Ultimate enhancement divides by 8750, not 8500
✍️ Alice・愛麗沙
Unless most of your damage genuinely comes out of your ultimate, the same slot of resource spent on smash or multi-hit beats spending it on ultimate — every time. Not a feeling; three checkable numbers. Ultimate enhancement divides by 8750 where smash and multi-hit divide by 8500, so the same 1,000 points buys 11.43% on ultimate against 11.76% on smash — 2.9% less per point. The other four terms in the enhancement bucket are all shaped (1 + stat ÷ divisor) × (1 + that type's damage%), and ultimate is the only one with no percentage multiplier, so every “ultimate damage +x%” line you own has nothing to multiply here. And then coverage: the smash and multi-hit checks run on every swing, while your ultimate fires — how many times a fight?
Start with the divisors
The enhancement bucket — segment D in the Korean community model — looks like this: 1 + multi-hit + smash + AoE + combo + ultimate. The five terms add to each other; multiplication happens only inside each term.
| Stat | Divisor | Per +100 (from zero) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multi-hit | 8500 | ≈ +1.18% | Shares one pool with its twin stat — only the sum matters |
| Smash | 8500 | ≈ +1.18% | Shares one pool with its twin stat — only the sum matters |
| AoE | 8500 | ≈ +1.18% | Only applies against 2+ targets |
| Skill power | 8500 | ≈ +1.18% | Multiplies the whole damage-increase bucket |
| Combo | 17500 | ≈ +0.57% | Also scaled by combo tier/4; full value only at 100+ combo |
| Crit | 10000 | ≈ +1.00% | Closed form: expected damage = 1 + crit/10000 |
| Extra hit | 13000 | ≈ +0.77% | Expected value of one extra 100% hit |
| Defence | 14828 | — | Mitigation = 1 ÷ (1 + DEF/14828), never reaches zero |
Divisors are KR community-model constants (identical across two independent implementations), not official; the per-+100 column is a marginal value from zero — returns diminish as a bucket fills.Stat efficiency
A divisor means one thing: you have to stack “divisor many” points before that term contributes +100%. A term on 8500 turns 1,000 points into 11.76%; a term on 8750 turns the same 1,000 points into 11.43%. The 8500 and 17500 sitting side by side in that table are the same mechanism, and the same model records 8750 for ultimate enhancement specifically.
That is a gap of 0.33 percentage points. It sounds like an argument about a decimal, but it is a free gap: same option slot, same rune, same reroll — you merely picked the other name off the list.
The real gap is the missing multiplier
Write the two expressions next to each other and the problem jumps out:
- Smash:
(1 + smash enhancement ÷ 8500) × (1 + smash damage%) − 1 - Ultimate:
ultimate enhancement ÷ 8750
The smash line carries (1 + smash damage%) behind it. Every “smash damage +x%” rune, gem tag and title you own enlarges that whole first bracket once more. The ultimate line has no such structure — in the community-maintained model it is a bare division.
Here is that worked through. Say your enhancement bucket currently totals 1.40 (this segment is already multiplying your damage by forty percent) and you carry +20% smash damage:
| Where the 1,000 points go | Bucket becomes | Effect on total damage |
|---|---|---|
| Ultimate enhancement | 1.40 + 0.1143 = 1.5143 | ×1.082 (+8.2%), and only on the ultimate |
| Smash enhancement (no smash damage%) | 1.40 + 0.1176 = 1.5176 | ×1.084 (+8.4%) |
| Smash enhancement (with +20% smash damage) | 1.40 + 0.1176×1.2 = 1.5411 | ×1.101 (+10.1%) |
8.2% against 10.1% — and the right-hand column applies all fight, while the left-hand one waits for you to press the button.
Coverage is the knife
The Korean wiki’s gating table lists the trigger conditions for four of the five: smash wants a single hit reaching 40% of your listed attack, multi-hit wants six hits inside three seconds, AoE wants two targets at once, and combo pays in four tiers by combo count.
| Hit type | Trigger gate | In-bucket rate | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smash | A single hit must deal ≥40% of your attack power before smash enhancement applies | per +100 ≈ +1.18% | MED |
| Multi-hit | 6+ hits within 3 seconds, then later hits count as multi-hit | per +100 ≈ +1.18% | MED |
| AoE | One strike must hit 2+ targets before AoE enhancement applies | per +100 ≈ +1.18% | MED |
| Combo | Four combo bands: 1–10 pays 1/4, 11–50 pays 2/4, 51–100 pays 3/4, only 101+ pays in full | per +100 ≈ +0.57% | MED |
All four enhancements share one bucket with the same divisors (multi/smash/AoE 8500, combo 17500), but each hides its own trigger gate. Any calculator that assumes they always apply in full will systematically over-report damage. Gate numbers are KR-community findings, medium confidence.
Ultimate is not in that table. No source available to us lists a trigger condition for it, and the reasonable presumption is that it settles only on the hits the ultimate skill itself lands. That is a presumption, not a measured result, and it is labelled as one here.
Even taking the presumption at face value, the arithmetic is ugly. In a three-minute boss fight, four ultimates, each landing 5% of your total damage, gives the ultimate a 20% share of your output. That +8.2% multiplied by 20% coverage nets +1.6%. And the smash 10.1%? It rides on nearly every hit you throw.
More than a sixfold difference. This is not a question of which one is slightly better.
Three names that keep getting mixed up
Half the reason this page exists — ultimate enhancement is none of the following:
- Ultimate damage%. A different option entirely, multiplied in somewhere else depending on its source, and not the same thing as the divisor-bearing “ultimate enhancement” stat.
- Ultimate cooldown. Completely unrelated. Cooldown reduction is a separate system with no contact with the enhancement bucket at all, and treating one as a substitute for the other is the single most common version of this mistake.
- Combo enhancement. Its divisor is 17500 — more than double the others — and it only pays in full above 101 combo. Decide which of the two you actually want before you spend a reroll on it.
When ultimate enhancement is worth stacking
Two situations deserve a second look.
One: your class is built around the ultimate. If your rotation is “bank resource, then detonate” rather than sustained swinging, the ultimate’s share of output can pass 40%. That turns the 8.2% into a net 3.3%, which starts to approach smash. Only your own damage records answer this — somebody else’s leaderboard does not.
Two: your reroll pool has nothing better in it. Rune option resets are an equal-probability draw, and hitting one named line takes about eleven rolls on average. If a slot has already landed on ultimate enhancement and the expected cost of rerolling exceeds a 0.3-percentage-point gap, keep it. Not every second-best result is worth repairing.
What to do now
- Priority for resources: smash or multi-hit (whichever your class’s skills actually trigger) → AoE if you fight groups often → combo if your class can hold the tiers → ultimate.
- Do not spread evenly for the sake of “having all five.” They add inside one bucket, so diversifying earns no multiplicative bonus — only a loss of coverage.
- When an option reading “ultimate enhancement” drops, do not get excited first. Ask what share of your damage the ultimate actually is.
What could overturn this: the 8750 divisor and the absent percentage multiplier both come from the same Korean community model, and its author marked the ultimate row MED confidence while the multi-hit and smash rows are HIGH. If someone builds a controlled test on a training dummy — total points fixed, moved only between ultimate enhancement and smash enhancement, counting only the ultimate’s own hits — and measures a ratio that is not 8500 : 8750, or measures ultimate damage% genuinely amplifying ultimate enhancement, bring the data. The whole page gets recomputed.
