Combat

When Combat is initiated, the player will find themselves face to face with an enemy in the combat screen. Combat is turn-based.

Your goal in Combat is to drop enemy's HP to 0.

General Info

On combat screen, you can see your enemy, their stats, as well as use various actions located in Offensive, Defensive, Support and Spiritual menus. These actions are arranged in 9x9 grid, with central tile showing which menu you have open at the moment.

Two extra tiles are located further to the left; these are reserved for special actions available in few specific encounters, like during fights with Doll Nurse or Mad Janitor.

You need to prepare a sequence of actions, and then click 'LAUNCH SEQUENCE' for the game to compute your actions. If you've made a mistake, or want to start preparing the sequence from scratch, use 'CLEAR' button to clear whole queue or RMB (Right mouse button) to remove the latest action from the queue.

You have 200 'time units' to spend on actions, and you can add a maximum of 8 actions to the action queue.

Once your sequence is resolved, the enemy then deals damage to you (it can be reduced or avoided via Defensive actions).

Note on Spells and Throwing

Casting spells or Throwing items are not tied-in to the Action sequence or time unit limit.

You can cast as many Spells and throw as many Items as you want.

• If you fill up the Action queue with Attacks/Strong Attacks and then Throw you equipped Weapon, you can still launch the sequence and the game will compute the attacks as if you still had your Weapon equipped.

Combat Mathematics

Main article: Math Guide

Offensive Actions

• Kick: (top-left) Basic attack and, if you do not have a Weapon equipped, the only one. Base damage is 2, base hit chance is 80%.
  • The hit chance is NOT affected by enemy PWR; it is always 80%, unless the character suffers from Panic curse.
    • The 'Bite' action granted by Grow Teeth spell uses all the mechanics of Kick action, with 1 base damage more.

• Attack with Your Weapon: (top-center) Basic attack with equipped weapon.

• Strong Attack: (top-right) Attack with equipped weapon and a bonus +50% Damage. The bonus damage is rounded down; for example, Steak Knife will deal 3 damage with normal Attack and 4 with Strong Attack, whereas Fire Axe will deal 6 with normal and 9 with Strong Attack.

• Prepare Your Attack: (middle-left) Guarantees that next attack will hit.
  • Preparing attacks carries over to next Turn of combat if this was the last action in the queue.
    • Although it says it 'guarantees' the hit, it actually raises hit chance by +100%.

• Fire Weapon: (middle-right) An attack that uses your equipped gun's second damage value. Consumes 1 Bullet from the counter on top bar. You cannot Fire if you have no gun equipped.

• Order Your Allies to Attack: (bottom-left) This functions mostly as a standard weapon attack, it has a base 80% chance to hit, which is affected by level ups and enemy power, and its speed scales with your Charisma.
  • It deviates from standard weapons in that its average damage is double the number of allies you currently possess and each attack made with it has a small chance to inflict 2 damage less than its average damage.

• Boost Hit: (bottom-center) Adds +10% to Hit chance of your next attack. The bonus from this action stacks.

• Bite: (bottom-right) Only appears when the Grow Teeth spell is active. Identical to kick but deals 3 damage instead of 2.

Support Actions

• Camera Flash: (top-left), requires Camera to be equipped. Lowers enemy PWR by 10 and grants a chance to dodge the next incoming enemy attack, in the same way as the dodge action.

• Look for an Improvised Weapon: (top-center) Gives you either a Branch or a Broken Bottle. With the Fast Hands perk you also recieve a second item which can either be a Brick or an Empty Bottle.

• Assess the Situation: (top-right) Shows you extra information about the enemy you're fighting. Displays the enemy's types, special skill, weakness and its description.

• Ask your Ally to Distract the Enemy: (middle-left), requires an Ally. Base 70% chance to make your combat actions faster. If this fails, the Ally dies.

• Combat Skill: (middle-right) Lowers your EXP by 5 and increases Hit chance by 10%
  • This action is slightly bugged, as your attacks can still miss even if the hit chance raises to 100%.

• Desperate Struggle: (bottom-center), requires STA or REA to be at 3 or lower, useable once per combat. Doubles damage of your attacks.
  • This bonus comes before any damage modifiers, and does not apply to 'Fire Weapon' actions.

Defensive Actions

• Run Away: (top-center) Ends combat. You cannot run away from certain encounters, especially Bosses, when suffering from Swollen Joint injury, or when the playthrough's Old God is Cthac-Atorasu, the Spider God.

• Meditate: (top-right) Sacrifices 2 Stamina to regain 1 Reason.

• Dodge: (middle-left) Enemy attack this turn has 50% chance to miss. Multiple Dodge actions do not stack.

• Brace: (middle-right) Enemy attack this turn will deal half the damage, rounded down (eg: -3 ALL becomes -1 ALL). Multiple Brace actions do not stack.

Spiritual Actions

• Clap and Bow: (top-left, top-center) Adds 1 Clap or Bow into the queue. A combination of five is needed to exorcise a Ghost.

• Pray: (top-right) Sacrifices 2 Reason to regain 1 Stamina.

• Leave an Offering: (middle-left), only available against Ghosts. Deals damage based on your character's KNW at the cost of 1 Fund.

• Sever their ties to our world: (bottom-left), only available against Ghosts. Deals damage based on this formula: Weapon's Damage /2 (rounded down) + 1 per 4 points of character's KNW.

Combat Resolution

Once you win Combat, you gain some Experience and, depending on the enemy, can also receive a specific Item.

Furthermore, if the enemy was a Boss of the current mystery, it will be completed as well.