Arcana Heart 3/AH3LMSS/Meter Gain
Meter Gain
In Arcana Heart 3, the term "meter gain" refers to increasing your Arcana gauge's max available meter from 1 bar up to 3 bars. (The Arcana gauge being the meter you use for supers, homing cancels, and guard cancels, as opposed to the Force gauge which is used for EF and bursts.)
Note that your max available meter increases only when your available meter is full. In other words, after you spend meter, you cannot gain meter again until your available meter refills itself. Exception: in EF, meter gain is reduced to 25% (not 0%) until your meter refills itself.
When your available meter is not full, the meter you would've gained if it was full actually goes toward refilling your meter. If your meter is almost full, then the excess "refill" will increase your max meter. In EF, you simultaneously refill 100% of what you would've gained and also increase your max meter by 25% of what you would've gained.
Meter gain is proportional to the damage the attack deals or would have dealt on hit. This includes any damage scaling and other modifiers. This damage value is multiplied by a number based on whether it hit or was blocked, and whether you're attacking or being attacked.
Your meter gain is affected by your Arcana. Each Arcana has 3 separate numbers for the amount of meter you gain from attacking, from blocking, and from getting hit. Your Arcana also affects how quickly your spent meter refills itself.
You gain a small amount of meter just by doing B/C/E-normals and A/B/C-specials, even if they whiff. Blood Arcana specials build a small amount of meter when used: all other Arcanas' specials build no meter on whiff. All other moves -- A-normals, A+D throws, and supers -- build no meter on whiff.
Hit/Block Multipliers
To compute your meter gain from doing an attack or receiving an opponent's attack, start with the damage the attack would deal if it hit, including damage scaling and other modifiers.
Take the attack's damage and multiply it by one of the following.
"Relative Gain" shows how much meter is gained relative to your attack hitting the opponent. E.g. the opponent gains about 58.33% as much meter from getting hit as you gain from hitting them, before Arcana and EF are taken into account.
| Multiply Dmg By | Relative Gain | |
|---|---|---|
| Your Attack Hit | 51% | 100% |
| Opponent's Attack Hit | 29.75% | 58.33% |
| Your Attack Blocked | 21.25% | 41.67% |
| Opponent's Attack Blocked | 8.5% | 16.67% |
| Your Attack Whiffed | 0% | 0% |
Example: Kamui 5C deals 3000 damage on hit. If you hit the opponent with this move, your base meter gain would be 3000 * 0.51 = 1530 and the opponent's base meter gain would be 3000 * 0.2975 = 892.5.
Damage Needed To Build 1 Bar
Each bar of meter is 17000 units large.
In theory, you would have to deal 17000 / 0.51 = 33334 damage to the opponent to build 1 meter for yourself. In the process, the opponent would gain 33334 * 0.2975 = 9916 units of meter or about 58.33% of a bar. This does not take into account Arcana or EF.
Depending on your Arcana and the opponent's Arcana, it is entirely possible for them to gain more meter from being hit than you gain from hitting them! E.g. if you're both using the Sin Arcana, then in theory, you would have to deal 66667 damage to the opponent to build 1 meter for yourself. But in the process, the opponent would gain 33716 units of meter: they would almost be maxed-out at 3 bars by the time you reached 2 bars! Of course in practice, this is also enough damage to KO the opponent more than twice, and any damage they deal to you will likewise build you almost twice as much meter as it builds them.
EF Bonus
If you are in EF, multiply meter gain by 110%. This applies regardless of whether you are attacking or being attacked. This does not affect meter gained on whiff (see below).
Meter Gained on Whiff
If your attack hit the opponent, was blocked, or whiffed, add the following to your meter gain. This is not affected by any of the multipliers above.
If you are using the Blood Arcana, add the Blood Arcana Gain. For all other Arcanas, add the Normal Gain.
Technically, the meter gained on whiff is gained immediately when you start the attack (multiplied by the Arcana's attacking multiplier and the full/not-full multiplier below). The remaining meter is gained only when the attack hits the opponent or is blocked.
Clashing does not affect meter gain. It is the same as whiffing the attack unless the attack goes on to hit the opponent or is blocked.
| Normal Gain | Blood Arcana Gain | |
|---|---|---|
| A-normals | 0 | 0 |
| B-normals | 100 | 234 |
| C-normals | 200 | 334 |
| E-normals | 200 | 334 |
| A/B/C-specials | 400(*) | 534 |
| Arcana specials | 0 | 134 |
| A+D throws | 0 | 0 |
| supers | 0 | 0 |
(*) Note: some specials gain only 200 (334) meter on whiff instead of 400 (534). E.g. Heart's air DP, j623x.
Arcana Multipliers and Recharge Rates
Your meter gain, computed from the steps above, is multiplied by one of the following:
- Attacking: your attack hit the opponent, was blocked, or whiffed.
- Blocking: you blocked the opponent's attack.
- Damaged: you were hit by the opponent's attack.
The multiplier depends on your Arcana.
"Recharge Rate" shows how quickly your spent meter refills. The Blood Arcana recharges at a rate of 80% normally and 275% in EF.
| Arcana | Attacking | Damaged | Blocking | Recharge Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blood | 75% | 80% | 70% | 80% (275%) |
| Darkness | 80% | 90% | 85% | 50% |
| Earth | 70% | 110% | 130% | 90% |
| Evil | 60% | 70% | 65% | 115% |
| Fenrir | 105% | 55% | 55% | 85% |
| Fire | 105% | 55% | 25% | 80% |
| Flower | 70% | 70% | 0% | 100% |
| Halo | 90% | 60% | 75% | 65% |
| Ice | 80% | 90% | 85% | 80% |
| Love | 100% | 80% | 90% | 100% |
| Luck | 100% | 100% | 100% | 80% |
| Magnet | 80% | 90% | 125% | 75% |
| Metal | 0% | 120% | 120% | 100% |
| Mirror | 85% | 85% | 85% | 80% |
| Plant | 100% | 20% | 120% | 100% |
| Punishment | 115% | 0% | 0% | 110% |
| Sacred | 105% | 110% | 75% | 105% |
| Sin | 50% | 170% | 105% | 80% |
| Thunder | 75% | 95% | 100% | 80% |
| Time | 75% | 75% | 75% | 50% |
| Tone | 90% | 80% | 70% | 90% |
| Tyr | 95% | 95% | 95% | 100% |
| Water | 75% | 100% | 20% | 75% |
| Wind | 90% | 80% | 80% | 95% |
(Credit to Nekohime Tsukino for finding most of the values in the table above!)
Full/Not-Full Multiplier
There is one final meter gain multiplier that depends on whether or not your available meter is full and whether or not you're in EF.
If your meter is not full, then it will refill by 100% of your "meter gain" value. Any excess will increase your max meter accordingly. In EF, you simultaneously refill your meter (by 100% of the "meter gain" value) and increase your max meter (by 25% of the "meter gain" value).
| Not in EF | In EF | |
| Available Meter Is Full | 100% | 100% |
| Available Meter Is Not Full | 0% | 25% |
Technical Details: Meter Gain Formula
Below is the exact formula used to determine meter gain. It's basically the process described above, but in mathematical notation. %s should be converted to decimals, e.g. 100% is 1.0 and 75% is 0.75.
This spreadsheet can be copied and used as a meter gain calculator for individual hits. It contains all of the meter gain multipliers already.
<meter gain> = FLOOR( <full/not-full multiplier>
* <arcana multiplier>
* ( <dmg> * <hit/block multiplier> * <ef bonus>
+ <meter gained on whiff> ) )
Example: Dark Kamui hits Earth Kamui with 5C.
Dark Kamui has spent some meter and is in EF.
Earth Kamui has full meter and is not in EF.
5C deals 3090 damage in Dark EF.
There is no damage scaling.
Dark Kamui meter gain
= FLOOR(0.25 * 0.8 * (3090 * 0.51 * 1.1 + 200))
= FLOOR(0.25 * 0.8 * (1733.49 + 200))
= FLOOR(0.25 * 1546.792)
= 386
Earth Kamui meter gain
= FLOOR(1.0 * 1.1 * (3090 * 0.2975 * 1.0 + 0))
= FLOOR(1.0 * 1.1 * (919.275 + 0))
= FLOOR(1.0 * 1011.2025)
= 1011
Technically, the attacker gains meter in two chunks: they gain the meter on whiff as soon as their attack starts, and they gain the remaining meter when the attack hits the opponent or is blocked. Below is the same example as above, except that Dark Kamui's meter gain is split into the immediate gain and the gain on hit.
Dark Kamui immediate meter gain = FLOOR(0.25 * 0.8 * (3090 * 0 * 1.1 + 200)) = FLOOR(0.25 * 0.8 * 200) = 40 Dark Kamui meter gain on hit = FLOOR(0.25 * 0.8 * (3090 * 0.51 * 1.1 + 0)) = FLOOR(0.25 * 0.8 * 1733.49) = 346 Dark Kamui total meter gain = 40 + 346 = 386