Risk in Vagrant Story

A Risk bar is placed below the HP and MP bar, representing the Risk Points the player has accumulated.

Risk is a balancing element in the battle system. Ashley can make multiple attacks, with Chain and Defensive Abilities, in the same space of time as enemies make single attacks. Therefore, Risk Points, which affect Ashley's concentration adversely, are accrued more quickly from Chain and Defensive Abilities than from regular attacks. Break Arts cost HP, and so do not increase Risk at all.

Maximum Risk reduces the chance to evade attacks to zero, which sounds bad, but it is actually the less grievous effect. Max Risk reduces defense by one-third, which sounds less bad than it is. Since Attack and Defense are both multiples of various factors, including a flat value of 100, a one-third reduced defense, compared directly with an unmodified enemy's Attack, can allow upwards of 30 damage to be dealt even by enemies that normally only hit for single digits.

Players will of course differ in their preferred methods of dealing with Risk, but one easy and quite safe strategy is to aim towards not increasing it much beyond the capacity of a single Risk-reducing potion (such as Vera Root) to bring RISK back to a manageable level. If Ashley begins taking too much damage, he is only one action away from safety.

Experienced players will know not to waste RISK on Chains that begin with a miss; the damage of subsequent hits will be zero plus one, zero plus two etc. Some monsters, such as Ogres, are particularly resistant to chains.

Vera Root	Lowers RISK by 25	255/255, both Stirges, Dreamers' Entrance
Vera Bulb	Lowers RISK by 50	32/255, Numerous sources
Vera Tonic	Lowers RISK by 150	32/255, Hall of Prayer

Accumulated RISK decreases continually; decreasing less rapidly when Ashley's weapons are drawn, and more when they are sheathed.

The Riskbreak Break Art for Staff also reduces Risk. Compared with potions, it is of some difficulty to acquire. Weapon switching takes time, and the risk reduction can be lost altogether if the attack misses, which is quite likely at very high Risk.

Risk does not increase Ashley's damage directly, but it does increase the chance of him making critical hits. This is more than balanced on the negative side by an increased chance of Ashley receiving critical hits.

Enemy attacks and spells deal more damage on Ashley, the more Risk he has; as do Ashley's, on enemies, and his healing spells increase in efficiency. A further advantage is the higher chances for the player to score critical hits.