Actors in fights can sometimes run away. The mechanics are different if the actor is a player (yourself) or an opponent. See below for details.
Players Running away
The successfully running away is determined by the difference between you and your opponent's Reflexes stat. When fighting multiple opponent's all their reflexes are added up and compared to yours.
Successfully running away gives:
You escape <opponent>'s pursuit.
Or, if it is a free run away (see below):
You dash away from <opponent>, quickly shaking off any pursuit.
Or, the message for a pvp opponent running away
<Opponent> fled the fight!
The formula for the chance to successfully do a normal run away is:
Chance to run = (your ref - opp's ref + 1) / (opp's ref + 1), min 0%, max 100%
Or:
| Your reflexes | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opponent's Reflexes | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 0 | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| 1 | 0% | 50% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| 2 | 0% | 0% | 33% | 67% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| 3 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 25% | 50% | 75% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| 4 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 20% | 40% | 60% | 80% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| 5 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 17% | 33% | 50% | 67% | 83% | 100% |
Free run aways
You can get a few free runaways every day, which do not cost energy. You can get a maximum of X free runaways in a day (where X = square root of your Reflexes). These occur more frequently when your reflexes are significantly higher.
You can always run away from opponents with 0 Reflexes, and it seems that it guarantees a free run away if one is available.
You can only get a free run away if you haven't used any action in combat. If you play a technique and then try to run away, it won't be a free run away.
Preventing running away
Some opponents can use techniques that prevent you from ever running away, even if you have more reflexes than them. These include:
- Any opponent that has grabbed you with tight hold.
- Any underwater fight where you have less than 3 diving ability.
- Any fight with Cornered (Call Center).
You can avoid most tight hold techniques if you Evade them, although some techniques work against other moves. See tight hold for complete list.
Opponents running away
A small number of opponents can run away during combat, as of an update on September 25, 2018, and further minor revamp around December that same year. The Run Away works as an Evasion technique with some special handling. It is picked randomly from their other chains. Dancer seems to take about 1 - 4 round before she runs away.
| Condition | Human message | Rodent message |
|---|---|---|
| First round: You have one chance to kill the opponent. This works as an (8-base-defense?) Evasion technique that blocks Melee, Ranged but not Fire, Stealth or Etheric. | <Opponent> runs from the fight. <You attack>, but he runs from your attack, avoiding all but x damage. |
The rodent skitters out of the room. <You attack>, but he skitters from your attack, avoiding all but x damage. |
| First round: If the above first-technique succeeds in killing the opponent, you get this message and it counts as a normal kill. | <Opponent> tries to escape, but wasn't fast enough. | |
| Further rounds: if the opponent is still alive after the first round, all further damage is blocked. | <No opponent message> <You attack>, but <opponent> has already fled. |
|
In multi-opponent fights, if one opponent runs away, their icon is replaced with the following icon. The fight ends when all opponents are dead or ran away.
When they run away, you get normal XP rewards but no normal item/technique rewards, with the exception of:
- Art Museum Hipster drops museum guidebook even when running away
- The Midgard worker in Clipboard Dilemma (Midgard Warehouse) drops a warehouse inventory even when running away
- Items derived from other sources still drop (eg. garbage sticker, frosty top hat, etc.)