Stamina

Stamina is the action-economy resource pool — the third major character pool alongside Hit Points and Mana. Where Hit Points govern survival and Mana governs magical action, Stamina governs physical action: it sets your weapon swing speed, gates your ability to carry encumbrance without movement penalty, fuels Special Moves on warrior templates, and stabilises Parrying effectiveness through the DEX-factor multiplier. A high-stamina pool is the difference between a 2.0-second swing and a 1.25-second swing — and a 6-tick reduction in swing time before any Swing Speed Increase gear is layered on.

This page is the canonical reference for the stamina pool: how it is calculated, the swing-speed mechanic that drives every melee build, the regeneration formula, the medable-vs-non-medable distinction (yes, it applies here too), and the systems that consume and restore it.

What stamina is

Swing speed — the canonical stamina output

The single most important consequence of stamina is its effect on weapon swing speed. The mechanic is simple but the consequences are large:

Every 30 stamina points reduces weapon swing time by one tick (0.25 seconds), before Swing Speed Increase is applied.

This is the stamina swing-speed table for a representative 2.5-second base-swing weapon (a Katana, say):

The 180-stamina threshold is the canonical breakpoint that hardcore melee players target — at 180 stamina (achievable on a 125 DEX + 25 SI base + Hit Stamina Leech replenishment + Focus passive) you've extracted the maximum stamina-side reduction (6 ticks) before SSI takes over. Below 30 stamina the weapon does not swing at all — combat freezes until the pool refills.

The stamina-driven reduction sits before the global 1.25-second swing-time floor that applies after Swing Speed Increase calculation. The interaction is:

swing_time = max(1.25, weapon_base − stamina_ticks × 0.25 − ssi_reduction)

So a 1.5-second base weapon with 180 stamina + 60% SSI clamps at 1.25 seconds; the gear is still meaningful for any weapon with a higher base or for any character below 180 stamina.

Encumbrance and movement

Stamina is also the encumbrance lever:

• At or below the carry-weight cap (Strength × 3.5 + 40), the character moves freely. Stamina depletes only on combat hits and Mace-Fighting drains.
• Above the carry-weight cap, every step consumes 1 stamina in addition to the standard tick consumption. A maxed-out Strength=125 character has a carry cap of ~480 stones; a stamina-depleted heavy carrier walks visibly slower (the system silently locks them at walk pace) and bleeds stamina with each tile travelled.
• At 0 stamina, the character cannot move at all until the pool refills past 1 stamina point. This is the canonical "stamina pinned" state seen most often on heavy bag-runners or tamers with packed pets.

The encumbrance interaction is one of the under-appreciated reasons mid-tier carrier builds invest heavily in Strength — the pool size is uncapped headroom for the rare event of a stamina-pinned moment, and the carry-cap raises the breakeven point at which movement starts costing stamina.

Stamina regeneration

The stamina regen formula is simpler than mana's but follows the same general shape:

Combining: a representative warrior — 100 DEX, 100 Focus, +24 SR — refills at:

0.1 (base)
+ 100/200 = 0.5  (Focus)
+ 100/100 = 1.0  (DEX)
+ 24/10 = 2.4  (SR cap)
= 4.0 stamina/sec

A 150-stamina pool refills from 0 to full in ~37 seconds at this rate, and from 30 (the swing-speed cliff) to 60 (the next tick) in ~7 seconds.

Medable armor and stamina

The medable armor distinction matters for stamina too — non-medable armor doesn't zero out stamina regen, but it does suppress the Focus-skill contribution in a parallel mechanic to Meditation's effect on mana regen. A pure-warrior plate-clad fighter relies more on passive DEX-driven regen plus SR property than on Focus.

The single biggest practical regen lever for a stamina-hungry build is therefore getting to GM Focus while wearing medable armor (Studded, Leather, or Mage-Armor-flagged Plate). Focus is the warrior's substitute for Meditation, and at GM it adds a steady +0.5/s to stamina regen on top of the DEX contribution.

Stamina Regeneration — cap and notable artifacts

The Stamina Regeneration item property caps at +24 on character. The ranges:

Stacking notable pieces can push SR to the +24 cap easily on a hybrid build: a Ring of the Vile (+6) + Ancient Farmer's Kasa (+5) + four +3 jewelry/armor pieces (+12) = +23, with one additional +1 piece needed to reach the cap.

Ankh Pendant shrine bonuses

The Ankh Pendant Virtue Artifact unlocks per-shrine, once-per-day, hour-long regen bonuses that materially shape stamina-heavy builds:

The Ankh stays equipped during the chant; once the bonus is granted, the player can swap to combat gear without losing the buff. Best practice for a stamina-pinned build: chant Valor (+2 SR) at the start of a hunting session.

Stamina drain — what to avoid

Several monster classes and weapon types drain stamina specifically:

• Mace Fighting weapons — every hit drains target stamina (the canonical PvP "stamina-pin" build is a Mace warrior + Hit Stamina Leech).
• Crystal Lattice Seeker — per-hit large stamina drain on this Stygian Abyss monster.
• Ethereal Warrior — drains stamina + mana on its special attack.
• Champ Spawn elites — several have stamina-bypass or drain mechanics; e.g., Barracoon the Piper's mass Polymorph does not drain but disables, Neira's drain pull, etc.

The companion stat is Parrying: the DEX-factor in the parry formula uses raw DEX (not stamina), but low stamina still suppresses parry effectiveness via the swing-speed coupling — at sub-30 stamina, the parry-block timing window collapses with the swing rhythm.

See also

• Stamina Increase — the pool-size item property (cap +25).
• Stamina Regeneration — the regen-rate item property (cap +24).
• Swing Speed Increase — the gear-side swing-speed lever that compounds with the stamina-tick reduction.
• Dexterity — the stat input to pool size and a regen multiplier.
• Focus — the warrior-friendly regen-multiplier skill.
• Hit Stamina Leech — the per-hit refund that closes the steady-state gap.
• Vampiric Embrace — the +10 SR form bonus for Sampire-style builds.
• Mana and Hit Points — the other two character pools.
• Tactics — the special-moves skill that draws on the stamina (and mana) economy.
• Parrying — the DEX-coupled defensive skill.
• Mace Fighting — the canonical stamina-drain weapon class.
• Ankh Pendant — the per-shrine regen-bonus artifact.