This is a more detailed example about a single aspect of damage calculation. For further information, see Damage calculation.

Potency floor, also known as "variance," "damage variance," and "Damage adj." is a stat exclusive to weapons. It determines how much of your currently equipped weapon's Attack value will be used in damage calculation on each hit of an attack.

Weapons of a one to six star rarity notation have a lower base attack than weapons of seven star and higher notation, but they have higher potency floor stats.

Example

A level 85 Bouncer has 1,907 base Attack, while an Argenti weapon has 1,000 base Attack and 50% Potency Floor.
This means that your attack range on each hit is 2,407 to 2,907.

Assuming no damage bonuses or any augments that raise Potency Floor, if you were to use Pinion Blade, your attack can deal anywhere from 4,932 damage to 9,313 damage.

Dealing with damage variance

Damage variance from higher ranked weapons is primarily mitigated by running the Preset Skill Fixa Fatale. Critical Hits will use your maximum attack stat, so lower potency floor matters less if you land critical hits often.

If you use a different Preset, such as Fixa Attack, you can also boost potency floor by using Augments such as Grand Dread Keeper and Highael Domina. Augments will boost potency floor based off your current potency floor, so they grow more effective with each one you add.

While augments such as Dread Keeper V and Deftness IV exist, and offer even bigger potency floor boosts than Grand Dread Keeper or Highael Domina, the lack of gaining a boost to Potency from them means that they offer a smaller overall bonus to your damage dealt.

Finally, if you wish to avoid damage variance entirely and are okay with dealing lower damage in general, the Everbright Unit potential of the Verschmelz series ensures your attacks will always land critical hits. Note that if you go this route, Potency Floor effects on augments will have no effect.