Combat Mechanics

This page describes how attack & defense work in No Man's Land.
== Attack ==
===Attack Types===
*Main Attack — A normal attack is made when, on your turn, at least one half-action is used to attack. It deals 100% calculated damage (disregarding damage variation). A bruiser's attack will always stun the targets, unless it's a body shot attack or the target is stun resistant.
*Overwatch Attack — Survivors that have any Action Points left at the end of your turn will go into Overwatch mode. This means that your survivor will attack the nearest enemy in their zone of control they can without moving. The attack usually deals 50% of calculated damage, which can be increased by traits effects. Ranged overwatch attacks don't generate any threat. Note that with the Primed armor trait there is a chance to go into overwatch even if all action points were spent.
*Charge Attack — A charged attack is a guaranteed critical attack that can be modified by more traits (those that boost charge damage) and, depending on the class, can deal more damage (see table below). This attack is performed when you accumulate charge points (points gained by killing enemies or through other means), and spend them to perform a charge attack. Charge attacks are limited to one charge attack per survivor per turn.
**Scout — Brain Stab: Extra damage
**Bruiser — Smash: Area stun and damage
**Hunter — Critical Attack: Automatic critical hit
**Shooter — Free Attack: Attack doesn’t spend Action Points
**Warrior — Bonus Attack: Attack uses only 1 Action Point
** Assault — Stun Attack: Area stun and damage, or Varmint Blast: Sets targets on fire.
**The Formula for Charge attacks is (Base Damage × (1 + Normal Stars Modifier + Hero Boost Modifier) + Weapons¹ + Flat Damage Badges + Flat Critical Damage Badges) × (1 + Damage Traits Buffs) × (1 + Damage Badges) × (1 + Class Charge Damage Boost² + Critical Damage Traits Buffs+ Critical Damage Badges) × (1 + Traits Charged Attacks Damage Buffs)
***¹For Charge attacks, the Weapon Damage Multiplier is different for Shooters and Scouts, which is a 180% Multiplier instead of 150%/175% (with Kingdom Spear his multiplier remains the same), and Bruisers (112 Multiplier instead of 80).
***²Charge Damage Boost = Critical Damage Boost, except for Shooters and Scouts, which is 100% instead of 50%.
*Retaliate — When a walker attacks you, if you don't enter struggle state and the survivor has the Retaliate trait, the survivor will attack the walker back. The survivor only attacks the first walker that attacked him. The retaliation attack does X% of the calculated damage, X being dependent on the survivor's retaliate level.
*Punish — If your Bruiser is not in struggle and has the Punish trait, then at each start of his turn, an extra attack will be performed on a random close enemy. Punish attack does X% of the calculated damage, X being dependent on your bruiser's punish level.
* Revenge — When an ally is attacked by an enemy in range, the ranged survivor with the Revenge trait will attack that enemy. The revenge attack does X% of the calculated damage, X being dependent on the survivor's revenge level.
*Coup de grâce — If Guardian Carol's main attack (or any survivor if Guardian Carol is the leader) didn't kill her target, the survivor who attacked has X% chance to deal an extra attack, dealing Y % of calculated damage. X and Y are dependent on Guardian Carol's Coup de Grâce level.
*Prowl — When Huntsman Daryl (or any melee survivors if Huntsman Daryl is the leader) passes a walker, an attack will be performed on the walker. The prowl attack will deal X% of the calculated damage, X being dependent on Huntsman Daryl's Prowl level.
*Beat Em Up — If your bruiser is not fighting, then at each start of your turn, T-Dog (or any melee survivors if T-Dog is the mission leader) performs an extra attack on a random nearby enemy. The punishing attack deals X% of the calculated damage, X being dependent on T-Dog's Finish Them level.
===Attack Results===
Many types of attacks are in this game, but these attacks only result in one of 3 results (besides the ability to inflict status):
* Body Shot Hit: Attack that deals 50% of normal damage (65% for melee survivors). There will be a popup showing "Body Shot". Note, however, that if the target dies, the body shot popup will not appear. In addition to reduced damage, body shot will also affect many traits:
** A bruiser's hit will not stun the target if the hit is a bodyshot
** The Ensnare weapon trait can only activate on non-bodyshot hits
** The Crippling weapon trait requires that the hit is a bodyshot
** Some leader traits, like Sasha's "Good out of bad" depend on whether the hit is a bodyshot or not
* Normal attack Hit: attack that deals damage equal to that indicated on the survivor.
*Critical Hit: Normal attack that has an additional 50% base damage (only 25% if the survivor is a Bruiser or Assault) which can be increased by traits and badges that increase critical damage.
The damage dealt, however, usually varies by 20% of the Weapon's Damage. (10% for Bruisers, 30% for Assaults)
=== Body Shots ===
A major distinction in the game is the transition from normal hits to body shots. When the walker level increases, the chance of hits being body shots increases gradually to 100%. The formula for this is based on the ASL of the survivor, which is the survivor level + amount of pink stars + 1 if the survivor is a Hero. So Mercer at lvl 31 and 3 pink stars is considered as having an ASL of 31+3+1=35. 
* Body shot chance is 0% until ASL +2
* At ASL +3 it's 33%, at ASL +4 it's 66% and ASL +5 it's 100%
* Additionally, Hunters and Shooters have a base body shot chance of 2.5% and Assaults of 5%
* Additionally, Armored and Commonwealth walkers are "Bullet proof", which gives a 75% chance of a bodyshot for all ranged classes.
* The Piercing trait (ranged classes only) will reduce the body shot chance with 40% (at gold) or 30% at silver. Alpha's leader trait adds to Piercing by 12-30% depending on the level of her leader trait.
* The Razor trait (melee classes only) will reduce the body shot chance with 45% (at gold) or 30% at silver
All these modifiers are simply added together to calculate the chance of a bodyshot.
Example:
# Alpha at lvl 30 and 4 pinks, with LT lvl 8 (26% bodyshot reduction) shoots against a lvl 39 armored walker (75% bodyshot bonus) with a rifle with gold piercing. Alpha is ASL 35, so the level difference is 40, giving a 66% bodyshot chance. The total bodyshot chance is thus 2.5% + 66% + 75% - 40% - 26% = 77.5% chance of a bodyshot.
# Eugene at lvl 31 and 4 pinks hits the same armored walker with a weapon with gold razor. Eugene's ASL is 36 so the level difference is 3, giving a 33% bodyshot chance. Total chance is then 33% - 45% = 0% so no hits will be bodyshots.
===Damage Formula===
See the Damage Mechanics page for detailed description of how damage is calculated.
Damage is calculated using the following formula
*(Base Damage × (1 + Normal Stars Modifier + Hero Boost Modifier) + Weapons¹ × (1 ± Weapon Modifier)) × (1 + Razor Modifier (4%)) × (1 + Damage Traits Buffs) × (1 + Damage Badges) 
*#For Charge attacks, the Weapon Damage Multiplier is different for Shooters and Scouts, where there is a 180% Multiplier instead of 150%/175% (with Kingdom Spear its multiplier remains the same), and Bruisers (112 Multiplier instead of 80). If it is a Body Shot, by 0,5 (for ranged) or 0,65 (for melee);
*If it is a Critical hit; by (1 + Class Critical Damage Boost + Critical Damage Traits Buffs + Critical Damage Badges); 
*If it is a Charge attack, by (1 + Class Charge Damage Boost1 + Critical Damage Traits Buffs+ Critical Damage Badges) × (1 + Traits Charged Attacks Damage Buffs) 
*#Charge Damage Boost = Critical Damage Boost, except for Shooters and Scouts, which is 100% instead of 50%.
*Any damage based on the target's Health is added to the total damage as a separate calculation
*This total damage is then adjusted by Carol's Cookies and finally by damage reduction
===Overwatch===
*A human survivor can go into overwatch mode in two ways
**Saving one action point when ending the turn
**Carrying an armor with the Primed trait and the trait activating (which depends on the rarity of the trait and the survivor's amount of luck. A hero with gold Primed armor (50%) and 40% luck will have a 70% chance of Primed activating). Note that Primed is not a status, it is only a trait which allows The Overwatch to activate even after all action points are spent. 
***Also note that Primed activation is tested against each possible moving walker, so if there are several walkers within overwatch range it is highly likely that it will activate at some point, but maybe not against the first walker to move.
*AI humans will rarely move more than a quick move, so they will normally go into overwatch if they did not attack anyone
**The support Dog will cancel a human opponent's overwatch
**The circle surrounding a human will indicate whether overwatch is active or not:
*When Overwatch is active, the survivor will attack the first walker that moves, and that the survivor can hit. This means that often survivors will all overwatch the same walker. Walkers that do not move (for example, they're already standing next to your survivor) cannot be overwatched.
*If many survivors can overwatch the same target, the attacks are made based on distance to walker. In the case of ties, the order is based on the (hidden) internal compass.
**The walker will make its full move before the overwatch attack is carried out. This means that, especially with assault weapons, only a small part of walkers will be hit.
***In this schematic example, there are 9 walkers (marked with "W") in a tight bunch. Our Hero has the Pulverizer (small area hit) and is in overwatch. The closest walker moves first and approaches 2 steps. The hero fires his Pulverizer on top of the walker (the yellow circle), and hits only this single walker. Thereafter, all other walkers will move forward, undamaged.
**If the walker is being crippled, rooted or stunned, it will not be able to attack or move any further. That is, if an overwatch attack hits secondary targets behind the main target and cripples them, they will not be able to move at all (as in the example picture below).
**The attacks are made in sequence, so that the first overwatch attack is fully completed before the next overwatch attack happens. For example, if the first survivor to overwatch pushed the walker back, another melee survivor might not be able to do its overwatch attack. 
***In the picture below, the bottom walker will move one step towards Tyreese, who will overwatch it and push it diagonally up and left. Only after it is in this position, will Daryl make his overwatch attack, allowing him to also hit the top walker.
***Since Daryl's is using the 7 mm Harrier with cripple in his overwatch attack, he will also cripple the top walker and cause it to not be able to move at all.
*Overwatch damage is reduced to 50% of total damage. Traits Vigilant and Sniper Morgan's LT can boost this.
==Defense==
Damage taken by the target depends on the type of hit. A hit can be dodged or reduced in severity with the dodge trait, while Damage Reduction will decrease the final damage. The type of hit inflicted is summarized in the chart below:
*Note that walkers are not able to dodge attacks (however when fast walkers were first introduced they had a chance of dodging attacks).
*Stunned targets are not able to dodge attacks, and hits will normally always be critical
====Dodging attacks====
*If the Dodge trait activates (against melee attacks), a Body Shot hit or a Normal hit will be completely dodged, while a Critical Hit will be changed to a Normal hit. Dodge can also be found on armors.
*The Bullet Dodge trait works just like the Dodge trait, but can only activate on ranged attacks. The chance is about double compared to the melee dodge ability, but unlike Dodge there is no bullet dodge on armors.
*The armor trait Bulletproof should not be confused with Bullet Dodge. Bullet Proof will not dodge a ranged attack completely but rather turn it into a body shot.
==== Crippling enemies ====
Using the cripple trait can be a powerful strategy in many missions, as cripple has a few extra effects aside from reducing a walker's movement to 1.
* A walker that becomes crippled by an overwatch attack during its action phase is automatically interrupted and is not able to attack. This can be used in many different ways.
* A walker that becomes crippled before starting its action phase is neither able to move, nor attack. This can be used particularly effectively by Assaults with Rick's or Rosita's Assault Rifle.
* Crippling in combination with Ezekiel's LT means that a walker even next to the hero is not able to attack, as it is pre-emptively crippled
* Note that gold cripple requires double luck to guarantee cripple (from hero trait + weapon or armor) as gold cripple's base chance is 75% so at least 33.3 % luck is needed.
* Also note that cripple requires a body shot, so it will not work against walkers of similar levels as your survivors. Also Piercing and Alpha's LT mean some hits will not be body shots.
==== Interrupting enemies ====
Interrupt only works on the opponent turn and usually requires that the survivor is in overwatch. Somewhat illogically, interrupt has a more niche use than cripple but is also a very useful tactic in many missions. Interrupt is not a status effect, which for practical terms mean the following:
* Unlike cripple, interrupt only affects the main target of the overwatch attack, so assault or hunter weapons with interrupt will always interrupt only one enemy.
* Interrupt is useful against walkers immune to status effects, like Commonwealth walkers.
* Interrupt on a push weapon is useful against Tanks or Goos next to a wall or other walkers. Without interrupt the Tank would not be pushed nor stunned, but with an interrupt weapon its attack is interrupted. This works especially well with Ezekiel, as his LT is not dependent on overwatch.
* Interrupt can also be useful in PvP defense as it stops the attacker from carrying out its attack
* Note that like most other traits interrupt will activate only once per round, so will only work against the first attacker.