now, if you are not using

a guide, it could be good to put 16 into Humanity to get Nose for Treasure,

otherwise just put 4 there for Whistle, then max axes. If you hit the cap on

axes, put the rest on Humanity. After 100 on axes, go for Kerplunk at 82

Humanity. Then you can go towards Stainless Steel Sickle at 70 Scythes, but by

then it serves no real purpose.

The reason for all this is that axes have the best abilities and weapons,

especially the Bardiche of Binding that gives 1.5 modifier against demons

(Rhapthorne), but I could not test if it really works against him as I sold mine

because I didn't know of this bonus at the time (because the game does not TELL

US). Actually most equipment have hidden effects not shown. We must search the

guides or the Wiki to find them, it is unsettling.

With Parallax’s 1.3 modifier, it will deal 1.95x the damage to demons. And if

the enemy does not resist the Woosh element, use Typhoeus' Maul, which has a 1.5

modifier. This makes the Devil Crusher at 100 clubs not interesting at all. And

Stainless Steel Sickle at 70 scythes is only really useful to steal seeds of

skill from the Dragovian trials, so only put points there last.

Jessica

Put 3 on staves to get Acceleratle, then 23 into whips for Twin Dragon

Slash. After that, put everything on staves going after Caduceus (57) and Kazing

(100). Caduceus can be useful at low levels as it has no MP cost. After

Multiheal and Fullheal it becomes nearly useless. The other trees offer little.

If you cap staves, put some (18) into Sex Appeal to get Charm Attack, which

despite any description, is actually a passive skill with a low chance to make a

common enemy lose a turn, it can be useful. After that, put 52 into Fisticuffs

to get the Evasion Up, there is nothing much better to do, but 100 in Sex Appeal

for Hustle Dance could be useful, as it increases with Tension. Or go to 68 in

whips to get the extra 15 attack bonus, but I think it is too many point for

little benefit.

Angelo

Put 6 into bows for Sandman’s Arrow, then into staves to get Caduceus

(48) and Oomph (65).Then 13 into Charisma for Sarcastic Snigger. Then 88 in bows

for shining shot, it helps hunting in the Black Citadel. Then 21 fisticuffs for

evasion. And 22 into swords for Metal Slash if hunting Metal King Slimes. 27

charisma for divine intervention could be useful, but I did not confirm it.

General Tips

Save seeds of strength and life for alchemy, as the items they make cannot be

found easily. It is fine using some at the early game to give a boost, but after

that save them. Save Seed of Magic until the items they make become easily

accessible, their boost to MP is not even very relevant. The other seeds can be

used at will, but save seeds of skill for getting a desired skill before a boss

or something, or to make hunting easier early on. It is best to save them for

when you can choose better.

Drop rates are so insanely low for this game that it is absolutely not worth

it to try hunting for them, either they drop or they don't, it's luck. The Wiki

also has drop rates for every enemy. Hunting for Orichalcums is certainly a loss

of time. I finished the game, hunted a lot of King Metal Slimes and Pandora's

Boxes, and an Orichalcum dropped one single time and that was it. The time spent

doing it would be enough to finish the whole game again. So don't botter unless

you have some love for that.

Hunting is usually a loss of time, just speed on to further areas as much as

possible, using padfoot to avoid encounters, like in speed-gaming. Getting to

enemies that give more EXP is much more efficient. And if you must hunt due to

low levels, it is much better to do it near places you can warp to, then recover

at cheap inns (hillside hut), so you can abuse MP heavy attacks, making hunting

faster.

Then, just run with Padfoot towards progressing the story. Ignore treasure

hunting in field areas, for there will be too much time lost in encounters.

After getting higher levels, it is much better to go there using Holy Water,

which will negate all encounters. Fleeing gets to nearly 100% when higher

leveled, but still, Holy Water is more efficient. Neos is a good spot to go as

soon as possible, hunting for gold and EXP easily. Metal slime hunting at the

beach under Riverside Chapel could be interesting, using Holy Water to attack.

The time lost hunting there pays because then you can avoid encounters with Holy

Water, as your level is higher, but gold could become short.

Despite it being possible to clear the monster arena before fighting

Dhoulmagus, it is almost impossible, it is much better to wait and get Curer

after Arcadia, overall being much faster.

Look up Dodgy Dave's trades, make the items and trade until you get the

Happy Hat, which recovers MP while walking. This will make your life far easier.

Don't bother making the Elevating Shoes with the Happy Hat as the EXP is

negligible. Also, don't make a Sage's Stone, save the Orichalcums for something

more useful like Metal King Helm, Metal King Armor, and Goddess Shield. Sage's

stone usefulness is limited due to Fullheal and Omniheal, and even Multiheal, as

it does not get multiplied by Tension.

Dragovian Trials

Here is a table guide for the Dragovian Trials, showing defense and hit

points, along with some other tips. There is already an available guide on this.

When doing the run against all 7 dragons in one go, they all have half the HP,

except for Ultimate which is only faced in this manner anyway.

M.T means monster team for damage. +Combo means using Yangus’ Helm Splitter

to lower defense, then using hero with Dragon Slash and Dragon Slayer,

and Jessica with Twin Dragon Slash helps. Sap (%) is how much the enemy resists

defense lowering, Wave is if it uses wave of ice, D.Soul is the hero attack

Dragon Soul learned at level 65, which ignores defense and has some 475 base

damage. When you start beating them easily, you can stop using M.T except for

the Lord, as it is faster to just use your party.

Name DEF Sap(%) HP Wave Strategy

Lord 211 15 3000 yes M.T. + D.Soul

Vermilion 237 50 5100 no M.T. + Combo

Emerald 75 0 8690 no M.T. + Combo

Silver 418 100 5030 yes D.Soul or Magic

Golden 480 100 5560 no D.Soul or Magic

Darksteel 653 100 1910 no D.Soul, Magic Burst, Crit hits

Divine 262 100 9470 yes M.T, D.Soul, Atk

Ultimate 307 50 7320 yes M.T. + Combo

Source of values - https://dragon-quest.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Dragovians