Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories/Weapon skills

Special Moves (referred to as "Special" in the game 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 SP.

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 (for example, Blade Rush is a sword-based special, so it uses the ATK stat to determine its strength like a regular sword attack; Tri-Burst is a gun special, so it always uses HIT instead). In addition, any bonuses the weapon type has (such as a Bow's chance of making defeated foes drop chests, or an Axe's tendency to reduce DEF) will be applied to specials as well as regular attacks.

Some classes learn certain weapon-type specials faster than others, due to differing weapon proficiency. Through Reincarnation, a Sinner (who has a high Fist Proficiency) can build up their mastery, then reincarnate into a Thief (who has low Fist Proficiency), with a portion of the Fist Mastery they obtained as a Sinner.

Most weapon specials will always attack a specific set of panels (colored blue both in game and in this guide), 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 would be standing. These "attack patterns" can be shifted 90 degrees if the user changes Facing, but they are otherwise static. However, a handful of weapon specials have a distance from which the pattern can be placed; the distance applies to the "center" of the pattern, not the pattern's edges. "Range" in the tables below depict the attack pattern of individual specials, as viewed from above.

When the special-user and their target are at different vertical levels of terrain, the difference is expressed in dm (decimeters). In this listing, "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 truthfully useless unless you're comparing different weapon and/or character specials, since spells and regular attacks both have different formulas from weapon or character-specific specials).

Fist Specials
While the standard attack animation for an unarmed character is a punch, Fist specials can only be used when a fist-type weapon is equipped.

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.