Combat
When a fight breaks out — an ambush on the hex map, or a conversation that turns violent — the Battle Screen opens full-screen. The enemy stands against the biome backdrop with their name, level, and HP bar; your side of the field shows you and everyone traveling with you.
Combat plays as a hand of ability cards driven by a Focus resource, with a timing gauge that rewards good reflexes. Fights are turn-based: you act, your party acts, the enemy acts.
Ability cards
Each turn you play one card:
- Strike — a straightforward attack with your equipped weapon. Costs nothing, and every landed hit builds +1 Focus.
- Brace — costs 1 Focus. Steady your footing: the next hit against you is halved.
- Items — use a consumable from your inventory (anything with a heal amount). Using an item takes your turn.
- Flee — attempt to escape. Success depends on your speed against the enemy's; a failed attempt costs your turn.
More cards are on the way — the system is built for a growing deck of martial, guile, and arcane abilities.
Focus is the rhythm of a fight: free attacks build it, stronger moves spend it. You start each battle with a little in reserve, and your maximum grows as you level.
The timing gauge
Attacks aren't a dice roll you watch — they're a bar you stop. Tap inside the highlighted zone to land the hit; stop it in the narrow center band for a critical hit at 1.5× damage. Miss the zone entirely and the swing goes wide. The zones move every turn, so no two swings feel automatic.
Reading the enemy
Enemies telegraph their next move — the panel shows what's coming and its damage range ("Strike next · 46–70") before you pick your card, so you know when to Brace and when to press the attack.
Your party fights beside you
Everyone traveling with you joins the battle on your side of the field, each with their own HP, attacks, and instincts. They act automatically after you each round.
- If you fall, they fight on. Getting knocked down doesn't end the fight while allies still stand — the battle keeps playing out round by round. Win, and you come to on your feet, rescued, with no penalties. Lose everyone, and it's a proper defeat.
- Nobody dies out there. Party members knocked out in battle are back on their feet afterward — bruised, not buried. They carry the memory of the fight, win or lose.
- Enemies rise to the occasion. Enemy toughness scales up with your party size, so traveling with friends doesn't turn every fight into a formality.
Fights with NPCs
When a conversation turns genuinely violent — a drawn blade, a thrown punch — the NPC can take it to the battle screen. Whether they fight, flee, or beg depends on who they are: a timid clerk and a veteran guard react very differently to the same threat.
Kill or spare. Win, and the How do you want to do this? screen puts the choice in your hands — describe your action, then pick Spare or Kill.
- Killing is permanent. The world remembers: witnesses in the room react, people who knew them hear the news, and the NPC is gone.
- Spare them and they remember losing — beaten and wounded, but alive — and that you let it end there. Witnesses remember that too.
Losing isn't dying. Lose a fight against an NPC and you're knocked out, not dead — you come to where you fell, hurt and humbled, and the story continues.
How a fight started shapes how it ends. A friendly tavern scrap that went too far lands very differently — for the NPC and every witness — than a battle that was always to the death.
Prefer no NPC combat at all? Turn on Disable NPC combat in Atlas → Settings: confrontations with NPCs stay narrative, in chat, and never open the battle screen. Enemy encounters are unaffected.
Outcomes
- Victory — loot and XP. Enemies above your level are worth more, weaker ones less.
- Fled — no reward, no consequences; you're back where you started.
- Defeat (enemies) — you lose some XP and a share of your gold, and the journey continues.
- Defeat (NPCs) — knocked out, not dead. No respawn mechanic, no death.
Healing between fights
Consumables in your inventory (Atlas → your character) show a Heal button whenever you're below full HP — no more limping into a fight at 1 HP with a bag full of meat pies you couldn't eat. In battle, items take a turn to use.
Stats in combat
Your equipped weapon and armor feed your attack and defense. See Inventory and equipment for how equipping works.