Combat Guide (Overview, PVE, PVP)

[DDDsDD999]

Preamble
Haven & Hearth is an open-pvp, full loot, permadeath MMORPG. That means anyone who finds you can fight you, take all your items, and potentially kill you. If your character dies, you must create a new character. This character can only inherit up to 60% of the original character’s stats through burial or sacrificial ritual.

Combat is potentially dangerous, so trying to learn it can be difficult and costly. The purpose of this guide is to provide an introduction to the combat system.

Client Setup

This guide is assuming you use Ender client, as the default client is unusable, especially in combat. The client is available here: viewtopic.php?f=49&t=40754

The main reasons to use it for combat is the improved UI and drinking hotkey, but there are just a lot of other improvements.

You can open the option menu in the bottom right, or by clicking Ctrl + O





For important things to change, first click Global Shortcuts. I’ve highlighted some shortcuts that are relevant to combat, and I’m showing what the defaults are.



Drink: In PVP you need to always be drinking and maintaining your stamina, so make sure this is on a key you’re comfortable to press. I have it set to the tilde (~) key, next to 1.

Hide trees: Trees obscure vision a lot, and are the most common thing you’ll see in a PVP scenario. I have hide trees set to Ctrl + H.

Display hitboxes: Seeing hitboxes is helpful in PVP, you don’t want to get blocked by things. I rarely use this in PVP though, hiding trees is usually enough. I have this set to Shift + B

Toggle Peace: Having a hotkey for this is really helpful in PVE cheesing, will explain in the hunting section how to use this. I usually have this set to Ctrl + P.

Next, if you click the Combat tab, you will be presented with the keys used for combat moves. These track to the Combat belt as follows:



I prefer changing 6 through 10 to Q, W, E, R, T, instead of the Shift+Num, but it’s up to preference.

Next, back out of the Shortcuts menu and click Combat. The defaults should be fine. But I do recommend the new combat UI. It moves things to the top and bottom of your screen, instead of the center. Having the UI in the center is often annoying because it just blocks what you want to see.

Testing Environment: Valhalla

Valhalla is available as a sandbox PvP environment if you ever want to test things out without any risk. It’s pretty bad because it’s not like an actual environment, as it’s all sprint terrain, has no trees, no animals, no rivers, and a tiny map. But it’s useful for testing mechanics and sparring.

One thing Valhalla is good for is seeing how wounds from fighting occurs.

To access Valhalla, log in to an account and on the Character Select, click the New Character button.

Head to the West, and at the edge of the pool should be a river (it may take a few seconds to load in)



Right click the rainbow, and you will be presented with the list of characters on your account. The character that you pick doesn’t matter, you can set the stats in valhalla, but the name will be shown to everyone in Valhalla, so make sure to pick a flavorful name.



Note that Valhalla is a free-for-all, so if anyone else is there they may attack you if you go outside of the safe zone indicated by the columns. If you want be left alone, you can right click someone and click spar, and not have to leave the safe zone



If you head north, there is a hall you can enter with a large suckling pig you can carve meat from. You can eat them to instantly regain all of your HP, energy, and stamina. Note that this doesn’t work while in combat to prevent cheating. Also, you can split the large pieces into 5 separate pieces to save on inventory space.

Be aware that eating this meat will raise a specific combat stat by 10, and that a split piece will raise a stat by 1. It can be annoying when testing stuff.



You can set all of your combat relevant stats by clicking the new menu option in the bottom right grid



Click the box, type the value (1-10,000) and hit enter to set the value.



Strewn on the ground outside is a bunch of gear to wear. You can right-click most items and set the quality of them anywhere between 1 and 10,000.



Back where you spawned in is a Great Hearthfire where you can collect your store items. Note that if you transfer a store item in Valhalla, it gets transferred in the real game too.

Also, there is a well next to it that you can fill your waterskins with.



When you re-enter Valhalla, the gear and stats are saved, but your HP is set by default to 100, so you’ll have to grab food from the Hall to restore it.

[DDDsDD999]

Combat Mechanics
This section goes over the combat mechanics. I recommend trying the PVE section and coming back if you feel overwhelmed. you don't need to understand this section fully to fight weak animals. Seeing the system in action can help a lot.

Basic Overview

Combat in Haven generally follows this pattern: You increase your opponent’s opening with some Attack (i.e. you “open” them), and you lower your openings with some Restoration (i.e. you “defend”). The larger the openings on a target are, the more damage the target’s HP takes from attacks. Once someone runs out of HP, they get KO’d or die.

There are four colors of openings: Green, Blue, Yellow & Red. An attack that targets only Green will do damage based only on the opponent’s Green opening, the other colors are ignored. Some moves do hit multiple colors, but typically you only want to attack 1 or 2 specific colors. Tailor your deck to specific colors.

You can also equip Maneuvers, which grant passive effects with various trade offs. For example, Oak Stance makes attacks against you open less, but it also reduces the amount of openings your own attacks create.

In addition, there is a mechanic called Initiative Points (IP), also called “coins”, that you can gain through moves. Some attacks require/cost an amount of IP.

The typical combo is to gain some IP, raise your opponents openings, and spend the IP on a high-damage attack when their openings are high for massive damage.

Setting Up A Deck

The first step of combat is setting up a combat deck, which is a list of up to 10 moves. In addition, you get 30 mu-points to spend, indicated by μ. Combat moves can have up to 5 mu-points allocated to them, and the more mu-points they have, the more powerful they become.

To set up your deck, go to the Character Sheet (Ctrl+T) and click the Combat Schools button (the 4th at the bottom).



First, select the black bar with the drop-down, towards the bottom. This will bring up your decklist, which contains up to 5 separate decks. Then, select one of the saves so you can start changing it.



Next we need to assign moves. You can drag and drop them onto the keybar, or press the +/- keys to deploy them. Put them on keys you like, I like putting restorations next to restorations, attacks next to attacks, etc.



This is what it should like at the end if you only have the default moves. Note if you have To Arms, Parry, or Shields Up, don’t put those in, they will make your defense based on your Melee Combat, which should be lower than your Unarmed Combat if you’re new.

Also remember to spend all your mu-points, by default Punch and Quick Dodge have 2 slots unlocked. To do this, click on the + symbol next to any of your included moves that don’t have 0 left.

Once you’re done, click Save

To unlock new moves, and to increase the amount of mu-points you can allocate to moves, you need to kill animals. Animal kills have a chance to reward a combat discovery, and a complete list of moves is available here https://ringofbrodgar.com/wiki/Combat_moves

Combat UI

When a player clicks the Attack button in the bottom right grid, their cursor turns into a sword, and clicking a player or animal in range will initiate combat with them. Note that you can put the Attack button in your hotkey bar for easy access.

Aggressive animals may also initiate combat with nearby players or animals.



Once combat is initiated, also called “in aggro”, the combat UI is displayed. First, in the top right corner, it indicates who you are currently in aggro with.


In aggro with 3 people

The large and top one is who you’re currently targeting. Any moves you do will go to that target. If you click the Attack button, and click someone else, you will switch your targeting to that person.

In addition, the crossed swords icon indicate the aggression status you have with each other. To cancel combat, you must both extend an olive branch. This is done by clicking the aggression icon, or using the Toggle Peace hotkey covered in the client section at the start. Clicking again, or using the hotkey again will go back to aggressive status.


Red with crossed swords. We are both aggressive towards each other.


Blue: I am extending an olive branch, my opponent is still aggressive.


Green: I am aggressive, my opponent is extending an olive branch. Disconnected players do this automatically. Also animals will do this when they’ve taken some damage and start to run away.

If we both extend olive branches simultaneously, combat ends. Also, if opponents are far enough apart, combat will end after a time period. This distance is a little less than the vision range. If their portrait turns into a question mark, they’re outside of vision range.

Also, there is a Pursue button. It is worthless, don’t look at it.

Next, at the bottom of the screen is the combat deck from earlier



When you use a move, the move is highlighted while it is “queued”. In the example above I pressed W, so Left Hook is queued. While a move that requires a target is queued, your character will automatically run towards its target. If your character is in range of the target, and there is no cooldown pending, the move will occur. Moving cancels a queued move.

Lastly, at the top is the combat relation



Cooldown: When you use a combat move, you receive a cooldown before you can use another move, depending on what move was used.
IP: Points that are required for certain attacks. I have 4 IP and my opponent has no IP.
Openings: Determine damage the owner takes. I only have 27 blue opening, no openings on other colors. My opponents has a bit of every opening, but quite a bit of green and red. If I wanted to do damage, I’d use a green/red attack.
Maneuvers: Passive stance. Some get “charged up” when they’re hit by attacks, my opponent’s maneuver is ~40% charged
Last move: Most recent move that was cast.

How Hitpoints (HP) work:

There are 3 terms to know for health:
Soft Hitpoints (SHP): The red part/first number of the health bar. In this case I have 131 SHP. When this hits 0, you are knocked out. Damage to SHP is indicated by a red number. As long as your energy is 8000% or higher, indicated by it being green, SHP will slowly restore over time.

Hard Hitpoints (HHP): The yellow part/second number of the health bar. In this case I have 242 HHP. When this hits 0, your character is dead. Your SHP cannot go above your HHP. When you take SHP damage, a % of it is dealt as HHP, and is indicated by a yellow number. This % is the “grievous damage” stat on a weapon/attack. HHP damage is stored as wounds, which is visible under the character sheet (Ctrl + T), on the 5th button at the bottom. See https://ringofbrodgar.com/wiki/Hitpoints for a list of wounds and how to heal them.

Max Hitpoints (MHP): The whole bar/third number of the health bar. In this case I have 316 MHP. This value is determined by your Constitution. Your HHP can’t go above your MHP.

Note: Wearing equipment that raises your Constitution is ill-advised. If someone removes it from you while you’re KO’d, your HHP & MHP are lowered by the amount given. If you’re heavily injured, this might be enough to drop your HHP to 0 and kill you.


Example of being hit for 130 SHP damage, 52 HHP damage. The numbers saved at the top indicate the total damage someone has taken (that you’ve seen).



When your SHP reaches 0, you are knocked out. Once knocked out, combat relations end. Your body will stay on the ground, and a window appears. By default, travel back to your hearth fire is selected, and 30 seconds from being KO’d you will begin to travel back. If your hearth fire is in a vulnerable position, you can select Log out.

If Remain in place is selected, after a minute of being KO’d, your character will stand back up with 1 SHP, making you vulnerable. You can be attacked again and killed. This will be automatically selected if your hearthfire is destroyed for some reason.

While knocked out, other players with the theft skill can take things from your inventory, equipment, and study. This is done by right-clicking and selecting steal.

You should keep your HHP high before entering a fight. If your HHP hits 0, you will die instead of getting knocked out. Also, some of the strong aggressive animals may randomly continue to hit you while you’re KO’d, doing direct damage to HHP, causing a heavy risk of death.

Combat Moves

I’ll show a few of what I consider staple moves, and explain their mechanics.

Unarmed Attacks (UA)


Left Hook is one of the default attacks.

Attack weight: This is what determines stats used in calculating opening damage. Since this has the UA icon, your UA skill is used for determining your openings on this move. Also note the μ, indicating mu-points. The more mu-points you put in this move, the more openings it creates.

Attack type: What color is used to determine damage. Since this lists blue, the % of damage this move deals is based on how big the target’s blue opening is. The green, red, and yellow openings don’t affect this move’s damage at all.

Openings: How much and what color openings are created. If my opponent has 0% blue, and I hit him with a Left Hook, 15% blue will be created on them (assuming our UA is equal, no special maneuvers, and I only have 1 mu-point in left hook).

Note that attack openings have diminishing returns the higher openings are, so an opponent with over 0% blue will receive less than 15% blue.

Damage: The base damage of the move. If my opponent has 100% blue, and I have 10 Strength, my Left Hook will deal 15 SHP damage. The more strength I have, the more damage. The less openings my opponent has, the less damage.

Grievous damage: The % of damage dealt as HHP damage. If I hit my opponent for a 100 SHP damage Left Hook, my opponent will also receive 10 HHP damage as wounds.

Cooldown: After you use a move, there is a set time before you can use another move. For attacks, the more agility you have than your opponent, the lower the cooldown is.



Punch is very similar to Left Hook (you start with both of these), but it uses green instead of blue. It’s also slightly faster, but with slightly less damage.

One small detail is the attack weight. It has an 80% multiplier. It basically means the 15% Green opening is more like 14.2%. Attack weight math is a little complicated and it’s not as simple as multiplying 15% and 80%. Check the extra math under the Footnotes section if you want to know more.



Knock Its Teeth Out (KITO) is similar to Punch and Left Hook, but it uses Red. It has higher damage and openings.

The big cost of KITO is the Initiative points (IP). Each time you use KITO, you will lose 1 IP. You need to use other moves to gain IP, so if you don’t have those it can be useless.

One thing to note about IP is that it’s shared relationally. If I gain 5 IP on Opponent 1, but have 0 IP on Opponent 2, I can only use KITO if I have Opponent 1 targeted. Switching my target to Opponent 2 will not let me use KITO.



Uppercut is rather unique in that it covers multiple colors. Its damage is determined by Green and Blue openings, but it only opens Yellow. So if you only use Uppercut, you won’t do any damage; Uppercut is a combo move that requires the use of other moves to be effective.

Note the same 80% multiplier that Punch has on attack weight.

Introducing Weapons
There are also moves that require weapons to be equipped to your character. There are different types of Swords, Axes, and Spears. Some moves only work for certain weapons.



Weapons have their own stats. When you use a weapon move (also called melee combat or MC attacks), values from the equipped weapon are used

Damage: Each weapon type has a base damage, which gets increased by the quality of the weapon.

Attack weight: What skill is used to determine openings. For now, all weapons use the Melee Combat (MC) skill. This is similar to how UA moves have an attack weight of UA.

Grievous damage: Explained in UA moves. Determined by type of weapon, but nearly every weapon has 40% grievous damage.

Armor penetration: % of damage that bypasses armor. Will explain more in the armor section. This value is determined by type of weapon, but UA attacks have a set 30% Armor penetration value.

Range: All UA moves have a set range. Weapon moves will use the equipped weapon’s range as a multiplier of that range, letting you hit from further away. Different types of weapons have different ranges, with spears having a notably large range.

Melee Combat (MC)

Sideswipe is like Punch, but with yellow and using a weapon.

Weapon: Any edged weapon means Swords and Axes. Sideswipe cannot be used with a Spear equipped.

Attack weight: Unlike UA moves, weapon moves use the Melee Combat (MC) stat to determine openings. It says according to weapon, but they all use MC.

Damage: Weapon attacks use the equipped weapon’s damage. This is still increased by the strength of the attacker, similar to UA attacks. Sideswipe has a 75% multiplier, so it only deals 75% of the weapon’s damage.



Cleave is a massive damage attack, with a hefty IP cost and cooldown, which leaves you vulnerable.

IP: Some moves both require AND cost IP. In this case, to use Cleave you need to have 6 IP, and once you use it, you lose 4 IP. And remember that you can have 6 IP on Opponent 1, but 0 IP on Opponent 2, in which case you can only cleave if Opponent 1 is the target.

Damage: 150% multiplier means big damage, this is usually a finisher.

Defenses
Combat is more than just raising your opponent’s openings and dealing damage with attacks. You also want to lower your openings to prevent damage.

Note that most defenses can be used at any range, since they have no target (except for a few).


Quick Dodge is a basic Green defense that you start with.

Reduction: If I have 100% Green openings, using this will lower it to 80%. Putting more mu-points in will increase this restoration, so the openings would drop even further below 80%.


Zig-Zag ruse is a strong Red/Yellow opening. But the cost is it gives your opponent 2 IP against you. This means EVERY opponent aggro’d to you gains 2 IP on you.

Restoration: This means if I have 100% Red, and 50% Yellow, using Zig-Zag will reduce it to 50% Red, and 25% Yellow.

Maneuvers
Maneuvers are passive stances that affect attacks that hit you. You can only put one point into these. Also, they are unlocked through Skills bought with LP, and can’t be discovered by killing animals like other combat moves.

Note if you see Δ it’s just 1. This is a deprecated mechanic that hasn’t been removed from the tooltips ( https://www.havenandhearth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=61933&p=786086 )

One thing to note with block/attack weight is that the math is kinda confusing. It’s not as simple as multiplying weight and opening. The extra math section has the exact formula for this, but it’s not important.

Since there’s not too many and they vary a bit, I’ll cover all Maneuvers.


Chin Up is the basic, default UA maneuver.

Block weight: Since this uses the UA icon, my UA skill is used for blocking. If my opponent hits me with an attack that uses UA, the amount of opening will be determined by comparing my UA vs my opponent’s UA. If my opponent uses an MC attack, the comparison will be my UA vs my opponent’s MC.

Cooldown: All maneuvers have a cooldown of 10, which is very short. Switch maneuvers to adapt to situations.


To Arms is the same as Chin Up, but for MC instead of UA. If I have 50 UA and 100 MC, I would want to use To Arms instead of Chin Up.

So if my opponent uses a UA attack, the opening comparison will be my MC vs my opponent’s UA. And if he uses a MC attack, the comparison will be my MC vs my opponent’s MC


Shield Up is another MC maneuver. It has a high block weight, but only if a shield is equipped, otherwise you suffer a notable block weight penalty.

250% block weight might sound like a lot, but block weight math is a little confusing. It works out so attacks against you open ~27% less.


Parry is the last MC maneuver. It requires a sword and has a special ability. Each time an opponent attacks you, their blue opening increases as if you hit them with a 10% opening MC attack, leaving them vulnerable to counter-attack. Only affects openings, no damage.

Block weight: As a downside, block weight is a little lower, meaning your openings increase a little bit more. 80% block weight means you take about 7.7% more openings, which is small but can add up.


Oak Stance is a defensive UA maneuver. You get opened a little less, but your attacks open a little less too. Also, each time you’re hit your highest opening is reduced by 5% (ignore delta, it was removed).


Death or Glory (DOG) is an IP gathering maneuver. You get opened a little more, but when your opponent hits you, you gain 0.75 IP. Decimal IP doesn’t exist, so you gain 3 IP every 4th hit, the first one granting none.



Bloodlust is an offensive UA maneuver. You get opened more, but being attacked charges it. When you attack, a % of the charge is spent, and increases the openings you cause accordingly. Hitting someone while you have full Bloodlust can leave them very vulnerable.


Combat Meditation (Med) is a combo UA Maneuver. Your attacks open significantly less, but being attacked charges it. When you attack, a % of the charge is spent, and the cooldown of the attack is reduced accordingly. Hitting someone while you have full Med results in no cooldown at all, no matter the move, allowing powerful combos.

Special Moves
There’s some rather unique moves that warrant a specific note


Take Aim is one of the primary ways to gain IP. It lets you gain IP at a notable distance, around 8 full tiles. It’s great for cheesing animals, since you can stack IP from safety and then engage the animal. Very useful in PVP too.

More mu-points decreases the cooldown.


Opportunity Knocks (Op Knock) is a rather unique attack. While most attacks open less the higher the target’s openings already are, Op Knocks is the opposite. The higher the target’s openings, the more it opens. This means it’s the only attack that can reliably bring someone to 100% opening, allowing maximum damage.

Also, even though the attack weight lists UA, it doesn’t matter what you or your opponent’s UA or MC are. It’s a % increase on the target’s openings, and no stats matter, allowing even the weakest character to create large openings on an already opened target.

More mu-points increase the opening amount.

This combos really well with Combat Meditation, especially since Combat Med’s reduced attack weight doesn’t affect it.

Stats

Raising your stats makes your character more effective in combat in various ways.


Attributes are raised by eating food.

Strength (STR): The higher your strength, the more damage your attacks do.

Agility (AGI): Having higher agility than your target makes your attacks have a shorter cooldown, up to 20% shorter. Inversely, if your agility is lower than your target, your attacks have a longer cooldown, up to 20% longer. Also will reduce damage you take from bows or thrown spears.

Constitution (CON): The higher your Constitution, the more MHP you have

Perception (PER): Increase damage when shooting things (bows & slings)


Abilities are raised by putting LP into them. LP is generated by studying curiosities.

Unarmed Combat (UA): Determines openings for UA attacks and UA maneuvers. The higher this is compared to your opponent, the more openings your UA attacks create, and the less openings you receive while on a UA maneuver

Melee Combat (MC): Determines openings for MC attacks and MC maneuvers. The higher this is compared to your opponent, the more openings your MC attacks create, and the less openings you receive while on a MC maneuver

Marksmanship (MM): Raising your marksmanship makes projectiles you shoot deal more damage, and projectiles that hit you deal less damage. This affects bows and slings.

Equalization
There is a mechanic worth noting about UA/MC referred to as Equalization. If two combatants have UA/MC within a factor of 2, they are considered equal.

For example, if I have 100 UA, my UA attacks will generate the same openings on someone with 50 UA, and someone with 200 UA.

But my UA attacks against an opponent with less than 50 UA will do more openings, and my attacks against an opponent with more than 200 UA will do less openings.

Similarly, If I’m using an MC attack, the comparison will use my MC. And if the target is using an MC Maneuver like Shield Up, the comparison will use their MC.

Armor

Some equipment gives Armor Class, which reduces the damage you take.



Wear: The HP of the armor, represented by a bar on the side. My Plate Mail has taken 104 damage. When it reaches 500 damage, the armor vaporizes into nothing. There is currently no way to repair wear on armor. Also, the quality scaling on wear is kinda wonky, low quality armors get destroyed really fast, and high quality armor can last a long time.

Armor Class (AC): The left number is hard armor, the right number is soft armor. Hard armor is simply subtracted from each hit, distributing the damage to all equipped armor’s wear instead of to your HP. Soft armor is basically the same as hard armor, but the formula is complicated so sometimes it’s not as much as what’s listed.

So with my armor, each hit I take would be reduced by ~40 damage (but usually a little less than that because soft armor is really complicated)

Agility: Most armors have an agility penalty, especially metal ones. This increases the higher quality the armor is.

Armor Penetration: Each weapon has an armor penetration stat, which means a % of damage ignores armor and isn’t used in armor calculations. Unarmed attacks have a 30% armor penetration.

So if I do a 100 damage attack with a spear, and spears have 15% armor penetration, 15 damage is dealt before any armor calculations. The remaining 85 damage has to go through armor calculations. Even if my opponent has a million armor class, he will receive 15 damage.

Note that some animals have armor but armor penetration doesn’t work on them. Their armor also doesn’t break.

Footnotes

Some random, minor things:
Standing still will slowly reduce your openings. Being in Combat and Moving halts this restoration.

If you hit someone with a multi-opening attack, and one of those openings are 100, the rest of the openings don’t matter, you’re already doing full damage.

Block/Attack Weight is a third root formula.
(1/x)^(1/3)

So some example block weights:
(1/2.5)^(1/3) = 0.7368, so Shield Up has 26.42% less openings
(1/1.5)^(1/3) = 0.8736, so Oak stances has 13.74% less openings
(1/.8)^(1/3) = 1.0772, so Parry takes 7.72% more openings
(1/.75)^(1/3) = 1.1006, so Bloodlust and Death or Glory take 10.06% more openings.

For example, if I left hook someone for 15 blue when they’re on Chin Up, the same left hook when they’re on Shield Up is 15*0.7368 = 11.052 blue. (Assuming their MC and UA are the same).

Armor Damage formula:
viewtopic.php?f=39&t=60465%7C This one’s really annoying to test out because of armor penetration, but this formula seems to work.

[DDDsDD999]

PVE
Fighting animals fairly is really simple, you just spam one attack, and occasionally defend when your openings get really large. You just hope your stats are high enough to fight the animal, and probably take a lot of damage this way.

Fighting fairly is the chump’s way, however. The most effective way to fight and minimize damage is:

• Fight the animal for a bit
• Move out of range of the animal’s attacks to safety
• Defend until your openings are low so you take less damage
• Go back to step 1

This is often called cheesing, and is what this PVE section will cover.

First Fight: Ants

Ants are usually the first animal to fight, they’re pretty slow and have the lowest stats, so they serve as an effective intro to the combat system. Many animals also run when they take too much damage, but ants just follow their target mindlessly.

To fight ants you will need the skills Will To Power, and Hunting. I also recommend at least 5 points in the Unarmed Combat skill. Then find an anthill:


Minimap view

To initiate combat, click the attack button in the bottom right corner, and click one of the ant herds moving around. Don’t click the ant hill and try to raid, otherwise all of the ants will aggro you.

Note: There’s a rare chance for an animal to move faster than others of its kind typically are. If you see an ant moving A LOT faster than the other ants, don’t aggro it.

With combat initiated, the ant herd will follow you and throw attacks whenever it is in range. When it does this, it raises your blue and green openings, and will deal damage depending on how big your openings are.

What you want to do is use Left Hook. Once you and the ant hit each other, walk away from the ant. While keeping your distance, use Quick Dodge and Sidestep to lower your openings. Keep lowering until your green and blue openings are both below 10%, this should minimize damage the ants will do. Now you can Left Hook again, then back away and restore.

Keep repeating this cycle of attacking, withdrawing, restoring. The ant’s openings will increase from each attack, and take increasing damage. As you get more comfortable with this, you can restore your openings less and take more damage so you can kill the ants more quickly. Just be aware of your HP.

If you manage to kill all of the ants you can right click the ant hill and raid it for some goodies, but the main purpose of this is practice.

Second Fight: Bats

The next animal is a bat, they’re still fairly weak but give some good moves. I recommend having at least 10 UA to fight them. Note that they are aggressive, but only detect movement. If you’re moving fast near them, they will likely attack you. The slower you walk, the less likely they are to attack. They are most commonly found inside of caves.



Minimap view

One notable thing about bats is they are faster than ants. They will outrun you on Run speed. You can create some distance on Sprint speed, but this requires water and energy. This means we need a new way to use our restorations, that isn’t just outrunning them.

Instead, we can take advantage of bats not being able to go through cave entrances. First, find a bat, aggro it, and lure it to the cave entrance. You can fight the bat for a little bit, but once your openings get high and you take some damage, exit out the cave entrance. Since the bat can’t follow, you’re free to use restorations. Restore until your openings are low, then can go back in and fight the bat.

Note that while you and the bat can’t see each other, aggro might be dropped. If aggro is dropped, go back in the cave, aggro the bat, and continue the cycle of attacking/restoring from safety.

Also, bats and most animals will try to flee when they take enough damage. Animals will take a bit of bleed damage while fleeing, and may just die while running.



While they’re fleeing, you can try to chase it and hit it. However, if there’s other bats around, you don’t want to do that as they might just all attack you. Or the bat might just be too fast.

To make the animal come back to you, you need to peace the animal (click the green aggression button, or the Toggle Peace hotkey), and then aggro it. The animal usually starts fighting again. If it’s still trying to flee, keep peacing and aggroing it.

This method of reaching safety from animals can be used with more than just caves. You can also use houses, burrows, and mineholes. Just be aware that strong animals will slowly bash buildings if you’re seeking shelter from them in it and it’s not covered by a claim.

Boats

The most versatile method of cheesing however, is boats. Not only can it be used to cheese nearly every animal, but it’s fast and serves as a mobile storage device. The vast majority of transportation and hunting is done with boats. Right click a boat to hop in, Ctrl + Left click to exit in that direction.

You can bring an animal to a shoreline, attack it from within your boat, and then go deeper into the water, out of range of the animal. The animal will just stare at you (besides bats, eagle, and owls which can fly), and you can defend. Repeat attacking or defending until the animal starts fleeing or is dead.

When the animal starts fleeing, you peace it (aggression button or Toggle Peace hotkey), and re-aggro. If it’s still fleeing, keep peacing and re-aggroing. It should return and keep fighting. Note that you can preemptively peace the animal, so once it starts fleeing all you have to do is aggro.

If you get too close to the animal, it may start to destroy your boat, indicated by a sound effect. While the boat takes damage, % numbers over it indicate its repair level (75%, 50%, or 25%). If the boat drops to 25%, immediately go repair.

Metal Weapons

Some larger animals have armor, and will only take damage from big hits, which often requires a metal weapon. Armor is indicated by green text, similar to the HP text. For example, bears have 60 armor. If you hit it for 30 damage, the bear’s HP will remain unaffected. But if you hit for 90 damage, the bear will take 30 HP damage.

Another benefit of metal weapons is sweet-spotting. Some weapons can outrange animals, and spears have a really big range. You can position your boat just outside of the range of the animal and freely launch attacks without retaliation. This saves some time since you don’t have to defend.

Note that you have to be at the exact right position. Too close and the animal hits you, too far and your character will boat into the animal. If this happens, back up, defend, re-position and try again.


Explanation of sweetspotting. The audio sucks but you can see what's going on

Meta PVE Moves

There a few notable moves for hunting:

Sideswipe, Quick Barrage, Full Circle, Op Knocks

Sideswipe: Yellow weapon attack. Short cooldown and 75% damage makes it probably the best DPS option when fighting animals. But can’t be used with spears.

Quick Barrage: Red weapon attack. Short cooldown, generates IP, but only 25% damage. Good for opening red and works with any weapon. Combos well into Full Circle…

Full Circle: Red/yellow Weapon attack. Medium cooldown, 100% damage, little openings though. Use for damage when the opponent has openings already.

Opportunity Knocks: Costs 4 IP. Most attacks open less the higher the opponent’s openings are, but this does the opposite. Use when the opponent’s openings are high to make them even higher. Can bring a target’s opening to 100%, at which point any attack is dealing full damage, which can be needed against high armor animals. Op Knocks has the basic unarmed range, so the animal can hit you when you use it, unlike the weapon moves that can outrange an animal.

MC Moves: The rest of the MC moves cost IP/have long cooldowns, so they’re not very good for efficiently hunting. The sideswipe or quick barrage/full circle combo is usually the fastest way to hunt.

UA Moves: Most UA moves are good for creating openings, but since they don’t use a weapon, their damage is lacking. Once you get a metal weapon, I recommend mostly using the earlier MC moves for hunting, and raising your MC skill. Use Sideswipe with a sword, and Quick Barrage/Full Circle with a spear.

[DDDsDD999]

PVP
The single most important thing to learn about PVP is how to chase/run. To learn this, the biggest thing is practice. Grab a friend, set up a spar and have one side chase. You can’t use Valhalla for chase practice because it’s missing a lot of important mechanics.

Getting Set Up for PVP

Speed Meter


Make sure you’ve set your speed to Sprint when you’re fighting. You always want to be going the fastest speed you can, though only some terrains let you Sprint.

Stamina

The stamina bar, in the top left

Always maintain your stamina levels by drinking water. You can’t Sprint while below 50% stamina, and you can’t Run while below 25% stamina. Be aware that while you’re drinking water, you slow down a little from your current speed.

Heavily recommend using the Drink hotkey covered in the client section.

If you run out of water, you’re doomed in any PVP engagement. You can try to go to nearby rivers/lakes and fill your containers, but it leaves you extremely vulnerable.


Waterskins carry 3 litres of water and take 2 inventory slots, but only 1 in a belt. They’re the most space-efficient drinking container in a belt, so they’re recommended.


Waterflasks carry 2 litres of water and take 1 inventory slot. You should have a belt, so these aren’t recommended because of wasted inventory space.


Buckets carry 10 litres of water but can only be carried in an equipment hand slot. In the early stages of the game before you have weapons and a belt, this is pretty useful. But since this limits the use of a weapon, you'll want to transition to the more portable containers above.

Going at higher speeds will drain stamina faster, and you need to carry a sufficient amount of water. I recommend at least 9 full waterskins at all times, but if you expect to find yourself in a PVP scenario, carry more.

Higher quality water drains less energy, which is helpful for…

Energy

Energy bar, in the top left

Drinking water lowers your energy. Eating food restores energy. While energy is at least 8000%, the bar is green and your SHP will regenerate slowly. While energy is between 2000% and 8000%, you’re not healing SHP. While energy is below 2000%, you are starving and will take increasing HHP damage depending on how low your energy is.

Starving in a fight is really bad. Your opponents might purposely not attack until you starve to death. You can pick food from trees in a pinch, but it leaves you super vulnerable, and it’s not a lot of energy. You can also aggro animals to KO you and let you hearth back.

The amount of food you carry depends on the quality of your water, and what situation you find yourself in.

Most small one-sided fights will end with one side escaping or getting KO’d before starvation kicks in. If you’re just boating around (which costs no stamina), and keep your energy high, you can probably get away without carrying any food.

Large, evenly matched group fights can take hours though, and require a lot of food.



Butter porridge is the best energy food to carry. All it takes is some crop seeds and butter, and fills 1000% energy.

Forager Credo


Forager credo is necessary for PVP, as it grants a speed boost when right clicking small animals. More on that later.

Bunny Slippers


Bunny Slippers are the PVP footwear, you get a speed boost when right clicking bunnies with it equipped. More on that later.

Chasing/Running

The majority of PVP encounters are one-sided, which typically results in one side running, and the other chasing. In evenly matched fights, people that aren’t as good at running will be quickly picked off. There are a few mechanics to make use of for running.

Speed Buffs


Minimap view


Buff received from a speed buff

Speed Buffs randomly spawn in the wild, and are very useful for people trying to escape. Walk over them to consume them and gain a brief speed buff. Note that the hitbox is a little small.

You can only have one speed buff active at a given time. While you have a speed buff, other speed buffs you walk over will not be consumed.

Speed buffs can be consumed while on a vehicle, such as horses or skis, but they don’t increase their speed.

Understanding when to go for them and how to run through them requires practice.

Critters
Critters are small animals. Right-clicking them causes you to pursue them, and pick them up when you get in range. If you have the Forager credo, you get a speed boost while pursuing a critter.

Practice identifying which animals are critters and pursuing them as soon as they become visible. Note that the chaser will make use of these too, but the escapee has the advantage because they see the critters sooner.

Bunnies

A pair of bunnies

Bunnies are a unique critter, because pursuing them with bunny slippers equipped gives a speed bonus. This stacks with the forager credo.

Pursuing a bunny while having a speed buff active will create massive distance.

Chaser's Bonus
While you have a combat move queued, you receive a 1% speed boost. This is only useful for the chaser, but it's really tiny and not noticeable. I don't know if it's ever actually mattered, but it's worth noting that it exists.

Escaping
Through the use of speed buffs and critters the escapee can create a lot of distance. Maintaining enough distance (a little below vision range) for about 20 seconds will result in aggro being dropped.

Once aggro is dropped, you are free to travel back to your hearthfire. However, you likely need to create more distance, otherwise your opponent can keep running at you and aggro you before your hearthing completes.

However, aggroing requires line of sight. Once aggro is dropped, you can artificially increase your distance by hiding behind a tree or entering a cave. Things that can be lifted usually don’t block line of sight, even boulders that aren’t small enough to lift.


Line of sight example. I can’t be aggro’d by someone standing in the red highlighted area because of the tree.

A pretty safe rule of thumb is to hearth when you escape the vision range of all enemies. Just be aware if they’re following you through sprint terrain, which lets them get to you faster. And make sure to block the line of sight they’re coming from.

Horses
Horses are animals that can be ridden and travel significantly faster than hearthlings. Speed buffs and critters won’t increase your speed while on a horse though.

Horses are useful for catching up to someone, but are dangerous ride in the middle of combat. They cannot cross cliffs or deep water without the help of a road, but the big limiter on horses is Raw Hide.


Under Rite & Magic > Hearth Magic, you can find Raw Hide. Raw Hide is a spell that stuns all horses in a range. This range is a little less than vision range, so a faraway horse can be visible and not be raw hided. A hearthling on a raw hided horse is also stunned for the duration, leaving them vulnerable. In addition, the stun is longer the horse is to the caster, around 20 seconds up close.

Raw Hide drains the pony power to 0, so the horse cannot be ridden for a time.

Raw Hide does cost XP though, so if you don’t have enough XP you can get ran over by horses.


Conversely, there is another spell, Horse Whisper. If you’re riding a horse, Horse Whisper instantly refills the horse’s pony power. This can counter the drain from Raw Hide, or extend the horse so you can go further in a pinch.

Water (Rivers/Lakes/Oceans)
The map is covered with a large amount of water, so it may be required to cross rivers in a fight. If there’s a risk of you getting KO’d do NOT go into deep water. If you’re in deep water, you cannot port back when you wake up from a KO, resulting in you likely dying in a PVP encounter.

Boats are water-bound vehicles. They’re quite useful in combat as they can provide an easy escape or ability to catch up.

Be aware that if you get KO’d riding in a boat in deep water, your attacker may destroy your boat before you can auto-hearth. This will very likely result in your death.

Also, only the driver can attack from a boat. Passengers can only attack other people riding in their boat.


Dugouts are the earliest boat. They’re quite slow, but faster than someone swimming, so you could escape someone that doesn’t have a boat nearby. Only one person can ride in. It’s very easily bashed. Can also go through swamps. Will get destroyed quickly in the ocean.


The Rowboat is a bit faster than a dugout, supports a driver and 2 passengers. It can be bashed rather easily, and will get destroyed near instantly in the ocean.


Snekkja is the fastest boat. The snekkja’s speed increases with its quality, allowing it to get really fast, though its speed caps out at about q300. It supports a driver and 3 passengers. Can be bashed by someone with very high strength, provided it isn’t docked. It can also travel through oceans, but loses a bit of speed.


Knarrs are a large boat. The Knarr’s speed increases with its quality like the snekkja, but it’s notably slower than the snekkja. It supports a driver and 9 passengers. Can’t be bashed by hand, so getting KO’d in the water in one is safe. It’s the fastest boat in the ocean though


Coracle is a portable boat that can be equipped in your back slot, or in your inventory. However, it takes a bit of time to enter, which can be easily interrupted. Faster than a dugout, slower than a rowboat, and can be easily bashed.


Wearing a Silver for the Ferryman and drowning will cause you to teleport back to wherever you entered the water. You will be KO’d so you can be stolen from, but it can save you a watery death.

Also, if you get KO’d in deep water it doesn’t trigger until you run out of stamina, so your attacker can just remove the ring and kill you when you wake up. So the use for it is rather limited.


Rusalka’s Water Moccasins are boots that increase swim speed. They’re really, really rare, but they exist. They can’t compete with boats though, I think they’re slower than a rowboat. But they can be used to outswim people across rivers.

Snow
Winter is a brief time period where the map is covered in snow, and the water freezes over and turns to ice. In addition, small parts of mountains are always covered in snow. There’s some important vehicles for snow.

If it’s winter, I recommend just not going outside to PVP, it’s a mess. You can’t be outside without a winter vehicle, or you will get completely ran over.

Speed buffs and critters do not affect the winter vehicles. These vehicles are also very slow on anything not snow or ice.


Skis are the fastest form of winter transport. Unlike other vehicles, you do drain stamina using them, but drinking doesn’t slow them down, so you need to spam drink. Can be carried in inventory.


Sleds can have a driver and a passenger, but are useless for PVP since skis are faster than them. If the driver gets downed, the passenger is a sitting duck if they don’t have a means of escape.

Combat Styles

There are 2 main combat styles: UA and MC. I would recommend MC for newer players, though they require metal weapons.

Unarmed Combat (UA)


UA makes use of UA maneuvers and attacks to create openings. Then it uses the Battleaxe for a high damage cleave. Op Knocks can be used in combination with Combat Meditation or some teammates to open someone really high and land a one hit KO.

Compared to MC, the UA’s battleaxe is quite expensive. Also, pulling off the Combat Meditation combos can be quite difficult, and mistiming a cleave can be an instant KO. Because of this, I don't recommend UA for newer players.

Melee Combat (MC)


MC is a bit more straight-forward and works on high chip damage and out-muscling your opponent. Uses a sword or spear.

Compared to UA, the MC weapons can be quite cheap and replaceable. Also, MC gilds are quite good, letting you raise your MC quite a bit with gear instead of raising stats.

Meta Decks
I’ll list some meta decks. These are mostly intended for group play. 1v1s are usually very dependent on stats, so they’re typically one-sided. But these decks still work pretty well for 1v1s.

Red/Blue UA Deck
Common UA Deck, used with a B12.

Maneuvers:

Bloodlust, Combat Meditation, Death or Glory, Oak Stance.
Pick 2. You should have at least 1 maneuver with full attack weight, which is Bloodlust and Death or Glory.

Defenses:

Sidestep, Quick Dodge, Zig-Zag, Artful Evasion.
Pick 3, but Zig-Zag is a must have. Make sure all colors are covered. Being caught unable to defend a color can get you destroyed.
Mu-points: Max these out, defense mu-points are preferred over attack. You may want to leave Zig-Zag at 3/5, the base value is so high it can be overkill putting more.

Attacks:

Take Aim, Op Knocks, Flex, KITO, Cleave
Use take aim to get IP. Flex for blue opening, KITO for red opening and some chip damage. Cleave on high openings. Coordinate Op Knocks with your team to catch them off guard and line up a strong cleave.
Mu-points: Max out Op knocks, rest are preference. Take aim for shorter cooldown, Flex to lower openings more, KITO for bigger openings. Only put points in cleave if you have MC too, and even then it’s not recommended.

---

Green/Yellow UA Deck
Similar to the Red/Blue deck. Not as costly on IP, but Raven's Bite does less damage than Cleave.

Maneuvers:

Bloodlust, Combat Meditation, Death or Glory, Oak Stance.
Pick 2. You should have at least 1 maneuver with full attack weight, which is Bloodlust and Death or Glory.

Defenses:

Sidestep, Quick Dodge, Zig-Zag, Artful Evasion.
Pick 3, but Zig-Zag is a must have. Make sure all colors are covered. Being caught unable to defend a color can get you destroyed.
Mu-points: Max these out, defense mu-points are preferred over attack. You may want to leave Zig-Zag at 3/5, the base value is so high it can be overkill putting more.

Attacks:

Take Aim, Op Knocks, Punch, Uppercut, Raven’s Bite
Similar to the Red/Blue deck above, but using Green/Yellow. Not as IP-hungry, but Raven's Bite has lower damage than Cleave.
Mu-points: Max out Op knocks and punch. Rest are preference.

---

MC Deck

Maneuvers:

Parry, Shield Up, To Arms
Parry if you have a two-handed sword. Shield Up if you have a one-handed sword. To Arms if using a spear.
This leaves a blank slot. You could put in cleave for swords, or parry with a one-handed sword could be considered.

Defenses:

Sidestep, Quick Dodge, Zig-Zag, Artful Evasion.
Pick 3, but Zig-Zag is a must have. Make sure all colors are covered. Being caught unable to defend a color can get you destroyed.
Mu-points: Max these out, defense mu-points are preferred over attack. You may want to leave Zig-Zag at 3/5, the base value is so high it can be overkill putting more.

Attacks:

Take Aim, Op Knocks, Quick Barrage, Full Circle, Sting
The moves all kinda combo together with very high chip damage. Quick Barrage into Full Circle into Sting, repeat as needed. Op Knocks is more for teamplay with a B12 teammate. If your entire team is MC, consider replacing Op Knocks with Cleave or Chop.
Mu-points: Max out op knocks if you use it, otherwise replace it with something else. Rest is preference.

Hybrid
Raising both MC and UA can be effective because of equalization, if you can keep both MC and UA within equalization of someone raising only one. I don’t really have a specified deck for this style, though I'd recommend just cutting op knocks from the MC deck and slotting in some UA maneuvers.

Marksmanship (MM)

Ranger's Bow
Bows have no real relation to the combat system, they just shoot projectiles that do damage. You click the shoot cursor in a direction and it shoots there. The arrow flies a distance depending on the quality of the bow, and deals damage to the first thing it hits. Bow quality and arrow quality increase the damage. In addition, a comparison is made between the archer’s perception and marksmanship, and the target’s agility and marksmanship to determine if damage is reduced further. Thus, raising marksmanship raises your bow damage, and reduces incoming bow damage.

Arrows can be blocked by anything though, including trees and buildings.

Having a shield equipped reduces incoming projectile damage. This reduction is most effective when the target is shot in the front, and least effective when the target is shot in the back.

There’s also a minimum distance for damage. Shooting someone when they’re right in your face lowers the damage significantly.

If you want to use a bow, you’ll need to raise your UA and use Oak Stance so people can’t just smack you instantly.

You can also throw spears but they kinda suck and then you need to get another weapon.

Wounds & Dying

Note: See the hitpoints section in Combat Mechanics for a defintion of SHP/HHP/MHP

When someone's SHP hits 0, they are KO'd and their items can be looted. After a brief delay, the KO'd person is able to teleport back home, likely left with some wounds that take time to heal. However, under specific scenarios, an aggressor can bring the target's HHP to 0, permanently killing their character.

How to Kill
When you hit someone, a percentage of the damage is dealt to HHP (grievous damage). Typically weapons do 40%, so hitting someone with a sword for 1000 SHP damage will lower their HHP by 400.

Note that this grievous damage is capped. For example, if you hit someone for 1000, but they only have 100 HP, it's treated as 100 damage, and they will only lose 40 HHP.

The steps to kill someone are:
1. Chip: Lower their HP as much as you can without KOing them. They can lose up to 40% of their MHP from this.
2. Max Hit: Do a single hit that is at least 100% of their total HP. This deal 40% of their MHP as HHP damage.
3. Concussion: When someone is KO'd, they receive a concussion wound. This is a random roll anywhere between 5-20% of their MHP.


Example of someone that was chipped down. Lost 400 HHP, almost 40% of their HHP.

So with Chip + Max Hit + Concussion, the maximum HHP damage can be 40% + 40% + 20% = 100% of someone's HP. However, it's really rare that someone loses 100% of their HHP like this. Chipping someone perfectly requires guessing how much HP they have, and UA attacks deal less than 40% grievous damage. Hitting a Max Hit on someone for their full HP can be difficult if they're equally skilled. And the perfect 20% concussion roll is quite rare.

Leading Causes of Death
1. Having HHP damage before a fight. Not needing to hit someone for 100% of their HP provides a lot of leeway in the steps above. Always heal your HHP as much as you can before going outside.

2. Wearing constitution gildings. When you're KO'd, if your constitution gildings are removed, your HHP/MHP gets lowered, and you can easily die. Don't wear CON gear.

3. Deep water. If you get KO'd in deep water, you cannot hearth back. Your character will wake up in the same place, and your enemy can attack you again, resulting in another Max Hit + Concussion. Don't get KO'd in a destructible boat in deep water or swim.

4. Letting people know your HP. Knowing how much HP someone has makes the Chip step significantly easier. Don't share screenshots of your HP.

5. Murderous Rage...

Murderous Rage


Someone with murderous rage active, indicated by the blood drop

Murderous Rage is a magic spell unlocked by the murder skill. Activating it locks you into Murderous Rage for 24 hours, adding 20% to all of your Grievous Damage, making it easier to kill other players. This pushes the Chip and Max Hit damage for above to a maximum of 60% each, providing a lot of leeway. However, if you get KO’d, you will not close combat relations, resulting in anyone being able to kill you.

[DDDsDD999]

Reserved in case I need it.

[SnuggleSnail]

Good guide! Hope some nematodes overcome their condition

[Vraatjuh]

Nice to see a well written guide on combat. Now let us hope it stays relevant for more than 2 months.

[telum12]

Nice to see a well written guide on combat. Now let us hope it stays relevant for more than 2 months.

Yes because of the combat rework that occurred in the past 2 months Nodders

[Nightdawg]

Nice to see a well written guide on combat. Now let us hope it stays relevant for more than 2 months.

Yes because of the combat rework that occurred in the past 2 months Nodders

Combat rework next world confirmed

[MagicManICT]

Nice work! Thanks for the updated information and guide! I'm putting this up to replace the older guides.