Battle

When you attack enemy, whether on the Map, a Quest, Raiding, War or otherwise, you engage in a unique sort of match 3 game.

## Basic Attacks

Using the example image as a reference:

1. The battle is against 4  Ice enemies.
2. At the top left, there is a way to move a red tile in the 3rd column in order to create a match of 3 red tiles in the 2nd from the top row.
3. Matching 3 or more tiles of the same element converts them into Troops. These troops then charge up their column doing damage to the first enemy they strike.
4. Each match awards mana to any heroes on your team of the same element as the matched tiles.
5. When a Hero's mana bar is full, their portrait begins to glow.  At that point, tapping on the Hero will cast their Special Skills.  If you tap on a particular enemy before casting the special skill, you aim the attack.

## Troop Damage

* The troops created upon a match are those that were assigned to the Hero/es of that element when composing the team.
* If the party has no hero of a particular element (in this case  Fire), its troops will do only 1 damage per tile.
* A green match would do the damage of two troops because both Caedmon and Berden are  Nature and use green troops.
* Any Specials that increase damage dealt (such as Wu Kong) also increase troop/tile damage.

## Dragon Shields and Power Shards

Matching more than three tiles creates a more powerful tile:

* 4 tiles of the same element in a straight line create a  **Dragon Shield** (formerly known as "Explosive Dragon Shield").  When tapped or matched, the Dragon Shield explodes together with 1 neighbouring tile to each of the four cardinal directions, sending 5 total tiles at the enemy.
* 5 tiles of the same element create a **Power Shard**, if ordered in a straight line, a T shape, L shape, or a plus (some matches in combos involve even more tiles, however the shapes above are necessary, so for example a block of 2x3 tiles does NOT create a Power Shard).  When tapped or matched, the Power Shard explodes all tiles of its element.

## Element Strengths & Weaknesses (Colors)

Each element has another element that it is vulnerable to and vice versa, an element it is **strong** against.  The three main elements (Fire, Nature, and Ice) have these arranged in a cycle (a mnemonic may be: fire burns plants but is quenched by ice, which in turn is overcome by spring's blossoming) while the remaining Holy and Dark are simply opposing powers.

Tile/troop attack against an enemy whose element the tiles are strong against causes double the standard damage, and vice versa, attack by a weak-element tiles cause half the damage; this is noted when the damage amount is displayed. So for example against  Fire enemy,  Ice troops do double damage, while  Nature troops do half. The other three (Holy, Dark or Fire) do the base level of damage with no modification.

Damage from by Special Skills is not affected by the target's element unless it is an explicit part of the Special Skill definition (Mok-Arr) or for example if a damage modifier is placed by another hero's Special, such as Morgan Le Fay: When cast, Morgan receives reduced damage from all Fire troops as well as Special Skills cast by Fire heroes.

Lastly, some enemies (rare Titans, various event quest enemies, etc.) will reflect damage of the same element back to the Hero; this is called Elemental Barrier and always shown by shields of the appropriate element beneath them.

Also of interest: Color Stacking

## Mana Gains and Ghosting

Matched tiles provides some mana to each hero of the tile's element.  In the example above, both Nature heroes (Caedmon and Berden) receive the same amount of mana that they would have otherwise gotten had they been the sole nature hero on the team.

The term "ghosting" refers to sending tiles/troops so that they do not hit any enemies. They are shown as reflecting from the background, returning twice the mana; this may be beneficial in finishing off certain enemy team compositions, or gaining mana and clearing the field before the enemy can fire their Special Skills.

The percentage of the mana bar that is filled up by each tile is dependent upon the hero's mana speed; Average speed requires 10 tiles to fill.

Some enemies have a mana bar, gaining mana by taking damage from troops or via automatic trickle (half a tile each turn). Once full, they will use their own Special Skill.

## Elemental Barrier

In battles within Challenge Events and against Rare Titans, enemies of a corrosponding element or color will appear with an **Elemental Barrier**. These barriers are symbolized by three monochromatic shields underneath the enemy and functionally reflect all incoming effects and damages from Heroes of the respective element. During Challenge Events, the barriers can be bypassed with the use of Event Heroes of that element.

## Unique Tiles

In certain Seasons and Events, the battles present unique tiles (or shields). These changes will offer something different for players to navigate enemy waves.