Creature Grade Escalation¶

Purpose¶

Every creature in the world starts as a Normal specimen. If it survives long enough without being killed, it grows stronger — becoming Rare, then Elite, then a species Boss. The system rewards players who respond to board pressure and creates meaningful consequences for areas that go unpatrolled.

The Four Grades¶

Grade	Also called	Encounter rank	Board urgency	Required coverage
Normal	Standard	F – D	Routine	None — solo-friendly
Rare	Veteran	D – C	Active	Tank recommended
Elite	Named	C – B	Urgent	Tank + Damage (Support recommended)
Boss	Apex	B – A	Critical	Tank + Support + Damage — all three required

Each grade is a mechanically distinct encounter, not a palette swap. Rares have names; Elites have proper names; Bosses are fully unique named individuals.

Escalation Timeline¶

The daily settlement tick drives all escalation checks. A creature that survives each tick without being killed accumulates survival ticks. Grade thresholds are:

Transition	Survival ticks required	Approximate real time
Normal → Rare	2	~48 hours
Rare → Elite	3 more (5 total)	~5 days
Elite → Boss	2 more (7 total)	~7 days (1 week)

A creature killed at any grade resets the zone's timer. The next creature that spawns in that area begins at Normal.

Why These Thresholds¶

2 days for Rare: fast enough that active players notice a growing threat before it becomes a major problem. The first routine hunt order that goes unresolved should trigger a Rare within two settlement cycles.
5 days for Elite: equivalent to a full working week of neglect. By this point the area is generating Urgent board orders and nearby village security has likely dropped at least one band.
7 days for Boss: exactly one real-world week. A full week of a creature surviving unchallenged is a meaningful failure of the player community's patrol coverage in that area. Boss-tier content is rare enough to feel special when it appears.

Boss Spawn Radius Limit¶

Bosses are hard-capped at the zone and region level so the map cannot fill with apex threats.

Zone cap¶

Each named area or zone has a boss_slot_capacity of 1. Only one Boss may be active per zone at any time.

Region cap¶

The Frontier Marches launch region has a total hard cap of 3 simultaneous bosses across all its zones. This matches the launch bestiary target of three apex encounters (see launch-bestiary-plan.md).

When the cap is full¶

If an Elite creature would promote to Boss but its zone already has an active Boss, or if the region's total Boss count is at 3, the creature is flagged boss_pending and stays at Elite grade. It does not regress. When a Boss is killed and a slot opens, the oldest boss_pending Elite in the region promotes to Boss on the next daily tick.

This means a neglected region can build a queue of elite threats waiting to become bosses — clearing the active boss matters beyond just the immediate reward.

Per-Grade Details¶

Normal¶

Standard stats, no special name
Generates routine hunt and bounty orders on the Adventurers Hall board
Kill resets the zone escalation timer; area returns to Normal spawn on next cycle
Drop quality: base tier

Rare¶

Gains a descriptive prefix or suffix drawn from the family's name pool (examples: Scarred Thornboar, Old River Serpent, Hollow-Eye Goblin Raider)
Effective health band bumped one step above the base species
Drop quality bumped one tier above base
Generates an Active urgency board order: "Veteran sighted in [area]"
Fighting a Rare unlocks an Observed-tier codex entry for the species in that area
Matchup rules identical to the species base

Elite¶

Receives a proper name drawn from NPC name tables (examples: Briarfang the Thornboar, Maren Watcher Goreth)
Effective health band bumped two steps above base
Drop quality: premium tier, with a chance of a unique material specific to that family's elite pool
Generates an Urgent board order: "Named threat — [Proper Name] active in [area]" — the order persists until the Elite is killed
Village security in the nearest settlement drops one step if the order remains unresolved for 2 or more ticks
Required coverage recommendation: Tank + Damage; Support strongly recommended
Fighting an Elite at any result unlocks a Studied-tier codex entry for the species in that area (win or survive)
Matchup penalties are applied strictly — a poor-matchup damage loadout at Elite grade drops success probability significantly

Boss¶

Unique named individual — a specific creature that the world treats as a known regional threat (example: Grimtusk, Thornboar of the Briar, The Pale Watcher of Arujoki Reeds)
Boss fight rules apply: Tank + Support + Damage all required; a missing mandatory role floors success at 5%
Effective health band capped at the maximum scale for the species
Drop quality: exceptional, including apex materials exclusive to boss kills — unique crafting inputs not available from any other source
Generates a Critical urgency board order: "Apex Threat — [Name] — [area]" — appears on town board, event board, and Adventurers Hall simultaneously
Village security in the nearest settlement drops two steps immediately on Boss promotion and does not recover until the Boss is cleared
Nearby hexes (within ~3 km of the Boss's anchor position) gain a Predator Dominant terrain modifier: resource yields reduced by 25%, scouting chance lowered, travel risk elevated
Defeating the Boss grants the killing party Mastered-tier knowledge for that species in that area
After the Boss is killed, its zone resets to Normal and the Boss promotion slot opens for the region's next pending threat

De-escalation: How Players Push Back¶

Killing a creature at any grade prevents promotion and restarts the zone's clock. Players do not need to specifically hunt a Rare or Elite if they are catching up — clearing the zone at any level keeps threats suppressed.

Escalation grade also responds to partial pressure:

Player action	Effect on grade timer
Kill the creature (any grade)	Full reset — zone returns to Normal spawn cycle
Defeat the Elite but not the Boss	Region Boss count decreases; `boss_pending` queue advances
Complete a patrol or survey order in the area	Pauses escalation for 1 tick (buys time without a direct kill)
Village security at Secure	Normal → Rare threshold extended by 1 tick for zones adjacent to that village

Board Integration¶

The escalation grade drives what appears on quest boards:

Grade	Board entry type	Rank gate	Reward class
Normal	Standard hunt or bounty	F – D	Loot / Materials
Rare	"Veteran sighted" — Active urgency	D – C	Enhanced materials + knowledge
Elite	"Named threat" — Urgent, persistent	C – B	Premium materials + renown
Boss	"Apex Threat" — Critical, multi-board	B – A	Exceptional materials + apex drop + high renown

A region that accumulates multiple Active and Urgent orders at once sees elevated highest_event_severity in its board context snapshot, which shifts the board mix toward Hunt and Bounty orders and suppresses routine luxury content.

Interaction with Village Security¶

The escalation system feeds directly into the village security band model:

Situation	Security impact
Rare active in zone adjacent to village	No direct penalty, but Strained security increases escalation speed by 1 tick
Elite active and order unresolved 2+ ticks	Nearest village drops to Strained (if currently Secure) or deeper
Boss promoted in zone adjacent to village	Nearest village drops two security bands immediately; cannot recover until Boss cleared
Boss cleared	Nearest village gains one security band on next settlement tick

This means a neglected region eventually puts multiple villages under siege — a widening consequence that cannot be managed by just doing supply runs. Players must engage the escalating threat directly.

Knowledge and Escalation¶

Monster knowledge also affects how players see and respond to escalation:

Knowledge tier	What the player sees
Unknown	Zone shows general "hostile activity" signal; no grade visible
Identified	Grade visible on the board order: Normal / Veteran / Named / Apex
Observed	Estimated threat window shown: "Active for ~3 days"
Studied	Timer visible: "Escalates in ~2 days"
Mastered	Full tracker: grade, timer, escalation path, boss slot status for the region

Players who invest in knowledge become natural community warning systems. They can alert others to incoming Elite promotions before the board order appears.

Design Constraints¶

Escalation runs on the daily tick — it does not evaluate more frequently
Grade only ever moves up via the daily tick; it never degrades on its own
A creature's grade is per-instance, not per-species region-wide — different zones have independent timers
Boss zone cap and region cap are hard limits enforced before promotion; the cap cannot be exceeded by any mechanism
Escalation events are visible to the world: a Boss promotion is announced as a server-wide notice in the Frontier Marches region

monsters-and-knowledge.md — knowledge tiers and how escalation unlocks codex progress
launch-bestiary-plan.md — target boss count that the region cap enforces
combat-resolution-and-party-logic.md — coverage requirements that apply to Elite and Boss fights
expedition-generation-model.md — urgency bands and board context snapshots that escalation grade feeds
town-simulation-and-supply.md — security bands that escalation degrades