Sacred 2:Survival Bonus

	[[[File:SBcomparison.gif|160px]] ]

Survival Bonus is quite likely the most complex factor to do with any of the 7 character classes. Every character begins and ends with a varying percent of Survival Bonus which can be seen from the Character Information Screen by pushing the "F" Key and then hovering your cursor over the word "Character Class" at the top left. A box containing a list of information will pop up and around the middle of that list the total percent of Survival Bonus is shown. A character that has just begun (level 1) and has yet to engage in battle will have 0% Survival Bonus. When a character engages an opponent for the first time the character's Survival Bonus will increase immediately. Survival Bonus can only increase when in battle and it does so slowly. As an example, some players have attained approximately 80% Survival Bonus at around character level 60-70. Although Survival Bonus appears to increase quickly at first, its rate of increase will become slower as it increases. The time it would take for Survival Bonus to increase from 90-100% would be much much greater than the time taken to reach 0-90%.

Survival Bonus is applied to the character in many ways but most notably it increases attributes and the Chance to Find Valuables. An example image can be seen to the right that demonstrates how Survival Bonus can change Attributes. The example animation image is of a level 1 Temple Guardian with 0.1% Survival Bonus versus a 71.7% Survival Bonus. However small the results may seem, it is actually quite significant. The same test on a much higher level character would give much greater results.

Effect on Attributes

The mechanism of how Survival Bonus modifies Attributes is important: it actually modifies the base stats of a character. The item modifiers and skills that are percent based also work off of a character's base stats. Essentially, 20% of nothing is nothing. 20% of 5 is 1. 20% of 50 is 10. This means that higher Survival Bonus = better base stats = better results from many modifiers. Even without modifiers, a character will still see some great changes such as improved damage from weapons and spells, more health, faster health regeneration, more attack, defense, spell intensity and resistance, lower Buff penalties and faster Combat Art regeneration.

An example image to the left demonstrates these benefits. The more that is understood about Survival Bonus, the more can be seen as to just how important Survival Bonus. It isn't an optional component to a character. It is a necessary factor which can make AND break a build when pushed to the limit. 1/3rd or 33.3333% of a character's total Survival Bonus is applied to a character's attributes. If a character has 60% Survival Bonus then that character will receive a 20% bonus to its attributes. Survival Bonus can go as high as 100%, so the bonus to attributes can only be as high as 33.3333%.

Effect on Enemy Levels

Survival Bonus increases the levels of encountered enemies. When Survival Bonus is 0%, enemy levels are equal to the character level (and further capped by the area limits). As the SB percentage increases, the enemy levels increase as well.

The bonus to the enemy levels depends on character level (see full table). Different areas and difficulties provide a final limit to the enemy levels.

Formula

Explicitly, the Survival Bonus is given by the formula SB = T/(T+6), where T is the total time in combat since the character's last ressurection, measured in hours. This value T can be looked up under the name "Alive Time" in your character's stats file, where it is given in seconds. Below is a list with some times and their SB values.

• 25% - 2h
• 50% - 6h
• 75% - 18h
• 90% - 54h
• 95% - 114h
• 98% - 294h
• 99% - 594h