The two doubled losses
Sore Loser changes the morale cost of losing in two places, and nowhere else:
| Loss | Ordinary hero | Sore Loser | Thick-Skinned |
|---|---|---|---|
| An ill-fated or lost quest | −8 morale | −16 | −4 |
| A lost Trial | −3 morale | −6 | 0 |
Triumphs and mixed results are unchanged, and so is the morale hit from a bad delve mark. A failed quest still adds its 14 stress on top, for every hero.
Why that is worse than it sounds
Morale never recovers by itself. Every point has to be earned back with wins, fair contracts or a good event choice, and low morale costs you in several ways:
- Below 45 the hero is flagged unhappy, rival scouts look at them first when poaching, and their next renewal asks 10% more.
- Below 25 the renewal premium is 20%, and an ordinary hero may refuse to be selected at all.
Two failed quests in a row take a Sore Loser down 32 points, enough to drop a content hero (morale in the 60s) below 45 in one bad week. See hero state for the thresholds.
When it bites
Sore Loser is a schedule problem. On a guild that wins most of what it enters, it barely registers. On a guild in a relegation fight, a cup run against stronger opponents, or a season of risky contracts, it turns every loss into a morale problem on exactly the heroes you are leaning on.
Sellsword contracts list Sore Loser among the traits they do not want, which takes 6% off that hero’s suitability. Someone else’s war is lost as often as it is won.
The route it picks
At a dungeon fork, a Sore Loser leading the party leans +1 toward the “Lair” side room with its named foe, about two times in three with nothing pulling the other way. They want the fight that proves something. Treasure rooms and Sealed Doors get no lean.
Managing a Sore Loser
- Keep them out of mismatches. Rest them for Trials and quests you expect to lose.
- Bank morale before a hard stretch. An event choice or a fair renewal that lifts them first gives you a buffer.
- Send them on quests you expect to win. A triumph still gives the full +10.
- Watch for poaching as their morale approaches 45.
- Halve the other hit. Cool-Headed, Steady, Iron-Willed or Stalwart on the same hero halves the morale cost of a bad delve mark, which at least covers the loss Sore Loser does not double.
Small hooks
Quest reports have their own Sore Loser lines, and on pair duty the hero speaks with the “unforgiving” voice shared with Unforgiving: old wrongs, card games lost and debts remembered. The hero card links the trait to Composure; that link is descriptive.
Conflicts and rarity
The game never lets Sore Loser sit alongside Stoic, Humble or Thick-Skinned, its direct opposite. A hero who earns one of those later in a career loses Sore Loser in the process.
- Rarity: common, negative · draw weight 100 of 6,365 · about 1 recruit in 25
- Founding draft: any card, or as the negative half of the wildcard card.
- In the wiki’s archive: first present in the 2.1.8 build (absent from 2.0.7).
Recruiting
A real negative on any hero you plan to use in hard fixtures or risky contracts. It matters much less on a reserve who rarely plays a losing game.