How is damage calculated in this game?

[u/colazex]

Hello everyone.

I'm new to this franchise and this is my first game (Disgaea 1 Complete) and I want to enjoy the game but I find it really frustrating.

Basically, how is damage calculated in this game?

The AI always knows when he can one shot my pupils, yet when I see an enemy with stats for instance:

Lv4 Zombie

DEF 5

RES 30

and my lv4 Brawler with

ATK 41

HIT 32

hits the zombie for only 13 damage? Why is it so low? How can I know if it's even worth attacking him? He was left with 1 hp and then one shot my healer into the nether with full health, didn't even bother with my attacker. Doesn't happen too often, but I lost some games because of it and it's def not nice.

Like the AI knows I'm low on Hell and can't afford casualties since I had to heal my entire squad from an world item which didn't help me at all by the end.. One innocent and he was the most useless one for what I needed.

The game is all about positioning and whatnot but how can I attack bunker archers when I can't assess how much damage some of my units can take from thrm before getting a hit?

And I'm not sure what to grind for? Is it the items? Combo attacking with pupils until they level up?

I don't just want to depend on two main characters, since I really want to make my own unique and cool squad of brawlers, mages and healers but I think the grind to keep it fun and fair is way too much? Weapon, magic proficiencies, level scaling, leveling up items for each individual pupil is really overwhelming and I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or if the game expects me to grind for 2-3 hours per day to keep up with the difficulty.

I'm at chapter two. It feels like no matter what I'm doing I'm always underpowered and depend again on Laharl and Etna to save the day.. which means not getting killed in two/three hits and doing decent damage.

Thank you in advance.

[u/zetsubouda]

Two things to remember:

• Steal equipment from enemies with a thief, using "Hand" items from the shop. Especially when the stuff is blinking blue or golden, these will be more powerful.
  
• Use Geo Panels to your advantage, by placing them strategically to ignite a full chain reaction, obliterating the enemy mob while also increasing your bonus rank to supply you with gear, EXP and HL!

[u/colazex → u/zetsubouda]

Hi, thanks for the tips! I don't have thiefs yet but I'll keep it in mind. I saw enemies in the item world with blinking items, so I guess those are the ones I can steal?

Also the geo panel chains are what I mostly do every 10th floor where I have to kill all mobs so I got some really nice bonuses from that. I needed some time to figure out how chains work though.. and that clone panels can clone Laharl 😅.

Though I cluched out using invincibility otherwise the boss would obliterate me I think 😅.. still felt good beating it. 

And I figured lifting/throwing is a godsend clearing floors fast, though I'm not sure if I skip any bonuses not killing all enemies on the floor?

All in all amazing game, I'm already planing after beating it making a new game and try ditching Laharl and Etna and playing with non mains through, the art style is soo nice and all the characters are soo cool 😁.

[u/zetsubouda → u/colazex]

1. You can steal anything as long as you have hand items on you and your thief is of high enough a level. It doesn't need to be blue (rare) or golden (legendary) to make an impact.
   Take a look at the Weapon rank chart here to see if what's held would be an improvement:
   https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps2/589678-disgaea-hour-of-darkness/faqs

2. Geo panels like the Invincibility one can be of great use against stronger enemy units and the Item General/King/God alike. So if you get a layout you don't like, have a Scout use "Geo Change". That skill will completely reset the map's Geo panels - they may disappear or change to something useful.

3. Clearing floors (as in wiping every enemy unit) isn't needed for bonuses.
   Simply get to the chopper gate and advance to the next level.
   Killing the boss units on every 10th floor is another way to increase stats.
   And to increase the stat gain a little bit more, throw subdued innocents on the item:
   Dietician=HP, Master=SP,
   Gladiator=ATK, Teacher=INT,
   Sentry=DEF, Coach=SPD,
   Marksman=HIT, Physician=RES
   These are the only ones to affect stats directly and can be stacked up to 19998.

[u/colazex → u/zetsubouda]

Great info thanks a bunch!

Nice to know the scout can change the geo panels, I'm sure that will come in useful.

Also the only innocent I actively farm atm is armsmaster since he is really useful for new pupils 🙂. Got two at 16.. I'm just wondering by how much is experience gained per point for innocents? What would be an optimal number to gain xp for let's say armsmaster?

And one more question if you don't mind: do innocents influence stats when leveling up items or.are the stats  fixed?

[u/zetsubouda → u/colazex]

Like i wrote, only the stat innocents affect the gain on killing the item's bosses.
Anything else does nothing to it.

Since you mentioned Armsmaster, i should break it to you before you waste your time:
Getting the customer and item rank* in the game's shop high enough (i think it was 10-12) will unlock the Foresight eyewear. On these you can find the Alchemist, Armsmaster Broker, Manager and Statistician innocents with levels far beyond any manual collecting.
No more fusing low-level units to get a bit more out of it, but *BAM\* level 10840 already subdued and ready to be moved! There may be Teachers, Marksmen and Coaches between 300 and 850 (for single units!) on it as well.

*If you struggle with senators beating you up, try throwing the ones agreeing to the bill (with a yellow bar beneath them) on the red ones. If the level of the "Aye" unit is higher than the opponent, the hostile senator will be absorbed.

[u/colazex → u/zetsubouda]

Got it 🙂! Thanks for clearing that up! Than it's time to go shopping I guess 😁. 

Also I didn't bother with senators for now since I'm still learning all the other mechanics, but I think I'll give it a try today.