Mario & Luigi: Brothership Guide - What does each stat mean?

Get started with the latest Mario RPG with this helpful look into mastering the various statistics.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership is finally here and no doubt many of you are looking to begin your journey in Concordia. If that's you, there's a few things you should know. First of all, Brothership is a long and broad game, a true RPG as we should expect from its creators Acquire, previously known for the sprawling Octopath Traveler series. Secondly, with this scale in mind, Brothership also utilises a varied improvable statistical suite that covers a collection of differing parts of the gameplay. Anyone who has played an RPG before will be familiar with many of these, but there are a few quirky stats that might leave you scratching your head. This guide is serving to eliminate some of that confusion.

HP

This one is very straightforward, it's Mario or Luigi's Health Points. Essentially, this is how much damage either hero can take before being rendered unconscious, and it is in many ways the most important stat to keep an eye on as it defines success or failure. This statistic can be enhanced by equipping certain gear items.

BP

This one is similar to the first point but also probably a little unusual to many. Battle Points are the effective 'mana' that Mario and Luigi have at their disposal to cast Bros. Attacks, powerful moves where the two come together and combine for a devastating strike.

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Pow

Pow has a couple of moving elements to it. Firstly, Pow refers to Power, which is literally what it says on the tin. Secondly, Pow is mostly split into two categories: Jump and Hammer. These are the two core attack types that the brothers can use, with Jump being the jumping attack and Hammer being the hammer strike, and both stats are enhanced and reflected by the Boots and Hammers that Mario and Luigi have equipped.

Pow does also define how hard each Bros. Attack lands for, and this is where the overarching Pow figures comes into the equation, i.e. the number above the Jump and Hammer statistic.

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Def

Def stands for Defence, and it is also very literal. This is the figure that helps Mario and Luigi mitigate damage when hit. This can be improved by equipping gear and, in-line with HP, it's arguably the second-most important stat, as this will likely be the win-or-lose condition especially in boss encounters where enemies are hitting you extremely hard.

Speed

While there is no clear turn or timeline HUD element in place that shows you which brother or enemy will attack next, you can generally imply that every individual in battle will attack once 'per turn'. However, this often changes in boss encounters or when Mario and Luigi face significantly weaker or stronger enemies, or perhaps if they have juiced up Speed stats. Yep, Speed basically defines when and how often either brother can attack, and generally speaking it's one of the harder stats to improve beyond levelling up.

Stache

Without a doubt, this is likely the stat you are most unsure about. Stache is Brothership's daft way to incorporate Luck, as the higher your Stache stat the more likely you are to get lucky and land a critical hit in battle. Luigi is naturally luckier and has a higher Stache stat, but both brothers will improve on this front by levelling up, like every other stat does too.

How to improve stats beyond levelling up?

There is one additional method for improving Mario and Luigi's stats beyond levelling up and acquiring better gear. As you explore the world you will likely find Beans, items that can be consumed and used to permanently improve a single stat by 1 point. Essentially, these are rare and inconsistent ways to improve, so have a plan in place and stick to it. Don't attempt to balance the brothers out because you won't succeed, instead focus your efforts on improving where either brother excels, i.e. further bolster Luigi's Stache or top up Mario's Speed.

It's also worth mentioning that you can find DX beans that improve an individual stat by 3 points, but these are rare and few and far between.

How to restore depleted stats in battle?

In between finding healing stations you may be wondering how you can restore fully or partially depleted stats? This is where the consumable items come into play again. As per what each kind does, check out the list below.