Combat

In short: a hunt costs one turn and the whole fight is settled at once. You and the monster trade blows until one falls. Stronger attack beats defence, lucky hits can double damage, and some monsters have a trait that changes the fight. Your stance (Boldly, Steadily or Warily), chosen ahead, takes the sting out of some traits. Win and you get gold, experience and a little health; lose and you drop some gold and your day ends.

How it works

Starting a fight

You can hunt on any wild tile, never in a town. Press Hunt: it costs one turn (the day's first 2 are free on Quiet Roads, see Omens) and you cannot hunt while an encounter is waiting for your choice. Bosses are fought the same way from their lairs (see Bosses), and so is the named foe at the end of a quest (see Quests).

The fight is decided the moment you press the button. There is no fleeing and no drinking potions mid-fight, so the health you start with is the health you fight with.

Who you meet

The monster's level depends on your own level and on how far you are from Oakhaven. The world is divided into rings of distance (see The world and the map):

• In the first ring beyond Oakhaven's surroundings, monsters are your level: an even fight.
• Right around Oakhaven they are a level below you (never below level 1).
• Each ring further out adds a level.

On top of that, each monster varies a little: sometimes it is one or two levels tougher, sometimes one weaker. Deeper rings pay better: every ring adds +30% to the gold and experience a monster carries.

Under a Blood Moon (see Omens), from ring 1 out 50% of the monsters are a level tougher still, and every monster carries 1.4× the gold. Right around Oakhaven they stay as they are.

Every type of terrain has five kinds of monster, and about half of them have a trait. The fight's description always hints at it.

• Swift: strikes first every round.
• Armoured: 1.6× defence. Your blows land softer.
• Brutal: 1.35× attack but only 0.8× health. Hits hard, falls fast.
• Cowardly: runs away when it drops to 30% health or less. You still win, but only get 50% of its gold and experience.

Monsters also gain a title as they grow: Veteran from level 6, Savage from 11, Elder from 16 and Ancient from 21.

Your stance

How you fight is a standing order. A hunt finds its monster and fights it in one go, so you choose your stance before you see the foe: by the land you hunt in, or by the boss waiting at a lair. It holds for every fight (hunts, bosses and quest foes) until you change it, with the control under the Hunt button (see The interface). Changing it is free and takes no turn, though not while you are fallen. A new hero fights Steadily.

Each trait has one stance that takes the sting out of it:

Attack is worth about twice as much as defence in a fight (see How a round goes), which is why Boldly gives up more defence than it gains attack, and Warily the reverse. From full health, against a monster with no trait no stance does better than another, and against the wrong trait a stance does worse: swift monsters punish boldness, armoured ones reward patience. The difference is small in a hunt from full health (a few points of health) but large at a boss: fought in the stance that counters it, a boss at your own level falls about three times in four; in the wrong one, about half the time or less (see Bosses). Hurt, it is another matter: on a hunt Warily is the safer stance against any monster, trait or none, because it can slip away (below).

Slipping away. Fighting Warily on a hunt, when a blow leaves you below 30% of your health while the monster is faring better than you, you get one chance (50%) to break off and get away. You keep the health you have, lose no gold, and the turn is spent, but the monster keeps its loot. It never happens at a boss or a quest's foe: those you fight to the end.

To choose well, look at what roams the land: the location card lists the kinds of monster you have met there, with their traits (see The world and the map). At a lair, the boss's trait is shown with its name, and so is a quest's foe's at the end of its trail (a beast is brutal).

How a round goes

Each round you strike, then the monster strikes back (a swift monster strikes first). Damage depends on the attacker's attack against the defender's defence. More attack always helps, and defence softens blows without ever cancelling them: even a weak hit does at least 1 damage.

Every hit varies by up to 15% either way, and 10% of hits, yours or the monster's, are critical hits that do 2× damage. Critical hits are what make a fight dangerous: an even fight is usually yours, but a couple of unlucky crits can turn it.

Your gear counts: the best weapon, armour and relic you carry add to your attack and defence (see Levels and gear). So does a temple blessing bought in Oakhaven that day: Might gives 1.1× attack, Warding 1.3× defence, and Fortune 1.25× the gold of every fight you win, in hunts, boss fights and quest fights alike (see Oakhaven, settlements and gold). Your stance then changes attack and defence for the fight (above). Tap Attack or Defence on the Hero tab to see where your numbers come from.

Winning

• You take the monster's gold and experience.
• You catch your breath and recover 10% of your maximum HP.
• If the experience takes you to a new level, you are fully healed.

Ordinary hunts never drop items; gear comes from encounters, ruins, rumoured caches, the market, quests and bosses.

Every hunt and quest fight, won or lost, is counted in your bestiary (see Levels and gear).

The description of the fight follows how it went. A win where you barely got scratched reads as a rout; one that left you bloodied reads as a close call. A loss where the monster was almost dead reads differently from a crushing defeat. When a monster flees, you get a line about that instead.

Losing

If your health reaches 0 you fall. You drop 15% of the gold you carry (gold in the Oakhaven bank is safe) and your day ends. A cairn rises where you fell, for other heroes to find (see Crossings and cairns). At the next daily reset you wake at the inn nearest where you fell, Oakhaven's or a settlement's waystation (see The daily loop).

If the monster that killed you was one you hunted, the gold you dropped stays with it: it becomes your nemesis, a level stronger and with a name, and waits where you fell for a few days for you to win the gold back (see Nemesis). On a tile where a nemesis prowls, a hunt is a fight with it.

A duel with another player's hero is not a fight to the death: it never takes you below 1 health. Stances play no part in a duel.

Slipping away

A hunt you slip away from (Warily) is neither a win nor a fall: no gold, experience or healing, no gold lost, no cairn, and the rest of your day is still yours. The kind of monster still goes in your bestiary as met.

Tips

• Top up with a potion before hunting, not after a bad fight. You fight with the health you have.
• Ring 1 is the fair fight. Going deeper pays more per fight, but a monster two levels above you with a lucky crit can end your day.
• Brutal monsters hit hard but fold quickly; swift ones get the first blow in every round, which matters most when you are low.
• Cowardly monsters pay half, unless you fight them Boldly: then they cannot run, and pay in full for a longer fight.
• More attack shortens fights, and a shorter fight means fewer blows (and fewer crits) taken.
• Set your stance by the land before you hunt: where swift things are common go Warily, among the armoured Steadily, where brutes and cowards roam Boldly. Where the traits are mixed, or you have not met the locals yet, Steadily is a fine default.
• Before a boss, read its trait and set the stance that counters it. The lair's reading changes with your stance.
• Hurt and pushing on? Warily gives you a chance to get away from a hunt that goes wrong, at the price of that hunt's loot.
• A blessing matters most in the closest fights: buy Might or Warding on the day you go after a boss or a quest's foe. Your stance is what answers the foe's trait; either blessing adds about as much on top of the right stance.