Glossary of Terms

Opened a skill description and ran into “DT,” “standing,” or “encounter” without knowing what they mean? This glossary pulls together the key Last Frontier terms from every area — combat, survival, the world, and progression — with short, precise definitions. If you want more detail on a specific system, head to its dedicated reference article.

Combat and damage

• DT (damage threshold) — a flat number subtracted from incoming damage first. It’s removed once per hit-action (per shot), not once per whole burst — so against high DT, a burst of several weak hits loses less than a single heavy shot loses to the same threshold. If the defense fully covers the incoming damage, the hit deals zero.
• DR (damage resistance) — a percentage reduction of the damage left after DT is subtracted. In other words, DT applies first, then DR shaves the remainder by its percentage.
• Damage types — there are five types in the game: physical, radiation, poison, energy, and fire. Each has its own DT and DR values, so armor that excels at stopping bullets won’t necessarily save you the same way from fire, energy, poison, or radiation. Defense is built from two layers — the creature’s own resistances and the contribution of equipped armor.
• Penetration (armor piercing) — lets you ignore the contribution of equipped armor to DT/DR (armor-piercing rounds or a high enough penetration value on the attacker). The target’s own resistances still apply.
• Aimed attack — a shot at a specific body zone (eyes, head, arms, legs, groin, torso): the chance to hit is lower, but the effect is stronger. The smaller and more important the zone, the bigger the to-hit penalty — for the eyes, for instance, it’s the highest.
• Critical Strike (crit) — checked after a successful hit; it multiplies damage depending on the zone (especially hard for the head) and can cause injuries like a damaged eye or limb.
• Knockdown — a chance to non-lethally knock the target off its feet: it follows non-lethal damage, sends the target into a forced fall with knockback, and a heavy victim can knock down someone else along its path.
• Bleeding — ranked periodic damage dealt by melee: the higher the rank, the stronger the effect. Shown by a bleeding badge above the wounded character.
• Shock, blinding, loss of mobility — temporary combat injury states that limit the character.
• Suppression — stacks from ranged weapon hits that decay over time: they reduce the target’s accuracy, run speed, and attack rate, and AI sees a suppressed shooter as less of a threat. The stacks only hold under continuous fire, otherwise they fall off quickly. Melee doesn’t apply suppression. A blue bar is drawn above a suppressed character.
• Heat — a sustained-fire buildup that sits on the shooter (not the weapon): the longer you fire without a pause, the more it raises spread and jam chance, and at the threshold it forcibly jams the weapon. A few seconds without firing reset most of the heat.
• Overwatch — a Light Weapons skill ability: the character “holds” a chosen sector and automatically opens fire on any enemy entering it. An amber countdown bar glows above a character on overwatch.

Survival

• Radiation — an accumulating load that slowly decays over time; once it’s high enough, the character gets a passive “radiation sickness” with stat penalties and reduced health regeneration. Only you see the exact value, while those around you see only a general radiation badge above the character.
• Poisoning (toxin) — works just like radiation: its own accumulating load and its own threshold sickness with penalties. Others see only a poisoning badge above the character.
• Cold and frostbite — the main survival pressure in Last Frontier (there’s no hunger in the game, so you don’t need to think about it). A low felt temperature gradually builds up “freezing”; once it reaches high values, it causes hypothermia and then frostbite, which deals damage on its own. Others see your freezing only as a badge above the character. A roof overhead, heated rooms, nearby heat sources, and warm gear all help you warm up; warmth above a certain threshold gradually thaws the character back out.
• Harvesting (foraging) — collecting resources from nodes and creatures with the right type of tool: mining, hunting, or electrical. Each successful tool use builds progress; when it reaches the threshold, the node yields its harvest and you gain experience. You can’t harvest with a broken tool or a tool of the wrong type.
• Stash / hidden cache — a cache you can discover by scanning while harvesting. A found cache becomes private to its finder and is marked with a special badge. Caches come in different kinds: abandoned property, machinery — sometimes frozen into the ice — winter supplies, hunters’ drop-offs, and troves near the trails.

World and the global map

• Fog of war — the darkened, unexplored part of the global map. It opens up square by square as your party moves closer and sees the surrounding space; the party’s sight range determines how widely the fog is lifted.
• Point of interest (POI) — any marker on the global map you can react to. The existing types are: your own party, an unknown place, a known place, an active encounter, a camp, another player’s party, a death stash, and a quest giver.
• Checkpoint — an open entrance to an already-known location, with a preview. If a location has an open entrance, you pick your entry point right from the preview window, with no extra waiting. Locations without a checkpoint are entered through the usual confirmation window.
• Encounter — a random PvE or PvP situation that arises while traveling across the global map. Encounter difficulty is tied to the place in the world, not to your level or gear: the same place is equally dangerous for everyone, and the game never tunes the danger to you. Want a tougher fight — go to a more distant, more dangerous place. The only exception is a small newbie protection during a character’s first few levels.
• Camp — a generated location that’s created when a party enters its own point of interest on the global map.
• Death stash — a private point on the global map where you can recover the property lost when your character died. It’s visible only to the account owner; just select it while within range and the lost loot transfers straight into your inventory — no need to enter a separate map.

Factions and reputation

• Faction — a canonical in-game group with its own territory of influence, allies, and enemies. There are seven of them: the Traders, the Battalion, the Headhunters, Vault ED-17, the Radio Rats, New Gambell, and Savoonga. “Neutral” isn’t a separate faction, just the absence of membership in any of them.
• Standing / reputation — your relationship with a specific faction. Reputation is stored separately for each character on the account (the only thing shared across the account is the inventory). The standing levels are “hostile,” “neutral,” “respected,” and “trusted”; “contact” is the basic access level just above neutral. Factions with a recognition threshold have the special statuses “access restricted” and “clearance confirmed.” Standing determines access to faction services, prices, joining, and ranks.

Character and account

• Stats — the four base character parameters: Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, and Perception.
• Skills — the ten skills: Light Weapons, Heavy Weapons, Melee Combat, Explosives, Medicine, Foraging, Travel, Infiltration, Leadership, and Mechanics.
• Modifier — any effect that influences the character. They fall into categories: abilities (unlocked through skills), passives (such as that same radiation sickness or hypothermia), combat, and achievements.
• Ability — a modifier that unlocks on a character upon reaching the required level of the linked skill; it can be active (toggled) or permanent. Each skill has its own long ladder of abilities, from early ones to powerful final ones.
• Roster — the set of characters on a single account (up to five); only one can be active at any given moment. Each character has its own level, experience, injuries, and reputation.
• Shared storage — an inventory container shared across the whole account and synced with the active character. It’s the only thing the account’s characters share with each other; everything else (level, reputation, injuries) is individual.

Crafting, items, the test

• Crafting — making items: it takes time and works without a success roll. If the recipe’s requirements (skill, the needed ability, materials, a tool, and a nearby crafting station) are met, the item is created guaranteed. The process is interrupted if you move from your spot while crafting.
• Wear and breakage — an item’s hidden wear from use. There are no numeric durability bars or percentages in the game: you’re shown only the final “broken” state (a red cell background), and you can’t use such an item until it’s repaired.
• ECO — the premium currency from the support shop on the website; in the game it’s credited to your account as Credits. Buying any support kit or ECO pack also grants guaranteed access to the test for 24 hours — a quick way to get into the game.
• Wipe — a reset of progress during testing. This happens over the course of the closed beta test; the exact schedule isn’t fixed, so treat anything you’ve accumulated as temporary.

Didn’t find the term you needed? Chances are it’s covered in detail in the corresponding reference article — on combat, survival, factions, or the global map.