Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 - Attribute FAQ Version 1.1 Basic spelling/grammar editing Version 1.0 Basic structure complete, information compiled. ----------------------------------------------------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Why an Attribute Faq? 2. Frequently asked questions about Attributes. 3. Detailed Attribute Data 3A. Health 3B. KI 3C. Attack 3D. Guard 3E. ARTS 3F. Ability 3G. COM 4. "What stats are best?" 5. Test Logs. 6. Thanks/legal ----------------------------------------------------------- 1. Why an Attribute Faq? There are two reasons I decided to make an Attribute Faq. Reason one being that the instruction manual was a bit vague with the descriptions of what exactly the Attribute's do for you. Reason two being an abundance of questions being asked about them all the time. In this FAQ I intend to clear these questions up, while giving a detailed description of each Attribute. I will also provide the exact numerical data that tells you EXACTLY how much the Attributes help you. Since it is a large issue right now, I'll jump to the FAQ right away. ----------------------------------------------------------- 2. Frequently asked questions about Attributes. 1 - "What exactly does COM do anyway?" -Com determines how good the computer plays when it is in control of your character. Having no COM will make your character fight like a newb would, having 20 COM makes your character a force to be reckoned with. 2 - "But when does the computer ever actually control you?" -Every time you level up, you will notice it gives you a password. You can then write your character's password down and post it on the Internet. This is how other people can test their skills by fighting against your character. In Dragon Arena, you can press R1 to switch to the Password Tab. You then hit start and you can enter in someone's password. Once you enter a working password, you can register that character thus saving it, so you can fight them again in the future, and not have to reenter the password again and again. This is where COM comes in, as pass worded characters are controlled by the computer. You can also go to COM vs. COM in the Dragon Arena menu, and in the character select screen, press L2 to bring up the password prompt where you can select characters you previously registered in the password section. 3 - "So...If I don't care about posting my password, do I need COM?" -No. That much should be common sense. COM does nothing while you are personally playing. COM only effects how well the computer controls your character. Nothing else. 4 - "What stat should I level up first? -That is a matter of personal preference. Carefully read the next chapter of this faq, and make a decision. If you have trouble staying alive, then you should do Health and Guard. If you have no trouble beating your opponents, then do Attack to win faster. 5 - "What Stat is the best?" -I have entire chapter of this FAQ dedicated to this one question. If you really can't wait, then see chapter: 4. "What stats are best?" ----------------------------------------------------------- 3. Detailed Attribute Data. This is the main part of the FAQ, much testing went into this: enjoy. 3.A~~~~~HEALTH Adding points into health increases the amount of health your character has. One bar of health is 1000 hit points. So in that regard with zero health your character will have 3000 hit points. Each point in Health gives you about (but not exactly) 200 hit points. With 20 points in Health you will have 7 life bars, so 7000 life. This means MAXING Health will give you about a 133% bonus to your life. (The reason I say 'about', and not give an exact number, is because it is indeed a decimal number and Budokai 3 rounds up to the nearest whole number.) 3.B~~~~~KI Ki is your energy. Whenever you use a special move, or if you teleport it uses up a set amount of your ki. Putting points in KI will reduce the amount that gets used up. Putting points in KI will NOT increase the damage of KI based attacks. It ONLY reduces consumption!! I found that on average having the max 20 points in KI will reduce the consumption by about 1/3. For example: it costs exactly 3 full bars of energy to teleport-dodge. With 20 points in KI it will take about 2 full bars. Also with a typical Level one death move a full bar is consumed, but with 20 points in KI it will consume SLIGHTLY OVER half of one bar. Of special note is that the more points in KI, the earlier you can transform. With KI at 20 you can transform slightly more than 1 full energy bar sooner than usual! 3.C~~~~~ATTACK Attack controls the amount of damage you do. Each point you place in attack increases your damage by 5%. At 20 points you will have an extra 100% added to your damage, thus your damage is exactly doubled. This goes for all of your damage, special moves and ultimate included! Now: Let me give a simple example. If you usually do 20 damage per punch, with ATTACK maxed, you will be doing 40 damage per punch. No-brainer right? 3.D~~~~~GUARD Guard controls the overall amount of damage you take. This includes even when you do NOT block! Each point in Guard increases your defense by 5%. This means that about 2.5% damage is reduced per point. At 20, Guard will increase your defense by 100%, meaning that all damage done to you is cut EXACTLY in half at 50%. For those non-math wizards out there, I am saying if someone does 20 damage to you per punch, with Guard maxed, they will only do 10 damage per punch!! 3.E~~~~~ARTS Arts increase the damage of your Death Moves (like kamehameha) and your Ultimate attacks! Yes, Attack does that also...but Arts is a way to boost your special attacks' damage higher STILL. Each point you put in ARTs gives a 2.5% increase in special move damage ending at a 50% bonus at 20 points. For example: The Saibaman's Acid attack usually does 250 damage. With 20 points in the ARTS stat, it will be doing 375 damage instead. (50% increase) 3.F~~~~~Ability Ability is one of the most asked about stats (other than COM). What ability does is increase the effectiveness of ITEMS that you equip on your character. This doesn't just include Items that you use by holding in X and pressing down,down...this also includes items in the EQUIPMENT page too, such as Old Style Armor, or Potential for example. I sorted items into 3 different categories. 1. Equipment that increases attack/defense 2. Equipment that lowers ki consumption 3. Items that you use The results of the test show that each of these different categories receives a DIFFERENT kind of Bonus from the Ability Stat. (1.) Equipment that increases attack/defense. This category includes the armors such as Old Style Armor, or Vest from grandpa Gohan to name a few...it also includes Rage! items and Potential. Each point into Ability will increase the power of these items by .04% yes that is .04, not .4! That means with 20 Ability you only get about 8% attack or defense added to these types of items! (2.) Equipment that lowers ki consumption. For the most part Maxing Ability will add less than a 1/3rd boost to KI consumption-reduction items. For more details see chapter 5. Test Logs. (3.) Items that you use. These are items on the 3rd tab. You use them by holding in Guard and pressing Down,Down. These types of items receive a 30% bonus with 20 points in Ability, making them the most useful. For more information, again, see chapter 5. Test Logs. 3.G~~~~~COM As mentioned above in the FAQ section, COM controls how well your character will battle when controlled by the Computer. It effects NOTHING MORE! To answer the dozens of questions asked all-to-frequently, COM does not effect anything WHILE YOU ARE CONTROLLING your character. With that out of the way, I took an extremely close look at just how well COM makes your character perform. I have all the details in Chapter 5. Test Logs ... but I will of course list the end results here. (NOTE) This data is based on testing, but is NOT absolute...luck also plays a role in the victor of a battle. 0 - 5 COM = Very Weak - Weak 10-15 COM = Average - Strong 15-20 COM = Strong - Very Strong The true nature of COM is somewhat random, but this is the general idea. Some characters are on a higher game tier than others, like Kid Buu who probably needs a little less COM than say, for example, Raditz. However if you want to make the hardest character to beat, then 20 COM is definitely worth it, for any character! Again: SEE Chapter 5. for more details!! ----------------------------------------------------------- 4. "WHAT STAT IS BEST?" This is another of the most frequently asked questions out there. I will sort the stats in the order of the biggest bonuses they deliver. HEALTH - about 133% ATTACK - 100% Guard - 100% ARTS - 50% KI - 33.3% (roughly) ABILITY 30% - 8% (depending on item type) COM - N/A In these terms the "best" stat is Health. While it is true that Guard allows you to take two times the damage as usual and survive it, Health allows you to take OVER two times the damage you usually could. In Second Place would be a tie between Guard and Attack, since they both give you 100% boosts making them the second most "powerful" attribute. Which is better? It's a matter of personal preference...would you rather have damage you deal to opponents doubled...or damage dealt to you BY opponents cut in half? Maxing both however, will aid your character to no end. Arts gives you next highest bonus at 50%. If you want the most powerful ultimate move possible; first you'll max Attack, then ARTs. Attack will raise the damage of your special moves higher and faster...however once it is maxed if you still crave to do MORE damage with your death moves then maxing Arts would be your next best option. KI comes in second to last place...only decreasing consumption by around 1/3rd. However, if max KI is coupled along with a consumption-reducing item such as Meditation, the combination is something worthy of praise. Ability gets my vote for the most worthless Attribute. It shines in conjunction to items you use, such as healing items or attack/defense boosters (Paozsarus Tail is great with 20 ability). As far as Equipment goes, the bonus is almost useless. Unless you build your character around a healing item, putting 20 points into Ability just doesn't justify the end result. COM is the wildcard. It can be either completely worthless to you or the most essential stat of all. It all depends on if you want people across the internet fighting your character, or if you are just leveling up for your own personal enjoyment. I will say one thing: it's either all or none with this stat. ----------------------------------------------------------- 5. Test Logs This section is a collection of all the notes I took while testing the attributes. If you are wondering how I figured all this out, or why I make certain conclusions, you can review all my test data in this section. Much of the Test Logs comes from my thread on the Budokai 3 board, but some of it is a collection of stuff I simply jotted down on the old notepad. ---ATTACK TEST--- Goku no items Punch 30 kick 50 ki blast 50 Goku no items 20 ATTACK punch 60 kick 100 ki blast 100 100% increase...double damage ---GUARD TEST--- Omega Shenron hitting Goku NORMAL DMG PER PUNCH: 45 /20 GUARD DMG PER PUNCH 23 exactly one half, (rounded up to nearest whole number) ---ABILITY TEST--- ABILITY STAT I used Piccolo as my Ability Tester, quickly leveling him to 20 and testing Ability as I went along. >END RESULTS< 1. Equipment that raises attack/defense Daimao's Power Rage! Evil Mystery Uniform. VS NAPA LEVEL 0 REGULAR ATTACK 122% DEFENSE 140% Punch damage 51 Kick Damage 64 Ki blast Damage 61 Damage Taken per Punch 28 /w 20 ability same item setup ATTACK (based on test data) 130% DEFENSE (based on test data) 148% Punch damage 55 Kick Damage 69 Ki blast damage 66 Damage taken per punch 26 Increase is 8% give or take a bit. 2. Equipment that lowers Ki Consumption For this test I used the item "MEDITATION" which is said to 'greatly reduce ki consumption'. The first stage of my test was unequipped piccolo in regular practice. REGULAR Destructive Wave: 1 full ki bar consumed Teleport Dodge: 3 full ki bars consumed Next I tried Meditation out in regular practices mode. REGULAR /w MEDITATION Destructive Wave: 2/3 of a Ki bar consumed Teleport Dodge: slightly over 2 ki bars consumed Finally, the Meditation capsule with 20 in Ability 20 ABILITY + MEDITATION Destructive Wave: 2/3 of a ki bar consumed Teleport Dodge: 1 and 2/3rds bars Consumed as you can see, the consumption for the death move did not change in the slightest bit, while the teleport dodge's cost of ki was lowered noticeably, although, not greatly. In fact, does not allow you an extra teleport when charged to MAX power. 3. Items that you use The final test was with items located on the 3rd tab, Items that you must hold in guard and tap down,down in order to use them. For this test I used Tempura Bowl. Normal heals 1000 /w 20 ABILITY heals 1300 Next I tried executable items that increases stats: Paozsarus tail. Normal armor down 50% attack up 45% W/ 20 ABILITY armor down 35% attack up 58% Bonus = 30% ---ARTS TEST--- Saibaman. NORMAL DAMAGE Self Destruct 800 acid 250 DAMAGE /W 20 ARTS Self-destruct 1200 acid 375 RECOOME! NORMAL Eraser Gun 250 RECOOME! kick 350 RECOOME BOMBER!! 800 RECOOME ARTS Eraser Gun 375 RECOOME! kick 525 RECOOME BOMBER!! 1200 Cut and dry, 50% increase to all special moves ---KI TEST--- KI STAT -Normal- Whirlwind Spin 1 full ki bar consumed Teleport Dodge 3 full ki bars consumed. -20 IN KI- Whirlwind Spin (just over half a bar consumed) Teleport Dodge (SLIGHTLY over 2 bars) I did noticed that maxing KI is the same as having a MEDITATION capsule equipped on you. Curious about this, I threw on Omega Shenron's EVIL GRIN, along with the 20 KI...here are the results of that. -20 IN KI /w EVIL GRIN- Whirlwind Spin: about half a bar (slight difference) Teleport Dodge: about 1 2/3 bars consumed. >end result< = 1/3rd less consumption overall (33.3%) ---COM TEST--- The mack daddy of all tests I did. I leveled Napa all the way to 20 and recorded passwords at 5 COM, 10 COM, 15 COM and 20 COM, then I reset my Napa just so I could throw a 0 com in the mix. To make matters simpler I named them. 0COM Napa = Newb 5COM Napa = Weak 10COM Napa = Average 15COM Napa = Strong 20COM Napa = Elite. Then I held a "round robin" tournament (everyone fights everyone) to see who did best. I took notes too as they fought, watching their strengths and weaknesses. Each "battle" was a best 2 out of 3 fights in order to try to deter flukes as much as I could. RESULTS: RESULTS FOR NEWB (0 COM) Newb VS Weak 2/1 Newb Newb VS Average 0/2 Average Newb VS Strong 0/2 Strong Newb VS Elite 0/2 Elite Newb makes many obvious mistakes. It wasn't rare to see Newb failing to teleport counter even when he was being ping-ponged while he had about 6ki bars. He would also go into hyper mode with only 2 ki bars, and would always waste his free-hit chances. Aside from getting in a few GOOD hits, 0 com = Newb. He was about evenly matched with Weak, but from that point on he was clearly outperformed by the others. Average was a close fight, but Average guard broke more often and teleport countered more. Strong wiped the floor with him, dragon rushing off teleport counters and managing to ultimate a few times... Elite made sport of Newb! Elite finished in Green both matches, at one point he used his 'hopping guard break' to literally jump over newb's death moves. That was awesomely hilarious to see I might add! RESULTS FOR WEAK (5 COM) Weak VS Average 2/1 WEAK Weak VS Strong 0/2 STRONG Weak VS Elite 0/2 ELITE Well to start with, another stunning upset...Weak dominating Average, although the last round was extremely close the first 2; Weak won in Yellow which is decent...confusing, but decent. For the most part Weak and Newb seem about even, however I did notice Weak breaking a few ping-pong sessions with a teleport counter. One thing I don't notice weak or newb doing is teleporting behind and then comboing, rather just deliver that one little auto-kick. Well strong does it again, handing Weak his ass. However not as high a degree as he did to newb. Elite on the other hand, made a joke out of Weak. Nothing really else to talk about our old friend Weak. RESULTS FOR AVERAGE (10 COM) Average VS Strong 1/2 STRONG Average VS Elite 0/2 ELITE Well, Average beat Strong once by a lucky Ultimate Move, that really Strong should have avoided. After that it was one-sided...I will say Average put up a good fight, no one beat him in green. He came REALLY close to beating Elite in one round, but Elite Tele-countered and dragon rushed off it and then it was lights out. One thing I notice about Elite is that he uses enough stuns and juggles to be worthy of a CAP AMERICA faq...once he got in an 11 hit combo before Average teleported out of it. RESULTS FOR STRONG (15 COM) VS ELITE (20 COM) Strong vs. Elite 1 / 2: Winner: Elite The first time they fought, it was very very close and Strong won with about 200 hit points remaining. After that I will just say that Elite won both times in the green. Elite knew just how to use nullifier moves to screw Strong over, especially while strong was in Hyper Mode he'd utilize nullifier/knock backs to screw strong over. The final and 3rd match Elite seemed to go out of his way to end the round with his Ultimate. By the way something I haven't mentioned yet: no matter who was fighting, when they got into a beam struggle the one with the most COM won each time ...weather or not that is coincidence is up to you to judge. FINAL RESULT Newb 1/3 (tied for last seed) Weak 1/3 (tied for last seed) Average 1/3 (3rd Seed [more total wins]) Strong 3/1 (2nd Seed) Elite 4/0 (1st seed) It seems that there is little to be gained by putting 10 points or lower in COM, however once you get towards the 15 mark the difference is quite clear...and as for me, my doubts have been forever removed on 20 COM, it is definitely worth it if you are posting password characters. ----------------------------------------------------------- 6. Thanks/Legal Special thanks to everyone at the Budokai 3 board who encouraged me to make this a FAQ. Dragon Ball Z is a copyright that I do not own. This is a non-profit FAQ; DragonBall Z and all of its characters belong to their respected owners. Remeber...You saw this first on GAMEFAQS.com!!