The numbers behind Vigilant
Two coefficients, both modest: recklessness −0.09, discipline +0.10. The hero weights formation and orders a little higher, weights risky lines a little lower, and in a fight that is the entire trait. What matters most is the coefficient that is not there. Professional and Methodical, the two bigger names in the order family, both pay for their discipline with a kill-hunger reduction: their heroes finish wounded enemies less eagerly. Vigilant charges no such tax. It is the only trait in the family that delivers order without dulling the instinct to end fights.
Shape-wise, Vigilant is roughly Watchful and Steady fused into a single slot: Watchful is a lone −0.07 recklessness, Steady a lone +0.08 discipline, and Vigilant slightly exceeds both while occupying one trait line instead of two heroes’ worth. Against Professional it is simply smaller and cleaner: two-thirds of the discipline, most of the caution, none of the kill-hunger damping.
Keep the magnitudes in perspective, though. A −0.09 here and a +0.10 there make Vigilant seasoning. Nobody’s combat AI is transformed by this trait; it leans a little further towards the sensible option in the rounds where the scoring was already close.
Spotting Vigilant in the delve report
Where Vigilant earns its keep is the marginal call: the moment the combat AI is nearly indifferent between the safe action and the tempting one, and the coefficients tip it safe. You will not find dramatic evidence in any single report. What you will find, over a season, is a pattern of absences: fewer rounds lost to a sprung trap, fewer notes about a hero caught out of position, fewer of the small self-inflicted wounds that turn a comfortable clear into a close one. On trap-dense floors and in darkness, where the punished mistakes are exactly the ones a cautious AI declines to make, that pattern concentrates into real value.
The cost side of the ledger is honest but thin. A lower recklessness weight occasionally means passing up the risky line that would actually have been correct, the aggressive push that ends the fight a round early. At −0.09, that happens rarely, and unlike its bigger siblings the trait never talks its hero out of a finishing blow. Vigilant’s worst case is doing very little, which is a better worst case than most traits can offer.
Fitting Vigilant into a party
Almost any role carries this trait without friction, and that flexibility is its identity. The specific slot where it beats its family is the damage dealer: if you want a finisher who stops freelancing but keeps hunting, Vigilant is the order trait to look for, because Professional and Methodical both blunt the finishing instinct you are paying that hero to have. On front-liners and supports it is pleasant and unremarkable, a small upgrade over a blank slate, a small downgrade from Professional’s stronger numbers.
One caution about what it cannot do: traits steer their own hero only. A Vigilant teammate does not calm a Reckless or Hot-Headed partner; those heroes will freelance regardless of who stands beside them. What a Vigilant hero does offer is one more reliable piece around the chaos, and in a four-hero party where a single drifter can unravel a formation, each additional hero who holds shape is worth something. There is no named pairing built on Vigilant to chase, so treat it as roster glue rather than a synergy piece.
Buying Vigilant without overpaying
Small coefficients get mispriced in both directions. Some sellers treat Vigilant as filler and let it ride for free; some buyers, seeing “discipline” in the description, pay Professional prices for two-thirds of the effect. Be the first kind of buyer. The right way to use Vigilant at market is as a tie-breaker: between two recruits of similar attributes and wage, take the Vigilant one, especially for a damage role, and pay nothing extra for the privilege. It also ages well, as behaviour traits do; a cautious veteran declining bad risks is a feature at every stage of a career, and the trait’s value never decays the way attributes do.
Passing on a hero because of Vigilant is almost never right. The only roster where it is dead weight is one deliberately built around recklessness, and if you are running that experiment, no order trait was ever going to make the cut. The recruitment guide covers how to weight small traits against attributes when two candidates are otherwise level.
Outside the fight
- A careful leader. The game counts Vigilant among its careful leaders, as long as the hero is neither Reckless nor Hot-Headed. A careful leader scouts both ways at a fork before choosing, which cancels the penalties a Clumsy leader brings to an unscouted side room. When the party is hurt (anyone down, or average health under 60%), a careful leader with no other leanings takes the side room only 10% of the time, against 20% for an ordinary leader; when it is fresh, both take it 60% of the time.
- Quieter camps. When a party makes camp in a rest room, something can come out of the dark in the night: a 4% chance plus 0.6% per danger level, costing every hero 12% of their health and 6 stress. One Watchful or Vigilant hero in the party halves that chance (a Light Sleeper cuts it by 30%, and high Anticipation trims it too). Posting a sentry turns the visitor away entirely.
- Council. When a retiring hero joins the Council, Vigilant adds 4 toward the scryer’s post.
- Festivals. +2 in the wit discipline. See Crowd-Pleaser for how festival scores are built.
- Flavour. On pair duty the hero speaks with the “tireless” voice.
Vigilant can never appear with Reckless.
Stability across versions
Both coefficients have sat still through every build in the datamine, v1.9.6 to v2.1.8 inclusive. There is no patch risk here; whatever role you slot Vigilant into, it will do the same quiet work next season. The hooks outside the fight are read from the 2.1.8 code; earlier versions of this page missed them.