Welcome back, mercenaries. Today’s guide focuses on a conundrum many players face: what do you do with a brother who has great melee attack, great melee defense, but terrible stamina? Too weak for AoE, too offense-heavy for a tank, and too defense-heavy for a backline polearm. The solution? A fatigue-neutral build—also known as the zero-fatigue or stamina-neutral two-hander.

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1. The Concept: Fatigue-Neutral Combat

Each brother recovers 15 fatigue per turn. If your build only consumes around 15 fatigue per turn, you’ll never need to recover. With careful trait selection and equipment, you can wear medium-to-heavy armor and keep attacking every single round.

This build is:

• Simple: No recover, no berserk, no complex fatigue juggling.
• Reliable: Always has an action to take.
• Flexible: Can tank and damage at the same time.

“Yes, it’s not flashy. But it always works.”

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2. Core Requirements and Theory

To build for fatigue neutrality, you need to:

• Keep fatigue cost per turn to ~15
• Regenerate 15 naturally
• Use traits, perks, and equipment to stay within this budget

Perk Synergy

• Weapon Spec (e.g., Axe Mastery): Reduces attack fatigue
• Pathfinder: Reduces movement fatigue
• Quick Hands: Enables reach weapon utility or repositioning

These combine to give you mobility, control, and consistent output.

“With Pathfinder and Spec, you can attack and move every round—no recover needed.”

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3. The Build: Perk by Perk

Let’s break down the ideal perk path:

Core Perks

• Colossus – HP buffer
• Pathfinder – Reduced movement fatigue
• Quick Hands – Flexibility (pull whip or reach weapon)
• Steel Brow – Essential if tanking in heavy armor
• Underdog – Defense boost when surrounded
• Battle Forged – Armor mitigation
• Weapon Specialization – Axe, Mace, or Hammer
• Fearsome – With axes, this hits twice on split attacks
• Fortified Mind – Improves fear resistance for morale
• Gifted – Fills gaps and boosts key stats

Optional final perk could be:

• Killing Frenzy (if leaning into damage)
• Headhunter (for accuracy stacking)
• Executioner (for synergy if running Bleed or control builds)

“Gifted is simple, mathy, and just works—especially if you’re missing one breakpoint.”

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4. Stat Priority

You’ll want:

• Melee Skill: Aim for 90+ post-leveling
• Melee Defense: 35–45 with perks/gear
• Fatigue: ~107 total fatigue (after gear)
• HP: Around 90–100
• Resolve: 60–70 (especially with Fearsome)

With Fearsome, a higher resolve will help land morale checks. With Pathfinder and Weapon Spec, you only spend ~15 fatigue per turn. No recover needed.

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5. Armor and Equipment Choices

• Armor: Medium to heavy (e.g. 230+ chest, 210+ helmet) with Additional Padding
• Weapons:
  • Barbarian Chosen Axe: Best-in-slot for this build due to high armor ignore
  • Other options: Reach weapons like longaxe or two-tile hammer, but axes pair best with Fearsome

“Barbarian axe does slightly less damage but has better ignore—worth it.”

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6. Build Synergy & Utility

This build walks the line between tank and DPS:

• Solid frontliner with Steel Brow + BF
• Reliable consistent attacker (no downtime)
• Reach capability with Quick Hands for battlefield flexibility

No recover? No problem.

“Recover is outdated for 6 AP weapons unless you’re doing complex AOE chains.”

This build kills recover as a staple for two-handed fighters:

• 4 AP weapons? Maybe recover makes sense (e.g. Fencer)
• 6 AP weapons? Build around consistent action instead

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7. Example Statline at Level 11

Stat	Value
HP	96
Melee Skill	93
Melee Def	42
Resolve	72
Fatigue	107

Wearing full BF armor, swinging every round, no recover needed.

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8. Final Thoughts & Community Shoutouts

This idea wasn’t new—players have been doing it for years:

• SomeWeirdSins – Noted for his mathy, precise take on this build
• FilthyRobot – Highlighted it on stream
• Community members on forums and Reddit who refined it further

The build challenges older meta assumptions:

• No more “Recover is mandatory” dogma
• Instead: smarter fatigue budgeting = more effective uptime

“Try this build. If you miss Recover, yell at me. You won’t.”

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Thanks for reading—get out there and keep those two-handers swinging. See you in the next one!