Questions about stats and party-building

[Sonic]

Over the summer I'm replaying the series from front to back, and I'm currently a few hours of play from completing IV. IV is the title in which I find myself being the most experimental with my parties, since I don't feel the tug to include storyline characters as much as I do in other installments. So I tend to use most interesting or promising characters, at least for a little while.

I have some questions, though, about how to better utilize some of these characters. In Suikodens II and III, it was easy to see how a character with high SKL or SPD could have an advantage over a simple powerhouse, but in Suikoden IV the benefits of having anything but enormous ATT stat aren't as apparent. So, questions!

1) What, specifically, do SPD, EVA and SKL do? I suppose SPD has something to do with when a character gets to attack in a turn, but I'd like some verification. Do any of these stats directly influence how much damage the character can do with an ordinary hit? Do any of these stats influence a character's critical hit rate, or how likely they are to parry and/or counter attack? I ask because I'd like to know where I should be divvying up my Killer Runes versus my Violence Runes. If SKL effects critical hit rate (which I think it might), I'd rather give a Killer Rune to someone with high SKL to make critical attacks much more likely.

2) That said, how exactly does the Killer Rune work? Since it's one of the only runes to influence a character's melee usefulness, I tend to give one to basically anyone I'd rather have attacking than spellcasting. Does it make it so that a certain percentage of the character's attacks will always be critical, or does it work in conjunction with whichever stat(s) determine critical hit ratio and increase the odds from there? Because I don't want to waste Killer Runes on people whose relevant stats are so lousy that they won't be getting criticals anyway.

3) A couple of questions about Runes: If I equip the Fury Rune to Kika (which I already have), will the increased strength effect the damage she does with her Falcon Rune? I think I've noticed a difference, but it's difficult to tell for certain and I'd like to know I'm not kidding myself. The Violence Rune works by causing an ordinary berserk status after the character has been attacked a couple of times, right? If so, it's essentialy a Fury Rune requiring the character take a few rounds of damage, right? Does the berserk status wear off with a Violence Rune? Also, Double-Strike and Warrior Runes: are they worth it? I've used Double-Strike Runes in II and III, with mixed results, and I've never been comfortable with Warrior Runes (although I'm fond of Wizard Runes in the right circumstances). Would it be wise to spend two rune slots on, say, a Double-Strike and a Skunk Rune?

4) Some character specific questions: Snowe, worth it? A single run through Reinhold's training rocketed him from level 8 to level 48, but his stats aren't as wowing as some of my other characters. I read on this site a long time ago that Snowe and Chiepoo have some kind of unusually high stat growth after a certain level, resulting in the both of them being radically overpowered if you level them that high, but the Stat Growth guide on this site doesn't mention it. Try as I may to avoid using story characters, or to go out of my way to use underrated characters, I'm at the point now where Kika and Ted are permanent fixtures of my party. Since I gave my Champion Rune to Lino En Kuldez, I rarely let him out of my sight either. I've tried for most of the game to use other characters- favouring Nalkul (yeah!), Reinbach, Charlemagne, Reinhold, Mitsuba and Bartholomew, but are there any fan-favourite sleeper hits who I may have overlooked? I try not to stack my party with thumpin-great mages like Jeane or Warlock or whoever, but I'd like to know if I've ignored someone valuable.

I know I'm asking a lot of questions, especially for someone so near the end of the game already, but I'm trying to be more stat-concious than I have been in the past, and I'd really appreciate a little help here. Cheers!

[KFCrispy]

we don't have official information about what stats do, but judging from other Suikoden games and experience..
1. SKL - accuracy, and (SKL + LUK) / 32 = critical hit rate. SPD - when you act in the round. EVA - dodge rate for physical attacks. SKL probably also affects counter-hit rate, if there are counters in this game (don't remember).

i find turn order can get a little messed up in this game because it tries to allow for simultaneous actions (like character A attacks enemy 1, character B uses a single-target spell on enemy 2.. they will kinda wait until they can do it around the same time.... or just having other characters trying to attack or cast spells can slow down your fastest character(??). this can really screw you in the last Reinhold challenge round from my experience; i generally just cast a combo and have others defend for Reinhold's last round.)


2. Killer Rune boosts the existing critical rate by 50%. So if your critical rate is 8%, with a Killer Rune it becomes 12%.

3. A couple of questions about Runes: If I equip the Fury Rune to Kika (which I already have), will the increased strength effect the damage she does with her Falcon Rune?

yes. all the passive physical attack/dmg boosting runes increase the damage output of all physical attacks - normal, counter, command, unites

I'm not quite sure what Violence Rune does in this game.

Warrior <<< Double-Strike Rune. with high armor, Double-Strike doesn't hurt you badly and greatly increases damage. Warrior in most games only adds a small amount of STR for completely halving your PDF. consider an enemy that hits for 110, and your PDF is 100. with Double-Strike, you take 15. with Warrior, you take 60.

Would it be wise to spend two rune slots on, say, a Double-Strike and a Skunk Rune?

that's really up to your entire battle strategy.


4. regarding stat growth, perhaps you don't understand it... but most characters have 0-1 growth in all categories for the last ~40 levels. Chiepoo and Snowe gain 1-2 points. that totals to a pretty big advantage, +40-80 compared to others who get +0-40. remember that total ATK by end-game is only going to be around 200-300 for most characters. 40 points is significant.
Plus Snowe's unite with Hero4 = 3x dmg when the unite is lvl 3, or something like that.

as for strongest single character, that would be Kika simply because of her unlimited Falcon Rune attack doing up to 3x dmg every round. sometimes you will see gaps in the numbers flying around, which means an attack missed--if all hit, that's 3x dmg. i also believe her Falcon Attack includes the weapon element(s) at the end, unlike most special attacks.
if you have enough Stone of Magic, you can even get her head rune slot open making her even more dangerous.

[Chris_Lightfellow]

SKL probably also affects counter-hit rate, if there are counters in this game (don't remember).

Yes, there are counters in this game.

[Sonic]

KFCrispy, you are a gentleman and a scholar. You don't know how much this information helps me, thanks a mil.