thank you so much for the feedback!
Yeah, the explanation for mechanics is just not there currently. Since the last build the mechanics have only grown and there are some that -aren't-fully-implemented-yet-, one if which is player break status. i haven't touched it much yet since the last pass on the system, but currently how it works is that it's what happens if you wrongblock a high or a low (so if you don't hold down to block a sweep, etc). The player has 3 cards though, so the player doesn't immediately break on the first mistake. The time on breaks and number of cards is supposed to change with difficulty differently (for instance, i'd like to set it as 'infinite' cards for curse level 1), but instead right now it matches the enemy's stats; you actually suffer less break on higher difficulties currently.
Better documentation and tutorials are something i want to do, but while systems churn they have short life spans. The dolls and matsu currently have extremely strong pressure