FATIGUE/EXHAUSTION
A stamina-adjacent condition that accumulates from sustained exertion — long marches, repeated battles, sleepless work — degrading performance until the unit or character rests.
- SOLO-DEV COST MEDIUM
- TIMING REAL-TIME / TURN
- COMMON IN TACTICS · RPG · COLONY-SIM · ROGUELIKE
Darkest Dungeon's stress is the famous dramatization, Battle Brothers gives every action a fatigue cost that armor weight compounds, Kenshi and RimWorld colonists tire and demand sleep schedules, and Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 famously benched overused units. Designers add fatigue to price sustained intensity: it forces rotation (you can't run your A-team every mission), makes rest a strategic resource with real opportunity cost, and creates attrition drama where a campaign's final battles are fought by tired soldiers. Unlike per-fight stamina, fatigue operates at the campaign layer, linking tactical choices to strategic consequences. Key decisions: what accumulates fatigue (time, actions, damage, encumbrance), how visibly it degrades performance (stat penalties, disabled abilities, morale effects), and how expensive recovery is — instant rest makes fatigue decorative, slow rest makes roster depth mandatory. Pitfall: fatigue that just slows the fun — if the optimal response is tediously resting after every fight, the mechanic isn't creating rotation decisions, it's inserting loading screens made of waiting.