Attributes (Partners)

Partners have four **attributes**: Wisdom, Politics, Charisma and Authority. These contribute to the player character's attribute scores, and hence their total power.

Partner attributes are primarily determined by their level and potential, with a variety of bonuses then added to this score.

## Gameplay impact

Aside from being a major contributing factor to the player's attributes, the attributes of partners provide the following contributions to gameplay:

* A partner's Total ATTR (Wis + Pol + Cha + Aut) determines their HP in debates.
* In Imperial Garden debates, attacking partners are randomly selected from the player's top 8 partners ranked by Total ATTR.
* In Literary Gatherings, each partner used in a team contributes only one specific attribute, with an extra bonus if they have that attribute as a specialty.
* In Field battles, Total ATTR serve as both HP and damage.
* A partner's Authority score contributes to their momentum.

## How attributes are calculated

Each attribute is determined in the same way (each of these steps are further explained in the corresponding sections below):

1. A “basic attribute” is derived from the partner’s level and the corresponding potential.
2. All percentage bonuses are applied to the basic attribute.
3. All static bonuses are added.

It does not matter in which order the different types of upgrades are applied to a partner; the end result will always be the same. The partner's specialty has no effect on their attributes, except in that they may more readily acquire extra growth points in relevant potentials through studying at the Academy.

Note that the pop-up window that appears whenever a partner’s attributes are increased, actually displays the *player’s* increase in those attributes. This means that any percentage bonuses the player has activated will be applied, and the number may thus be larger than the actual attribute increase for the *partner*.

### Basic attributes

The basic attributes are determined by the partner's level and the corresponding potential. The following equation to calculate base attributes has been reverse engineered by editors of this wiki. It is hence not official, but has been tested at all levels, and holds true.

This means that the partner's attributes can be increased by upgrading their level or potential. Upgrading level has a higher impact than upgrading potential, unless potential is significantly lower than level.

When you increase a single **potential point** for a specific attribute, gain is based on partner's current level. The following equation is derived from the basic attribute formula.

### Percentage bonuses

This category of bonuses increases attributes by a percentage of the basic attribute score. Percentage bonuses may come from confidant bond skills, special partner bond skills, and knowledge upgrades.

Because percentage bonuses are applied to basic attributes only, they will have a much more pronounced effect on partners with high level and potential -- but it does not matter which is raised first. When a percentage bonus is acquired/increased, the immediate effect is visible to the player as the increase in whichever attribute(s) the bonus applies to. For instance, obtaining a +1% Wisdom bonus will give the partner an increase of 1% of their basic Wisdom attribute.

For this reason, it may appear as though percentage bonuses are more valuable *after* the basic attribute has been raised through level and potential. However, the effect of percentage bonuses is permanent. In our example, *every future increase* in the partners basic Wisdom attribute will also result in an additional 1% of that increase being added to the final score.

### Static bonuses

The final part of the attribute score consists of “static” bonuses, so called because they consist of static numbers which do not scale with any other component of the attribute. A Lunyu book will always add exactly +100 to the receiving partner’s Wisdom score, no matter how high (or low) their level, potential, or total percentage bonus may be.

## Components

A breakdown of a partner's attributes (as well as momentum) can be found by tapping the exclamation mark next to the Total ATTR score on the partner's Base screen. Basic Attribute is explained in the previous section; following sections explain what each of the remaining components contribute.

### Confidant Bonus

Confidant bonus refers to the attribute bonuses obtained through confidant bond skills. Each confidant has four skills; the first two to be unlocked confer a static bonus, whereas the next two raise attributes by a percentage. This percentage is calculated from the basic attribute, which means that confidant bonuses obtained from these skills increase when the basic attribute is increased through raising level or potential.

### Gift Bonus

Gift bonus refers to attribute bonuses obtained by giving the partner gifts of books or food. These are static bonuses, and thus do not scale with level or potential.

Books exist in three tiers, which confer bonuses of +100, +500 and +1000 attribute points respectively. The dishes that can improve partner attributes are listed in the table below.

 Kirin Noodle\*

\* Note that Kirin Noodle dishes will only contribute to the gift bonus if they result in the static attr gain, rather than growth points.

### Promotion Bonus

Promotion bonus refers to attribute bonuses obtained through promoting the partner. Only the static attribute bonuses (obtained from promoting partners to Servant, Steward and Curator) fall under this component. Later promotions increase potential, instead, which serves to raise the basic attributes. Thus promotion bonus maxes out at 6000 per attribute, as partners reach the rank of Curator.

 Steward
 Curator

### Knowledge Bonus

Knowledge bonus is gained from increasing a partner's knowledge. Like the confidant bonus, knowledge is composed both of static points and percentage increases calculated from the basic attribute. A breakdown of each partner's knowledge bonuses can be seen at the top of their knowledge screen.

### Bond Bonus

Certain partners, such as recruitment partners and Lanling King, have specific bond skills, through which they gain bonuses to certain attributes.

### Character EXP Bonus

This bonus only applies to the Cabinet Scholar, and relates to their basic prestige. Though it's called "Character EXP Bonus" in the attribute breakdown, it has nothing to do with Character EXP.

### Ministry of Works

This bonus is gained through investing guild jades in certain skills in the Ministry of Works. This bonus is composed of static points only, as the skills that increase potential will affect the basic attribute directly.

### Marriage Book Bonus

Marriage Book Bonus is acquired through marrying off foster children.