Jutsu Mastery

• Each jutsu has its own mastery XP. A charged release earns 2 + (charge, rounded) XP: a tap earns 2, a 10-charge earns 12.
• Mastery levels (cumulative XP): level 1 at 60, 2 at 180, 3 at 400, 4 at 750, 5 (max) at 1,250. The first comes after about fifteen casts, the last after a few hundred.
• Mastery is shown as five pips under each bar slot.

What Mastery Does

• Raises the charge cap of every jutsu without a fixed cap: cap = 2.0 + (rank hard cap - 2.0) x mastery level / 5, where the rank hard cap is E 4.0, D 5.0, C 6.0, B 7.0, A 8.0, S 10.0. So an unmastered jutsu caps at 2.0 and a fully mastered S-rank at 10.0. Fixed-cap jutsu ignore mastery for their cap.
• Lengthens body modes: Stone Skin (the effect of the Earth Spear node) and Light-Weight Rock last base duration x (0.5 + 0.25 x mastery level, counting at most level 4): 50% unmastered, up to 150% at mastery 4. At mastery 5 they become toggles: cast and the mode stays on, draining 12% of its chakra cost every second (minimum 2 per second), until you cast it again or chakra runs out ("mode out" message).
• Hydrification and the two Curse Mark levels are instant modes: Hydrification lasts 7.5 s and each Curse Mark level 30 s.
• Damage ceilings don't change: the damage budget of nature releases is set at full mastery, so mastery doesn't raise a jutsu's ceiling, only how far you can charge toward it.
• The Eight Gates use mastery differently: they track seconds spent in each gate (see The Eight Gates).