100 Game Concepts

100.1The match

1. 100.1aA match is a co-op run of exactly 10 rounds for 1 to 4 players.
2. 100.1bStandard is the only live ruleset. The two live queue modes, Ranked and Unranked, both run it unchanged; they differ only in whether the match moves hidden matchmaking rating and feeds it into nemesis selection. Unranked is the default and moves nothing.
3. 100.1cEvery match runs on the server. There is no offline, local, or single-player ruleset; a solo run uses the same rules as a four-player run.
4. 100.1dIn multiplayer, each boss result and each nemesis result is team-shared and recorded identically for every player. The 10 shared nemesis outcomes decide the match: 6 or more wins is a victory, exactly 5 is a tie, fewer than 5 is a defeat.

100.2Boards and ownership

1. 100.2aEach player owns exactly one board. You can never change another player's board, and spectating a teammate is read-only.
2. 100.2bThe full build zone is 8 columns wide and 4 rows tall. A normal unit occupies a 2x2 footprint, so a fully unlocked zone holds 8 normal units.
3. 100.2cA combat board is 8 columns by 8 rows: 4 rows for the player's units and 4 rows reserved for the enemy zone above them.
4. 100.2dGiant units occupy a 3x3 (Large) or 4x4 (Huge) footprint. Giant Tools and Scrip Pennies occupy a single cell.
5. 100.2eThe two rune boards have fixed shapes. The board below the grid is 8 columns by 2 rows and tracks the unit grid's width as Level unlocks it. The board to the right of the grid is 2 columns by 4 rows and stays locked entirely until Level 3, then opens at full size.

100.3Runes and projection

1. 100.3aNormal runes sit on two rune boards and project onto the play grid. Units never equip runes or resonances directly.
2. 100.3bOne rune board sits to the right of your play grid and projects across rows. The other sits below the grid and projects across columns. The enemy's boards mirror yours.
3. 100.3cProjection is evaluated per rune. A 2x2 through 4x4 unit that intersects only one of a rune's two projected rows or columns receives that rune at 50% potency; covering both gives full potency.
4. 100.3dSize-1 Scrip units receive full potency from a projected rune. Tools are ineligible. Runic units receive full potency from board runes even through partial coverage.
5. 100.3eA unit at a row-and-column intersection can receive both runes, with each rune's coverage and potency evaluated independently.
6. 100.3fRunes are tiered, normally 1 through 4. Matching two runes of the same base and tier forges them into the next tier.
7. 100.3gA rune family may be generic or gated to a tribe. A gated family only benefits units of that tribe.

100.4Adjacency

1. 100.4aTwo units are adjacent when their footprints share an edge. Corner contact is not adjacency.
2. 100.4bAdjacent means the four directions: left, right, up, and down.
3. 100.4cFlank means only the left and right neighbors.
4. 100.4dBecause adjacency is measured by footprint edge, a Large or Huge Giant is adjacent to every unit along an entire side of itself.
5. 100.4eAdjacency-derived state — auras, Braced, Brute, Consecrate — is recomputed whenever the board changes, including after a Displace or a death.

100.5Board reading orderpage

One shared order that several rules sort by. Everything in the document that says "board reading order" means this.

1. 100.5aBoard reading order is left to right across each row, then top to bottom.
2. 100.5bIt decides which unit pays a Bloodletting cost: the first eligible unit in this order pays the whole cost.
3. 100.5cIt decides the order battle-start effects resolve in, Markup included. Each unit with a battle-start effect resolves once, in this order.
4. 100.5dIt is not used for targeting. Targeting is Focus-weighted.
5. 100.5eNot every ordered rule uses it. Acclimate on a displaced pair and Settle across several Hubs each resolve in a fixed internal order that is not board reading order.

See also Bloodletting Markup

100.6Tiers

1. 100.6aCombining two identical units raises their tier by one and scales their stats by 1.5x per step. Scaling down divides by the same factor.
2. 100.6bA unit's tier scales its authored ability values as well as its stats.
3. 100.6cSmash temporarily reduces a unit's tier and rescales its stats accordingly, preserving its current Vitality as a fraction.
4. 100.6dHighland fails for any unit whose current tier differs from its native tier.

100.7Rank and level

1. 100.7aRank is monthly competitive progression derived from hidden MMR. Only Ranked matches move it; the current tier determines the player's crest.
2. 100.7bLevel is match-scoped economy progression. It controls shop odds and which parts of the unit and rune boards are unlocked, and resets for every match.
3. 100.7cThere is no persistent profile Level. Rank and Level are separate systems and are never interchangeable terms.