Ability basics

Abilities in Batalj are the tools units use to affect the battle. These can be attacks, heals, buffs, debuffs, and much more. Regardless of what kind of ability you use, they come with certain attributes, prerequisites, and consequences.

Delay
All abilities have an associated delay. The delay value determines how many steps back the unit will take in the timeline from its current position after the ability has been used. This means, that if a unit uses an ability with a delay cost of 3, the unit will move 3 steps back in the timeline after the round. This is all of course relative as if there for instance was only two units currently doing battle, and the other unit used a more costly ability, your unit would keep its spot.

Cooldown
Cooldown is how many rounds you will have to wait until you can use the ability again. Simple as that.

Range
An ability’s range tells you how many tiles away from your unit’s position the ability can target. A melee attack for instance has a range of 1-1, meaning it can only hit units in adjacent tiles. Some ranged abilities can’t target too close to the unit and might have a range like 3-5. Self-target abilities will always have range 0-0 as it is only used on the unit itself.

Range can also be reduced to 0 by for instance the status effect “blind”. In some cases, like with the Sharpshooter’s passive “Scanned”, range will be ignored after an attack has been scheduled.

Energy
Some abilities will cost energy and will be unavailable until the energy cost is met. Energy is represented by a purple segmented bar under your unit’s health bar. Different units have different ways of earning energy. Owl for instance earns 1 energy each turn, while Pangolin earns energy each time it reduces incoming damage to 0.

Energy can also be reduced by enemy units like in the case with the Wasp’s “Sting” attack.

Damage
If the ability is a “hostile one”, it will have an associated damage number. This damage number is how much health the target will lose without accounting for reductions (from armor, damage reduction, or other countering abilities) or damage boosting buffs (like passives or active buffs).

Damage can can also come in the form of “true damage”. True damage will ignore all damage reductions from abilities or armor, meaning that the number you see, is the amount of damage it will do. True damage can still be countered by certain abilities like “Absorbing Ward”, “Phasing”, or “Hard Shell”s.

Channeling
Channeling means that your unit will not be able to schedule moves or abilities for the duration of the channel. If you for instance schedule an ability with a channeling cost of 2 the following 2 action rounds will be dedicated to the channel unless the channel is broken. The associated delay of a channeling ability will apply after the channel ends.

Passives
Most units have both active and passive abilities. Passive abilities can be anything from static bonuses, triggered abilities, or buffs activated when the specified criteria are met.

Other ability requirements
Certain abilities can only be used if the unit has not moved. This is indicated by a small boot and x icon above the ability icon. These are usually more powerful abilities with a greater delay impact.