Damage Calculation

All large numbers in Darkstar use the NumberUnit encoding to handle values that exceed standard floating-point precision. A NumberUnit stores two components:

value = quotient * 10^exponent

For example, a ship with fPowerQuotient = 3.45 and iPowerExponent = 12 has a base ATK of 3.45 × 10¹² (3.45 trillion). All arithmetic in the damage pipeline operates on NumberUnit values.

BasicShipStatus

The runtime stats struct for a ship during battle. Defined at TypeDefIndex: 273 in the IL2CPP dump.

BasicSkillData

The resolved skill parameters for the current attack action. Defined at TypeDefIndex: 274.

DamageInfo

The output structure produced by the damage calculation pipeline. Defined at TypeDefIndex: 276. Contains 24 fields; key ones shown below.

The damage formula is a multi-step pipeline executed by BattleManager. Each step applies a category of modifiers. The chain proceeds in this order:

Step 1: Base Damage

BaseDamage = Power * fPower

The attacker's Power (NumberUnit at offset 0x80 in BasicShipStatus) is multiplied by the skill's fPower coefficient (float at offset 0x40 in BasicSkillData).

Step 2: Damage Reduction

PostReduction = BaseDamage * (1.0 - DamageReduction)

Defense is a flat percentage reduction stored in ShipController float fields. There is no diminishing-returns curve, no scaling constant, and no separate physical/magical defense split. The reduction fields are:

The appropriate reduction is selected based on attack context (normal vs skill vs boss, Arena vs PvE). All reduction applies identically regardless of weapon type (MachineGun, Missile, Laser, Lightning).

Step 3: Critical Hit

if (random() < CritChance):
    PostCrit = PostDefense * CritDamage
else:
    PostCrit = PostDefense

Crit chance is checked per hit. If the skill has a non-zero SkillCritChance, it overrides the ship's base crit rate. Same for SkillCritDamage.

Step 4: Modifier Categories (28+)

After the base/defense/crit calculation, the engine applies 28+ categories of multiplicative and additive modifiers. These come from equipment, admirals, memory cards, gemstones, buildings, buffs, debuffs, and mode-specific effects.

FinalDamage =
    Power
    * fPower (skill coefficient)
    * (1.0 - DamageReduction)
    * CritMultiplier
    * ProductOf(All Multiplicative Modifiers)
    * (1 + SumOf(All Additive Modifiers))

In practice, the formula is more nuanced because some modifier categories stack additively within their group before being multiplied with other groups. The exact behavior for each PropertyType is defined in BattleManager's damage calculation logic (the exact method name has not been confirmed in the IL2CPP dump).

EffectiveDPS =
    FinalDamage
    * AttackSpeed
    * (1 + CritChance * (CritDamage - 1))
    * TargetCount

This gives the expected damage per second accounting for crit probability. For AoE skills with iMaxTargetCount = -1, multiply by the average number of targets present.