Introduction

Hardened is a submod for Reforged, offering an alternate vision while staying fully savegame compatible: Players can freely switch between Reforged and Hardened.

While Reforged focuses on realism and polished mechanics, Hardened embraces a simpler, more experimental approach. The submod takes more risks with innovative perk designs and mechanics, unlocking new possibilities for gameplay, though this can occasionally introduce more bugs or incompatibilities than Reforged. Hardened also walks back several of Reforged's more complex or restrictive design choices, opting for streamlined systems that prioritize fluidity and player freedom.

Hardened reflects my personal vision of Battle Brothers — a balanced, varied, and challenging experience, with enough randomness to keep each playthrough fresh and unpredictable.

Overview

• Reach Mechanic has been simplified
• Almost all shield changes have been reverted
• ~60 perks are reworked or rebalanced
• 2 new perks are introduced
• ~25 skills are tweaked
• ~20 enemies are slightly tweaked
• ~30 QoL features or changes
• ~13 niche vanilla bugs are fixed

List of all Changes

Major Changes

Reach Rework

• You have Reach Advantage during any melee attack if your Reach is greater than the Reach of the entity you are attacking
• Reach Advantage always grants 15% more Melee Skill (it is unaffected by the difference in Reach)
• Reach Disadvantage does nothing
• Goblins, Humans and Orcs now have 0 Reach by default
• Reach is 0 while the character does not emit a zone of control (e.g. stunned, fleeing)
• Most attack skills have lost their innate hit chance bonus (see Skills section)
• You can no longer overcome Reach temporarily
• Reach Ignore stat is removed

Shield Revert/Rework

• Fatigue no longer has any effect on the defenses granted by shields
• All reforged changes to Condition, Melee Defense, Ranged Defense and Weight of vanilla shields have been reverted.
• Additionally the following balance changes have been made compared to the vanilla stats:
  • Tower Shields now have 30 Condition (up from 24) and no longer grant Knock Back
  • Heater Shields now have 25 Melee Defense (up from 20) and no longer grant Shieldwall
  • Kite Shields no longer grant Knock Back
  • Reinforced Skirmisher Shields now have 15 Melee Defense (up from 10), 15 Ranged Defense (up from 10), no longer grants Shieldwall and now grants Knock Back
  • Wooden Skirmisher Shield no longer grants Shieldwall and now grants Knock Back
  • Heavy Metal Shields now have 20 Melee Defense (up from 15) and 20 Ranged Defense (up from 15)
  • Feral Shields now have 20 Melee Defense (up from 15), 25 Ranged Defense (up from 20), 20 Weight (up from 12), 24 Condition (up from 16), +5 Fatige on use (up from 0) and they no longer grant Knock Back
  • Adarga Shields now have 8 Weight (down from 10) and no longer grant Knock Back
  • Old Wooden Shields now have 13 Melee Defense (down from 15) and 13 Ranged Defense (down from 15)
  • Worn Heater Shields now have 23 Melee Defense (up from 20), 13 Ranged Defense (down from 15) and no longer grant Shieldwall
  • Worn Kite Shields now have 13 Melee Defense (down from 15), 23 Ranged Defense (down from 25) and no longer grant Knock Back

Throwing Weapon Rework

• Throwing Weapons now have a minimum attack range of 1, just like all other ranged attacks
• Throwing regular Throwing Weapons now cost 15 Fatigue (up from 10 for Axes, 14 for Javelins and 12 for Bolas), just like in Vanilla
• Throwing Heavy Throwing Weapons now costs 5 Action Points (up from 4) and 18 Fatigue (up from 15)
• Throwing Crude Javelins now costs 5 Action Points (up from 4)
• Heavy Javelin now deal 40-50 Damage (up from 35-50), have 85% Armor Damage (up from 80%), have +0% Hitchance (up from -5%), 4 Maximum Ammo (down from 5), 0 Weight (down from 8), 3 Weight per Ammo, 4 Ammo Cost (up from 3) and a value of 500 (up from 300)
• Heavy Throwing Axes now deal 45-60 Damage (up from 30-50), have 120% Armor Damage (up from 115%), have -10% Hitchance (down from -5%), +10% Headshot Chance (up from +5%), 4 Maximum Ammo (down from 5), 0 Weight (down from 8), 3 Weight per Ammo and a value of 600 (up from 300)
• Bolas now deal 25-40 Damage (up from 20-35), have 0 Weight (down from 3), 1.5 Weight per Ammo and a value of 300 (up from 150)
• Crude Javelins now deal 35-45 Damage (up from 30-40), have 4 Maximum Ammo (down from 5), 0 Weight (down from 8) and 3 Weight per Ammo
• Javelins now deal 35-45 Damage (up from 30-45), have 0 Weight (down from 6), 2 Weight per Ammo and a value of 350 (up from 200)
• Throwing Axes now deal 35-50 Damage (up from 30-50), have -10% Hitchance (down from +0%), +10% Headshot Chance (up from +5%), 0 Weight (down from 4), 2 Weight per Ammo and a value of 400 (up from 200)
• Marketplaces now sell Crude Javelins instead of regular Javelins

Double Grip Rework

• Double Grip no longer provides unique effects for each weapon type
• Double Grip now always grants 20% more damage and 20% reduced fatigue cost of non-attack skills

Reworked Day-Night-Cycle

• Each Day now consists of Sunrise (2 hours) followed by Morning (6 hours), Midday (2 hours), Afternoon (6 hours) and ending with Sunset (2 hours)
• Each Night now consists of Dusk (2 hours), followed by Midnight (2 hours) and Dawn (2 hours)
• Each new day now starts exactly the moment that night changes to day (Double Arena fix)
• The Day-Night disk on the world map now aligns correctly with the current time

Crossbows

• Shooting Crossbows now costs -1 Action Point and has +10% chance to hit
• Reloading Crossbows now costs +1 Action Point
• Reloading Crossbows now applies Reload Disorientation to you until the start of your next turn.
  • Reload Disorientation applies -10 Ranged Skill and -10 Ranged Defense

Weight on Items

• A new term Weight replaces the existing Maximum Fatigue property on equippable items but works very similar
• The Stamina penalty from Weight is now applied last (after Stamina Multiplier from effects)
  • Therefor debuffs and injuries affecting Stamina are stronger
• You no longer gain Initiative, when you gain Stamina (e.g. from Strong Trait)
• No Character can ever have less than 10 Stamina

Misc

• Night Effect now grants -3 Vision (down from -2)
• Disable Veteran Perks. Your brothers no longer gain perk points after Level 11
• When you pay compensation on dismissing a brother, he will share 50% of his experience with all remaining brothers. No more than 5% of his maximum exp each.
• The Crowded debuff for long distance melee attacks now also applies -5% chance to hit for every adjacent ally, ignoring the first two allies.
• Add new Parry perk in Tier 3 of Swift Group. It requires a one handed melee weapon. It grants Melee Defense equal to your base Ranged Defense against weapon attacks. While engage with someone wielding a melee weapon, you have 70% less Ranged Defense. Does not work with shields, while stunned, fleeing or disarmed.
• Add new One with the Shield perk in Tier 7 of Shield Group. It requires a shield. It grants 25% more Injury Threshold. While you have Shieldwall effect you take 40% less Hitpoint damage from head attack. While you don't have Shieldwall effect you take 40% less Hitpoint damage from body attacks
• Add new Battle Song skill while holding a Lute for applying a temporary Resolve buff to nearby allies

Balance & Polishing

Skills

• Bandage Ally now also treats any injury which was received at most 1 round ago
• Dazed no longer reduces the Stamina by 25%. It now increases the fatigue cost of all non-attacks by 25%
• Distracted (caused by Throw Dirt) now reduces the damage by 20% (down from 35%) and disables the targets Zone of Control during the effect
• Encourage (granted by Supporter) can no longer make someone confident and it no longer requires the user to have a higher morale than the target per tile distance.
• Hand-to-Hand Attack is now enabled if you carry an empty throwing weapon in your main hand.
• Insect Swarm now disables the targets Zone of Control during its effect. It no longer reduces the Initiative. It now reduces the combat stats by 30% (up from 50%)
• Net Effect no longer reduces the Initiative of the target
• Puncture now requires the target to be surrounded by atleast 2 enemies. It is now affected by Double Grip
• Recover now applies the same Initiative debuff as using Wait
• Riposte now costs 3 Action Points (down from 4), 15 Fatigue (down from 25). It now grants +10 Melee Defense during its effect. It is now disabled when you get hit or after your first counter-attack
• Spider Poison now also reduces the Hitpoints Recovery of the target by 50%
• Sprint (granted by Footwork) now costs 1 Action Point (up from 0) but no longer increases the fatigue cost per tile while sprinting
• Stab now costs 3 Action Points (down from 4)
• Lunge now hase -10% additional Hitchance (up from -20%)
• Sword Thrust now has -10% additional Hitchance (up from -20%)
• Throw Pot/Flask skills are no longer considered an attack

Skill nerfs as a result of the Reach system:

• Lightbringer now has 0% additional Hitchance (down from 10%)
• Thrust now has 0% additional Hitchance (down from 10%)
• Slash now has 0% additional Hitchance (down from 5%)
• Gash now has 0% additional Hitchance (down from 5%)
• Overhead Strike now has 0% additional Hitchance (down from 5%)
• Swing now has -10% additional Hitchance (down from -5%)
• Split now has -10% additional Hitchance (down from -5%)
• Impale now has 0% additional Hitchance (down from 10%)
• Prong now has 0% additional Hitchance (down from 10%)
• Rupture now has 0% additional Hitchance (down from 5%)
• Strike now has 0% additional Hitchance (down from 5%)

Perks

Just the images side-by-side: https://github.com/Darxo/Hardened/wiki/Perk-changes-Side‐By‐Side

• Angler no longer increases the cost of Break Free on the target. It now increases the maximum range of Throw Net by 1 and it staggers every character that you net. Net Pull now has a Range of 3 (up from 2)
• Anticipation now also proccs whenever your shield takes damage from an attack
• Axe Mastery no longer grants Hook Shield. It now causes Split Shield to apply Dazed for 1 turn
• Bags and Belts now also includes two-handed weapons but no longer grants Initiative
• Battle Forged no longer has any prerequisites. It no longer provide any Reach Ignore
• Bear Down (granted by Mace Mastery) is completely reworked. It now causes every headshot to daze the target for 1 turn, or increase the duration of an existing daze by 1 turn
• Bestial Vigor is completely reworked. It is now called Backup Plan andand grants the skill Backup Plan which can be used once per battle to recover 7 Action Points and disable all Attack-Skills for the rest of this turn. It has been removed from the Wildling perk group and added to the Tactician perk group at Tier 2
• Between the Ribs no longer requires the attack to be of piercing type. It now also lowers your chance to hit the head by 10% for each surrounding character
• Blitzkrieg now costs 9 Action Points (up from 7), 50 Fatigue (up from 30), no longer requires 10 usable fatigue on the targets. It no longer has a shared cooldown. It is now limited to being used once per battle instead of once per day
• Bloodlust is completely reworked. It now grants 10% more damage against bleeding enemies and makes you receive 10% less damage from bleeding enemies
• Bolster now requires a Polearm equipped, instead of any weapon with a Reach of 6 or more
• Bullseye no longer reduces the penalty for shooting behind cover. It also no longer works with Take Aim. It now provides 25% Armor Penetration (up from 20%)
• Brawny no longer grants Initiative
• Colossus now grants +15 Hitpoints, instead of 25% more Hitpoints
• Concussive strikes is completely reworked. It is now called Shockwave and it makes it so your kills or stuns with maces will daze all enemies adjacent to your target for 1 turn
• Dagger Mastery no longer grant any reach ignore. It now reduces the action point cost of the first offhand skill each turn to 0, if your offhand item has a weight lower than 10
• Deep Impact is now called Breakthrough and has been completely reworked. It grants the Pummel skill, which can now be used with any hammer. It also makes it so Shatter has a 100% chance to knock targets back on a hit
• Dismantle has been completely reworked. It now grants +40% Armor Damage and 100% more Shield Damage against enemies who have full health.
• Dismemberment no longer causes any morale checks. It now grants +20% chance to hit the body part with the most temporary injuries
• Dodge now grants 4% of Initiative as extra Melee Defense and Ranged Defense for every empty adjacent tile (down from always 15%)
• Duelist is completely reworked. It now only works for one-handed weapons. It grants 30% Armor Penetration and +2 Reach while adjacent to 0 or 1 enemies and it grants 15% Armor Penetration and +1 Reach while adjacent to 2 enemies
• Dynamic Duo no longer grants Melee Skill or Melee Defense
• En Garde is completely reworked. It now grants +15 Melee Skill while it is not your turn. It also makes it so Riposte is no longer disabled when you get hit or deal a counter attack (so like in Vanilla)
• Entrenched has been completely reworked. It now grants +5 Resolve per adjacent ally, +5 Ranged Defense per adjacent obstacle and 15% more Ranged Skill if at least 3 adjacent tiles are allies or obstacles
• Exploit Opening is completely reworked. It now grants a stacking +10% chance to hit whenever an opponent misses an attack against you. Bonus is reset upon landing a hit (just like Fast Adaptation)
• Fencer no longer grants +10% chance to hit or 20% less fatigue cost. It now causes your fencing swords to lose 50% less durability
• Flail Spinner now has a 100% chance to procc (up from 50%) but will only target a random different valid enemy
• Formidable Approach is completely reworked. Moving next to an enemy that has less maximum Hitpoints than you, removes Confident from them. Moving next to an enemy grants +15 Melee Skill against them until they damage you
• Fortified Mind now grants +30 Resolve (instead of 25% more) and you lose Resolve equal to the Weight of your Helmetweight
• Fresh and Furious now has a fatigue threshold of 50% (up from 30%). It now checks your fatige when you end your turn, instead of at the start of your turn
• Ghostlike has been completely reworked. It no longer has any requirements. It now grants 50% of your Resolve as extra Melee Defense during your turn. When you start or resume your turn not adjacent to enemies, gain +15% Armor Penetration and 15% more damage against adjacent targets until you wait or end your turn
• Hammer Mastery no longer grants Pummel or increases the Armor Damage dealt by Crush Armor and Demolish Armor. Now 50% of the Armor Damage you deal to one body part is also dealt to the other body part.
• Hybridization is completely reworked. It still grants 15% of your base Ranged Skill as Melee Skill. It now causes piercing type hits to the body to inclict Arrow to the Knee, cutting type hits to inflict Overwhelmed, blunt type headshots to inflict stagger and any hit with them to stun a staggered opponent and throwing spears to deal 50% more damage to shields
• Inspiring Presence no longer requires a banner. At the start of each round it grants adjacent allies of your faction +3 Action Points for this turn, if they are adjacent to an enemy and have less Resolve than you. The same target can't be inspired multiple times per turn.
• Iron Sights headshot chance now also works with melee weapons
• King of all Weapons is now called Spear Flurry and is completely reworked. It now prevents spear attacks from building up any fatigue
• Leverage is completely reworked. It now reduces the Action Point cost of your first polearm attack each turn by 1 for each adjacent ally.
• Lone Wolf is now only active is no ally from your company is within 2 tiles
• Marksmanship is completely reworked. It now grants +10 minimum and maximum damage while there are no enemies within 2 tiles
• Nimble is completely reworked: It now always provides a 60% Hitpoint damage reduction but no longer reduces your armor damage taken. It now increases your armor damage taken by a percentage equal to your combined helmet and armor weight
• Offhand Training is completely reworked. It now reduces the AP cost of tool skills by 1. Wielding a tool in your offhand no longer disables Double Grip and while wielding a tool in your offhand, the first successful attack each turn, will stagger your target
• Onslaught no longer has a shared cooldown
• Opportunist is completely reworked. It now grants throwing attacks -1 Action Point cost per tile moved, until you use a throwing attack, wait or end your turn. Changing height levels also no longer has an additional Action Point cost.
• Phalanx is completely reworked. It grants +1 Reach for every adjacent ally with a shield. Shieldwall no longer ends, while an adjacent brother also has Shieldwall active.
• Poise is now called Flexible and is completely reworked: It now reduces damage which ignores Armor by 60%. This is reduced by 1% for each combined helmet and body armor weight. It also reduces your armor damage taken by a percentage equal to 40% of your current Initiative (up to a maximum of 40%)
• Polearm Mastery no longer reduces the Action Point cost of 2 handed reach weapons by 1. It now grants +15% chance to hit for Repel and Hook.
• Professional now reduces the experience gained by 5%
• Quickhands can now also swap two two-handed weapons
• Rattle is now called Full Force and has been completely reworked. It now causes you to spend all remaining Action Points whenever you attack and gain 10% more damage per Action Point spent. The effect is double for one-handed weapons
• Rebuke is completely reworked. It now grants the Rebuke Effect whenever an opponent misses a melee attack against you while it's not your turn, until the start of your next turn. This effect reduces your damage by 25% but will make you retaliate every melee attack miss against you.
• Savage Strength now reduces fatigue cost of weapon skills by 20% (down from 25%). It now grants Immunity to Disarm
• Shield Expert no longer grants 25% increased shield defenses and no longer prevents fatigue build-up when you dodge attacks. It now grants 50% less shield damage taken and it makes it so enemies will never have Reach Advantage over the shield user
• Shield Sergeant is mostly reworked. It still grants Shieldwall to all allies at the start of each combat. It now causes allies to imitate shield skills for free that you use. It also allows you to use Knock Back on empty tiles.
• Skirmisher now grants 50% of body armor weight as initiative (previously 30% of body/helmet armor weight) and no longer displays an effect icon
• Spear Mastery no longer provides a free spear attack each turn. Instead of now grants 15% more Melee Skill while you have Reach Advantage
• Student no longer grants any experience. It now grants +1 Perk Point when you reach level 8 instead of level 11
• Sweeping Strikes is completely reworked: It now grants +5 Melee Defense for every adjacent enemy until the start of your next turn the first time you use a melee attack skill on an adjacent enemy. It still requires a two-handed weapon
• Swift Stabs has been completely reworked. It's now called Hit and Run. It makes it so all dagger attacks can be used at 2 tiles and will move the user one tile closer before the attack. When the attack hits the enemy, the user is moved back to the original tile
• Target Practice has been completely reworked. It now makes it 50% less likely for your arrows to hit the cover, when you have no clear line of fire (stronger than vanilla Bullseye)
• Through the Gaps is now always active but. It now lowers your armor penetration by 10% (down from increasing it by 10%)
• Throwing Mastery is mostly completely reworked. It now grants 30% more damage for your first throwing attack each turn, no matter the range. It now allows swapping a throwing weapon with an empty throwing weapon or empty slot for free, once per turn
• Trick Shooter no longer causes your Aimed Shot to trigger a morale check on the main target hit
• Unstoppable no longer loses all Stacks when you use Wait if you spent at least half of your action points by that time
• Weapon Master no longer works with hybrid weapons. When you learn Weapon Master you now gain a new random weapon perk group
• Wears it well now grants 50% of combined Mainhand and Offhand Weight as Stamina and Initiative (Instead of 20% of Mainhand, Offhand, Helmet and Chest Weight)
• Whirling Death is completely reworked. It now grants a new active skill which creates a buff for two turns granting 30% more damage, 2 Reach and 10 Melee Defense to the user

Perk Groups

• Bags and Belts is now part of the Light Armor group instead of being available for everyone
• Cheap Trick is now Tier 1 (down from Tier 2)
• Colossus is now also part of the Wildling perk group in Tier 1
• Deep Impact (now Breakthrough) is now a T3 perk and Rattle (now Full Force) is now a T6 perk
• Dodge is removed from the Light Armor group. It is now only available in the Medium Armor group
• Duelist is no longer part of Shield group
• Ghostlike is now Tier 5 (up from Tier 4)
• Inspiring Presence is now also part of the Noble group at Tier 7
• Marksmanship is no longer a special perk. It is now a T7 perk in the Ranged perk group
• Quickhands from the perk group Trained is now a Tier 1 perk (was Tier 2 before)
• Pathfinder and Decisive are now part of Leadership group
• Pathfinder is no longer part of the Wildling group
• Polearm Mastery and Fortified Mind are removed from the Leadership group
• Rally the Troops from the Leadership group is now a Tier 3 perk (was Tier 2 before)
• Student is now available for everyone
• Tricksters Purses is now Tier 3 (up from Tier 1)
• Vigorous Assault is no longer part of Swift Strikes group
• Knave no longer guarantees the Dagger perk group. Now it is just twice as likely. It also no longer guarantees the Nimble per group
• Wildling no longer prevents the perk groups Ranged, Gifted and Leadership from appearing
• Leadership perk group is now part of the Shared perk group collection and will compete with shared perk groups
• Tactician is now a Special perk group and no longer replaces a shared perk group, when it appears

Backgrounds

• Assassin now has +5 to minimum Ranged Skill (up from 0) and +10 to maximum Ranged Skill (up from 0)
• Swordmaster no longer has Sword Mastery unlocked by default. This perk is now moved to Tier 3 (down from 4) for them

Items

• Cudgel now deals 40-60 damage (up from 30-50), has an armor penetration of 110% (up from 90%), a Reach of 5 (up from 3), a value of 400 (up from 300). Bash now costs 5 AP (up from 4) and 15 Fatigue (down from 18). Knock Out now has a 100% chance to stun
• Estoc now has 6 Reach (up from 5)
• Goedendag no longer grants Cudgel skill
• Fighting Axe now has a value of 2300 (down from 2800)
• Firelance now also has the Firearm weapontype
• Flail now deals 30-55 damage (up from 25-55)
• Hooked Blade now deals 40-60 Damage (down from 40-70) and costs 550 Crowns (down from 700)
• Two Handed Wodden Hammer, Two Handed Hammer and Skull Hammer now have 5 Reach (up from 4)
• Player Banner now grants -5 to Ranged Defense
• Thorned Whip now deals 20-35 Damage (up from 15-25), has a Weight of 10 (up from 6), has a Condition of 25 (down from 40) and a value of 600 (up from 400)
• Tree Limb now deals 30-50 damage (up from 25-40), has an armor penetration of 90% (up from 75%), a Reach of 5 (up from 3), a weight of 15 (down from 20), a value of 300 (up from 150). Bash now costs 5 AP (up from 4) and 15 Fatigue (down from 18). Knock Out now has a 100% chance to stun
• Warfork now deals 90% Armor Damage (down from 100%) and costs 550 Crowns (up from 400)
• Woodcutters Axe now deals 35-60 damage (down from 35-70)
• Throwing Spears no longer inflict any fatigue when hitting a shield and have a value of 60 (down from 80)
• Ammo now has weight. All Quivers and Powder Bags weigh 0 when empty. When full, regular ones weigh 2, Large Quivers weigh 5, and Large Powder Bags weigh 4.
• Gun Powder now costs 2 Ammunition Supply each (up from 1)
• Feral Shield now has a value of 400 (up from 50)
• The value of almost all other non-named shields is increased by 50%-100%
• Goblin Pikes, Ancient Pikes and Pikes are now also of the weapontype Spear
• Smoke Bomb now costs 400 Crowns (up from 275). Smoke now lasts 2 Rounds (up from 1)
• Sergeant's Sash now only provides the +10 Resolve if its user has the perk Rally the Troops
• Heraldic Cape attachement now has 20 Condition (up from 5), 0 Weight (down from 1), 1000 Value (up rom 200) and grants 10 Resolve (up from 5)
• Fermented Unhold Heart now has an expiry date of 40 days (up from 20)
• Fangshire will no longer spawn at the start of the game
• Wooden Shields appear less common in marketplaces
• Buckler appear less common in big settlements
• Small civilian settlements now sell Old Wooden Shields
• Big non-southern settlements now sometimes sell Worn Kite Shields and Worn Heater Shields
• Weaponsmiths and Armorsmiths now sell Armor Parts but for a higher price

Traits

• Aisling now also makes all temporary injuries last 50% longer
• Lucky no longer grants a chance to reroll incoming attacks. It now provides a 5% chance to avoid damage from any source.
• Weasel now provides an additional 25 Melee Defense during that brothers turn while fleeing.
• Huge no longer increases the Reach by 1
• Night Blind now grants -2 Vision during night (down from -1)
• Night Owl now grants +2 Vision during night (up from +1)
• Tiny no longer reduces the Reach by 1
• Irrational will no longer appear on recruits.

Injuries

• Collapsed Lung no longer reduces the Stamina. Instead it now disables the use of Recover
• Crushed Windpipe no longer reduces the Stamina. Instead it now disables the use of Recover
• Pierced Lung now reduces Stamina by 30% (down from 60%) and disables the use of Recover
• Grazed Neck, Cut Artery and Cut Throat are no longer removed, when bandaged
• Grazed Neck, Cut Artery and Cut Throat no longer deals damage over time
• Grazed Neck now applies 1 stack of bleed when inflicted
• Cut Artery now applies 3 stack of bleed when inflicted
• Cut Throat now applies 6 stack of bleed when inflicted

Enemies

Brigands:

• Scoundrels no longer spawn with Wooden Shields. Instead they can now spawn with Old Wooden Shields. They now spawn with a Knife instead of Dagger/Woodcutters Axe
• Vandals no longer spawn with Kite Shields. Instead they can now spawn with Old Wooden Shields
• Raider no longer have Shield Expert. They no longer spawn with Kite Shields. Instead they can now spawn with Worn Kite/Heater Shields
• Highwaymen can now also spawn with Worn Kite/Heater Shields
• Thug now spawn with Tree Limb instead of Goedendag
• Pillager can now also spawn with Cudgel. Pillager no longer spawn with Woodcutters Axe, Two Handed Mace or Two Handed Hammer
• Outlaws no longer spawn with Two Handed Wooden Flail or Greatsword
• Marauder no longer spawn with Two Handed Wooden Flail and are twice as likely to spawn with a Greatsword
• Fast Brigands (Robber, Bandit, Killer) now always spawn with a net if they are one-handed, and with a throwing weapon if two-handed. They also have cosmetic face warpaint
• Robber no longer spawn with a Pike or Reinforced Wooden Poleflail
• Bandits no longer spawn with a Poleflail, Warbrand or Throwing Spear. The can now spawn with a Reinforced Wooden Poleflail. They can no appear as Champions
• Killer no longer spawn with Scramasax, Pike, Spetum, Warbrand or Throwing Spear
• Brigand Leader no longer have Shield Expert
• Hedge Knights are now immune to Disarm as a result of them having Savage Strength

Humans:

• Peasant Parties now drop 0 Crowns (down from 0-50). Peasants killed in battle now randomly drop crowns, food or tools or a valueable ring.
• Noble Footmen no longer have Shield Expert Undead
• all Zombies gain +5 Melee Skill and grant 20% more experience. They no longer have Double Grip and no longer grant experience after being ressurected
• all Skeletons grant 20% more experience. They no longer grant experience after being ressurected
• Fallen Heroes no longer spawn with Morning Stars or Handaxes
• Geists no longer have Fearsome. They now have Backstabber
• Necromancer no longer have 20 natural body armor or Inspiring Presence
• Ancient Auxiliary no longer have Battleforged

Greenskins:

• All Goblins have -5 Melee Skill and -5 Melee Defense
• Add new Goblin racial effect that grants 50% increased defenses from equipped shield and allows them to use Shieldwall with any shield
• Orc Warlords now have Savage Strength which makes them immune to Disarm

Barbarian

• Barbarian Thralls now spawn twice as often with Crude Javelins and half as often with regular throwing weapons
• Barbarian Drummer now have +1 Action Point and grant +150 Experience
• Barbarian Kings now have Savage Strength which makes them immune to Disarm

Beasts:

• Lindwurms Head and Tail no longer share hitpoints and effects but killing the tail will no longer kill the Head
  • Lindwurm Head now has 1000 Hitpoints (down from 1100) and gains Exude Confidence
  • The Lindwurm Tail still inherits most of the stats from the head but has 50% less Hitpoints and Resolve and 50% more Melee Defense. Lindwurm Tails no longer have Fearsome
  • The Lindwurm Tail can now be stunned and netted but those effects are removed whenever the Head moves away
• All ifrits have 50% less Hitpoints and 50% more Armor
• Nachzehrer can no longer swallow player characters while in a net.
• Donkeys now grant 0 XP (down from 50 XP)
• Schrats no longer take 70% reduced damage while their shield is up. They now have +200 Hitpoints and gain the One with the Shield perk

Undead

• The Conqueror now has Savage Strength. This has no gameplay impact and is only meant to visualize that he is immune to Disarm

Enemy AI

• Enemy archers are 66% less likely to target someone because of how many potential scatter targets are adjacent
• Necrosavants are a bit more likely to stay on the same tile and attack twice, rather than teleport to a slightly better tile
• Improve AI targeting for throwing nets: They value the targets melee defense twice as much and prefer isolated targets
• AI is now twice as likely to throw a net or use a throwing pot/bomb while adjacent to an enemy
• AI will no longer throw nets while their strategy is defending
• NPCs with Bolster are more likely to attack with their polarm as they are surrounded by more allies
• NPCs with Dismantle are more likely to target enemies with 100% hitpoints
• NPCs with Sweeping Strikes are more likely to use an appropriate attack as they are surrounded by more enemies
• NPCs are more likely to target enemies with Formidable Approach if it has been procced against them
• NPCs are far less likely to attack into an active Rebuke
• NPCs are more likely use Disarm onto enemies with Spearwall or Riposte
• NPCs are now less likely to use Break Free if they have almost no Melee Defense to begin with and more likely if they have a lot of Melee Defense

World Map

• At the start of each new campaign ~5 additional small bandit camps are spawned in the world
• World Parties are no longer stunned, when you cancel the combat dialog with them
• The legendary Location Ancient Spire now reveals an area of 3000 (up from 1900). It now also discovers every location in that radius for the player.

Events

• The Retinue-Slot Event will now trigger shortly after you unlock a new slot and will no longer replace a regular event
• The Event-Option to shoot down the bird who shat your brother now costs 5 Ammunition

Other

• All fleeing characters now have +1 Action Point
• All player characters now have +1 Action Point during AutoRetreat
• Wait now debuffs the actual Initiative until the start of that brothers next turn
• Swamp tiles no longer reduce Melee Skill by 25%. Instead they now reduce Initiative by 25%
• The Hidden effect (granted by certain tiles) now also provides +10 Ranged Defense
• Encumbrance no longer lowers the fatigue recovery. It now only adds 1 fatigue per tile travelled per encumbrance level.
• Armor Penetration is capped at 100%. Any Armor Penetration above 100% has no effect. Reaching 100% Armor Pen still has damage reduction from remaining armor applied.
• Dying or Fleeing characters no longer trigger negative morale checks for their allies if the distance between them is greater than the vision of the receiving ally
• Burning Damage (Fire Pot, Burning Arrow, Burning Ground) now remove all root-like effects from the targets.
• Defeating the Ijirok now also drops Sword Blade item, which allows you to do the Rachegeist fight without having to kill the Kraken.
• The Orc Slayer and Crusader (temporary Crisis backgrounds) now share 100% of their experience with your remaining party, when they leave you after the Crisis ended
• Level-Ups for Attribute with 2 stars have -1 to minimum roll and +1 to maximum roll (compared to Vanilla) and are fully randomized in that range (compared to Reforged)
• The Lone Wolf and Gladiator origins now have a roster size of 13 (up from 12)
• Beginner combat difficulty difficulty now grants enemy parties 100% resources (up from 85%)
• Beginner combat difficulty difficulty now causes player characters to receive 15% less damage from all sources
• Expert combat difficulty difficulty now grants enemy parties 120% resources (up from 115%)
• Characters which are not visible to the player will no longer produce idle or death sounds.
• The combat map is no longer revealed at the end of a battle

Quality of Life

Combat

• Your headshot chance is now displayed in the combat tooltip when targeting enemies
• Introduce new Bite Reach effect, which reduces headshot chance by 10% and increases chance to receive headshot by 10%
  • This effect is given to all Dogs, Wolfs and Hyenas
• Introduce a new Headless effect, which sets the headarmor to 0 and redirects any attack to hit the body and grants immunity to Distracted
  • This effect is given to Ifrits, Spider Eggs, Headless Zombies, Saplings and Kraken Tentacles
  • Remove the now redundant perk Steelbrow from Ifrit, Sapling and Kraken Tentacle
• Introduce a new Unworthy Opponent effect which prevents the character from granting experience on death, and give it to enemies which do not grant experience
• Introduce a new cosmetic Non-Combatant, to non-combatant enemies, which explains that they do not need to be killed in order to win
• Add tooltip for the duration of tile effects (smoke, flames, miasma)
• Knock Back, Hook and Repel can no longer be used on enemies which are immune to knock back
• Disarm can no longer be used on enemies which are immune to disarm
• Brawny, Fortified Mind and Colossus on all NPCs are now replaced with an equivalent amount of stats
• Night Effect, Double Grip and Pattern Recognition no longer display a Mini-Icon
• All Skills from the Lorekeeper now have skill descriptions
• Corpses will now display the round, in which they were created
• Add new Setting for preventing tile/enemy tooltips from being generated while it is not your turn
• Add Setting for making the hotkeys for Wait fire continuously, instead of only when released

World

• Settlements now display a tooltip showing how many days ago you last visited that location
• The Tavern now displays to you how many rumors you received so far
• Add new setting for displaying forbidden destination ports (even when they are hostile to you or the origin port)
• Dismissing a freshly hired recruit (0 days with the company) will skip the confirmation dialog
• Distance text in rumors and contracts now display the tile distance range in brackets
• Display the current XP Multiplier of the viewed character when hovering over the Experience bar
• World Parties with champions will display an orange skull on top of their socket
• Display price multiplier from relation in factions & relations screen
• Add 3 new settings or displaying exact relation, morale and renown values after the respective state term
• Peasants and Caravans on the world map display a banner
• Add new setting for displaying non-settlement location names of nearby locations (Lairs, Unique Locations, Attached Locations)
• Brothers that "die" outside of combat (e.g. Events) will now always transfer their equipment into your stash
• Add Concept and Tooltip for Day-Night Cycle
• Slightly Lower the volume of the annoying kid sfx in towns

Misc

• Add new concepts for Armor Penetration and Weight and apply these concept to existing weapons and items
• Supplies (Crowns, Tools, Medicine, Ammo) are now consumed instantly after buying, looting
• Quiver and Weapons that contain Ammo now display the supply cost for replacing ammunition in them
• Improve artwork for Nimble perk
• All effects of the difficulty settings are now listed as tooltips during world generation
• Add Setting for marking named/legendary helmets/armor or armor with attachements as to-be-repaired whenever it enters your inventory
• Reduce the Attack sfx volume of Wardogs and Warhounds by 20%

Fixes

Vanilla

• Vanilla Enemies that have no head are no longer decapitatable or smashable
• Vanilla Enemies that have no head no longer take bonus damage from headshots
• Parties on the world map are no longer hidden after loading a game, while the game is still paused
• Spiders will now give up when their team has given up even if there are still eggs on the battlefield
• You can no longer do two Arenas during the same day
• Improve knock back logic for Spiked Impaler to behave like the Knock Back skill from shields
• Newly spawned faction parties no longer teleport a few tiles towards their destination during the first tick
• Hitpoint and Armor damage base damage rolls for attacks are no longer separate. The same base damage roll is now used for both damage types
• Hitpoints recovery on brothers is now more accurate (The Cook Follower now actually increases the hitpoint recovery)
• Bandaging allies now updates their overlay ui correctly
• Brothers no longer gain any XP when allies die
• Releasing a dog within 2 seconds of killing someone no longer skips the dogs turn
• Two entities can no longer accidentally get teleported (e.g. via Knockback) onto the same tile
• Every accessory now plays a default sound when moved around in the inventory
• Change the inventory icon of the Witchhunter's Hat to look exactly like the sprite on the brother
• The id of the item mouth_piece is changed to armor.head.mouth_piece (it used to be armor.head.witchhunter_hat)
• Prevent the same random name to be generated in succession
• Remove a duplicate loading screen

For Modders

• Entities which have this.m.IsActingEachTurn = false (e.g. Donkeys, Phylactery, Spider Eggs) will now trigger onRoundEnd after every other entity has triggered it and trigger onRoundStart before every other entity has triggered it
• IsSpecializedInShields is no longer set to true by Shield Expert
• Introduce new setWeight and getWeight function for item.nut to make code around itemweight more readable. They work on the same underlying StaminaModifier but in a reversed way
• Add new AffectedBodyPart member for injury.nut (temporary injuries) which specifies which bodypart that injury belongs to. It defaults to -1 and is adjusted depending on the vanilla injury lists
• Add two new events onReallyBeforeSkillExecuted and onReallyAfterSkillExecuted for skill.nut which guarantee to only trigger when a skill is actually onUsed
• Add two new events onBeforeShieldDamageReceived and onAfterShieldDamageReceived for skill.nut
• Add new getQueryTargetMultAsUser and getQueryTargetMultAsTarget ai related getter for skill.nut
• Add new isHybridWeapon helper function for weapon.nut
• Parties that are spawned without a banner will be assigned the banner of the faction who owns their faction (mostly relevant for civilian factions)
• Introduce new LastSpawnedParty member for faction.nut which always contains the last party spawned by that faction
• Introduce new getOwner function for factions, which returns the owner of this factions first settlement
• Introduce new virtual getDroppedLoot function for actor.nut returning an array of created items, which will be dropped when that actor dies
• Introduce new ::Hardened.TileReservation with function isReserved( _tileID ) which can be used to check whether a targeted tile is about to be filled with an entity from a vanilla teleport call
• Supplies (Money, Tools, Medicine, Ammunition) are now droppable

New Character Properties

• CanExertZoneOfControl (true by default) can be set to false to force an entity to no longer exert zone of control
• HeadshotReceivedChance is a modifier for the incoming headshot chance
• HeadshotReceivedChanceMult is a multiplier for the incoming headshot chance
• ReachAdvantageMult is a multiplier for melee skill during reach advantage
• ReachAdvantageBonus is a flat bonus for melee skill during reach advantage
• ShieldDamageMult multiplies shield damage dealt via active skills
• ShieldDamageReceivedMult multiplies incoming shield damage up to a minimum of 1
• WeightStaminaMult is an array of multipliers, mirroring ::Const.ItemSlotSpaces, which control how much the Weight of each Itemslot affects this characters Stamina
• WeightInitiativeMult is an array of multipliers, mirroring ::Const.ItemSlotSpaces, which control how much the Weight of each Itemslot affects this characters Initiative
• HitpointRecoveryMult multiplies to anything that would add a flat amount of hitpoints to the characters

Requirements

• Reforged

Known Issues:

• New perks introduced by Hardened (Parry and One with the Shield) will change into other unused vanilla perks, when you switch back to just Reforged
• Using Recover will prevent you from using Wait Round for the rest of this round
• Student will double-dip in the Manhunter Origin for Slaves
• Vanilla Bug: Ifrit take far more armor damage than intended per hit

Compatibility

• Is safe to remove from- and add to any savegame
• Removing or adding this mod will not update existing perk trees. Only after some days you will encounter brothers with the changed perk trees
• Removing this mod will replace Parry with the vanilla perk Reach Advantage

Incompatible with

• Cook and Blacksmith Fix: Hardened ships its own fix for the cook. Though it does not fix the Blacksmith (yet?)

License

This mod is licensed under the Zero-Money License, which is a custom license based on the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) License with additional restrictions, see LICENSE.txt.

Key Differences from CC BY-NC-SA 4.0:

• No Donations: Explicitly prohibits soliciting or accepting any form of financial contributions related to the mod.