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Combat

Targeting, kiting, abilities, statuses, elites and what happens when you fall.

The basics

Click a monster to target it. You walk into range and attack on your own, once per weapon "speed" (most weapons attack every 2 seconds). Your attack comes from your weapon, ammunition and jewellery. Your defence comes from armour, shields and the Defence skill.

Each hit that deals damage trains your combat skill (Melee, Distance or Magic). Being hit trains Defence.

Monsters come back a minute or two after they die, sooner in small groups and once you've cleared an area, and never right on top of you. Ones your quests need wear a gold !. See Planning a hunt.

Kiting

Clicking the ground or walking with WASD keeps your target. You stop chasing but keep attacking whenever it's in range. Ranged vocations can step back and keep shooting. The target is dropped only if it dies, gets more than 12 tiles away, or you press Esc.

Abilities

Each vocation has four abilities on Q, R, F and G (unlocked at levels 2, 10 and 20, and by its trial from level 30); see vocations. None work inside towns. Each has its own cooldown, shown on the quick bar.

When an ability is off cooldown but can't be used right now, its button says why: no target, too far, no sight, no mana, no ammo, in town or trial. If you press it anyway, the button flashes red. Abilities that use your weapon's range reach as far as your normal attacks, range bonuses included.

Status effects

  • Poison ☠ hurts every second. Spiders, bees, bog imps, demons, drakes and Ashwing can poison you. Drink an Antidote.
  • Slow ❄ makes you attack less often. Slimes, ghosts, yetis and floating skulls cause it.
  • Buffs: Strength, Iron Skin and Haste potions, and Battle Cry.

Some monsters (goblins, mushroomlings, stags, imps) run away when they're nearly dead.

Elites

About 1 in 30 monsters spawns as an elite, with a golden ring and floating sparks:

  • 2.5 times the HP and hits much harder;
  • triple XP and two loot rolls;
  • much better odds of rare gear.

Fight them when you can afford to.

Kill streaks

Kill monsters within 8 seconds of each other to build a streak: +2% XP per kill, up to +20%. The counter shows above the quick bar.

World events

Every 15–25 minutes a band of monsters led by an elite appears somewhere in a region, with a big banner. Kill them all for a reward chest with gold and at least Fine gear. See world events.

Being defeated

You wake at the nearest temple or shrine with full health, but you lose:

  • 10% of the GP you carry. Banked gold is safe, so bank often.
  • 15% of your XP towards the next level. You never lose a level.

The exception is the Proving Pit: falling there costs nothing.

Bonuses that add up

  • Mastery ranks: damage, HP, speed and more.
  • Gear set bonuses for wearing 2 or 4 matching pieces.
  • Bestiary milestones against a creature you hunt a lot.

Reading a fight

Numbers float over every hit:

  • White: your normal hits.
  • Big gold with a "!": a heavy hit. The target freezes for a beat and the screen jolts.
  • Red: damage you take.
  • Grey "miss": an attack that missed.
  • Green: healing.
  • Gold "+XP": experience from a kill.

Elites and their traits

Elites are bigger, glow, and carry one trait (two from level 18), named in front of the creature: a Vampiric Swift Grey Wolf heals as it bites and runs you down. The traits are Shielded, Regenerating, Thorny, Vampiric, Swift, Frenzied, Explosive (step away when it dies!) and Colossal. Early elites only roll the gentler traits. An elite's danger colour counts one band higher for each trait, so a red name means think first. See all elite traits.

How monsters attack

Every monster fights in one of three styles, shown on its wiki page:

  • Melee monsters walk up and hit you.
  • Ranged monsters shoot or throw from a few tiles away: archers, goblin slingers, and spiky things like the Cactoid that fire spines.
  • Magic monsters cast from range: wisps, ghosts, priests, witches and fire creatures like the Fire Demon.

Archers and casters don't like you close. Stand next to one and it will sometimes step back a tile before it shoots again. Bosses, and monsters rooted to the spot, stand their ground.

Some big melee monsters also have an attack from afar. Dragons and drakes breathe fire, frost or lightning; giants and the cyclops throw rocks; Captain Blackwake fires his pistol. They use it when you're out of reach, every few seconds, then come in to fight up close. Kiting them still works, but it isn't free.

You can tell what's coming by its look: orange bolts are fire, pale blue frost, green poison, yellow lightning, blue water, dark purple shadow and white light. Violet bolts are plain magic, and grey rocks thud into the ground.

Magic hurts armour less

Monster spells ignore half of your defence. A heavy knight still shrugs off sword blows, but mages, shamans, wraiths and void walkers hurt everyone. Runes work the same way against monsters.

Legendary effects

Legendary items carry one special effect, marked with ★ in their tooltip:

  • Life steal: each hit heals you.
  • Thorns: monsters that hit you get hurt.
  • Arc: a chance for your hit to jump to the nearest other monster at half power.
  • Double strike: a chance to hit twice.

Packs and alphas

Wolves, goblins, orcs, bandits, raptors, pirates and jackals run in packs. Each pack has an alpha, such as the Wolf Packleader, the Goblin Chieftain or Sandfang:

  • Pack members near their alpha hit harder.
  • When the alpha joins a fight it howls, and the rest of its pack nearby joins in.
  • Kill the alpha and its pack falters for a while, hitting much softer.

Alphas come back slowly. Ten alpha kills earn Pack Breaker and the title Packbreaker.