Storm Gauge and guard health
Evolution retuned the Storm Gauge so repeated character switching can no longer fill it, doubled gain from damage dealt, halved gain from damage taken, and raised the health threshold for awakening. Guard health is displayed on the battle HUD, and 1.11 added a Guard Gauge toggle to practice mode.
Two readouts tell you how a match in Evolution is going, and both were changed from the base game.
Storm Gauge
| Change | Effect |
|---|---|
| Repeated switching no longer fills the gauge | Cycling characters to farm the gauge is gone |
| Gain from damage inflicted increased | Pressing your advantage builds the gauge faster |
| Gain from damage received reduced | Losing the exchange does not hand you a comeback gauge |
| Low-health bonus for taking damage reduced | Matches stay decided by play rather than by the metre |
| Practice mode "Half" option | 1.11 added a toggle to start the gauge at half for testing |
The intent is legible: the gauge is meant to reward interaction, not management. If you built your plan around switching to bank Storm Gauge, that plan does not work here.
Guard health
The base game's guard could break, but Evolution puts the number on the HUD so you can see it coming, and the 1.10 notes list the battle HUD displaying guard health as a headline change. Two follow-ups in that release matter in a match:
- The support gauge and guard health now reset at the end of a round — previously a damaged guard carried over, which punished you twice.
- Guard Break Pill item interactions were reworked, including hitbox fixes during start-up and adjustments for puppet masters.
1.11 kept refining the same area: Charge Guard gained a planar distance requirement for activation, and a Charge Guard support start-up break state was fixed.
Panels you can actually see
- Guard health — on the battle HUD.
- Support gauge — resets each round.
- Instant awakening notice — 1.10 shrank HUD notifications such as the instant awakening callout by 20% and moved them outward, so they stop covering the fight.
- Hit counter — now resets when you are not in a stagger or stun state, so it tracks real pressure.
Testing both
Practice mode is where these numbers are easy to read, and 1.11 extended it for exactly that purpose: a Guard Gauge toggle, a Battle HUD toggle and the Storm Gauge "Half" option all let you set up the state you want instead of grinding towards it. See practice mode settings.
Related pages
- Mechanic changes — the wider rework.
- Items and support changes — the item side of guard breaking.
- Update 1.11 — the build these toggles arrived in.
