The Kill-Check Model
Behind the scenes, the game decides damage and death separately. Understanding the difference is how good players get more kills — and keep their own losses low.
Attack decides how many kill attempts you make; Lethality decides how many succeed.
Lethal damage ignores armor and deals exactly enough to take down a troop — no more. So Attack decides how many troops could die, Lethality decides how many of those actually die, and HP + Defense decide how many you save as wounded instead of dead.
To kill more
Raise Attack first — it creates the checks — then Lethality. A Shooter with high Lethality but low Attack does worse than one with high Attack: fewer checks means fewer chances for Lethality to turn into kills.
To lose fewer troops
Raise HP and Defense, and keep free space in your hospital. Defense makes kills harder, HP makes each troop tougher, and a hospital with space turns the rest into wounds you can heal.
Turn Order & the 40% Rule
The battle report you see is really a turn-by-turn fight that happens behind the scenes — and you can use the turn order to your advantage.
Heroes act from left to right, and the side whose army is knocked out first loses.
The attacker acts first
Going first is a real advantage — your side attacks before theirs does.
Heroes act left → right
In a formation, the leftmost hero goes first, and passive War skills turn on at the start of that hero's turn. Put the hero whose buff you want active first on the left.
The loser’s whole army is knocked out
Fights don’t stop at 40%. When one side is knocked out, the game sorts its knocked-out troops by fixed shares: in a solo attack on a prison, 40% count as dead or Hospital and 60% as lightly wounded; in rallies and tile fights it’s 35% and 65%. That is where the 40% in battle reports comes from.
Tactical DMG — the Second Kind of Damage
A second type of damage with its own boosts and defenses. Each hit is a set share of the dealing troop type’s ATK. It's why some heroes hit much harder than their stats suggest.
A second kind of damage, sized from ATK. Pair a hero who deals it with Otto, who boosts it.
Tactical DMG is extra damage that happens when a condition is met — "every 3rd round," "when something triggers it," and so on. Each hit deals a set percentage of the dealing troop type’s ATK, so anything that raises ATK makes it bigger. It has its own damage boost (Otto’s Forest Echo), its own “takes more” effect (Lee’s Stealth Assault) and its own damage cut (Otto’s Natural Hymn). Building around it gives your army a second, separate way to deal damage.
Heroes that deal Tactical DMG: Zoltan, Drake, Koschevoi (Gen 4); Edwin (Gen 5); Lee (Gen 5); Wukong (Gen 6); Rin and Rex (Gen 7). Otto deals none: he only boosts it. The real power comes from pairing a hero who deals it with a hero who boosts it — see Hero Synergies below.
Season 7 adds two more: both of its Shooters deal Tactical DMG — Rin with a 33% chance on every allied Shooter basic attack, and Rex every 4th round. Either one works with Otto’s +75% boost and Edwin’s Command Shooting, which trigger on any Tactical hit, no matter who dealt it.
Every Tactical DMG source
Each hit is a share of the ATK of the troop type that deals it.
| Skill | When | Dealt by | Hit at max |
|---|---|---|---|
| Behemoth’s Wrath (Zoltan) | After each basic attack your Shieldbearers take | Shieldbearers | 30% ATK |
| Cannon Barrage (Koschevoi) | Every round | Bombers | 50% ATK |
| Strategic Chain (Lee) | Every round, 25% chance | Bombers | 100% ATK to every enemy troop |
| Charged Barrage (Drake) | Rounds 3, 6, 9… | Shooters | 110% ATK |
| Judgment of Justice (Edwin) | Rounds 3, 6, 9… | Shooters | 125% ATK, +15% per time the enemy outnumbers you (up to +75%) |
| Calamity Inferno (Wukong) | Rounds 3, 6, 9… | Bombers | 150% ATK |
| Lethal Flywheel (Rin) | 33% chance per allied Shooter basic attack | Shooters | 30% ATK to every enemy troop |
| Spacetime Fold (Rex) | Rounds 4, 8, 12… | Shooters | 120% ATK |
| Coordinated Sniper (Phantom Cat robot) | Every 4 Shooter attacks | Shooters | 80% ATK |
What changes it
| Skill | Effect at max |
|---|---|
| Forest Echo (Otto) | +75% Tactical DMG for all allied troops |
| Tactical Optimization (Bastion robot) | +50% Tactical DMG, and +230% more on rounds that aren’t a multiple of 3 |
| Stealth Assault (Lee) | Each Bomber attack: the target takes +50% Tactical DMG for 1 round |
| Natural Hymn (Otto) | Odd rounds: your Shieldbearers take 60% less Tactical DMG |
| Command Shooting (Edwin) | When Tactical DMG lands: 30% chance of one extra Shooter basic attack (25% ATK) |
Critical hits and dodges only happen on basic attacks, so Tactical hits never crit and can’t be dodged.
Hero Synergies
Some skills trigger on a general event ("when Tactical DMG is dealt") instead of their own hero's action — so one hero can trigger another hero's skill. These combos are how a lineup can beat stronger stats.
Some skills trigger from things other heroes do — that’s where the big combos come from.
Edwin + Lee — the Tactical chain
Lee's Stealth Assault makes the target take more Tactical DMG, and his Strategic Chain deals Tactical DMG directly. Every time Tactical DMG hits, Edwin's Command Shooting has a 30% chance to give Shooters one extra basic attack (25% ATK). That attack is a basic attack, so it can’t set off Command Shooting again: each Tactical hit gives at most one extra attack.
Koschevoi + Edwin — keep the chain going
Koschevoi's Cannon Barrage deals Tactical DMG every round, which keeps triggering Edwin's Command Shooting. The longer the fight lasts, the more extra attacks you get.
Otto + Lee — on defense
Otto's Forest Echo (+75% allied Tactical DMG) boosts everything Lee deals — and because Otto is a defending hero, this combo works in a defense lineup, not just on attack.
The simple rule
When building a lineup, look for skills that trigger on the same event — Tactical DMG dealt, a critical hit, a stun, a kill. Those skills combo between heroes. Two heroes that share a trigger usually beat two heroes with bigger numbers.