A mobile game based on Warhammer 40k
Last week I wrote a short article introducing Warhammer 40k Tacticus, a turn based strategy game that I have been recently playing on mobile.
This week I wanted to explain how characters work.
Librarian Varro Tigurius
I’ll be using Chief Librarian Varro Tigurius to explain the character card. As I’ve been playing for a bit he is a ‘few’ levels above where he is when he first appears with the players but the principle remains.
Anatomy of the Character
- Name and role / unit type
- Rarity & Ability
- Power & Permanent Ability
- Experience Level, Shards & Orbs
- Health, Armour, Damage, Movement
- Attack(s)
- Equipment and upgrading Equipment
1 – Name and Role / Unit Type
It’s the name, and unit type… obviously! Get to know your character and get invested in them! They will be your key to beating the more difficult levels.
2 – Rarity and Ability
Characters are Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic & Legendary.
Ascension is a change in rarity which will increase the level cap and give boosts to the character’s abilities. Within rarities there are at least 2 level increases which increase the generic statistics of the character. (see below)
This area also shows the character’s special attack (in a circle). They are used once per game, but are often essential to victory. You’ll want to ensure you know what they do. These can be upgraded with medals – don’t expect to get enough of these as with all the resources in the game – you can’t do everything you want. Upgrading doesn’t change the ability but it gives it more damage, or summons more health, or healing more healing!
3 – Power & Permanent Ability
The power is an indication of how good a character is, although this is not necessarily a fair representation you can be pretty sure that a 1,000 power character is better than a 500 point one. Your playstyle will determine if a 600 is better than a 500 though!
Characters will also have another ability although this seems to be unavailable at the lower levels of experience & rarity in characters. In the case of the chief librarian it gives friendly characters the ability to block damage, and reduces Psychic damage. There’s also an upgrade cost in common with most other aspects of a character.
4 – Experience Level, Shards, & Orbs
Experience is gained from participating in missions and from reading tomes. As mentioned above there is a cap depending on the rarity of the character and common characters will hit their cap very quickly.
Above the experience bar there are the number of shards needed for promotion (the small picture of the character). If the next promotion is a change in rarity there will also be a cost in Orbs… which are difficult to get so don’t expect to be swimming in them!
5 – Health, Armour, Damage & Movement
Health is the amount of damage the character can take; armour reduces the damage of incoming attacks; damage is the standard damage and movement is the number of hexes the character can move. The first three increase with most level increases and can be increased by equipment (see below).
6 – Attacks
This shows the type of attacks. The fist is close assault which is standing next to an enemy. The other attack (if present) will be a ranged attack. It details the type of damage (useful to know for some battle tactics (more on this in a later article). and the number of attacks per attack. (this isn’t the number of enemies attacked, but the number of times your damage is applied to the chosen target). Multiple attacks are good against swarms (Scarabs & Rippers) but armour is applied to each attack so they can lack damage against large enemies.
7 – Equipment & Upgrading Equipment
There are 3 pieces of equipment available – weapon, armour & other which can be upgraded with scrap. They provide bonuses and most equipment can be used by multiple characters, so you can unequip and switch them to a different character.
The other section here is 6 pieces of more basic equipment which are added to a character for a permanent bonus but then unavailable to other characters (ie they are spent). When you have added all six pieces of equipment they disappear, and you get to assign another 6. There is a limit to the number of times you can do this based on the rarity.
Woehammer articles
I’ll be bringing you regular articles on the game as I progress and learn more; with the first articles being about some of the concepts of the game including the large number of resources available. I hope you’ll join me; and let us know if there’s anything in particular you would like me to cover.
I may even be joined by Woehammer Peter as he also plays so expect the occasional second opinion.
Linking up
If you think this game may interest you, follow along this series of articles. I have been playing for a while already so some of it will based on what I know from further down the process. Woehammer isn’t receiving any sponsorship for this article (it’s just Declan and Eeyore – and Peter – having fun), but if you want to support me on my Tacticus exploration then please use my referral code: LIT-20-RAP
See you all next week!
— Declan and Eeyore