By: Jackjones on 9/18/2024
Getting hurt in Wurm Online in order to reduce your effective skill level is a popular way to grind certain skills.
The goal is to produce a wound that can be “frozen”, thus reducing your stamina and effective skill and leading to longer action timers. A ton of trial and error needs to be done to find the right parameters.
There are several fun and exciting ways to get wounded on purpose in the game. You’re looking to produce a single bad or severe wound that will be “frozen”.
| Method | Notes |
|---|---|
| Lava | Standing on a lava tile will produce damage. It’s easy to step off and get consistent wounds. |
| Falling Damage | Depending on height, you can get wounded at a predicable level. |
| Sparring | Having a spar with an alt or a friend can produce wounds in specific parts of the body, depending on combatant attack target positioning. A lot of experimentation will need to be done to produce consistent wounds in the right place. |
You can freeze wounds so that they never improve nor worsen. The common wisdom is that a potency 6 healing cover should do the trick, but your mileage may vary.
Benefits of frozen wounds:
Getting hurt in certain areas can mess with how well you perform. So, if you have 70 body strength but a 60 wound on your lower back, you can still mine rock or chop trees for a good amount of body strength per hour. Wounds on your lower back or upper back affect body strength, while a hurt crotch impacts body control, and a facial injury slows down your mind speed.
Any wound on the neck results in a percentage reduction of your effective Channeling skill. The calculation for this is the wound damage number divided by 76, which yields the percentage reduction. For example, a 63-point neck wound is calculated as 63 / 76, resulting in an approximately 83% reduction of effective skill. This would reduce a channeling skill of 80 to 13. This means that gains in skill can be achieved with casts for “Light Token”, “Opulence,” and “Morning Fog,” all of which have a difficulty level of 10.
Getting a neck wound is a royal pain in the ass. Sparring with your priest, you want to aim upper right or upper left to get the neck. My priest will wear a decent chain jacket on the torso, while holding no weapon. My main will get behind, aiming upper right. I’ve had some luck with my main in Defensive mode. I spar near the priest’s altar, with multiple rounds of 50+ favor ready to sacrifice to heal all damage. When the wound isn’t right, you can reset your priest and get back to sparring. If you’re lucky, you can get the neck wound in a few rounds.
Choosing the weapon to strike your priest in the head is another variable. You need a crushing damage weapon to apply a bruise. Look at the Table of Weapons and chose wisely. I use a staff, but a wooden one doesn’t do enough damage, so an iron one seems just right.
Here is a list of other wound locations and the skills they effect.
| Area | Type | Skill |
|---|---|---|
| Head | Internal | Channeling |
| Head | Any other | Mind Logic |
| Nose | Any | Channeling |
| Face | Any | Mind Speed |
| Top of the Back | Any | Body Strength |
| Underarm | Any | Archery |
| Chest | Any | Climbing |
| Left Arm | Any | Shield |
| Lower Back | Any | Body Strength |
| Hand | Any | First Aid |
| Crotch | Any | Body Control |