Chrono Trigger/Formulae

Note that an asterisk (*) indicates that the move is magical; in most cases these are elemental techniques that will benefit or suffer depending on the enemy's elemental properties and defensive stats.

Attack
Attacks performed by executing the "Attack" function in battle are non-elemental, physical techniques that strike an enemy a single time and have the chance to deal double damage if a "crit" (critical strike) occurs.

Variables

 * Hit/HIT: this is the character's "Hit" stat value (an integer); it represents a character's accuracy. It only applies to Lucca and Marle's damage calculations; it affects the hit rate for all characters' normal attacks and some physical techs that can miss at random. 1 Hit is equal to 2/3 Attack for Lucca and Marle. Hit divided by target evade is the hit rate of a physical attack, capped at 99%.
 * Power/PWR: this is the character's "Power" stat value (an integer); it represents a character's physical strength. It applies to Ayla's and all of the males' damage calculations. 1 PWR is equal to 4/3 attack for males, and 1.75 attack for Ayla.
 * Level: the character's level. This affects the statistics of a character, the damage of all magic attacks, Robo's tackle tech, and Ayla's attack value formula.
 * Weapon: this is the weapon's power value (integer). It affects all characters except for Ayla.
 * Attack: the value next to the small weapon icon, found on the pause menu next to a character's name; this is calculated from the Power and Weapon values. The formulas that produce the attack value first produce a decimal value that is then rounded to the nearest whole number.
 * Damage: the value seen when attacking an enemy.

Formulas
At the start of the game, Crono's weapon, Wood Sword, has a Weapon value of 3. At level 1, Crono has a PWR value of 5. His attack value is first calculated as 8+1/3, but it is then rounded down to 8.
 * Example

Damage
The base damage (theoretical minimum) for a character's "Attack" is their attack value multiplied by four. Additionally, a random number is generated to modify the damage and give it a more realistic, dynamic appearance. The random number is affected only by character attributes (i.e. not weapon, level, target defense) and modifications from status effects on both attacker and target. The non-random part is affected by target defense; physical defense is out of 256 (i.e. at 128 defense the target takes half damage) and magic defense is out of 102.4 (even though it is capped at 100). Most monsters have 127 defense, resulting in damage dealt being roughly (though not quite) halved.
 * Formula

What the random value is depends on the character used. Crono, Magus, Frog, and Robo have their random value be equal to roughly a third of their Power stat. Lucca and Marle, similarly, have their random value equal to up to a third of their Hit, while Ayla's is a third of her level. Variation will only increase the damage done, and is added after defense is factored in.

Crono at the start of the game (attack 8) deals a base of 16 damage, with a possible increase from the random value.
 * Example

Robo's Crisis Arm
Robo's Crisis Arm is a very dynamic weapon that can be either very strong (over 4,000) or very weak (0 damage). The damage dealt is based on Robo's calculated attack value and the last digit of his HP (the attack value is multiplied by this digit). This weapon is best used later in the game when Robo has 999 HP so that the last digit is usually 9. If you want to maximize his damage, all you have to do is keep him healed. First calculate his attack with. Since Crisis Arm only has a power value of 1, when it is multiplied by 5/9, the resulting fraction does not get rounded up in the SNES version. Therefore, a power of 89 results in an attack value of 119, and a power of 91 results in an attack value of 121.
 * Attack formula


 * Damage formula
 * LDHP: this is the last digit of Robo's current HP.
 * Example: if Robo's PWR is 99 (minimum level 59), then his Attack will be 132 (66 when divided by two). The following expected damages are calculated based on the last digit of his HP:

Each digit (LDHP value; except for zero) is worth as much as the attack value (in this case, it's 132).
 * Expected damage

The theoretical maximum for each digit is very difficult to calculate, as it is based on a range of random numbers that scale with attack power (perhaps even character level). However, the general rule of thumb for the random range is: . Therefore, in the table above, the damage you can deal with Crisis Arm without an accessory or a critical strike is 1188-1314.
 * Theoretical maximum

If you equip Robo with the Crisis Arm and Prismspecs, it will boost his attack value to about 185 (instead of the expected 255). At this point, he can crit for over 3,500 damage!
 * Absolute maximum

Ayla's Bronze Fist
On a critical strike, this will deal 9,999 damage. By the time you acquire this, Ayla's crit chance will be extremely high; from then on you can expect to deal major damage consistently.
 * How to get: reach level 96 with Ayla.

Lucca's Wondershot
This weapon changes attack power based on the final digit of your play time, seconds mod 10, with higher values producing higher multipliers. It can do the following:
 * 1/10 × base damage.
 * 1/2 × base damage.
 * 1 × base damage.
 * 2 × base damage.
 * 3 × base damage.

Magus's Doomsickle
This weapon grows in strength significantly as your allies die.

Defense

 * Variables
 * Defense: decreases the amount of physical damage a character takes. Is affected by the total equipped armor value (helm and body) and stamina.
 * EV./Evasion: increases a character's chance to dodge regular, physical attacks. Most magical attacks cannot be dodged, and the rare ones that can usually use the magic attribute for both hit and evade.
 * M DEF./Magic Defense: decreases the amount of damage taken from magical attacks (including non-elemental, but excluding physical).
 * Stamina/Vigor: increases defense by one per point. Also affects the damage of Frog's frog squash, Ayla's dino tail, and all combo techs that involve those two individual techs.

Maximizing physical defense

 * Males
 * SNES: equip OzziePants, Moon Armor, and Power Seal.
 * DS: equip Ozzie Pants, Saurian Leathers or Regal Plate or Shadowplume Robe (Magus only), and Power Seal.

Both versions: equip OzziePants, Prism Dress, and Power Seal.
 * Females