Sanity reserve & failed rituals

What the reserve is for

In a June Steam discussion, Ded asked whether the Sanity vessel should be kept full and why they had died. Their follow-up says the reserve is spent when blood is insufficient at the end of the turn. A developer marked that reply as the answer.

It is a player-authored explanation, not a developer-written statement. We rechecked the thread; we have not reproduced every reserve interaction in the latest Demo. VGTimes’ September preview-build hands-on also describes a reserve covering a shortfall.

Read three things separately

1. The target: the blood score the ritual asks for.
2. Your board’s score: the points your cards and their effects produce.
3. The reserve: the backup balance, not a replacement for selecting and placing cards.

The accepted answer means missing blood points. It does not say the reserve draws missing cards.

A shortfall example

Suppose the target is 20 and the board gives 18. The arithmetic shortfall is two. These are invented example numbers, not values from a recorded encounter.

The community answer describes the reserve making up a shortfall at turn end. Check your displayed reserve and tooltip: this page does not promise an exact conversion rate, capacity or that a specific shortfall will be covered.

The accepted answer does not describe a full reserve as a failure condition. Treat it as backup rather than a reason to stop meeting the target with cards.

When a ritual fails

• Check whether the board met the target.
• Check whether conditional neighbor bonuses actually applied.
• Check the remaining reserve and your current tooltip.
• If your build behaves differently, compare it with the dated original answer below.

Use placement for scoring conditions and burning for permanent card loss. This page does not establish every death, restart or checkpoint condition.