User:Theultramage/How to measure boss stats

It is possible to determine any enemy's ATK/DEF/MAG/SPR stats, percentual stat buff, innate phys/mag resistance, non-elemental resistance, and old/new damage formula usage. These values are not directly available through the ingame UI. What's on the wiki has generally been obtained only via datamining, and on a case-by-case basis.

Yet there is another way to do this: by sampling damage numbers of various kinds under controlled conditions, and then applying them to the game's complex damage equations. Even when there's variance involved, repeated measurements will narrow down the range of potential results until only the real value remains. And even when there are multiple unknowns, the various types of damage equations can be used together to narrow down the answer.

This does take time, smart planning, careful testing and note taking, and ongoing evaluation of the partial results. It can take up to an hour to thoroughly measure a single boss.

For the math, currently my go-to place is FFBEequip's builder and its damage calculator. A custom made spreadsheet or even custom software could be made to fully automate this, but I'm not that familiar with all the equations to get it right myself.

Note that for complex situations, the order in which stats are determined matters. For example, it is not possible to correctly determine DEF without first solving ... everything else. The other modifiers also probably interfere with each other when trying to measure them, so the order really is important. I have not had the time to think this through from start to end (in most cases only one or two of these factors are in play). Ultimately, the measurements you take are always right as long as you document the exact circumstances under which they were taken. Then, if later the results don't fit because one of the factors was not taken into account, it can be measured after the fact and the results re-assessed using the original measurements.

DEF

 * Set up the target boss in the builder
 * Use all available info to fill in race and elemental table.
 * Some traits, like mitigation or non-ele resistance do not have dedicated fields in the builder. In that case, use a custom goal that multiplies P_DAMAGE with the right coefficient.
 * Set up the testing character in the builder
 * Have it wear a 1-handed fist (or nothing) to minimize variance.
 * If the ATK value in the builder doesn't match ingame (sometimes it's off by one), try to fiddle with the stats and gear to make it align and avoid calculation error. Some GLEX wave battle craftables have +1 ATK +1 MAG, handy for fine-tuning the build.
 * Be sure to account for any buffs, debuffs and breaks during testing, otherwise the builder's results will be wrong.
 * Note the 'number of hits' the character's basic attack does and how their damage is distributed (wiki + datadump).
 * Use 'Basic attack' and note the result.
 * Divide result by 1.5 if it was a crit.
 * Determine the Min/Max permissible range for DEF based on the result by looking at the character's Min/Max damage range
 * Keep lowering the boss's DEF stat as long as the character's Min damage is still greater or equal to the measured result.
 * Keep raising the boss's DEF stat as long as the character's Max damage is sttill less or equal to the measured result.
 * This will give you the range of DEF values that permit the measured value to exist.
 * Keep taking measurements and calculating the DEF ranges. The answer is in the intersection of these ranges.
 * You can do this test with multiple characters simultaneously. All of their ranges can be intersected together.

SPR

 * Same as above, but instead of Basic attack, you use a single-hit spell.
 * Espers, equipment or equippable materia can provide a spell of any type you need.
 * You will have to manually enter the spell's damage modifier and account for elemental resistance using the Custom Goal feature.

Old/New damage formula

 * Do one DEF range measurement with one character wearing nothing (barehanded).
 * Sample damage with one character wearing a 1-handed fist with low ATK. Leave 'new damage formula' checked.
 * If that character's damage is within its variance for that particular DEF value, it's indeed "new damage formula".
 * If that character's damage is twice of what the builder says the variance should be, it's "old damage formula".

DEF/SPR buff%

 * The fastest way:
 * Take a phys/mag damage measurement (DMG1).
 * Soft-reset the game.
 * Apply a known DEF/SPR break to the boss.
 * Take a second phys/mag damage measurement (DMG2).
 * Solve: buff = (DMG1 - DMG2 + DMG2 * (break%/100)) / (DMG2 - DMG1)

Phys/Mag resistance%

 * Have not tried this yet (only a few enemies have this value as something other than 0% or 100%).
 * Would involve measuring with a skill with Fixed type attack and Phys/Mag damage, and comparing to the baseline.
 * For phys, there's Mug (Hanzo Gauntlet), Raegen's Blue Blade Ruin, and seemingly plenty others.
 * For mag, there's DracuLasswell's Hallowed Song, Tsukiko's break/debuff moves, or the various EvoMag units.

non-elemental resistance%

 * Attack barehanded, note damage. Soft-reset game, imbue, attack again, note damage, compute the resistance from that.
 * Alternatively, solve with an elemeental attacker, then plug in the non-elemental attacker's measurements into the builder and see what sort of modifier best fits.
 * Alternatively, use magic attacks. Ultima, and a bunch of others, are non-elemental. Same method, except no need to select specific weapons or imbue.