Combat System

How auto-battle works, from turn order to damage resolution and stalemate prevention.

Auto-Battle

All combat in Dungeons & Moles resolves automatically. When you engage an enemy (or an enemy engages you during Night), the fight plays out based entirely on the stats, equipment, and status effects of both combatants. There are no manual combat inputs.

Turn Order

At the start of each combat turn, the combatant with higher SPD acts first. If both combatants have the same SPD, ties are resolved deterministically — in PvE, the enemy acts first. In PvP modes (Gauntlet, Duels, Pit Draft), the opponent's build acts firston ties. Which player is designated as the “opponent” is determined by the match setup and is consistent for both sides.

Note: Building SPD is important not just for acting first, but also for gaining extra strikes through SPD Advantage.

SPD Advantage

If one combatant has at least +5 SPD over the other, they gain an extra strikeper turn. This applies to both the player and enemies. The bonus is binary — you either have it or you don't. There is no additional bonus for +10 or higher.

SPD Difference	Effect
0 to +4	No bonus (act first if higher)
+5 or more	Extra strike per turn

Damage Resolution

When a combatant strikes, their ATK value is applied as damage following this order:

→ATK hits ARM first. Damage reduces the defender's current ARM value.

→Excess damage hits HP. Any ATK remaining after ARM is depleted is dealt directly to HP.

→ARM resets after combat. When the fight ends, the player's ARM is restored to its full value for the next encounter.

Tip: ARM effectively acts as a renewable shield each fight. High ARM is especially valuable against enemies that deal many small hits, since each fight starts with full armor.

Strike Cap

Each combatant can perform a maximum of 5 strikes per turn. This cap applies regardless of SPD advantage or any other bonuses. It prevents runaway scaling from making fights resolve in a single turn.

On-Hit Trigger Rule

All once-per-turn on-hit effects trigger simultaneously on the first hit of each turn. This means that if you have multiple items with on-hit effects, they all activate together when you land your first strike, rather than triggering sequentially across multiple strikes.

Stalemate Prevention

To prevent fights from lasting indefinitely, the game applies escalating ATK bonuses as combat extends:

Turn Threshold	Effect
Turn 20	Both combatants gain +1 ATK
Turn 30	Both combatants gain +2 ATK (cumulative with Turn 20)
Turn 50	HP% failsafe — the combatant with the higher HP percentage wins. If tied, the enemy wins.

PvP Mutual-Kill Tiebreak

In PvP modes, it is possible for both players to defeat each other on the same turn (mutual kill). When this happens, the following tiebreak order is used to determine the winner:

→Higher remaining HP percentage at the time of the mutual kill.

→Higher total HP (the player with the larger health pool).

→Higher ATK value.

→Higher SPD value.

→If all of the above are tied, the result is a draw.

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