Bushido
Bushido
Bushido is the warrior-monk discipline of the Samurai — the way of honorable combat, and the primary skill required to wield the special abilities of the Book of Bushido. The skill arrived with the Samurai Empire expansion alongside the Tokuno Islands and the new Samurai class. Mechanically it is a hybrid: half a special-moves caster, half a passive enabler that buffs Parrying, Whirlwind, mounted combat on Lesser Hiryu, and the Perfection damage system.
Acquiring the discipline
A character begins Bushido by buying a Book of Bushido — sold by scribe NPCs in the Tokuno Islands (Zento and the surrounding villages) and dropped from Ronin. The book is a spellbook-class item that grants access to the six Bushido abilities. Without it, the skill cannot be invoked.
A character cannot raise Bushido above 0 from a "fresh" murderer state — a red character flagged as a murderer must first reach 25 Bushido through jewelry or a Soulstone before the skill can climb on its own. The NPC Samurai trainers in Zento will buy a new player up to 30; the Haven trainer goes to 40, with optional accelerated-gain access in Old Haven if the trainer's quest is accepted (do not accept until after buying skill — buying is locked while on an accelerated quest).
The six abilities
Bushido grants six special moves through the Book of Bushido. They share the global special-move cooldown but cost different amounts of mana, and most have a Bushido skill threshold below which they cast at reduced reliability.
| Ability | Mana | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Honorable Execution | 0 | Bonus damage on the next swing. If the swing kills the target, the Samurai immediately gains a brief swing-speed bonus and can chain into the next opponent at +20% damage. The Samurai also takes a temporary defense penalty after activation. |
| Counter Attack | 5 | A defensive stance: the Samurai retaliates against the next melee attack that hits within a short window, with a single weapon strike against the attacker. Cancels on use. |
| Confidence | 10 | Heals the caster over a short duration if no further damage is taken; if the Samurai is struck during the regen window, a portion of the remaining heal converts to immediate stamina. |
| Evasion | 10 | The Samurai's defense chance is dramatically increased for several seconds — every melee attack and direct spell is rolled against the elevated parry chance, including spells that normally bypass the shield. The only mechanism in the game that can avoid direct spell damage outright. Has its own short cooldown. |
| Lightning Strike | 10 | Guarantees a hit on the next swing, treats it as a critical, and ignores normal hit-chance penalties from the target. The standard Bushido training move from 50 to 110 skill. |
| Momentum Strike | 10 | Strikes two enemies in a single swing — the targeted opponent and a second adjacent foe. The damage roll applies to both. The terminal training move from 105 to 120 and the staple of Bushido AoE. |
The Bushido skill required to land each ability with 50% reliability is documented under the game's general formulas and mechanics — Confidence and Counter Attack are reachable in the early ranges, Evasion mid, and Momentum Strike and Lightning Strike at the upper end.
Training path
The conventional progression uses each ability in sequence at the band where it both gains skill and produces useful battlefield results.
| Skill range | Method |
|---|---|
| 0 – 30 | Buy from NPC Samurai trainer in Zento. (Haven NPC trainer covers up to 40.) |
| 30 – 60 | Cast Confidence between fights, or whenever damaged below full. |
| 60 – 75 | Cast Counter Attack and let opponents strike you. |
| 75 – 105 | Cast Evasion against any attacker — stacking it for the cooldown is the gain trigger. |
| 105 – 120 | Cast Momentum Strike against any pair of enemies (two-target requirement). |
A common shortcut: train to 30 from an NPC, equip jewelry that boosts the skill to 50, then cycle Lightning Strike until real skill reaches 50. Strip the jewelry and continue Lightning Strike to 110. At 110, switch to Momentum Strike for the final 10 points. Lightning Strike alone will work all the way to 120 if a Samurai prefers.
Skill above 100 requires Bushido Power Scrolls, sold or dropped from Champion Spawns; the cap rises in 5-point increments to a maximum of 120.
Passive bonuses
Bushido functions as more than a special-moves discipline. Several core mechanics scale off the skill independently of any active ability use.
Parrying with a weapon
A Samurai with both Bushido and Parrying can block incoming attacks with a weapon — no shield required. The block chance follows the standard Parrying formula, modified by Bushido. The trade is symmetric: as Bushido rises, the Samurai's defense chance with an actual shield falls, so a high-Bushido character is incentivized toward two-handed weapons or a katana paired with no shield.
Evasion stacks on top of weapon-parry. While Evasion is active the parry chance is elevated against all sources, making Bushido the only path in the game that can outright avoid direct spell damage. A skilled Samurai can parry a fireball.
Perfection
At 50 Bushido or above, the Samurai may activate the Perfection damage system by using the Honor virtue ability against a creature. Honoring a target marks it as the Perfection focus and grants a damage bonus that scales with consecutive hits — each hit on the honored target stacks a multiplier up to 100% bonus damage on the perfect (10th) hit. Missing or switching targets resets the chain. The mechanic rewards focused single-target combat against an honor-eligible monster.
Whirlwind damage increase
Bushido grants additional damage to the Whirlwind weapon special move. The bonus is capped at 100% of base damage and scales with both Bushido skill and the number of adjacent enemies:
damageBonus = (Bushido / 60 × numberOfOpponents)²
Worked example: at 90 Bushido surrounded by four enemies, the bonus per target is (90/60 × 4)² = 36 extra damage.
Saturation points:
| Bushido | Enemies needed for the 100% cap |
|---|---|
| 66.6 | 9 |
| 100 | 6 |
| 120 | 5 |
A Samurai must reach 66.6 Bushido before the formula produces the full bonus at any opponent count, and even then requires standing in a nine-enemy pack.
Reduced special-move mana cost
Bushido counts toward the 200-point combined-skill threshold for special-move mana reduction. Combat or magic skills (Anatomy, Bushido, Chivalry, Magery, Necromancy, Ninjitsu, etc. — see the special moves reference) sum into the same pool:
| Combined total | Mana reduction |
|---|---|
| 200 – 299 | -5 mana per special |
| 300 + | -10 mana per special |
A Samurai with GM Bushido (100) and GM Anatomy (100) reaches the first threshold; adding any third combat skill at GM clears the second.
Lesser Hiryu mounting
At 90 Bushido or higher, the skill substitutes for Animal Taming for the specific purpose of controlling and riding a Lesser Hiryu. A pure Samurai never has to tame the mount — the Bushido check satisfies the animal's loyalty requirement directly.
Equipment notes
The Book of Bushido itself is required in inventory to invoke any ability. Several Samurai-flavored equipment lines reduce mana cost or boost skill bonuses for Bushido:
- Tokuno Islands minor artifacts include several pieces with +Bushido bonuses, sold by Tokuno turn-in NPCs for collected drops.
- Lesser Hiryu mounts grant a Samurai-only AoE attack on dismount and synergize with Whirlwind builds.
- Samurai-class weapons — katana, daisho, lajatang, bokuto, no-dachi, wakizashi, yumi — most have Whirlwind, Lightning Strike, or other Bushido-favored specials baked into their move list.
Strategy notes
- Mana economy. Confidence (10) and Lightning Strike (10) are the bread and butter. Pair Bushido with at least one mana-leech weapon or Mage Weapon property to keep the regen pace ahead of the cooldown.
- Honor before swing. Always Honor a tough target before engaging; the Perfection bonus more than pays for the karma cost on a successful kill.
- Evasion timing. Evasion's cooldown is long. Use it for the boss-burst window — when a champion or peerless is about to throw a finishing area-effect spell — not preemptively.
- Two-handed Bushido. The shield penalty makes one-handed-plus-shield Samurai builds suboptimal at high skill; commit to a two-hander or a single katana with the Mage Weapon property for offhand spell support.
- Murderer caveat. Red characters cannot train Bushido past zero without external help. A Soulstone-imported skill set or jewelry to 25 is mandatory before raw training begins.
See also
Samurai, Tokuno Islands, Book of Bushido, Parrying, Honor, Perfection, Lesser Hiryu, Special Moves, Power Scrolls, Whirlwind, Lightning Strike, Momentum Strike, Confidence, Counter Attack, Evasion, Honorable Execution.