Combat and healing

Combat

Attacking

• Your target: everything you do goes to your target. The nearest monster is picked for you, and you can step through everything on screen. See Targeting and abilities.
• Melee: walk into a hostile creature to swing at it, or press Attack (A, or the weapon button on the action bar) to walk up to your target and keep swinging. Only the four tiles next to you (not diagonals) are in reach.
• Bows: a ranged weapon (range above 1; bows reach 5 tiles) shoots your target from anywhere within its range, and keeps shooting while it stays in range. Every shot uses one arrow, hit or miss. With no arrows you can't shoot.
• One hand or two: daggers, short swords and swords take one hand, so you can carry a shield and block (see Damage you take). Greatswords, halberds and bows take both hands: equipping one puts your shield away, and taking up a shield puts it away. The action bar's weapon button shows which (1H or 2H) with your block chance, reach or range.
• Reach: a halberd strikes anything within 2 tiles of you, so it hits a monster as it closes in. No arrows are used.
• Attack time: every attack takes time, and the weapon decides how much. One attack, from its start to the start of the next, takes max(0.42, 0.78 − 0.0032 × DEX) seconds × the weapon's speed, plus 0.26s for the lunge of a melee blow (a bow has none). At DEX 50 that is 0.88s with a sword, 0.73s with a dagger and 1.07s with a greatsword. The weapon's card shows its attack time for your hero, a name for it (Very fast to Very slow) and its damage a second.

Timed blows

• Wind-up, blow, recovery. An attack doesn't land at once. It winds up for the share of its time in the table (a sword at DEX 50: 0.31s of its 0.88s), lands, and then you recover until the next can begin. The bar under your hero fills as the blow winds up and empties as you recover; the weapon button on the action bar shows the same.
• The damage is rolled when the blow lands, on a foe still in reach. One that has moved out of reach is missed.
• Walking away during the wind-up calls the blow off at no cost. A bow is the same: moving spoils the draw, and no arrow is spent.
• Following through. For a moment after the blow lands you can't step away: 10% of the recovery with fists or a dagger, 15% with a short sword, 20% with a sword, 40% with a greatsword or halberd. Light weapons let you dance in and out; heavy ones commit you.
• A spell you are casting finishes before your next shot. Walking, or walking into a foe, still cancels it.

What each style does

• Flurry (bare hands, fist weapons): each blow that lands quickens the next by 6% (7% with fist weapons), up to five in a row. A miss, or 2.5s without landing one, breaks the rhythm.
• Opportunist (dagger): +50% damage to a foe that is winding up a blow, staggered or frozen, and +8% critical chance.
• Duelist (short sword): the parry window is 0.08s longer, and it guards well without a shield.
• Riposte (sword): the counter after a parry is a ×3 critical instead of ×2.
• Cleave (greatsword): every other hostile creature beside you takes half the blow's damage, and what it strikes is staggered 30% of the time.
• Keep at bay (halberd): +30% damage on a foe two tiles away, a third of its armor is ignored, and a 15% chance to stagger.
• Marksman (bow): +6% damage for each tile past the second, but only 60% damage on a foe right beside you.

A staggered creature stops for 0.8s and loses the blow it was winding up. Bosses and legends can't be staggered by a weapon.

All of them are forged at an anvil (Blacksmithing): a short sword needs 3 points less than the sword of its metal and 2 ingots, a greatsword 8 more and 5 ingots, a halberd 12 more and 4 ingots with 2 oak logs.

• Weapon skill: the weapon's own skill (Swordsmanship, Archery, Wrestling). With no weapon, or a broken one, you fight with Wrestling and your bare 1–2 damage.
• Moving cancels a spell you are casting, and a melee swing is a move.

Arrows

You choose which arrows your bow fires on the action bar (the right stick up/down on a controller). When the chosen kind runs out the bow takes any other kind you carry.

Hit chance

Each creature has a combat rating:

• rating = level × 1.2, plus 8 for a champion, 10 for a dungeon boss and 14 for a legend.
• Your requirement is the rating, but never less than 10 outside the training grounds.

Hit chance uses your weapon skill, including bonuses from gear:

• At the requirement: 20%.
• Above it: rises evenly to 95% at 30 points over (+2.5% per point).
• Below it: drops to 10%, then falls evenly to 1% at 20 points under.

Damage you deal

1. Roll the attack range: your base 1–2 plus the equipped weapon's attack bonus. Attack bonuses on other gear don't add to weapon damage.
2. × (1 + Tactics / 200 + STR / 400).
3. × 1.25 if you are Mighty (strengthened); × 0.75 if you are Weakened.
4. × 1.4 if the weapon is strong against one of the target's tags; × 0.6 if it is weak against one. If it is both, nothing changes.
5. What the weapon's style adds (above): an opportunist's +50%, a halberd's or a bow's distance bonus, a bow's 60% at arm's length.
6. Critical hit: chance = 5% + DEX / 1000 (for example 10% at DEX 50), +8% with a dagger. A crit doubles the damage. A riposte always crits.
7. Round, then subtract the creature's Defense (a halberd ignores a third of it). Every hit does at least 1.

Damage you take

Monsters make no hit roll, but their blows wind up too, and the board shows it: the creature draws back, a red bar fills over its card, and the tile the blow will land on glows red.

• Wind-up: 40% of the creature's attack interval, between 0.45s and 0.9s. It stands still while it winds up.
• Step off the red tile and it misses. The blow lands on the tile it was aimed at. If you have left that tile when it lands (at least 0.1s before), it hits nothing, and the creature needs 0.7s before its next.
• Heavy blows: creatures of level 3 and up wind up a heavy blow 18% of the time (champions and bosses 30%). It takes 1.7× as long to land and does 1.6× the damage. Legends cleave instead.

A blow that lands on you:

1. Roll the creature's attack range (× 0.75 if it is Weakened, × 1.25 if it is Mighty, × 1.6 for a heavy blow).
2. Dodge: chance = DEX / 1000 (5% at DEX 50). A dodge takes no damage.
3. Guard (below), or with your guard down and a shield in hand, a block by luck: chance = 5% + 35% × Parrying / 100. A block takes 25% of the damage. Luck never blocks a heavy blow.
4. Armor: your armor rating (AR) is the sum of armor on worn, unbroken gear. You take 1 − AR / (AR + 30) of the hit. AR 30 halves damage; AR 90 cuts it by 75%.
5. Poisonous creatures may poison you on a hit. Each has its own chance (shown on its bestiary page), and the poison has max(1, level / 6) stacks.
6. A hit that does damage may break the spell you are casting (see Magic).

Guarding and parrying

Hold Guard (F or V on a keyboard, the left trigger on a controller) to raise your guard. You can't attack with it up, and walking lowers it.

• Block: every blow on a raised guard is blocked. A shield lets 25% through. Without one the weapon turns some of it: a greatsword or halberd lets 55% through, a short sword 60%, a sword 65%, fist weapons 75%, a dagger 80%, bare hands 85%. A bow can't guard.
• Parry: a guard raised just before the blow lands parries it. The window is 0.24s, +0.14s at Parrying 100, +0.08s with a short sword. A parry takes no damage, staggers the attacker for 1.6s (0.8s for a boss or legend) and readies a riposte.
• Riposte: for 3 seconds after a parry, your next blow on that foe winds up in half the time, can't miss and is a critical hit (×2, or ×3 with a sword).
• A guard that came down less than 0.7s ago can't parry, so hammering the key doesn't work.
• A heavy blow breaks a guard that didn't parry it: at least half its damage comes through, the guard drops and you reel for 0.7s, unable to act or step away. Parry it, or get off the tile.
• Guarding raises Parrying (a parry teaches twice as much), with or without a shield.

Wear

• Every swing or shot wears your weapon by 1 point, hit or miss.
• Every hit that hurts you wears one of your head, body or shield pieces, picked at random, by 1 point. A block or a parry also wears the shield, or the weapon if you guarded without one.
• At 10% wear left you are warned that the item is "badly worn". At 0 it is broken: it gives no stats or skill bonuses until repaired at the right workstation.

Learning from combat

• Every swing or shot gives a chance to raise the weapon skill, and 0.8× that chance to raise Tactics. Every monster swing at you while you hold a shield gives 0.8× that chance to raise Parrying.
• Base chance = 30% × clamp((rating + 35 − skill) / 25, 0, 1). It stays at 30% while your skill is at most rating + 10 and falls to 0 at rating + 35. You learn nothing from creatures far below you.
• That chance is then multiplied by the world's pace (Swift 3.55, Brisk 0.70, Standard 0.35, Patient 0.117, Legendary 0.07) and by a slowdown that grows as the skill rises. Blessed multiplies it by 1.5. It never goes above 95%.
• Points per gain: +0.5 below 20, +0.3 below 40, +0.2 below 60, +0.1 below 80, and +0.05 from there to the cap of 100.
• Each gain has a 33% chance to raise a linked stat by 1. Each stat caps at 100, and the three stats together cap at 250.

Health, stats and fighting level

• Max HP = 40 + 1.5 × STR. Max mana = 10 + 2 × INT.
• HP regeneration: 1 HP every max(2, 8 − STR / 20) seconds. That is three times faster once you have taken no damage for 8 seconds.
• Fighting level = 1 + floor(max(0, best three combat/magic skills added together − 75) / 3.8). The combat and magic skills are Swordsmanship, Archery, Tactics, Parrying, Healing, Magery and Meditation. Three skills at 100 give level 60.
• A land is marked Dangerous when its minimum level is more than 6 above your fighting level.

Creature behaviour (AI)

• Creatures only act when a hero is within 16 tiles. Further away they stand still.
• A creature hunts the nearest living hero within 16 tiles:
  • Once that hero is within its aggro range, it chases one step every chase_interval.
  • When it is next to the hero, it winds up a blow every attack_interval (see Damage you take).
  • Otherwise it wanders one step every wander_interval, staying within 4 tiles of home.
• Passive animals have aggro range 0. Hit one that can fight and its aggro range becomes 5.
• Leash: a creature pulled too far from home gives up and walks back. Ordinary creatures go back past 9 tiles, bosses past 6 and legends past 8. Once home it heals to full and forgets who hurt it.
• Ghosts and hidden heroes: monsters don't see ghosts, or heroes hidden with Hide. They still stay awake, so they wander off or walk home.
• Locked lands: in the free trial, creatures in lands you haven't unlocked won't hunt you.
• Frozen and staggered creatures do nothing, and lose the blow they were winding up.
• Creatures from random ambushes have no home, so they don't leash. They vanish after 150s, or as soon as no hero is within 30 tiles.

Champions

• Any creature of level 3 or higher has a 4% chance to spawn as a "Champion" version. This never happens to bosses, legends, summons or a legend's rally helpers.
• A champion has ×1.7 HP and ×1.3 attack, and its combat rating is 8 higher.
• It drops ×3 gold and rolls its loot table twice. Its unique chance is ×5, and it adds 3 to your unique pity counter (see Loot).
• Everyone who helped kill it gets a full share of the loot (see Fighting together).

World pace and monster strength

Fighting together

• Anyone who hurt a creature shares the kill. Poisoning or freezing it counts as helping.
• Ordinary creatures: a helper must be alive, on the same map and within 24 tiles. The kill is worth +25% for each ally beyond the first.
  • Gold is split evenly, rounded up.
  • Each dropped item goes to one member. The more damage you did, the better your odds.
  • Each member rolls for a unique at (that richer chance ÷ party size).
• Champions, bosses and legends: everyone who did at least 3% of the damage gets the full reward, as if they had fought alone, even if they died before the end.
• Quest kill credit goes to every member.

Friendly fire and PvP

• You can't attack another hero directly.
• Area spells (Meteor, Frost Nova, Starfall) hit every other living hero in the blast radius, friends included. The caster is safe. Armor reduces the damage, and Frost Nova also freezes them: while frozen they can't walk, swing, shoot or cast. Being hit can break a spell they are casting.
• Wild summons attack the nearest anything, including their own caster (see Magic).
• Legends cleave (see Loot).

Training grounds

• Inside the grounds behind Havenbrook, any skill rises to 10 and no further.
• Dummies and sparring rats drop nothing and stand back up after being knocked down. Their last blow can't take you below 1 HP.
• The practice circle supplies reagents for free. Recall, Mark and Gate Travel don't work there.

Healing

Bandages

• A bandage goes on your target if it is yourself, another living hero, a pet or an animal within 2 tiles. If your target is a monster, a ghost or further away, you bandage yourself. A bandage is used up even if you fumble.
• Cooldown: max(2.5, 6 − DEX / 40) seconds between bandages. At DEX 50 that is 4.75s.
• You can't bandage at full health unless you are poisoned.
• Success chance: min(98%, 60% + Healing / 250 + DEX / 500).
• Amount healed: 4–9 + 0.4 × Healing + DEX / 20 (rounded down).
• Poison cure: a successful bandage removes poison if your Healing is 50 or more.
• Each bandage gives a chance to raise Healing: max(5%, 45% × (1 − Healing / 110)), before the pace multiplier.

Potions and food

• Eating or drinking has no cooldown. Each use takes one item from the stack.
• An item may heal, restore mana, add a status (Mighty, Nimble, Blessed) or remove one (the Cure potion removes poison).
• Items made at Exceptional or Masterwork quality heal, restore and damage more, and a poison coats stronger. Exceptional is ×1.2 and Masterwork ×1.5, always at least +1.
• Potions work better for an alchemist. Whoever uses a potion gets more from it with their own Alchemy. Food doesn't change.
  • Healing, mana restored and a poison's strength: × (1 + Alchemy / 200). That is +50% at Grandmaster.
  • How long a potion's status lasts: × (1 + Alchemy / 100). That is twice as long at Grandmaster.
• Explosion potions (Lesser 22, Explosion 45, Greater 80): thrown at your target if it is a creature within 6 tiles, otherwise at the nearest enemy.
  • Damage = the potion's damage × (1 + Alchemy / 200). Armor doesn't reduce it.
  • The target starts Burning with 3 stacks.
  • The Greater one also hits every foe within 1 tile of the target for half the damage, and sets them Burning.
• Poisons (Lesser 1, Poison 2, Greater 4, Deadly 6): applied to your weapon, not drunk. You are Venom-coated for 45 seconds, and every weapon blow that lands leaves that many stacks of Poisoned. A new coat replaces the old one. Spells and thrown potions don't carry it.
• Agility potions give Nimble (+10 Dexterity) or Fleet (+20) for 90 seconds. Strength potions give Mighty (+25% damage) or Giant's Might (+45%) for 60 seconds. The greater of a pair replaces the lesser, and the lesser can't replace the greater.
• Invisibility potion: hides you at once, with no Hiding roll. Like Hide, it ends when you move or act.
• Elixir of Life: heals 150, restores 100 mana, cures poison and leaves you Regenerating.

Healing spells and healers

• Spells: Mend and Greater Mend heal your target (you, a friend, a pet or an animal; you if the target is a monster). Circle of Mending heals you and every living friend within 3 tiles. Cure removes poison. Healing spells scale with Magery and INT (see Magic).
• Temple: walking into the Temple in Havenbrook, or a shrine or healer on the road, fully heals the living and removes poison and burning.