Skill Stage (skill_stage)

A skill_stage defines one level of a skill mastery chain — how well a holder has mastered a technique or another skill. It is written like realm_stage: the entry names the chain it belongs to and points at the next level, and a definition enters that chain through the level it declares as its default.

File Location

Skill stage files go in data/<namespace>/mxt/skill_stage/ within your datapack.

Purpose: One level of a skill mastery chain.

The filename corresponds to its ID. For example, data/example/mxt/skill_stage/sword_art_1.json has the ID example:sword_art_1.

Fields

Field	Type	Default	Description
skill	Identifier	required	The mastery chain this level belongs to. Every level of one chain writes the same skill; several techniques may share a single chain.
next_stage	Holder<skill_stage>	none	The next level of the chain; the highest level omits it.
mastery	NumberProvider	0	How much mastery reaching this level takes. A technique whose mastery_resource holds at least this much may advance here, once its own condition also holds. 0 means the level asks for no mastery.
damage_multiplier	Double	1.0	The damage multiplier of this level. It must be a finite, non-negative number.

mastery belongs to the level, not to a technique: a chain measures the same climb for everyone who shares it. It is a NumberProvider, so it may be a formula, but a decreasing requirement anywhere in a chain is rejected.

Where damage_multiplier is read

Casting an ability puts the multiplier of the level the caster stands on, in a chain whose configuration grants that ability, onto the cast's formula context as damage_multiplier; the damage pipeline then multiplies the damage that cast deals by it. When several techniques grant the same ability, the highest of their levels speaks — they do not stack. The multiplier therefore belongs to the abilities a chain grants rather than to everything the holder does, and it applies to damage such a cast deals to its own caster as well (a stronger technique has a heavier backlash). A chain that grants nothing has nothing to scale.

Example

// data/example/mxt/skill_stage/sword_art_1.json
{
  "skill": "example:sword_art",
  "next_stage": "example:sword_art_2",
  "mastery": 0,
  "damage_multiplier": 1.1
}

// data/example/mxt/skill_stage/sword_art_2.json
{
  "skill": "example:sword_art",
  "mastery": 10,
  "damage_multiplier": 1.25
}

Skill chains

skill is the chain identity rather than a reference to one owner, so several techniques — or a technique and another system — can share one mastery chain instead of each defining its own. Which level a chain is entered at is decided by the definition that references it: a technique names its entry level in default_stage and annotates each level through configuration, whose ability entries are minimum requirements and whose condition is the requirement to reach that level.

Chain order

next_stage, like next_realm, is only a holder reference, so the order is derived at runtime rather than while an entry is decoded: when the server starts or a datapack is reloaded, the level no other level follows becomes the first level of its chain and the rest are numbered down the links, which is what lets two levels be compared. A skill with more than one first level, a link to a level of another skill, a cycle, or a link to a stage that does not exist makes that rebuild fail — as with realm chains, a partially ordered chain is rejected rather than indexed. The rebuild also rejects a chain whose mastery drops from one level to the next: a level must never be harder to leave than to reach the one after it, because advancement only ever compares against the next level. Parsing can only reject problems inside the entry itself, such as a non-finite or negative damage_multiplier.

Who advances a level

Reaching a level is driven by the technique that owns the climb, not by the chain: a technique with a mastery_resource advances its holder to the next level once that resource reaches the level's mastery and the level's condition holds. An advanced level publishes mxt:technique_stage, and the abilities of every level reached so far are granted. See Cultivation Technique.