Stats & Bonuses
How your Kami's numbers actually work — from birth traits to endgame stacking.
Your Kami's Five Stats
Every Kami in the game is defined by five stats. These aren't just numbers on a screen — they determine how you harvest, how you fight, how long you survive, and how much gear you can carry. Understanding them is the first step toward building a Kami that fits your playstyle.
| Stat | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Health | Your hit points. When Health reaches zero, your Kami dies. Higher Health means surviving more hits and more time to react. |
| Power | Drives your harvest rate (Fertility) and determines how much loot you get from combat. The workhorse stat for Obols. |
| Violence | Your offensive edge. Higher Violence makes it easier to liquidate other Kamis and gives you an Intensity bonus while harvesting. |
| Harmony | Your defensive backbone. Harmony protects you from being liquidated, reduces strain damage, and speeds up healing. |
| Slots | How many pieces of equipment your Kami can wear at once. Every Kami starts with 1 slot. |
How Stats Are Built Up
Your Kami's final stat values aren't just one number — they're assembled from layers of modifiers stacking on top of each other. Think of it like this: your Kami is born with a set of base stats determined by its traits. Then, as you play, various sources add flat bonuses (called shifts) and percentage multipliers (called boosts) on top of that foundation.
The game first adds up all your flat bonuses, then applies the percentage multiplier to the combined total. So if you have a base of 50, a +10 shift from a skill, and a +50% boost from equipment, the game calculates (50 + 10) multiplied by 1.5, giving you an effective stat of 90 — not 85.
Where Do Modifiers Come From?
Modifiers flow in from all corners of the game. Your traits establish your base stats at birth — different trait combinations give different starting spreads, and you can't change these afterward. Consumable items like potions and tonics can permanently raise your shifts or instantly restore depleted stats like Health. Skills from the four skill trees grant bonuses as long as you have them learned. Equipment provides bonuses while it's worn, and unequipping it removes the bonus immediately. Finally, temporary effects from food, combat, or timed consumables give short-lived buffs that expire when certain game events happen.
Shift vs Boost: Which Is Better?
This is one of the most important strategic questions in Kamigotchi. Shifts are flat additions — predictable and always valuable. Boosts are percentage multipliers — they scale with your total base + shift, so they become more powerful the higher your underlying stats are.
Early on, when your stats are low, shifts give you more bang for your buck. A +10 shift on a base of 50 is a 20% increase. But later, when your base + shift is already 100, a +50% boost gives you +50 — far more than most single shifts. The takeaway: stack shifts early, prioritize boosts once your foundation is solid.
The Bonus System in a Nutshell
Behind the scenes, every modifier on your Kami — whether from a skill, a piece of equipment, a food buff, or a combat effect — is tracked as a bonus. Each bonus has a type (like "Health Shift" or "Power Boost") and a value. When the game calculates your effective stats, it sums up all bonuses of each type and folds them into the formula.
Some bonuses are permanent — they stick around as long as their source exists (an equipped weapon, a learned skill). Others are temporary — they disappear when a specific event happens, like finishing a harvest or dying. And timed bonuses simply count down and expire after a set duration.
Equipment Slots
Every Kami starts with a single equipment slot. You can unlock more through skills and items that grant additional slot capacity. Each piece of equipment takes up one slot, so expanding your capacity is essential for gearing up — especially since equipment bonuses are some of the strongest in the game.
Strategic Considerations
Harmony vs Health
Both keep you alive, but in different ways. Health is a raw buffer — more HP means more hits before death. Harmony, on the other hand, makes you harder to liquidate in the first place, reduces strain damage, and speeds up healing. A high-Harmony Kami can sustain through prolonged danger; a high-Health Kami survives sudden bursts. Most experienced players lean toward Harmony for PvP survivability and Health for PvE endurance, but the best builds balance both.
Violence vs Power
Violence is your kill stat — it determines whether you can liquidate other Kamis and gives a harvesting bonus through Intensity. Power drives your base harvest rate and your spoils from combat. Aggressive players stack Violence for the liquidation edge; farming-focused players invest in Power for consistent Obol income. Hybrid builds exist, but pure specialization tends to be more efficient.