Combat System

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

Auto-Battle

Combat plays itself out; you can pause or change the replay speed.

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 first on ties. Which player is designated as the “opponent” is determined by the match setup and is consistent for both sides.

SPD Advantage

If one combatant has at least +5 SPD over the other, they gain an extra strike per 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

Damage numbers in combat — Hits show over each fighter: Armor is spent first, then HP.

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.

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 an escalating ATK bonus to both combatants as combat runs long:

Turn Threshold	Effect
Turn 20 – 29	Both combatants gain +1 ATK per turn (turn 20 is +1, turn 25 is +6, turn 29 is +10).
Turn 30+	The bonus grows by +3 ATK per turn instead (turn 30 is +13, turn 40 is +43), cumulative with the ramp that started at 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 (a mutual KO). When this happens, the following comparisons are checked in order until one side comes out ahead:

→Higher HP + ARM at the start of that turn.

→Higher SPD value.

→Higher DIG value.

→Higher ATK value.

→Higher maximum HP.

→If every comparison above is tied, a seeded coin flip decides the winner — there is no draw.

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