Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories/Weapon skills

Special Moves (referred to as "Special" in the game's menus) are unique and powerful attacks or spells that cost SP to use. After certain requirements are met to learn them, specials can be used immediately.

Every time a certain special move is used, a little EXP is added to that move. Once certain amounts of EXP are gained, the move will level up and become more powerful, but will also cost a little more to use.

Weapon Special Moves
Weapon specials moves can be learned when a Human Class reaches a certain level of Weapon Mastery, and can only be used when the associated type of weapon is equipped. Weapon specials always base their attack power on the same stat(s) as normal attacks with the same weapon type. These types of moves can be transferred to any other human class through reincarnation, but not to monster classes.

Most weapon specials will always attack a specific set of panels (colored blue), and sometimes use support panels that must not be occupied by objects or enemies for the special to work (colored yellow). In this guide, green panels represent where the attacker is standing. Where these "attack patterns" will be placed depends only upon the attacker's facing. A few other weapon specials have a selectable area of panels in which the attack pattern can be placed. "Range" in the graphs below depict the attack pattern of individual specials, and whether or not they have a selectable area of attack.

"Up" is how many dm upwards the special will have an effect, and "Down" is how many dm down the special will have an effect. "Lv" is the Weapon Mastery level at which the special is earned, and "Name" is what the specific special is called. All specials have a formula determining the amount of damage they cause, and "Boost" refers to the extra power each individual attack is given in that formula (it's really kind of useless unless you're comparing different special moves, but keep in mind spells have a different formula from weapon or character specials).

Despite a character attacking with punches by default when they're unequipped, Fist specials can only be used when a fist-type weapon is equipped.

Gun Specials with a selectable range can only select areas in the four cardinal directions, like with normal gun attacks.

Character Special Moves
Character-specific specials are learned when a character of a certain class reaches a designated level. They cannot be transferred to other classes through reincarnation, but can be kept when a character reincarnates as a different tier of their current class. In all other regards, character-specific Special Moves are identical to weapon-based Special Moves. While some human classes have no character specials, all monster classes will have at least four.

Information on these moves can be found under the Classes section of this guide, with specials listed under their respective class.