2.4. Status Box
The Status Box on your Character Sheet shows how close you are to death.
The incoming damage that you face can be reduced if it matches the restrictions of one of your Defenses at the top of the Status Box. Your Defenses are often only usable if the incoming damage is of a certain Damage Types.
Conversely, your Weaknesses can also be triggered by certain Damage Types, but will bring about adverse side effects, like gaining Status Conditions or taking extra damage. Not all characters will have Weaknesses. You will likely only gain one if you take on a stronger Trait Ability, like some monstrous features.
At the bottom of the Status Box is a set of Point Banks. This is where you will track your Recoveries, Dodge Points, Shield, Health, and Vitality, along with other unique points that you may gain as a part of your Class and Constitution.
Your Shield can help provide a temporary buffer of hit-points. Your Health is used as your main tally from which damage will be subtracted. When your Health has been depleted, you then must rely on your Vitality that represents the the final threads that separate you from... death.
Dodge Points give you a limited number of chances to avoid damage per Encounter. Recoveries can be used to restore Health and Vitality in moments of downtime.
Note that the end of each Episode, you will be able to reset your Recoveries, Shield, Health, and Vitality along with resetting your other points needed by your Abilities, which can be tracked in the Status Box.
Defenses
Before damage is applied to your Shield, Health, or Vitality and before you gain any stacks of a new Status Condition, your Defenses will first be applied. A Defense can be applied if its listed Damage Type or Status Condition type matches and if all other listed requirements have been met.
There are three types of Defenses: Immunities, Resistances, and Weaknesses.
Resistances
A Resistance lets you half (rounding down) the incoming Damage of the matching Damage Type or, in the case of Status Conditions, lets you half (rounding down) the number of stacks that you gain of that Status Condition.
By default, everyone starts with the Take Cover Resistance:
Take Cover
So, to use your Take Cover Resistance, the incoming damage must have the Major Damage Type of Solid Damage and you must have at least half cover or the Sneaky status.
All Resistances are optional and some will list a small downside to using it. For example, you may only be able to half the incoming damage if you gain a stack of a certain Status Condition.
Immunities
An Immunity lets you avoid all incoming Damage of the matching Damage Type or avoid all stacks of the matching Status Condition.
Just like with Resistances, certain conditions may need to be met or certain downsides may need to be taken on before you can use the Immunity.
Weaknesses
Unlike with Resistances, Weaknesses are always applied if the listed Damage Type, Status Condition, and/or other conditions are met. A Weakness that matches always doubles the amount of Damage or the number of Stacks of a matching Damage Type or Status Condition, respectively.
A Weakness may also have other effects, like causing a creature to catch fire and start dealing additional Fire Damage with each attack.
Dodge Points
Your Dodge Points determine how many uses you have left of the Dodge Ability. You can regain your Dodge Point by using the Rest Ability.
Shield
Your Shield represents an added level of protection or a boost of temporary health.
Any incoming damage (that remains after applying your Defenses) is first subtracted from your Shield points. If your Shield reaches 0, it will then immediately flow over into your Health or Vitality. Your Shield cannot go below 0 and no explicit maximum.
When you (or someone else) uses an Ability that refreshes your Shield, you should set your Shield equal to the new value, unless your current number of Shield points is higher. Shield points are never added to preexisting points.
Health
Your Health is your largest tally of points from which damage will be subtracted. Your total amount of Health is usually 10, but may be altered by your Constitution, Abilities, and Perks you gain throughout the game (for better or for worse.)
When your Health reaches 0, any remaining damage is immediately discarded. While your Health is at 0, you are considered Unstable. While Unstable, new Damage will be applied to your Vitality, as described in the section on Vitality. When healed back to non-zero health, you are no longer Unstable.
Vitality
While your Health is at 0, you are considered Unstable and Vitality becomes the only thing that separates you from death. Any new damage you take that is greater than 0 (after applying Defenses) will result in losing one Vitality. If ever the amount of damage is greater than 10, you will also lose extra vitality equal the damage amount divided by 10 (rounded down.)
If ever you reach 0 Vitality, you die (unless your chosen Constitution says otherwise.)
Player characters generally start at 4 Vitality, though some Constitutions, Abilities, and Perks may alter that value (for better or for worse.) Many non-player characters may also have more or less Vitality. You may also choose to deal "Non-Lethal" Damage to a character to knock them Unconscious at 0 Vitality instead of killing them. (Though, the GM may have you roll a Tinkering Test to ensure that you didn't kill them on accident.)
Recoveries
When you are running low on Health or Vitality, you may need to take a moment to recover and tend to your wounds. Below is a look at the Rest ability from the Basic Ability List appendix, which will be one of your go-to ways to restore Health and Vitality:
Rest
If you ever run out of Recoveries, you may need to use the Item Search Ability to look for a First Aid Kit. First aid kits grant you an additional Recovery and may even let you use it immediately (depending on the quality of the first aid kit.)
NPC Statuses
Most NPCs will lack some of the Dodge Points, Shield, Health, or Vitality values in their description. When any of those values are missing, you can assume they are 0, except Vitality, which has a default of 1.
Many smaller creatures do not explicitly list a Health or Vitality value at all. In these cases the creature just has 1 Vitality and would die if it took any damage amount above 0. That said, that does not mean these creatures are harmless.