Editing Hunting (section)

== Staying alive ==

Each kill costs you health scaled to the quarry's Power — the exact amount is randomized a little each time and cut down by your defense, though some damage always gets through — so keep cooked food in the [[Bank]]. Your [[Companions#Fighting alongside you (your pack)|pack]] fights with you here too — its Pack Power sharpens your attack and its members soak part of every hit. '''Auto-eat''' takes a bite mid-fight whenever your health runs low; a food dropdown lets you '''pick which food it reaches for first''' (it falls back to the cheapest food when your choice runs out), and an '''Eat''' button lets you take a manual bite. Because auto-eat now heals mid-hit, a big pile of weak food won't save you from a high-Power blow — match your meal to what you're hunting. Drop below '''25% health''' and you become '''Wounded''': your defense is halved until you climb back above that line, so a run of bad luck can snowball — auto-eat's 50%-health comfort floor exists to keep you clear of it.

If a hit would drop you to 0 health while you are '''actively playing''' and auto-eat has nothing left, you '''die''': you lose that fight's spoils and one random equipped item is dropped where you fell (see [[Expeditions#Death and reclaiming gear|Death and reclaiming gear]]). While you are '''offline''', hunting still stops safely before a knockout, exactly as before — you can never die away from the keyboard.