In combat, when an attack strikes a character, he/she may make a Soak (if he/she has sufficient action points to do so) to attempt to reduce the damage by rolling with the blow. A Soak is declared after the dice rolls to determine whether the attack has hit or not.
The Soak is a reaction if the character has not already reacted to the attack, or a follow-on if he/she has already reacted to the attack (by unsuccessfully blocking, jumping back, side-stepping or parrying), but there is no other difference between a Soak reaction and a Soak follow-on.
A Soak does not involve any movement on the combat "board".
A Soak costs one action point.
When a character makes a Soak, he/she makes a dice roll using his/her Combat (including Soak specialism) + ST. Based on the dice roll result achieved, the wound severity is reduced:
| Soak dice roll result | Number of wound severity levels reduced |
| Zero or less | 0 |
| between 1/2 and 5 | 1 (e.g. Fatal becomes Critical) |
| between 5 1/2 and 10 | 2 (e.g. Fatal becomes Serious) |
| between 10 1/2 and 15 | 3 (e.g. Fatal becomes Medium) |
| between 15 1/2 and 20 | 4 (e.g. Fatal becomes Light) |
| between 20 1/2 and 25 | 5 (e.g. Fatal becomes Scratch) |
| 25 1/2 or more | 6 (e.g. Fatal becomes None) |
For example, Urlik has been struck by Cogan. If he does not soak, he will receive a Serious wound. He decides to attempt to soak some of the damage. His ST is +2 and his Combat skill is 4 with a +1 bonus in Soak. His basic result is 7. This guarantees a reduction of two wound severity levels, taking the wound to a Light wound. He decides not to risk the chance of a worse wound, and so ends up with a Light wound.