Reactive Defense

In addition to the following, any To Your Highest Defense bonuses when Reactive Defense is your highest.

Legend
Limited items	Quest items
Unearthly items	No trade items
Derivative unearthly	Normal items

Reactive Defense Modifiers

Hats
+1	reactive mask
Weapons
+2	gel baton
Offhand Items
+2	gel shield
Shirts
+3	reactive gang jacket, reactive vest
Pants
+5	elegantly torn pants* with Reactive Patching
+2	reactive pants
Effects
+4	One With Lightning
+2	Boon of Protection, Lightning in your Veins

^* See item for additional bonuses or restrictions

Effects

A defense bonus stemming from reactive gel. This defends against all physical attacks (melee, ranged, stealth and fire) that do at least 5 damage. Etheric and techniques of type "none" are not blocked.

Reactive defense is applied last - after other types of defense are applied, and also after evasion reduces damage.

Reactive defense becomes more effective against large amounts of damage, partially dependant on the defender's Maximum HP.

Used by (opponents)

Dr. Johnson
Fanged Snowman
Flickering Guard
Force Beast
Fresh Snowman
Horned Snowman
Kraken
Silhouette In Flames
Skull In The Flames
Snow Avenger
Spectral Miner
Staring Snowman
Swarm of Gems/etc.
Swarm Of Tiny Snowmen
Winged Hunter
Writhing Fungus

Wordy explanation

Imagine a number line, showing how much damage you do. Each time you do one more point of damage, go up one position on the number line. Without any reactive, the number line is just a normal series of numbers (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,…).

However, with reactive, some numbers are repeated in the number line. So, if you try to do an additional point of damage, sometimes the amount of damage is not increased. The number line has some "breakpoints" where increasing damage does not increase damage dealt. For example, 1,2,3,4,5,5,5,5,6,7,…

Above, the number 5 is repeated three extra times, so this the number line for 3 reactive defense.

Breakpoints occur at the following numbers, depending on the defender's Maximum HP:

	If HP* ≤25	25 < HP* ≤50	If HP* > 50	Reduces damage by…
1st breakpoint	5	5	5	1 per point of Reactive Defense
2nd breakpoint	50% HP*	20% HP*	10% HP*	2 per point of Reactive Defense
3rd breakpoint	100% HP*	50% HP*	20% HP*	3 per point of Reactive Defense
4th breakpoint		100% HP*	50% HP*	4 per point of Reactive Defense
5th breakpoint			100% HP*	5 per point of Reactive Defense

*HP = defender's maximum HP (rounded up)

Graphical explanation

Mathematical explanation

shorthand:

RD = Defender's Reactive Defense
HP = Defender's Max HP
Exp Dam = Expected Damage (ie. how much damage would be dealt if defender had no reactive)
Act Dam = Actual Damage (ie. how much damage is actually dealt after being reduced by reactive)

If defender has ≤ 25 HP:

If Exp Dam is
between…	…and this	Act Dam
1	5	Exp Dam
5	5 + RD	5
5 + RD	50% + RD	Exp Dam – RD
50% + RD	50% + 2 x RD	50% HP
50% + 2 x RD	100% + 2 x RD	Exp Dam – 2 x RD
100% + 2 x RD	100% + 3 x RD	100% HP
100% + 3 x RD	infinity	Exp Dam – 3 x RD

If defender has 25 < HP ≤ 50:

If Exp Dam is
between…	…and this	Act Dam
1	5	Exp Dam
5	5 + RD	5
5 + RD	20% + RD	Exp Dam – RD
20% + RD	20% + 2 x RD	20% HP
20% + 2 x RD	50% + 2 x RD	Exp Dam – 2 x RD
50% + 2 x RD	50% + 3 x RD	50% HP
50% + 3 x RD	100% + 3 x RD	Exp Dam – 3 x RD
100% + 3 x RD	100% + 4 x RD	100% HP
100% + 4 x RD	infinity	Exp Dam – 4 x RD

If defender has > 50 HP:

If Exp Dam is
between…	…and this	Act Dam
1	5	Exp Dam
5	5 + RD	5
5 + RD	10% + RD	Exp Dam – RD
10% + RD	10% + 2 x RD	10% HP
10% + 2 x RD	20% + 2 x RD	Exp Dam – 2 x RD
20% + 2 x RD	20% + 3 x RD	20% HP
20% + 3 x RD	50% + 3 x RD	Exp Dam – 3 x RD
50% + 3 x RD	50% + 4 x RD	50% HP
50% + 4 x RD	100% + 4 x RD	Exp Dam – 4 x RD
100% + 4 x RD	100% + 5 x RD	100% HP
100% + 5 x RD	infinity	Exp Dam – 5 x RD

This means that with a large amount of reactive defense, all attacks will do exactly 5 damage. Also means that reactive is less effective for defenders with high HP.

As an example, if you have 100 HP, and 2 Reactive Defense, the following table shows how much the reactive reduces the damage:

+ SHOW EXAMPLE

  Amount of damage         
  that would have         Amount of damage
  been dealt without  ->  that was actualy
  reactive defence        dealt

                   1  ->  1
                   2  ->  2
                   3  ->  3
                   4  ->  4
                   5  ->  5  
                   6  ->  5  (Reactive starts working here.)    
                   7  ->  5                                     
                   8  ->  6  (Reduces damage by 1 per reactive defense)
                   9  ->  7                                     
                  10 ->   8                                     
                  11 ->   9                                     
                  12 ->  10                                     
                  13 ->  10  (At 10% of max HP, it becomes more effective)
                  14 ->  10                                  
                  15 ->  11  (Reduces damage by 2 per reactive defense)
                  16 ->  12
                  17 ->  13
                  18 ->  14
                  19 ->  15
                  20 ->  16
                  21 ->  17
                  22 ->  18
                  23 ->  19
                  24 ->  20  (At 20% of max HP, it becomes even more effective)
                  25 ->  20
                  26 ->  20
                  27 ->  21  (Reduces damage by 3 per reactive defense)
                  28 ->  22
                  29 ->  23
                  30 ->  24
                  etc.