Quasimorph Combat Guide: Stances, AP & Room Clearing

Quasimorph is a turn-based extraction roguelike, which means every fight is an action-point puzzle before it is a shooting gallery. You and every enemy share the same tile grid, the same AP budget, and the same line-of-sight rules — the side that spends points better wins. Master the three stances, the door discipline they enable, and the ammo-vs-resistance pairing, and you stop losing clones with full backpacks. This is the combat system explained the way you'll actually use it, with the numbers from the official Quasimorph Wiki.

Here's what you'll learn:

• How the turn-based AP economy actually works
• Sneak, Walk, and Sprint — exact AP costs and when each stance is correct
• Hit chance, accuracy, and scatter explained with real weapon stats
• The 8 damage types (plus composites) and how resistances decide fights
• Room-clearing and doorway discipline that saves your loot
• Ammo and weapon pairing for midgame faction fights

Official resources: Steam store page · Official Quasimorph Wiki — Weapons · Official Quasimorph Wiki — Ammunitions · IGN game page · GOG store page

Turn-Based Combat and the AP Economy

Every tile of movement, every shot, every reload, every door interaction costs action points (AP). Your operative has a fixed AP pool per turn (roughly 3–4 base depending on stance and gear), and the game ends your turn the moment you hit zero — not a second later. That "your turn ends at 0 AP" rule is the single most important sentence in Quasimorph combat, because it means spending your last point on the wrong action hands the initiative to the enemy.

Practical consequences of the AP economy:

• Positioning beats reflexes. You don't react to a patrol appearing — you budget for it. If a door opens with enemies inside and you have 1 AP left, you can only close the door, not shoot.
• Reloading is an action. The Ammunitions page on the wiki warns you to never reload mid-battle: firing and switching weapons are disabled until the reload completes. Reload behind cover or before the door opens.
• Every action makes noise. Gunfire, door sounds, and deaths attract attention by default — patch 1.0 deliberately made these sounds quieter (silencers exist), but you should still assume a shot brings company.

Combat Stances: Sneak, Walk, and Sprint

Quasimorph gives you three movement modes, and each sets the AP price of every tile you cross:

• Sneak is the default posture for any uncleared room. The wall sense it grants is how you spot patrols before they spot you, and door interactions cost no extra AP while Sneaking. Opening a door in Sneak with AP in reserve is the correct habit; sprinting into an unknown room is how extractions fail.
• Walk is for lanes you've already cleared — crossing confirmed-empty corridors faster than Sneak without committing to a sprint.
• Sprint is a consumable burst, not a travel mode. You can't open doors or access inventory while Sprinting, and firing from a sprint eats an accuracy penalty. Sprint only down verified empty paths: a straight run to the extract, a gap you already scouted, an emergency escape.

Hit Chance, Accuracy, and Scatter

Ranged weapons in Quasimorph list two combat stats you need to read before buying: Accuracy and Scatter.

• Accuracy is the base chance-to-hit modifier at the weapon's effective range. It's not a flat percentage — range, stance, movement, and cover all adjust it.
• Scatter is spread — how far a salvo's pellets or bursts deviate. High-scatter weapons (shotguns, automatic fire) put more pellets in the air but fewer on target at range.

Real examples from the official wiki's weapon data: the AMW-Snow Wolf marksman rifle has 35 accuracy and 2.5 scatter in single-shot mode (28–40 damage, 225 crit) and drops to 30 accuracy / 3.0 scatter on burst. The AAD-Barracuda automatic shotgun has 35 accuracy but 6.5 scatter single and 8.5 scatter on auto — brutal at range 4, unreliable beyond it.

Practical rules of thumb:

• Match weapon range to engagement distance. A shotgun at range 4 will outperform a marksman rifle in a closet; the rifle wins the corridor.
• Stand still to shoot. Firing from Sprint tanks accuracy; firing from Sneak or Walk after settling behaves normally.
• Examine first, then shoot. Right-click (or the examine key) reveals an enemy's armor, resistances, and weapon before you commit AP. One examine costs less than half a magazine fired blind — the classes tier list guide explains how recon perks amplify this.

Per the official 1.0 patch notes, version 1.0 revised weapon accuracy (slightly decreased on average), critical damage (slightly decreased overall), and reduced average damage falloff — so mid-range rifles feel more consistent after the launch patch.

Damage Types and Resistances

There are 8 base damage types in Quasimorph — Blunt, Pierce, Cut, Fire, Cold, Poison, Shock, Beam — plus composite types that check the lower of two resistances: Plasma (Cut+Fire), Blast (Pierce+Blunt), and Entropy (Cold+Fire, added in 1.0). Enemies carry resistance values per type, and armor pieces add yours. The practical effect: a single-damage loadout eventually hits a wall.

Known matchup examples from the wiki:

• Robots and cyborgs commonly resist Pierce, Blunt, and Fire but are weak to Cut and Shock — the realware storyline guide is where this bites hardest.
• Quasimorphic legions often carry heavy Beam resistance and are weak to Fire (thermal grenades, Dragon Volley, 7.97 API).
• Poison is the signature of Daydream Chems and Tianmìng territory; bring poison resistance or antidotes.
• Cold (fire extinguishers, Daydream/AnCom weapons) builds a freeze status that increases damage taken and stuns.

Room Clearing and Doorway Kiting

Room clearing in Quasimorph is initiative discipline, not speed:

1. Sneak to the door. You get wall sense and free door interaction.
2. Open with AP in reserve. Step back, examine, or close the door if contact is bad.
3. Examine every visible hostile — armor, resistances, weapon, posture.
4. Slice the pie. Reveal the room one tile at a time along the door line instead of stepping straight in, so a bad spawn still leaves you AP to withdraw.
5. Decide before you commit: fight, ignore, or retreat.

Against stacked patrols, use doorway kiting — hold the threshold so only one enemy engages at a time, then step back through the door to break line of sight when pain spikes. This converts a 3-on-1 ambush into three sequential 1-on-1s where your Sneak-entry initiative advantage applies.

Wounds, Ammo Pairing, and When to Extract

Combat doesn't end when HP hits a threshold — wounds persist. Successful attacks reduce HP and inflict wounds (blunt hits knock you back, pierce goes through cover, cuts bleed). Wounds must be stabilized with medicine; stabilized wounds still risk infection and can reopen after a set number of turns. Head/chest/body/stomach wounds are vital — amputation of those parts kills you instantly.

Ammo-wise, think of it as a rock-paper-scissors economy on top of damage types:

• .42 family (Pierce base, Rubber for Blunt, .42F Cryo for Cold) — light pistols and marksman rifles.
• 9mm family (Blunt, HP for Lacerating, EXP/Exploding for Blast) — SMGs and pistols.
• 7.97 family (Pierce, AP for +20 pierce, API for Plasma + burn) — the workhorse rifles and machine guns.
• 12-gauge (Slugs Blunt, Buckshot Lacerating, Flechette Pierce, FRAG-12 Explosive, Dragon Volley Fire) — shotguns, including the crowd-favorite Dragon Volley for quasimorph fights.
• Batteries (Beam) and Elerium (Plasma) — energy weapons; robots are a mixed bag here, so examine before you lean on them.
• Igvas (Poison), Gasoline/Eannis Redfire (Fire), Chemtrail (Poison), 90mm Nails, 160mm Discs, and missiles fill the specialist slots.

The weapons guide has the full 12-family breakdown with which guns accept what. And the moment your AP budget, wound count, and remaining floors stop lining up, extract — see the extraction guide for the loot-priority call that separates reliable extractors from corpses.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does combat work in Quasimorph?

Quasimorph is turn-based: every action (movement, shooting, reloading, doors) costs action points, and your turn ends the moment you hit 0 AP. You share the grid and line-of-sight rules with enemies, so positioning and AP budgeting matter more than aim.

What is the best combat stance in Quasimorph?

Sneak is the best stance for anything uncleared — 1 AP per tile, wall sense, and free door interactions. Walk is for confirmed-empty lanes (2 AP), and Sprint (3 AP, no doors/inventory, accuracy penalty) is for verified empty escape routes only.

How do you hit enemies reliably in Quasimorph?

Match weapon range to engagement distance, fire from a settled stance (never Sprint), and check Accuracy vs Scatter on the weapon — high-scatter shotguns are close-range tools. Examine enemies first so you're not firing into resistances.

What damage types should I bring to missions?

At least two: a primary damage type plus a sidearm or melee backup covering your weak matchup. Robots resist Pierce/Blunt/Fire and hate Cut/Shock; quasimorphic legions often fold to Fire (Dragon Volley, thermal grenades). Examine each contact.

How do I clear rooms without losing loot in Quasimorph?

Open doors in Sneak with AP in reserve, examine every hostile, slice the pie one tile at a time, and kite doorways against stacked patrols. Never end a turn on a last-AP door peek, and extract once the objective is secured — dying voids everything on the clone.

Related Guides

• Quasimorph Weapons Guide — Every Class, Ammo Family & Top Picks
• Quasimorph Beginner Guide — First Runs & Core Systems
• Quasimorph Extraction Guide — How to Extract Alive
• Quasimorph Quasimorphosis Survival Guide
• Quasimorph Classes Tier List — Best Class for New Players
• Quasimorph Campaign Walkthrough — All Storylines & 9 Endings

Last updated: August 14, 2026.