Megabonk’s Stat Calcs Explained

…you’ve gotta learn how these stats actually come together.

Some Stats Add, Some Stats Multiply, and Some… Diminish

Here’s what you need to know immediately: some stats in Megabonk multiply with each other (multiplicative stacking), some add together in straightforward ways (additive stacking), and some add together but with diminishing returns (hyperbolic stacking). The game presents all of these identically in the UI. Yep.

Damage: Multiplies

Damage is multiplicative, and this has been carefully tested and validated. Here’s the formula:

Effective Damage = Weapon Damage × Character Damage, and…

Character Damage = Initial Character Damage × Tome Damage × (1 + Shrine Damage)

What this means in practice: if your Sword does 13 damage and your Damage Tome adds 1.16x, you’re outputting 15 damage. They don’t add, but they do round. This is why the Damage Tome is such a useful investment despite being relatively common, though you should always weigh it against any other weapon-specific upgrades available to you.

Shrine Damage, however, is additive upon itself. So you won’t get as much out of a second Shrine boost as you will a second Tome boost. (This needs verified, if dataminers have said otherwise let me know.)

Size: Partially Multiplicative

Size is weird. I’m still not sure I understand this all the way.

Effective Size = Weapon Size × Character Size

Character Size = Initial Character Size × (1 + Tome Size + Shrine Size)

The weapon size and character size multiply with each other (multiplicative), but the tome and shrine bonuses add together before multiplying with your initial character size (additive within that bracket). Honestly though, size as a stat I’ve never found to be useful.

Projectile Count: Pure Addition

Projectile Count is straightforward additive:

Effective Projectile Count = Weapon Projectile Count + Character Projectile Count

Character Projectile Count = Initial Character Projectile Count + Tome Projectile Count + Shrine Projectile Count

If your Sword has 2.6 projectile count from upgrades, your Firestaff has 1.4 projectile count, and your character has 3.4 projectile count from Quantity Tome and shrines, then your Sword shoots 6 projectiles and your Firestaff shoots 4. You’ll notice they’re all rounded down, so if you have that total 4.8 Firestaff projectile count, you need an upgrade to get you over the 2.0 line.

Pickup Range: It’s Addition, But Multiplied

Pickup Range has been carefully tested and uses this formula:

Character Pickup Range = Initial Character Pickup Range × (1 + Tome Pickup Range + Shrine Pickup Range)

This means if you start with 5 pickup range and get tome upgrades totaling 75% and shrine upgrades totaling 20%, your final pickup range is 5 × (1 + 0.75 + 0.20) = 5 × 1.95 = 9.75.

The tome and shrine percentages add together, then multiply with your base. Characters with higher initial pickup range (like Bush with 11) get more value from percentage increases.

Evasion: Hyperbolic Diminishing Returns

Evasion is additive with a hyperbolic adjustment, meaning…

Character Evasion = Internal Evasion / (1 + Internal Evasion)

Internal Evasion = Initial Internal Evasion + Tome Evasion + Shrine Evasion

You add up all your evasion sources normally, but then the game applies a diminishing returns formula. Here’s what this looks like in practice:

• 10% internal evasion = 9% actual evasion
• 20% internal evasion = 17% actual evasion
• 50% internal evasion = 33% actual evasion
• 100% internal evasion = 50% actual evasion
• 200% internal evasion = 67% actual evasion
• 500% internal evasion = 83% actual evasion
• 1000% internal evasion = 91% actual evasion
• 2000% internal evasion = 95% actual evasion

So you’re never going to dodge everything no matter how high the evasion gets.

This explains why the Ring of Evasion gives less than its stated amount when your evasion is already high. The game is adding to your internal evasion, but the conversion to actual evasion becomes less efficient. If you’re at 17% displayed evasion (20% internal) and pick up a Ring of Evasion claiming to give 15%, you might only see your evasion increase to 26% (34% internal, which converts to 26% actual).

Armor: Hyperbolic Diminishing Returns

Armor uses the same diminishing returns concept with a slightly different formula:

Character Armor = Internal Armor / (0.75 + Internal Armor)

Internal Armor = Initial Internal Armor + Tome Armor + Shrine Armor

The practical conversion table:

• 10% internal armor = 12% actual armor
• 20% internal armor = 21% actual armor
• 50% internal armor = 40% actual armor
• 100% internal armor = 57% actual armor
• 200% internal armor = 73% actual armor
• 500% internal armor = 87% actual armor
• 1000% internal armor = 93% actual armor
• 2000% internal armor = 96% actual armor

As with evasion, you’re never going to block everything.

Like evasion, this means that items giving flat armor percentages become less valuable the more armor you already have. The Armor Tome slows down after the second or third upgrade level because you’re hitting the diminishing returns curve. Still though, Armor’s a useful stat for glass cannons.

Duration, Knockback, and Projectile Speed: Likely Multiplicative

Further testing needs to be done on this to be sure.

Weapon stats for these are absolute values (like 4 seconds, or speed of 0.5), while character stats are relative multipliers (like 1.2x). When you have an absolute weapon value and a relative character multiplier, they almost certainly multiply. The same pattern likely applies to Knockback and Projectile Speed.

The Practical Strategy

This creates a clear upgrade priority system:

1. Ignore crit stats entirely until your Damage, Projectile Count, and Projectile Bounces would each give less than 10% DPS improvement per upgrade
2. Once you hit those diminishing returns thresholds, start balancing your upgrades across all five stat types
3. For the Revolver specifically, maintain the crit equilibrium ratio: Crit Chance should equal Crit Damage / 2 + 25%

Here’s a reference table for when each upgrade type gives specific DPS improvements:

Assumptions to Remember

We’re assuming several things that aren’t always true:

• It doesn’t account for charge shrine upgrades, items, or character base stats throwing off the balance
• It doesn’t consider rarity, so a legendary upgrade might be worth taking even if it’s not the “optimal” stat
• The math assumes Crit Chance scales beyond 100% in a specific way (each 100% adds another full crit damage multiplier), which might not be accurate
• This assumes you have enough enemies to saturate your projectile count and bounces, which isn’t true for boss fights

How Character Stats Interact With Weapon Stats

Character stats from tomes apply to all your weapons, while weapon stats only affect that specific weapon. You’ll usually get weapon tomes that boost your weapons more than an all-character tome would, but not always.

Because damage is multiplicative, a high Damage Tome multiplier amplifies all your weapons equally in percentage terms, but the absolute damage increase is larger for weapons with higher base damage. A 1.5x Damage Tome multiplier adds 11 damage to a Sword with 22 base damage, but 5.5 damage to a Firestaff with 11 base damage. Like I said earlier, the Weapon Tome and Damage Tomes play off of each other.

For additive stats like Projectile Count, the character value adds the same amount to every weapon. If you have +3 character projectile count, every weapon gets +3 projectiles regardless of their base count.

This means:

• Damage Tome is more efficient for weapons that already have high damage
• Quantity Tome is more efficient for weapons that already shoot many projectiles (because more projectiles benefit from your damage multipliers)
• Size Tome is more efficient for characters with high initial size (like Amog)

How to Build With This

Tank Builds (Armor/Evasion)

Because both Armor and Evasion have severe diminishing returns, you can’t efficiently stack just one. If you’re building for survivability, you need to spread across multiple stats: some armor, some evasion, high max HP, lifesteal, shields, or HP regen to make your butt more survivable than it otherwise would have been. Trying to push armor to 95% is exponentially more expensive than getting it to 70% and supplementing with other defenses.

Damage Scaling/Glass Cannon Builds

Because damage is multiplicative, you want to scale both weapon damage and Damage Tome simultaneously. Don’t max out your Damage Tome and ignore weapon damage upgrades, and don’t max weapon damage while ignoring the tome. You’ve got to play them on each other, remember? Do both.