Hidden mechanics
The math behind the tooltips. Understand this and you build top-tier without trial and error.
Per-instrument scalers
The hidden mechanic that changes everything. Each character has a unique scaler stat that multiplies its damage 1x to 9x. This is the dial to max.
| Character | Formula | Max at cap |
|---|---|---|
| guitar | 1 + min(armor x 1.2, 4) | 5x (armor cap 5) |
| violin | 1 + crit chance x 2 | 9x (crit chance cap 4) |
| flute | 1 + speed x 2 | 5x (speed cap 2) |
| piano | 1 + (max HP bonus%) x 2 | uncapped (HP scales) |
| drum | 1 + missing HP% x 2 | 3x (at 0% HP) |
| microphone | 1 + range x 2 | 9x (range cap 4) |
| tambourine | 1 + luck x 2 | 5x (luck cap 2) |
| trumpet | 1 + life steal x 2 | 4x (life steal stat cap 1.5) |
The trick: scalers stack with damage. The scaler does not replace the damage stat. It multiplies on top. If you raise damage to cap (x4) and your scaler to cap (x5 to x9), final multiplier reaches x20 to x36 before the soft cap.
Damage formula
What happens on each shot, in order.
1. Base damage
base damage = 1 × role multiplier × instrument scaler
= 1 × (0.75 to 1.4) × (1 to 9)2. Damage multiplier
damage stat 1 + damage × 3 (additive, up to ×4 at damage 3) × role multiplier 0.75 to 1.4 × Deep Focus 1.15 × outfit bonuses situational × Blood Rhythm drum only × Crescendo 1.0 to 1.4 × Harmonic Convergence up to 1.33 × Corruption Embrace 1.0 to 1.3 × Final Chorus 1.25 at 15% HP or less × Extended Melody 1.15 while active × character relics War Drum, Death March and others Soft cap: above ×4, the extra damage counts at 60%.
3. Crit roll
crit chance your crit chance stat (no upper limit) crit multiplier 1 + crit damage stat (up to 5, so ×6) at crit chance 1.0 or more, every hit is a crit crit hit base damage × crit multiplier
Crit chance has no upper limit. Stat cap 4 means every shot crits. Combined with crit damage cap 5 (x6 mult), violin or tambourine builds can generate astronomical damage before the soft cap. Intentional, the glass cannon identity.
Defensive stack (21 layers)
Each hit goes through this pipeline in order.
- Invulnerability gate: full immunity while any invulnerability is active
- Death March (drum): 1HP invuln window, CD 30s
- Jingling Shroud (tambourine): absorbs next hit
- Pickup Ghost: phase through 5s
- Pickup Shield: HP shield absorber
- Fortissimo Barrier: consume 1 stack (cap 3)
- Rhythm Shield: 2s absorb, CD 5s
- Flute Tornado: full invuln during 3 to 4s tornado
- Guitar Dash: 260ms invuln while dashing
- Tambourine Lucky Negate: chance up to 0.75. Gamblers Fortune heals plus invuln
- Evasion roll: cap 0.95 sum (evasion plus Lucky Step plus glissando plus Sustain Pedal plus slipstream)
- Armor flat: total armor cap 15 (stat plus adaptive plus bonus plus Battle Scar plus Ivory Fortress plus Crowd Crush). max(1, dmg - armor)
- Rosin Barrier (violin): flat reduction floor(marks/5), cap -4
- Damage Reduction stat: cap 0.5 (50%) hard, multiplicative
- Crowd Surf: cap 0.15 per enemy count
- Sanctuary Aura (piano): 20% DR during 3s post-pulse
- Rhythmic Resilience (drum): 20% DR when <50% HP
- Brass Barricade (trumpet): 30% DR 1.5s post-catch
- Echo Shield (trumpet): 35% DR with 3+ boomerangs in flight
- Cyclone Aegis (flute): 50% DR 3s post-tornado
- Resonant Barrier (microphone): 0.88^echoes, floor 0.5
Realistic stack. Multiplicative DR layers 14 to 21 are instrument-specific. A single character only stacks its own plus DR stat plus Crowd Surf. Worst case: 0.5 x 0.85 x 0.5 (instrument) = 0.21, around 79% effective DR plus flat armor 15. No build reaches sustained immortality.
Stat caps reference
Stat caps applied by the game rules.
| Stat | Cap | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| damage | 3 (300%) | Additive in formula (1 + dmg*3) |
| fire rate | 2 | Multiplicative cooldown |
| range | 4 | Mic damage scaler |
| crit chance | 4 (400%) | No upper clamp, >=1.0 means guaranteed crit |
| crit damage | 5 (x6 mult) | Multiplies base damage on crit |
| evasion | 0.5 hard | Sums with relic bonuses, final cap 0.95 |
| armor (stat) | 5 | Total armor (with relics) cap 15 |
| multi-hit | 0.5 hard | 50% chance double-shot proc |
| damage reduction | 0.5 hard | Multiplicative |
| cooldown reduction | 0.5 hard | Dash, abilities |
| life steal (stat) | 1.5 | Operational heal cap 0.30 |
| healing boost | 0.75 | Post-heal multiplier |
| max HP | no explicit cap | Piano scaler compounding |
| luck | 2 | Tambourine scaler |
| speed | 2 | Flute scaler |
| projectile count | 5 | Bullets per shot |
| heal-per-frame | 0.04 x max HP | Lifesteal only (piano pulse capped at 30% per pulse) |