Stalwart against the courage ladder
For every build up to v2.0.7, Stalwart carried no combat coefficient at all: the name promised a hold-the-line hero and the fight engine delivered nothing. The 2.1 patches fixed that. Stalwart now grants courage +0.08, and nothing else.
Put it next to the traits it sounds like. Brave grants courage +0.12 with threat +0.08. Iron-Willed matches the +0.12 courage with a quieter +0.06 threat. Dauntless steps up to +0.18 courage and +0.09 threat, and Unbreakable Will tops the ladder at +0.25 and +0.10. Stalwart is the bottom rung by size (two thirds of Brave’s nerve), but it is the only rung with no threat rider. Every other courage trait makes its hero a slightly bigger target; Stalwart does not.
Stoic is its nearest cousin: +0.12 courage, also with no threat, but with small recklessness and poise dampers attached. Stoic is the stronger courage pick; Stalwart is the cleaner one.
Reading a “stalwart” stand in the delve report
Courage governs how willing the combat AI is to hold ground and keep fighting when a delve turns sour. At +0.08, Stalwart nudges a hero to falter a little later. It does not make them unbreakable. If your Stalwart anchor still breaks when a delve collapses, the trait is working as sized: it is a small push, and the hero’s other traits and attributes decide most of it.
Outside the fight, Stalwart now shows up where you would expect a steady soldier to. It counts among the composed traits in several delve events, a rest room and treasure rooms among them, where a Stalwart in the party steers the room toward its better outcome. It grieves in the bold voice of Brave, Dauntless and Stoic rather than the fragile one, and a sellsword posting that wants someone to hold a line likes it.
Recruiting and roster value
Pay for the number. Against Iron-Willed or Brave, Stalwart buys about two thirds of the nerve. On a back-liner, where every point of threat is a liability, it can be the better buy: Brave on a healer draws fire, Stalwart does not.
On a front-liner the comparison flips. A tank wants threat, so Brave’s rider is a feature there, and Brave’s larger courage is worth more on the hero most likely to be standing in the bad room.
A hold-the-line audit
When comparing a Stalwart tank with a genuine courage-trait tank, list the actual coefficients: Stalwart +0.08 courage and zero threat; Brave, Iron-Willed, Dauntless and Unbreakable Will more courage and some threat. Then compare class weights, generated attributes, second trait, age and wage. A Guardian with excellent Threat, Armor Use, Parry, Mitigation and Vitality holds the line through its class and attributes; the trait is a modest addition.
Before a dangerous delve, check the hero’s full courage picture, tank attributes, condition counters, healer support and escape tolerance. Stalwart helps a little. It is no substitute for the top of the ladder.
Version history
From v1.9.6 through v2.0.7, Stalwart’s entry was null in every snapshot. The v2.1.8 snapshot gives it courage +0.08. That build follows eleven patches we have no separate snapshots for, so the exact patch that added it is not pinned down. Earlier advice on this wiki to treat Stalwart as an empty trait line applies to those older builds only.