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How The Game Calculates Damage

from the v1.2 manual

There are three types of damage: bashing, lethal and aggravated. Different weapons cause different types of damage to a vampire. Some examples are:

  • Bashing – Caused by blunt objects such as baseball bats, tire irons or sledgehammers.
  • Lethal – Caused by bladed objects or firearms. For example, knives, swords or guns. Note, Kindred treat bullets as bashing damage.
  • Aggravated – Caused by supernatural damage, like sunlight, werewolf claws or mystical attacks.

When a vampire is hit, the vampire has two feats that help absorb or nullify the damage. First, there is the Defense feat that reduces damage from any type of attack. The other feat is called Soak. Soak is the natural resistance that vampires have to various types of damage. When Defense and Soak work together, the Kindred can take little or no damage. The damage that’s absorbed is based on the following:

  • Bashing – Armor, Stamina and Fortitude*
  • Lethal Damage – Armor and Fortitude*
  • Aggravated Damage – Fortitude*

*‑Fortitude is a Discipline available only to certain clans.

Fortitude soaks damage only while it’s active. This means if a baseball bat-wielding thug attacks you, your character could avoid damage from­ a smashing hit if he or she has a high stamina. Conversely, if your character has a low stamina, he or she will take the brunt of any blunt hits that make contact.

from the official v1.2 readme

Every weapon in the game has specific attributes given to it. These attributes are the following:

  • Ranged Combat Requirement - This is the minimum ranking at which the PC can use the weapon effectively. The PC can use weapons if his Feat is below the requirement. However, this will mean that he will be causing less damage. Conversely, if the PC's combat Feat is higher than the minimum, then he will cause more damage.
  • Damage Potential- Damage Potential is the maximum potential damage your character can do with this weapon at your character's current skill levels. The actual damage might vary if the opponent can defend against bullets (i.e. if they are supernatural, or if they have body armor).
  • Lethality -This is how much damage the player can cause with the weapon per die.
  • Feat Adjustment - This is the difference between the weapon requirement and the character's combat Feat. This can be either positive or negative.
  • Base Damage- This is the minimum amount of damage that the weapon can cause.

Whenever there is a hit, the damage is then calculated in the following manner –

Damage Potential = Base Damage X (Lethality + Feat Adjustment)

So, if the PC, who has a Melee combat Feat of 5, uses a Knife which has a Melee Combat Requirement of 4, Lethality of 7, and Base Damage of 3, then the Damage Potential is

24 = 3 X (7+1)

Now if the player's Melee combat skill is 3, then the Damage Potential is

18 = 3 X (7-1)

It's important to realize that a player is only deadly effective once his combat Feat is above the requirement of the weapon.

Note, the target's defense and soak can absorb the damage and lower the Lethality number. For example, if a ghoul has heavy armor, which has a Defense of 2, there is a chance that 2 Lethality dice can be removed from the player's roll. So, in the first example, if the PC hits a ghoul with the knife and the ghoul makes both Defense rolls, then the Damage Potential is

18 = 3 X (7+1-2)

So, while a player can achieve a high damage potential with any weapon, the damage can be negated if the target has a high defense or Soak Feat.

The type of weapon and the defender plays and important role in what type of soak dice are being used.

Attack Type Defender Dice Pool
Blunt Melee All Defense + Soak Bash
Blade Melee All Defense + Soak Lethal
Firearms Humans Soak Lethal
Firearms Defense Defense + Soak Bash

To successfully defend or soak an attack, a roll is made behind the scenes. When there is a chance to soak or defend, a roll is made on a d10 (ten sided die). If the number is 7 or above, the defender successfully negates one die.

In summary, combat can be thought of in the following manner. The high lethality weapons are much harder to defend against and the high base damage weapons are the finesse weapons.


Unarmed combat is very important for the speedrun as the most accessible weapon besides Disciplines.

from the manual

The Unarmed Combat Feat serves two purposes—it determines how well the vampire can fight with fists and how well the character can grapple an opponent to feed on him or her. Disciplines such as Potence, Presence, Fortitude (for blocking attacks and preventing feed breaking) and Celerity make aggressive feeding easier.

Unarmed combat is your primary source of damage aside from Disciplines. Your character will dish out different attacks depending on the direction you're holding and what part of the screen your mouse is moving towards, relative to where your character is facing. When attacking straight on with no movements, your character will throw a right, left, right. When holding back, the character will do a flying leaping swipe forward. When you hold the side buttons your character will throw two punches into a kick. Holding Tab will allow you to block, though it's not always effective.

For whatever reason, when your character throws a left punch, it will send an NPC flying. It's the only way to move NPCs out of your way effectively. However, your character will normally throw out a right punch first. By running straight at an NPC and moving your mouse to the left, the character will punch with the left fist instead of the right, sending the NPC flying.


Each Clan has three vampiric powers or disciplines to use. A lot of the disciplines are the same except for minor differences. Some are better for speedrunning than others.

Ranged Attack Disciplines

Burrowing Beetle
Spectral Wolf

Blood Strike

Vision of Death

Incapacitate Disciplines

Nightwisp Ravens




Use Both at Once

You can attack with unarmed or melee and use a ranged discipline like Burrowing Beetle or Blood Strike at the same time! Mash both mouse buttons and hammer away at the enemy.


Kind of suck


Leveling Up

combat.txt · Last modified: 2018/02/07 18:46 by lurk