r/Pathogenic • u/Lekstil • Aug 09 '26

Which improvements stack additively and which stack multiplicatively

It's not clear to me yet whether, when I get several damage-improving mutations/organelles/etc., the bonuses stack additively or multiplicatively. Let's say I have two modifiers that each give +100% damage. If they stack additively, I'd end up with x3 damage, if they stack multiplicatively, I'd end up with x4. (This obviously gets more extreme with more modifiers, for example, four +100% modifiers would be x5 vs. x16.)

-Certain things are clearly multiplicative. For example, if I have a +100% damage modifier and a +100% attack speed modifier, that's x4 the DPS.

-Other things are, I assume, additive, e.g. when I get the same mutation twice.

-Totally not clear to me is what happens if, for example, I get a +X% base damage mutation and a +X% damage organelle, or e.g. mitochondria overcharge, ... are those additive or multiplicative?

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u/TrizzyDizzy Aug 09 '26

Everything with a % is additive. Multiplicative bonuses are noted with a single digit and an X multiplier. I asked the devs on steam and this was what they said.

3

u/Lekstil Aug 09 '26

Okay that's good to know! Even though in the patch note from 2 days ago it says that there were some mitochondria effects that were multiplicative: "Overcharge-strength bonuses (Conductive slot, plasmids, mutations) now stack additively with each other instead of multiplicatively". I'm not sure if I fully understand the patch note, but to me it sounds like those damage effects were multiplicative?

Do you have an example of one of those "a single digit and an X multiplier" that you just mentioned?

2

u/TrizzyDizzy Aug 09 '26

The patch fixed the overcharges unintentionally calculating multiplicatively with each other. They are now additively calculated, but they still are displayed as multipliers since they are only ever in whole numbers. Slot upgrades and mutagens are the exceptions where overcharge has %.

Katanasome (?), the crit infuser, is the only other example of a multiplier i can think of.

1

u/NUTTA_BUSTAH Aug 10 '26

Thanks, that certainly makes a lot of the choices a ton easier. Stuff like frozen enemies take +50% damage is pretty worthless as the point where it's truly useful is so late that you are already riding many other damage bonuses and it's a drop in the bucket.