Card term glossary: How to read spells

Sometimes it’s not clear to new players what exactly a spell will do. Do you remember whether the Boar Rider will give you credit for the gems they take off the board, or if the Lance Knight does? What does “double damage if the target is Fey” mean? Here’s the cheat sheet.

Adjacent: The troop(s) right next to the spell’s target. Troops with a gap between them are not adjacent.

Ally: One of your own troops, including this one unless explicitly stated. (E.g., Brian the Lucky only affects “other allies”, not himself.) The phrase “an ally” means you choose, as opposed to “random ally”, “all allies”, etc.

Beast: Animals. Any troop with a paw symbol on their card.

Boost: Often a spell is boosted by making a change to the board, such as removing gems. There is a boost ratio with each spell. For instance, if a spell does 4 damage boosted by removing green gems, and has a 2:1 boost ratio, it does 1 more point of damage for every 2 green gems removed.

Cleanse: Undo negative status effects like entanglement, poison, etc.

Column: An entire vertical column of gems. Almost always used with “destroy” or “remove”, and almost always caster’s choice of column.

Create gems: New gems of one or more specific colors are created. Gems that were already those colors are not changed. Spells that create gems may result in 4- or 5-of-a-kind and provide an extra turn. Or they may not; use with caution.

Daemon: Any troop with a daemon symbol on their card.

Damage: Does damage to armor first, then life, just like skulls do–unless it specifically says damage to a skill (like true life). If no target is specified, it’s the first enemy troop.

Destroy armor: Permanently reduces a troop’s armor to 0. (Armor can be regained via other spells.)

Destroy gem: When a gem is destroyed, you earn mana for it. If it’s a skull, it does damage to the enemy. The gem destroyed is your choice unless otherwise stated (random, all of one type).

Devour [gems]: Same as “remove”–no mana is gained nor damage done. Usually something is gained in exchange.

Devour [troop]: Destroy a troop and add all of their skills to this troop.

Dragon: Dragons. Any troop with a dragon symbol on their card.

Drain mana: Drains mana but does not steal it.

Elemental: Any troop with an elemental symbol on their card.

Enemy: An enemy troop. The phrase “an enemy” means you pick the target. Other options may be “random enemy”, “all enemies”, “first two enemies”, etc.

Entangle: An entangled enemy can’t do damage by matching skulls, unless they match extra. (Effectively, their attack is temporarily reduced to 0.) Entanglement will wear off eventually, with an increasing chance each turn.

Explode: Destroys a gem and the 3x3 area around it, but only earns 70% mana. The gem exploded is your choice unless otherwise stated (random, all of one type).

Fey: Fairies. Any troop with a butterfly symbol on their card.

Full: A skill’s maximum value. This isn’t just the regular value; it’s as high as the skill ever was for this troop in this battle.

Gain an extra turn: Exactly what it says on the tin.

Gain [skill]: Adds to the specified skill.

Heal: Same as “restore life”.

Hunter’s mark: This enemy takes double damage from skulls. Will wear off eventually, with an increasing chance each turn.

Poison: A poisoned troop has a 50% chance to lose 1 point of life on each new turn. (It is only counted when control first passes to you, not during extra turns.) Life will never drop below 1 point from poison. Poison does not wear off, but it can be cleansed.

Random: You don’t choose this target (troop or gem).

Remove: When a gem is removed but not destroyed, you don’t earn any mana for it. Same with skulls: they don’t do damage. When removing a row or column, the row/column is your choice unless otherwise stated.

Restore [skill]: Restores a skill, up to its maximum value. Skills boosted past their maximum will always raise it, so a troop that has gained extra life has a new, higher maximum.

Row: An entire horizontal row of gems. Almost always used with “destroy” or “remove”, and almost always caster’s choice of row.

Silence: A silenced enemy can’t collect mana or use their special skill. Their mana is also drained when silenced, so it doesn’t come back when the silence is lifted. Silence will wear off eventually, with an increasing chance each turn.

Skill: One of the four skills: attack, armor, life, or magic. Usually used in the context of “random skill” or “skills” (all).

Stat: Same as “skill”.

Steal: Takes from an enemy’s skill and gives it to this troop. The amount stolen is limited by what the target has.

Summon: Creates a new troop in the first available slot. The troop’s level is determined by the caster’s magic, with an upper limit of 15.

Undead: Any troop with a skull symbol on their card.

Targeting options:

If a spell says it will do damage but doesn’t specify to whom, the first enemy is targeted. A spell may also target something random or all items of a certain type. But there are many spells that allow you to choose a target. This is how you know when you’ll see those options.

“Select an enemy”: Appears whenever the spell says “an enemy”. E.g., not “a random enemy”.

“Select an ally”: Appears whenever the spell says “an ally”.

“Select a gem”: Appears whenever the spell says “a/selected gem” or "a/any/selected [mana] color, or “a row and column”.

“Select a column”: Appears when the spell says “a/selected column”.

“Select a row”: Appears when the spell says “a/selected row”.

(My invite code is Aldin.)

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I can help out with understanding Troop Type symbols.

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Thanks, Nimhain. I’m hoping we’ll see Goblin, Spider, and Giant symbols at some point, too. I like the symbol system a lot.

I assume this should read 'Does damage to armor first, then life. :smile:

Thanks. That’s what I get for writing late.

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Great work, Gems in bound!

Here is a term that I’m not sure I understand thoroughly for a weapon called, Eye of Xathenos, it is the word “stat”.

Eye of Xathenos
( Legendary Weapon )
Eye of Xathenos (Mana Cost:16 Blue Purple , Only obtained from special events)
Deal [6+Magic] damage to an enemy, and steal 3 from a random stat. Deal double damage if the target is Fey.

So what is a random stat exactly? Is that similar to a skill and if so how is it different than a skill?

Is the amount of the ability. For example the attack stat of my hero is 8, you can stole 3 leaving me with 5 and you with 11! Same applies for Magic, Armor or Health.

Stat and skill are the same. I added it to the list. Thanks for the feedback.

This is a very helpful guide. Especially the Troop Type symbols. Thanks!

I always wondered who “Fey” was. I figured it was some Final Boss encountered when all of the Quests and Challenges were complete. D’oh! :smile:

Couple of terms I could use some help on:

Tauros

Deal [2+Magic] damage to the first enemy. If I am damaged, deal 5 damage to the second enemy.

Thought I understood what the “I am damaged” meant, but I guess not, what does that exactly mean?

Hydra

Deal [5+Magic] damage randomly split among enemies, Boosted by my missing Life. (Boost Ratio x2)

What does “Boosted by my missing” Life mean? And not sure what “missing life” means either.

@temmie143
Tauros: It means that if the troop with this ability is damaged (here, the Tauros), then it also get to deal 5 damage to the second enemy.
Hydra: it means the Hydra damage output is increased if the Hydra is wounded (it’s his missing life). The boost ratio is x2, so for one point of life the Hydra is missing, he does 2 more damage; 2 points of life missing means 4 more damage, etc.

Keep in mind that damaged means they have lost points from their life skill. Armor is not relevant to the “damaged” check. That threw my wife for a while when she started.

As an example, if the troop has 5 armor and 5 life they would need to be reduced to 4 life or less to be considered damaged. This might happen by taking 6 damaged destroying their armor and 1 of their life. Or they might take 1 true damage leaving their armor intact but removing one of their life.

The Hyrdra follows similar logic, only it cares exactly by how much it is damaged rather than just checking a flag. In the above example when the troop is reduced to 4 life they are 1 point damaged, 3 life they are 2 points damamged, 2 life they are 3 points damaged, and if they are at 1 life they are 4 points damaged.

Note that extra life being removed does not seem to trigger the “damaged” flag in my experience. In the above example if a banner gave the troop +1 life and +1 armor they would have 6 armor and 6 life. However they would still need to be reduced to 4 life to be considered damaged.

You can tell a troop’s state by looking at the number inside the heart. Green = Extra Life (Undamaged), White = Undamaged, Orange (maybe gold?) = Damaged. As far as I know you can not tell how much a troop is damaged by while playing a match.

Hope that plus Archenassa’s explanation helps!

-Razlath

Just wanna add that for Life and Armour, it’s what left not initial totals.

How is the 70% calculated? Basically there are 9 gems/skulls in total. So do you get 6-7 of them randomly with the exploded being one or how does it work? Can you know exactly what you’ll be getting?

Thanks Archenassa and Razlath, and yeah that helped alot to have it all spelled out, I thought that is what they meant, but I just wasn’t certain about it.

Maybe add “True damage” to the list?
I figured it out, but it confused me for a while when starting out.

I know this is kinda late, but i just saw this and i had to make a comment :smile:

Fey means that someone is doomed to die… Fairies (which i assume is the point here, based on the picture) for short is “Fae”.

Its a little something not many people are aware of but it kinda disturbs some of us that do…

Fey can also be used for faeries. I have read fantasy novels that have used Fey and others that use Fae. That is why we use Fey instead of Fae.

Besides if an enemy troop is Fey he’s doomed to die anyway.

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Some thoughts/corrections on some of the above:

@Zennon Devour adds Life, Armour and Attack of the victim to your own, taking the current values - just to distinguish, it doesn’t add their Magic stat.

@Zennon For exploders, the 70% is applied to the total value of mana from the gems - all are destroyed, the total mana added up, then multiplied by 0.7, then rounded… so if your explosion hits 2 green gems, you get 1 green mana (1.4 rounded down), 7 green gems would give 5 mana (4.9 rounded up) and so on… the 0.7 multiplier isn’t applied to skulls, however.

@Razlath Your explanation for Hydra isn’t quite right - the damage is affected by his ‘Missing Life’, where ‘Missing Life’ = ‘Maximum Life’ less ‘Current Life’. Current life is clearly its current visible value on the troop card. Maximum life is hard to see - it’s what it starts the battle on, including any buffs from the kingdom and/or banner. The Maximum Life is increased if a spell gives the troop extra Life stat.

For example, from my live battle now (which I recorded to check the maths later!):

Hydra is in front. He starts with 19 Life - being 17 from his Level 15 card, plus 1 from my (level 10) kingdom and another plus 1 from my (Wild Plains) banner. He also starts on 8 Armour (5 on the card, +2 from kingdom and +1 from the banner again). He gets smacked by the Attack 11 Venoxia enemy and is now on 16 Life (Armour is gone). I cast Thousand Bites, and it deals a total 22 damage - 16 plus twice the Missing Life, i.e. 16+2x(19-16).

Next, Sunweaver buffs Hydra, adding +7 to both Armour and Life (among other things). He now has 23 Current Life and 26 Maximum Life, as well as 7 Armour. He gets smacked by Venoxia again, and now has 19 Life (armour gone again). I soon cast Thousand Bites, and now it deals a total 30 damage i.e. 16+2x(26-19). Note how the damage is boosted even though he actually has 19 Life, which is what he started battle with…

Suffice to say at this point the enemies are in poor shape. One more Thousand Bites (I have Ragnagord in the team to fill up everyone’s mana with explodingness) and it’s goodbye from them…

Hey Matt @CrowdedWorlds do I get some gems for my maths lesson? :grin:

Thanks Jainus! I appreciate the clarification on Hydra. Although I did notice that a different math system would yeild the same result. If the game isn’t doing a difference calculation at all, but tracking the total life damage taken so far you get the same numbers. First you take 3 life damage which gives you a 6 point boost. Then you take 4 more life damage which added with the original 3 gives you 7 total life damage and a 14 point boost. The only reason it would matter is if you were able to heal the hydra and thus power it beyond its normal life limit without actually adding life. Unless of course healing removes from the “missing life” stat.

Are you able to tell the color of the number in the heart for each of the points you noted above? If I am correct, I would expect green at the beginning (buffed), orange after the first hit (damaged), green after the sunweaver cast (buffed), and green after the second hit (buffed). This would mean he actually isn’t considered damaged, only that he absorbed a certain amount of life damage fueling his ability. It also means his ability should actually be written as “boosted by life lost” and that he could possibly have his ability fueled by healing and not just life additions. I don’t have a hydra, so I can’t test the healing vs adding life theory. :frowning:

-Razlath