ReferenceUpdated 11/28/2025

Core Mechanics

Definitions, quick facts, and frequently asked questions that explain how the combat engine behaves on live builds.

Core Systems

A special resource that powers high-impact abilities and effects.

Think of Spark as a mini ultimate bar that every Hero has. Each Hero has unique rules for how they gain Spark, which are detailed in their abilities. For example, one Hero might gain Spark at the start of their turn, while another gains it by dealing poison damage.
Heroes also have different ways to spend Spark. Some can use a small amount to enhance a regular ability, while others might have an "ultimate ability" that only becomes available when their Spark reaches 100%.
Unspent Spark carries over between turns, but it’s capped at 100%. This means you’ll need to decide when to save it and when to spend it for maximum impact.

Team bonuses based on shared lore tags.

Cohesion grants a 1% increase to all stats (except Speed) for each shared tag on the team. This makes it a key mechanic for team-building strategies.
The mechanic leverages the concept of hierarchical tag trees, where shared tree roots can provide significant bonuses. Many tags can act as common ancestors, amplifying the cohesion effect.
Certain generals, like Napoleon, can interact with cohesion directly. For example, Napoleon might double cohesion bonuses for French allies, reflecting his historical reliance on unit cohesion and discipline.
Players must balance between building "tribal" teams (all one faction) to maximize cohesion or creating mixed teams of strong units with fewer shared tags (staples). This trade-off adds depth to team-building decisions.

Controls the order of actions using Effective Speed.

The Turn Meter determines when a unit gets to act. It fills up based on the unit’s Speed and modifiers like Haste or Slow.
When a unit takes its turn, its meter resets to 0%, and the other units’ meters are recalculated relative to their Speed.
Certain abilities can directly add or subtract from a unit’s Turn Meter. However, reductions can’t push the meter below 0%.

Buffs, debuffs, and damage-over-time effects that influence the flow of battle.

Status effects have durations measured in turns. Most of them tick down after the affected unit completes its turn.
Some effects, like Poison or Burn, deal damage at the end of the turn, while others might restrict the use of certain abilities.
Status effects can stack, and their behavior is usually additive unless stated otherwise in the effect description.

Action Economy

The active unit can only perform one ability per turn unless a passive grants bonus turns.

Targeting

Single-target abilities follow ability-defined rules; if no target is chosen the engine auto-selects valid enemies.

Resistance Checks

Status applications roll Resolve vs. Intuition; Nemesis/Affinity keywords modify the final outcome.

Cooldowns

Ability cooldown counters tick down at the end of the acting unit’s turn.

Every hero lists Spark gain rules in their ability text (e.g., turn start, poison damage dealt).
Using an ability that requires Spark consumes the listed percentage before resolving effects.
If the hero lacks enough Spark the ability downgrades to its base version or becomes unavailable.

Cohesion counts unique game tags shared among living allies (Egypt, Divine, Republic, etc.).
Each valid match increases the team’s cohesion rating, which converts into the final Attack/Defense multipliers.
Certain leaders add multiplicative bonuses for preferred tags or unlock extra mechanics (counter-attacks, Spark gains).

Passives fire whenever their trigger condition is met (on turn start, when Spark is spent, when an ally is debuffed).
Unless the ability text states otherwise, passives cannot be silenced but they still respect immunity keywords.
If multiple passives trigger simultaneously, the engine resolves them in the order they were applied to the unit.

Base damage = (Attacker Attack × ability multiplier) × critical modifiers minus mitigation.
Defense mitigation uses the formula Defense / (Defense + Level × 7.5).
Nemesis keywords apply +50% damage, while Affinity reduces final damage by 25%.