Stats

Stats are aspects that affect battles. Most of the stats increase when the party members level up and also apply to enemies.

General Stats

Those are the stats present in all Mother games.

HP

HP and PP displays in Mother.

The current HP and PP for Ness is listed on this odometer display.

The odometer in Mother 3

Hit points (abbreviated as HP) are the value of damage a character can withstand before they are knocked unconscious or killed. Playable characters can replenish this value by eating food or utilizing appropriate PSI (e.g. Lifeup, Refresh)  to recover.

Unique to EarthBound and Mother 3, playable characters' hit points are represented by a rolling meter system not unlike an odometer. This means that if a character is inflicted with an amount of damage that is bigger or equals their HP, it will not immediately drop to 0, giving players time to either flee, heal, or else defeat the remaining enemies. If a party member is not healed or the fight is not ended by the time their HP drops to 0, they will be rendered unconscious before the next character takes their move.

PP

Psychic Points (Japanese: サイコポイント Psycho Point), abbreviated as PP, are the value of PSI a character can use in order to cast various PSI abilities. Playable characters can replenish this value by eating appropriate foods, encountering a Magic Butterfly, or utilizing appropriate Recover PSI. The only PSI ability that does not cost PP is PSI Magnet, which can instead only take PP from an opponent only if the enemy has PP remaining and can use PSI.

Unique to EarthBound and Mother 3 is that playable characters' psychic points are represented by a rolling meter similar to an odometer. This means that PP used by an ability will not immediately be diminished. However this very rarely proves to be either advantageous or disadvantageous, as moves that drain large amounts of PP like PSI Rockin Ω usually have animations long enough that the PP meter has finished rolling by the time the attack hits.

The PP can become unusable if the character using it has their concentration disrupted. A few rare enemies in EarthBound (such as the Wetnosaur or the Mad Duck) can use an attack that can disrupt one playable character's concentration, making the PP-meter turn into an X. The character will be unable to use PSI until concentration is regained.

Some enemies also suffer from poor concentration, such as the Mr. Molecule enemy, making their PSI moves fail randomly.

EXP

Experience Points (abbreviated as EXP) are used to level up a character when they gain the specific amount required to do so.

When certain characters gain enough Experience points, they can level up and learn new PSI abilities. However, in Mother 3, techniques are not learned immediately after level-up, instead having the character to feel feverish after reaching a certain level to learn the new hability. Some PSI are not recognized by leveling up, such as PK Starstorm α (Alpha) and Ω (Omega), with those being learned at specific points during the story.

Offense

Ana's Ofense increasing after a level up.

Offense determines offensive capabilities of a character or enemy and calculate damage dealt. It can be raised by using a weapon, and temporarily using Offense up.

The offense can be temporarily lowered by using Offense Down or other offense decreasing items. Additionally, in Mother 3, the Scary Mask also decreases the enemy's offense.

Defense

Defense determines how much damage characters take when struck by a physical attack; the higher a character's defense, the less damage they take. It can be raised using equipment, and temporarily using Defense Up. Defense does not affect damage from PSI.

The defense can be temporarily lowered by using Defense Down or other defense decreasing items. Additionally, in Mother 3, the Tickle Stick also decreases the enemy's offense.

Speed

Speed determines who moves first during a battle. In most cases, the character with the highest speed will move first, but if two characters have equal or near-equal speed, the character to move first is chosen randomly.

Speed also affects a character's ability to dodge in battle, with the battle text indicating that the character avoided the attack, diferently of when the enemy misses the attack.

Guts

Guts is an stat present from EarthBound and on. It determines a character's chances of getting a SMAAAASH!! attack. Higher Guts will also give a character a higher chance to survive Mortal Damage with 1 HP.

A Guts stat increases the chances of a smash attack by 0.2%

Deadly Mice and the Plague Rat of Doom are notorious for having high Guts, which causes most of their attacks to hit with a SMAAAASH!!

The Guts stat can be raised permanently by consuming a Guts Capsule or Rock candy, or temporarily increased during battle with a Sudden Guts Pill. In EarthBound, there are 2 weapons in the game that can increase Guts: The Gutsy Bat (For Ness), and the Magic Fry Pan (For Paula).

IQ

IQ function varies a bit from game to game. In EarthBound, IQ increases the amount of PP the user has, an IQ point is equivalent to 5 PP, also, Jeff's IQ affects his ability to fix broken items. Also, some PSI, such as Brainshock, can be affected by the IQ level of the attack target. The IQ stat also reduces the risk of falling for The Hippie's Bullhorn.

In the Mother 3 hidden memo menu (found by holding the L and R buttons while entering the status menu) available in the fan translation patch, it is explained that "If a character is able to use PSI, a higher IQ will increase its effectiveness."

EarthBound Beginnings Exclusives

Fight

Fight, similarly to Guts and Luck in EarthBound, determines the character's chance to hit a SMAAAASH!! attack and accuracy.

Force

Force decreases the chance of the character being affected by Puzzled, Confused, or Hypnosis (however, Stone will always hit). This stat resembles the IQ stat in the other games of the Mother series.

Force can be used to calculate how much PP the character will have (with the exception on non-PSI characters) at the next level up. The formula is: 1.5 * Force = max. PP at next level up.

Strength

Strength (たいりょく, Physical Fitness) is a placeholder showing about how much the player can expect the characters' HP to be the next time they level up. HP = 20 + (Strength x 2) approx. It also decreases the chance of getting hit by Darkness, Poison and Paralysis.

Wisdom

Wisdom (かしこさ Kashikosa, Cleverness) increases the chance of hitting with Status Ailments, both in the form of PSI and items like the Flashdark. It also decreases the chance of being affected by enemies using status ailments.

It's name and functionality is similar to IQ.

EarthBound Exclusives

Vitality

Vitality determines HP gain. The amount a character's Vitality increases when they gain a level determines how much HP the character will gain in the same level-up, with one Vitality point corresponding to about 12 HP.

Vitality can be increased by having a character consume a Vital capsule or a Rock candy.

Luck

Luck determines the party's accuracy; bigger the luck, higher the chance of sucessfully hitting or dodging an attack.

The HP restored by Lucky Sandwiches is affected by the Luck stat.

Trivia

• Initial gameplay features that creator Shigesato Itoi had in mind involved an unconventional hit points system of hit point boxes made like pachinko balls that would fall off the screen whenever a character was damaged. However, this was later changed to the odometer counter because the pachinko balls did not work very well when characters had large amounts of hit points.
• The effects of the Luck and IQ stats are never stated in EarthBound, mistakenly making them look irrelevant.
• Although it may seem that Luck would affect the chance to get a SMAAASH!! attack, it doesn't, as stated by the Friendly Mole between Twoson and the Happy Happy Village - the Guts stat does this.