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The first indicator you need to be aware of is this one (outlined in red), which shows how healthy you are. As you can tell, something has been chewing on me, but it either has a pretty small mouth or it hasn't bitten me more than once. Yet.

(This is duplicated by the transparent bars that appear on the lower part of the screen. Since it's the same information as the primary status display, I won't be covering it here.)

Now this little bar is nice and handy, but it's a bit troublesome to look away from whatever you're bashing to see how healthy you are. That's when you use the second indicator—your name. While not as accurate as the bar, your name can tell you quite a lot about how healthy you are.

Fine	Limping	Bleeding Profusely	Very Chewed	Fallen

For instance, if it's white, you're in the peak of health; if it's green, you have a few holes in your hide but you're essentially okay; if it's yellow, you're in serious need of some bandaging; if it's red, you'd better see a healer PDQ; and if it's black, well, too late. You're fallen.

The next indicator you need to pay attention to is the middle one. This is your balance, and it indicates how hard—or easy—you are to hit. At maximum balance (like in the picture), you're at your most difficult to hit. You lose balance, however, with every swing you take, so every time you take a swing, you get a little easier to hit. If you keep swinging until you're out of balance, you won't be able to swing any more and every rat, vermine and ona chigger that ambles along can munch you.

"What's this got to do with running?" you ask. Everything! Read on, oh impatient one.

These two indicators are going to tell you when you need to run—the only difference is how far. When either of these bars gets down so there's more gray than green, you should pick up those feet and get yourself gone until the green outweighs the gray.

Whoops—bad time to rubberneck

For example, if you're out by yourself whacking giant slugs in Puddleby Farms and your health drops down below 40% (your name will be yellow), you'd better start thinking about heading to town for a quick heal. And remember that you might run into something on the way in that'll take a chunk out of you, so leave yourself a margin for nibbles. Otherwise something will come along and make you fallen, fallen, fallen.

(Being dead is different from being fallen. If you're truly dead, ain't no one gonna be able to heal you. If you're only fallen, however, you can still be healed.)

Don't let this happen to you

And if you're out whacking on young rockodiles and you notice your balance is more gray than green, take a break from swinging at that rock so your balance can recover. (Remember: When your balance is low, you're easy to hit.) Run around a little, stay out of munching range, and when your balance is back up go back to whacking on that rock.

So remember, when your health is low, run for a healer, and when your balance is low, run until it recovers.

If you follow this simple behavior you'll spend much less time hoping a healer will wander by and rescue your mangled corpse and more time beating the tar out of varmints.

Note: There are only two ways for fighters to regain their health by themselves—train Troilus or carry a lot of Tykan potions.