Defense

An explanation of Defense in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story.

Defense, often shortened to DEF, is a stat that appears in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars and every entry in the Mario & Luigi series and Paper Mario series. It it used by every playable character in these RPGs (excluding the partners in Paper Mario) and affects how much damage that the player takes from attacks in battle. Occasionally, enemies also use defense, which decides how much damage they take from the player's attacks. In the Paper Mario series, the player's defense cannot be increased permanently (the Defense of partners could not be increased at all until Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door), while in other games, Defense directly increases as each character levels up and, in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team and Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, through Defense Beans. Temporary boosts to Defense can be obtained by equipping certain equipment, such as the Defend Plus Badge or the Block Trousers, or by using certain items, such as the Courage Shell or the Green Pepper; when using items, DEF-Up is displayed to show that the effect is nonpermanent. Conversely, enemies can also use attacks that temporarily decrease the player's Defense, which is displayed with DEF-Down. In the Mario & Luigi series and Super Mario RPG, damage dealt is based on a formula, whereas in the Paper Mario series, damage dealt is simply attack power directly subtracted by defense points.