A General HoC Guide

[dawnwolfee]

A General HoC Guide (For People of All Factions)
For those who are just starting out, have a question, have advice, or want to keep me company.

Inspiration:
Boredom & procrastination

Purpose:
To help new peeps

Disclaimer:
I don't know everything about HoC, don't murder me if I get something wrong ._.

[dawnwolfee]

Cataclysms
When the land spaces get all cracked and start to shift~

There are 1 - 2 cataclysms every turn. The number of cataclysms occurring determines how many cards you will draw.


Cataclysms can be forced using certain spell cards like Embrace the Void.

Final battle begins once there are no more land spaces left (excluding portals and mana wells). *Note: This does not apply for the K map.


Armageddon – Not related to cataclysms (related to final battle). If both players find their sixth portal at the same time, both players will be given another turn to summon units and will then be forced into a final battle.

Devs have stated that the final battle occurs on the centermost portal.

[dawnwolfee]

Units
Your loyal soldiers (until glitches strike).

Faction


Avalon

Song of Silver, Energy Storm, Prayer for Victory, What Must Be Done
✩ Man-At-Arms (8), Light Infantry (12), Apprentice Geomancer (Attuner/12), Huntsman (Scout/12), Faithful Soldier (12), Armored Longbowman (18), Questing Knight (AttunerScout/18) Heavy Infantry (24), Royal Alchemist (24)
✩✩ Night's Agent (Attuner/12), Aether Wizard (18), Penitent Warden (18), Terror Blade (36)
✩✩✩ Tower Guardian (18), Master Of Flames (30), Sir Corwin (Herald/40)
✩✩✩✩ Artillery Golem (24), Kolyr Godslayer (Hero/52), Knight of the Horizon (Hero/42), They Gray Mage (Hero/48)
✩✩✩✩✩ Knight of 3 Dooms (Hero/42), Eldwyn the Bright (Hero/48), Gavyn the Mighty (Hero/42)



Hellspawn

Cloud of Curses, Embrace the Void, Infernal Wrath, Mana Corruption, Open the Gates
✩ Rattling Imp (Scout/10), Blood Acolyte (Attuner/12), Poison Fiend (12), Jagged Legion (18), Dead Sun Minion (Attuner/18), Cursed Legion (24), Floating Horror (24), Screaming Boulder (30)
✩✩ Nagle Mage (Attuner/14), Hellhound (Scout/20), Shadow Demon (18), Filth Elemental (36), Volcano Fiend (62)
✩✩✩ Lightning Demon (24), Void Scarab (30), Succubus (Herald/40), Death Dealer (Herald/40). Slaughter Wheel (42)
✩✩✩✩ Lord of Ashes (Hero/42), Cerness the Skull (Hero/52), Stalker of World (Hero/56), Worm That Walks (Hero/66)
✩✩✩✩✩ Crimson Queen Zerakyl (Hero/54)



Flameborn

Mana Convergence, Gnashing, Portal Burst, Portal Sense, Breath of the Ancients
✩ Clawfighter (12), Dragoneye Savant (Attuner/14), Wyrmtail Sage (Attuner/14), Dragoneye Archer (Scout/14), Dragoneye Sorcerer (18), Dragonspawn Savage (18), Swiftwing Scout (Attuner Scout/18), Lightning Whelp (18), Volcano Whelp (24), Battle-Trained Wyvern (30),
✩✩ Guardian of the Plinth (30), Mountain Wyrm (36), Thunder Lizard (60)
✩✩✩ Chained Berserker (24), Rakyl the Claw (Herald/40), Keljana the Champion (Herald/40), Furliss the Portent (Herald/40), Rage Dragon (42), Krylyr the Eye (Hero/42), Kak the Scar (Hero/48)
✩✩✩✩ Cataclysm Dragon (56), Mardu the Scourge (Hero/56), Fafnir the Plague (Hero/62)
✩✩✩✩✩ Jakyr the Fang (Hero/60)


Abilities

Armor – When attacked in battle, damage will decrease by x amount.

Damage Aura – If this unit is attacked in battle, it will deal x amount of damage to it's attacker. *Grazes do not count; Ranged units can be hit.

Defender – If this unit is on a green land space and is attacked, each of its stats will get a x amount boost.

Dodge – This unit has x amount chance of dodging an enemy's attack.

Fear – This unit will make all enemy's stats decrease by x amount in battle.

Flight – This unit can fly x amount of spaces into the enemy's territory.

Movement – This unit can move x amount of spaces into the enemy's territory.

Postrecovery – This unit has x amount chance of recovering full health after a battle.

Scout – This unit has an x amount chance of revealing what is on each land space adjacent to the one this unit is currently on.

Solitary – This unit's stats gain x amount during each battle if they are alone. *If you have another unit with a unit that has solitary and it dies, your remaining unit's solitary will be applied mid-battle.

Veteran – This unit will get an x amount of boost to all of his/her current stats after every battle.


Sell Back

If you amass more than four of one card, there is a sell back option at the top right of the screen if you select that card.


1 star = 50 essence, 2 star = 100 essence.

Currently, cards above 2 stars cannot be sold back.

[dawnwolfee]

Battle
n. 'a sustained fight between large, organized armed forces.' aka: fracas.

Luck

Luck pretty much determines this game. It determines grazing, criticals, and retreats among other things. If you don’t like it, take it up with the Battle Log.


Maps

Maps are randomized (excluding certain letter maps like I, N, and H).


Mana

You gain 2 mana for every land space you capture (green land spaces).

You gain 10 mana for every land space that has a mana well that you put an attuner on.

Although there is a mana well on your home portal, an attuner is not required to gain mana there.

Mana is use it or lose it. Mana you do not use one round will not carry over to the next round.

Certain spell cards like Mana Convergence will give you more mana for the duration of one turn.

* If one of your units dies in battle, you will receive a mana refund equivalent to 1/3 the mana it took to summon that unit. You will also draw another card.


Pinning

Pinning is uncertain and very luck-based. For in-depth reading: Pinning: A miniguide v2.0 by Knight of the Horizon.

Pinning is determined by land shuffling – each land space is randomly sorted and whoever’s units are on the land space higher up in the order will move first.


Auto-Battle

The system will automatically choose a battle that you will fight if your units are fighting more than one battle at once.

Unfortunately, you are currently unable to select which battle you want to fight.


Campaigns

Survivor - The portals have been closed, leaving you unable to summon. All you have left is some of the old magic and a bare handful of units. Can you turn certain defeat into victory?

Wave Attack – Can you survive the enemy onslaught and break the blockade?

Protect the Princess - Can you protect the princess and prevent her from being slain by a rebel king?

Devil's Nest – Can you find the portals before the nest starts swarming?

[dawnwolfee]

Player vs. Player
Enter at your own risk. Note: Hopes and dreams die here.

The current level cap is 80, however, you will continue accumulating XP.

Brackets

1 - 10
11 - 20
21 - 30
31 - 80

*Note: If a player is close to level 30 and has a formidable enough army, they may be bumped into the 30+ bracket. Unconfirmed for similar instances in lower level brackets.

Issues


Forfeiting

Prior to the Jan 14, 2013 update, if players forfeited during a battle, the other player would not receive any essence from units killed during the battle.

Note: If you forfeit, you will not receive any essence accumulated during that game. There will also now be an increasing penalty each time you forfeit.

Player Farming

Sometimes when a player knows they have won, they will stop short of conquering the next portal or obliterating your army so that you will summon more units and they can gain more essence.

You can avoid this by not summoning anymore or making your units suicide.


Rankings Board

Each person has a certain number of points that they start out with every week.


Losing against a similarly-leveled player – lose a few points
Losing against a much lower player – lose lots of points
Winning against similarly-leveled player – win a few points
Winning against a much higher player – win lots of points

Games that do not last over 4 turns are not counted.

Currently, rankings are static until updated manually be a developer.

[dawnwolfee]

Decks
1 deck = 52 cards. Note: This does not apply for HoC.

You can have up to four decks under the 'Army' tab.

OTG

These decks use the cards "Open The Gates" and "Mana Convergence" to summon high mana cost cards. If you enter into a PvP and the other player his this or that high mana cost card in the first few turns, they're probably running an OTG deck.

These decks tend to fail if the player is not able to pull an OTG card on their first few card picks.


Portal Rush/Zerg



Hero

Faction Pure

Cross Faction

Out Of Faction

Units that are not in the same faction as the deck that you are currently running have an additional mana cost. The additional mana cost is 20% + 1 unless your card costs below 20 mana in which case, 4 mana will be added to the cost.

[dawnwolfee]

Packs & Essence
Essence -> Packs -> Units -> Play -> Essence. It's a vicious cycle.

Packs


Bronze Pack – 1,000 Essence. Build your forces with a selection of common units and the occasional uncommon.
Silver Pack – 5,000 Essence. Strengthen your ranks with a selection of common and uncommon units, plus the small chance of a rare card.
Gold Pack – 15,000 Essence. Get the edge in battle with some powerful reinforcements, including a moderate chance of a rare card or even better.
Iona's Reserve – 300 Chaos Cash. The Battle Master's finest mercenaries are at your disposal. Includes a common, three uncommons and one rare or better.
Iona's Elite Reserves – 1,000 Chaos Cash. The Battle Master's elite forces will lead your army to victory. Includes a common, three uncommons, at least one rare, one epic or better.

* At this time, buying packs is not suggested due to crappy drop rates.


Essence


Current essence trade-in – 1 Essence:10 Gold at a cap of 5,000 essence per day.


Note: Essence only converts into Gaia gold, not Chaos Cash which can only be bought using real money.


Essence Nerf – Although there is an essence nerf, it has not yet been determined how or when it nerfs. Be aware that if you’re essence total at the end of the game has a “.” at the end, you were probably nerfed.

Essence Glitch – At times, the game will erroneously give out 1200 essence. This happens when you’ve stayed in a game too long or continued one after being away for a while.

[dawnwolfee]

Bugs & Glitches
When your game is acting wonky, refresh is your best friend.

Meet refresh. He will be your best buddy while this game is still in Beta. If something strange happens (i.e. land spaces disappearing, units are still grayed out a turn after summoning, there can't possibly be that many units on that square, etc.) during your game, ask him and he will guide you to the right path. If he's being a lazy a** and isn't working, continue reading.

If your game freezes and you're unable to make it back to the game lobby, use the Beta button on the bottom left part of the screen and force a forfeit.

Royal Alchemist – If you use his special and another special is used before his, interrupting it (for example, Keljana’s special), he will attack your units instead of the enemy’s.

Test Cards (ex. Elf King) – If you buy a pack after new cards are released and find a card that has weird stats and no picture, you've probably gotten a test card. Sometimes developers mistakenly release cards before they're ready. If you use them during battle, your game will probably freeze or you'll be unable to use that unit.

Resolved: Essence isn’t rewarded when specials are used to kill an enemy.

[dawnwolfee]

Updates
For when s**t goes down.

January 18 - Keljana and Succubus (previously 5 stars) were adjusted to 3 stars.
January 18 - Those who had a Succubus were granted Zerakyl. Those with Keljana were granted Jakyr.
January 18 - Knight of 3 Dooms, Eldwyn the Bright, Jakyr, and Crimson Queen Zerakyl became heroes.
January 18 - New heralds: (Flameborn) Furliss the Portent, (Avalon) Stalker Delyth, Lord Paladin Cadogan, (Hellspawn) The Fallen One.

January 21 - Booster packs were retooled - level progression on packs was removed and three open packs were pushed out.

January 22 - Jakyr's mana increased, Death Dealer's speed increased and he was moved to row 1, Volcano Fiend is worth 42 mana in-faction now, Guardian of the Plinth has attuner 14,
January 22 - Rakyl's special was changed to stun, Sir Corwin got beefed up, Master of Flames and Knight of 3 Dooms were rebalanced.

[dawnwolfee]

Frequently Asked Questions
For if you haven't found the answer to your question in the rest of this thread~

In the unit preview of the card, it said that it cost x amount of mana, but in the actual game, it really costs more. Why is that?


Out of faction mana cost - if you’re trying to summon a card that isn’t in same faction as the deck you’re currently running, there will be a 20% additional mana cost.


I chose the wrong faction, can I change it?


No, you can’t change your starting faction, but factions really only matter when you first start the game. You can buy other heralds under the ‘Shop’ tab as well as packs which will sometimes drop units from another faction. You can then use these new units in your current deck or start a completely new one.

[dawnwolfee]

Reserved
For me.
Facebook.

[dawnwolfee]

Reserved
For me.
Runes

[dawnwolfee]

Reserved
For me.

[dawnwolfee]

Reserved
For me.

[dawnwolfee]

Ta-Dah
Magic.