Backstab

# How it works

«Backstab» is a melee physical skill with a range of 40. Requires a dagger or dual daggers. Use time 1.08 seconds, cooldown 3 seconds. An overhit and a half-kill are possible.

The success of the blow is decided at the start of the use - by where the attacker stands relative to the target at that moment. If the blow does not land, there is no damage at all, but MP and the cooldown are still spent.

It is learned by «Treasure Hunter», «Plains Walker» and «Abyss Walker» from level 40; on the third class («Adventurer», «Wind Rider», «Ghost Hunter») the skill remains. It is also learned by «Bounty Hunter» and «Fortune Seeker» - from the same levels. The last, 37th level - from character level 74.

Enchant (from level 76, 30 steps in each route)

# From behind, from the side, from the front

The direction is counted from where the target is facing:

- from behind - the attacker is in an 80-degree sector behind the target's back (40 degrees to each side of the line of its back); - from the front - a 200-degree sector in front of the target's face; - from the side - the two remaining sectors of 40 degrees each.

A target that runs or turns changes direction at that very instant, so what matters is the position exactly at the moment the blow starts.

Chance to land the blow

Side chance by «DEX» and height (target in combat)

# Damage

Blow damage:

damage = (77 × («P. Atk.» + power) / target's «P. Def.» × critical power × target's vulnerability to crits × shot × position × element × PvP bonus + extra) × target's vulnerability to daggers

extra = (extra critical damage - target's resistance to it) × 470.2 / target's «P. Def.»

- 77 is 70 × 1.10113 rounded, 470.2 = 6.1 × 77; - critical power is a multiplier from buffs, skills and items, starting at × 1; the blow has no crit doubling of its own; - extra critical damage is the bonus from «Vicious Stance» , «Critical Power» , sets and weapon special abilities; the shot, position, vulnerability to crits, element and PvP bonus do not multiply it; - in PvP the target's «P. Def.» in both parts is multiplied by its PvP physical skill defense; - vulnerability to daggers multiplies all the damage; - the result varies by the weapon's damage spread: for daggers, as a rule, ±5%, for dual daggers ±10%.

The soulshot and position work in a special way for this blow: the shot gives × 1.5 and multiplies both «P. Atk.» and the power (for «Deadly Blow» - × 2.04 to «P. Atk.» only), the position from behind gives another × 1.5. The position multipliers of «Backstab» and of the other dagger blows follow different rules: here from behind × 1.5, from the side and from the front × 1; for the others from the front × 1.1, from the side × 1, from behind × 1.2.

Soulshot and position

Chance of double damage (× 2), in percent

Examples by stats from real fights (with a shot, with or without the «Duel» enchant)

# Half-kill

After a successful roll from behind, a half-kill is checked. From the side and from the front it does not happen. The check is made even when the target evaded: evasion removes the damage, but not the half-kill.

chance = base × (1 + (skill level for calculations - target level) / 100) × effects that raise the chance of lethal blows

The base is 5% at levels 1-23, 10% at 24-33, 15% at 34-37 and at any enchant. There are currently no effects on the server that raise the chance of lethal blows - the multiplier is × 1. On a player a half-kill leaves 1 CP (it does not touch HP), on a monster it takes half of its current HP, on a pet and a servitor - half of HP.

Half-kill chance by target level

# What protects

The blow cannot be cancelled by debuff protection: it is damage, not an effect.

Protection from the blow

What	How it works
Stand facing the attacker	the chance to land drops from 100% to 3% from the side - up to 40%
Evasion of physical skills	all the damage goes into the evasion a half-kill is still possible
Vulnerability to crits below × 1	reduces both the damage and the chance of double damage
PvP physical skill defense	multiplies the target's «P. Def.»
«P. Def.»	the damage is inversely proportional to defense
Vulnerability to daggers	multiplies all the damage: «Chain Mail Set» × 0.94 debuffs on the target raise it: «Tribunal» and «Judgment» - up to × 1.12-× 1.2, «Stigma of Shilen» - up to × 1.16-× 1.4
Shield	only against an attacker in front in all directions - with «Aegis» or «Aegis Stance»
Level more than 5 above the attacker	a half-kill does not land
«Counterattack»	does not reduce the blow, but with a 90% chance answers the attacker with damage
Our critical power cap	× 15 with daggers in the open world, × 5 at the Olympiad

# Specifics of our server

Nobody knows exactly how a backstab works on the official servers; the rules below are set explicitly on our server and checked against the combat log:

- from behind the blow always lands, from the front - in 3% of cases, from the side - no more than 40%; - from behind the main part of the damage is × 1.5, the extra from extra critical damage does not depend on position, so the result from behind is 1.45-1.5 times higher than from the side; - critical power with daggers is capped at × 15, at the Olympiad - × 5.

# Tested on the server

Combat log from 5 to 16 October 2026: 953 hits of «Backstab» on players from 16 characters, 129 of them from «Bounty Hunter» and «Fortune Seeker». Failed blows do not get into the log, so the chance to land cannot be measured from the log - only the damage and the side the blow came from.

- Damage: 721 hits with full stats (no shield and no invulnerability) were recalculated by the formula above with the spread of their own weapon (dagger ±5%, dual daggers ±10%). 682 of them (95%) fit one of the variants: from behind - 544, from behind with doubling - 70, from the side - 58, from the side with doubling - 7, from the side without a soulshot - 3; the average deviation from the calculation is 0.1%. The formula does not explain the other 39 - in them the damage could have changed after the calculation (damage transfer, buffs changing at the moment of the blow). - Side: of the 682 explained blows, 614 (90%) were dealt from behind, 68 (10%) - from the side or from the front. - Double damage: 70 out of 614 blows from behind (11.4%). The most frequent attacker («DEX» 44) - 48 doublings in 380 blows from behind against 50 calculated. - Shield: 64 hits landed on a shield, 5 of them a perfect block with damage 1-2. - Critical power in the log: from × 0.91 to × 14.48 after the cap, attackers' «P. Atk.» from 704 to 3956, targets' «P. Def.» from 609 to 12373, targets' vulnerability to crits from × 0.32 to × 1.3. - Crit power cap: all 22 cut blows fell on 6 October, when the cap for daggers was × 10; with the current cap of × 15 not a single blow has been cut. At the Olympiad (cap × 5) - 88 blows, none of them cut.