Once Henry sustains arm damage, standard melee engagements become punishing stamina traps. The game imposes a compound debuff: basic attack animations require longer recovery frames, while the stamina cost of every action escalates sharply.
Under normal conditions, swinging a longsword consumes a manageable portion of Henry's stamina reserve, allowing disciplined fighters to chain three-hit combos while retaining enough breath to execute a master strike. With a crippled arm, basic strikes draw nearly 45% more stamina. Henry pants for breath after two swings. Because stamina serves as Henry's primary damage shield before health takes damage, this extra exertion turns minor skirmishes into life-threatening emergencies.
Feints suffer an even steeper penalty. Changing attack directions mid-windup with an injured arm adds input latency, making deception telegraph obvious to skilled bandit leaders and Cuman mercenaries.
