Attacks and defence: dodge, block, counter, critical and combo
Every blow goes through the same short checklist. Here it is, in order.
Anatomy of an attack
When a fighter attacks, the game checks in this order:
- Evasion. The defender may dodge. The chance grows with the defender's agility compared with the attacker's, and with bonuses from skills and weapons. It is capped, and a pinned defender cannot dodge.
- Block. If the blow was not dodged, the defender may still block. Agility and shields help.
- Counter. After a dodge or a block, the defender may hit back at once. Counters never chain into more counters.
- Damage. A landed hit deals the weapon's damage (or the natural attack if unarmed) plus half the attacker's strength, with a little random variance.
- Critical. A critical hit deals double damage. The chance comes from skills and weapons.
- Armour. Flat armour reduces damage, but never below 1.
- Combo. After a landed hit, the attacker may chain extra hits. Speed and fast weapons raise the chance; each chained hit is half as likely as the previous one, up to four extra hits.
Losing a weapon
Two things can take a weapon out of a fighter's hand for the rest of the fight:
- Disarm. After a landed hit on an armed target, the attacker may knock the weapon away. The chance depends on the agility gap, skills such as Disarming Bind and Sticky Fingers, and disarming weapons like whips. Pets never disarm, and fist weapons and shields are strapped on, so they cannot be lost this way.
- Slip. After a landed melee hit, a clumsy weapon may slip out of the wielder's own hand. Heavy and improvised weapons are the clumsiest, polearms and blunt weapons much less so, and agile fighters keep their grip better.
A lost weapon tumbles to the floor and stays there until the end of the fight; the fighter punches until it draws another sheathed weapon. See the weapons guide for families and clumsiness.
Surviving a knockout blow
Some skills, such as Liquid Courage, let a fighter survive the first lethal hit with 1 health and then heal a share of its maximum health. It is a one-time rescue per fight.
Status effects
Skills can pin an enemy in a net or a hug so it loses actions, make a fighter go berserk for extra damage, make a target bleed or slow it down. Reaction skills trigger when you dodge, block or take damage. All of them are listed on the skills page.