Combat Stats, Critical Hits and Target Lock

How to read the Statistics panel

The panel combines base values with equipment, skills and temporary effects. Compare the same form, weapon type and target category when testing a change; the final total includes all of those modifiers.

Critical hits, bleeding and damage reduction

Critical chance and critical damage are separate decisions. A higher chance changes how often a critical result is selected; a higher multiplier changes the result when it is selected. Weapon and claw values are also separate, so a bonus in one form does not automatically improve the other.

For equipment examples, Farkas’s Ring modifies weapon critical chance and critical damage, while Collector’s Pendant adds claw damage and lowers vampiric ability health cost. Match the named effect to the attacks and abilities you use before comparing the numbers.

Bleeding Chance on Attack is the chance to apply bleeding. The percentage describes how often the effect can start; it does not measure bleeding damage or duration.

Physical Damage Reduction and Magic Damage Reduction apply to their respective damage types. Choose defensive equipment for the attacks you expect in the next encounter.

Activation Charge Restoration has separate attack, block and perfect-block rows. The tutorial also says successful attacks and blocks speed up recharge, while Sustained Focus can raise the maximum charge count. A recharge row is not another charge slot.

Ring of Focus lists separate restoration bonuses for hits, blocks and parries. Compare the line for the action you perform; the three percentages do not combine into one bonus on every action.

Why movement can lean toward an enemy

Combat has both a free camera and a locked camera. Without a hard lock, the combat system can still select a nearby focus target for camera and movement assistance. That soft target is why a turn or attack can feel slightly drawn toward an enemy even when no red lock marker is active; it does not mean the camera is in Locked Camera mode.

On keyboard, the prologue presents the middle mouse button as the default Target Lock action. Use the controls menu if you have rebound it. Once locked, change targets with the configured target-change input rather than repeatedly turning the camera and hoping the nearest enemy becomes selected.

The direction arrow around the guard indicator is not an auto-block. Story, Fair and Challenging show the incoming direction; you still hold block and choose the direction. Duelist changes the action experience and does not show that tutorial arrow, so learn the attack animation and dodge unblockable attacks instead.

Learn directional defence even if you prefer simple attacks

You can combine ordinary attack inputs with directional blocks. You do not have to master directional attacks before practising defence. A successful directional block costs no stamina, while a Perfect Block also restores some and can trigger perks such as Counterattack.

On keyboard, hold the required direction with WASD and press the block input just before impact. Holding both inputs guards that direction, but the Perfect Block reward depends on timing. Follow the illustrated prologue controls for the on-screen cues and dodge unblockable attacks.

Omniblock remains useful when you cannot read a direction in time, but its stamina cost leaves less for your next attack. If you rely on it often, compare the Omniblock perk’s reduction with Endless Effort’s larger stamina pool. If you land Perfect Blocks consistently, recovery and follow-up perks become more useful choices.

Find the controls for your current setup

Open Settings and choose Controls for keyboard bindings or Controller for controller options. The controller menu offers Default and Alternative layouts: Default uses shoulder buttons for attack and block, while Alternative moves those actions to the face buttons. Check the selected layout before following a button-specific guide.

On keyboard, hold L to show the contextual control guide. This is useful after changing between exploration, Focus and combat, where the same key can perform different actions. Rebound controls take priority over the default keys quoted in a walkthrough.

Action and RPG difficulty are different settings

RPG difficulty changes the numeric combat context: enemy health, enemy damage and Coen's combat stamina cost. Action difficulty changes timing and enemy behaviour. Custom settings can combine the two, so record both selections when comparing a fight or a screenshot.

Fair is the 1.00x baseline in this table. These multipliers do not predict a boss's final health or a single hit; equipment, level gap, target category, armour and temporary effects still matter. See the level-gap damage table when an enemy is seven or more levels above Coen.

Selected combat constants

These values are useful context for testing a build. They are base configuration values before character effects and difficulty multipliers.

The normal sprint base cost is 0 per second outside combat; the combat sprint and Haste rows above are separate. For a broader list of survival rules, see combat and survival constants.