Composure

Composure is how steady a unit is during a turn-based encounter. It replaced the real-time "startled" state and jolt timing on 1 November 2026. The tutorial rooms show it as hearts on the unit card.

How it works#

• The Ranger starts each room with 3 Composure, and a companion with 2.
• You lose 1 when a resolving threat hits your tile (a front strike, a jolt or a wave), or when you end your turn on an inflamed tile.
• At 0 you are Overwhelmed. Your next turn has movement and a bonus action, but no action. You are never removed from the board.
• Composure resets at the start of every room.

Ways to keep it:

• Settle restores 1, or 2 on supported ground.
• Ending your turn on Supported ground restores 1, once a round.
• Stand Fast makes the first hit on you cost nothing.
• Huddle lets an adjacent companion take a hit for you.
• The keeper trait (Pip) ignores the first hit each room. The Steady grip tool does the same for the Ranger.

A Ward does not protect Composure. It protects the tissue, not the cells working in it.

Numbers#

In the brain#

Composure is a game rule for being knocked off balance. It is not a measurement of stress in a real cell, and the engine's own comment says so.

Development#

Claude B proposed Composure in doc 31 §3, and the user approved doc 31 on 1 November. It is in B's turn engine, which the alpha installs. The Overwhelmed endurance cost is spendRoom(o, 'overwhelmed') in the alpha's services. How Composure is drawn belongs to the Run HUD.

See also#

Turn-based encounters · Settle · Supported ground · Endurance

Sources#

1. 215bfbf88:docs/game-balance/31-turn-based-encounters.mdcopy
2. b89f778c2:src/main-game/alpha/public/encounter/src/skills/turns/catalog.jscopy
3. b89f778c2:src/main-game/alpha/public/encounter/src/services/rest.jscopy