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FAQ: Mechanics and Interactions

By Fadeway

Here we tackle questions like: Do attack bonuses work on hackers? Does the shield bonus work on fortress barriers?

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Created by

Fadeway
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Category: Gameplay Basics, Weapons

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

22 Sep, 2023 @ 3:35pm

25 Oct, 2024 @ 7:14am

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Guide Index

Overview

Core mechanics

Shield and barrier mechanics

Missiles

Hacking

Unit and card drops

Misc

Glossary

FInal word

Comments

Core mechanics

How are damage bonuses applied?

Maluses and bonuses seem to be summed separately and multiplied with each other. For example, if you have a 100hp unit with -13% health from cost control, and +15% health from the tower, you will end up at:

100hp * 0.87 * 1.15 = 100.05hp
# If you also add mass production with a 30% health penalty:
100hp * 0.57 * 1.15 = 65.55hp

The general formula appears to be:
Base Stat * (1 - tech maluses - specialist maluses) * (1 + tech bonuses + tower bonus + item bonus + specialist bonuses) * UnitLevel

Note that this makes stacking penalties very bad for you. For example, if you take extended range marksman (-20% damage) and quick reload (-50% damage), you'd need a 200% damage bonus to get back to the vanilla damage values. Add cost control (-17%) and -13% from somewhere else and your marksman will do 0 damage no matter how many bonuses you stack to offset it.
Are there hidden armor stats? Does [unit] have any damage reduction that is inherent to it (aka ignoring things like the armor enhancement tech)?

No.
When units are created in the middle of a round, what tech and level do they get?

If you have a tech unlocked, it applies to all units you produce, even those that were not there at the start of the round. In most cases, units spawn at level 1 regardless of the level of the unit that is producing the. The war factory summons and marksman's fang summoning are exceptions.

Shield and barrier mechanics

Which types of shield are improved by Shield Device Specialist?

Only the deployable $100 shield devices. Barriers from units like fortress are not improved. The barrier from the Shield Airdrop skill is not improved either.
Does EMP increase damage to barriers?

Generic EMP such as the one on sledgehammers does nothing to barriers, and is even countered by them since it can't disable tech through the barrier. The Electromagnetic Blast skill damages barriers, but that is an explicit extra part of the skill and not a trait inherent to EMP.
Does the barrier item stack on units that have their own barriers?

No. If you have a fortress with a 120k barrier from technology, a barrier item will completely replace that, resulting in lower survivability.

By the way, the same applies to the nano repair item. If you have field maintenance and nano repair, only the item will apply.
Does a barrier-equipped sandworm create a barrier while underground?

A buried worm still produces a barrier which will protect ground units in the area and block battlefield abilities as usual.
How does the personal shield tech of fangs interact with EMP?

Personal shield always blocks at least one hit. Even when the unit shooting the fang has EMP and sufficient damage, the fang will survive with full health and no shield left.

Missiles

What does the missile interceptor turret work against?

Sentry missile devices.
Attack projectiles from Stormcaller, Overlord and Farseer
Tech: Vulcan bombs, Fortress Anti-Air Barrage, Melting Point EMP
Good luck: typhoon missiles, fort rocket punch
Can mustangs attack while intercepting missiles?

No.
Do levels help with missile interception?

No. Level 9 stormcallers are just as easy to intercept as level 1, and a mustang or war factory will intercept the same number of missiles regardless of whether it's level 1 or 9.

Hacking

Do hackers benefit from attack upgrades?

Yes, hacking gets faster with more attack.
What techs do hacked units have?

The ones they had before they were hacked.
Does photon coating such as from the rhino and overlord tech slow down hacking?

No.

Unit and card drops

What are the rules for free unit drops?
Units drop once on turn 2-4, once on turn 5-7, once on turn 8-10, once on turn 11-13.

Each unit drop has a budget, see for example https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/news/app/669330/view/7847029157658887459

The budget is used to make the the 4 options similar in value. Unlock costs are not accounted for. For example, 1 fort, 4 fangs, 2 sledges and a lvl 3 ball have the same baseline value (400).

Options which include too many deployments or especially high levels are further penalized, as are certain units (like mustangs). From the example above, the 4 fang deployment would be penalized (its value would be treated as more than 400) because it has too many deployments.
What units can be offered in unit drops?

Hackers never drop. Wasps can drop but their level is hard capped to prevent lvl 4+ wasp drops (I think).

If any player unlocks a unit, it will not show up in unit drops. This does not apply to fangs, marksmen, crawlers and arclights, which are only blocked when someone deploys them. If too many units are unlocked and there are not enough options, the game ignores this rule and starts offering them again.

Improved and mass produced variant cards also block unit drops. For example if one player has mass produced sledge, sledge will be blocked from unit drops, even if neither player has unlocked the actual sledge unit.
What reinforcement cards can be offered?

Cards have color-coded tiers, white < blue < yellow < red. White and blue cards drop starting t2, yellow cards start dropping t3 and red cards start dropping t4. You don't get cards on the unit drop turn.

Improved unit variant cards are not offered if a player already has that unit on board. Mass produced, assault and extended range variants can be offered even with units on board.

If someone takes the oil card, it will not be offered again.

Misc

Does Skill Specialist reduce the cooldowns of previously used skills?

Yes. For example, if you have an Orbital Strike coming off cooldown on turn 8, and you pick Skill Specialist on turn 7, you will be able to immediately use Orbital Strike.
Does crawler acid affect friendly units?

Yes. Acid, fire and oil on the ground affect all players equally.
What happens if a fortress takes a lot of damage with no enemies in rocket punch range?

The rocket punch will be held and used on the first unit that comes in range in the future.
A rhino with wreckage recycling (heal on kill) kills a rhino with final blitz (self-destruct). Is the damage or the heal applied first?

The damage is applied first. If your rhino has less health than the self destruct damage, it will not get a chance to heal from the kill.
Rage rhino gains 10% more damage per unit killed. What is a "unit" in this case?

Every single model is a separate unit. For example, if a rhino swings into a squad of 20 fangs and kills five, it will gain 50% more damage for the rest of the battle.

Glossary

Tech: Refers to the four unit-specific upgrades that you can buy at any time during a match.

Specialist, Skill: At the start of every round, the game lets you pick between specialists, skills and items. Skills are active abilities like Wasp Swarm, Nuke or Intensive Training. Specialists are passive effects like Tech Specialist, but also things like Intelligent Marksman or Mass Produced Sledgehammer.

FInal word

If your question was not answered, post a comment and pay the tower fee so that it can be fixed.
If you spot a mistake, pay the tower fee and post a comment so that it can be fixed.

The information here is mostly from training grounds testing. I sometimes cut corners.

8 Comments

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Liringlas 26 Oct, 2024 @ 8:01am

Good to know, thank you very much!

Fadeway [author] 25 Oct, 2024 @ 4:20pm

no, the premise is wrong, crawlers replicate when they kill any unit, squads have nothing to do with it

Liringlas 25 Oct, 2024 @ 8:15am

Thanks, this was great!

One question about crawler replication: I heard that they only replicate once they finish a whole squad (say all of another crawler), but in case of the card that spawns crawlers they're each considered a separate unit and in that case the replicate is stronger. Is that true?

Fadeway [author] 25 Oct, 2024 @ 7:15am

ty, added

Last_Zepp 25 Oct, 2024 @ 5:50am

Assault variant is viable for drops if you have unit on board, it does not lock it out like "improved"

Not Sure 23 Jun, 2024 @ 10:53am

"How does the personal shield tech of fangs interact with EMP?

Personal shield always blocks at least one hit. Even when the unit shooting the fang has EMP and sufficient damage, the fang will survive with full health and no shield left."

Does it EMP the fangs other skills? For example if they had range and shield. Once they are hit by EMP and it takes away the shield. Does it also disable the other skills? Or the EMP was blocked once by the shield?

VhaalSâhiir 11 Apr, 2024 @ 2:56am

EDIT: Misc 7 is outdated, this ability doesn't exists anymore.

VhaalSâhiir 11 Apr, 2024 @ 2:42am

Nice! Thanks for pointing things out, in a comfortable short way!

Shield mechanics 3 and Misc 3 and 6 was unknown to me.
Core mechanics 1 and Misc 1 and 7 are good to keep in mind.

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