Pick a style
There are three ways to fight, and each has its own damage skill:
- Up close with swords, spears, greatswords, maces and axes. Melee damage scales with
Strength. - At range with bows and crossbows. Ranged damage scales with
Ranged. - With magic from wands and staves. Heat, Cold and Energy damage scale with
Sorcery.
What a weapon trains is a different question. Hitting things trains the skills of the weapon in your main hand:
| Weapon type | Trains | For example |
|---|---|---|
| Sword | Dexterity |  Copper Sword,  Iron Sword,  Steel Sword |
| Spear | Dexterity |  Copper Spear,  Iron Spear,  Steel Spear |
| Greatsword | Strength and Dexterity, half each |  Copper Greatsword,  Iron Greatsword,  Steel Greatsword |
| Mace | Strength |  Copper Mace,  Iron Mace,  Steel Mace |
| Axe | Strength |  Copper Axe,  Iron Axe,  Steel Axe |
| Pickaxe | Strength |  Copper Pickaxe,  Iron Pickaxe,  Steel Pickaxe |
| Bow | Ranged and Dexterity, half each |  Poplar Shortbow,  Willow Shortbow, Spruce Shortbow |
| Crossbow | Ranged |  Copper Crossbow, Iron Crossbow, Steel Crossbow |
| Throwing Axe | Ranged and Strength, half each | No weapon has this type in the game data yet |
| Staff | Sorcery |  Poplar Staff, Cold Battlestaff, Heat Battlestaff |
| Wand | Sorcery |  Poplar Wand |
So a sword user who wants to hit harder has to train Strength somewhere else, and a bow trains Dexterity as well as Ranged. You get 1.8 experience per point of damage, split between the listed skills.
Dexterity is not wasted either way: it sets your maximum stamina, and blocking and most attacks cost stamina.
Light and heavy attacks
A light attack makes the target flinch for a moment. A heavy attack staggers and knocks it back, much further for small creatures than for large ones. Players count as medium sized, so a heavy hit on you knocks you back 1.25 metres.
A heavy attack into a raised block does three times its usual stamina damage to the blocker.
Blocking and parrying
Hold block while facing your attacker. Your weapon or shield stops a share of each hit, up to a cap, and every hit you block costs you a fifth of your maximum stamina. Shields stop far more than weapons.
Raise the block just before the hit lands and you parry instead:
- twice the usual share of the hit is stopped,
- it costs you no stamina and takes a fifth of the attacker's,
- and it staggers the attacker, for up to 4 seconds against the smallest creatures.
The parry window is a fraction of a second, longest with swords, axes and maces and shortest with a shield. Bows, crossbows and wands cannot parry at all, and nothing parries magic. Windows for every weapon are on blocking and parrying.
Armor and resistance
Armor pieces give resistance to damage types. Each point takes about 1.7% off what is left of a hit of that type, so 40 points halve it. Your 
Defense level cuts every hit on top of that, and it trains whenever your defenses take the edge off a hit: 3 experience per point prevented, half that for damage stopped by a shield block.
The full order of everything that happens to a hit is on combat.
Staying alive
- Health refills on its own only up to 40%. Carry food. Health and stamina lists what heals best.
- Stamina comes back quickly, 43 a second, but not while you sprint.
- Check a creature's page before you fight it. The bestiary lists attacks, damage types, resistances and drops.
- If it goes wrong anyway, bank first next time. See death and recovery.