Stats or Statistics are an important game mechanic in Secret of Mana.
Like most role-playing games, statistics in Secret of Mana are tied to player character's performance in various tasks and contribute to making it distinguishable from other player characters. Stats are determined at the start of the game for Randi and as soon as Primm and Popoi join respectively. There are two types of stats : base stats and derived stats. Base stats influence derived stats either directly or partially along with the current equipment a character is wearing. The game starts loading up the derived stats at their appropriate times when computing damage dealt or received.
Base Stats
- Strength or Str controls the amount of damage the character can inflict.
- Agility or Agi covers both inherent speed of a character, manual dexterity, and hand/eye coordination. Agility is divided by 4, and then becomes the base stat for Hit rate and Evade rate. Since the game rounds down, an Agility change of 22 to 23 is insignificant, while a change of 23 to 24 is.
- Constitution or Con determine how tough a character is, in a general sense. It serves as the base stat for the Defense rating. The game probably also uses the Con stat directly when determining whether or not you die from a Doom Trap.
- Intelligence or Int describes a character's knowledge, especially knowledge of the arcane. The higher the Int stat, the more damage and/or greater effect Popoi's spells have.
- Wisdom or Wis is closely related to Intelligence, yet they are distinct concepts. The higher the Wisdom stat, the more HP Primm can heal, and the greater the effect of her defensive spells. Wisdom is also important for all characters, as it is used as the base for Magical Defense.
Derived Stats
- Attack is the combined Strength + Attack Power of weapon equipped. The higher this is, the more damage a character deals with an attack.
- Hit % starts at a fixed rate of 75 + Agility stat divided by 4 (rounded down). The higher this is, the less likely the character's physical attacks are to miss.
- Defense is the sum of the Constitution stat with the physical defense of all armor equipped. The higher this is, the less damage you take from attacks.
- Evade % is calculated as such : Agility stat divided by 4 + 37 if wearing armor + 23 if wearing a helmet + 15 if wearing a ring/bracelet. The higher this is, the more likely the enemy's physical attacks is to miss.
- Magic Def is the sum of the Wisdom stat + magical defense of all armor equipped. The higher this is, the less damage characters take from spells.
Spells like Speed Up, Speed Down, Defender and the like do not change your stats directly at the level of the stat screen. Apparently, they come into play at some other point.
In addition to modifying the AI's behavior, the action grid alters a computer-controlled character's stats. These stat bonuses do not apply to characters controlled by the player(s). Switching control between characters consequently causes them to be applied and unapplied as needed.