Your character has three defence ratings - one for your left hand, one for your right hand, and one for your feet - and these are calculated as follows:
| 1 | Add together the stat modifiers and subtract any weapon penalties. |
| 2 | Add any modifiers for the weapon table and bonuses for the weapon itself. |
| 3 | Add any modifiers for magical items you're wearing. |
| 4 | Add Combat to your appropriate weapon skill, then apply as a percentage. |
| 5 | Apply your two-handed percentages modifier, if any. |
| 6 | Apply your style percentage, if any. |
| 7 | Add any modifiers for spell affects. |
| 8 | Apply any pain modifiers as a percenage. |
Whenever you are struck in combat, the mud will use your best available location to try and prevent the blow from landing.
Each location takes a period of time (called cooldown) to recover before it can be used for another defence. While it is recovering, your second best defence will be used - and then your third best. If all of your locations are still recovering then you will have a Defence of 1.
In your score your current best available defensive location is marked between '>' and '<'. No markers means you have no defence. Each location is also colour coded to indicate its defence strength, as follows:
| Default colour | Attacks which can be defended against |
|---|---|
| Cyan | all attacks |
| Blue | paired melee attacks |
| Pink | normal melee attacks |
| Red | unarmed attacks |
Non-defensive techniques are indicated by a '-'. In addition, etheral defences are only able to stop ethereal attacks.
Please note that any defensive technique bonuses from your feet combat table are applied to all locations, but are doubled for your feet location. Your total encumbrance is also subtracted from your feet Defence.