Monsters
Monsters are what you grind. Mechanically they're simpler than players: instead of the five stats they use {health, speed, power} plus the three class axes {ac, wc, sc}. Understanding how they scale tells you what to fight and what to avoid.
Monster combat stats
| Stat | Role (see Combat) |
|---|---|
| health | the monster's HP pool |
| power | substitutes for STR/NTL in its damage |
| speed | drives extra strikes: extraStrikeChance = max(0, speed/health − 1) |
| ac | its effective AC — what your WC/SC is measured against |
| wc / sc | its attack class vs. your armour |
By default speed = power = health and wc = sc = ac unless a zone or template
overrides them — which is how archetypes create variety.
Tiers — the zone ladder
Each zone has a ladder of tiers (0 at the bottom, up to 8 in starter zones). A monster's tier sets its stats via scaling curves:
ac(tier) = zone.base_ac + tier
health(tier) = zone.base_health × 1.45^tier
exp(tier) = zone.base_exp × 1.5^tier
gold(tier) = zone.base_gold × 1.15^tier
Two things fall out of this:
- HP and rewards climb fast per tier (×1.45 HP, ×1.5 XP), but gold climbs slowly (×1.15) — so higher tiers are great XP and only okay gold. The XP:gold ratio widens from ~10:1 early to ~100:1 late.
- AC rises by +1 per tier. Because the damage curve is
1.2^(WC − AC), climbing a couple of tiers above your WC quickly tanks your damage. Fight at or just below your effective WC/SC.
Zone archetypes change the feel
Zones tweak the defaults to create distinct challenges:
- Fast (e.g., Gallowfen Deep):
speed ≈ 1.67 × health→ frequent extra strikes; you take more hits. - Caster (e.g., The Sunken Stairs):
wc = sc = ac + 2, lower ac → they hit hard with spells; bring WIS defence. - Tank/training (e.g., The Mossback Warrens): high ac, low power → beefy and weak; ideal for training Armour & Doublehit mastery.
- Farm: one drop channel reduced and lower exp.
The seed bestiary
Monsters have a favored axis (melee / caster / balanced / tank) that flavors their stats. A sampler from the seed world:
| Zone | Monster | Axis | Flavor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thornmere Verge | Mirefang Pup | melee | "too many teeth and no plan beyond using them" |
| Thornmere Verge | Bramble Wisp | caster | "a knot of living thorns trailing resentful light" |
| Thornmere Verge | Hollow Sentinel | tank | "a bark husk in a rusted helm that never heard the war ended" |
| Thornmere Verge | Fenwyrm Broodling | balanced | "mother is mercifully elsewhere" |
| Lanternwatch Cross | Crossroad Footpad | melee | "half thief, half thicket" |
| Lanternwatch Cross | Hedgerow Troll | tank | "a boundary dispute given shoulders" |
| The Sunken Stairs | Stairhaunt | caster | "there is always one more step than yesterday" |
| The Sunken Stairs | Silt Strangler | melee | "patience with fingers" |
| Gallowfen Deep | Gallowfen Reaver | melee | "it harvests the fen's crop" |
| Gallowfen Deep | Fenwyrm Matriarch | tank | "mother is no longer elsewhere" |
| The Mossback Warrens | Moss Sow | tank | "a boulder that breathes and forgives nothing slowly" |
| Briar Stocks (jail) | Thornwall Warden | tank | "counts your sentence in tightening coils" |
A handful have little surprises — the Drowned Chorister can drop a few bonus coins to low-level killers, and jail mobs are flavored around your sentence.
Special monsters
Any spawn has a ~2% chance to roll a special archetype — a King, Brute, Hero, Master, and 15 more — that wildly changes its rewards and difficulty. These are the best (and sometimes nastiest) things to hunt. See Special Monsters.
How to pick a target
- For XP/gold: the highest tier you can comfortably kill (your WC/SC ≥ its AC).
- For Armour/Doublehit training: tanky, low-power mobs (tank zones, the Master special) so you get hit a lot in long fights.
- For loot: fast/loot-rich zones (Gallowfen Deep ×1.5) and King specials (×4 drop chance).
- Avoid: anything whose AC is several points above your attack class — you'll do a fraction of your damage (see Combat).
Next: Special Monsters → Drops & Bonus Time → Combat