Disclaimer: All information is provided assuming that you know how Dark Gaming’s PvP differs from other servers. If you do not know about the differences, please check out these posts:
As well as checking out the PvP Manager and Armor Spreadsheet for weapon and armor differences.
Introduction
HP advantage is a concept that exists in most competitive games throughout several genres, including First Person Shooters, Real Time Strategy games, RPGs, fighting games, and even some card games. Thus, I feel like understanding what HP advantage is should be extremely easy and self explanatory. But just for the sake of this guide, I’ll quickly review what it is.
HP Advantage and Disadvantage is the amount of HP you have compared to your opponent. If you have a good amount more HP than your opponent, you have a HP advantage, and vice versa.
Because of how universal and self explanatory HP advantage is, this guide will focus on what you should do depending on how much HP you have compared to your opponent.
How to read HP
Before I go over what to do during HP advantage/disadvantage, I’ll briefly discuss how to read HP, since it’s relatively simple to explain.
Your HP bar is at the top right corner of your screen, always. If you’ve played Terraria for more than 10 minutes you should know how your HP bar works.
Reading your enemies’ HP is a bit trickier. Your opponent’s HP is a tiny bar directly below them. If you hover your mouse over the player, you can see their exact HP number. In order for you to more easily know how much HP your opponent has, the color of their HP bar changes from green to red.
Damage Numbers
Obviously, you can’t see your opponent’s HP when they’re offscreen. So how are you supposed to keep track of their HP then?
This is where damage numbers come into play. Damage numbers are pretty self explanatory, it’s the number that shows up whenever you hit an opponent or get hit.
Keeping track of your opponent’s HP through damage numbers is all about doing quick math in your head, as well as knowing how much damage each of your weapons do to your opponent. Keeping track of how much damage you do is simple, you just need to notice the damage number that appears when you hit someone with a certain weapon.
If you have a good enough mental capacity, you can very easily do the math behind damage numbers. For example, if you take two blind Sniper shots and hear two pain sounds, you can assume that you hit your opponent twice. If you know that your sniper does 90 damage to your opponent, you can assume that you did 180 damage to your opponent.
Now, damage numbers can get very tricky to keep track of, because of minor things like damage spread and HP regen, but it’s important to note that you don’t have to keep track of your opponent’s exact HP in your head at all times. That’s what looking at the HP bar below your opponent is for.
I don’t have many tips for getting better at utilizing damage numbers, as it is a universal skill in most competitive games, you’ll get better at utilizing damage numbers over time as you start to develop the mental capacity to play efficiently.
HP Advantage
90% of the time, if you have more HP than your opponent, it’s a good thing. It means that you’re closer to killing them before they can kill you. Here’s some tips for things you could do while you have the HP advantage.
Play confidently
When you have more HP than your opponent, you aren’t as stressed, because you aren’t very close to dying. Less stress means you typically play better. If you have HP advantage, trust yourself to hit difficult shots, evade defensive attacks, etc.
Play aggressively
Go for more close-range exchanges. If you have the HP advantage, you’re likely to beat your opponent if you two deal an even amount of damage in a close-range scenario.
Be wary of anti-rush, obviously, but there are scenarios where you can tank an anti-rush and still deal enough damage to kill your opponent before they kill you. This only really happens when you have a significant HP advantage, but it’s somewhat unexpecting when you do ignore their anti-rush. Just be wary of your own HP.
Don’t back down
When you have the HP advantage, you have no reason to run away, but your opponent does. Keep the pressure going on your opponent, don’t let them run away and regenerate HP.
HP Disadvantage
The situation that no player wants to be in, having less HP than your opponent. You aren’t completely hopeless when you have less HP than your opponent, so here’s a few tips for dealing with HP disadvantage.
Play defensively
Defensive play is your #1 friend for getting yourself out of the HP disadvantage. Use anti-rush, zone your opponent out with Sniper shots, or simply camp behind obstructing blocks. Doing these things allows you to deal safe damage, avoiding taking damage in the process.
Don’t play too defensively
The #1 biggest mistake I see newer players make when trying to camp when they have an HP disadvantage is just running away, and doing nothing else. You aren’t going to get much accomplished if you don’t try to fight back. Natural regen and HP potions alone aren’t going to get you enough HP to not be at disadvantage.
Ignore the disadvantage (If you can)
This is not really a tip, as not everyone can ignore the stress that comes with having an HP advantage.
If you are at a disadvantage, try ignoring your HP, and pretending you’re even with your opponent HP-wise. This may give you a confidence boost, which in turn could make you perform better.
This won’t always work, as it could more often than not result in you dying horribly, but it is an unexpected tactic, plus, if you do pull it off, you’ll get a hell of a dopamine rush.
Using Healing potions
Where do HP potions fall under all this? Considering that they’re a major source of HP, they can be very useful for changing who has the HP advantage.
The best time to use a potion to get out of an HP disadvantage is when you are very low and when your opponent is being aggressive.
If your opponent is being aggressive, with them assuming they have enough HP to tank your anti-rush, you can drink a potion and tip the scales drastically. If someone is trying to finish you off from a long distance with sniper shots, you can drink a potion and force them to re-engage.
Using potions when you’re low is recommended, but not required. You can use a potion when you’ve got enough HP to be at full after you use one, if you want to regain momentum in a fight and stay even for longer, or try to maintain an advantage.
Although I spent the last two paragraphs describing tactics you could use by using HP potions at the same time, there really isn’t that much complexity behind using potions, since it’s essentially a +150 Max HP buff that both you and your opponent have. HP potions don’t have much strategy, especially compared to something like health packs in a shooter game.
Conclusion
Like I mentioned before, HP advantage/disadvantage is an almost universal concept in competitive games. If you know how it can change how you approach confrontations in other games, then you’ll be able to pick up on it quite easily in DG PvP.
