Vessel

## The Vessel

In *Grime*, the **Vessel** is the player character.

They are depicted as a figure with a body formed of Levolam, and, most notably, have what appears to be a black hole for a head.

The vessel is an incredibly powerful being whose potential is slowly discovered throughout the game.

### Abilities

#### Basic Movement

The Vessel can move left and right, jump, clamber ledges, and climb ladders. They can also drop down through certain platforms.

#### Dashing

The Vessel has the ability to dash in two directions: Left and right. This movement ability acts as a "dodge," giving the player brief immunity frames and allowing them to pass through enemies, certain obstacles, and small gaps in the terrain. Dashing costs a fixed amount of **Force.**

At one point in the game, the Vessel acquires the ability to dash mid-air, allowing for greater mobility in exploration and combat.

#### Health

Health is shown as the red bar in the upper left corner of the screen and can be seen in the summary when using Grow at a Surrogate, explained later. This is quite simply the amount of damage the Vessel can receive before being destroyed. When this happens, the Vessel will leave its body behind to acquire a new one at the last used Surrogate.

#### Absorb

Essentially a parry, but that has additional mechanics, such as acquiring traits. Can only be done on red health bars. Attacks that flash red can not be absorbed.

#### Repel

From the developer via Reddit: "Repelling is what happens when you parry an attack by the enemy that has a grey 'unabsorbable' health bar, instead of an absorbable red one. So you repel them backwards and stun them instead."

#### Breath Heal

When full at four units of Breath, the Vessel can perform a Breath Heal, restoring a portion of its health. This is not an instant heal, but a heal over time, taking about a few seconds to provide full benefit. The heal also takes a moment to activate, during which the Vessel cannot move or engage in other actions, so it's best to find a relatively safe spot before starting the heal.

#### Force

Many of the Vessel's actions, including dashing and attacking, require and consume Force. This is the green bar beneath the health bar. It regenerates quickly, but there may be a brief delay before the recharge begins. Maximum force and the force recharge rate can be seen in the summary in the Grow menu.

#### Ardor Combo

Ardor is not unlocked until the defeat of the Amalgam. Once unlocked, it can be seen as a number inside the circle to the left of the health and force bars. Ardor increases the Mass gained by as much as 100% when defeating prey, and Ardor itself gained in the same way. Damage taken decreases Ardor, and all Ardor is lost when the Vessel is destroyed.

#### Lost Vessel Corpse

When the Vessel is destroyed, it reforms at that location, immobile and inanimate. When Vessels find and destroy their Lost Vessel, the current Vessel is mended and half of the lost Ardor is regained.

### Stats

The Vessel has five qualities that can be developed using Mass:

* **Health**: Increases maximum Health Points, letting you take more damage before being destroyed.
* **Force**: Increases maximum Force, letting you perform more actions before running out of Force.
* **Strength**: Increases damage for Strength scaling Weapons.
* **Dexterity**: Increases damage for Dexterity scaling Weapons.
* **Resonance**: Increases damage for Resonance scaling Weapons and Traits.

> Stat soft cap is 40 as confirmed by the devs.
>
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### Mass

Mass is acquired by defeating Prey, using certain Consumables, and destroying breakable objects in the environment, though the latter method tends to provide only small amounts. The amount of Mass the Vessel has can be seen in the bottom right of the screen.

### Traits

Vessels can also develop by spending Hunt Points, gaining by defeating challenging prey, to activate and improve Traits. Traits are based upon and named after specific prey, and must be unlocked, sometimes by absorbing that prey a certain amount of times, and sometimes just through defeating it.

Hunt Points used on traits can be recovered using Motley Pearls, which will deactivate traits while returning the invested Hunt Points.

#### List of traits from prey

This is a quick description of the traits unlocked from given prey. To see more details, follow the link to the page for the specified prey.

#### List of abilities from Great Prey

This is a quick description of the abilities unlocked from great prey. To see more details, follow the link to the page for the specified great prey.