STARBORNE — BALANCE (the math)

Keystone doc. One POWER scale for heroes, equipment, and enemies so anything can be compared.

Difficulty target = HARD. The gear chase is satisfying but earned (Minecraft-style grind):

every tier clearly beats the last, but the jump costs rarer materials / a harder dungeon. You should

need the right gear and skill — you cannot trivialise the game by out-levelling alone.

Refreshed by the starborne-balance worker every 12h. Design only — never edits game code.

STATUS: v1.0 — formula locked · player curve charted from real mkLyra growth · equipment

tier→POWER table + pacing · full 55-entry enemy audit · tuning list. One critical fix flagged (§7).

1. The POWER metric (PWR)

Put everything on one axis = offense × durability, square-rooted on durability so tanks don't run away with it.

PWR = round( EffDPS × sqrt(EffEHP / 100) )

EffDPS = HitDmg × HitsPerSec × CadenceMult
   HitDmg     = primaryStat + weaponPWR
                  melee (Gideon): Might + weaponPWR
                  spell (Lyra):   Arcana + 0.5·Reason + weaponPWR(staff)
   HitsPerSec = 1 / attackInterval        // melee ≈ 1/0.42s ≈ 2.4 ; spell ≈ 1/0.45s ≈ 2.2
   CadenceMult= 1.13                       // every 3rd action ×~1.8 → ~+13% average
   CritMult   = 1.00 baseline              // trinkets/criticals can raise it

EffEHP = MaxHP × (1 + Mitigation)
   Mitigation = (Resil + ArmorDef) / 40    // 20 of (resil+armor) ≈ +50% effective HP

Read PWR as a threat/strength number, not raw HP or damage. Bosses sit a full band above their

region's trash; the player should reach a boss at roughly 0.85–1.0× its PWR and have to play well

to win (HARD), then leave with gear that lifts them into the next region. The **gap between an

under-geared player and the local band IS the difficulty** — close it with grind + skill, not levels alone.

2. Player power curve (L1 → L50)

Gideon is fixed (mountain-smith, holds the line): Might 28 · Arcana 8 · Reason 11 · Resil 18 · HP 120,

melee. Bare PWR ≈ 100, Smith-Steel-geared ≈ 169. He is deliberately flat — the early wall, the

muscle for strength-puzzles, and a tank/utility body in mid-game; he is not the late carry and falls

below the R5+ trash band by design (that's Lyra's job).

Lyra scales (Arcana fastest) from helpless to powerhouse — the late-game carry.

⚠️ The table below is the target curve (re-anchored to the enemy bands). The live mkLyra

per-level growth currently overshoots it badly (see §7) and must be reduced for the game to stay HARD.

Numbers here assume the proposed growth: arcana +2 · hp +6 · reason +1 · resil +1 · might +1 per level.

Curve shape: slightly super-linear (Arcana compounds). The with-gear column = the player wearing the

tier meant for that act, i.e. they grinded it. That column tracks the act boss at 0.96–1.0× through L38

and only edges ahead at the very end (geared 1428 vs Obs 1350 ≈ 1.06×) so the finale stays a real fight.

Bare (no act gear) sits a clear notch below the boss at every act — skip the grind and you fight the

region under-geared = HARD-to-brutal. That gap is the intended difficulty.

3. Equipment ladder — POWER bands + grind pacing

Five tiers. Each weapon/light/armor/trinket gives a weaponPWR / ArmorDef / mod in its band. A tier's

mid-band weaponPWR ≈ the player's primary stat at that act, so equipping the right tier roughly recovers the

band ratio above (gear is the multiplier margin, not the whole power — Lyra's spells are innate).

Pacing rules (HARD-but-fair):

• Each tier jump requires one material that only drops past the prior region's dungeon → you must *clear

content*, not farm trash, to advance. This is the Minecraft "you need the deeper ore" loop, and it is what

keeps levels from out-pacing gear (§5).

• One step ahead, never two. A tier lifts the geared curve to ≈1.0× the current act boss — enough to

win the fight you're at, not enough to walk into the next region. The chase item sits at the top of its

band and needs a boss drop + a crafted base (the satisfying grind target, marked above).

• Rarity paces the chase: common → uncommon → rare → epic → legendary maps 1:1 onto the tiers; the

gating material's drop rate (boss-locked from T2 up) is the real throttle, not the recipe.

• Light is gear. Better lamps widen the warm safe-pool and sear the dark harder (light = weapon). Gear

Gideon for weight/armor, Lyra for focus/trinkets.

4. Enemy POWER bands (target by level/type)

Trash sits below the player's geared curve for its region; bosses spike a band above. Archetype shifts the

offense/durability split (same PWR, different feel).

Note (recovery 2026-06-24): final table row was truncated at "| 50" by the design-folder truncation incident; completed to the Observatory boss band (~1350, per ENEMIES #50). BALANCE worker should re-verify on its next pass.