Disgaea: Hour of Darkness/Items

Unlike in most RPGs, items in Disgaea are complex entities in their own right. They have a level, a rarity, may be inhabitted by Specialists which increase their power, and might be more or less powerful at a particular level because of actions taken while leveling them. All of these factors contribute to their potency. In addition, characters get different levels of benefit from the same item based on a number of factors.

Every character can hold four items. One must be a weapon ('Wpn'), and three must be from the 'Etc' category. Monsters can only use Wpn-Monster weapons, and humanoids can use any Wpn except Wpn-Monster. Every item that a character holds can increase ten statistics of that character, and may have other effects:

Above are the statistics for a very good pair of shoes and a very good sword, when the items are normal rarity, with no specialists, at level 0. In practice you will never find items that have no specialists to start.

The only other type of item has the designation 'Item' and is never equipped on a character: it is used by a character from inventory. These items are generally curative (restoring HP and/or SP), although they do have other uses.

Aside from characters, you have two places to keep items: the Item Bag and the Warehouse. The Item Bag can hold 16 items; the Warehouse can hold 256. The only times you can access items in the Warehouse are when using 'Equip' or 'Item' from the castle menu, or while buying/selling items at the shops in the castle. You can use or equip items from the Item Bag while in the Dark Assembly, in battles, at the Item World, and everywhere that you can use the Warehouse. To switch between the Warehouse and Item Bag, use left and right.

Formulas for Item Leveling
All numbers are related to individual statistics; in particular, the current number of specialists and the specialist counter are different for each stat that the item has.


 * n: Level (as shown in battle screen)
 * x: Item generals counter (global to the item)
 * b: Base stat of the item (stat of a Normal item)
 * c: Specialist counter
 * p: Number of specialists currently on the item
 * i: Initial stat of the item (stat of the actual item)
 * s=1 if i>0, -1 if i<0, or 0 if i=0

All numbers are computed/stored with high precision; however, the floor of the number is displayed. The death of an Item General or Item King is always calculated after the increase for the level that the General/King was on.

Note: no item can have more than 16 specialist slots.

For those who are interested, Appendix A contains my notes (mostly tables of item stats) from determining these formulae.

What all of this math really means is that:
 * You should always kill Item Generals/Kings/Gods.
 * If you want an extra boost to an item's stats, leave a specialist on the item while leveling it. Each specialist is worth 270 extra points to whichever stat it boosts on a Legendary item, if left for all 100 floors and all Generals/Kings/Gods are killed.
 * If you want to maximize any particular stat on an item, you have to subdue and remove all of the native specialists before you defeat the first Item General; this will require using Mr. Gency's Exit before finishing floor B10. Once you have removed all of the native specialists, but before you kill the first Item General, fill every slot on the item with specialists that boost whatever stat you are trying to maximize (e.g., to maximize ATK, fill the item with Gladiators). Then, go back into the item and proceed to level it, killing all Item Generals, Kings, and God. After killing each Item King, the item gains a specialist slot, so exit the Item World at that point and put another specialist on the item.
 * There is no difference between clearing and skipping floors, as long as you kill Item Generals/Kings/Gods.
 * If you level any item with a negative stat to level 100, that negative stat ends up being exactly -100.

Rarity
There are three levels of rarity: normal, rare, and legendary. Below, the properties of each are listed.


 * Stat Bonus: Percentage increase of the first 8 stats on the item (HP, SP, ATK, INT, DEF, SPD, HIT, RES) over the charts below.
 * Initial Specialist Space: How many Specialists can inhabit the item, at level 0.
 * Display: How the name of the item will be displayed on lists.
 * Identifier: What shows up on the item screen to signify this rarity.
 * Rarity Number: What rarity numbers correspond to this rarity.
 * Item World Depth: How many levels exist in the item world within this type of item.
 * Notes: Any other information.

Normal

 * Stat Bonus: None
 * Initial Specialist Space: 4-7
 * Display: Flat black text
 * Identifier: None
 * Rarity Number: 32-255
 * Item World Depth: 30
 * Notes: Only normal items can be purchased from the shop in the castle.

Rare

 * Stat Bonus: +25% (floor(N * 5 / 4))
 * Initial Specialist Space: 7-10
 * Display: Flashing silver text
 * Identifier: Rare
 * Rarity Number: 8-31
 * Item World Depth: 60

Legendary

 * Stat Bonus: +50% (floor(N * 3 / 2))
 * Initial Specialist Space: 10-13
 * Display: Flashing gold or blue text
 * Identifier: Legendary
 * Rarity Number: 0-7
 * Item World Depth: 100
 * Notes: Most Legendaries have gold text; Hyperdrive, Super Robo Suit, and Yoshitsuna have blue text and oversized icons.

Item Benefit
You may notice when equipping an item that you gain more or less benefit from that item than its listed stats. There are four reasons for this: Weapon Mastery, character level, stat aptitude, and identical rarity bonus.

Aptitude
Every class has aptitudes for each of the eight basic stats; these vary from 50% to 150% and show up on the character creation screen and on the character status screen. Aptitudes act as a multiplier to stat gains from items; for example, a level 1 character equipping a normal Muscle World (1000HP) will get 500HP with a 50% HP Aptitude, 1000HP with a 100% HP Aptitude, or 1500HP with a 150% HP Aptitude. The adjustment for Aptitude is applied after all other modifiers.

Weapon Mastery
When equipping a non-monster weapon, you get a bonus to all of weapon's stats equal to the equipping character's Weapon Mastery for that weapon type times 5%. The formula is (weapon stat)*(1 + mastery*.05). The maximum Weapon Mastery is 255, so the maximum Mastery bonus from specialists is 1275%, for a total maximum is 1375%. According to some sources the maximum Mastery bonus from specialists is 1900%.

Character Level
For monster weapons and accessories, you get a bonus based on the level of the character. These bonuses do not normally apply until the postgame, since they do not start until level 100, but they become quite substantial at later levels. They are calculated by the following formulas (thanks to Zepy for these):

The maximum level is 9999, so the maximum level bonus is 1399%, or just a little higher than the maximum Mastery bonus.

Identical Rarity
If a character has more than one item with the same rarity equipped, then all such items receive a boost in power. This works as a multiplier after weapon mastery and character level bonuses are applied. The multiplier ranges from 1.1 to 1.3, depending on how many items with identical rarity are equipped:

For example, if a level 1 character equips a normal Nightvision and a normal Muscle Ace, that character will normally get +50 INT, +200 HIT, and +200 HP. However, if the Muscle Ace and Nightvision happen to have the same rarity number--for example, if they both have rarity 46 on the item status screen--then the character will get +55 INT, +220 HIT, and +220 HP, due to the identical rarity bonus.

Item Ranks
Each item is assigned a 'rank', which roughly determines how 'good' the item is. Ranks go from 1 to 42, and they determine what level of enemies will be found in the item world for that item. Below are the 'LV+' ranks for level 1 from the 'Go to Item World' screen (thanks to JungleJim for producing this table):

The levels listed are *minimum* levels; in general, the enemies on any given floor will be higher level than the LV+ number. Also, these numbers are for floor 1; later floors have more powerful enemies.

Hospital Items
The Hospital gives you prizes whenever reach certain numbers for each of HP, SP, and Dec (Deceased) healed.

If you reach certain numbers for HP, SP, and Dec combined you will get the more powerful seals.

Certain troops, such as prinnies, will cost one to heal to full health, even when dead. And will not increase the bonus counters.

For all others, the cost is calculated as follows:
 * Every HP 1/3 HL.
 * Every SP 2 HL.
 * Death 30 HL for each lvl + (Max HP * 2/3 HL)

So, if you want to save money, unequip the HP increasing items after death, but keep the SP increaser's equipped. (After death, SP is free).

Hospital Trick
There is a small, but very effective, trick to use in the hospital. Do not pick the prize items until they are at least rare or have powerful specialists. Each time you leave and enter the hospital the prize items are rerolled. So with some patience all the hospital items can be rare items (rarity 8-31). Legendary items are not possible as a hospital prize.

This trick is of course best on the different seal items. Which are the most difficult to obtain in other ways.

Ultimate Items
The 'ultimate' items of the game are very difficult to acquire, but worth it (and necessary to beat the most powerful enemy in the game).

For weapons, they are acquired by entering a Legendary item one level of power below of the same type, fighting to level 100, and stealing it from the Item God there.

Once you have any item of rank 40 or above, you can level it to 100, then steal another Legendary item of the same type from the Item God 2 at floor B100.

For reference, the Item God 2 I'm currently fighting has these stats:

(No 'More Difficult Enemies' bills passed)


 * Level: 6,933 [Fixed]
 * HP: 10,184,640
 * SP: 199,698
 * ATK: 186,416
 * DEF: 141,452
 * HIT: 147,000
 * INT: 176,816
 * SPD: 147,000
 * RES: 135,906
 * EXP: 36,643,537,935
 * NEXT: 10,573,275
 * Skills
 * Omega Wind (Mastery 80)
 * Tera Ice (Mastery 80)
 * Star (Mastery 80)

Except for the level, you can expect these numbers to vary somewhat (+/-10%), but you need to be prepared before you attempt to kill (or steal from) Item God 2.

The ultimate items are:
 * Wpn-Axe: Apocalypse
 * Wpn-Fist: Ultimus
 * Wpn-Sword: Yoshitsuna
 * Wpn-Spear: Glorius
 * Wpn-Gun: Etoile
 * Wpn-Bow: Galaxy
 * Wpn-Staff: Omniscient Staff
 * Wpn-Monster: Nyanko Soul
 * Etc-Robot: Super Robo Suit
 * Etc-Engine: Hyperdrive

The Super Robo Suit can be stolen from Baal.

The Hyperdrive you get automatically from defeating an Item God 2.

Monster weapons are a little different. The rank 40 monster weapon is Nyanko Soul, which can be acquired at the end of a Lucifer Force, or can be taken from Majorly. There are also a rank 41 and rank 42 monster weapon. The rank 41 is the Nemesis, which is a better weapon than Nyanko Soul; it can be stolen from Baal. The rank 42, Nemesis Mk II, is stolen from Prinny Baal, and has better base stats than the Nemesis--but it comes at level 100, and Baal apparently doesn't kill any Item Generals/Kings/Gods, nor does he subdue any specialists when leveling his items.

There is no simple way to get a Legendary second-best item. The easiest way is to play around in high-level item worlds until you see one appear either on the Bonus screen or in some enemy's inventory. For reference, they are: See the Item World Strategies section for advice on how to deal with the Item World.
 * Wpn-Axe: Durandal
 * Wpn-Fist: God's Hand
 * Wpn-Sword: Cosmic Blade
 * Wpn-Spear: Longinus
 * Wpn-Gun: Infernal Gun
 * Wpn-Bow: Artemis Bow
 * Wpn-Monster: Lucifer Force
 * Wpn-staff: Galactic staff

Maximum ATK
Since the question arises on a regular basis, this section outlines the maximum ATK a character can have, prior to using Extra Gain and stat stealing.

The optimum character, somewhat surprisingly, is Thursday. This is surprising since Thursday cannot Transmigrate, and therefore misses out on Transmigration bonuses, and cannot equip the Yoshitsuna, which is, by far, the most powerful weapon in the game.

However, both of these flaws are vastly overcompensated by Thursday's 150% aptitude in almost all stats.

The most powerful weapon Thursday can equip is the Nemesis. (The Nemesis Mk II is better in theory, but since you steal it already leveled to 100, and Baal does not kill Item Generals/Kings/Gods, the Nemesis is actually better.)

To truly maximize the Nemesis, you have to get one with 13 specialist slots at level 0, subdue and remove all specialists before completing floor 10, and fill it with Gladiators. Then, after killing each Item King (and thereby adding another slot to the item), fill the new slot with another Gladiator. If you do this, it adds 3,888 ATK to the item.

The Nemesis at level 100 has 45,100 ATK, if you kill all Item Generals/Kings/Gods.

The Nemesis with 13 slots at level 0 will have 16 slots at level 100. These must all be filled by power 19998 Gladiators. If you do all of this, then your Nemesis will have:

3888 (spec. bonus) + 45100 (level 100) + 319968 (specs) = 368956 ATK

You must then do the same thing with 3 Legendary Champion Belts, making sure that each has 13 specialist slots at level 0 and that each has the exact same rarity number as the Nemesis.

3888 (spec. bonus) + 27100 (level 100) + 319968 (specs) = 350956 ATK

Equip the Nemesis and all three Champion Belts on Thursday, at level 9999:

(368956 + 3*350956) * 13.99 (level 9999) * 1.3 (rarity bonus) * 1.5 (aptitude) = 38,788,069 ATK

Add Thursday's intrinsic ATK:

10 (base stat) + 9998 (level gains) * .45 (level gain multiplier) * 10 (base stat) = 45,001 ATK

For a grand total of 38,833,060 ATK.

The second-best character for ATK is Priere, and the third-best character for ATK is a Divine Majin. However, there is no known cap on the number of points that can be gained through Extra Gain and stat stealing, which makes these kinds of evaluations somewhat irrelevant. (Though it should be noted that, once it is set up, getting points through Extra Gain should be much faster than getting points through stat theft.)