Defensive Stats

Defenses in Elden Ring are divided into three main statistics: defense, negation, and resistance. Defense and negation are both used to calculate damage received from an attack, while resistance is used for the buildup of Status Ailments. While the three are similar and many are granted from the same attributes and items, they each have unique mechanics tied to them.

Defense
Defense (sometimes called "flat defense") is gained from a character's total level, with an additional bonus from increasing Strength.

When an attack connects, the game finds the ratio between the damage of the attack (a) and the target's defense (d), and then determines the formula used to calculate the actual damage dealt:


 * If a/d < 0.125, the final damage is 0.9 * a
 * If a/d < 1, the final damage is (19.2/49 * (a/d - 0.125)2 + 10) * a
 * If a/d < 2.5, the final damage is (-0.4/3 * (a/d - 2.5)2 + 0.7) * a
 * If a/d < 8, the final damage is (-0.8/121 * (a/d - 8)2 + 0.9) * a
 * If a/d ≥ 8, the final damage is 0.1 * a

This calculation is the same for both players and enemies.

Negation
Negation is a percentage reduction of incoming damage applied after the defense formula. Negation is most commonly gained from armor, but many Consumables like the Boiled Prawn or Talismans like the Dragoncrest Shield Talisman will also provide negation.

Negation is not additive, and is subject to diminishing returns. This is due to the values displayed for negation in-game being the inverse of what is stored internally. That is, 10% negation is actually  in the game's data, and diminishing returns are the result of these values being multiplied together.

For an example, let's find the total for the Veteran's Set's physical negation: "6.8% (Helm) / 18.7% (Armor) / 4.7% (Gauntlets) / 10.8% (Greaves)" The real values are equivalent to, etc., which are multiplied together. "0.932 * 0.813 * 0.953 * 0.892 = 0.644116..." To find the value displayed in-game, subtract it from 1 again and convert it to a percentage. The game's UI only displays the last three decimal places, rounding down. "1 - 0.644116... = 0.355884... = 35.588%"