The quest wear rule
A hero coming back from a quest pays for the trip in two meters. In 2.1.8 the game charges, per week away:
- Fatigue: +5 per week;
- Condition: −6 per week, and 60% more if the quest went badly (ill-fated or lost).
Road-Hardened halves the fatigue part. Condition loss is unchanged, and so is the fatigue from ordinary delves. Hardy cuts both quest fatigue and quest condition loss by a quarter, and the two stack: a hero with both gains about 38% of the normal quest fatigue.
| Quest length | Normal fatigue | Road-Hardened | Road-Hardened + Hardy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 week | +5 | +3 | +2 |
| 2 weeks (expedition) | +10 | +5 | +4 |
| 3 weeks | +15 | +8 | +6 |
Why the fatigue half matters
Fatigue is the meter that decides whether a hero is fresh enough to select. Over about 78 a hero stops counting as fit, and fatigue only comes off with rest days in the hall (see hero state). A hero who returns from a fortnight on the road with 10 extra fatigue usually needs a rest before the next delve; with 5, they often slot straight back into the rotation.
That makes Road-Hardened most useful for heroes who split their time between quests and delves. A pure quest runner benefits too, but the real gain is in not losing delve availability to the trip home.
Jobs, events and forks
- Expedition jobs like it. Expedition postings list Road-Hardened among their liked traits (“Half a season on the road is what they are for”), adding 5% to the hero’s suitability for the job.
- “Thin Broth”. A Road-Hardened, Pathfinder or Weathered hero can go out with snares: the guild gets +2 condition and +1 morale, and the snarer takes 8 fatigue and gains 1 experience.
- “A Bitter Stretch”. A Road-Hardened, Hardy or Weathered hero can lead the wood party, which keeps the hall warm for free; they take 10 fatigue and gain 3 morale. See the events page.
- Forks. The trait gives no lean at a dungeon fork. A Road-Hardened leader follows the default: a side room 60% of the time with a fresh party, 20% with a hurt one.
- Flavour. Quest reports have Road-Hardened lines, and on pair duty the hero uses the “veteran” voice shared with Old Soldier, Weathered, Deep-Seasoned, Old-School and Well-Preserved.
The hero card links the trait to Stamina. That link is descriptive; the attribute is unchanged.
Building a road hero
The road traits cover different costs of travel, so they combine well:
- Road-Hardened halves quest fatigue.
- Hardy trims quest fatigue and condition loss by a quarter.
- Weathered halves dungeon condition penalties and the stress they add between rooms.
- Early Riser recovers fatigue a quarter faster at home.
- Hard Bargainer anywhere in the party raises the quest’s pay by 10%.
A hero with two or three of these can run contract after contract and still be fit for the fixture that follows.
Conflicts and rarity
Road-Hardened can never appear with Homebody, who loses morale on long quests.
- Rarity: uncommon, positive · draw weight 45 of 6,365 · about 1 recruit in 57
- Founding draft: any card.
- In the wiki’s archive: first present in the 2.1.8 build (absent from 2.0.7).
Recruiting
Worth a real premium if quests are a regular part of how you run the guild, and close to neutral if you rarely send anyone out. On a dual-use hero who fills in on both the road and the delve rotation, it is one of the more useful uncommon traits.