Health decides when you die; stamina decides when you lose. Nearly every action you take in a fight spends it, and a fighter at zero stamina is a fighter about to be killed.
What drains stamina
- Attacking — especially holding a weapon ready and charging full-power swings.
- Blocking — every blow you stop costs stamina (and, with a shield, shield resistance too).
- Kicking and shield-bashing.
- Sprinting, jumping and swimming.
Running dry
Drop to empty and everything falls apart — your guard buckles, you can be staggered or stunned, and you can't answer the next attack. Most deaths in even fights start with one player gassing out. Never fight to zero; leave yourself enough to block and step away.
Drain, regen & armour
Your stamina drain multiplier sets how fast actions burn the bar. A naked fighter with no shield sits at a base ×1.40, and armour pushes it up from there.
- Heavy and medium armour carry a flat drain penalty — a low-tier piece drains the same as a high-tier one of the same class.
- Light armour is the exception: its drain falls as the tier climbs, and top-tier light armour reaches 0.0 — no penalty at all. That's a big reason archers and duelists chase high-tier light kit.
- A shield adds drain on top of your armour while it's raised.
Stamina regenerates whenever you aren't spending it — standing still (fastest), walking or jogging, and even in combat mode so long as you're not actively swinging, blocking or taking hits — and it returns faster once you're out of combat. That hands you the core in-fight trick: stop attacking, block deliberately, and you regenerate more between blocks than each block costs.
Listen to your character — when stamina runs low your fighter's breathing turns heavy, an audio cue to disengage and recover before you're caught gassed out.
Building and keeping stamina
Two levers raise your endurance — your build and your discipline.
- Constitution (CON) raises your stamina pool directly — see the Build Maker.
- Footman abilities do the rest: *Breath Control* and *Veteran* raise regen and pool, while *Finesse*, *Shieldman* and *Athlete* cut the drain from attacking, blocking and moving.
- Lighter [armour and weapons](/wiki/combat-guides/damage-types) drain less and let stamina recover faster — heavy kit protects you but taxes your wind.
Stamina discipline
- Throw quick taps, not constant haymakers — save charged swings for real openings.
- Block deliberately, don't facetank — but don't hold a guard up forever either.
- Disengage to breathe. Stepping out of range for a second or two to regen wins more duels than swinging through it.
- In a line, rotate — tired front-liners step back, fresh fighters step up. See The Shieldwall.
The whole point of a kick, a feint or a bash is to make the enemy spend stamina and overcommit. Win the stamina war and the kill follows.