Game board after swapping [Focus on the mana gained]
What you were expecting to happen, and what actually happened:
After destroying the gems in the first three columns,
the 1st troop gained only 4 mana instead of 6 mana from the 6 destroyed red gems,
the 2nd troop gained only 4 mana instead of 7 mana from the 3+4 destroyed green and brown gems,
the 3rd troop gained only 5 mana (less than what I expected from matching 3 and destroyed 4 yellow gems),
the 4th troop did not gain the 1 mana from the destroyed purple gem.
How often does this happen? When did it begin happening?
I would say “very often” because I noticed my troops are not gaining much mana when I matched yellow lightning gems in this week Raid Boss Event.
Steps to make it happen again
Just try the team as shown in the image.
Matched 3 Gems vertically including 2 Blue Lightning Gems
Mana Surge triggered
Destroyed an area including: 4 Red Gems, 3 Brown Gems, 3 Yellow Gems, 2 Blue Gems
Expected Mana yield:
+6+2 Blue Mana
+4 Red, +3 Brown, +3 Yellow Mana
Actual Mana yield:
+4 (2 Red, 2 Brown) to Brass Drake
+4 (Blue) to Dragon Commander (and full Mana)
+2 (Yellow) to Sir Gwayne
+3 (Blue) to Ulf Harrigan
TOTAL: +2 Red, +2 Brown, +6+1 Blue, +2 Yellow
(I recorded video footage of both, and can provide screenshots)
Yeah, it seems like Lighting Bolt gems only generate half mana…
Which may be intentional, but seems like an odd choice. We should also closely inspect the Mana yield from Elemental/Umbral Stars, since those also “destroy” Gems when matched – they are known to yield +1 Mana for each color of the Star itself, but what about other Gems destroyed?
For all other cases, “explode” gives 50% mana and “destroy” gives 1 mana. Using the same term “destroy” in describing lightning gems can confuse players.
Perhaps lightning gems should be described as giving 50% mana from the gems destroyed in the same row/column.
Update: Can confirm, Elemental/Umbral Stars also only give 50% Mana from Gems destroyed. So this appears 100% intentional, has been in place ever since Nexus debuted but nobody noticed until now. And … personally, I actually agree with it!
Some examples to consider:
If you match (horizontally) 3 Yellow Lightning Gems, this destroys 3 columns, covering a region the same size as Exploding a single column.
Run Natureborn Hunter in a full Green team, against any Beast team. There’s a high chance that the # of Elemental Stars created will trigger somewhere, then nearly the entire board explodes, you get tons of Mana AND an Extra Turn to go with it! This isn’t exactly Chalcedony levels of self-looping, but it’s close.
(Again, I have taken video/screenshots from my testing and can post for verification.)
Time to necro this thread. Using King Stormguard in this week’s Underspire, I was confused why it seemed so hard to get mana with his yellow lightning gems and experienced the same issue as OP.
There hasn’t been an official answer to this yet, and the ingame description for the two lightning gems still say “destroy all gems in the same column/row”. Either the text or the effect is wrong and needs to be corrected.
If lightning gems are matched with gems, they destroy gems in the same column as the lightning gems before they are matched. The in-game description is not very helpful (like many other things), and I had to experiment with it for myself to understand how lightning gems function.
still, gems are being exploded (half mana) instead of destroyed, but this explosion doesnt affect adjanced lines. Buffing it to actually destroy? Making up a new word for this kind of a spell?
Seems like the best option, to me. Destroy is already a thing, and well known to give exact mana. Explode is already a thing and known to remove gems around the exploded gem, giving half mana. Using those terms to do something different is actively misleading.
We need a new term for when it does the in-between thing of removing only the gems indicated but giving only half mana.
I’m thinking: eradicated, eliminated, demolished, shattered, razed, smashed, blasted, ravaged, devastated, crushed, scuppered, nixed, etc.
Anyone got any preferred terms for destroying an exact amount of gems but only getting half the mana from them?
…But it almost always refers to the destroyed gem itself, without considering any secondary destroys as part of the gem’s own effect.
I’m of the opinion that while the wording may be confusing, the actual effect is fine.
Eh, no, “remove” is its own defined term which means no Mana gain or skull damage (but board disruption still occurs … which is kind of weird because I always assume that “no effect” should mean the gem simply vanishes from the board with zero effects on anything)
I don’t get what you mean. Like, if you destroy a doomskull, it explodes and you get mana from that? Or something else?
Cus I don’t see how that affects that there’s clearly a difference between an effect that “destroys a row and a column” and you get all the mana from all the gems in that row and column (and it triggers hero gems like doomskulls with all their effects) VS a star that “destroys a row and a column” and you get half of that mana from all the gems in that row and column (and it triggers hero gems like doomskulls with all their effects).
I mean, if I do it with a spell, I get full mana, but if I match a star, I only get half, from “destroying” the exact same amount of gems.
So, that’s clearly two different things, and should be called by two different names, so it’s less confusing.
If you mean we shouldn’t change what the stars do, just change the in-game description for their effect, I agree. I’m fine with how they work, just that they’re confusing and need a different name for how they work, so people understand better.
gems, they destroy gems in the same column as the lightning gems before they are matched. The in-game description is not very helpful (like many other things), and I had to experiment with it for myself to understand how