Skip to the article
Underground EvolutionThe Wiki
Play

Rivals and Locals

Fighting the named NPC rivals (Quick fight, Square up, pay, cooldowns) and the city's Locals, regulars you can fight or bust out of jail.

Last checked Category The streets

Vesper City has two kinds of non-player fighters: the rivals, named mobsters who run the districts, and the Locals, ordinary regulars of the neighbourhood who get on with their own lives. Neither is a player.

Rivals

Open Actions → Rivals from level 1. You see the rivals who run the district you are standing in, and those found anywhere in the city, from the easiest to the toughest. Each fight costs 15 energy. To fight a rival who runs another district, go there first (Districts and travel). You can't fight while laying low (see Crimes).

How hard a rival is shows in rough words until you gather intel on them or beat them (see Crimes).

Two ways to fight

  • Quick fight: one click, you watch the replay. You fight 3% below your best.
  • Square up (from level 3): round by round at full strength: pick a jab, a haymaker, a block or a feint. You have 60 seconds per move and up to 2 items per fight. Leave a fight alone for too long and the rest plays out as a Quick fight.

A fight lasts at most 10 exchanges. If nobody is down by then it is a stalemate: the energy and the cooldown are spent, and nobody is hurt. Gear, health and stats work as in player fights (Fights).

Winning and losing

  • Win: cash, XP and Respect, and sometimes loot. After 20 rival wins in a day, the cash falls to 25%: XP and loot stay the same.
  • Lose: hospital for 15 minutes. See Jail and hospital.
  • Cooldown: after any fight, that rival lies low for a while, and the page shows when they are back. After a Quick fight a Fight again button appears when you can really go again. The Gold Shop's "Rivals ready again" brings every rival back at once (Gold and the store).

Rivals rise with you

There is no level cap. Above level 70, the toughest rivals (those within 30 levels of the top rival) fight at your level, with pay, XP and strength to match, and show a "Risen to your level" badge.

Locals

The Locals are a roster of named city regulars. On the Rivals page, Locals around lists the ones in your district with their level and what they are like; the City map shows who is around in each district; and the jail and hospital pages list those who are inside.

Their lives

Every ten minutes, each Local has a chance to do something:

  • Pull a job: most go well. Some end with the Local in jail for 10 to 45 minutes, or in hospital for 15 to 60 minutes.
  • Work out at the gym: now and then someone gets hurt sparring.
  • Travel: they leave for another district and turn up a few minutes later, and often drift back home.

A Local who is free is out on the street: one who is in jail or hospital, or on the road, can't be fought. They level up slowly. Word on the street on the Rivals page tells you what the Locals of your district got up to in the last day, the news ticker carries the odd one, and now and then one makes The Evening Racket. Locals count for nothing in the leaderboards, medals, mail, gangs or bounties: they are not players.

Square up with a Local

On Actions → Rivals, press Square up next to a Local in your district. It costs 15 energy and plays out in one go, with the Quick fight rules: your stats count weaker, and the Local hits back, gently.

  • Win: 50% of an easy rival's cash and XP, never Respect. After 20 Local wins in a day the cash falls to 25%. The Local spends 30 minutes in hospital.
  • Lose: hospital for 15 minutes, like with a rival.
  • Cooldown: you can't fight the same Local again for 60 minutes.

Bust a Local out of jail

A Local in jail is listed on the jail page (City → Jail) with a Bust out button. The usual breakout rules apply (Jail and hospital): from level 5, 5 nerve, and at most 5 tries a day (breakouts of real players count too). The chance starts at 50% and falls the longer the Local still has to serve, never below 5% or above 85%. Only 1 try per stay is allowed. Get it wrong and you spend 10 minutes in jail yourself. A success pays 50% of a real breakout's XP and Respect: no cash.

Tips

  • Quick fight easy rivals; keep Square up for the close ones.
  • A Local is a cheap fight when your energy is full and you are short of XP.
  • Check the district before you travel: the toughest rivals live in the tougher districts.
FightsAttacking players and fighting NPC rivals in Vesper City: battle stats, gear, Quick fight... Jail and hospitalHow you end up in the City Jail or St. Jude's Hospital, what you can still do inside, and... Random encountersThe rare ambushes and lucky gifts that can follow a crime, a shift, a gym session or a tri... Gym and trainingSpend energy at the gym to raise strength, defense, speed and dexterity. Happy players tra...