Battle

All game mechanics are subject to change/tweaking as the game is still in Alpha. Verification will be needed upon full release.

Battles are the core gameplay of aside from Negotiation. Battles are fought by spending Action Points on cards to use attacks, inflict statuses, and prepare other actions such as gaining defense.

Health
Health is a stat for every character, including the player character and NPCs. When a character's health drops to zero, they die and is out of the game. If the hero loses all health, they die, ending the current run. Players are given 1 chance to restart from the beginning of the current day if they die, but only if it's at least day 2.

Notes:
 * Resting at the inn each night fully restores your HP and Resolve but resting can only be done after completing each day's story.
 * Merchants sell limited use items that can restore health, such as Salve and Healing Vapors.
 * The bartender at the player's home(Fssh for Sal, Hebbel for Rook) sells food to the player. Eating food cost some shills, but will restore 15 Health and add a Bloated card to the player's battle deck. The player cannot buy more food if they have 3 or more Bloated card in their deck.
 * Status damage from secondary sources (such as burn applied on a different enemy) won't flag death or surrender warnings. Be careful not to accidentally murder targets with these effects if you intend to let them surrender.

Panic and Surrender
A secondary stat to Health, Panic Meter is the point at which the character panics. When an enemy's health drops below this threshold, they will panic, and they will run away(if they are an animal) or surrender(If they are sentient). Morale is the opposite of Panic Meter, and is only displayed whenever the panic meter changes.

When a sentient character panics, they will Surrender, and will be unable to act for 3 turns. After 3 turns, they will Rally, healing some amount of health, reducing their panic threshold, and become Rallied(a status effect that lasts for the rest of the fight, and has "this character deals 25% more damage"). The player can then make this character panic again.

When every fighter on a team either: is killed, runs away, panics, or is a quitter(but not if all fighters on a team are quitters at the start), that team becomes defeated. At this point, the battle ends, and the player can decide to execute any survivors that are still there, or spare the remaining fighters. The player is not required to kill every enemy in order to win a fight(and often this is better than killing everyone).

Notes:


 * Not all characters have a panic meter. The player character doesn't have one, as well as mechs.
 * Most creatures and people will not fight to the death unless specific circumstances are present, such as successfully being provoked into a fight via negotiation when hated.
 * Animals panic easily, causing them to flee battle but outright killing them will cause an item to drop. Dropping their health as close to the panic threshold then finishing them off with a big attack can be quite useful for gaining powerful cards early on in a run. ex. Carapace
 * Panic can be directly increased by using specific cards such as Crackler.
 * While most enemies have low max HP and a panic threshold of around 25%, some enemies have very high HP pools but an even higher panic threshold %, making Bog Doom especially powerful against them.
 * If an attack round hits an enemy's panic threshold, the surrender flag will display next to the damage being dealt. Dealing any more damage is not required if you plan to force all enemies to surrender unless you want to murder that character.

Combat Strength
Each character has a combat strength rating that acts as a rough estimate on their battle prowess and difficulty to defeat. When previewing a fight, combat strength is shown as a star rating of 1-5 stars above the character's portrait.

Bosses will have "high threat" text above of their character portrait instead of the usual star rating when allied or fighting through other event. ( need confirmation )

For a list of characters and their combat strength, see: Characters

Killing and Murdering
Killing is not required to win a battle. However, sometimes the enemies are killed, either accidentally or on purpose, by the player or another character. Killing an enemy has the following effects:


 * The player is rewarded the victim's death loot if they have one.
 * Some Shills will drop if the victim is sentient. The amount dropped depends on the victim's Renown.
 * If the player kills the victim(either with direct damage, player-inflicted status effects like Bleed, or with execution), it is considered Murdering, and if the fight is not isolated, either one of the following diplomatic consequences will be applied to the player(chosen randomly):
 * A friend of the victim(a member in the same faction) will hate the player, giving them their bane. The friend is random, and can be anyone who doesn't hate the player before(even those who loves the player previously).
 * A Murder Card will be added to the player's negotiation deck, representing their reputation. This is the default choice if there are no one in the same faction as the victim.

Notes:


 * If you let someone else deals the lethal blow, it is not considered murdering, and you can profit from the benefit of this death without suffering from the severe consequences.
 * If you inflicted a status effect such as Bleed, a teammate inflict that effect onto the same target, and the target dies from the effect, the teammate is considered the killer, because they last inflicted the effect.
 * If the player causes the death, but does not directly attack the victim(for example, killing someone by exploding a Spark Mine), it does not count as a murder.

Negative Status Effects
Many battle cards and ally/enemy attacks apply status effects to their targets. Referred to in game as debuffs, most statuses stack which increases the power of the effect. Some enemies inflict statuses when attacking your hero while others add status cards to the player's deck.

Notes:
 * Most statuses become exceedingly powerful when stacked to high amounts. Building a deck around 1 or 2 specific statuses is an efficient way to increase your chance of success.
 * On the flip side, building a deck with various statuses can create interesting synergies with cards like Cataclysm and Brain Tick.
 * Most allies inflict specific statuses or have low damage multi-hit attacks. Pairing wound with multiple allies is particularly strong.

Positive Status Effects

 * Some status effects can be applied to your hero directly as a buff. Buffs can be gained in various ways such as from playing ability cards, social boons, and grafts.

Hostile Enemy Buffs

 * There are numerous unique buffs enemies can have in . Some can safely be ignored, while others will make fights extremely difficult if not taken into account when planning turns.

Status Cards

 * Status cards are unique cards identified by their yellow border. Performing certain actions like drinking alcohol and eating food, while restoring resolve or HP, also adds status cards to your deck. Some boss and enemy attacks will also add status cards to your deck. Status cards are generally 1 time use (expend) that can be played to remove them from your deck and are meant to bloat your deck, but some also have an immediate negative effect upon drawing them. By default, resting at night removes all status cards from your deck.


 * See: Status Cards

Grafts

 * Grafts are items that are equipped and grant various buffs. Grafts can be purchased through the Black Market, gained as a reward from quests and random events, or dropped by bosses. Grafts are the only method a player can gain additional permanent Action Points.

Running Away

 * Players are given the option to run from fights. The player can run from many battles, including side quests and events.
 * Running away from the fight takes one turn, and must be decided at the beginning of the turn, after turn 3. After the enemy finishes their actions, the player runs away, and live to grift another day.
 * Running away has severe consequences:
 * All party members will leave the party.
 * Sentient allies will dislike you for abandoning them.
 * The player gains a Coward card.
 * The player may fail any active side quests.

The player cannot run away from main quests.