Game Mechanics

This Guide holds some interesting remarks about the game's mechanics.

# Experience

You get experience for every point of damage that you deal. The amount depends on multiple factors:

- The higher the enemy level is, the more experience you get.
- The higher your own level is, the less experience you get. A very interesting detail to point out is that you only level up if you actually spend a stat point. So if you hold on to your stat points, you collect levels much faster than if you always spend them.
- Some enemies add an experience multiplier. For instance, the mole gives 8 times experience. You can check the [enemy data](https://adventale.net/game-content/forward-winds/scripts/data/dataEnemies.js) for the "exp" value.

# Loot

You can get Loot when defeating an enemy.
The strength of the dropped loot is based on two factors:

1) The highest level of enemy you have ever defeated. This is generally intuitive, always the next stronger enemy in the game will have a higher level. For details, you can check the [enemy data](https://adventale.net/game-content/forward-winds/scripts/data/dataEnemies.js) for the "level" values.
2) A random modifier that can improve the loot. The chances are:

- 35% to get no modifier (loot has the same level as the highest defeated enemy)
- 25% to get a 0.5 level increase on the loot
- 25% to get a 1 level increase
- 10% to get a 1.5 level increase
- 5% to get a 2 level increase

Note that since neither of these factors reference the enemy that is dropping the loot, this aspect is entirely irrelevant. If you go back to Stage 1 after finishing Stage 8, the enemies there will drop the exact same loot you would get in Stage 9. However, experience is still affected by what enemies you are fighting, so you do get a penalty for fighting weaker enemies, just not in terms of loot.

There are two exceptions where you get Loot without defeating an enemy:

- The Stage 3 mole gives you an item at 66% and 33% of its hp
- The final boss gives you an item when you reach it

Getting an item like this unlocks the loot tier as though you would've defeated that enemy. So the highest tier of loot is unlocked once you reach the final boss, defeating it does not unlock any stronger loot.

# Enemy Stats

Enemy stats are based on their level, although enemies can apply modifiers. You can check both the levels and the modifiers in the [enemy data](https://adventale.net/game-content/forward-winds/scripts/data/dataEnemies.js)

- Max Health = floor((15 + 5 • Level ^ 1.3 + 5 • 1.2 ^ Level) • ("mhp" Modifier));
- Damage = floor((6 + 2 • Level ^ 1.3 + 2 • 1.2 ^ Level) • ("dmg" Modifier));
- Defense = floor((4 + 3 • Level ^ 1.3 + 3 • 1.2 ^ Level) • ("arm" Modifier));
- Experience = floor(12 + Level • (1 + ("mhp" Modifier)) / 2 • ("exp" Modifier));

Defense is applied like this when taking damage:

Final Damage = floor(Damage - Damage / 2 ^ (Damage / Defense))

Note that the critical multiplier is applied after Defense.

So for instance, the Strategy Guide claims that you need 183 ATK to one-shot the root enemy in Stage 2. That enemy's level is 10, no relevant modifiers.

Max Health = floor((15 + 5 • 10 ^ 1.3 + 5 • 1.2 ^ 10) = 145  
Defense = floor((4 + 3 • 10  ^ 1.3 + 3 • 1.2 ^ 10) = 82  
Final Damage = floor(183 - 183 / 2 ^ (183 / 82)) = 145 = Max Health

Here is a plot for the base stats per level: https://www.geogebra.org/graphing/kynvqnku

Strategy Guide

# General

- Always spend stat points on ATK.
- Choose LEECH and CRIT potions when given the choice
- The exception is one late game choice where you are offered a huge EXP potion. Then, choose the EXP over LEECH

You always want to push towards defeating the next strongest enemy. This is because loot is based on the strongest enemy you have ever defeated, see the Game Mechanics guide for further details.

Sometimes this guide will suggest you to "fast reset". This means going into a stage multiple times without looking at the loot or levels in between. Instead you keep your mouse at the location where you can start the stage and after dying, you immediately go back in. This can save significant time over checking the stats and loot every time.

# Stage 1

Skill: 25% more HP

If you're just shy of getting a potion, it can be worth unequipping and dismantling your Shield since this early on a potion is worth more than a Shield.

# Stage 2

Skill:
- 12% more ATK
- 4% LEECH

Spend stat points until you reach 120 ATK. At that point you one-shot all the early enemies and two-shot most of the later enemies.
Once you reached 120 ATK, stop spending stat points for a while (this will give you extra experience). Do still use potions though.
At this point there is no reason to upgrade attack until you can reach 183 ATK, at which point you can one-shot the later spinning plants, or until you can skill LEECH.

You can try to time this by intuition, if you want some details here is a table on how much attack the stat points give you around that time:

LVL  | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14  
ATK | 10 |  9  | 11 | 10 | 13

# Stage 3

Skill: FREEZE Spell

With proper luck and timing you can skip part of the Mole fight as soon as you skill the freeze spell.

After the first dig, when the Mole is on the left, wait until you defeat the small enemy in front of the Mole.
You then want the Mole to do the Howling move where he pushes you back and summons another small enemy (this is random).
If you freeze the Mole after he starts to push you back, but before he can spawn the enemy, you will walk directly to the chest finishing the level.

# Stage 4

Reallocate:
- 25% more HP -> 25% CRIT
- FREEZE Spell -> 35% CRIT. -10% DEF

Skill: FREEZE Spell

If you got a fast Mole Skip in Stage 3, you might be underpowered for this stage and only be able to defeat the first enemy. In this case you may want to fast reset a couple times. You need 311 ATK to one-shot the first enemy with a crit, until then you might want to unequip your shield to die faster after killing the first enemy.

Once you unlock Archery, the game will give you a tutorial that is meant to force you to use an arrow on the first enemy. However, you can circumvent losing the arrow by freezing the enemy instead, which will satisfy the tutorial. This is useful to keep the arrow for the next trick:

The enemy in front of the fake chest summons an ambush archer when hit. You can trigger this early by firing an arrow from a distance (e.g. at the broken background pillar). This allows you to ambush the archer instead and save a ton of health.

In the final room, you can sometimes do a minor skip, but only if the leftmost enemy spawns as a Skeleton. If you freeze the left Skeleton before defeating it, it will not immediately stand back up and you can walk to the chest without defeating it a second time.

# Stage 5

Skill: 25% more HP

This Stage has another ambush. You can trigger it early by firing an arrow from where the fence starts. However, you don't always want to do this.

At first, you only want to kill one archer to unlock the next stronger loot. The most reliable method is to freeze the strong enemy before, then run up to the archer and fire your arrow after hitting it once.

Then you'll want to trigger the ambush early for a while, until you reach 708 ATK. At this point a critical strike will one-shot the Archers and you can keep your freeze and arrows past the archers.

The final enemy knocks you back and summons support when it drops below 60% health. However if you keep your freeze and arrow, you can use both once you see it starting the knockback attack and kill it in time to skip the knockback and summons.

# Stage 6

In the background of this Stage there is a tiny enemy in the distance. This enemy actually summons everything you're fighting. If you freeze it, it will stop summoning, which allows to skip the entire stage.

First you need another skill point, play the stage a bit if you don't have one yet.

Then, if you have a bow with 2 arrows:  
Reallocate: 25% more HP -> additional FREEZE Spell  
Skill: 1 ARROW

Wait until you defeat the first enemy, freeze the summoner, kill the backstabber with the arrow, freeze the summoner a second time while walking right.

If you only have a bow with 1 arrow, there is a backup. Instead of skilling 1 ARROW, you can skill GUARD. Before taking the second hit, use GUARD. After you kill the first enemy, FREEZE the summoner. If your stats are strong enough you can perform the rest like usual. Don't forget to reallocate GUARD for 1 ARROW afterwards.

# Stage 7

Reallocate: additional FREEZE Spell -> 15% less damage  
Skill:
- -5% BURN. 8% more ATK. 8% more DEF
- GUARD Spell
- 8% more HP. 4% more ATK. 6% more DEF.

After skipping Stage 6, you are severely underpowered. Your objective is to kill just one enemy to unlock Stage 7 loot and then go back into Stage 6 to farm.

The first enemy is already far out of your reach. However when it drops below 80% health it summons a harmless healing minion, and this minion is the target. If your combined arrows deal just 20% of the first enemies health you can spawn the minion from a distance and kill it.

Determining whether you are strong enough for this is difficult because it depends on your ATK, but also your bow. The enemy has 5073 HP and 1820 DEF. Here is an (incomplete) table for how much ATK you need depending on the bow you have:

Bow | 112 | 116 | 124 | 127 | 130 | 134  
ATK  | 975 | 957 | 922 | 911 | 900 | 885

From here on you should fall into a regular pattern where you only enter the latest stage if you think you can defeat a new strongest enemy to unlock stronger loot. Otherwise you should be fast resetting Stage 6, usually 2 or 3 at a time. This is because Stage 6 has great enemy density with little walking and gives faster loot than anything else.

The route to finish this stage will be something like this: Outpower everything until the Summoner. Kill the first ranged minion with an ARROW. Survive the other minions with GUARD. Unleash the rest on the final enemy.

You can skip the final enemy summoning additional minions by freezing it in time. This is faster, however the minions aren't very strong and if you get crits on all of them they don't even heal the boss, so sometimes if you're weaker you may not even want to skip them.

# Stage 8

Skill: LEECH and REGEN are doubled during GUARD

Every part of this boss counts as an enemy, so every time you defeat a new tail or head this unlocks stronger loot.

The winning strategy goes like this: Outpower everything until the exploding mines. Use two ARROWS on the left two mines. FREEZE the head after that. Fire two ARROWS on the final tail and use GUARD to survive the ranged minions.

# Stage 9

Skill: 15% of HP is added to ARROW damage

There are some ambush minions you may want to trigger early with arrows until you're stronger, you can see in the background where they would spawn.

If you get the strong ranged enemy at the end of the first section, you can dodge its projectile by firing ARROWS at the enemy in front of you once the projectile is thrown to then walk under it without getting hit. Since the ranged enemy gets scared once you get close to it, you can often defeat it like this without taking damage.

Once you manage to reach the final boss, it will unlock the strongest loot tier. After this you may want to do a couple more Stage 6 fast resets before attempting the clear.

For the clear attempt:
Reallocate: 15% of HP is added to ARROW damage -> Gain 1% ATK when hit.
Power through the first section. Only use an ARROW if you need it. Use GUARD at the giant plants to survive the rapid ranged attacks (and farm tons of ATK through the skill). Fire all ARROWS at the final boss to melt it away and FREEZE it if necessary.

Where to play

You can best play the game on its official website, https://adventale.net/play/forward-winds/

SiriusAshling

Forward Winds

thickant

No Turbo

Turbo (8Hz)

If you used a turbo or autoclicker, you must specify so here. Turbos or autoclickers with higher frequencies than 8Hz are banned.

Name	Author
Game Mechanics	SiriusAshling 2 years ago
Strategy Guide	SiriusAshling 2 years ago
Where to play	SiriusAshling 3 years ago