CluckFighters

Cluck Fighters – hens that fight for honour

Shut a tame hen alone in a small coop, feed her meat, and after a day she is no hen any more: she comes out as a Cluck Fighter, bigger, broader in the chest, with a red comb and long sickle feathers. She follows you like a wolf, guards you, learns with every fight and wakes an ability of her own. Put two fighters in a pen or an arena and they fight it out the old way: a stare-off, a round of wing-flapping and crowing, then a fight to the death.

Nothing here is magic. A hen turns because she is shut in alone and fed meat. Fighters only clash where they cannot keep out of each other's way. A leash holds a fighter back however hard it pulls. Dye washes off in water.

| | Where | Cost | |---|---|---| | Fighter's Leash | Workbench | 4 Leather scraps, 2 Resin | | Tether Post | Hammer → Misc, workbench | 4 Wood, 1 Iron | | Dyes (8 colours, 2 pots) | Workbench | berries, flowers, coal or bone (see below) | | Stake Pit | Hammer → Misc, workbench | 30 Wood, 6 Resin | | Stone Ring | Hammer → Misc, stonecutter | 40 Stone, 10 Wood | | Marble Arena | Hammer → Misc, stonecutter | 40 Black marble, 10 Yggdrasil wood | | Grausten Arena | Hammer → Misc, stonecutter | 40 Grausten, 10 Blackwood, 4 Charred bone | | Gear (15 pieces) | Workbench, forge, black forge | see below |

A hen turns

1. Build a small coop: walls on every side, at most 16 m² of floor (4 × 4 m). Fences with gaps a hen could slip through do not count.
2. Put one tame hen in it, alone: no other hen, chick or fighter inside the same walls.
3. Drop 2 pieces of meat in the coop. Shut in alone, a hen eats meat as well as seeds (any meat, raw or cooked). Like every tame animal she eats when she is hungry.
4. She sits there a whole day (30 minutes) and turns. Meat and day can come in either order.

• Point at her and she tells you how far she is:

> Broods alone, restless: 64 % of a day · meat 2/2

• A short break is forgiven. Open the door for up to 30 seconds to bring meat; a longer break starts the day again.
• She keeps her stars and her name, and wakes up with one of four natures.
• Out in the open or in company, hens never eat meat.

The fighter

A fighter follows you and stays on E, eats meat and seeds, and attacks whatever threatens you, like a tame wolf. It has no breeding: fighters are made, not born.

Levels 1 to 10. Each level gives +25 % health and +10 % damage. Experience comes from

• walking beside you: 1 point per 50 m,
• the last blow on a creature: 3 to 30 points by its health,
• a won ring fight: 15 to 90 points (more against a stronger rival), times the arena's bonus.

Level 2 needs 40 points, level 5 needs 400, level 10 needs 1800. A fighter grows a little with every level and every star.

Stars work like on any creature: each star multiplies health and adds half the damage again. A star is won in the ring, and rarely: 1.5 % per win for the first star, half that for the second. Arenas raise the chance.

| | Health | Damage per peck | |---|---|---| | Level 1 | 40 | 6 | | Level 5 | 80 | 8.4 | | Level 10 | 130 | 11.4 | | Level 10, one star | 260 | 17.1 | | Level 10, two stars | 390 | 22.8 |

Before nature and gear. A two-star fighter at level 10 attacks every second or so and is no small thing to meet. A Wolfborn is still far stronger.

A fighter pecks, kicks with both feet in a jump, and beats with its wings (blunt, a push). Every blow can be a critical one for double damage. Hits on a fighter can be dodged (it hops aside) and are softened by its armour.

Four natures

| Nature | Edge | Ability (level 5, stronger at 10) | Look | |---|---|---|---| | Stormbeak | fast, dodges most, a quarter of each peck is lightning | Thunder Peck: every 10 s (7 s) a peck with extra lightning that always staggers | slate blue, a crest of steel spikes with sparks, a steel beak cap | | Runeclaw | toughest, a share of every hit never lands, spirit damage in the claws | Rune Ward: below half health the runes flare and soak up damage worth 25 % (40 %) of its health, every 40 s (30 s) | charcoal, glowing runes on both legs | | Berserker Hans | hits hardest | Blood Frenzy: below 40 % health it hits 35 % (50 %) harder and faster, and heals 10 % (15 %) of what it deals | rust red, a great comb, red eyes in frenzy | | Valhalla Striker | sturdy, the most critical blows | Valkyrie Dive: every 14 s (10 s) it leaps up and dives on its foe for double (2.5×) damage that staggers | golden, a gold plume and a gold torc |

A star darkens the plumage and lengthens the sickle feathers; a two-star fighter grows a ruff of hackles and ember eyes.

Ring fights

Two free fighters fight when they cannot keep out of each other's way:

• in the same arena, always;
• in the same closed space (a pen, a coop, a room, up to 150 m²) where they see each other.

Out in the open they never fight. So you cannot keep two fighters in the same shelter.

1. Stare-off (3.5 s): they square up and fix each other.
2. Taunt (4 s): wing-flapping, hopping, crowing.
3. The fight: to the death. A fighter in the ring never runs and never stops. No hand can leash it now.

The winner gets experience, a little health back and its rare chance of a star. Gear stays unused in every ring fight: fighters settle it bare, for honour.

Arenas

Big rings with a sand floor, a wall no fighter hops over, a step round the outside to stand on and watch, and a red and a blue corner.

| Arena | Floor across | Health | Damage | Experience | Star chance | Winner heals | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | Stake Pit | 5.2 m | – | – | +30 % | ×1 | 25 % | | Stone Ring | 6.6 m | +20 % | – | +50 % | ×1.25 | 35 % | | Marble Arena | 8 m | +30 % | +10 % | +75 % | ×2 | 50 % | | Grausten Arena | 9.2 m | +40 % | +15 % | +100 % | ×3 | 100 % |