Code Vein – Stat-scaling with Codes, weapons, and blood veils

Much like Dark Souls, Code Vein is very focused on stat-scaling. However, in that game, this was primarily determined by point distribution upon leveling. The only things that get increased when you level in Code Vein are your HP, stamina, and attack though. Let’s take a look at how it works.

Code base

The most important thing to consider when building your character is your Code. Each Code carries with it different stat bonuses. In general, all stats here are shown via letter. For instance, if you’ve got an A+ strength stat, then that will affect how much damage strength-based weapons will do. If you equip a Code with high strength and equip a weapon with high strength, that weapon will gain additional damage from scaling. The higher the stats, the more damage you’ll do.

Weapons will generally focus on strength or dexterity. Stronger, slower weapons are more strength-oriented, while quicker ones are dex-oriented. This doesn’t change how powerful a weapon can be, though. Strength and dexterity are two sides of the same coin. Many weapons make use of both of these at once, so having high stats in both strength and dex can increase your damage even higher.

Similarly, other stats, such as mind, will increase the effectiveness of your gifts. The higher these stats, the more damage an offensive gift will do. So, your default stats are based on your Code and your weapon’s stats determine how much scaled damage is added, but how about gifts?

Blood veils

Blood veils do regulate how much certain types of damage are reduced, but they also regulate your gifts. You can think of blood veils more as gift equipment than as armor in this sense. Each blood veil has its own stats that scale with your Code. Not only do these increase the effectiveness of your gifts, but they also directly affect your drain speed. You consume ichor whenever you make use of a gift and can refill it by draining your enemies via drain attacks, backstabs, or parries.

There are different kinds of gifts, however. Gifts are designated as light or dark and they’re governed by stats. A higher mind stat will increase the effectiveness of light gifts, as well as your stamina and the speed at which you drain enemies. If you predominately use dark gifts, though, you’ll want to increase your willpower stat. Willpower also governs elemental resistances, which is important to keep in mind if you find yourself taking too much elemental damage.

Code Vein vitality and fortitude

Rounding out the rest of the stats are your vitality and fortitude. Vitality governs your health pool and how much physical damage you take, while fortitude affects stamina and elemental resistances. As you’ve no doubt noticed, there’s some overlap between some of these. Increasing your stats all-around will see you get scaled bonuses from more than one source. It’s also important to mention that each Code has four passive slots. There are passive abilities that you can use to give bonuses to your Code’s stats, which makes it even easier to scale things how you’d like.

That’s it for how stats and scaling work. With this info in mind, you should have no trouble whatsoever giving your character the build that suits your play style.