Combat

Click an opponent to attack. The rest comes down to your levels, your style and what you carry.

A fight, swing by swing

Your hero walks up, turns to face the opponent and swings. The world runs on a clock of 0.6 second ticks, and every weapon swings after a set number of them. The blow lands one tick after the swing, and that is when the number appears.

A swing either misses, which shows a 0, or hits for anything from 1 up to your max hit. Your opponent does the same, on its own rhythm. When its hitpoints reach 0 the fight is won.

Your combat skills

Your combat level sums these up, and a new hero is level 3. Beside each opponent's name, its level is coloured from your side: green for your level or lower, orange for a few levels above you, and red for ten or more.

Attack styles

The Combat tab lists three styles. Each weapon names them after its own movements, but they work the same way. Pick the style for the skill you want to raise. A change takes effect on your next swing.

Weapons

Swords and bare hands swing every 2.4 seconds. Axes and pickaxes are heavier and swing every 3.0 seconds, so a hatchet can fight, but it is a tool first.

Weapon	Attack	Strength	Needs
Drill sword	+4	+16	Nothing
Wooden sword	+2	+1	Nothing
Copper sword	+4	+5	Attack 10
Iron sword	+6	+7	Attack 20
Steel sword	+11	+12	Attack 30

Armour

Armour adds to your defence, so opponents land fewer swings on you. Materials go from leather to copper, iron and steel, each asking for more Defence to wear.

Armour	Defence	Needs
Leather helmet	+3	Defence 1
Leather boots	+1	Defence 1
Leather cuirass	+9	Defence 1
Copper helmet	+4	Defence 10
Copper boots	+2	Defence 10
Copper cuirass	+13	Defence 10
Iron helmet	+6	Defence 20
Iron boots	+3	Defence 20
Iron cuirass	+18	Defence 20
Steel helmet	+9	Defence 30
Steel boots	+5	Defence 30
Steel cuirass	+29	Defence 30

Bonuses multiply your levels rather than add to them. At low levels your own Attack and Strength matter most, and a better weapon pays off more and more as you grow.

What you can hit for

Your max hit with an Aggressive style, by Strength level and weapon:

Experience

Each point of damage you deal gives 4 XP to the skill of your style and 1⅓ XP to Hitpoints. Only damage up to the hitpoints your opponent had left counts, so a big final blow gives no extra.

Food

Food restores hitpoints: a cooked shrimp gives back 3. A bite takes 3 ticks and pushes your next swing back by as many, so you never heal and strike in the same moment.

The training yard and the hall below

The camp's training grounds are safe, and nobody there can kill you.

• Training dummies never strike back and never fall. They teach the motions, so they give half the usual XP.
• Sparring partners wait in the hall below the yard, down the stairs in its corner. They fight back lightly and give full XP. Pick any who is not already fighting. When beaten, a partner yields and you catch your breath. If a blow would take your last hitpoint, the bout is stopped first.
• Veterans stand at the far end of the hall, in steel from head to foot. They will not fight a recruit until Muallim Sunqur sends you, and you should not expect to beat one.