Combat guide

Combat modes

• Auto-fight makes a basic attack when your turn begins.
• Manual combat lets you choose when to attack or flee. You can select a foe in either mode.
• Use autofight on or autofight off to switch modes. Use autofight by itself to check the setting.

Starting combat and taking turns

• attack begins an encounter when an eligible foe is present and attacks during your turn.
• The Encounter panel shows the turn order and time remaining.
• Your combat initiative is Perception plus a d100 roll. A creature uses its higher Awareness or Combat Skill, with a one-point edge when Combat Skill is higher, plus d100.
• The side with the highest initiative total acts first; players win tied side totals. Each side acts in initiative order, which stays fixed throughout the encounter.
• If your turn expires, combat advances. With auto-fight enabled, the game can attack for you.
• You can act only when it is your turn and while you are participating in the encounter.

Core commands

• attack — make a standard attack.
• target <mob> — choose a foe. Use target to check or target clear to reset.
• flee — retreat through a usable exit. Allies can keep fighting; a cornered attempt costs your turn.
• equip and unequip — manage weapons and armor.
• score and skills — review the values used in combat.

Choosing a target

Use target <mob> to choose your opponent in manual combat or auto-fight. Changing targets does not consume your turn.

Defense, damage, and armor

Your attack rating combines weapon skill, Strike, weapon speed, and a 10-point attack bonus. Each side adds d100 to its final attack or defense rating. Criticals and fumbles take priority; otherwise the higher total wins, with exact ties going to the defender.

• Each incoming attack resolves its defense automatically.
• Parry uses the equipped weapon's skill and requires a weapon that allows parrying.
• Dodge uses your Dodge skill. Guard contributes to both defenses.
• Each defense after the first in a round takes another 20-point penalty. This resets each round.
• Equipment slots determine what you can wear together.
• Armor from all equipped pieces adds into one overall rating. Each whole point reduces incoming physical damage by one. Check your total with score.

Critical hits

• A natural physical attack or defense roll of 96–100 is critical: a 5% chance at any skill level. A critical beats an ordinary result. If both rolls are critical, compare rating plus roll; a tied total favors the defender.
• A natural 1–5 is a fumble: also a 5% chance. An attacker fumble ends the attack with a mishap, even if both sides fumble. Otherwise, a defender fumble lets the attack hit. Critical damage requires the attacker to roll a critical and win.
• Your critical hits against creatures double the attack damage before Armor and resistances. An attack worth 3 damage before protection starts at 6 on a critical.
• A creature's critical hit uses its normal damage after protection but deals that damage directly to your Health, leaving Toughness untouched. The combat message tells you when this happens.
• Armor and resistances still apply. Immunity or sufficient protection can prevent all damage from a critical hit.
• Magical assaults use a Magic Resistance check and bypass Armor; they do not gain critical hits.

Persistent effects

• Bleeding, Burning, and Poison can each stack up to three times.
• Each active stack deals one direct damage when it ticks. A stack then falls by one.
• Effects tick at the end of your combat turn and, outside combat, when you move to another room.
• Dedicated player cure actions are not yet available, so consider fleeing before the effects become severe.

Enemy levels and XP

• Each creature keeps its designed level, combat statistics, attacks, and traits regardless of your level or party.
• Some higher-level forms show a title before their base name: Brute, Hulking, Alpha, Giant, Colossal, Frenzied, Dire, Mythic, then Apocalypse.
• Apocalypse hides its first rank; higher ranks show increasing Roman ordinals such as Apocalypse (II) and Apocalypse (III).
• The title records how far that creature's level is above its base form. Every five levels above that base adds one attack per turn, up to five extra attacks.
• Each level above the creature's base level also adds one Combat Skill, improving physical attack, defense, and potentially initiative. For example, base level 3, Combat Skill 20, and actual level 8 produce Combat Skill 25. This bonus has no gameplay cap.
• Each defeated creature adds XP based on its actual level to the encounter reward. Some creatures intentionally award no XP.
• After a kill, you see the XP added to the encounter reward. Successful completion shows the total as “10.26 XP awarded.”
• Every party member still participating at completion receives the full combined XP award; it is not divided by party size.
• Your level changes how much XP you need for the next level, not how much XP a creature awards.
• If you flee, you receive no completion XP. Allies who stay can still earn the encounter's award.
• Escaped monsters contribute no XP. If some monsters escape, remaining players still receive XP for defeated monsters when combat ends, but no encounter-victory quest credit.

Early levels need fewer same-level kills: about 50, 60, 90, 140, and 200 kills to advance from levels 1 through 5. The target rises to about 880 at level 10, then adds 80 kills for each higher level. Quest rewards provide another route to advancement.

Fractional XP carries over between encounters and level-ups. Your score shows that progress; death resets both whole and fractional XP.

Gaining a level from combat or quests fully restores your Health, Sanity, Hope, Toughness, and Stamina to their trained maxima. Your level-up message is followed by a brief restoration notice.

Training for continued growth

Use train <stat> [amount]. Each point costs 1 TP, and each level gained awards 10 TP. Dodge, all five weapon skills, Guard, Strike, and Perception have no gameplay training cap.

Combat uses the difference between final ratings, so an equal advantage matters equally at low or high ratings. Ratings above 100 remain useful. Criticals and fumbles leave both sides a chance even in an uneven fight.

Other skills retain their training cap of 80. Maximum Health, Toughness, Sanity, Hope, and Stamina retain a training cap of their base value plus twice your level. These values still require TP investment.

Training a resource maximum immediately adds the purchased points to its current value too. For example, training Health by 2 at 3/10 gives 5/12: you still have seven points of damage.

During combat, successful training uses your turn and follows normal action timing. Outside combat, training takes effect immediately. A rejected purchase spends no TP or turn.

Level-up restoration and training increases work even while starving or dehydrated. Ongoing conditions such as poison and bleeding continue afterward.

Search and other ordinary skill checks still roll at or below the relevant skill. Perception of 100 or more can therefore make an unmodified search or consider check automatic.

Quick tips

• Keep a suitable weapon equipped if you want to parry.
• Watch your Health as well as Toughness: a powerful critical hit can damage Health directly.
• Flee tries the way you entered first, then another usable exit. You may open an unlocked door, but cannot escape through a locked or undiscovered passage.
• Each player retreats individually. Allies who stay behind continue fighting. A cornered retreat costs your turn and leaves the encounter active.
• Monsters die at zero Health or Sanity. Some are immune to damage to one of those resources, never both. Damage immunity does not prevent terror or forced retreat.
• Monsters can have traits, cooldowns, resistances, and varied attacks, so the same plan will not work against every foe.