Game rules

1. Tournament: two samurai fight at a time. Winners advance through the bracket to the final. Other players spectate. Health and stamina reset before each duel; leaving forfeits your place.
2. Left click / Q: quick slash. Right click / E: heavy slash. Middle click / R: thrust. Shift: dodge. Hold Space: block. You can keep moving during a strike. A frontal block timed within 0.16 seconds of impact parries and staggers the attacker. Face your opponent to hit or defend; slashes have a wide forward arc, while a thrust is a narrow stab with longer reach.
3. Strikes, blocks and dodges cost stamina. Rest to recover it. A frontal block absorbs 97% of damage; a parry absorbs all of it. Hits from behind bypass your guard. Damage: Realism ×1, Moderate ×½ (default), Low ×¼. Bots follow the same rules.
4. Click the arena to capture the mouse; the cursor stays centred and each mouse movement selects the same screen direction: up faces north, down-left faces southwest. Stopping preserves that direction. Esc releases it. Turning is gradual, three times faster during a dodge. WASD / arrows move relative to the fixed elevated camera; only the wheel changes zoom. On timeout, health then stamina decides; an exact tie goes to the first randomly seeded fighter.
5. The host sets the mode, 60–300 seconds per fight and bot difficulty. All modes support up to 24 fighters. Tournament autofill fills the next bracket size, up to 24. Turn autofill off for byes. Bots and practice disable Elo; rated tournaments need at least two humans and never autofill.