Welcome back to our Dev Diary series, where we dive deep into the key features of Mandragora. Today, we’re shifting focus to another vital element of combat: Damage Types and Effects.
We’ve touched on quite a few Damage Types and Status Effects in previous Dev Diaries, and if you’ve played the Mandragora Demo, chances are you’ve already experienced some of them first-hand!
In today’s entry, we’ll delve deeper into these damage types and status effects, breaking down their mechanics and how they can shape your combat strategy.
In Mandragora, your Weapons, Active Skills, and Talents can inflict one or more types of damage. Each damage type has a corresponding Status Effect that can be applied based on your Status Effect Chance when dealing direct damage. Additionally, certain effects can apply Status Effects directly, enhancing your strategic arsenal.
Physical damage is the foundation of all Weapons and Combat Skills.
The amount of Physical damage you deal can be increased through either Strength or Dexterity, as indicated in the tooltip of each Weapon or Active Skill.
Here, the base damage of the Broadsword (95) is enhanced by Strength, with a C+ scaling quality, increasing its damage to 103.
With better scaling, that value would be higher with a worse scaling rank, and the final damage value would be lower. To help you rank items by their scaling quality, Mandragora uses a ranking system from D to S+, with S+ being the strongest.
Weapons can also scale with multiple attributes. For example, a Copper Straight Sword scales with both Strength (B) and Dexterity (C).
When scaling with multiple Attributes, diminishing returns come into play. These diminishing effects differ for each Attribute. This means that while Strength might initially provide a stronger boost, there’s a threshold where investing in Dexterity might yield better results.
You can always check which Attribute contributes more to your damage when allocating Talent Points in the Talent Tree, making it easier to optimize your build and maximize your damage output.
Physical damage is mitigated by both Armor and Physical Resistance, and it has the potential to cause two distinct Status Effects: Bleed and Poison. Let’s take a closer look at how these effects work:
Bleed Status Effect
- Triggered by dealing direct Physical damage.
- Causes Bleed damage over a short duration, scaling with the target's maximum Health.
- Bleeding targets also take increased Physical damage from all sources.
- Bleed effects don’t stack.
- You can reduce Bleed damage by increasing your Bleed Resistance.
Poison Status Effect
- Triggered by dealing direct Physical damage.
- Inflicts Poison damage over an extended duration.
- Poison effects can stack up to 5 times on a target, amplifying the total damage.
- You can reduce Poison damage by increasing your Poison Resistance.
The world of Mandragora is brimming with elemental forces, and Magic Damage encompasses six types: Astral, Chaos, Fire, Wyld, Void, and Frost.
Weapons that deal Magic Damage can scale their effectiveness with either the Power or Spirit Attribute, as indicated in their tooltip:
The Duskblade deals 70 Physical base damage, which scales with Strength (A). In addition, it deals 65 Fire damage and 55 Chaos damage, both of which scale with Power (B+) and Spirit (C+).
Astral Spells, Astral Talents, and certain weapons deal Astral damage by default. You can further enhance your arsenal by using Astral Oil (a consumable) or applying an Astral Runestone (a permanent enchant) to imbue your weapon with additional Astral damage.
The power of Astral Spells is amplified by your Spirit Attribute and the Spell Buff Attribute of your equipped Off-hand Item:
Enemies’ Astral Resistance reduces the Astral damage they take. (Note: Playable characters don’t possess Astral Resistance.)
Astral damage can trigger the Lightbrand Status Effect, while certain Astral Spells and Talents also have the unique ability to generate a Light Barrier.
Lightbrand Status Effect
- Lightbrand can be applied when you deal direct Astral damage.
- Lightbrand lasts for a short duration, healing you for a portion of the Astral damage inflicted on the target.
- Lightbrand effects do not stack.
Light Barrier
Light Barrier is a unique damage absorption effect created by specific Astral Spells and Talents. It absorbs all incoming damage at 100% efficiency, offering a reliable shield during combat. However, the maximum Light Barrier you can maintain at any given time is capped at 20% of your maximum Health.
By default, Chaos Spells, Chaos Talents, and certain weapons can deal Chaos damage. To enhance this, you can apply Chaos Oil (consumable) or a Chaos Runestone (permanent enchant) to your weapon, adding extra Chaos damage.
Chaos Spell damage is boosted by your Power Attribute and the Spell Buff attribute of your Off-hand Relic.
Enemy Chaos Resistance will reduce the Chaos damage they take (Note: Playable characters don't possess Chaos Resistance).
Chaos damage can also apply the Weakness Status effect
Weakness Status Effect
- Weakness is applied when you deal direct Chaos damage.
- Weakness reduces the target's Movement Speed by 25% and increases their Chaos damage taken by 15% for a short duration.
- Weakness does not stack.
For those who wish to harness the power of fire, Fire Spells, Fire Talents, and certain weapons can deal Fire damage by default.
If you'd like to increase your Fire damage, you can apply Burning Oil (consumable) or a Fire Runestone (permanent enchant) to your weapon.
Fire Spell damage is enhanced by your Power Attribute and the Spell Buff attribute of your Off-hand Relic.
Fire damage is reduced by Fire Resistance and can apply the Burn Status effect.
Burn Status Effect
- Burn is applied when you deal direct Fire damage. It inflicts Fire damage over a short duration.
- Burn effects do not stack.
- You can reduce Burn damage by increasing your Fire Resistance.
To tap into the raw power of nature, you can deal Wyld damage by default with Wyld Spells, Wyld Talents, and certain weapons. If you'd like to add extra Wyld damage to your weapon, you can enhance it by applying Wyld Oil (consumable) or a Wyld Runestone (permanent enchant).
Wyld Spell damage is boosted by your Spirit Attribute and the Spell Buff attribute of your Off-hand Relic.
Wyld damage is reduced by Wyld Resistance and can apply the Root Status effect.
Root Status Effect
- Root can be applied when dealing direct Wyld damage.
- Root snares the target, preventing them from moving for a short duration.
- Root effects do not stack.
Only enemies who draw their powers from Entropy can cause Void damage.
Void damage is mitigated by Void Resistance, and it is the only damage type without a Status Effect.
Last but certainly not least, we have Frost damage, perfect for those who want to freeze their enemies in their tracks.
Be wary when facing foes who wield Frost damage, as it’s not only powerful but can also leave your target Frozen!
Frost damage is mitigated by Frost Resistance and can apply the Chill and Frozen Status Effects.
Chill Status Effect
- Chill can be applied when dealing direct Frost damage.
- For each stack of Chill, Frost damage taken by the target is increased by 5%.
Frozen Status Effect
- When the target reaches 5 Chill stacks, they become Frozen for 3 seconds, completely immobilized.
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We hope you enjoyed reading this latest Dev Diary and learning more about damage types. It’s really exciting for us to be able to share even more Mandragora with you, and we hope you’re looking forward to the next one!
Have anything you’d like to share on this latest topic? Please let us know right here in the comments below or over on our Discord!
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