COCKLEFIGHTINGA fight is decided by five stats, your gear and a little luck.
The five stats#
Every cockle starts with Health 10, Attack 5, Defence 5, Speed 5 and Elemental 0. Every level grants 5 skill points to spend on any stat at My Cockle. The first four are physical. Elemental rides on top and ignores Defence.
Each stat drives one thing in a fight. Each is diluted by a base that grows with level, so a point is worth the same share at level 20 and level 2,000. That base is ref(L) = 5 + 1.25 x (L - 1), the stat a balanced build carries at level L.
| Stat | Channel | Formula |
|---|---|---|
| Health | Hit points | max HP = 40 + 10 x (Health + gear + 0.95 x ref) |
| Attack | Damage per blow | power = weapon damage + 1.45 x (Attack + 0.8 x ref) |
| Defence | Mitigation: the share of a physical blow that lands on you. Double your effective Defence and you take half the damage. Never below 12%. | through = ref’ / (Defence + armour x 1 + 0.9 x ref), where ref’ is set so a balanced build takes ~42% of full damage |
| Speed | Attack rate. The faster fighter strikes first and lands more blows. No cap. | rate = 1.45 x (1.1 x ref + Speed) |
| Elemental | Elemental damage through your weapon’s elements and resistance through your armour’s. Ignores Defence. See Elements. | see Elements |
Resolving a blow#
Each blow deals (power x defender through + net elemental damage) x variance, where variance rolls 0.65 to 1.35. One blow in ten is a crit and deals 1.8x, before knacks. Each fighter strikes on their own clock, set by their rate. The soonest blow lands next. A fallen cockle never strikes back.
Knacks bend those rules. Every knack belongs to one stat, and the stat says when it fires. Attack knacks read the streak (blows landed in a row). Defence knacks read the shell (your HP left). Speed knacks read the clock (who struck last). Health knacks read the wound (effects on you). Elemental knacks read the resistance (element against element). Each knack wears its stat’s mark on every card and sheet.
The Speed knacks: Slack pushes the rival’s next swing back when you land. Riptide sometimes cancels their strike. Bore can land a blow before the first exchange. Ebb brings your swing round at once when you are hit. Wake makes a share of your blows impossible to turn. Trim lands harder while your swing is the shorter one.
The Health knacks pay for taking a hit. Gill heals you each swing while an effect is on you. Siphon heals from Corrosion and bleed damage. Scar heals when an effect on you ends. Swell spreads part of a blow over your next swings. Roe deepens every heal you take.
The Elemental knacks read element against element. Etch makes your Corrosion tick harder. Bloom adds a Shock to any effect you land. Wrack deals more elemental damage to a rival already carrying your effect.
Shut softens blows under half HP. Frenzy lands each blow harder than the last until you are hit. Rime lets a crit Chill whatever your element. Barnacle lets effects slide off you. Salt hits harder on a bleeding or corroded rival. Every knack and its cap is on Gear. Your sheet shows the final figures with caps applied.
Your power is CP = max HP x power x rate / through. Higher power usually wins. It is a product, so a balanced spread beats a lopsided one. Variance and crits mean an underdog still wins sometimes: short, hard-hitting fights swing the most, long grinds the least.
The printed win chance prices each build’s own swing. A crit-heavy or Second bite build fights closer to a coin toss than its averages say, and the row says so.
Difficulty labels#
| Label | Your estimated win chance |
|---|---|
| Easy | 70% or better |
| Fair | 42% to 69% |
| Tough | 18% to 41% |
| Deadly | under 18% |
Turns and the Battle list#
Every fight costs 1 turn, win or lose. Turns cap at 50, raised for good by the hardest trophies, and refill 1 every 5 minutes. The Battle list offers 18 rivals from Easy to Deadly around your par level: the level whose typical build you beat half the time. Out-build your level and the list reaches higher. Real players take slots ahead of bots.
Swapping fought rivals and refreshing the whole list each have a cooldown. A beaten rival pays again after three days. A win over a real player also takes 5% of the XP they have into their current level, never the level itself. You get the greater of the win’s base XP and the take, capped at 2× the base. Bots can’t be robbed.
Sort the list by win chance, gold, XP or level. Hide fought rivals, or show only the ones you last beat or lost to. The setting is remembered per cockle.
Every difference beside a rival’s figure is yours minus theirs: +N in green is your edge, -N in red is theirs. The same holds for knacks and effect odds. Gold and XP beside a rival are what a win pays you, so they read green.
Bosses#
Rarely, a fresh list deals a boss: one of twelve standing monsters, two to a rarity from common to legendary. A boss is always your own level and its win chance is printed like any rival’s. During a season, its Herald sometimes appears instead. The Herald fights at the season’s rarity, pays the season’s boosted finds, and leaves when the season ends.
A boss’s row shows its whole gold, and a kill pays all of it. It is a multiple of what a rival of the same level carries. A kill also multiplies the win’s base XP, rolls a charm find at the flat chance below, and rolls gear finds at 25× the usual odds.
Every boss carries a hoard of charms: the first at its own rarity, each after that up to one rarity lower. Common and uncommon bosses carry a rare as the floor. The hoard is carried, not worn, so the win chance stays the rarity’s. A kill has a flat chance to steal one into your inventory.
Win or lose, the ring shuts behind you for the time in the table. The fight is decided the moment you press, but nothing is shown or paid until the ring opens. Until then you can’t fight and nobody can attack you.
When the ring opens, the report is written and the gold and finds are paid. The fight also leaves a mark: a bonus on one stat if you won, a penalty if you lost, for a run of fights. The mark shows on your sheet and your row, so rivals can see it.
| Boss | Band | Stat edge | Ring | XP | Gold | Hoard | Steal | Magic find | Deep gear |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Old Thumb | Common | +5% | 4 min | ×4 | ×0.5 a rival’s gold | rare | 3% | 15% | 1% from Lv 250 |
 Mudge | Common | +5% | 4 min | ×4 | ×0.5 a rival’s gold | rare | 3% | 15% | 1% from Lv 250 |
 The Gullmother | Uncommon | +8% | 6 min | ×5 | ×0.7 a rival’s gold | rare | 4% | 20% | 1% from Lv 250 |
 The Six-Armed Star | Uncommon | +8% | 6 min | ×5 | ×0.7 a rival’s gold | rare | 4% | 20% | 1% from Lv 250 |
 The Moray of the Slipway | Rare | +11% | 8 min | ×6 | ×1 a rival’s gold | rare, rare | 5% | 25% | 1% from Lv 250 |
 The Lantern Cheat | Rare | +11% | 8 min | ×6 | ×1 a rival’s gold | rare, rare | 5% | 25% | 1% from Lv 250 |
 The Drowned Bell | Epic | +14% | 10 min | ×8 | ×1.5 a rival’s gold | epic, rare | 7% | 35% | 1% from Lv 250 |
 The Undertow Choir | Epic | +14% | 10 min | ×8 | ×1.5 a rival’s gold | epic, rare | 7% | 35% | 1% from Lv 250 |
 Kalandra's Warden | Mythic | +17% | 13 min | ×10 | ×2.2 a rival’s gold | mythic, epic, epic | 9% | 50% | 1% from Lv 250 |
 The First Wreck | Mythic | +17% | 13 min | ×10 | ×2.2 a rival’s gold | mythic, epic, epic | 9% | 50% | 1% from Lv 250 |
 The Leviathan's Eye | Legendary | +21% | 16 min | ×12 | ×3.5 a rival’s gold | legendary, mythic, mythic | 12% | 70% | 1% from Lv 250 |
 What the Trench Sent Up | Legendary | +21% | 16 min | ×12 | ×3.5 a rival’s gold | legendary, mythic, mythic | 12% | 70% | 1% from Lv 250 |
What the columns mean
- Stat edge. Every stat, over a cockle of your level.
- Ring. How long the ring holds you, win or lose.
- XP. The win's base XP, multiplied.
- Gold. Paid in full on a kill: this many times the gold a rival of the same level carries. An ordinary win takes 11% of a rival's gold.
- Hoard. The charms the boss always carries, by rarity. The first is its own rarity; each after may be one lower.
- Steal. The flat chance a kill steals one charm from the hoard. A bounty's steal boon multiplies in.
- Magic find. The flat chance a kill finds a charm, drawn by rarity weight from everything the boss's level has unlocked, the season's relic included. Find boosts do not move it.
- Deep gear. The chance a kill drops deep gear: the primordial rarity, 64 pieces never sold and shown on the Gear page only once owned. 25 times the usual odds, and find boosts multiply in. A boss is always your level, so this opens at level 250.
What is told of them
12 bosses
Old Thumb
A hermit crab that outgrew every shell on the Shore and stopped apologising for it. It wears a rowboat now. It does not hurry. It has never needed to.
Mudge
A mudskipper grown to the size of a dog, which is the wrong size for a mudskipper. It claimed the low road at the third groyne and collects a toll nobody agreed to. It fights half in the water and half out, and it cheats at both.
The Gullmother
Every gull on the Shore answers to somebody. She has watched cockles come and go for forty years and has opinions about the taste of each generation. She strikes from above, and she brings the family.
The Six-Armed Star
A starfish grows an arm back when it loses one. This one never lost an arm in its life and grew a sixth anyway, out of ambition. It takes hold with five and asks its questions with the sixth.
The Moray of the Slipway
It moved into the drowned slipway before anyone alive can remember, and everything that has gone in after it has stayed. It waits. Then it is simply there.
The Lantern Cheat
An angler of the true deep, come up shallow where nothing with a lure belongs. The light is lovely. The light is the oldest trick there is. It shows you the light and lets you do the approaching.
The Drowned Bell
A harbour bell the sea took whole, clapper and all. Something rings it from the inside on the low tide, and what answers the ringing is worse than the bell. You hear the fight before you see it.
The Undertow Choir
A bloom of jellyfish that drifts as one animal and hums on the low notes. Swimmers who hear the song agree it is beautiful, from the shore, afterwards. It surrounds you politely, like an audience.
Kalandra's Warden
Whatever Kalandra left in the deep, she left this to mind it. It has minded it since before the Tides had names, and it does not distinguish between thieves and visitors. It fights like a door closing.
The First Wreck
The oldest wreck on the Shore, down so long the sea forgot which storm it was owed to. It walks on its own broken masts now, and it remembers floating the way you remember being young. It fights slowly, with the whole of its weight, like weather.
The Leviathan's Eye
The Leviathan itself has never been seen. This is the part of it that does the seeing, sent up from wherever the rest of it is, and it regards the Shore the way you regard a rock pool. It already knows how you fight.
What the Trench Sent Up
Once in a great while the trench sends something up, and the Shore spends a generation wishing it hadn't. It has no name, because nobody has looked at it long enough to give it one. It is already closer than it was when you started reading this.
Each boss gives a trophy on its first fall, and the full set a hidden one. Deep gear is the primordial rarity: 64 pieces found and never sold. Its odds take find boosts (a bounty’s find boon, the town’s sifters, a season’s weather). The charm find does not.
