The Pit

The Pit is the arena west of town. Masters pay an entry fee, bring a squad of their own slaves, and the two squads fight until one side is down. Masters stand in the ring and watch. They can walk, but can't act until it's over. The winner takes the purse. Slaves that go down aren't lost: they get back up at half health when the squad leaves the Pit.

Entering

1. Walk to the Pit Master (just west of the market) and press E.
2. Pick a bracket. Any bracket you have enough fighters for is open.
3. Pick who goes in (up to the bracket's cap). Anyone you leave out waits at home.
4. Pay the entry fee. You wait in the queue until another master enters the same bracket. Leaving the queue refunds you.

A fighter must be an adult following you: not assigned to a building, not a baby, not starving.

The fight

• Both masters and squads are teleported into a free pit. A 10-second countdown, then the bell.
• Slaves pick random enemies and switch targets every few seconds; a slave at 10% HP may break and run before turning to fight again. Each punch rolls 1 up to their Combat stat.
• You can't act in the ring, with one exception: you can hand-feed your own fighters. Each bite heals them a little (a potato heals 4 HP). You can't feed the other squad.
• Dead slaves are dead for good.
• A fight that runs 5 minutes is decided by survivors, then total HP. A dead heat refunds both fees.

The purse

The winner takes both entry fees minus a 5% house cut. A Skirmish purse is 200g, so 190g goes to the winner; the house keeps 10g. See Fees & burns for where the house cut goes.

Rank & training

• Every master has a Pit rating (Elo, start 1000). Your visible rank climbs from Fodder to Bloodied (1050), Veteran (1150), Champion (1275) and Legend (1400).
• Survivors come out harder: a slave still standing that made a kill gains +1 Combat; any other survivor has a 50% chance of +1 (Combat caps at 10).
• A slave that went down gains nothing, even if it killed others first.
• A win earns +3 cruelty; a loss costs 2.