Tactics

Knowing how to fight matters as much as knowing how to swing. Tactics is the damage multiplier behind every weapon skill — no warrior build skips it.

Stats: Strength (primary), Dexterity (secondary) · Title: Tactician

What it does

Tactics adds directly to your melee damage. In BaseWeapon.cs, the damage bonus stack is:

tacticsBonus  = Tactics × 0.625%   (+6.25% extra at 100.0)
anatomyBonus  = Anatomy × 0.5%     (+5% extra at 100.0)
strengthBonus = Str × 0.3%         (+5% extra at 100 Str)
lumberBonus   = Lumberjacking × 0.2% (+10% at 100.0; axes only)

At grandmaster, Tactics alone contributes +68.75% damage — the largest single physical bonus in the formula. A fighter without Tactics hits like a polite suggestion.

Tactics has no active use; it is purely passive. It also gates some weapon special moves, which require minimum Tactics values (per the AOS weapon ability system — exact thresholds vary by move; unverified here pending a dedicated combat page).

Training

Tactics gains passively whenever you deal weapon damage — ScaleDamageOld performs a Tactics skill check on each damage calculation. In practice:

• Fight anything that fights back. Tactics rises alongside your weapon skill (Swordsmanship, Mace Fighting, Fencing, Archery, Wrestling).
• Early levels fly (everything below 10.0 gains per use); later levels follow the standard gain curve with GGS as a safety net.
• Strength is the primary stat, so hitting things also makes you stronger — Britannia’s fitness program.
• Quick start: an NPC weapon trainer also teaches Tactics up to one-third of its own skill, capped at 42.0 (Scripts/Mobiles/Normal/BaseCreature.cs, CheckTeach: baseToSet = ourSkill.BaseFixedPoint / 3) — buy to ~30–42, then it rides up with every fight. Train it with your weapon skill and Anatomy on the same monsters.

See skill gain and using & training skills.

Related skills

• Swordsmanship and the other weapon skills — your to-hit
• Anatomy — the companion damage bonus, and a prerequisite for good Healing
• Lumberjacking — the axe-only damage bonus