Retreating from Battle

• The party may agree to retreat at the end of any round.
• If the party retreats, the encounter immediately ends.
• Retreating is useful to avoid likely defeat and save time and resources.
• However, retreating means the encounter is failed, and the party does not gain the rewards for completing it.
• For standard encounters, see "Encounter Results" on page 38 for details on failed encounters.

Source: page 59

Exception: Uncover Objective

• In delve battles with the Uncover objective, the party must retreat after gaining the required skyshards to succeed.
• If the party retreats before fully exploring the battle map (i.e., before gaining all required skyshards), the encounter is failed.
• Unlike other objectives, the party gains XP from each skyshard acquired in the delve—up to the required limit—so long as the entire party is not defeated. This is true even if the party retreats before gaining all required skyshards.
• If the party is entirely defeated, no XP is gained.

Source: page 59, page 86

Summary

• Standard battles: Retreating ends the encounter as a failure, with no rewards.
• Uncover objective: The party must retreat after collecting all required skyshards to succeed. Retreating before this fails the encounter, but partial XP may be gained for skyshards if not all adventurers are defeated.

References:

• Retreating from Battle: page 59
• Battle Objectives (Uncover): page 86

Source: Core Rulebook (pp. 53, 54, 57, 59, 86)