What you were expecting to happen, and what actually happened:
Before every match I take the time to check my enemy’s abilities. This is to plan strategy, but sometimes the enemies are triggering abilities that they don’t have listed. One example of this would be when none have entangled, but then suddenly they activate entangled. I made no preparation for that.
Another problem that’s cropping up is that they ignore basic game rules. I will get a match four, it will say ‘extra turn’ but I don’t get an extra turn. These problems have become so common that I’ve gotten to the point where I want to stop playing. If the rules are not at least adhered to, then it’s just chaos and no one can plan for chaos.
It’s been getting worse the last week or so.
Am I missing something? What the hell is going on?
How often does this happen? When did it begin happening?
Around twenty percent of matches I see this happening.
Enemies entangle you, when their spell effect or one of their traits causes you to become entangled.
Extra turns happen, when you match four or more gems of the same kind in one row/column and none of the troops of that colour on your team has the effect frozen.
Your starting post does not provide enough details to show, that this is happening to you at times, when it should not.
Visual examples, please? Pictures? Recorded clips?
Without those nobody can figure out what is happening.
Issues with extra turns can happen from time to time, but I have never seen a single instance of activating unlisted abilities in my five years of playing.
Short answer: Yes you are most definitely missing something, but the possible explanations are many. Let’s see here…
Trait confusion
As a general rule, all traits (and similar effects) will always flash over the card when triggered. Many traits trigger at the start of battle, while other traits can trigger at the start of each turn or when spellcasting (matching gems, killing an opponent, etc), either guaranteed or at random.
Hero Class talents: These are not listed on the Hero’s card, but flip to the page with the class traits anyway and you will see a box identifying the Hero Class, its level, and passive Talents (extra Traits). Most Hero talents have unique names from standard traits (but there is some overlap, like “Fortitude” and “Stealthy”).
Legendary and Mythic troops: The final trait on Legendary and Mythic troops is generally unique, and surprisingly easy to miss during a battle. If something unexpected happens with these troops on the field, double-check if it’s related to that final Trait.
Faction Delve mode: Every room cleared adds either a stat boost or passive Trait to one team (usually, but not always, the enemy team). Just like Hero talents, these are not listed directly on the cards they apply to (and will stack with existing Traits – e.g. if you get the “Arcane” bonus from defeating a “Dark Mage’s Secrets” room, any Troop with “Arcane” by default will get +2 Magic per spellcast instead of +1), but check the Traits page on a card anyway and they will be listed separately as “Delve Traits”.
Hero Badges and Medals: Most activate at the start of battle only, but Badges/Medals “of Orpheus” trigger (randomly) per turn, and event medals trigger when dealing damage. Flip to the Traits page of a card and look for “Active Medal Effects”.
Weapon affixes: When Hero weapons are upgraded to +6 or higher, their spells gain secondary effects. Unlike Traits, these do NOT flash onscreen when they activate, nor are they displayed (in full) on the weapon’s card. Instead, they are referred to by their “affix” name directly underneath the weapon name, and the extra effects will be shown as a tooltip when checking the weapon card. E.g. if you see a “+9 Rope Dart” weapon, note how it says “Mighty, Tangling, Solar, Quick” underneath the name – those are the affixes indicating, among other things, that after being cast (i.e. strip armor, pull enemy and deal damage) it will then Entangle the first enemy and grant an Extra Turn, things that would not happen at its base level.
Extra Turn confusion
By default, every match of 4 or more gems of the same (or compatible) type grants an Extra Turn. Matches of 5 or more gems are declared a “Mana Surge” (gems) or “Critical Hit” (skulls) and will similarly grant an Extra Turn. Note that “Mana Surge” is NOT a synonym for Extra Turns because Mana Surges also occur at random when matching just 3 gems.
Some spells grant Extra Turns (per spell description). Hero Weapons can also grant Extra Turns, either as a base effect (per its description) or as an upgrade bonus (the “Quick” affix).
Frozen troops cannot get Extra Turns. What this means is: if you match 4 Gems of a type matching any troop who is Frozen, the Extra Turn will be denied. (You will hear an icy “ting” sound FX to indicate the frozen status.) However, if several matches of 4 or more Gems are made (either simultaneously or in cascade) and at least one is of a type NOT Frozen, an Extra Turn will ultimately be granted – this allows a team to play around getting Frozen. (Note that if a Troop has all six colors – e.g. certain Boss troops or Hero Weapons – then if they get Frozen ALL colors except Skulls become Frozen)
Spells that generate Extra Turns will always fail to do so if the caster is Frozen. Matches of 4 or more Skulls will likewise fail to grant an Extra Turn if the first Troop (i.e. the one inflicting the damage) is Frozen.
KNOWN BUG: Some Troops have traits generating specific gems at the start of each turn (Great Wyrm’s “Skull Feast”, Nexus “Born of [element]” traits, etc.) which can cause matches of 4 or more Gems to occur even before you otherwise take your turn. In such a case, an “Extra Turn” notification will appear onscreen after making any match, whether or not it would grant an Extra Turn. This is just a visual bug – the game is running correctly “under the hood”, and will only grant an Extra Turn if you actually matched 4 or more gems as a result of your move (swapping Gems or casting spells).
