Revision 5

Overview

The Vulnerable state (虚弱, Xūruò) is a temporary combat debuff that bosses and elite enemies enter after their posture bar is depleted. During Vulnerable, the enemy takes +50% damage from all sources for 8 seconds. This is the primary high-damage window in Honor of Kings: World combat and the target outcome of most boss-fight strategies.

Triggering Vulnerable

Enter Vulnerable by depleting the white posture bar above the enemy's HP. Posture is depleted through:

• Heavy attacks (charged basics)

• Certain skills that carry high posture damage

• Perfect Dodge counter hits (big posture damage)

• Parries after blocking incoming attacks

• Break Momentum bar depletion on Calamity Beasts (coordinated 4-player variant)

Visual Cues

When an enemy enters Vulnerable:

• The enemy visibly staggers and falls to the ground briefly

• A countdown or animation indicator shows the 8-second window

• Damage numbers appear larger or in different colors. This reflects the +50% multiplier

Execution (处决)

If accumulated damage during the Vulnerable window exceeds a threshold, the player can trigger an Execution (处决) finisher. Execution is a cinematic attack that deals bonus damage, often instantly killing the enemy if their remaining HP is within the execution threshold. Against bosses, execution can skip a phase or deal massive guaranteed damage.

Recovery After Vulnerable

When the 8 seconds expire, the enemy's posture bar regenerates over time. Some enemies regenerate posture rapidly, allowing repeat Vulnerable triggers; others regenerate slowly, making the first Vulnerable window especially valuable.

Design Impact

The +50% multiplier during Vulnerable is large enough that optimal play revolves around forcing Vulnerable rather than sustained DPS uptime. Skilled players can chain Perfect Dodges and counter hits to deplete posture rapidly, creating back-to-back Vulnerable windows in shorter timelines. This rewards mechanical mastery over simple gear scaling.

How the Window Opens

The vulnerable window is the direct consequence of draining an enemy's Break Momentum Bar to zero. The moment the bar empties, the target staggers and every incoming source of damage counts for more than it would in the standing state. Hands-on previews describe the buff as a general damage multiplier, not a single-element bonus: physical hits, skill hits, elemental hits, and charged attacks all profit from the window. This is why the break bar is treated as a party-wide resource rather than a personal one.

Timing Character Swaps for the Burst

One of the core high-skill patterns in the game is timing a character swap to land inside the vulnerable window. A Vanguard on the front line chips the white bar down with parries and heavy strikes. The player watches the bar empty, then taps swap to bring in an Assault hero whose charge meter is ready. The first skill from the incoming hero lands as a charged attack on a target that takes amplified damage, stacking two multipliers in a single input. Practiced pairs can chain this pattern repeatedly across a boss fight, turning each break state into a burst check-point rather than a passive stun. Support kits can also stack temporary damage buffs on top of the window to stretch the multiplier further.

Recovery and Next Loop

Once the vulnerable window ends, the white bar resets to full and the loop begins again. Elite enemies and bosses typically cycle back to aggressive behaviour faster than standard mobs, which is why top-tier parties rotate defensive cooldowns during the recovery phase rather than continuing to burn offensive resources. See Combat System for the full break-and-burst rhythm and Parry System for the primary tool used to drive the bar down again.