SMT ShowdownDamage and elements
Elements
Every attack has an element. SMT IV has eight that demons can resist: Phys, Gun, Fire, Ice, Elec, Force, Light and Dark. Almighty attacks ignore resistances completely: they always deal normal damage, which makes them the safe choice against a demon you cannot read.
Light and Dark skills (Hama, Mudo and their stronger versions) do not deal damage: they try to kill the target outright. See the PvP rule below.
Resistances
Each demon has a resistance to each element. The demon's compendium page lists them, and the same list is shown in battle when you inspect an enemy.
| Resistance | What happens | Press turns |
|---|---|---|
| Weak | more damage: usually ×1.55, a few demons take ×2 or ×3 | a full icon starts blinking |
| Normal | normal damage | normal |
| Resist | usually a quarter of the damage (×0.25) | normal |
| Null | no damage | two icons lost |
| Repel | the attack hits the attacker instead | all icons lost |
| Drain | the target heals instead of taking damage | all icons lost |
How much damage
SMT IV has no defense stat: Vi does not reduce damage. Damage depends on the attacker, the skill's power and the target's resistance and buffs.
- Physical and Gun skills grow with St and Dx, and the normal attack grows with St (Dx for gun users).
- Magic (Fire, Ice, Elec, Force and magical Almighty) grows with Ma.
- Critical hits deal ×1.5 damage and give an extra press turn. Only Phys and Gun attacks can crit; the chance grows with Luck.
- Skills that hit several times (1-4 hits and the like) split their power between the hits.
- Every hit varies by up to 5% either way.
Accuracy
Magic always hits, except ailment skills. Physical and Gun attacks hit about 95% of the time, a little more or less depending on the agility of the attacker and the target, and Sukukaja and Sukunda change it by 10% per rank. A miss costs two icons, so it pays to buff accuracy before relying on a strong but unreliable attack.
Reading a matchup
Before the battle starts you see all six enemy demons and their resistances. A demon like
Masakado's Shadow with no weaknesses and several immunities is so hard to answer at level 99 that it is banned in the Open format. In normal formats, look for the element that most of the enemy team is weak to and bring two different ways to hit it.