Combat

This page will try to explain all aspects of **combat** in Expeditions: Viking. Every aspect will be described, but if a subject has an article on this wikia already, then it will be described more briefly here and a link will be provided to the page.

Some things related to combat are also explained on the Game terminology page.

## Actions

The game features turn based combat, in which the turn switches from the party controlled by the player, to the PC controlled party. The turn is ended automatically when the player controlled character have all spend their actions or it can be done at command of the player.

Every turn a character has an attack action (red ring), a free action (no visible ring) and a movement action (green if no movement points are spent, yellow otherwise). Attacks are used to activate most skills and a few items. The attack action can also be used to move double the amount of hexes. Movement actions are solely spent on moving. The free action can be spent on using utility items and a limited amount of skills. The full action skills require the attack action and the full movement action and can no longer be used when the movement ring is yellow (at least one hex moved).

## Attacks of Opportunity

An attack of opportunity (AoO) is an attack which is executed when:

* a character moves a hex around the attacker or away from the attacker(s);
* a character performs a ranged attacks on an adjacent enemy who wields melee weapons; or
* when a character close to an enemy performs a certain attack action such as healing or reviving a character.

If an attack of opportunity can be executed during your turn, you will see a red arrow from one or multiple enemies pointing to the character you command. Every character has one AoO every turn and they will deal the same amount of damage during a normal attack. As such, you probably want to avoid them if the enemy can inflict high amounts of damage. If an enemy has the passive skill Opportunist, these attacks become even more dangerous, since they may stun an ally as well.

In case of ranged attacks and attack actions provoking AoO's, the enemy attacks before the action of your character is being performed.

### Preventing opportunistic attacks

If you want to remove the attack of opportunity from an enemy during a certain turn, the offensive skill Feint and the spear skill Distract can be used to do so. Another solution is the passive skill Quick Feet. Even though it does not remove an opportunity, it does allow a character to manoeuvre around an opponent without triggering one.

### Using attacks of opportunity to your advantage

There are a few ways to create opportunities yourself. The most simple tactic is to use the support skill Taunt. When the taunted enemy runs towards its target, all the other hirdmen along its path deal their attack. A second way is by using the status effect panicked. This effect can be inflicted by using the support skills Damnation, Talon or by taking down beehives. A panicked opponent does not always try to move though.

The third way is by using the skill Ruse. Although non-engaged enemies move away from the hex only two hexes at max, it could lead them to run past hirdman who are ready to attack them.

## Flanking

An unit becomes flanked when two enemies stand adjacent to the unit on opposite sides. As a result, the units who are flanking an enemy, may deal more than damage than usual. The damage can be increased with the passive skill Sneak Attack and decreased with Fencer.

### Escaping from flanked position

A lot of things can be done to escape from a flanked position. Below you will find the most common ways to let an unit escape from a flanked position:

* Using tactical retreat allows the user to escape without any harm, but the unit can't use any attack actions on the current turn.
* Killing one of the flanking units.
* Using the skills like Feint and Rebuke, both require that there is at least one free hex on the opposite of one of the flankers.
* Flanking one of the flanking users and then using the unarmed skill grappling to liberate the ally flanked unit. It does require Quick feet to move the character around the non-grappled unit.

## Incapacitation and killing

If the hit that brings a character down
puts them between 0 and -10, the character is unconscious but not dead. This state is indicated in game by the character writhing on the ground. From this state they can be brought back to the fight with the revive skill, on the condition that the hex where the incapacitated ally lies is not occupied by an enemy. If the character's hitpoints drop to -10 they are instantly killed, meaning they can no longer be revived. If the weapon that brought them down is a slashing weapon (sword or axe) they will be dismembered.

Hirdmen and followers cannot be killed in **combat** - they cannot drop below 0 hitpoints and will always be unconscious and revivable. At the end of every fight, they will regain consciousness. However, the longer a character has been incapacitated, the greater the probability that they will receive an injury.

If you want to avoid killing characters, you can enable non-lethal mode by clicking the button with the glowing skull to the right of your ability hotbar. When the skull is glowing, lethal attacks are enabled and characters may die if you deal enough damage to them. When the skull is not glowing, characters will not be killed, but your attacks won't perform a critical hit while this mode is active. The survival of combat characters influences certain story outcomes.

## Weapon sets

Weapon sets are the two sets of slots which are used for equipping weapons and shields. The weapon in the right hand (left slot) is the main weapon, while the weapon in the left hand (right slot) is the off-hand weapon. Shields can only be equipped in the off-hand slot. The game has four types of weapon sets:

* Dual-wielding involves wielding two one-handed melee weapons. The main weapon determines to which weapon skills you have access.
* One-handed weapon with a shield (axe, knive, sword and unarmed).
* Single-weapon, wielding an one-handed weapon without a shield or an off-hand weapon. With this setup, you will gain a 3 percent-points bonus to critical hit chances, but you won't gain the benefits of dual-wielding or be able to block attacks.
* Two-handed weapons (dane-axe, spear, bow, sling and unarmed if used without a shield). The bow and sling are the only two ranged type weapons.