This is a guide to the various stats that characters and equipment have in Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (X1) for the Nintendo Switch. Read on to learn what stats such as auto-attack, muscle, strength, ether, and agility do.

Spoiler Notes

The images below might contain spoilers from the guides or images that this article contains. For players that are completely new to the game, read at your own risk!

Explanation of Stats

In Xenoblade Chronicles, each of your party members have varied stats that, alongside their arts, essentially enable to fill a specific role within battle. For example, a character such as Reyn has high HP and tanky skills, so giving him armor that prioritizes defensive stats will help him to fill this niche. The only stats that each character inherently has are HP, Strength, Ether, and Agility, but other stats can be added on through equipment.

The following list will show all stats and values shown on the “Change Equipment” screen that effect your characters in combat.

List of Stats

LV

Like most games, your characters' levels raise through gaining EXP, and will lead to boosted stats when doing so. Each level up will increase a character's HP, Strength, Ether, and Agility, and it will make it much easier to battle higher level enemies that are close to your level.

EXP

Experience Points are mainly gained via three methods: Questing, finding Landmarks/Locations, and defeating enemies. The EXP on the Change Equipment screen displays all the EXP that a particular character has acquired up to that point.

HP

Your character's current heal / total health. If this reaches 0 in combat, a character will be incapacitated. The stat can be raised through leveling up, as well as various equipment, and gems.

Auto-Attack Damage

This stat shows a range of damage that can be dealt through auto-attacks in battle, which are just attacks done automatically in battle when a character is in range of the enemy and is not using an Art. Every weapon has an “Attack” stat, so equipping a weapon with higher Attack means raising the Auto-Attack Damage stat as well.

Strength

This is like Physical Attack in many other games. A higher Strength stat means stronger auto-attacks and physical arts. This stat can be increased by leveling up or equipping specific Gems. Without the Monado, Enchant, toppling, or anti-mechon weapons, physical attacks will always deal only 1 damage to Mechons.

Ether

This is similar to Magic Attack / Special Attack in many other games. It raises the amount of damage dealt by Ether Arts, making it very useful on a character like Melia. This stat can be increased by leveling up, skills, or equipping specific Gems. Without the Monado, Enchant, toppling, or anti-mechon weapons, ether arts will always deal half damage to Mechons.

Agility

Agility is a stat that affects how often a character can evade enemy attacks, and how often the enemy can evade their attacks. Since a high agility stat generally means taking less damage, it means that a high agility character like Dunban is a good tank, since he can dodge a high number of attacks and remain unharmed.

This stat can be increased by leveling up or equipping specific Gems, and also by decreasing the weight of a character's equipment (light armour or no armour having the least amount of weight).

Physical Def (Muscle)

Like in most games, a higher physical defence means that physical attacks will deal less damage to a character. This, along with agility, is an important stat for a tank (especially Reyn), as it means that strong physical attacks don't deal as much damage. The stat can be raised through weapons, equipment, and skills, as well as Gems, where it is referred to as Muscle.

Ether Def

Similar to Magic Defence / Special Defence in many other games. It affects how much damage a character wil take from enemy ether attacks, so a higher ether defence is good for defending against enemies with a high ether stat. The stat can be raised through weapons, equipment, and skills, as well as Gems.

Critical Rate

Affects the amount of critical attacks a character lands on opponents. Critical hits deal 1.25 times normal damage (1.5 if the enemy is toppled or dazed). This stat can be raised through weapons, equipment, and skills, as well as Gems.

Block Rate

Increases the chance of blocking an enemy's physical attack. A blocked attack will only deal half of the damage it would normally deal. Block rate can be increased via weapons, equipment, and skills, and Gems, but it is also affected by the level difference between your character and the enemy (a character will have a lower chance of blocking attacks from an enemy that is more than two levels above them).

Weight

A stat for equipment that affects a character's agility. As the name implies, light armour typically has a lower weight, while heavy armour has a higher weight, so light weight (usually with a weight of 1), will not subtract much from your character's agility. In most cases, higher weight equipment has higher defence stats to make up for it.

For a much more detailed explanation about weight, see the link below.
What is Weight?

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition Guides

Beginner's Guide to Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition