Ward Cores

Ward Cores

Wards protect the buildings in their range. Every ward holds an energy pool, and hits on pieces inside its radius are paid from that pool instead of from the pieces' health. The core installed in the ward sets the pool's size. The pool recharges over time, and Sap speeds that up.

How it works

• Absorbing. A hit on a piece in range of an active ward costs the ward energy instead of costing the piece health: 1 energy per point of damage by default. The ward flashes its shield. Protected pieces take hits without their weaknesses; resistances and immunities still apply.
• What it covers. Monsters, raids, players without access to a covering ward, and hits without an attacker, such as fire and falling trees. Weather wear, collapse from missing support and hits by players with access stay vanilla.
• Several wards. Overlapping wards split the cost evenly. When a ward can't pay its share, the others pay the rest.
• Area attacks. All of one attacker's hits in the same frame count as one hit, like a troll's ground slam across a wall. Each ward pays the average of the hit pieces, not the sum.
• Recharge. A ward regains 1 % of its maximum per second, also while nobody is near. For 5 s after each absorbed hit, it recharges at a quarter of that rate.
• Running low. Below 30 % charge, a ward lets part of each hit through: none at 30 %, rising to half when it is empty. Wards at 30 % or more take over what a weaker ward lets through.
• Empty. A drained ward switches off completely, its access protection included. It switches back on by itself at 30 %. New wards and newly installed cores start empty, so a new ward spends its first 30 s off.

The floating numbers show what actually happens. A protected piece shows the damage that reaches it, a grey 0 when the wards held everything. The ward shows the energy it paid as a light blue number.

Cores

To install a core, look at a ward and press the core's hotbar key (1–8). You need access to the ward. Every ward starts with a built-in Surtling Core. Installing another core gives back the one you installed before. The built-in core comes back with the ward's recipe when the ward is torn down or destroyed. A new core starts empty. Installed cores drop when the ward is torn down or destroyed. Every core shows its "Ward Power" in the item tooltip.

| Biome | Core | Max energy |

|---|---|---|

| Black Forest | Surtling Core (built-in) | 600 |

| Black Forest | Wooden Protection Idol | 800 |

| Black Forest | Bronze Protection Idol | 1,000 |

| Swamp | Iron Protection Idol | 1,200 |

| Mountain | Frostcore | 1,400 |

| Mountain | Dragon Tear | 1,600 |

| Mountain | Silver Protection Idol | 1,800 |

| Plains | Torn Spirit | 2,000 |

| Plains | Black Metal Protection Idol | 2,200 |

| Mistlands | Wisp | 2,400 |

| Mistlands | Black Core | 2,600 |

| Mistlands | Black Marble Protection Idol | 2,800 |

| Ashlands | Molten Core | 3,000 |

| Ashlands | Embers | 3,200 |

| Ashlands | Flametal Protection Idol | 3,400 |

| Deep North | Liquid Frost | 3,600 |

| Deep North | Frostfire Essence | 3,800 |

| Deep North | Thunderblood Essence | 3,800 |

| Deep North | Bloodgold Protection Idol | 4,000 |

Sap

Players with access feed a ward Sap straight from the inventory with Shift+E, the game's alt key plus use. Holding the keys keeps adding Sap. While Sap burns, the ward recharges an extra 1 % of its maximum per second. One Sap lasts 60 s and burns only while the ward is below its maximum. A ward holds up to 50 Sap. Unburnt Sap drops when the ward is torn down or destroyed.

Hover text

Core: Dragon Tear

Charge: 1200 / 1600 - 75%

Sap: 4 / 50 - 3m 12s

Status: Ready - Protection 100%

• Ready while the ward runs, or while it is off but already charged to 30 %.
• Charging - 12s until ready otherwise, with the slower cooldown and the Sap counted in.
• Protection is the share of each hit the ward holds at its current charge.

Texts are in English and German, following the game's language.

Settings

The settings are in BepInEx/conf