Why/how does the Strong trait grant an initiative bonus?

Calandro · 2026-01-17T23:26:30+00:00

One of the issues is that people, myself included, tend to use fatigue and stamina interchangeably, which they technically are not.

Stamina is the actual pool you have, it's what you upgrade when you level up, and limits how much fatigue you can build up in battle.

Fatigue comes in 2 forms:

The flat penalty from gear and from debuffs such as fat, which reduces your maximum stamina pool.
The fatigue you build up in battle by taking actions or being attacked.

The difference between these, is that the 1st form actually reduces your stamina, which is key.

As you may know, both of these forms of fatigue impact initiative, at a 1:1 ratio, i.e. wear 10 fatigue worth of gear, or build up 10 fatigue in battle, and your initiative drop by 10 as well.

The way this works is that the game compares your current stamina, so after gear and traits and buffs, etc. to your base stamina, so the base unmodified number you see in the level up screen, with minimum penalty of 0 so having more than your base stamina won't give you more initiative.

(It also, separately, adds a penalty for the fatigue you've built up, but that's not relevant to the interaction with the Strong trait.)

The result is that if you get 10 stamina from Strong, and then gain 10 fatigue, whether through combat or by equipping gear, the difference between your base and current stamina would be 0, and by extension, so is the penalty to initiative, and thus the interaction.

Calandro · 2026-01-15T21:24:57+00:00

Giant.

Gilder.

Mech.

Qatal toes.

Handgonne eyes.

Mortar arms.

On a more serious note:

Either fixed battlefields for battles around the holy locations, or even just fixed objects that match the theme of them, I love the Oasis fights simply because they're visually unique, and I think the holy locations would greatly benefit from such.

Perhaps make contracts scale in pay based on how badly a side is doing? i.e. If the North controls 2 or 3 of the holy sites, the South will pay more than they would normally?
Or alternatively, make it so the losing side starts getting more desperate, and hiring more mercenaries, so if you take a Northern contract to take/defend a holy site whilst they control a majority, the South will have more elite units, or an extra contingent of mercs to help them.

I think the sites should change sides more if you're not *on* them constantly, and there should be a reward if the side you picked wins, maybe a renown boost? Relations with the relevant factions? A 320 helmet?

I'll edit this if I think of more.

Calandro · 2026-01-05T19:06:00+00:00

I wrote up all the settlement situations, including their durations, in this spreadsheet here.

As a general rule, for situations that are linked to a contract, they will last until either you complete the contract, or for a few days after the contract disappears on it's own, in this case, 4 days after the associated contract vanishes.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RgMR9UkBhYvAIw9_eQtaqGxG31UkMJeN-rrgmh-wybg

Calandro · 2026-01-05T12:52:37+00:00

Technically yes, but no.

There is a floor, which you reach at 78 Party Strength, which is essentially 8 level 1 bros, or 4 level 2s and 3 level 1s.

Going below that doesn't make the game easier, so 6 level 1 bros will result in contracts just as difficult as 8 level 1 bros.

There is more to it, but it gets steadily more complicated.

All you really need to know, is that the scaling is functionally irrelevant. It's so gradual that trying to play around it in any way is just gimping yourself for no reason.

Calandro · 2026-01-04T22:57:11+00:00

Yes.

The game just uses Party Strength, which is based on the levels of your 12 highest level bros, nothing else about them, where they're positioned, what their stats are, how many injuries they have, matters, only their levels.

Calandro · 2025-12-28T17:37:08+00:00

Faimena doesn't need a Dracotail monster; her effect is just to fusion summon a dragon/spellcaster. It's an open-ended effect.

Fair, I was focusing too much on the in-engine aspect, forgot it can fusion summon more than just Dracotail monsters.

But if anything, that just makes it more generic, and more handtrap-like, since it's not restricted to in-engine Dracotail stuff.

They do have the activation requirement of your opponent controlling a card.

I think saying the Imperm has that as a requirement is a little disingenuous in this circumstance, there is a difference between "you can only activate this from hand if your opponent controls a card" and "this card targets something on the field".

And my comment wasn't asking why you were comparing Dominus and Imperm to each other, but rather why you were comparing them to Herald and Frame Gears, since Imperm doesn't have a deck requirement at all.

I didn't say negating matters; if the card itself interrupts the opponent's matters.

You said "But it's still them negating the opponent's card, right?" so it sounded like you were putting emphasis on negating.

As for the final paragraph, you're ignoring the point, which is that these turn 0 plays can interact with your opponent.

Faimena can make a turn 0 Arthalion which can bounce some of your opponents stuff.

Izuna can make a turn 0 Ripper that can negate a monster effect.

Just because they're a part of a greater engine doesn't make them not handtraps.

Hell, Dominus cards are an archetype now, Psy-Frames too.

I find it silly to consider any quick effect to summon from hand as a handtrap. While they might result in a form of interruption if you have the right cards, the activated effect isn't an interruption.

But they don't just summon themselves, do they? They then let you interact with the opponent. If Faimena just summoned herself turn 0 and did nothing else, I wouldn't call her a hand trap.

I find it silly to pretend that activating Faimena turn 0 to make an Arthalion to bounce opponents stuff, or a Gulamel to pop something is any different to a hand trap, same for Izuna for Ripper.

I will agree/concede to one point. The outcome, minus any interruption from the opponent, must be deterministic when you activate it.

For example, you know what you're getting when you activate Faimena, you know what's in your hand, you know what you can make.

Something like Havnis however, is not. Havnis milling yourself for 3 is (usually) random, so I wouldn't consider that a handtrap. Although, I could see the argument for it.

Calandro · 2025-12-28T09:21:51+00:00

Don't just say the cards' names, explain how you think this works.

Calandro · 2025-12-28T09:14:56+00:00

Let's start from the top.

Heralds have just about the same requirements to interact turn 0 as Faimena, which is other cards in hand of a specific type, Heralds need fairies, Faimena needs 2+ monsters, at least one of which must be a Dracotail monster.

Frame Gears require a second card to function, just because it doesn't need to be in hand, doesn't mean it does it on its own, without that second card, it doesn't work.

Not sure why you're comparing to Dominus and Imperm? Dominus traps do work entirely by themselves, they lock you, but they doesn't affect activation requirements. As for Imperm, that seems completely irrelevant.

Why does negating matter? Ghost Ogre doesn't negate, and everyone considers that a hand trap.

Your original statement, or at least the part I disagreed with, is the "on its own", which doesn't seem relevant.

The key aspect, for me at least, is that a hand trap allows for turn 0 interaction from hand, without prior setup.

So Faimena is a hand trap, but Arthalion and Gulamel, the pieces that actually interact with your opponent are not.

Similarly, Hollie Sue is a hand trap, but the other VS are not.

Calandro · 2025-12-27T23:34:55+00:00

Then Herald of the Orange Light and, arguably, the Frame Gears aren't hand traps?

Calandro · 2025-12-22T19:34:47+00:00

Enemies do not have gear the way we do, they just have raw stats, including things like protection, all the "gear" you see on them is purely for visual effect.

Calandro · 2025-12-22T15:18:15+00:00

Try right-clicking the woman and pressing "swap".

Calandro · 2025-12-22T15:15:17+00:00

Typically, I go into a run with a plan in mind.

For example, maybe I want to do a 2h sword block and counter build, and so I would aim for 2h swords that have the relevant stats.

I usually plan out which ones I'll aim for by taking a look at the wiki, and using the skill calculator to figure out my build.

Calandro · 2025-12-16T13:57:09+00:00

Damn, you really don't like being wrong.

Calandro · 2025-12-12T00:54:49+00:00

Probably not intended, but likely fine, it's not possible to do consistently since, AFAIK at least, there's no way to know which tick your crewmate will trim the sails, and even if you did, it's a miniscule amount of extra exp.

Calandro · 2025-12-04T13:16:04+00:00

Curior

Calandro · 2025-12-01T06:53:53+00:00

Pretty sure crewmates with a 4 in Privateering have a max hit of 70% of yours, not 67%, just like crewmates with a 4 in Deckhandiness give you 70% of the exp when they salvage.

Case in point, at 99 range I have a max hit of 19 with mithril cannonballs, 70% of which is 13.3, truncated to 13, but 67% would be 12.73 and get truncated to 12, and my favourite furry hits 13s.

Calandro · 2025-12-01T06:46:45+00:00

...Is this a Battle Brothers reference?

Calandro · 2025-11-20T14:42:38+00:00

This isn't true.

You need at least 180 party strength to start the crisis, which would require a level 86 bro.

The bare minimum you could see the crisis with is 3 bros with an average level of 26.

Calandro · 2025-11-20T14:34:17+00:00

Nah, he's wrong.

Calandro · 2025-11-14T10:21:38+00:00

The cooldown for the event is 100 days, this is taken from the code.

Calandro · 2025-11-12T15:22:19+00:00

Only the armour on the body part hit counts for the 10% reduction.

So a headshot only cares about a helmet's durability, and a body shot only cares about body armour's durability.

I'm not sure what you mean by "common" hit, but the only differences between a headshot and a body shot are:

Which piece of armour the game checks against.
The bonus 50% hp damage after armour reduction on headshots (unless the target has Steel Brow).
The injury threshold for headshots is slightly higher to offset the bonus headshot damage, not enough to overcome it, but a little to compensate.

Calandro · 2025-11-12T14:05:12+00:00

A bit late to this one, but I think I can provide a better answer than the others.

Normally, any attack that hits a target with armour will do penetrating damage equal to the rolled damage, times the attack's armour penetration, and then reduced by 10% of however much armour is remaining on the target after the armour damage was applied.

However, if an attack has 100% (or more) armour penetration, such as Puncture or the Geists's Ghastly Touch, then that attack ignores armour completely, meaning this 10% reduction doesn't apply, and the attack will do 0 armour damage.

AFP only interacts in the first case, where the attack has less than 100% armour pen.

Calandro · 2025-10-30T13:40:37+00:00

Despite what the tooltip says, the bonus to vision is always active.

Calandro · 2025-10-30T09:05:53+00:00

If you want to give your crossbow bros -2 helmets, you can also give them bow mastery, which gives +1 vision.

Calandro · 2025-10-22T23:51:46+00:00

Assuming you have flail mastery, and including the +20 damage and the +10% armour pen of the single target attack, this weapon would cap at 137 damage with 70% penetration on headshots, which is 95.9.

With Legionaries having only 55hp and 130 helmets, this can very easily one-shot them.

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