Combat System

Masters of Raana features an advanced combat system where you’re able to use many different strategies to overcome your enemies.

Movement and Distance

Each participant can place themselves in either distant combat or close combat. Distant combat is better for certain weapons, like rifles, while a shotgun and a handgun are more efficient in close combat. Melee weapons require the wielder to enter close combat before he's able to use them.

Moving between close combat and distant combat takes up one action. Charging or withdrawing makes you unable to fire or attack during the same round you’ve moved.

Having a Melee skill or Dexiterity above 79 enables you to choose a Close starting position in the combat room - before the actual battle begins.

Combat Actions

You can attack your enemy using either ranged weapons or melee weapons. It's possible to fire ranged weapons from both distant and close combat, while melee weapons are only usable in close combat.

Your Ranged weapon-skill determines the chance of success when firing a weapon. Certain situations can either improve or lower this value, like distance to the enemy, type of weapon, if you're mortally wounded and so forth.

Your Melee weapon-skill partly determines the chance of success when using close combat weapons like a sword or a sledgehammer. The target’s DEXTERITY attribute (i.e., ability to dodge) and his armor's weight are also two factors that affect if you're able to hit him or not.

There’s always a 5% chance to score a Critical hit. A critical hit seldom fails to hit its target, even if it’s an untrained girl’s fist aiming for a melee master’s face. The critical hit will cause an additional 15 pts. of damage on its target and raise the skill of whoever executed the attack by one point.

The type of weapon determines how much damage the enemy receives. Every weapon has a unique damage value that adds itself to a random dice roll (1-20). The attacker’s STRENGTH will also modify damage if he's using a melee weapon, meaning a weak girl will cause less injury than a normal man, and a strong warrior will, in many cases, deliver an even harder blow to his opponent. This is Damage Bonus, and a character starts receiving this bonus when his STRENGTH reaches 50.

Followers

Fighting alone can be tough, especially if several enemies attack you at once. In game, you can build a troop consisting of a maximum of five combatants, including yourself. If you own two slaves, you can arm both with whatever combat style you’ve decided to train them in. If this isn’t enough, or if you just want to keep your slaves safe at home, you’re also able to hire two mercenaries and add them to your force. Mercenaries are hired with a one-time contract fee, and a daily upkeep wage. These amounts will vary greatly depending on equipment and skill – from poorly equipped ruffians to near-invincible senior space marines.

Armor

Armor is a great lifesaver. Almost every soldier and adventurer uses it – if they can afford to, of course. Masters of Raana features several different armors, from the extra-light padded armor to the expensive combat armor.

Armors have a unique value called Soak. The Soak value automatically absorbs damage that you receive from an opponent. The subtraction is easy - a Heavy Leather Armor with Soak Value 14 will reduce the damage of every incoming hit by 14 points.

Armors also have a Condition value. If you receive damage that penetrates your armor, the armor has a 20% risk of getting its Soak value decreased by a small amount. Make sure you repair your armor at an Armor store before heading out on adventures! A broken armor (Soak reaches 0) will be permanently removed from your inventory.

Armor is great – but a heavy armor will make you an easier target when someone attacks you with a melee weapon. All armor will decrease the wearer's DEXTERITY and his ability to dodge incoming attacks.

Ammunition

Ammunition is expensive in Masters of Raana, making the use of melee weapons a good alternative if you face smaller opponents or want to save your hard-earned cash.

Every weapon has a special type of ammunition that you can buy in most gun shops throughout Ikaanos. The Remington rifle uses .30-06 bullets, the shotgun 12-gauge shells, and the crossbow demand a supply of bolts. You spend ammunition every time you attack an opponent with a ranged weapon, and if you deplete your ammunition, the associated firearm becomes useless. Always make sure that you’re carrying at least a reliable combat knife as a backup!

Ammo count applies to the player and his slaves. Mercenaries always stock themselves with enough ammo if they use ranged weapons, so that's nothing the player needs to worry about.

Experience

When you or your slaves score a Critical hit, the weapon's related combat skill will immediately increase by 1. Another way to raise your ranged and melee skills is through training outside of actual combat. While at your house, check out the section Improve skills to learn more.

Death

Your slaves and mercenaries will never permanently die in combat; when their health reaches zero, the unfortunate servant becomes incapacitated. An incapacitated slave or mercenary will however suffer a permanent -1 STR and -1 DEX penalty, unless resuscitated with the help of a Doctor's Kit.

The same applies to the player. An enemy cannot permanently kill you.

However, the damage to your physical attributes will take several weeks to recover from, and there’s also a high risk that the victors will plunder your valuable possessions. This makes combat dangerous while also removing immersion-breaking forced restarts from an earlier save if you lose a battle.

Recoil and weapon speed

A weapon's recoil can negatively affect your ability to use it.

• None: Success chance modified by +10. This recoil state can only be achieved by using stabilizers or certain high-tech weapons.
• Low recoil: No modifications.
• Medium recoil: Success chance modified by -3 until Ranged weapon skill reaches 40.
• High recoil: Success chance modified by -6 until Ranged weapon skill reaches 70.

A melee weapon's speed can affect your enemy's ability to dodge an incoming attack.

• Fast: Success chance (Dodge) modified by -3.
• Medium: No modifications.
• Slow: Success chance (Dodge) modified by +5.

Note that modifications apply to all slaves, mercenaries and enemies as well.