A quarter less wear, in three places
The 2.1.8 code applies a single multiplier, 0.75, wherever work wears a Hardy hero down:
| Source of wear | Ordinary hero | Hardy hero |
|---|---|---|
| Fatigue from a delve | Full amount | ×0.75 |
| Quest, per week away | +5 fatigue, −6 condition | about +4 fatigue, −4.5 condition |
| Cup tie or festival fixture | +8 fatigue, −4 condition | +6 fatigue, −3 condition |
On a quest that goes badly the condition loss is 60% higher for everyone; Hardy still takes a quarter off that.
What Hardy does not touch: damage in a fight, and the speed at which fatigue comes off on rest days. Recovery speed belongs to Early Riser, who recovers fatigue a quarter faster at home. The two stack well: one lowers the wear, the other clears it faster.
Why that adds playing time
A hero stops counting as fit at about 78 fatigue or below 50 condition (see hero state). The fatigue a delve adds depends on the hero’s Stamina and how much the hall’s facilities soak up, but whatever the figure, Hardy takes a quarter off it. In practice a Hardy hero can run roughly one extra delve in four before needing the same rest as everyone else.
Over a season with a cup run on top of the league, that is a meaningful amount of extra availability from your best players. It also compounds: a hero who stays under the fitness line does not miss fixtures, which means fewer selections of tired backups.
Where it fits best
- Core starters who play nearly every fixture.
- Quest runners. Quests are the biggest source of wear outside delves, and Hardy cuts both the fatigue and the condition halves. Road-Hardened halves quest fatigue on top; a hero with both gains about 38% of the normal quest fatigue.
- Thin rosters, where you cannot rotate and every point saved matters.
Jobs and events
- Expedition jobs like it. Expedition postings list Hardy as a liked trait (“Half a season of walking wears a body down. Theirs takes longer about it”), adding 5% to the hero’s suitability.
- “A Bitter Stretch”. When the cold comes early, a Hardy, Weathered or Road-Hardened hero can lead the wood party. The hall stays warm without buying fuel; the hero takes 10 fatigue and gains 3 morale. See the events page.
Small hooks
Hardy gives no lean at a dungeon fork; as leader they use the default odds. Quest reports have their own Hardy lines, and on pair duty the hero speaks with the “tireless” voice shared with Tireless, Early Riser, Light Sleeper, Vigilant and Watchful. The hero card links Hardy to Stamina and Vitality; that link is descriptive and the attributes are unchanged.
Conflicts and rarity
Hardy can never appear with Frail or Glass-Jawed.
- Rarity: common, positive · draw weight 100 of 6,365 · about 1 recruit in 25
- Founding draft: any card.
- In the wiki’s archive: first present in the 2.1.8 build (absent from 2.0.7).
Recruiting
A solid positive on any hero you plan to use often, and worth a small premium on starters. On a squad player who rotates in and out it matters less, because they are rarely near the fitness line anyway.