Complexity

## Introduction

This page details how our complexity scale works and why factions fall in certain ranges on the scale. The scale ranges from 1 to 5 with half-integer increments for a total of 9 possible increments, but only the integer components will be covered here, as the half-integer increments constitute marginal differences.

## What is Complexity?

Complexity in Smash Up can be, well, complex. There are a very large number of factors that contribute to it that can be looked at in a variety of ways; for instance, do you consider a 20-card faction in a vacuum, or do you inherently need to consider a given faction as just one half of a whole, evaluating how a partner can use a faction's cards in addition to how the faction itself uses them? Generally, it is easier to look at a faction internally before considering the wide array of potential partners, so that is what will be evaluated for a faction's complexity rating on the wiki.

There are several key aspects which stand out as contributing to high complexity which will be detailed below.

### Many Options

Having a greater variety of options for what to do with a given turn can greatly increase complexity. If there are more avenues available to pursue, it is harder to pick out which is the best. Things which contribute to having more options include:

* Chaining cards which grant extra plays
* Multiple abilities on the same cards
* Cards which search your deck or discard pile to draw/play other cards

All of these serve to obscure what the optimal line of play is. This category alone can cause turns to take a while as players try to math out a long series of cards or think about the state of their deck; a prominent example of this in the published game is Musketeers, who are infamously math-heavy.

Another aspect of this is how much card draw a faction has, although there isn't a linear correlation between card draw and complexity. Forcing someone to live off the two cards they draw at the end of the turn will keep complexity down as they don't have to worry about an excess of options in their hand (think about factions like Dinosaurs). On the other hand, having an easy, consistent influx of card draw will help make a deck more consistent, allowing a given plan to be executed more often (like Mulan). Card draw usually leads to higher complexity when there is the potential to draw many cards at once, suddenly flooding your hand. Often these scenarios require setup to execute, meaning they have to be planned out in advance, and they will also often result in a hand of well over 10 cards at the end of the turn, forcing you to make decisions about what to keep and what to toss.

### Low Margin For Error

Needing to play closer to optimally in order to extract meaningful value from a faction can drive complexity up. A high skill floor can make a faction hard to understand for someone learning it for the first time. Aspects which contribute to this include:

* Less recursion
* No easy movement
* Cards that need to be saved for the right time instead of being easily played

All of these generally mean that once you commit to something, there isn't much you can do to reverse it if you later decide it was a bad move. Movement and recursion both allow you to correct course if you find that playing a card the way you did was a bad idea. Having too many cards that require specific circumstances to be used effectively can lead either to very suboptimal use or the cards not being used at all (think about cards like Blossom or Time Loop).

### Strange Playstyles and Rules Questions

The last category of factors that will be covered in this article includes departures from the regular flow of play. This includes:

* Murky timing
* Other rules questions
* Counterintuitive playstyle, often involving doing something generally bad to yourself

Having cards which invoke strange rules questions require answers to those questions, which may not be easy to determine the answers to. Thus, playing the faction carries those questions with it.

A counterintuitive playstyle can mean any number of things. The prime examples in the published game include Ignobles and Hydra, both of which intentionally do something normally considered bad (giving your minions away to other players or destroying them) and play around with making the bad thing a good thing. Generally these factions require careful consideration of ratios between what cards do the bad thing, what cards turn it into a good thing, and cards which don't directly interact with the gimmick in order to glue the rest together (this is often referred to as the Rule of Thirds). Getting the ratios wrong can often lead to a draw order dependency, where the faction has to draw its cards in a certain order in order to function properly (this is also common with state-machine factions such as Ancient Egyptians).

## Examples

Below will be a couple examples, one published and one custom, for each integer complexity rating 1-5.

### 1/5

It is very hard to make a 1/5 faction. It needs to be extremely simple, with a straightforward game plan and ways to mitigate some poor decisions. It should stay away from abilities like searching from the deck or an excess of recursion to the deck. Extra card plays should be minimal, and card draw should either be minimal or engine-based. Stay away from multiple abilities on the same card. Use modifiers (actions played on a minion or base) that are easy to play.

Zombies are a published 1/5 faction. In a sense, they are the ultimate training wheels; you can only play what you draw, but you can play it again and again directly from the discard pile. Thus, it's easy to do the same strong thing over and over again without worrying about drawing into other strong things. if you mess up some plays and other players score bases you invested in, it's easy to reset and get those cards back out again.

Currently no custom faction on the wiki is rated a pure 1/5 complexity. There are a couple of 1.5's, including the Stephen Troopers by ludichrisness. Stephen Troopers have a very straightforward game plan of playing multiple minions to bolster each other, and converging onto the target base. Their name based interactions make many of their minions interchangeable for various abilities, and there is a general sense that "more Stephens is better" as they all reinforce each other. The only added nuance they bring is their Phase 3 payoff card rewarding getting Stephens under rival control.

### Mid Range Complexity

A faction rated 2, 3, or 4 complexity is easier to make, and most factions, published or custom, fall into this range. All of them have some of the complexity factors described above which 1's lack, with each step in complexity adding more of them or greater quantities of them.

#### 2/5

Hydra is a published 2/5 faction. Although they feature a counterintuitive self-destruction playstyle, the majority of their plan is fairly straightforward. Hydra Agents are very easy to play, they have strong enough draw to enable consistency, and even their extra plays have well-defined targets.

Selkies by ludichrisness are a custom 2/5 faction. Selkies have abilities that are easy to understand in principle, but they combine together to a gameplan which may not be immediately clear. They are built to create secondary scores after losing on a base; even though they want to strategically lose a base, they can be beginner-friendly if you actually do lose unexpectedly early. Their leader makes it nearly impossible to get a solo against them, which can provide a lot of breathing room as you don't need to worry about being shut out entirely.

#### 3/5

Explorers are a published 3/5 faction. Many of Explorers' cards are hard to play non-terminally, including a large swath of their minions. There is a clear agenda with Idaho Smith, but to guarantee seeing him requires putting in a lot of effort with cards like I Said No Camels or Forgotten Horrors.

The Grimm Troupe by Berryl is a custom 3/5 faction. Much like with Explorers, there is an ultimate goal in mind with Troupe Master Grimm and Nightmare King. The Troupe comes equipped with an extreme amount of milling in order to guarantee seeing their key cards, but it takes a plan to know what you can afford to get rid of. Additionally, Grimm Troupe lacks much of a backup plan for if they don't find cards in time, giving them slim margins of error.

#### 4/5

Miskatonic University is a published 4/5 faction. They have a risky state machine they need to maintain with Madness, and they have to carefully weigh how much they draw and discard. Miskatonic also has a lot of sifting, forcing you to decide which cards you don't want to commit to in order to dig for more powerful cards.

Jellyfish by Onassi are a custom 4/5 faction.

### 5/5

5/5 factions are the most complex. They always feature most if not all of the complexity factors, usually in high quantities. The way they approach the game is often methodical and/or counterintuitive, and they usually require a lot of thought and precision to play correctly.

Ghosts are a published 5/5 faction. Forcing you to dump your hand in order to break bases is a delicate balancing act, even with the assistance of Creampuff Man, and figuring out how to recover afterwards is a key part of playing Ghosts well.

Astronomers by Berryl are a custom 5/5 faction. They stash specific cards at the bottom of your deck and repeatedly reveal them for strong effects. It takes a lot of finesse to set up what they want, and you need to know when to break the state you set up. Additionally, they need to stay away from particular abilities in their partners. All in all, Astronomers take a large amount of concentration in order to play well, putting their complexity at a solid 5/5.