GLANCING BLOWS
A partial-hit result between miss and full damage — attacks that connect at bad angles, against deflection, or from underleveled attackers deal reduced or deflected damage.
- SOLO-DEV COST LOW
- TIMING REAL-TIME / TURN
- COMMON IN RPG · MMO · MILSIM · ACTION-RPG
World of Warcraft's glancing blows quietly taxed melee against higher-level enemies, Warframe-like and ARPG systems roll glance bands on hit tables, and armor-simulation games (War Thunder, Kingdom Come: Deliverance) make glancing physical — blade meets plate at a shallow angle and skids off. Designers add glance outcomes to soften binary hit/miss: pure misses feel terrible in a way partial hits don't, so a glance band keeps randomness (or physics) in the system while guaranteeing the player's action always did something. In simulationist combat, angle-based deflection creates real technique — positioning and aim against armor become learnable skills. Key decisions: whether glancing comes from RNG tables (invisible, needs explicit feedback) or geometry (visible, self-explaining), how much damage a glance retains, and what audiovisual language distinguishes glance from hit from miss — the spark-and-skid sound is doing the mechanic's communication. Pitfall: hidden glance mechanics that read as damage inconsistency — if players can't tell why identical attacks deal different damage, glancing doesn't add texture, it adds distrust of the combat math.
SEEN IN
- KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE
- WAR THUNDER
- WORLD OF WARCRAFT