What the data shows for Hopeful
Hopeful carries no combat-AI coefficient. It grants no courage, tempers no fear and biases no roll, so in the moment-to-moment choices of a fight a Hopeful hero acts exactly like a trait-blank one. That part of the old reading still holds.
The trait works around the fight instead. The 2.1.8 code reads it after every fight, at the leader’s seat, in rest-room events and back at the hall, and the biggest of those effects touches the whole party.
Stress after every fight
After each fight, every active hero picks up stress. The 2.1.8 code builds that number from three parts:
- 6 for getting through the fight;
- +6 if the hero ended it below 40% of their health;
- +5 if anyone in the party went down during it.
If any active party member is Hopeful, the total is multiplied by 0.9 for everyone, then rounded. A clean fight costs 5 instead of 6, and a bad one 15 instead of 17. Stress breaks a hero at 100, so on a long delve the saving is the difference between a party that finishes and one that breaks a fight early. One Hopeful hero is enough; a second adds nothing. On the Deep the cut stacks with the other wave modifiers, such as Deep-Seasoned.
As leader
The retreat order. You set when a party should turn back: after the first knock-down, at half, at most, or never. A leader’s temperament shifts that order. Bold traits (Reckless, Dauntless, Brave, Glory Hunter, Restless) and Hopeful push it a step later; fearful ones (Cowardly, Shaken, Haunted, Brittle, Superstitious) push it a step earlier, and the net sign decides. A Hopeful leader with nothing fearful holds on one step longer than you ordered, though Hopeful alone can never turn an order into “never”. Steady leaders (Stoic, Cool-Headed, Methodical, Steady, Iron-Willed, Unbreakable, Stalwart) follow your order exactly whatever else they carry.
Sealed doors. At a dungeon fork, a Hopeful leader leans toward a sealed side door (+1). On its own that is about a 67% chance to open it, fresh or hurt. A leader with no lean takes a side room 60% of the time when the party is fresh and 20% when it is hurt. For treasure rooms and named lairs Hopeful has no lean.
Rest-room events
When a party reaches a rest room there is a 40% chance of an event. In four of them a Hopeful hero can be the one who steps forward, and is checked before any Greedy or Arrogant hero who would take the worse branch:
| Event | With a Hopeful hero | Otherwise |
|---|---|---|
| The Quiet Shrine | party stress −18 | −6, or +10 if a Greedy or Arrogant hero loots it |
| The Starving Pilgrim | party stress −12, and two heroes bond | −4, or +10 if it is robbed |
| The Lost Party | party stress −12, and two heroes bond | gold and an item instead |
| The Wounded Beast | gold, an item and a 12% heal (only if no healer is along; a healer takes this role first) | −4, or +8 if a Reckless, Hot-Headed or Glory Hunter hero kills it |
The Lost Party can also turn up in treasure rooms. Other traits share these slots (Iron-Willed, Humble, Loyal, Team Player and others), so a Hopeful hero matters most in a party that has none of them.
Around the hall
- Expeditions. The long expedition contract lists Hopeful among its liked traits, adding 5% to the hero’s suitability: “Somebody has to keep the fire going.”
- Festivals. +2 in the crowd discipline. See Crowd-Pleaser for how festival scores are built.
- Flavour. On pair duty the hero speaks with the “warm” voice, and a fallen Hopeful hero gets lines of their own in the guild record. Neither changes a result.
The hero card links the trait to Composure and Bravery. That link is descriptive and does not raise either attribute.
Conflicts and rarity
Hopeful can never appear with Superstitious or Haunted.
- Rarity: common, positive · draw weight 100 of 6,365 · about 1 recruit in 25
Recruiting a Hopeful hero
A quiet positive. It does nothing for the hero’s own fighting, so it should never be the reason you pay a premium for weak attributes, and the courage traits (Brave, Dauntless, Unbreakable Will) remain the answer if you need a hero who does not crack. What Hopeful buys is a party that wears down more slowly: 10% less stress from every fight, for everyone, from one slot. That is worth most to guilds that run long delves or the Deep, and least to guilds that clear short floors and go home.
As a leader, remember the retreat shift. A Hopeful leader will keep a hurt party in a step longer than your order, which is welcome on a floor you mean to finish and a risk on one you meant to abandon early.
Version history
The combat-AI table has never given Hopeful a coefficient in any build from v1.9.6 through v2.1.8. The hooks above are read from the 2.1.8 code; earlier versions of this page missed them and called the trait empty.