The goal of the game is to eliminate all of your opponent's tokens. You do this by dealing damage to those tokens. 256 points of damage to those units, to be precise. Damage can be done through either attacks or status, and several factors affect how much damage is done.
When one token attacks another token in an attempt to deal damage, multiple factors are used to determine damage dealt, and all the factors are deterministic. No randomness is used to determine damage. There are four factors, or weaknesses, used to determine damage dealt. Each factor is the same for each token with a certain token class. Each weakness has the possibility of doubling damage dealt in the best case, or halving damage in the worst case. The base amount of damage is 8, and is multiplied by each weakness successively. So, being resisted with all four weaknesses will result in ½ damage although it would be rounded down since damage only deals with intriguers, and it is impossible for a unit to resist based on status, and hitting all four weaknesses should result in 128 damage. All units have 256 hit points at the start.
Each token class only has one element designation, the element it attacks with. This is because the unit's elemental weakness is determined by it's attacking element using an elemental pentagon, in a type of Elemental Rock Paper Scissors. An element always is neutral (×1) against itself.
A Light () attacker is ×2 weak to
a Electric () attacker, which is ×2 weak
a Fire () attacker, which is ×2 weak to
a Frost () attacker, which is ×2 weak to
a Sound () attacker, which is ×2 weak to
a Light () attacker.
If the order is reversed, the weakness is ×.5 times. For example, a Electric attacker is ×.5 weak to a Sound attacker.
If an element is skipped over, the weakness is ×1.5 times. For example, a Light attacker is ×1.5 weak to a Fire attacker.
If the order is reversed and an element is skipped over, the weakness is ×.75 times. For example, a Fire attacker is ×.75 weak to a Light attacker.
Another way to think of this would be a pentagon shape with the five elements at the corners and directional line segments connecting each as shown in the picture below.
Each class has a weakness to a weapon that is independent from any other attributes of the token class. Generally, each token class has one ×.5 weakness, one ×.75 weakness, one ×1.5 weakness and one ×2 weakness, although if a unit is more agile more speed or range than average, it may have stronger weaknesses to compensate. Even though all units should still have no weaknesses stronger than ×2, and at least one each of a ×.5 weakness and a ×2 weakness.
Speed | Range | weaknesses | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
3 | 1 | 2; 1.5; 1; .75; .5 | Most common |
5 | 1 | 2; 1.5; 1; 1; .5 | |
3 | 2 | 2; 1.5; 1; 1; .5 | |
2 | 3 | 2; 1.25; .75; .75; .5 | Reduced speed is really hard to hide |
Current recommended weapon weak quantites; what I am under the impression works best for balance at the present time; also, what I might try to stick to, should I remember to.
1 range ≅ 2 Speed ≅ 1 weakness level
A weakness to a particular status indicates that a token, in addition to feeling the effects of the status, will receive double damage when afflicted by that status. The status will not have more of an effect the unit. No token classes resist any statuses. The status does not need to have been dealt by the attacker, and the attacker does not need to be able to inflict the status. Any attack damage during the statuses three turn duration will be doubled.
Each token class is weak to being attacked in a certain direction. The closer to that direction a unit is attacked from, the more damage a unit will suffer. For the most part, these are determined randomly at compile time, with a few exceptions. One such example is the UmbrellaSwordsman which is always weak from the south. Units can only be weak to cardinal directional attacks. The multiplier is determined by how close one is to the weak direction. If a unit is weak to the south, an attack from the south deals ×2 damage, an attack from either the east or west deals ×1 damage, an attack from the north deals ×.5 damage, an attack from the northeast or northwest deals between ×1 and ×.5 damage, and an attack from the southeast or southwest deals between ×2 and ×1 damage. A weakness is indicated by an arrow pointing in that direction on the token class screen: an arrow pointing south indicates that an attacker should stand to the south of the attacked to achieve the Direction weakness.
The image shows an example of an optimal attack based on direction,
and the corresponding dataimage, in case the above description
didn't help.
Status damage, like other status effects, occur at the start of the owning player's turn. Three statuses deal damage. Burn deals 16 damage each turn. Neuro and Snake toxins both deal 8 damage, but have a second effect. The damage stops being inflicted when the status wears off, after the third turn.