Anatomy is the study of living bodies. Use it on a person or creature to judge how strong and quick they are, but its real value is what it does for you without being used: it makes your weapon hits harder, makes your bandages heal more, unlocks the stun and other fighting tricks, and helps unarmed fighters and mages defend themselves.
At a glance
Skill category
Combat
Active use
Examine a person or creature within 8 tiles to judge their Strength, Dexterity and stamina
Passive benefits
More weapon damage, bigger bandage heals, cures and resurrections, the wrestling stun, concussion and crushing blows, and better defense with empty hands
100 (Grandmaster), raised up to 120 with Anatomy power scrolls
Stats it can raise
Intelligence (mostly), Strength and Dexterity
Starting gear
Choosing Anatomy as a starting skill gives you 3 bandages and a robe.
Examining someone
Bandages
Use the Anatomy skill (the button beside it in your skills list, or a macro). You'll see "Whom shall I examine?"
Target a person or creature within 8 tiles.
On a success, a message over their head tells you how strong and dexterous they look. At 65 Anatomy or more, a second message tells you how much stamina they have left, in steps of ten percent: "This being is at seventy percent endurance."
Your chance of success equals your Anatomy (50% at 50, 100% at 100). The descriptions aren't exact: the game adds a random error to the stats it reads, and the error shrinks as your skill rises.
Your Anatomy
Possible error in each stat
0
±25
25
±19
50
±13
75
±7
100
±0
What the descriptions mean
Stat
Strength looks…
Dexterity looks…
0–9
like they have trouble lifting small objects
like they barely manage to stay standing
10–19
rather feeble
very clumsy
20–29
somewhat weak
somewhat uncoordinated
30–39
to be of normal strength
moderately dexterous
40–49
somewhat strong
somewhat agile
50–59
very strong
very agile
60–69
extremely strong
extremely agile
70–79
extraordinarily strong
extraordinarily agile
80–89
strong as an ox
moves like quicksilver
90–99
stronger than anything you have ever seen
faster than anything you have ever seen
100 or more
superhumanly strong
superhumanly agile
What Anatomy does for you
Where it helps
What it does
Weapon damage
+1% damage for every 5 points, plus an extra +10% at 100. That's +30% at Grandmaster, with any weapon or your fists. It's added to the Tactics and Strength bonuses.
The stun needs 80 Anatomy and its chance rises with Anatomy. Paralyzing Blow with your fists also needs 80.
Two-handed weapons
From 80 Anatomy, axes and polearms land concussion blows and the war hammer lands crushing blows, each with an Anatomy ÷ 4 percent chance per hit. Two-handed spears freeze targets with the same chance at any Anatomy.
Defense with empty hands
When you're unarmed, your defense is the higher of your Wrestling and (Anatomy + Evaluating Intelligence + 20) ÷ 2. A mage with 100 in both is as hard to hit as a 110 wrestler.
Training Anatomy
Fighting is the easiest way: every hit you land with a weapon or your fists is a chance to gain Anatomy.
Bandaging trains it too. Each time you finish a bandage on someone who needed healing, both Healing and Anatomy get a chance to rise.
Examining people and creatures also works. Your chance to succeed (and so to gain) is your Anatomy, so it's quick early on and slows as you improve.
Below 10.0 you gain on every attempt, sometimes several tenths at once. Above that, each attempt has a chance to gain 0.1.
The harder the attempt is for your skill level, the better your chance to gain. Your chance also drops as you get closer to your Anatomy cap and to your total skill cap of 700.
If you've set Anatomy to go down (the arrow in your skills list), gains elsewhere can lower it to make room under your total cap. Lock skills you want to keep.
Reaching 100.0 adds Anatomy to the Skills Mastered count on your achievements.
Healers, healer guildmasters and fortune tellers will train you for gold: up to a third of their own skill, at most 42.0, for 1 gold per 0.1 points. Ask them (or use their context menu) to train the skill, then drop the gold on them.
Stats: each successful use has a smaller chance (under 1%) to raise Strength, a smaller chance (under 1%) to raise Dexterity and about a 2% chance to raise Intelligence by 1 point. Each stat can rise at most once every 10 minutes, and only if it's set to rise.
Suggested path
Anatomy
How to train
0 to 42
Buy the first points from a healer.
42 to 70
Examine creatures and townsfolk while you fight and bandage. Most warriors never need to train it separately.
70 to 100
Keep fighting and bandaging. Healing others during group hunts gives lots of chances.
Power scrolls
Power scroll
Anatomy tops out at 100.0 unless you use a Anatomy power scroll. There are three kinds: exalted (110), mythical (115) and legendary (120). Double-click one to raise your Anatomy cap to that number: "You feel a surge of magic as the scroll enhances your Anatomy!"
Anatomy power scrolls come from champion bosses: Barracoon, Lord Oaks, Mephitis, Neira, Rikktor, Semidar and Silvani. Each champion boss leaves 6 power scrolls in random fighting, magic, bard and animal skills, handed out among the players who helped kill it. Each scroll is a 110 (60%), 115 (35%) or 120 (5%).
A scroll only works if it's higher than your current cap. Otherwise: "Your Anatomy is too high for this power scroll."
Champion power scrolls are cursed: they always drop when you die, even from a blessed container. Use them or bank them quickly.
Raising the cap doesn't raise your skill. You still have to train the extra points.
Messages you'll see
Message
What it means
Whom shall I examine?
Pick a person or creature to examine.
That looks somewhat strong and very agile.
A successful examination (the words change with their stats, see above).
This being is at fifty percent endurance.
At 65 Anatomy you also see how much stamina they have left.
You cannot quite get a sense of their physical characteristics.
The examination failed.
You know yourself quite well enough already.
You can't examine yourself.
Only living things have anatomies!
You targeted an object.
That cannot be inspected.
Shopkeepers who can't be harmed can't be examined.
Tips
Every warrior should have it. +30% damage and much better bandages make Anatomy one of the best value skills in the game.
Check their stamina. At 65 Anatomy you can see when an opponent is running out of stamina, which means slower swings and a chance to finish them.
Mages love it too. With Evaluating Intelligence it gives an unarmed mage a strong defense without training Wrestling.
