Sendril marks

Sendril marks are the mechanic that makes Jerold different. The game's text calls them marks of the Sendril (and the talent tree talks about "stars" for the extra ones); the data calls the status "Griminess" in its internal Chinese name. His enhanced attacks leave a mark on every enemy they hit. Marks pile up to six, thin the enemy's Physical Defence slightly, and can be blown up by a second, invisible status that acts as a timed fuse.

Overview#

Four status rows are involved, all in the status table:

The detonation applies Poise and Resilience damage as well: the 10103 fuse takes 13 Poise and 11 Resilience per mark and the 10104 fuse 13 and 13 per mark, in addition to the Health damage.

How marks are applied#

Move rows in the skill table carry two status slots. A hit applies them in order, mark first, fuse second:

Two consequences follow. First, a plain art still detonates marks that are already on the enemy. Second, an enhanced art adds its mark before the fuse starts, so the new mark is included in the blast.

"Enhanced" needs at least one lit energy grid or Sendril's Arrival; see Jerold#Energy grids (Sendril Ordeal).

The hit code skips a status only when the target blocked the hit and the status row has GuardEnable set; all four of these rows have it at 0, so a blocking enemy still gets marked (inferred from the check at animalbase.lua 7518-7526).

Stacking and the Defence effect#

The first mark creates the status. Each further hit within the 30 s window adds one more, up to six, and restarts the 30-second timer.

The Defence debuff is -3.5% of the target's base Physical Defence per step, where "step" is the internal stack counter. The counter starts at 0 for the first mark, so:

(The 3.5% comes from the status's fifth parameter, 35 per mille, applied to the target's base Defence and rounded up per step. The first mark has no effect because the code multiplies by the counter, not the displayed number of marks.)

Detonation#

When a fuse status runs out, the game checks that the battle is a story-mode battle, that Jerold is alive and visible, and that the fuse came from a skill. If so, it reads the number of marks currently on the target and deals:

damage = ceil(0.3 x Jerold's Physical Attack + 29) x marks

with no Defence reduction (the fuse has no defence type), then removes all marks. The hit is a light flinch whose shake grows with the count (1 for 1-2 marks, 2 for 3-5, 3 for 6).

Because the burst scales with the Attack stat and a flat 29, it matters most in the early game and against high-Defence enemies. If Jerold dies before the fuse ends, nothing happens; the marks simply expire.

Related effects#

• Lunatic Rage bonus. In the Abnormal state (and therefore also when Lunatic; see Abnormal state#Effects by hero), hitting an enemy with a mark gives 10% more Rage (15% / 20% with Sendril Affinity).
• Night's Embrace. While the trophy of that name is worn, the local player's hits treat an enemy that carries a mark (10101 or 10102) and is not already a Sendril as a Sendril-type target. A target that is both Human and Beast loses its Beast flag (it keeps Human); a target that is only one of them loses that flag. The Sendril flag is then added, so the Sendril damage bonus replaces the type bonuses (animalbase_value.lua 1768-1792). The code only checks that the attacker is the local player, not that the mark came from Jerold (inferred). See Trophies and Damage formula#Hidden mechanics.
• An older mark. Status 10031 carries the same internal name ("Jerold's Griminess") but is a max-Poise reduction (LogicType 102, 10 s). No skill row, trophy, talent or Lua file applies it (inferred), so it is a left-over from an earlier design and is not the mark described here.
• Serene bolts. The enhanced Serene finishers also launch bolts that reuse the move row, so each bolt carries the same mark status (inferred); the talent texts speak of one or three "stars" for these arts.

Hidden mechanics#

• The mark count cap is 6 but the first mark is weak: only the second to sixth hit change Defence.
• The detonation is not reduced by Defence; it is flat per mark and scales only with Jerold's Attack stat.
• The 1-second fuse means that Serene and Soul Sword arts explode their own marks nearly at once; mark build-up for a big payoff needs plain Light and Heavy swings that do not fuse.
• Marks are removed when they detonate, so a long chain of enhanced swings followed by a single art is the efficient pattern.
• Lunatic Jerold gains Rage from marked targets only on hits that give Rage at all, so the detonation itself gives none.

Sources#

• Data: es_statusdata.lua StatusId 10101-10104 (LogicType 124 for 10101/10102, 125 for 10103/10104; Overlay 6, Time 30/30/1/2, Param1 10 = Physical resist, Param2 300, Param4 29, Param5 35, ToughnessSub 13, WeaknessSub 11/13); es_skilldata.lua HeroId 10005 StatusId1 and StatusId2 columns.
• Code: logic/status/status124.lua 11-17; logic/status/status125.lua 13-36; logic/status/statusbase.lua 109-155, 209-224, 284-348; logic/player/animalbase.lua 5248-5330, 7506-7549, 16780-16789; logic/player/hero10005.lua 219-245; structdata/ms_statusdata.lua 49-51 (SanAddRageStatusId1/2 = 10101/10102); es_statusdata.lua StatusId 10031 (unused older row); logic/playervalue/animalbase_value.lua 1768-1792, 2744-2753.