Growth rates (Japanese:成長率growth rate),^[1] also known asmaturity,^[2][3] are a set of hidden stats associated with individual playableunits which dictate the probability of a unit'sstats increasing during alevel-up.

Overview

For each character stat that can increase during alevel-up, such asstrength orskill, there is a growth rate associated with it. Growth rates are the percentage chance of the unit gaining 1 point in a particular stat during a level-up, with therandom number generator used to determine whether a stat increases or not. For example, a growth rate of 40% yields on average 2 stat increases per 5 level-ups.

In rare cases, growth rates may exceed 100%. In these case, 100% is subtracted off the growth rate and becomes a guaranteed +1 during a level-up, with the remaining growth rate allowing for a chance to gain another +1 (effectively a +2). Since the maximum growth rate is typically 255% (due to the games' programming), the maximum stat increase during a level-up is +3 (which is possible withKarel inThe Binding Blade, as he has aHP growth of 210%).

Growth rates are usually hidden from the player, although some guidebooks may list them or provide growth rankings (such as "A" for growths of 100% to 80%). In most cases, they are obtained by hacking or datamining the games.

Class growth rates

Genericenemy units use a different set of growth rates, known asclass growth rates. Enemies do not level-up in the traditional manner, so instead they are auto-leveled upon being generated at the beginning of each chapter, or when they arrive asreinforcements. Starting withThracia 776 and ending withAwakening, enemy growths are also subject to randomization, meaning enemies will have slightly varying stats each time any given chapter is played. In all other main-series entries, enemy growths are fixed and non-random. Class growth rates are also used to determineHard Mode bonuses.

InShadow Dragon and the Blade of Light andGaiden, class growths do not exist for individual classes; instead, enemy units gain +3 maximum HP and +1 strength, skill, speed, defense, and (inShadow Dragon & the Blade of Light) weapon level for every two levels above 1.Duma is the only exception to this rule, having 182 maximum HP rather than the expected 209.

InShadow Dragon onward, a separate set of class growth rates is added to a playable character's personal growth rates as part of the implementation of thereclassing system; effectively, this means that a character's growth rates will be different depending on what class they are in.

InThracia 776, enemy growths are tied to the unit and not to the class itself.^[4] Enemy stats are determined by rolling for each individual growth, and then adding a modifier ranging from 0–3 (except movement which instead has a 10% chance of increasing).

Enemy stat calculation in the GBA titles

The stats of most enemies in theGBA games are based, in part, on growth rates and are somewhat variable. In general, the stats of a generic unit of level n will be the sum of:

• class bases (stats associated with the class)
• personal bases (stats associated with the unit; for generic enemies, these are typically 0)
• (n − 1) × class growths
• promotion bonus × class growths
• difficulty bonus × class growths (applied twice for non-reinforcement enemies in Chapters 1–5 ofThe Binding Blade)

Stats that involve class growths are varied; after the multiplication of class growths, the product is multiplied by a random number between 7/8 and 9/8—the decimal of this new product is then treated as a growth rate and is rolled to see if the product will increase by 1 before the stats are added together. The variance for each source listed above is calculated individually.

For example, take themagic of a level 13Druid fromThe Binding Blade Chapter 22:

The male Druid class has a 6 magic base, 55% magic growth, and 29 magic maximum.

This Druid has 0 personal magic.

For being level 13, this Druid gains ([13 − 1] × 55%) magic before variance, or 6.6.

If the random number multiplied into this stat is 1.1, the product will be 7.26, meaning this Druid will have a 26% chance of gaining 8 magic, and a 74% chance of gaining 7. For this example, say that the random number generator selects the chance of gaining 7 magic.

For being in a promoted class, this Druid gains (19 × 55%) magic before variance, or 10.45.

If the random number multiplied into this stat is 1, the product will be 10.45, meaning this Druid will have a 45% chance of gaining 11 magic, and a 55% chance of gaining 10. For this example, say that the random number generator selects the chance of gaining 11 magic.

On Normal mode, this enemy gains no bonuses from difficulty.

On Hard mode in Chapter 22, this enemy gains 14 bonus levels, so (14 × 55%) or 7.7 magic before variance.

If the random number multiplied into this stat is 0.9, the product will be 6.93, meaning this Druid will have a 93% chance of gaining 7 magic, and a 7% chance of gaining 6. For this example, say that the random number generator selects the chance of gaining 7 magic.

This Druid receives 6 magic from their class, 0 from their personal stats, 7 from their level, and 11 from being in a promoted class; in Normal Mode, they will have 24 magic. In Hard mode this druid would receive another 7 magic from difficulty bonuses, and would reach a total of 31 magic; as this exceeds the Druid's maximum magic, their stat is reduced to the maximum of 29 magic.

There are some minute differences between each game:

• In Chapters 1–5 ofThe Binding Blade, the difficulty bonus calculation is applied twice to enemies present at the start of a battle. Like with other varying bonuses, these repeated bonuses are calculated separately.
• InThe Binding Blade, the promotion bonus is 19 in all cases. InThe Blazing Blade andThe Sacred Stones, the promotion bonus is 19 in Hard or Difficult, and 9 in lower difficulties.
• InThe Binding Blade andThe Sacred Stones, the difficulty bonus varies by chapter. InThe Blazing Blade, the difficulty bonus is +5, and only applies in Hard Mode ofHector's tale. In each game, the difficulty bonus only applies to enemy units, not to player or ally units.
  • InThe Binding Blade, recruitable enemies that are present at the start of the map do not receive difficulty bonuses, but do receive them if they appear as an enemy afterpreparations (or after the start of turn 1 in chapters without preparations).
  • InThe Blazing Blade, recruitable enemies always receive difficulty bonuses.
  • InThe Sacred Stones, recruitable enemies do not gain any difficulty bonuses.
• The Sacred Stones applies penalties to levels based on difficulty and chapter; these penalties are calculated differently than the difficulty bonus, as they are applied directly to the (n − 1) levels, with an effective minimum of 0. If a penalty exists and reduces a unit's level to 0, that unit does not receive promotion bonuses if they otherwise would.

Additionally, inThe Blazing Blade, growth-based sources ofluck are not calculated, so the only sources of luck are class and personal bases.

InThe Binding Blade andThe Blazing Blade, non-generic units can auto-level like generic ones, but are rarely set to;Roberts,Rose, andMaggie inThe Binding Blade andFargus inChapter 16x of Eliwood Hard Mode andMaxime inChapter 28 of Hector Hard Mode ofThe Blazing Blade are set to auto-level. InThe Sacred Stones, non-generic units auto-level uniquely—they level up a number of times equal to the difference between the level they are loaded with and the level saved with their character data, and use their personal growth rates; they do not gain promotion levels, but can gain difficulty levels. Units that join inChapter 15 do this, as doPablo,Cormag, andAmelia inChapter 13 of Eirika's route;Riev inChapter 20; and themonster bosses in theTower of Valni,Lagdou Ruins, andskirmishes; in the Japanese version, all units in the previous list who are enemies (including Cormag and Amelia) gain auto-levels as generic enemies do, using class growths and their full level and promotion bonus.

Blank level-up prevention systems

Starting withGaiden, certain games have various additional systems in place meant to prevent blank level-ups, i.e. ones where no stat increased.^[5]

InGaiden andEchoes: Shadows of Valentia, any level-up that would be blank normally is instead made to give +1 HP to the unit. Once HP reaches the cap of 52, however, actual blank level-ups will begin occurring.

InThe Binding Blade,The Blazing Blade, andThe Sacred Stones, the game will re-roll any blank level-ups to attempt to generate one with at least one stat increase. If this re-roll fails, a second and final re-roll is done. Should any of the level-up rolls try to increase a stat that has capped, then the level will not be considered blank and thus will not be re-rolled, despite not actually increasing any stats. This system significantly reduces the chances for blank level-ups to occur, but does not prevent them entirely.

InRadiant Dawn, a level-up will always result in at least a single stat increasing if there are stats that can still increase. This is true even for units with a 0% growth in a stat; for example, ifLeanne has capped every stat except strength, a level up will always result in her gaining strength, despite her having a 0% growth in it.

InShadow Dragon, a more complex system referred to unofficially asdynamic growths is present. In this system, whenever a specific stat does not increase during a level-up, a hidden dynamic growth value for that stat is increased, adding [(Unit base growth rate + class growth rate) / 10] to it. Conversely, if a stat does increase during a level-up, that stat's dynamic growth rate is decreased by the same amount. If the dynamic growth value is negative, it is treated as 0 for the purposes of stat increase chances, though its true value is still maintained, increasing or decreasing further accordingly. Future level-ups will use the total of the unit's actual growth rate and their dynamic growth value to determine whether the stat increases or not. For example, ifMarth failed to gain a point instrength with his 50% growth rate, then on the next level-up, his growth rate in strength would be treated as [50 + (50 / 10)] = (50 + 5) = 55%.^[6]

InThree Houses, all student units,Byleth,Flayn,Cyril, andAnna are guaranteed to receive at least two stat increases per level-up. Any unit besides these receives no such blank level-up prevention.

Alternative systems

Path of Radiance andEngage

Main articles:Random and Fixed Modes andGrowth point

InPath of Radiance, the Fixed Mode is unlocked upon completing the game for the first time. This is an alternate method of unit growth which revolves around the accumulation ofgrowth points from fighting enemies with certain weapons to dictate a unit's growths. The other option is Random Mode, which is the standard growth rate system used in the rest of the series and in the first playthrough ofPath of Radiance.

Random and Fixed Modes return inEngage, where the growths in Fixed mode are no longer alterable in any way and units simply always gain predetermined stats in accordance with their growth rates. In this game, Random mode is chosen by default in lower difficulties and Fixed mode in the highest difficulty, Maddening. Completing any difficulty allows the player to choose the other growth mode on that difficulty in their next playthrough.

Fates

In the Lunaticdifficulty ofFates, stat growths for all level ups are randomly determined when a character is recruited, which prevents resetting to acquire superior level-ups.

Heroes

InHeroes, stat growth is not random and a unit's stats at the maximum level of 40 are calculated from their stats at level 1 plus theexpected value, or average result, from their growth rates across the remaining 39 levels. A unit's growth rates changes with their rarity, and whether they have an Asset/Flaw. For example, a final growth rate of 68% Atk has an expected value of 39 × 0.68 = 26.52, and since calculations are rounded down in Heroes, this means that the unit will gain 26 Atk points across the 39 levels.

List of growth rates by game

While the majority of games share a similar set of growth rates, as they do stats, some games offer minor variations on the existing growth rates by featuring unique growth rates which don't exist in most other games, or in the case of earlier installments in the series, the stats in question did not exist as of yet.

Items and skills affecting growth rates

Throughout the series, there are a number of items and skills which can be used to increase the growth rates of a single unit either temporarily or permanently. Most commonly, these come in the form of items which provide temporary boosts while held in a unit's inventory, and accordingly no longer apply to that unit when removed from their inventory. There are also instances of equippable skills which serve the same function and consumable items which give a single permanent increase to all growth rates.

The Starsphere and itsshards
	Item	Growth increases	Games
	Starsphere	+10% to all growth rates and prevents thedurability of the unit's weapons from decreasing when in inventory.	Mystery of the Emblem
	Aries Shard	+40% toLuck growth rate when in inventory.	Mystery of the Emblem,Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
	Taurus Shard	+5% to all growth rates when in inventory.* +2% toResistance and +5% to all other growth rates when in inventory.*	Mystery of the Emblem,Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
	Gemini Shard	+30% toStrength growth rate, -10% toWeapon level growth rate, and +20% toDefense growth rate when in inventory.* +25% toStrength growth rate, -5% toSkill growth rate, and +20% toDefense growth rate when in inventory.*	Mystery of the Emblem,Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
	Cancer Shard	-10% toStrength growth rate and +50% toDefense growth rate when in inventory.	Mystery of the Emblem,Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
	Leo Shard	+50% toStrength growth rate and -10% toDefense growth rate when in inventory.	Mystery of the Emblem,Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
	Virgo Shard	+20% toWeapon level growth rate, -10% toDefense growth rate, and +30% toResistance growth rate when in inventory.* +10% toStrength andSkill growth rates, -10% toDefense growth rate, and +5% toResistance growth rate when in inventory.*	Mystery of the Emblem,Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
	Libra Shard	-10% toHP growth rate, +40% toSpeed growth rate, +10% toLuck andWeapon level growth rates, and -10% toResistance growth rates when in inventory.* -10% toHP growth rate, +5% toStrength andSkill growth rates, +40% toSpeed growth rate, +10% toLuck and -2% toResistance growth rates when in inventory.*	Mystery of the Emblem,Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
	Scorpio Shard	+20% toStrength andSkill growth rates, +10% toSpeed growth rates, and -10% toLuck growth rates when in inventory.	Mystery of the Emblem,Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
	Sagittarius Shard	-10% toHP growth rate, +40% toSkill growth rate, and +10% toSpeed growth rate when in inventory.	Mystery of the Emblem,Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
	Capricorn Shard	Intended to grant +20% toHP growth rate, -10% toSkill andSpeed growth rates, +30% toWeapon level growth rate, and +10% toDefense growth rate when in inventory; has no effect due to a bug.* +20% toHP growth rate, +15% toStrength, +5% toSkill, -10% toSpeed growth rates and +10% toDefense growth rate when in inventory.*	Mystery of the Emblem,Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
	Aquarius Shard	+10% toStrength,Skill,Speed, andWeapon level growth rates when in inventory.* +15% toStrength, +15%Skill and +10%Speed growth rate when in inventory.*	Mystery of the Emblem,Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
	Pisces Shard	+10% toHP,Luck,Defense, andResistance growth rates when in inventory.* +2% toResistance and +10% toHP,Luck, andDefense growth rates when in inventory.*	Mystery of the Emblem,Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
	Star Jacinth	+5% toResistance and +30% to all other growth rates when in inventory.	Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

Scrolls of theTwelve Crusaders
	Item	Growth increases	Games
	Baldr Scroll	+5% toHP,Strength,Skill,Speed,Luck andDefense growth rates when in inventory.	Thracia 776
	Bragi Scroll	-10% toStrength growth rate, +10% toMagic growth rate, and +30% toLuck growth rate when in inventory.	Thracia 776
	Dáinn Scroll	+5% toStrength andMovement growth rates, -10% toSpeed growth rate, and +30% toDefense growth rate when in inventory.	Thracia 776
	Fjalar Scroll	+5% toStrength andMagic growth rates, and +10% toSkill andSpeed growth rates when in inventory.	Thracia 776
	Heim Scroll	+30% toMagic growth rate, +10% toLuck growth rate, and -10% toDefense growth rate when in inventory.	Thracia 776
	Hoðr Scroll	+30% toHP growth rate, +10% toStrength growth rate, and -10% toLuck growth rate when in inventory.	Thracia 776
	Nál Scroll	+10% toHP,Strength,Defense andBuild growth rates, and -10% toSkill growth rate when in inventory.	Thracia 776
	Njörun Scroll	+30% toStrength growth rate, -10% toMagic growth rate, +10% toSpeed growth rate, -5% toLuck growth rate, and +5% toDefense growth rate when in inventory.	Thracia 776
	Od Scroll	+30% toSkill growth rate when in inventory.	Thracia 776
	Ced Scroll	-10% toHP growth rate, +10% toMagic growth rate, and +30% toSpeed growth rate when in inventory.	Thracia 776
	Thrud Scroll	+5% toHP,Strength,Magic andLuck growth rates, and +10% toSkill growth rate when in inventory.	Thracia 776
	Ullr Scroll	+10% toSkill,Speed andLuck growth rates when in inventory.	Thracia 776

Bands
	Item	Growth increases	Games
	Sword Band	+5% toSkill andLuck growth rates when equipped.	Path of Radiance
	Soldier Band	+5% toHP andDefense growth rates when equipped.	Path of Radiance
	Fighter Band	+5% toHP andStrength growth rates when equipped.	Path of Radiance
	Archer Band	+5% toSkill andSpeed growth rates when equipped.	Path of Radiance
	Knight Band	+5% toStrength andDefense growth rates when equipped.	Path of Radiance
	Paladin Band	+5% toHP andSpeed growth rates when equipped.	Path of Radiance
	Pegasus Band	+5% toLuck andResistance growth rates when equipped.	Path of Radiance
	Wyvern Band	+5% toStrength andDefense growth rates when equipped.	Path of Radiance
	Mage Band	+10% toMagic growth rate when equipped.	Path of Radiance
	Priest Band	+5% toLuck andResistance growth rates when equipped.	Path of Radiance
	Thief Band	+5% toSkill andSpeed growth rates when equipped.	Path of Radiance
	Knight Ward	+30% toSpeed growth rate, andDefense andResistance +2 when equipped.Knights,Generals,Sword Knights,Lance Knights,Axe Knights,Bow Knights andPaladins only.	Path of Radiance

Permanent increase items
	Item	Growth increases	Games
	Afa's Drops	Permanent +5% to all growth rates when used.	The Blazing Blade
	Metis's Tome	Permanent +5% to all growth rates when used.	The Sacred Stones
	Growth Drop	Permanent +20% toHP growth rate and +10% to all other growth rates when used.	New Mystery of the Emblem

Skills affecting growth rates
	Skill	Growth increases	Games
	Blossom	Does not explicitly boost growth rates themselves, but provides an effective boost by giving stats a second chance to increase during a level-up if they fail to do so the first time. In exchange,experience gain is lowered.	Path of Radiance,Radiant Dawn
	Aptitude	+20%/+10% to all growth rates when active.	Awakening,Fates,Three Houses
	Expertise	Doubles the class growth rates for the unit with this skill.	Engage
	Starsphere	+15% to all growth rates when equipped.	Engage

Etymology and other languages

References