The Fatigue System in Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent Explained

The fatigue system in Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent is your hero’s overdrive button, letting you voluntarily suffer fatigue points to gain extra movement or trigger powerful abilities. It’s a flexible resource, capped by your hero's Stamina value, that allows you to push beyond the standard two-action limit on your turn. Mastering this trade-off—gaining a crucial short-term advantage without leaving yourself exhausted for future rounds—is fundamental to tackling the game's toughest encounters.

At its heart, fatigue is a currency paid from your Stamina pool. Each point of Stamina your hero possesses can be spent as one point of fatigue. This isn't an action itself; it's a cost you can pay at specific moments to augment your turn. Think of it as your hero digging deep and pushing through their physical limits to get the job done. But once that Stamina is gone, your options become severely limited until you can rest and recover.

01

What Can You Spend Fatigue On?tag

Fatigue has two primary uses: tactical repositioning and unleashing your strongest skills. While both are powerful, knowing when to use each is what separates a novice from a veteran. You'll constantly weigh the benefit of a better position against the need to save your energy for a devastating skill later in the fight.

Gain Extra Movement Pointstag

The most common and straightforward use of fatigue is to move farther than your Speed attribute would normally allow. The conversion is simple and powerful:

• For every 1 fatigue you choose to suffer, you gain 1 additional movement point.

These movement points can be gained at any time during a move action. You can declare you're moving, move your base speed, realize you're one space short of an objective or an enemy, and then suffer the fatigue needed to close the distance. This is incredibly useful for getting into the perfect position for an area-of-effect attack, grabbing a distant objective token on the final turn, or escaping a monster's reach before it can strike. The key is to use it decisively. Burning three fatigue just to engage an enemy one turn earlier might not be worth it if it means you can't use a critical defensive skill later.

Fuel Powerful Hero and Class Abilitiestag

Beyond movement, fatigue is the resource that powers many of the most potent abilities in the game. Look closely at your Hero and Class cards; many skills will include the phrase "Suffer 1 fatigue to..." as part of their cost or effect. These are often game-changing maneuvers that define your hero's role in the party.

For example, the Knight's "Defend" skill might let you suffer fatigue to add extra defense dice for an ally. The Runemaster's "Runic Knowledge" allows Leoric of the Book to suffer fatigue to convert surges into extra damage, turning a decent attack into a lethal one. These abilities are your bread and butter. Ignoring them means you're not playing your hero to their full potential. Always check your cards at the start of a quest and identify which skills are powered by fatigue so you can build your turn-to-turn strategy around them.

02

How to Manage Your Stamina Pooltag

Your ability to use fatigue is directly limited by your hero's Stamina attribute, represented by the heart icon on your hero sheet. If a hero has a Stamina of 4, they can suffer a total of 4 fatigue before they are completely spent. You cannot choose to suffer fatigue if your current fatigue level is already equal to your Stamina value. This state, effectively being at zero available stamina, is crippling.

When you're out of stamina, you can no longer gain extra movement or use any of your fatigue-powered abilities. You're left with just your basic actions, which can be a death sentence when the pressure is on. Therefore, managing your stamina pool and knowing how to get it back is a core gameplay loop.

Recovering from Fatiguetag

There is only one universal way to clear all your accrued fatigue and reset your stamina pool to full: the Recover action.

• As one of your two actions on your turn, you may perform a Recover action.
• Effect: Remove all fatigue tokens from your hero sheet. Your available stamina is now fully restored.

This presents a difficult choice. Taking a turn to Recover means you aren't attacking, moving to an objective, or interacting with the map. It's a tempo loss. The ideal time to Recover is during a lull in the action—when no monsters are in range, or when your party has successfully cleared a room and has a moment to breathe before opening the next door. Waiting until you are completely out of stamina and surrounded by enemies to Recover is often too late. Proactive recovery is a sign of an expert player.

Some quests may also provide relief through special items like Stamina Potions, which can remove a set amount of fatigue without costing an action. These are invaluable and should be saved for emergencies.

03

Common Fatigue Mistakes to Avoidtag

Understanding the rules is one thing; applying them under pressure is another. Many new players fall into the same traps when learning to manage fatigue. Here are the most common blunders and how to sidestep them.

• The Early Burnout: It's tempting to spend a chunk of fatigue on turn one to rush into the fray. Resist the urge. Unless you have a specific, high-impact opening move, it's better to conserve your energy. Entering the main combat with half your stamina already gone leaves you with few options when the overlord spawns a powerful monster group.
• Forgetting to Recover: Many players push their luck, spending a little fatigue each turn until they suddenly hit their limit at the worst possible moment. Plan your recovery turns. If you know a tough fight is coming, use a quiet moment to reset your stamina, even if you only have 2 or 3 fatigue. It's better than being powerless when you need your best abilities.
• Ignoring Fatigue-Powered Skills: Don't treat your fatigue pool as just a movement booster. Your most character-defining abilities are often tied to it. Read your cards. A Berserker who never uses fatigue to add dice to their attacks is just a subpar warrior. A Thief who doesn't use fatigue for extra movement to snatch objectives is missing the point of their class.

04

Hero-Specific Fatigue Strategiestag

How you use fatigue depends heavily on the hero you're playing. A character with low stamina needs to be far more conservative than one with a massive pool. Here are a few examples of how different archetypes approach fatigue management.

• Leoric of the Book (Runemaster): Leoric is a perfect example of trading stamina for raw power. His Stamina is average, but his "Runic Knowledge" ability lets him suffer fatigue to boost his magical attacks. A Leoric player's goal is to position carefully, using as little fatigue for movement as possible, to save it all for a massive, ability-fueled alpha strike that can eliminate a key target in a single blow.

• Jain Fairwood (Thief): With high Stamina and skills that often involve movement and evasion, Jain uses fatigue opportunistically. She might spend 2-3 fatigue in a single turn to sprint across the map, grab an objective, and get back to safety. Her fatigue use is bursty and focused on board control and objectives, rather than sustained damage output.

• Avric Albright (Disciple): As a healer, Avric's fatigue management is about endurance and clutch saves. His healing prayers are often powered by fatigue. He needs to conserve his stamina throughout an encounter so that when an ally takes a huge hit, he has the reserves to power a critical heal. He plays a careful, conservative game, spending fatigue only when an ally's life is on the line.

05

Frequently Asked Questionstag

Can I suffer fatigue if I have 0 stamina left? No. You cannot choose to suffer fatigue if the number of fatigue tokens on your hero sheet is already equal to your Stamina value. You must have available stamina to spend.

Does suffering fatigue cost an action? No. Suffering fatigue is not an action. It is a cost you pay to gain extra movement points or to activate certain abilities. It does not use up one of your two actions for the turn.

Can I use fatigue to move through enemies or difficult terrain? Fatigue only grants you additional movement points. You must still adhere to all normal rules of movement, which means you must stop when entering a space with an enemy and you must pay extra movement points for difficult terrain as usual.

When is it better to use fatigue for movement versus abilities? This is the core strategic question and is entirely situational. If reaching an objective wins the scenario, use it for movement. If killing the boss monster before it acts is paramount, use it to power your strongest attack. Generally, prioritize using fatigue for abilities that provide a unique advantage you can't get otherwise.

06

The Final Wordtag

Fatigue is not a penalty; it's a weapon. It's the resource that lets you break the rules of the game, creating memorable moments where your hero pushes past their limits to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Track it carefully, spend it wisely, and plan your recovery. Once you stop thinking of it as a health bar to be preserved and start seeing it as a fuel source to be burned for maximum impact, you'll have mastered one of Terrinoth's most crucial systems.