Enemy targeting of remote players (VUH-1515)

Ordinary mirrored waves (VUH-2193)

KH2COOP_ENEMY_TARGET_ALL=1 requires KH2COOP_ENEMY_MIRROR=1 and uses the mirror families (D14: every mob family except the denylist in EnemyMirrorPose.hpp) for the common target_search path. It is default off and can coexist with KH2COOP_PARTY_NATIVE=1; leave the legacy KH2COOP_ENEMY_TARGET_REMOTE flag unset. Native-party room and private status qualification are unchanged. A clone still needs its own status and a fresh, living owner pose to become a target.

Headless Ghidra confirms selector 0x3BE2B0 mode 2 always chooses canonical Sora; mode 0 uses the attention list and falls back to Sora. Changing party or team flags alone cannot change those player-only searches. The existing byte-checked syscall replacement runs the native search, then chooses among the host and both eligible remote players and writes the chosen handle to enemy +0xBF8. It preserves the existing nearest-player policy, hold, hysteresis and per-clone cap. A valid host-side remote candidate keeps its native team and collision before the first assignment.

This route does not advertise cancellation authority, register a forwarded-hit callback, forward damage or veto the owner's local hits. The host-side puppet remains protected by DamagePolicy RemoteVictim; a mirrored attack against the friend's real Sora stays native through LocalVictim.

Attacks that bypass +0xBF8, scripted player-only targets, projectiles and bosses are parked: the common search override does not change their separate targeting paths. Family-specific targeting qualification remains a live check. No party/status room expansion or package/profile change is included.

Axel II (VUH-2912)

The searching-actor check admits type-4 mobs and exact boss identities only (enemyclass::SearchTargetBoss): Thorn (307, type 12) and, since VUH-2912, Axel II (B_EX110, 81, type 3). Before that, Axel II was refused as a type-3 boss, so the host's Axel only ever chose the host's Roxas. Nothing else changed: the same nearest/hold/hysteresis/cap policy and candidate rules (a downed, stale or held seat is no candidate), Mirror mode only, native team and collision on the clone only while Axel holds our write, and zeroed hits on the clone (RemoteVictim). The friend takes the attack natively from its own mirrored Axel. B_EX110_SKIRMISH (2229, Axel I) runs the byte-identical script but stays out until a live run qualifies it (lead decision, VUH-2912; VUH-2916).

The inventory comes from the installed obj/B_EX110.mdlx (b_ex BDX, decoded read-only with the OpenKH 7a3b945c decoder; no game asset is committed). PCs are halfword addresses after the 16-byte header.

The host logs [enemy-target] boss-target frame=... objectId=81 target=<k> owner=<slot> mode=<m> valid=<mask> changed=<0|1> at=<x>,<z> tickMs=<GetTickCount64> (own budget, 256) whenever a search-target boss changes its chosen candidate, back to the host's player included, or the set of candidates changes (valid bit k: candidate k, 0 the host). The rewrite log above prints only clone wins, within a 64-line budget shared with every mob. With KH2COOP_TRACE_HITS=1, each seat also logs [hitwitness] seq=<hittrace seq> hitFrame=<f> hitTickMs=<t> ... motion=<before>-><after> ignoreHit=<before>-><after> reads=<mask> four frames after a boss's applied hit lowered its own canonical player's HP (reads only, 64 lines). A native hit leaves the reaction motion and the ignore-hit timer (+0xD70) running; an HP-only write leaves neither. Axel II's hits on a player are the exception: across hp-09 and hp-10 (25 hits) the timer read 0 throughout, and the reaction shows only as the motion. The target ledger accepts, for Axel II alone, a motion that entered his damage set (10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 18) from outside it on the witness's own frame (damageMotion); a hit landing mid-reaction (already in that set) is no fresh reaction (Ione 5fb4a767). reads has bits 1, 2, 4 and 8 for the motion and timer reads before the hit and then; a failed read leaves its field at 0xFFFFFFFF or -1.0, and the ledger requires all four. The line then adds the victim's reactions until it is logged (VUH-2912, the same trace setting): reactions=<n> refused=<n> reaction=<kind> reactRequest=<id> reactFrame=<f> reactHooked=<0|1>. They come from a read-only hook on 0x3D6FC0, which applies an actor's pending reaction request (it clears actor+0x120 bit 25, which the hit entry 0x3D61D0 sets) and returns the reaction table entry, or 0 when it applied none (the actor refused it, or the entry's kind is 0); refused counts those with a request (the actor update 0x3A89A0 calls it every update, with request id 0 when there is none). An HP-only write never reaches it. reaction is the first applied entry's kind (+2), -1 with none; reactHooked=0 means the hook is not installed (its bytes didn't match), so no count can be read as absent. The ledger does not use them yet. After those (lead #76, after vuh2912-hp-09 logged reactions=0 refused=0 on all 14 Axel hits while each hit's motion changed): callsAll=<n> calls=<n> callRequests=<n> callApplied=<n> callIdentity=ok|unread|changed preArm=none|found|unavailable preArmKind=<kind> preArmRequest=<id> (inject/src/ReactionCalls.hpp). Each witness counts the calls while it is pending, and no history outlives it (Ione 10d8b494). callsAll counts calls on any actor. calls, callRequests (a nonzero or unread request) and callApplied count calls on the victim. They read -1 unless callIdentity=ok. The inject has no native incarnation id, so the victim is its pointer plus its objentry pointer (+0x918), with the canonical-player bookends at arm and log. changed means a call at that pointer carried another or an unread objentry, or, at the final bookend, the pointer was no longer the canonical player or its objentry had changed (Ione e33b049c). unread means the objentry was unread at arm or at log. An earlier changed or unread is never restored. NOTE: a reuse by an actor of the same kind within the 4-frame window is not detected. These fields are diagnostic only, never reaction or targeting acceptance proof; that would need a verified allocation or lifetime generation. preArm looks back only into hitFrame, at the last 16 applied calls. found means the victim's reaction was applied in the hit's frame before the witness armed, with its kind and request. unavailable means the victim's objentry was unread, that frame applied more than 16 reactions, or another or unread objentry applied one at the victim's pointer. So callsAll=0 means the hook never ran in the window, calls=0 with callsAll>0 that it never ran on the victim, and calls>0 callRequests=0 that it ran without a request. tools/scenario/boss_target_ledger.py joins the line to the hit's scope, the friend's driven mirror hit and the boss-target choice. net_prologue_mansion_axel_hp.json is the live check (docs/SCENARIOS.md).

Dusks hit the friend natively (VUH-2466)

In the prologue's Basement Hall (both Roxases bound at site tt19-134), host targeting sends Dusks at the friend's clone (79 rewrites in run 20261019-171742). The friend's mirrored Dusks then hit the friend's own Roxas natively. Run 20261019-192627 had both seats fighting with no stand-in protection: [enemy-mirror] hit ... driven=1 on the friend for attacks 18, 17 and 18 (6, 3 and 3 damage), with its own reaction and i-frames.

An earlier reading said the opposite. In runs 171742–192214 the friend's mirrored Dusks built no hits, but every one of those fixtures carried the runner's "protect": [1] stand-in aid, which keeps the friend on team 0. A forwarding change was designed, reviewed (D14.4, r1–r4) and tested on that reading. It would have forwarded the host's zeroed clone hits for Dusks to the friend as RemoteHits, with a one-kind-per-swing guard and a flinch rule. It was dropped unlanded once the unprotected run showed native hits. The reviewed diff is kept at build/rig/vuh2466/forward-dropped-r4.diff. Its measurements still hold if a family is ever found that truly builds no client hits:

• A pose-driven clone never flinches, so it takes a whole combo. Dusk 309's attack 73 landed 4+4+4+2 on the clone, where a native Roxas takes the first hit or two.
• HP-only forwarded damage has no reaction or i-frames.

BC Soldier loopback, 2026-10-12

Run 201627 passed using the qualified BC clone leaf and mirror mode. The friend clip shows Soldiers attacking the friend's real Sora. Host search assignments name owner 1 and object 301. Client native hit records have driven=1, with attack motions 201/202 entered during the mirror run. Friend HP went 24 to 12 to 0; the host puppet stayed at 24 despite incoming host-side hit records. No forward, veto or remote-hit records occurred. Four protected files, tracked files and installed game files were unchanged; owned cleanup completed.

Focused CTest passed 2/2 (targeting and DamagePolicy); the existing production adapter harness passed 75/75, including all-mode refusal of owner veto/apply and all-mode coexistence with native party configuration. The first live attempt stopped during friend bootstrap; the scenario now waits for both actors and their matching full location before placement.

Limits: this run qualifies Soldier's common search path. Other mirror families remain unqualified live; attacks that bypass the common slot stay parked. The initial run separated the players; close contact is covered below. Native-party coexistence was checked offline; BC is outside that mode's qualified room scope.

Close contact, 2026-10-12

Run 202545 passed with ALL and MIRROR enabled. The host hit a nearby Soldier for 4 native damage (39 to 35 HP), then was placed 30 units from the friend's puppet and walked in both directions. The host clip shows no reaction worth fixing or stuck/push loop. Host movement covered about 706 units on the first leg and 648 on the return. Puppet HP stayed 24 after the swing and contact; no forward, veto or remote-hit records occurred. All four protected files and installed game files were unchanged; owned cleanup passed. KeepNative was left unchanged. This is a short Soldier smoke check, not broad collision qualification. A preceding attempt stopped before the contact actions on an unnecessary owner-target assignment wait; that wait was removed from the bounded contact fixture.

Proposed play flags are KH2COOP_ENEMY_TARGET_ALL=1 and KH2COOP_ENEMY_MIRROR=1, with legacy KH2COOP_ENEMY_TARGET_REMOTE unset. Existing party/private-status qualification still applies. The lead decides promotion and where these flags belong; no play profile was created.

KH2COOP_ENEMY_TARGET_REMOTE=1 (exactly 1; default off). Set it on every machine of the session. With the flag off nothing is hooked, swapped, written or sent. This flag and KH2COOP_PARTY_NATIVE=1 refuse each other (no joint fixture yet): enemy-target's Configure and PartyNative::Install each stay off when the other flag is set.

One damage path per mode

The host's KH2COOP_ENEMY_MIRROR decides the mode. The host carries the mode in every TargetAuthority advertisement, so both sides agree.

Host

• The seam. The bdscript syscall target_search (bank 1 index 121, 0x4303A0) is replaced through its .data entry exe+0x755B00. The swap happens only after an exact 75-byte match and lasts for the host session.
• What the replacement does. It always runs the native selector first. Then it applies the policy only when the searching actor is a live, allowlisted enemy (type mob, team 2, HP > 0) and the native result is the canonical player form (mode 0 or 2, aux 0, naming the canonical player).
• The write. When a clone wins, the replacement writes {clone handle, part 0} into that enemy's +0xBF8. It saves the native handle and part, and puts both back on release.
• Why the Shadow follows it. Its mode_battle measures its attack distances to that slot in the same brain step: under 300 btl_attack, under 600 btl_short, otherwise btl_long.
• Native team and collision. A clone keeps its native team and collision only while at least one tracked enemy holds our write naming it. Otherwise it stays team 0 with no-collide, as on main, so non-allowlisted AI and bosses cannot hit it. While it is kept, any enemy can hit it, but those hits are zeroed (RemoteVictim), and only allowlisted ones are forwarded.
• Forward mode. A hit on a candidate clone from an allowlisted enemy is still zeroed by the existing DamagePolicy (NonLocalPlayer -> ZeroHp/RemoteVictim). After the zero succeeds it is forwarded once to the clone's owner as RemoteHit.
• TargetAuthority (reliable). It is sent on every change and at least every 60 frames.
  • It carries {room tuple, seq, hostConnectionId, slotMask, familyMask, mode}.
  • slotMask bit s is set only while the host is active, the syscall is swapped and slot s's clone is a valid candidate.
  • On stop an empty mask is attempted, best effort only: in most stop cases the send is refused (the role is no longer Host, there is no session, or the generation is new). The guarantee is the owner's 1.5 s age-out. Per-slot changes while the host is active are sent at once.
  • The relay holds advertisements during an event hold (S8), as it drops RemoteHit there, so the owner stops cancelling within 1.5 s of an event.

Owner (client)

• Applying an admitted RemoteHit. It goes to the canonical local player through the hooked native stat funnel: ApplyStatDelta 0x3D2EB0, with delta -damage, idx 0, no reaction.

• Refusals. A RemoteHit is refused when:

  • the player is not canonical;
  • a transition is pending;
  • an event or cutscene is running;
  • the player is dead or downed, or HP is 0;
  • the damage is outside [1, 9999];
  • the ignore-hit timer +0xD70 is above 0. The one exception is the i-frame episode our own cancel started: the timer was 0 before the cancelled hit, rose within 2 frames, and has only counted down since. That episode never applies during DownedSpike's revive grace. A guard, another hit or the revive grace raising the timer again ends the episode (S3/N2);
  • Stale: we have not been covered continuously for the last 1.5 s. This covers a delayed burst of RemoteHits after a downlink stall, whose local copies already landed (S7).

• Local cancel (DamagePolicy Reason::HostEnemyAuthority) requires all of:

  • role Client;
  • an allowlisted source family;
  • an advertisement from the current host connection, for our admitted epoch and room, at most 1.5 s old, in Forward mode, with our slot bit and the family bit set. Its age is checked again at the cancel itself, and a pending transition clears the held view (N1);
  • continuous coverage of at least 1.5 s (S9), the same clock that gates applying a RemoteHit. During a warm-up, or after any lapse, local hits stay native and RemoteHits are dropped as Stale. Neither path then applies the attack twice, and the owner is not left immune.

  Anything else, including a missing, stale or refused advertisement, the host flag off, a refused swap, missing private status, a stale or ineligible clone, or Mirror mode, leaves the local hit native. Apart from the in-flight edge cases under Known limits, the owner is never immune.

Policy (pure, EnemyTargetRemote.hpp)

Candidates.

• The local player, if canonical and live:

  • listed (+0x120 & 0x10080000 clear);
  • not dead (+0x9B8 bit 2 clear);
  • HP > 0.

  A downed local player is skipped.

• Remote clones 1 and 2. Each one needs all of:

  • an active, player-class puppet;
  • a native status distinct from the local player's;
  • a live actor;
  • a fresh pose (within 30 frames, and not an AvatarHeld pose from a stalled stream, VUH-1787) from the same world and room;
  • an owner that is neither downed nor in a cutscene, in slot 1 or 2;
  • a list handle that resolves back to the clone.

Choice. Deterministic, at each native search:

• nearest by horizontal distance;
• a 180-frame minimum hold;
• 150 u hysteresis;
• at most 3 enemies per remote clone (the local player is uncapped);
• 64 tracked enemies (when full, the native result stands);
• ties go to the lower index.

Families

Legacy KH2COOP_ENEMY_TARGET_REMOTE allowlist by object id: Shadow 302 (M_EX020) only. ENEMY_TARGET_ALL uses the mirror families instead (see the top section). The Shadow is verified two ways:

• Statically, from its BDX: m_ex020 PC 2275/2290/2078.
• Live, in VUH-1515 attempt07, run 20261007-033207.

Other ids keep the native behaviour. get player stays native, because the Shadow uses it only in its leave check. No pre-update write is needed: nothing else rewrites the slot between searches.

Private status

A clone must have its own native status. With the flag on, privatestatus::EnableEnemyTargetScope() adds verified rooms only. Each room has its exact leaf row (SAVE+0x3534+4*world): today only BC courtyard 05/06, with row 00/00/02/12. KH2COOP_NATIVE_SORA_PRIVATE_STATUS=1 is still required on the host.

The VUH-1513 Roxas-kit row 00/03/02 is not covered. With that kit, a clone outside GoA is never a candidate. Since the advertisement then never names the slot, the friend's local hits stay native.

Teardown

Known limits (Forward mode)

Deliberate choices:

• The host hits a neutral-input, latency-delayed clone. The friend's own guard, dodge, i-frames, Second Chance and Once More are not consulted. Mirror mode keeps all of these.
• Damage is computed against the clone's stats, not the friend's. This is accepted for now.
• No flinch on the owner (reactFlag 0).
• A lethal RemoteHit in a drive form or summon takes the native, non-gated death branch, the same branches DownedSpike's Kill refuses. That matches a native lethal hit, but it is not "downed".
• Local replica Shadows on the owner are cosmetic for the family while the advertisement names the owner.

Known windows:

• Double-damage window (S5). When the owner's damage context cannot be captured, DamagePolicy returns Native before the cancel is consulted, while the host may still forward. This is rare: it happens only while the session or roster is changing.
• Small immunity window. When a clone stops being a candidate on the host, the owner keeps cancelling until the new mask arrives, about one RTT. It cancels at most until the advertisement ages out, 1.5 s.
• Coverage cutover (S7/S9). Cancel and apply share one 1.5 s coverage clock. Before it is ready, local family hits land natively and RemoteHits are dropped as Stale. After that, local hits are cancelled and RemoteHits apply. The remaining edges are the in-flight pairs that straddle a cutover. A host swing whose local copy landed just before readiness, and whose RemoteHit is processed just after, can apply twice. One whose local copy was cancelled just before a lapse, and whose RemoteHit arrives just after, is lost. Both are bounded by one RTT per cutover.
• Host advertisement period. It is time-based (500 ms), so a low frame rate on the host does not cause lapses.

Fixture

build/rig/vuh1515-enemy-target-remote-20261007-01/live-fixture-01/: runner, judge, controls and an offline dry run. Mode A is Forward and mode B is Mirror.