To find out what you can fight, just point your mouse at the monster you wish to attack. If you point at a viable target you will be given the option of 'attack', along with the creature's level in brackets after its name.
The colour of that level tells you how the fight will go. If it is displayed in red they are far stronger than you and should probably be left alone. Orange means dangerous, yellow indicates an equal match, and green means they are weaker than you. Read the colour before you click — it is the earliest warning the game gives.
In general, the further you travel from the centre of the island, the stronger and more aggressive the monsters you meet will be. There is no safe region out in the wilderness, only degrees of risk.
You may fight with melee, ranged or magic, and you can change between them at any moment by pressing 1, 2 or 3. There is no menu and no delay.
Every monster wears armour of some kind, and each kind has a weakness. Melee cuts through leather, arrows find their mark against robes, and magic tears through plate. Attacking a creature's weakness deals a great deal more damage; attacking into its strength barely troubles it.
You do not need to memorise any of this. The three style buttons above the chat mark themselves against whatever you are facing. A green arrow means that style counters them and you should use it. A red arrow means they will shrug it off. No mark at all means neither.
| They wear | Weak to | Resists | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leather | Melee | Magic | rat, spider, imp, goblin, assassin |
| Robes | Ranged | Melee | dark wizard, necromancer, warlock, wraith, dragon |
| Plate | Magic | Ranged | hobgoblin, knight, troll, ogre, black knight |
| Neither | — | — | direwolf, skeleton |
Ranged and magic also strike from a distance — eleven and nine paces respectively, where melee must close to arm's length. Against something that hits hard, the safest attack is often the one you can make from across a clearing. They do cost you arrows and runes, and should you run dry mid-fight you will fall back to your blade and be told so.
Beneath every creature's health bar is a second, thinner blue bar. This is its guard, and emptying it is how fights are won.
Striking a monster wears its guard down. Attacking with the style it is weak to strips a great deal; attacking into its strength barely scratches it. Turn one of its own blows aside with a parry and you take off more still.
When the blue bar empties, the creature's guard breaks. It slumps, glowing blue, and for the next few seconds it cannot attack you at all and takes half again as much damage from everything — including styles it would ordinarily resist. This window is when you do your real work.
Should you stop attacking, the guard recovers and you will have surrendered your progress. A broken guard also returns to full once the creature comes to its senses, so nothing can be held down indefinitely.
| Your attack | Guard stripped |
|---|---|
| The style it is weak to | 5 |
| A neutral style | 2.5 |
| A style it resists | 0.5 |
| A parry | 9 — the greatest source |
Roughly four hits with the correct style will break a guard, and that remains true at every level. A dragon is not forty blows — it is about eight.
Monsters telegraph their blows. Before every swing a creature rears back and flashes red for a little over half a second.
Press Space during that flash and you will parry: the blow does nothing to you at all, and their guard suffers more than any attack of yours could manage. Two clean parries will break most guards outright.
You may also simply hold Space down. This raises your guard permanently and blunts the blows that land, which is safer — but a held guard never parries, so you will never break anyone and never win quickly. Reacting is what wins fights.
Anyone may raise their guard. A shield is not required to parry; it is what softens the blows you fail to turn aside.
Once you cross the wilderness boundary you begin to gather resolve, and you gather it faster the further out you go. Every twenty points of resolve is one mark, and each mark makes you strike harder and carry richer spoils.
You keep none of it unless you walk home. Cross back inside the boundary and your resolve is banked at once, paid out in gold and experience — there is no button to forget. But should you die out there, every mark of it is gone.
| Marks | Damage | Loot | Worth if you bank it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | +8% | +15% | 68 gold |
| 2 | +16% | +30% | 170 gold |
| 3 | +24% | +45% | 308 gold |
| 4 | +32% | +60% | 480 gold |
| 5 | +40% | +75% | 688 gold |
The decision this creates shifts as a run goes on. At one mark you risk sixty-eight gold to gain a hundred and two, and pressing on is plainly worth it. By three marks you are risking three hundred to gain one hundred and seventy, and the sensible course is to turn for home. That tipping point arrives on every single trip, and deciding where it falls is the whole of the game.
Some creatures have habits that will cost you the fight if you ignore them. Click any monster and open the Combat tab to see what you are dealing with, along with your own chances against it.
| Trait | What it means | Which creatures |
|---|---|---|
| Heals allies | Kill it first, or the rest will never drop | necromancer |
| Regenerates | Burst it down; chipping away achieves nothing | troll, black knight |
| Evasive | Dodges outright, even a clean strike | banshee, wraith, camel |
| Poisonous | Carry an antidote before you engage | assassin, hobgoblin, necromancer, wraith, dragon |
| Boss | Can fell you in two or three blows. Bring food | ogre, behemoth, wyvern, dragon, black knight |
Suppose you meet a hobgoblin. It wears plate, so it is weak to magic, and it carries poison.
| 1 2 3 | Change attack style. Watch for the green arrow |
| Space | Parry, during the red flash |
| Green arrow | This style counters their guard. Use it |
| Red arrow | They resist this style. Avoid it |
| Blue bar | Their guard. Empty it and they cannot fight back |
| Red flash | A blow is coming. You have half a second |
| Resolve | Builds while you are out. Lost if you die. Banked if you walk home |
If you remember only one thing: the green arrow tells you which key to press, and the red flash tells you when to press Space.