What does the Luck stat do?

[AeroPergold]

For all my years in working with RPG Maker, I never really know what the Luck stat really does. Like I use it for damage calculations when I remake the Bottle Rocket items from Earthbound but aside from that I don't really know what function the stat does. My only guess is that it plays a part in how Critical Hits are done but I don't know.

Can someone enlighten me on what Luck does exactly?

 

[ScorchedGround]

For MV and MZ, Luck affects the probability to apply states.

If your luck is higher than the targets, you are more likely to apply a state.
If your luck is lower than the targets, you are less likely to apply a state.

As far as I know, luck does nothing else. At least I know it does not affect critical chances.

 

[Andar]

by default, the ONLY effect is to modify the chance of getting a state applied. And there needs to be a very high difference in luck to create a detectable difference in the chance to apply a state.

of course you can freely use luck in your own damage formulae in your own skills, and then it does exactly what you tell it to do - but by default there is no effect other than the minor change in state chances.

 

[AeroPergold]

For MV and MZ, Luck affects the probability to apply states.

If your luck is higher than the targets, you are more likely to apply a state.
If your luck is lower than the targets, you are less likely to apply a state.

As far as I know, luck does nothing else. At least I know it does not affect critical chances.

So basically it has no default use other than affecting how states are applied.

 

[Wavelength]

Moving to RPG Maker MZ Support, because General Discussion is more for engine-neutral game-making discussions and this is specifically about RPG Maker.

I also want to chime in and point out that, by default, the effect of LUK on state application is very slight. For example, a 20% chance to inflict Poison becomes a 20.4% chance when a 30 LUK character uses it on a 10 LUK character. If it were a 999 LUK character using it instead, the chance would become about 40%. Ho-hum.

 

[bgillisp]

Yeah the default LUK boost is really tiny, you need to have like 999 vs 1 LUK to really notice a difference. But you can change that with a plug-in or code it yourself too.

 

[tale]

VX Ace definition of luck. (first added?)
Source- Parameters and Formulas in RPG Maker VX Ace Help

MV- tooltip of luck.
I looked through RPG Maker MV Help, no specifics on parameters/ stats.
https://rmmv.neocities.org

I'm curious about MZ Help if there's any details about stats. (probably unnecessary)

Edit:
Found MV database definition

 

[AeroPergold]

I find this to be anticlimactic because I thought that the Luck stat had some more significant use other than having a negligent effect on how status aliments are applied.

 

[Andar]

@AeroPergold
not by default - but that is what I meant by my comment above.

It's in line with the other parameters: Attack, Defense, Magic Attack and Magic Defense have ABSOLUTELY NO EFFECT in the engine itself, they are only used in the damage formulae and only if you want to use them there (it is not required, just the default). Agility ONLY affects the action order (and with MZ action charge speed) inside a battleturn and Luck only minorly affects the state chance.

But you can add agility and luck to be used in the damage formulae like the first four parameters if you want to increase their value.

 

[Aesica]

Yeah, there's a good reason why a lot of developers strip out luk's effect on state application and, instead, turn it into some completely unrelated stat. I renamed it and use it for a healing stat.

 

[Cyberhawk]

Yeah luck on its own doesn't do much.
It's sorta just there.


but with skill damage formulas and plugins you can give it more use.
I often use it in formulas for damaging skills like a thief or bandit and often have it affect the steal success rating. (Which i still need to look at YEP Steal from MV formula there.)

 

[ScorchedGround]

I renamed it and use it for a healing stat.

Yeah same here. It's actually a great way to balance the power of healing skills without making it dependent on the user being a warrior, mage or any class really.

So even though luck itself is pretty useless, I am grateful to have it because it allows the dev to implement one custom parameter of their own without much hassle

(The same could be said about agility but that one I actually use. Then again, this is basically true for the other parameters aswell as ATK, DEF, MAT and MDF literally have no function besides being utilized in formulas.)

 

[Aesica]

(The same could be said about agility but that one I actually use.

That one depends on the battle system. For the standard turn-based system, yeah it's kind of poop, but as someone who favors tick-based systems (atb/tpb/ctb/whatever) I definitely get use out of it.