Combat

is one of, though not the only, gameplay survival aspects in Creatures of Sonaria. This page goes through various tips and tricks to aid and inform players in the ways of combat.
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== Preparation ==
In order to survive, creatures must correctly assess their strengths and weaknesses on every aspect. Combat is one of such aspects, even if it's hardly the only one and many other survival aspects may override the need to fight, or at least win a fight by killing the opponent, where a draw may sometimes become more beneficial. Remember, what has always mattered is surviving (specially for the Death Reward System and the Death Gacha) and the increase on extreme weather phenomena and other dynamic environment changes only exacerbates the need to remain aware of such aspects during combat.
As such, players may want to consider ways of preparing to endure any possible unwanted attack, or preparing for a fight to strengthen their chances of surviving by recruiting certain creatures, applying special status effects, growing creatures for special stat differences or considering the best surroundings for your victory.
== Be extremely observant of your surroundings ==
This is not only for the extremely important PvE features that are potentially lethal, such as volcanic eruptions, floods, tides, or droughts, but for several PvP mechanics whether direct or indirect. One of those PvP mechanics any creature worth their salt must be aware of, is looking for cloaked creatures, specifically with invisibility, which could be breathing down your neck and attack when you are most vulnerable. Unlike legacy invisibility, recode invisibility cloak will hold while moving as long as it was not in a rush, but they still leave footprints and sometimes they might be slightly noticeable in reflections and through the sounds they make, so if you detect moving footprints or reflections with no apparent creature or sounds coming from nowhere, be wary, and if the footprints or reflections are big enough, run!
The use of sniffing is also quite informative and helps with detecting not only multiple nearby sources of water and food and their qualities, but also nearby no-hidden-scent creatures, nests and territories, blood trails and which creatures some abilities like grab and latch will work with, which helps with hunting and avoiding getting hunted. However there will be times when this ability is blocked for one reason or another, usually because of weather or some specific natural disaster, which makes visual observation even more vital.
Apart from that, hearing is extremely useful, since it will not only detect creature sounds while calling, moving or using abilities, but also some important ambience sounds, like volcanic eruption sounds, sea sounds in a dry area (which may indicate an incoming flood), strong winds (which may be a signal of the Oncoming Storm and tornadoes), etc. 
Additionally, being observant may allow you to find situational advantages and disadvantages that may balance any possible fight to one side or another - for example, if an incoming natural disaster arrives, some useful tactics and strategies are important:
* It is unadvised to fight close to a tornado - if a creature unsuccessfully escapes it, it will inflict quite several debuff status that may prevent flight and injuries that will reduce speed. Also, during this natural disaster, sniffing is disabled so it is harder to detect a creature. However, if you manage to lure your opponent towards one, you may gain a few precious seconds to escape... if you manage to avoid being taken by the tornado itself.
** During fog, it is not possible to normally sniff, either.
* During a volcanic eruption, it is easiest to hide - and sometimes predators and prey make a truce to stay sheltered. However, when that truce does not happen, it is extremely advisable to lure the opponent into meteors while avoiding them yourself, at the same time that you collect fallen shooms currency.
* During a flood or high tide, it would depend on if your creature can swim well or not, and on how severe the flood or how spring the tides are.
** If it can swim well, the flood can be used to your advantage to reduce the speed, stamina and oxygen of those unable to live underwater, and once they are deep underwater, many fliers cannot just attempt to jump or fly away, while you may be capable of using your dart, jump, glide and flight abilities to catch them unaware. Still, if you are not an aquatic, remain vigilant of your own likely-present oxygen bar; and if you are, remain watchful of the water levels lowering - while at the moment getting beached outside water is nowhere as lethal as in legacy mode, you still get a ton of speed debuffs and lose your ability to dart or jump away, becoming extremely vulnerable to attacks.
** If your creature is on one of those mobility groups which cannot stand living underwater, constant vigilance on weather such as thunderstorms and pretty much any raining event, water levels and any wandering swimmer is important! Seek higher ground immediately, and if you have jump, flight, or glide capabilities, use them to avoid getting flooded. If worst comes to pass and you get surrounded by water and your creature possess ambush, you can still perform a last-ditch effort of initiating ambush to move fast on the rapidly-rising water for a few moments, which may save your life. Of course all of these abilities can be used as an opportunistic strike against creatures on a similar as yourself, but always remember that in the long term you have the disadvantage against any swimmer and the loss of speed underwater will leave you open to asphyxia (oxygen bar depletion), drowning (stamina bar depletion) and a sitting duck against any swimmer.
* During low tides, it is possible for a similar yet opposite effect to floods and high tides. As such, flood mechanics reverse - now it's the time for non-swimmers to find easier prey on the lower tidal shores, but always watchful of the water levels. Enough creatures can also potentially try to leave a potential aquatic trapped and unable to escape. However remember that such aquatics can still likely perform a dart to escape as long as there's enough water; something extremely advisable for that creature if cornered and unable to depart to deeper waters.
Some abilities will make spotting any incoming creature trivial regardless of the situation, such as Keen Observer, but even then it is important to remain aware of the surroundings to avoid getting ambushed.
=== Footprints ===
Footprints are a trail left by many creatures upon walking - these trails vanish soon and are scentable and can be tracked, and their size and type can work as a decent indicator of how big a creature is, and help knowing their diet and mobility - herbivore/photovore footprints looks lie an ungulate hoof like an antelope, carnivore/photocarnivore look like a clawed dog footprint while sniffing and omnivore footprints look like a clawless dog footprint. Footprint color also changed depending on the terrain, and some terrains leave no footprints, but the grass may do a special effect if a creature is passing through. Also, footprints color changing depending on creature's health, lower health makes footprints more visible red, and this helps to understand, how much health your enemy have. This helps to track injured creatures, because footprints different terrains are much more visible, for example, on grass when full health they are visible only using Sniff ability, but when creature is at low health, you can see them without any problems.
These trails are scentable if the creature is cloaked or with mud effect, and they are visible as well even for cloaked creatures (another reason to keep the footprints setting enabled). Additionally, if footstep noises are enabled in your settings, you may be able to spot a creature from the noise it makes while walking.
Aquatics usually do not leave footprints.
However, sometimes a dust trail can follow a creature as well, making its presence even more noticeable.
FootprintsOfHerbiExampleRecode.png|center|Example of herbivores' and photovores' footprints
ExampleOfFootprintsOmnivoreRecode.png|center|Example of omnivores' footprints
ExampleOfFootprintsCarnivoreRecode.png|center|Example of carnivore and photocarnivore's footprints
FootprintsOfOmnivoreRecodeLowHealth.png|center|Example of omnivores' footprints, when low health.
== Learn how to hide from nearby creatures ==
This aspect is the opposite side of the coin from the previous section, learning how to hide from others, both for hunting and avoiding getting hunted.
* For creatures with invisibility, you were in luck! Your ability originally also hid your own scent as well as visibility - however, that does not seem to be the case any longer, so apart from being careful about leaving footprints and some reflective surfaces, scent must be hidden, so it is recommended to support this technique with any of the following if available.
* For regular creatures, the first line of defense is behaviour that prevents being found:
** First, a creature can avoid getting detected if it avoids any creature it detects and travels through barely-inhabited areas.
** Second, there's actively hiding your scent and applying mud. Hiding scent can be a good way to avoid creatures to detect you in rocky passes or inside caves, just remember that if you actively hide scent through clicking the hide scent button (N key on PC), while your scent will still be hidden while moving (which is also advantageous during combat), your hide scent will last shorter; while rolling in mud is a far better choice, since it does not only hide your scent for longer and keeps it hidden while moving (and can apply more hidden scent while it had the previous effect), but provides many healing boosts which are beneficial before, during and after combat.
* After that, the second line of defense is keeping a lower profile - a huge creature is far more likely to be detected visually than a tiny one, a moving creature is more likely to generate sounds, footprints or effects than a still one, and a bleeding creature (every time is hurt) will be spotted easier, specially if the damage is due to an status and they don't lay down to reduce the amount of hurt dealt by some status effects. That means that unless you have a trump card, you'll have to rely on superior stats and abilities and your surroundings to get the upper hand.
* The third line of defense before proper combat is an amalgamation of environment situations, status effects, phenotype/genotype conditions and general player awareness from both sides:
** An example of environment situations which may help avoid detection are foggy weathers which disable sniffing.
** An example of environment situations which may make it more difficult to hide are special weathers or natural disasters such as blood moon (which makes all creature's eyes glow a neon red) or volcanic eruption (where the pattern left by meteors trying to hit you may be spotted by a creature further away).
** An example of environment situations which may make spotting a creature easier or difficult depending on the context are day/night cycles - which can also be checked by looking at the sun/moon icon on the minimap - a darker creature can be easily spotted at daytime, while at night a lighter or glowing creature will be spotted easier. This situation can be altered by possible night/day debuff or buff abilities or status effects a creature may have.
** Phenotype/genotype conditions may make a creature easier or harder to spot:
*** Dull or camouflage skins, as well as some mutations like melanism or overgrown, will hide a creature far better in matching habitats.
*** Brightly colored skins, as well as some effects like Shimmer mutation or Glimmer, will make a creature quite easy to spot, specially if it carries any neon spots around.
*** Blood colors and textures may affect how easy is it to spot a creature as well, if they are hurt. A neon texture will definetely stand on a dark background, while a dull color will be noticeable near giant magmatic chambers. Same applies to particle effects and particle effect ailments.
** As a last-ditch effort, some specific abilities and creative ability and stat combinations in one creature may act as a way to replace mud hidden scent, or a way to, while not managing to avoid getting spotted, at least preventing from getting identified visually and/or by scenting.
*** F.ex. some abilities are the perfect replacement for rolling into mud, such as Mud Placer or some breaths which may make the user unscentable or the target unable to scent.
*** Another example would consist of a combination of some blurry effect with hidden scent when moving too close to a creature will surely make it notice something's amiss and it's getting attacked, but it will be hard for it to pinpoint such creature.
*** Another example would be a creative use of keen observer and guesswork with some situational awareness to check if a creature cannot currently detect you and act in consequence.
== Combat mechanics ==
Unlike Legacy, and probably due to a combination of new factors and abilities and how many players have yet to adapt fully to the new recode environment, many fights tend to be slower and last longer.
Additionally, unlike legacy, not all creatures can latch or grab into others, often needing an ability to do so; latch now depends on a creature's tier and a creature can only escape being latched or grabbed after 5 seconds, meaning that once a heavy/damaging enough creature has managed to grab a lighter, smaller creature with lower HP, it is likely over.
Apart from that, now both melee Damage and breath damage are not based around weight.
=== Damage Indicator ===
A damage indicator appears whenever attacking another creature, which displays damage dealt. The damage indicator from a creature that attacks visible to both attacker and victim, while on the victim's side, a red (not viible if it's a healing hit) pulsing effect will indicate that a creature is being attacked, with the subsequent increase or loss of HP, visible through the HP bar. Unlike Legacy mode, this effect does not let a creature pinpoint where an attack came from.
=== Blood Screens ===
As a creature's health decreases, a bloody animated effect around the edges of a player's screen will appear to further indicate the creature's health status. The lower the creature's health, the more visible and detailed the bloody edges of the screen become.
=== Burn Screens ===
When a creature is suffering from the Burn Status Effect, a similar screen may appear, but with fire motifs instead. This works as a clue that some stats may have been debuffed and the creature is taking damage, important to know during combat.
=== Corrosion Screens ===
When a creature is suffering from the Corrosion Status Effect (at least when under the effects of the Radiation ability), a similar screen may appear, but with smaller orange motifs instead. This works as a clue that some stats may have been debuffed and the creature is taking damage, important to know during combat.
=== Cold Screens ===
During winter and famine, a similar screen appears, but with snowy tints instead. This works as a clue that some stats may have been debuffed, important to know during combat. There's a variant caused by Frostbite status effect, which apart from that has ice crystal textures.
Creatures with abilities that block those debuffs, such as Frosty, do not seem to have this screen.
=== Injury Screens ===
When you get the injured status, a simialr screen appears, but with white cracked details instead. This works as a clue that several speed stats may have been debuffed, important to know during combat. Creatures with abilities that block those debuffs, such as Unbreakable, do not seem to have this screen.
=== Water Current Screens ===
When entering an area under the effects of a water current, a similar screen appears, but with a faint blue effect. While this may not look that important combat-wise at a first glance, it is still useful to know the creature will get a speed boost in both directions of the current, allowing a creature to keep distance from another or catch up with a target.
=== Water Screens ===
When flying or gliding close enough to a big-enough water mass, a similar screen appears, but with water droplets. While this may not look that important combat-wise, it may still give a warning that collision with water may be imminent and it can be potentially useful to detect an area which is about to be flooded but whose sea levels cannot be seen anywhere close and act in consequence. Also, they are beautiful.
=== Air Draft Screens ===
When entering an area under the effects of an air draft, a similar screen appears, but with a faint Earth yellow effect. While this may not look that important combat-wise, it is still useful to know the creature will get a fly and glide speed boost in both directions of the current, allowing a creature to keep distance from another or catch up with a target.
=== Hide Scent Screens ===
When hiding scent, either by or by rolling in mud, this brown translucid screen effect will cover the entire screen, unlike other screen effects. It is a way to indicate to the player that the hiding scent process has begun successfully. A similar screen, but on a green tinge, will happen if this is done over some different puddles, such as Stamina Puddle.
=== Visual wounds and scarring ===
Wounds appear once the creature's health is low enough, the lower the HP, the more visible wounds will appear. These fresh wounds can be used to gauge how hurt another creature is. Scars appear after healing near-fatal wounds (basically visible wounds will switch from a fresh colour to a drier and faded colour, to finally disappear in most cases) and may remain on a creature within a play session until the player chooses to leave by going to the Main Menu or exiting the game.
* Scarring is only an indication that a creature has survived a significant or near-fatal injury, so creatures with full health may have scars.
Additionally, many creatures will start to visually bleed upon being attacked, and will bleed more profusely depending the less health they have. This blood colour is typically liquid plastic red, but can be found in another myriad of colours and textures, some of them making the bleeding less or more obvious, depending on the area. As a contrast with Legacy mode, most creatures outside water have a droplet version of blood with a default or custom texture falling to the ground and forming small splotches of blood, but now all creatures underwater have this effect replaced by a blood-coloured mist matching their blood colour, regardless of mobility type.
FabraasheWithScarsRecode.png|Fabraashe with scars
==== Particle Effect ailments ====
Apart from visual wounds, specific particle effects will appear around a creature when suffering certain status effects - for example a creature suffering bleed will have more bleed particles around it than usual, a creature suffering from burns will have fire particles around it, a shocked creature will have electrical discharges, a sick creature will have green floating bubbles, and so on. The more stacked is an status, the more particles will appear.
|A creature with sickly particle effect
=== Stat Boosts, Mobility, Diets and Effects ===
After reaching age 100, creatures will also have the option to become an Elder, which gradually modifies stats into elder stats. We recommend reading the Elder page to leverage if eldering is worth it for an specific creature. Additionally, while growing, some mutations may grant boosts or nerfs to some survival aspects - for example, the aforementioned reduction on lower profile if your creature glows far more than normal.
Always know your and your opponents stats, stat boosts (like Traits), Mobility types and abilities, since many of them can be a game changer by nullifying your/their strengths or covering your/their weaknesses. If you know your creature, and your opponent, you will be able to identify what fights you should participate in, and which ones you should avoid or retreat from.
Things like Aggressive or Scared ailments obtained by performing certain poses may also provide increased survival chances, if given enough time to get those, and for certain situations; so depending on strategy and creature it may be useful to get one or both of those stats beforehand.
Something which should be important to mention is that Photovores and Photocarnivores may not be free of predation by herbivores or omnivores, due to the fact that these diets drop a plant carcass which can be eaten by plant-eaters.
=== Melee Attacks ===
There are a variety of melee attacks in terms of execution, which are primarily bites, headbutts, and swipes. For example, a Lure will bite, a Gramoss will headbutt, and a Qurugosk will swipe. Each creature can bite at a different rate unique to their species, and modified by some special abilities or environmental conditions, such as blood moon.
Melee attacks can hit multiple nearby creatures at once - that is, if two creatures are too close to each other and a third one bites, it will deal damage to both creatures.
==== Melee damage formula ====
As mentioned beforehand, melee damage is based on a weight formula that buffs base damage stat from heavier creatures. The current underlying mechanics of such a formula are yet unknown.
This section is a work-in-progress and will be filled over time.
==== Alternate Melee Attacks ====
Alternate attacks refers to the ability to use more than one melee attack, not including active abilities listed on the Creature Abilities page; and usually help with covering vulnerable spots or when dealing different types of damage. In recode, alternate attacks can be chosen by where the camera is facing.
Alternate secondary attacks may or may not cause an stamina drop.
Some creatures that have more than one attack are the Lmakosauruodon and Korathos, which can choose to use a tail whip or a stomp. Because of that, it is extremely recommended to not approach one of these experienced creatures from behind or the front.
=== Ranged Attacks ===
There are a variety of range attacks in terms of abilities, each one with their own peculiarity, including breath abilities, which now depend on a weight difference factor as well — it's recommended for players to read through the Creature Abilities page where things are explained in more detail.
== Healers ==
Healers are creatures with the ability to gradually grant boosts to health, status effect healing or health regeneration, or capable of directly undoing the HP damage effected, and play a great support role with abilities like Mud Placer, Pack Healer, or Passive Heal. For long, drawn-out battles where no-one is quitting, it may be beneficial to keep Healers nearby to gradually overwhelm opponents that may lack that particular piece to keep up the fight.
Previously mentioned mud boosts can be complimentary to support creatures, however, once in combat, if your creature cannot directly apply mud healing boost effect to itself through some special ability, it may significantly limit maneuverability during a fight as the creature will not only have to navigate to specific areas and wallow in mud, but wait for the mudding animation to complete (albeit that will not prevent them from attacking, since on Recode you can bite while performing animations).
Usually due to their healing effects, many healers are spared from heavy attacks - however that is not always the rule. Fortunately, and unlike in Legacy mode, creatures with negative attack can switch to melee attack mode, so they can bite back and dissuade an attacker from pursuing.
== Other Tricks ==
As mentioned beforehand, knowing your abilities and your opponents can be crucial for survival and combat. One example of how this can be useful is the tactical use of burrows to retreat to a safe ground free of floods, meteors or predators, or to lure a creature into a trap, or use the moisture/oxygen mechanics on a creature suceptible to them to eventually weaken a predator, prey or target by drawing them to dry land/underwater, respectively.
Category:Gameplay