# \[Reported\] Zarg’s Boom Pile Trait Targeting Bug **URL:** \ **Category:** Feature Requests and Game feedback\ **Created:** [July 5, 2025, 3:27am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/reported-zarg-s-boom-pile-trait-targeting-bug/88080 "2025-07-05T03:27:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Voq](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/voq/32/54089_2.png) [@Voq](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Voq)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2025, 3:27am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/reported-zarg-s-boom-pile-trait-targeting-bug/88080/1 "2025-07-05T03:27:34Z")
**Platform, device version and operating system:** Tested on both Steam and Android. The new Mythic Zarg’s Boom pile’s 3rd trait might not be working as intended. It’s described as: > Explode 2 Skulls when my turn begins. If you have multiple Zarg’s on your team, they can target the same Skulls to explode and you can get less than the maximum amount possible. Example 1: 3 Zargs exploding 3 skulls out of 5 total on the board ![GemsofWar 2025-07-04 22-35-03.mp4_20250704_223637.731](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/uploads/gemsofwar/original/3X/2/8/28a88ef4eae65170113264e284cb08f9a92a0e37.jpeg) Example 2: 3 Zargs exploding 5 skulls out of 6 total on the board ![GemsofWar 2025-07-04 23-00-34.mp4_20250704_230332.044](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/uploads/gemsofwar/original/3X/5/4/54e61f65c6e876dd515a953f47ddc7fe629c56ff.jpeg) Example 3: 2 Zargs exploding 2 skulls out of 3 total on the board ![GemsofWar 2025-07-04 22-50-55.mp4_20250704_225123.139](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/uploads/gemsofwar/original/3X/e/9/e97c8882d281c0259e760be4944a73de3a438757.jpeg) Example 4: 4 Zargs exploding 2 skulls out of 3 total on the board ![GemsofWar 2025-07-04 23-23-24.mp4_20250704_232348.026](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/uploads/gemsofwar/original/3X/c/5/c5029227d58a5c2493896aa7745392df6fb1a261.jpeg) Can the trait be fixed or changed so Zargs can’t target the same skull to explode? Based on how it seems to be coded, there’s always the (low) possibility that only 2 skulls will be exploded. After watching the explosions frame by frame, it looks like they’re exploded in 2 phases. All Zargs target their 1st skulls and then they explode. Then their 2nd skulls are targeted and they explode. Each targeting step allows for overlap. ---
**Author:** ![Stratelier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@Stratelier](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Stratelier)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2025, 5:32am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/reported-zarg-s-boom-pile-trait-targeting-bug/88080/2 "2025-07-05T05:32:31Z")
Now I’m curious, how does this compare to Pharoah Khafru’s 3rd trait? ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Tatz](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/sister_tatz/32/100718_2.png) [@Sister\_Tatz](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Sister_Tatz)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2025, 6:30am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/reported-zarg-s-boom-pile-trait-targeting-bug/88080/3 "2025-07-05T06:30:55Z")
Khafru explodes any 2 random gems out of 64 (excluding skulls?) on the board. It’s probably unlikely they will ever choose the same gems. However, a solution could be to resolve both Zarg’s and Khafru’s traits for each card on their own. I.e. explode two gems for the first one, stall the board, explode two more for the second one, stall the board, and so one. This would leave 3x3 holes until done but also results in all traits of multiple copies being activated. ---
**Author:** ![TheIdleOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@TheIdleOne](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/TheIdleOne)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2025, 8:53am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/reported-zarg-s-boom-pile-trait-targeting-bug/88080/4 "2025-07-05T08:53:08Z")
> [@Sister\_Tatz](#): > > This would leave 3x3 holes until done but also results in all traits of multiple copies being activated. I think in most games you’d be right, but with the way GoW handles hero weapons, I’m not sure if I could sit through that much delay waiting for trait explodes… ---
**Author:** ![Stroganrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@Stroganrog](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Stroganrog)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2025, 6:55pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/reported-zarg-s-boom-pile-trait-targeting-bug/88080/5 "2025-07-05T18:55:25Z")
This is a proper bug! Please, fix it asap. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Risa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f6c823/32.png) [@Risa](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Risa)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2025, 8:47pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/reported-zarg-s-boom-pile-trait-targeting-bug/88080/6 "2025-07-05T20:47:49Z")
Nice report. But I tend to think along the line “it’s a feature, not a bug”. The game has never stated explicitly that “troops’ traits resolve one by one”. So trait selecting the same gem isn’t necessarily a bug. ---
**Author:** ![Voq](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/voq/32/54089_2.png) [@Voq](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Voq)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2025, 9:36pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/reported-zarg-s-boom-pile-trait-targeting-bug/88080/7 "2025-07-05T21:36:24Z")
Yeah I’m unsure if they’d consider this a bug either. While it’s not the same, troops that create heroic gems do it in an unfavorable way. They could be utilizing similar logic here where the extra RNG is part of the balancing out the spell/trait. Still, a bug report is the best way to someone’s eyes on it so we can get an official response. ---
**Author:** ![Zuul-Emo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/67e7ee/32.png) [@Zuul-Emo](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Zuul-Emo)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2025, 10:37pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/reported-zarg-s-boom-pile-trait-targeting-bug/88080/8 "2025-07-05T22:37:36Z")
> [@Risa](#): > > The game has never stated explicitly that “troops’ traits resolve one by one”. So trait selecting the same gem isn’t necessarily a bug. If traits create a storm, it always resolves top to bottom. If I have multiple troops with traits that generate different storms, the storm is that one created by the last on the list. I don’t see why traits that do another affect wouldn’t resolve the same way. Especially where they can affect each other negatively. Of course, there’s a lot of stuff in the game that doesn’t work as we expect, so maybe they intended it like this, but if so, it’s bad design, and should be changed, rather than a bug that should be fixed. Either way, multiple troops with traits that explode gems should target different gems. ---
**Author:** ![Darkborne](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/darkborne/32/95796_2.png) [@Darkborne](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Darkborne)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2025, 12:45am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/reported-zarg-s-boom-pile-trait-targeting-bug/88080/9 "2025-07-06T00:45:59Z")
The coding with heroic gems confuses me because they shouldn’t override their matching color. The first time I remember seeing this “bug” with “heroic” gems was with Night Spider. Why do web gems override themselves and other purple gems on the board? That was a sad day for all of us, but I don’t think the developers can “fix” that. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Tatz](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/sister_tatz/32/100718_2.png) [@Sister\_Tatz](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Sister_Tatz)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2025, 11:14am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/reported-zarg-s-boom-pile-trait-targeting-bug/88080/10 "2025-07-06T11:14:07Z")
Another solution, which just came to my mind, could be _to select the skulls and mark them internally “as used”, then go ahead and resolve the traits from the next troop in order._ I.e. There are 5 skulls in the board and: Zarg #1 picks 2/5 total Zarg #2 picks 2/3 remaining Zarg #3 picks 1/1 remaining Zarg #4 picks 0/0 remaining This would surely reduce the wait-time @TheIdleOne mentioned above, and also ensure that every troop hits its designated target. ---
**Author:** ![redtoadstool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bc8723/32.png) [@redtoadstool](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/redtoadstool)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2025, 11:26am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/reported-zarg-s-boom-pile-trait-targeting-bug/88080/11 "2025-07-06T11:26:08Z")
I don’t get why the skulls all need to be “targeted” beforehand at all. First zarg targets and explodes 2 skulls Second zarg then targets and explodes 2 skulls etc This way if more skulls appear from the previous zarg having exploded, those new skulls can be targeted and exploded by subsequent zargs. Especially important if you’ve got some kind of bonestorm running. ---
**Author:** ![Jeto](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/jeto/32/101682_2.png) [@Jeto](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Jeto)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 1:49am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/reported-zarg-s-boom-pile-trait-targeting-bug/88080/12 "2025-07-07T01:49:07Z")
This ended up being passed on as feedback, as the team came back to me that as Gems are selected randomly, multiple copies of a troop can randomly select the same Gem. So I passed on feedback to consider that not being possible in future. ---
**Author:** ![Voq](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.gemsofwar.com/voq/32/54089_2.png) [@Voq](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Voq)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 4:25am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/reported-zarg-s-boom-pile-trait-targeting-bug/88080/13 "2025-07-07T04:25:58Z")
Thanks for passing that along and letting us know! ---
**Author:** ![Vorlon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/977dab/32.png) [@Vorlon](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Vorlon)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2025, 8:40pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/reported-zarg-s-boom-pile-trait-targeting-bug/88080/14 "2025-08-04T20:40:30Z")
I was using multiple Zargs in this weeks event and noticed it too. This really devalues the third trait.