Stats and grades

Every chao carries five stats: swim, fly, run, power and stamina.

Each is three numbers:

• a grade, E up to S, rolled at birth and fixed for the life
• a level, 0 to 99
• progress, 0 to 100, toward the next level

Fill progress to 100 and it empties, and the level goes up by one.

Grades

A grade multiplies the progress a chao gains. It never raises a stat by itself, it changes how fast that stat fills.

An S-grade swimmer reaches level 99 on a little under half the effort an E-grade one needs. Both get there.

The multiplier applies to gains only. A negative point, such as an animal that takes 24 off power, lands at full size and ungraded. A high grade speeds up the climb and does nothing to soften the fall.

The roll at birth

Grades are rolled per stat at birth. Nothing changes a grade during a life, and a rebirth keeps them.

S is rare per stat and a chao with two is rarer. Re-rolling for it is not worth the time: grade decides pace, not ceiling, and every chao can max every stat.

Levels and progress

Level runs 0 to 99. At 99 a stat is done, and further gains set progress back to zero rather than banking, so effort into a maxed stat is spent.

Levels can go down. If progress drops below zero the chao gives back a level and the bucket refills from the top. Negative animal deltas are the usual cause. A Condor (-24 run) given to a chao at level 3 run with little progress will visibly cost it.

The earned-vs-gifted rule

Every stat gain is flagged earned or gifted.

Both raise the level identically. Only gifts feed the investment vectors that decide what a chao becomes.

In practice

Racing a chao makes it faster. It cannot change what it grows into.

Take a chao through every Race course, win every Karate tier and run Quest until its run stat is 99, and as far as evolution is concerned it is still whatever you have been feeding it. Mode rewards are earned, and earned gains do not vote.

Earned sources include Race, Karate, Quest and Stadium rewards, plus the practice a chao does on its own in the garden: swimming the pond, climbing the rockwork, wandering the lawn.

Gifts are the things you hand over: fruit, animals, and the drives that sculpt an adult.

Why it works this way

When mode rewards did steer the body, a grown chao drifted every time you played with it: a few Stadium battles and its silhouette had moved. Reserving the steering for gifts means a chao changes shape when you decide it should and holds still otherwise.

The stamina exception

Only swim, fly, run and power steer anything. Stamina never votes, gifted or not. Raise it as high as you like without touching what the chao becomes.

No animal moves stamina at all. See animals.

Summary

• For a fast chao, play the modes. Earned gains raise levels efficiently and are safe.
• For a particular chao, watch what you hand it. See evolution.
• For both, do them in either order. They do not interfere.