Magnetite

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A vial containing magnetite dissolved in ether.

Magnetite is a recurring mechanic in the Megami Tensei franchise. It is abbreviated as MAG or M depending on the game.

Profile

Magnetite is an energy source used by demons to manifest and maintain physical bodies on Earth.

As portrayed in the Devil Summoner series, magnetite is an invisible gas-like plasma, but when dissolved in ether it glows with a green light. An infinite amount can be stored in a vial, and the amount of light it gives off depends on the amount of magnetite.

Overview

As a game mechanic, Magnetite has functioned in a variety of ways across the Megami Tensei franchise. It's most common appearance is as a system where points are gained by defeating enemies, but consumed when the player explores dungeons with Demons summoned within their party. This point expenditure is based on the party's collective antibody points, abbreviated as CP.

Mechanics by Game

Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei

CP is expended by a Demon every 16 steps.

Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II

Magnetite is consumed by a Demon with each step taken in a dungeon, at a rate determined by its Turn Points stat. If the Hero exhausts their supply of Magnetite, summoned Demons lose 1 HP per step.

Shin Megami Tensei

CP is expended by a Demon every 10 steps.

Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine

Magnetite is a resource used to summon a Demon.

Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation Dx2

Magnetite is a resource used when creating Demons via Fusion. It is collected through various activities. For Multi-Fusions, the required Magnetite is fixed and unaffected by discounts. For standard Fusions, the required Magnetite before any discounts is calculated as follows:

First, the resulting Demon of the Fusion is determined. If the result is of Rarity 1, then the Magnetite cost is always 5 and the steps below are skipped.

The first value to be computed is the base cost of the Fusion, which will be referred to as Base. This is done with a two-dimensional lookup table, which uses the resulting Demon's Rarity and a computed value as indices, the latter of which will be referred to as I and is determined by the equation below. Rarity_Result, Rarity_A and Rarity_B are the Rarities of the resulting Demon, the first material and the second material respectively:

$I=2\times {\text{Rarity}}_{\text{Result}}-{\text{Rarity}}_{\text{A}}-{\text{Rarity}}_{\text{B}}$

The lookup table is as follows:

Indices	I = -1	I = 0	I = 1	I = 2	I = 3	I = 4
RarityResult = 2	5	5	25	50	—	—
RarityResult = 3	250	500	2500	5000	5200	5400
RarityResult = 4	—	6000	150000	300000	320000	—
RarityResult = 5	—	60000	1500000	3000000	4200000	—

The second value to be computed is the difference between the result's Grade and the average of the materials' Grades, which will be referred to as Dif. It is determined with the following equation:

$\text{Dif}={\text{Grade}}_{\text{Result}}-\frac{{\text{Grade}}_{\text{A}}+{\text{Grade}}_{\text{B}}}{2}$.

The third value to be computed is Multiplier_Grade, which is the multiplier relative to the result's Grade. The possible values are as follows:

Condition	MultiplierGrade
GradeResult < 30	0.3
30 ≤ GradeResult < 40	0.45
40 ≤ GradeResult < 50	60
50 ≤ GradeResult < 60	75
60 ≤ GradeResult < 70	1080
70 ≤ GradeResult < 80	1260
80 ≤ GradeResult < 90	14400
90 ≤ GradeResult	16200

The fourth value to be computed is Multiplier_Archetype, which depends on the resulting Demon's Archetype and Rarity:

Conditions	Common	Non-Common
RarityResult ≤ 3	MultiplierArchetype = 1	MultiplierArchetype = 1
RarityResult = 4	MultiplierArchetype = 0.5
RarityResult = 5	MultiplierArchetype = 0.7

The final cost is determined as follows:

$\text{Cost}=\lfloor (\text{Dif}\times {\text{Multiplier}}_{\text{Grade}}+\text{Base})\times {\text{Multiplier}}_{\text{Archetype}}\rfloor$

Where ⌊x⌋ is the floor function.

Game Appearances

Giten Megami Tensei: Tokyo Revelation

This section contains spoilers. (Skip Section)

Magnetite is used by the Devil Busters 2nd Unit to set up a trap to whoever is the person possesed by the demon Murmur, in this case it can be either Ayato Katsuragi, Tatsuya Hayasaka or Emi Kirishima. Once the trap is successful the demon attacks the Devil Busters and escapes, but not before spreading a zombie virus in Hatsudai Shelter, the place where the Devil Busters live.

End of spoilers.

Trivia

• In Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, Macca is depicted as energy instead of coinage due to staff combining the concepts of Macca and Magnetite. The game also features unused dialog where an NPC in the Lab refers to payment for equipment as Magnetite.

Nomenclature

Names in Other Languages

Language	Name	Meaning
English	Magnetite
Japanese	マグネタイト Magunetaito	Magnetite

Gallery

• 
  Artwork of Sam from Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner, depicted holding a vial of magnetite
• 
  Artwork from Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner Digital Collection
• 
  Artwork from the Game Boy Color version of Last Bible
• 
  Render from Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner
• 
  Graphic from Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation Dx2
• 
  Card FD-162 from Shin Megami Tensei Devil Children Card Game: Goumaden
• 
  Card FW-160 from Shin Megami Tensei Devil Children Card Game: Byakusei no Monshou
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  Card LF-144 from Shin Megami Tensei D-Children Card Game: Ver. I
• 
  Promo Card Platinum-M version from Shin Megami Tensei D-Children Card Game