Brick Force Headshot and Luck Guide

Brick Force Headshot and Luck Guide by KDraconis

There’s a lot of players talking about the Luck system in the game, especially about its supposed relation to stopping headshots from occurring. The conversation and feedback has reached a point where, without much consistency, people have their own ideas on how Luck and headshots work. I decided to try and list all the theories on how Luck affects the game, and how headshots are affected.

First off though, whenever you get lucky (that is, whenever Luck gets activated) the sign “Lucky!” appears for a second above your HP. If you’ve never seen “Lucky!” appear on the screen, you’ve either never been lucky or haven’t noticed the sign popping up.

Here are the theories that are floating around, some being similar to health-related Luck mechanics in other games:

1. Luck determines headshots, regardless of where the bullet hits. If you shoot a player in the foot, for example, your Luck value will determine whether or not you get a “headshot”. This theory is highly contrived because, A. because you gain Luck from protective headgear, and B. because then there’s no reason they’d be named “headshots”, they would just be named “critical hits” or “lucky shots”.
2. Headshots can be prevented by Luck whenever a bullet hits the head. When a player A shoots player B, player B’s Luck value can prevent a headshot from occurring. This theory makes a lot of sense because, as previously mentioned, Luck is gained from wearing protective headgear. If you’re lucky, your headgear will deflect a bullet. If not, the headshot still counts.
3. Fatal hits, regardless of where a player is hit, is negated by Luck. In other words, when your health is so low that one bullet can finish you off, you can get lucky and survive a single bullet. A type of “cannot be one-hit-KO’d” mechanic. This theory means that people can survive headshots, but not headshots exclusively; you can even survive a shot to the foot.

These are generally the ways that people THINK the Luck system works. Nothing has been confirmed by a developer though, so how it actually works is anybody’s guess. But out of these three, #2 seems the most realistic and reasonable, #1 devalues skill and accuracy with its ridiculousness, and #3 is a very widespread Luck mechanic in video games.

Another problem is what headshots are considered to be. Headshots can be one of several things:

1. A shot that instantly kills the person hit. One-hit-KO
2. A shot that deals extra damage (doesn’t mean that it can’t kill, just that it’s not a DEFINITE kill)
3. Nothing special. Just shows how accurate you are

Depending on the above definitions of what a headshot COULD be, the reason why the announcer yells “Headshot!” also changes. If it’s #1, there isn’t much to discuss: the person was instantly killed, and the announcer is explaining how your target died in one bullet. If it’s #2, the announcer yelling “Headshot!” probably means that your last shot was a headshot, but you could have gotten headshots before your target died. I heard multiple shots to the head kills people. If it’s #3, the announcer yelling it out is pointless.

Can’t say I haven’t gotten one-bullet headshot kills, but it still could fall into any of the three definitions if the enemy was at low enough health. I also have gotten lucky and seen “Lucky!” pop up on my screen, surviving with less than 10 HP (hard to keep track of if I survive with only 1 HP, since Luck hasn’t activated for me unless bullets are raining down on me), so Luck isn’t some hidden thing; it can actually be observed in-game and it occurs very, VERY rarely (I have 6% Luck from items, the maximum you can get with the current shop items).

Anyways, that was my effort to summarize the whole “how does Luck affect headshots” issue, and to ask for a developer to confirm which way it works.

Comment from Dev

Hi KDraconis,

Thanks very much for posting. Currently I’m planning a selection of different blog posts that will reveal a bit more about the Brick-Force game mechanics and also some of our plans for the future. We will begin by publishing some game design information about the hitboxes, and we will clarify some information regarding the luck system in the future too.

Thanks very much for your post, it’s great to be able to read feedback and your interpretation of the luck system. Some of the theories that you’ve posted are close to the truth, but I feel as though we should definitely clarify some details to clear up any confusion!

Feel free to keep the discussion going – we’re very keen on hearing about what other people think of this system.

Cheers,
Zal