Dungeon Settlers Combat

There is no “end of round” safety

Because there are no rounds, a bleed tick and a second enemy wind-up can land in the same second you were admiring a crit. Pause is how you insert an Aid Kit, a provoke, or a walk-back. If you only pause on your turn in your head, you are playing a different genre and losing colonists.

Auto Skill will spend energy when thresholds allow. That is useful for trash and lethal on the wrong target. For elites and bosses, take the queue yourself. Energy regenerates with rest at camp beds or campfires — a dungeon with empty bars is a settlement scheduling failure, not a DPS puzzle.

Queue movement like it is a skill

Flanking, line of sight, and not standing in acid are pause jobs. Walk the bow out of melee. Walk the mage off the provoke target if they should not be tanking. Overloaded members move like furniture — dump weight before the pull if expedition packing failed.

Protect the head on purpose

Beginners stare at the bigger torso bar and ignore the small one that actually ends the run. Helmet upgrades and not standing in cleave are head policy. Constitution talent on recruitment is how that bar starts less embarrassing.

Exact remaining-HP formulas and hidden DR stay TBA. Play the two bars you can see. If a tooltip says otherwise on your build, trust the tooltip.

Durability is a combat resource

A broken weapon in a pause queue is a skipped skill. A broken helmet is a head tax. Repair at camp benches; do not discover durability mid-boss. Material ladders (wood, bone, carapace, metals) belong on equipment — here you only need to know fights spend that ladder.

Aid Kit is a queued item, not a cutscene

Pause, select a standing member, use the Aid Kit on the downed tile. If policies forbade all medical items, you will watch them die with kits in a bag. Set consumption policies at settlement before the portal. If the only person with a kit is also down, you are in a carry or permadeath fork.

You still cannot portal during combat. Rescue, then stack the four-person party (including the carried body) in the portal room. Missing-person rules on expedition apply to the downed too.

Operating Table is why camp medical exists

Some saves are too dirty for a hallway kit. Carry home, indoor room, Operating Table. If you never built the table because the camp was a hallway of beds, Near Death is permadeath with extra steps. Place it when research allows, inside a real enclosure.

Match damage type to the enemy, not your favourite tree

Hits are Physical or Magic. A fire mage against a high fire resist wall is a pause to walk them back, not a reason to dump more Fire points. Backgrounds gated those trees on skills; inscriptions can patch a hole later. In the fight, swap who is on the target.

Ammunition is a status by another name

Bows can dry out. A paused archer with zero arrows is a melee dummy. Pack ammo policies like food policies. Do not discover empty quivers on an elite.

The first elite is not a tutorial corpse

If the frontliner’s head is melting, you leave the room. Expedition stay and depletion still matter, but a live colonist with empty pockets beats a legendary drop and a grave. Graves and respectful corpse handling are camp systems — they do not refund the tree you just lost.

Keep a spare worker at recruitment capacity so a death is a setback, not a run end. That spare should already have a bed and a food policy, not spawn from grief.

Mental collapse is a combat death too

Mood below zero fills stress. Full stress can Mental Collapse; filling it again can kill. Dungeon stay from a long expedition is how a “won” fight still deletes someone on the walk to the portal. Short floors are a permadeath tactic, not cowardice.

Pause is the whole skill

If you can pause, protect the head, and Aid Kit before the second Near Death, you understand Dungeon Settlers combat. Upgrade paths continue on skills and equipment. The dungeon clock continues on expedition.