Battle

Battles run themselves. Dice come out, abilities fire off the result, and it keeps going until one board is empty.

You make no choices during a battle. You decide everything in the shop: which cryptids you field, their abilities, and the order they sit in.

Your opponent

You fight a snapshot of another player's warband from the same round. See Matchmaking for how it is picked.

Threat and targeting

Every cryptid has a threat value, shown on its card. Cryptids act in order of threat, highest first.

An ability that hits one enemy targets the cryptid with the highest threat. If two targets have the same threat, the one further left is hit. Abilities that target by another rule say so in their text, such as "the lowest-health enemy".

A turn, step by step

1. Roll the dice. Two six-sided dice are rolled.
2. Status effects tick, such as damage over time.
3. Every-roll abilities fire. This includes abilities that change the dice total, so they happen before anything checks the roll.
4. Abilities resolve in threat order, highest first, across both boards. See Dice & Triggers for what makes an ability trigger. A cryptid at zero health before its turn comes does not fire.
5. Reactions fire immediately. An ability that deals damage or heals can trigger other abilities right away, and those can trigger more.
6. Deaths are processed at the end of the turn, which can trigger death abilities.

If an ability rerolls the dice, the turn stops and starts again from step 1 with the new roll. Damage already dealt stays.

Winning the fight

The battle ends when one side has no cryptids left. If both sides lose their last cryptid at the same time, it is a tie.

If the battle reaches 36 rolls, or neither side can damage the other, the side with more total health left wins. Equal health is a tie.

A tie costs no life and does not count as a win.

Sudden death starts on the 16th roll. From then on, every cryptid deals 1 more damage each roll, and the bonus keeps growing until the battle ends.

Each battle changes your rating, and the total is applied when the run ends. See Matchmaking.