Armor, resistance and piercing
Armor cuts physical damage and Resistance cuts magic damage. 100 defense removes 50% of a hit. Each extra point is worth a little less than the one before.
Piercing does not lower the defense number. It subtracts points straight from the percentage it removes.
The rule
damage removed = defense x 100 / (defense + 100) - piercing
The result is a percentage, never below 0. A hit that gets through deals at least 1 damage.
Your own defense is your level plus the flat Armor or Resistance from gear and skill nodes, then raised by the percent bonuses and by buffs such as Armor Up. The game cuts it to a whole number.
Each damage type has its own line on top of the family one. A Strike hit meets Armor plus Strike Armor. A Fire hit meets Resistance plus Fire Resistance.
Creatures have no level term. A creature's defense against a type is its value for that type plus its Physical or Magic value.
Damage removed at each defense
| Defense | Damage removed |
|---|---|
| 0 | 0% |
| 25 | 20% |
| 50 | 33.33% |
| 75 | 42.86% |
| 100 | 50% |
| 200 | 66.67% |
| 300 | 75% |
Example
Forest Heart has 30 defense against Fire Damage. It removes 23.08% of every such hit.
A one-star rune line of Magic Piercing gives 3. With it, the hit loses 20.08% instead.
On your side, a level 1 character with no gear has 1 defense and removes 0.99%. At level 25 the level alone gives 25 defense, which removes 20%.
Creatures with defenses
13 creatures have a defense above 0.
| Creature | Defense |
|---|---|
| Forest Heart Level 2 | Resistance 30 Armor 30 |
 Gotburg The BurnedLevel 4 | Fire Resistance 30 Armor 15 |
| Goblin Basher T2 Level 5 | Fire Resistance 30 Armor 15 |
| Goblin King Level 18 | Resistance 30 Armor 30 |
 High Priestess Althaea Of The TirathlanLevel 18 | Resistance 30 Armor 30 |
 Briarheart The FirecursedLevel 19 | Resistance 30 Armor 30 |
 Corrupted Monstrous DroopLevel 19 | Resistance 30 Armor 30 |
 Woldroot The Path GuardianLevel 19 | Resistance 30 Armor 30 |
| Aelwynor The Wildroot Father Level 20 | Resistance 30 Armor 30 |
| Smashmouth Level 4 | Resistance 15 Armor 15 |
| Corrupted Treant Level 8 | Resistance 15 Armor 15 |
 Rotting TreantLevel 15 | Resistance 15 Armor 15 |
| Rotting Treant Empowered Level 15 | Resistance 15 Armor 15 |
A creature page shows a defense icon from 25 up. The icon changes at 25, 50, 75, 100.