View source for Hunter Protection

{{DISPLAYTITLE:Hunter Protection}}

'''Hunter Protection''' is the Hunter ability used on living regular humans. Progress reduces damage before completion; reaching 100% begins a 21-day completed Protection and enables distress alerts for the protecting Hunter.

For the broader species guide, see [[Hunters]].

__TOC__

== Quick reference ==

{| class="wikitable"
! Rule !! Current behavior
|-
| Valid target || A living regular human
|-
| Partial progress expiry || 7 days without further progress
|-
| Completed duration || 21 days
|-
| Damage mitigation || Half the Protection percentage, capped at 50%
|-
| Related records || Hunter Protections, Protected Human Kills, and the private Protected Human Tracker
|}

Hunter Protection is built as a percentage. The HUD's Human Scan can show the current Protection progress on a regular human.

=== Applying Protection ===

Each successful use that makes real progress moves the human closer to 100% Protection. Real progress can restore some Hunter Energy and refreshes the unfinished Protection's activity window.

The Hunter who completes the process at 100% is credited with the Protection. Completion contributes to the Hunter Protections statistic and begins a full '''21-day''' Protection period.

=== Partial Protection and damage mitigation ===

Protection helps before it is complete. A human's damage mitigation is half of the current Protection percentage:

{| class="wikitable"
! Protection progress !! Damage mitigation
|-
| 20% || 10%
|-
| 40% || 20%
|-
| 60% || 30%
|-
| 80% || 40%
|-
| 100% || 50%
|}

Mitigation is capped at '''50%'''.

=== Expiry and duration ===

An unfinished Protection expires after '''7 days without further progress'''. Making additional real progress before then keeps the attempt active.

Once Protection reaches 100%, it is complete and remains active for '''21 days'''. The completed Protection enables the distress-alert behaviour described below.

== Protected-human distress alerts ==

Distress alerts apply only while a fully completed Hunter Protection is active.

=== When an alert begins ===

When real damage leaves the protected human at '''50% blood or lower''', a distress incident can begin. The protecting Hunter is told:

* Which protected human is under attack
* Who the attacker is
* The region or map location of the attack

The attacker is warned that the human is protected and that the Hunter has been notified.

=== Continued attacks and reset behaviour ===

Continued damage during the same incident does not repeatedly spam the Hunter. Each attacker can still receive their own warning, so a different attacker who joins the incident may be warned even when the Hunter has already received the main alert.

A later hit can create a fresh Hunter alert when any of the following occurs:

* Five full minutes pass with no damage to the protected human.
* An attack happens in a different region.
* The human recovers above 50% blood, ending the incident, and is later reduced to 50% or lower again.

=== Lethal hits and the protecting Hunter ===

A lethal hit that crosses the 50% threshold can still trigger the distress warning before the human's death is recorded. There is no additional distress-HUD warning simply because the human then dies.

The protecting Hunter does not trigger the normal distress response by attacking their own protected human. If that Hunter kills the human, the death does not count as a Protected Human Kill against their own Protection.

== Protected Human Kills ==

Killing a regular human while a fully completed Protection is active can count as a '''Protected Human Kill'''. These kills have daily, weekly, monthly, and all-time rankings on the [https://descendantsofdarkness.com/leaderboards/protected-human-kills Protected Human Kills leaderboard] (login required).

Player profiles can include both '''Hunter Protections''' and '''Protected Human Kills'''. Completed Protections also have their own [https://descendantsofdarkness.com/leaderboards/hunter-protection Hunter Protections leaderboard] (login required).

== Protected Human Tracker ==

The [https://descendantsofdarkness.com/protected-humans Protected Human Tracker] is a private, login-required record of activity involving fully protected regular humans.

'''Attacked or Killed by Me''' is available to signed-in players and can show protected humans they attacked or killed. Repeated attacks may be grouped together with the number of attacks, the latest attack, the region, and whether the human died.

'''Protected by Me''' is the Hunter-only view. It can show the humans protected by that Hunter, attackers and repeat attacks, whether and where a protected human died, and Witch revival information when applicable.

== Hunters, Witches, and human death ==

Hunter Protection and [[Witch Resurrection]] can affect the same regular human at different stages:

# A Hunter protects a living human.
# Another player kills that human while the Protection is active.
# After the human becomes eligible, a Witch may build Resurrection progress and schedule their return.
# The Hunter's '''Protected by Me''' view may show the relevant Witch revival status.

Protection itself cannot be applied to a dead human; returning the dead is the Witches' role.

== Limits ==
Hunter Protection cannot be applied to registered players, [[Abominations]], or dead humans.

== See also ==
* [[Hunters]]
* [[Witch Resurrection]]
* [[Scan Others]]
* [[Feeding and Blood Levels]]

[[Category:Gameplay]]
[[Category:Species Guides]]