Combat

Every enemy shows what it will do next. You get one turn to answer it.

Your turn

On your turn you may do as much of this as you like, in any order, and none of it ends the turn:

• cast skills, while you have the mana;
• use tonics and flasks and kegs from the bag, once each a battle;
• buy from the market, sell, merge, equip, take loot from the stash, learn a tome;
• absorb one piece of gear, once a battle;
• tap an enemy to make it your target.

Then ATTACK or GUARD ends it, and the enemies act, left to right.

ATTACK

ATTACK strikes your target once for each strike you have: one, plus your strikes stat. The button shows it as "2x 14": strikes times damage. Each strike deals your power, which enemy armor soaks first, and your arcana, which ignores armor.

• A strike can crit ( crit chance) for extra damage ( crit damage, +50% to begin with).
• Pierce is the share of your power that skips armor.
• Leech heals you for a share of the damage dealt.
• An evasive enemy can dodge a strike. Only strikes can miss.
• If your target dies mid-attack, the remaining strikes go to the next enemy.

Long-press ATTACK for its numbers: "ATTACK: 2 strikes for 14 each."

GUARD

GUARD does three things at once:

• restores 40% of your maximum armor (60% with Brannoch's Stalwart);
• gives 1 mana;
• braces: every physical and arcane blow the enemies land this turn is halved.

Burn and poison ticks and an enemy's spikes are not halved. Some sets make GUARD hit as well: Bulwark bashes, Relicguard charges your next ATTACK and strikes.

The GUARD button turns gold when the game has worked out it is the better move: it would save your life, it would spare you a big share of your health, or its bash would out-damage your ATTACK.

The preview

While you decide, the game plays the coming turn on a copy with the luck taken out, and shows the result before you commit:

• the part of every bar that would be lost is hatched;
• a number beside your armor and health bars shows what the enemies' turn will take;
• an enemy that would die shows a skull on its plate;
• if the turn would kill you, your hero strip is framed in red and ATTACK turns blood red with hazard tape.

Hold GUARD or a skill to preview that instead.

Taking a hit

An enemy's blow meets your armor first, then your health. Both are full again at the start of every fight.

• A Heavy is the exception: three quarters of it goes past your armor straight to health, unless you GUARD.
• Arcane blows (a Drain, and everything a Candlewight, Wisp or Watcher does) ignore armor entirely.
• Dodge is your chance to avoid a blow altogether, 60% at most.
• Thorns hit back at an enemy each time its blow lands.

Winning and losing

Kill every enemy to win the fight. Each kill pays gold at once; loot goes to your stash. At 0 health the run ends, unless a Gilt Heart in your bag or three Bonewright pieces bring you back once.

Words over the fight

The game calls out what the rules do. These are the ones worth knowing:

Tap the turn label in the top bar for the battle log: every hit, heal and death of the fight, line by line.

The clock

Fights are meant to end. From turn 11, every enemy grows 15% stronger each turn and nothing stays frozen. The turn label counts it down: "Stirs in 3", "Stirs in 2", "Stirs in 1", then the callout "THE HOARD STIRS". The death screen's advice for a long fight is "End fights by turn 10."

Bosses

A depth boss can't be taken below half health in his first two turns: the lost damage shows as "UNYIELDING". Everything else about them is on their own pages: The Tallyman, Mother Brine, Avarax. See also the boss notice.

Play Gold BelowThe first ten floors are free. No ads, and it plays offline.

Written from the game's own rules, version 2.9.4. Spotted something wrong? Tell us on Discord.