Combat

## Introduction

The essence of combat in Valiant Force is a turn-based strategy battle mechanic, with players taking turns against the AI to make a move on a 3x6 battle grid. What makes Valiant Force different from other turn-based strategy games is its unique hero aura and aura triggers. Every hero has a unique aura, which affects allies around him. This aura will affect surrounding ally units by either boosting their stats or triggering them to perform extra actions within their turn. Auras can make a huge difference to the outcome of a combat, so strategically moving units is crucial to doing well in Valiant Force.

There are two types of combat in Valiant Force, Arena (PVP) and PVE. While the rules in Arena and PVE only differs slightly, it makes a huge difference to player strategies.

## Squads

Before entering a fight, it is vital to optimize your team. To edit teams, in the garrison page, press the “Hero” icon on the bottom left, then “Squad”.

The Squad Edit page can also be accessed before entering a PVE fight by pressing the “Edit” button.

Each player can save up to seven different hero squads. Within each squad, players can place to add up to five units within a 3x3 grid. Note that there cannot be any duplicates of the exact same unit in a squad (i.e. same unit name and class). Different classes of the same hero is allowed (i.e. same unit name but different class). This 3x3 grid is read from left to right instead of top to bottom. What this means is that units on the leftmost column will be on the frontline, being the closest to the enemy and most susceptible to enemy attacks, while units in the middle and back rows are further away from the enemy and more sheltered from their attacks.

To add heroes to a squad, simply press the desired hero to be added in the “Heroes” inventory below, then select an empty tile to place it or an existing squad member to take his position in the squad. Heroes already in a squad can be moved freely within the 3x3 grid. Press the hero to be moved, then the target tile. If there is already an ally in the target tile, the two heroes will swap positions.

To remove heroes from a squad, select the hero to be removed then press “Remove”. Alternatively, all heroes within a squad can be simultaneously removed by pressing “Remove All”.

For players who want to quickly form a team, the auto team formation function can automatically form a team based on the units owned. To use this feature, simply press the “Auto” button.

### **Arena Squads**

A special squad needs to be allocated to become the Arena squad once the Arena feature is unlocked. This will be the default squad for future arena battles, and will also be the squad that other players face when they encounter you in the arena. To set a squad as Arena squad, simply check the “Arena Squad” option at the desired squad in the Squad Edit page.

Only one squad can be set as Arena Squad at a time. Players can also conveniently edit their arena squad right before battle by pressing the “Edit” button at the bottom left corner of the Arena page.

### **Battle Power**

A “Battle Power” is displayed for each squad. This number is a gauge for the strength of the squad. The higher the Battle Power, the stronger the squad.

## Combat Mechanics (PVE)

Once your squad has been set up, select the squad to be brought in and press “Battle!”. The objective of standard PVE stages is to clear all enemies in all waves.

The actual battle interface is divided in two sections, with the top half being purely visuals and the bottom half with the 3x6 grid being where the players assign unit actions. Notice that the squad that was selected appeared on the right half of this 3x6 grid, exactly as the units were placed in their squad.

### **Basics: Movement and Normal Attacks**

To move a unit, drag it to the desired destination tile on the 3x6 grid. Units can only move to the adjacent tiles horizontally or vertically (no direct diagonal movement). The destination tile can be any tile not occupied by an enemy unit. If the destination is currently occupied by another ally unit, moving to that tile will cause the two units to swap places.

To make a unit attack, drag the unit to the enemy target.

Different classes have different attack patterns and attack range. Specifically, Champions, Guardians and Shadows are melee and can only attack adjacent enemy units. Rangers, Mystics and Healers are ranged and can attack any unit on the 3x6 grid. For more information on attack patterns, refer to Hero Attack Patterns.

Each unit’s normal attack damage is determined by its Attack stat and the enemy’s Defence stat. For more information, refer to Heroes: Stats. A ranged penalty is applied when ranged attacks hit enemies behind the frontline. Specifically, for every enemy unit between the attacker and the target, the damage received by the target decreases by a multiplier of 75%. This is summarized in the table below:

 1
 2
 3
 4

### **Turns**

Players take turns with the computer to make a move, with the player always starting first in PVE. Each complete turn includes both a player turn and an enemy turn.

In PVE, the player turn ends when all units have made a move, which can be either moving, attacking, or using active skill (more on this below). The player can also choose to do neither of the three actions with their units. In this case, the unit will instead Defend by default, reducing their damage taken in the next enemy turn by 25%. To activate this, first make a move with all other units not intending to Defend, then press “End Turn”. All remaining units that have yet to make a move will Defend.

Once the player turn ends, the enemy turn will start. Likewise, the computer will get to choose to make its units attack, move, defend or use active skill. Once all units have moved, the enemy turn ends and the turn is passed back to the player.

The current turn number is displayed on the bottom right corner of the combat interface. This turn number only increases after a complete turn (both player and enemy has moved).

### **Waves**

Most PVE stages come in waves. The current wave versus total number of wave is written at the top of the screen, beside the stage name. The player has to clear all monsters within a wave before the next wave of monsters will spawn.

A boss monster with purple HP bar is featured in the last wave. This monster has stronger than others. All waves have to be cleared before the stage is completed.

### **Active Skills**

Every unit has a unique active skill, and they can choose to use this active skill instead of moving or using their normal attack during their turn. Pressing on the hero portrait during battle will reveal both the active skill (left) and passive aura (right). Pressing on either will reveal their skill description. Details for each hero’s active skill can also be found in the Skills tab of each hero’s profile page.

Each active skill has a cooldown associated with it, displayed at the top left corner of the each hero’s icon. The active skill’s cooldown needs to reach 0 before it can be used. When this happens, a tick will replace the number on the top left corner of the hero icon. This cooldown counter automatically decreases when a complete turn has passed. Certain heroes have special skills that can shorten or lengthen this cooldown duration.

Once an active skill’s cooldown has reached 0, players can activate the skill by clicking on the hero then the active skill (left icon), then on suitable target(s) to cast the active skill. Possible targets are lighted up, and this changes depending on the skill, and can be either one or more ally or enemies, or even a selection of tiles. For more details on active skills, refer to Heroes: Active Skills

### **Passive skill: Aura and Aura Direction**

Most heroes have a passive skill called aura associated with them. These aura skill effects are always active, and gives surrounding allies powerful perks.

Auras have specific aura directions, which determines the number of allies that can be affected by the aura, and also the position that allies have to stand in order to receive the aura buff. A hero’s aura direction is indicated by the little arrows at the sides of its icon. Only allies standing on the sides with an arrow will receive aura perks. For more information on the types of auras available, refer to the Aura Wikia page.

### **On-spawn Effects**

Some units come with an on-spawn effect, which can come as a buff or debuff to either the player or enemy team. On-spawn effects apply once the unit enters combat, before either side makes a move.

### **Items**

Players can bring consumable items such as health potions and stun potions into combat. These items can provide valuable advantage and change the outcome of a fight. Items can be used anytime during a player turn, and there are no restrictions to the number of items that can be used. All items are one-use only and will be removed from the player’s inventory after it is used.

There is, however, a limit to the number of potions that can be brought to combat. Each fight is limited to five different types of items, and only up to five of each of the items. To bring items into battle, press any of the 5 slots in the items section before battle, then select the item to be brought in and press “+”.

To use an item in combat, press the “Items” button then select the target to use the item on. This can be either enemy or player units, depending on the item. Possible targets will be lighted up.

### **Death**

A unit dies once its health reaches 0. When this happens, the unit is removed from the battle and can no longer participate for the rest of the battle. There is no other penalty for the unit that died.

There is no way to bring back dead units to the fight except with certain units like Theia that have skills that revive units if they die.

### **Friend Reinforcement**

Losing units can be very costly to the outcome of a battle, and players can recruit their friends or even a stranger to provide backup support when this happens. To add friend reinforcement, press the “+” icon in the Friend Reinforcement section before starting a battle. Select a friend or stranger use as reinforcement then start the battle. Alternatively, press “Auto” to automatically select a random friend or stranger to bring as reinforcement.

When a friend reinforcement has been selected, the friend’s unit will appear on left side of the battle interface, above the 3x6 grid. This reinforcement unit will fill in the place of the first unit that dies, and will follow your team unit the end of this battle.

Each battle is limited to only one friend reinforcement to provide backup for one unit death. Bringing a friend reinforcement also provides bonus stats for the entire battle. This bonus is dependent on Friendship Level. Strangers do not provide any bonus stats.

### **Defeat**

A battle is lost when all units (including the reinforcement unit) are dead. Players can then choose whether to revive all units and resume the fight from the exact same point, or leave the fight.

Resuming the fight costs some gems, and revives the squad at full health, with skill cooldown set at the cooldown value when each unit died. Friend reinforcement is not revived and will be no longer be usable if revived units die. Revived units also receive a stats penalty of 5% to all stats. Players can exercise the revive all units option an unlimited number of times, but note that the stats penalty increases by 5% every time units are revived. This penalty is removed once the stage is completed. The gems cost for reviving all units also increases at an exponential rate every time this option is selected.

The other option, retreating, will forfeit all items previously obtained from the stage, and also the energy spent to enter the stage.

## Other Combat Mechanics

### **Ambush**

Some PVE stages feature a special two-sided layout. This is called ambush. In such stages, the battle grid has a 7x3 grid instead of the usual 6x3 layout. The player’s squad is placed in the middle 3x3 tiles, and enemy units spawn on both the leftmost and rightmost 2x3 tiles.

Ambush battles are generally harder than one sided battles since the team is subject to enemy attacks from both sides.

### **Reinforcement Squad**

Some Special Events require players to set a reinforcement squad. When all units in the primary squad dies, enemies are returned to their original positions and the reinforcement squad is called in.

Reinforcement squads should not have the same units as the primary squad. Any overlapping units will not spawn when the reinforcement squad is called in. Friend reinforcement unit only comes in when units in the reinforcement squad dies. To set a squad as the reinforcement squad, check the “Reinforcement Squad” option in the squad menu before entering battle.

### **Mega-boss**

Some stages feature Mega-bosses instead of regular stage bosses. These bosses have multiple body parts, and each body part has its own skill set and HP bar. While defeating the main body (with purple HP bar) is sufficient to kill the boss, killing the other body parts can also be advantageous since this disables the skills from that body part.

## Playtime Reducing Features

Valiant Force has various features in place to reduce the overall playtime for the game. Special Event x1-x3 allows players to use their energy much faster when clearing Special Event quests, while express tickets allow instantaneous clearing of Story Mode stages. Both features help players save time but at the same time do not compromise on the item drops from the stages.

Other features include auto-mode, which allows hands-off clearing of all battles. Animation speed can also be increased to reduce the time required for each fight.

### **Multi-Energy Runs**

When clearing Special Event stages, players can choose to use up to 5x the required energy for that stage in one battle. The item loot drop rates, event tokens and ladder points (if applicable) from clearing this battle will be doubled or tripled accordingly. This can help to save time clearing Special Events, but comes at a greater risk since more energy is lost if the stage is failed.

The option to use more energy for the Special Event stage is at the bottom of the screen before entering the battle. Use the “+” and “-” to increase or decrease the amount of energy used.

### **Express Tickets**

Express tickets can be used to instantly complete any Story Mode stage that has been cleared before (clearing the 1\* trial is sufficient). Players will obtain loots from the trial as if they did it manually, but there is no stage clear experience for units.

x3 Express is unlocked once the player reaches prestige level 6, and this allows the player to use 3 express tickets at the same time on a given stage to get 3x the loot with just one button.

🌟**Note that express tickets can only be used on Story Mode stages.**

Update:

Limited Event Express has been unlocked, allowing players to now express their Daily Events such as Gold Mine, Tower of Despair, Capitol's Last Stand and Trial of Talents. At the same time, players are now able to use these limited event express for their limited-time event nodes!

The number of expresses allowed per player is tied to their Prestige level.

### **Auto-mode**

Auto-mode is available in all combat to allow the computer to automatically clear the stage. Success is not guaranteed, however, and this is dependent on the strength of the player’s team.

🌟**To activate auto-mode, press “Auto” when in combat.**

### **Increasing Animation Speed**

To increase animation speed, when in combat, open the menu on the top right corner of the screen, then press the desired speed. Currently, the fastest animation speed is x2.

New players start with only x1 animation speed. x1.5 and x2 speed are only unlocked when players clear Normal Mode Story Quest 24-3 and Heroic Mode Story Quest 24-3 respectively.

## Retreating

When faced with a bad situation in combat, players can choose to retreat from the battle. The energy or arena orb used to enter the stage will be lost. All items previously obtained from the stage will also be forfeit. To retreat from a battle, press the menu at the top right corner of the screen, then press retreat.

## Resuming Battle

Bad connection and client issues can sometimes cause the game to crash unexpectedly in the middle of a stage. When this happens, players will be given the option to resume their previous fight when they start up the Valiant Force app again. Resuming the battle will allow the player to restart the stage that they were playing without any energy cost. To prevent abuse of the system, a 5% penalty to all stats is applied to the player’s squad every time a fight is resumed. This penalty is removed once the stage is completed. Any friend reinforcement previously selected will remain, but without any equipment stat bonus.

**Unfortunately, Arena fights cannot be resumed.**