RPG Maker XP Beginner's Tutorial

Database - Skills, Items, Weapons, Armors, and States

The editing pages for Skills, Items, Weapons, Armors, and States are all very similar, so I'll go over them together.

Skills

Skills your player can use in and out of battle. Physical/magic attacks, healing spells, status effects, etc.

Items

The items (non-weapon/armor) in the game including potions, keys, and special quest items.

Weapons

The weapons your characters use to fight with.

Armors

The armors your characters wear in battle.

States

Status effects your characters can experience and use against enemies.

Making Something New

To make a new skill, item, etc, click on the Change Maximum button and increase it by at least one. Now you'll have an empty slot to work with. Enter the name you want for this object that reflects what it's all about.

The Icon is the little picture that will appear next to the name in a menu. There are preset icons,but you can always make your own icons.

The Description lets your players know exaclty what this thing does, so make sure you put in an accurate description.

Skills and Items have a Scope which determines whether they will affect Enemeies or Allies and how many it will affect.

Skills and Items also have the Occasion option which decides whether they can be used only in battle, only in the menu, always, or never.

User/Attacker animation is the animation that will show over the person using something when they use it in battle. Animations can be previewed by going to the Animations tab and clicking "Play Hit"

Target Animation is the animation shown over the target of something.

Menu Use SE is the Sound Effect that will play when you use something. You can change the volume and pitch to add some variety if you're using the same sounds a lot.

The Element determines what element the something uses. For example, just because you name an attack "Fire" and give it a Fire animation doesn't mean that it is now a fire attack. You have to set an element if you want it to have an effect. This makes sure that enemies that are weak against fire will receive more damage. If your skill isn't an elemental attack, it can also be strong against certain types of enemies like Undead, Birds, Snakes, etc.

State Change tell whether or not the something makes a status change in the enemy. Armors protect against the selected State change.

The bottom 12 options of skills and items and the bottom 8 options on weapons and armors are all slightly different. You can right click on the label of an option and then select "What's this?" for a description of the option. These are the settings that determine how strong or weak your attack/item is and whether or not things like your character's strength or defense make a difference. This is also where you set the price for items to be sold in a store.

For States, there is an option called Release Condition. This determines how quickly a status effect wears off, or if it does at all. You may want things like sleep and delay to release at the end of battle, but you may want poisons to stay active until you use an antidote.