Quick Introduction
Hey y'all! I've never really used the Steam Forum's before, so you'll have to forgive me if this guide is a little all over the place, but I figured there's no time like the present.
In this guide I will be discussing the Advantage System of Dark Deity and how to read it properly, since I don't feel the game adequately explains it and I want to assist my friends and other possible people who were as confused about it as I was, especially since it plays a big part in your strategic decision making throughout the game. My hope is to quickly explain how this system works, and then I'll briefly discuss my personal issues with it and possible solutions in its own section separate from the actual analysis.
For those who already understand the system and just want the match-up chart, it's in it's own section and you can find it there.
Anyways, let's not waste time and get on with it.
What Advantage Is, And How To Check It
So let's start with the obvious: What is Advantage?
Essentially it is this game's version of the Fire Emblem weapon triangle. For those unaware, the Fire Emblem weapon triangle is a system that series has where certain weapon types will gain advantages or disadvantages based on what weapon type your opponent is holding. It varies from game to game, but the core mechanic is something like this.
Simple, right?
Now, Dark Deity has a very similar mechanic, except this time, there's two factors to consider: damage types and armor types.
In total, there are (to my knowledge) NINE damage types and FOUR armor types. I'll quickly list them now for clarity.
DAMAGE TYPES
Piercing Damage (Red)
Slashing Damage (Green)
Crushing Damage (Indigo)
Cleaving Damage (Yellow)
Projectile Damage (Blue)
Arcane Damage (Pink)
Storm Damage (Also Yellow?)
Fire Damage (Orange)
Holy Damage (White/Tan-ish?)
ARMOR TYPES
Rune Cloak
Leather Armor
Chain Armor
Plate Armor
Like Fire Emblem, these will give bonuses and penalties based on what is attacking what, but I'll get more into that later. For now, let's focus on where to find them and what to look for. Every single class in the game has one damage type and one armor type to their name. To showcase this, I'm going to use Sophia. Why? Because I like Sophia.
First, let's click on her and hit Shift (using keyboard controls for this btw) to check up on her stats.
As pointed out by the helpful arrow (whoever put that there must be super nice! :D) these are your DAMAGE TYPE and ARMOR TYPE. Damage Type is on top, while Armor Type is on the bottom. All of it is dependent on the class. As Sophia is a Witch Hunter, her Damage Type is Projectile and her Armor type is Chain Armor. You can also check these on the map by hovering over a unit with your cursor.
Nifty!
I won't get into the Damage and Armor types of every class, since I'm sure people much smarter then me have already listed those out and you can find them very easily. What I will tell you is that, when ranking up, it's worthwhile to check to see how the Damage and Armor type will change upon promotion. Class variance is importance, folks, not just in TF2! You can check these out right here on the promote screen.
(Hint: It's in the blue circle.)
With the basics out of the way, let's delve into the actual meat and potatoes of how the heck these interplay with each other.
What Effectiveness Is, And How To Check For It
With all the boring pre-amble out of the way, let's actually break down what THIS stuff means.
First of all, you can quickly surmise what your opponent is weak too via the map screen. When you hover over a unit, you can check the little arrows that pop up on the top left of the opposing units to see whether their damage will be strengthened or weakened against the enemy in question. Green ▲ means they will deal more, red ▼ means, shock of all shocks, they'll deal less. This can also be viewed for the enemies as well.
Wow Sophia, better not potshot Mr. Arrow Man!
Secondly, weapon effectiveness ONLY applies to pure damage. Any other stat changes, such as accuracy, dodge, crit rate, etc is handled by the weapon system. In other words, this effectiveness PURELY deals with damage, nothing else. As an example here, despite having an advantage against the former enemy and a disadvantage against the latter one, Aurima still has better accuracy against the lackey he has disadvantage towards, even when choosing the least accurate option.
Side note: I missed the more accurate attack on taking that screenshot lmao
Third, since it's damage type against armor type, the enemy CAN have advantage over you even if you have advantage over them. In other words, the game calculates this system by doing a check of Damage Type ➔ Armor Type for both sides.
Fourth, let's discuss what Mastery does to affect these values. To put it simply, the higher a unit's Mastery is, the more effective type match-ups will be when they are favorable. In mathematical terms, mastery gives a percentage decrease to the defensive value before the bonus is applied. The letters from the pre-battle screen are essentially meaningless, they just exist to show how good a match up is in the units favor. To TL;DR it even more, if you have better Mastery and a higher letter, your Advantage bonus damage will be increased.
Anyways, with all this out of the way, let me show you all a quick chart I made to concisely illustrate what is good against what.
The Chart Of Advantage Matchups
(Note: this chart is rounded around a generic 100% of damage based on Attacker's Power - Defender's Defensive Stat, [the Defensive Stat being chosen via the Damage Type in question being Physical or Magical] in other words anything above 100% is bonus damage and anything below 100% is subtracted damage.)
Anyways, this is it for the "tutorial section". For the last segment, I want to quickly discuss what I feel is lacking about this system, and possible ways it can be fixed on the off chance a developer of this game reads this.
My Issues With This System, And Possible Solutions
I'll just list them in a quick numbered list, in order from most important to least important. I don't think all of these are necessary changes, or every change I'm proposing needs to happen, or even in the way I'm describing them, but I think any one of these would help newer players get a grasp on the system.
The number one issue of this system is simple: the game doesn’t explain how it works, and the few tools that exist to help you understand are not clear enough or don’t explain the full system. My solutions are tailored to making the system easier to understand or easier to memorize to cut down on the confusion as much as possible without sacrificing any of the core gameplay of the system.
1) The game really needs a tutorial on this. I know that there's a brief explanation for it in the Tutorial Section, but I think a more detailed version of it should be shown in Chapter 1. Yes, players don't like to have their hands held, but even a simple "Would you like a tutorial on Advantage? y/n" would be very helpful, especially with how much this mechanic affects your units positioning and risk-taking. I believe it's simply too important a mechanic to not be explained in this way.
2) I think exact match-ups should have an indicator on the pre-battle screen. There is an indicator on the map screen, but it still doesn't give you a good idea of how advantaged or disadvantaged you are, and it also doesn't show you the enemies advantage over you. I think a simple arrow showing the bonus or penalty the characters are getting in the pre-fight screen would go a long way in making this concept easier to keep track of. Here's a quick edit I made to show what I mean.
This could circumvent having to keep track of a chart by displaying all the relevant information to the player. Or...
3) Just having a chart like the one I made in-game be viewable at any time, much like Fire Emblem, would be nice. Something you can access via a quick in-game menu or on the map screen would make memorization less of an issue.
4) I also think it's possible percentages for these could be streamlined. As I showed in the chart, it seems every weapon was intentionally designed with one minor advantage, one major advantage, one minor disadvantage, and one major disadvantage. I think if these had set percentage values instead of being different for each match-up (i.e. always -10% for minor disadvantage, always +25% for major advantage, etc), it could make them easier to keep track of for players, but this is certainly the least "useful" suggestion.
Conclusion
Hey, you made it to the end! I hope any of this was useful to you, and I hope y'all have a bangin' day/night! Enjoy the game everyone!
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2521615810
More Dark Deity guilds
- All Guilds
- Dark Deity Guide 17
- Dark Deity | 100% ACHIEVEMENT GUIDE
- List of Aspects
- Unit Tier list and class suggestions
- Guide 7
- 100% Accurate Unit Tier List
- Dark Deity Unit Guide
- Basic Beginner's Guide