Swap one hero. Save 1,537 troops.

// Three fights, side by side

Same enemy. One swap per round.

Lv.51 Sombie. Same base, tech, equipment, mod vehicle, Lv.9/10 Fighter troops. One hero slot moved each fight.

F1 — Barnett

Tristan · Francis · Barnett · Guy · Farhad

Ended round 41

2,700

Troops left · 28%

F2 — C&R (winner)

Tristan · Francis · C&R · Guy · Farhad

Ended round 34 — 7 rounds shorter

4,237

Troops left · 43%

F3 — Megan (no Farhad)

Tristan · Francis · C&R · Guy · Megan

Ended round 41

3,061

Troops left · 32%

Stat	F1 Barnett	F2 C&R	F3 Megan
Start troops	9,722	9,752	9,469
HP pool	2,705,851	2,714,201	2,635,436
ATK%	916.4	932.7	921.9
DEF%	934.5	966.7	977.3
Hero NAD	905%	1034%	1028%
Hero power	7.4M	7.9M	7.5M
Faction bonus ATK	68.6%	72.2%	50.3%
Ended at round	41	34	41
Troops left	2,700	4,237	3,061
HP lost	624,780	489,500	569,600

Verdict

F2 won. Clear. Not close.

Swap Barnett → C&R: saved 7 rounds, 1,537 troops. Swap Farhad → Megan: added 7 rounds back, cost 1,176 troops. Same vehicle. Same tech. Same equipment. Every round of gap lives in the hero slot.

// Section 1 · Heroes

Heroes feed one pool. Not five armies.

Big rock · F1 → F2

+1,537

Swap Barnett → C&R. Same faction. Seven rounds shorter. Rarity upgrade inside faction pays.

Big rock · F2 → F3

−1,176

Swap Farhad → Megan. Faction broke. Seven rounds longer. Gold off-faction bleeds.

Burst damage — R11, same pool, same round:

Skill	Hero	R11 hit (HP)
Go Rex Go	C&R	43,240
Blade Storm	Guy	49,380
Sky Blade	Barnett	20,714
Eagle Strike	Farhad	23,694
Divine Prayer	Megan	20,087
Rain Fire ×2	Tristan	32,430 ea
Fire Barrage	Francis	28,295
DW-2 Armor Piercer	Vehicle	34,566

C&R hits ~2× Barnett. That is the whole ballgame for F1 → F2. In F3, Megan's Divine Prayer (~20k) is weaker than Farhad's Eagle Strike (~24k) and drops the faction bonus from 72% to 50%. Double loss.

Kenneth's first hypothesis

"Do purple hero troops die faster?"

No evidence. Troops are pooled (proven in kb/damage-system.md). All heroes feed one shared HP bucket. "Your purple hero's troops" is an illusion the roster screen creates.

What a hero actually changes: how many troops you can bring (capacity), how much buff pours into the pool (stack), how big their R11/R21/R31 burst is (spike). That's it.

Kenneth's bigger hypothesis

"Purple in-faction + more stars > gold off-faction + fewer stars?"

Data says yes, usually — with a sharper rule: In-faction > Star level > Rarity. Burst damage can override all three, but only when the skill multiplier is ~2× the hero it replaces.

If your swap hero isn't in faction, check one thing: is their burst skill 1.8×+ bigger than the one you're dropping? If not, don't swap. Faction bonus stacks on the whole pool every round. A shiny out-of-faction gold loses ground every single turn.

Catherine & Rex hero card — C&R · 5★ · S-tier in-faction

Tristan hero card — Tristan · double Rain Fire

Megan hero card — Megan · gold, off-faction

Skill books — priority order:

Passive first. ~1% per book. Multiplies the entire pool. Every turn. Highest leverage.
Active second. ~42pts per book. Fires R11/R21. C&R's Go Rex Go = ~1,800 HP bigger hits per book.
Normal attack last. ~4pts per book. Tiebreaker only. Skip unless maxed elsewhere.

// Section 2 · Vehicle

Vehicle: the 268% nobody talks about.

F1 comparison — mod vehicle 5.5M — Mod Vehicle · 5.5M · identical all three fights

F2 buff breakdown with mod vehicle line — Mod Vehicle line in the buff stack

268.1% ATK. Same every fight. Formation-agnostic.
268.1% DEF. Same every fight.
15% HP, 15% DMG. Bonus on top.
Biggest single source on the ATK/DEF stack. Bigger than heroes. Bigger than tech. Bigger than equipment.
Always on. Every round. Every skill. Every normal attack.

Actionable

Finish your mod parts before chasing a new hero above 4★.

Whatever mod tier you're at, completing the set scales every skill line and every normal attack. No formation dependency. No roster decisions. Pure multiplier.

// Section 3 · Hero Equipment

Equipment is a bucket. Not a costume.

F1 equipment distribution — F1 · Tristan · Francis · Barnett · Guy · Farhad

F2 equipment distribution — F2 · Tristan · Francis · C&R · Guy · Farhad

F3 equipment distribution — F3 · Tristan · Francis · C&R · Guy · Megan

ATK sub-buff: 159–174%. Shifts slightly when hero mix changes — pool is re-computed, not re-assigned.
DMG sub-buff: 112.4%. Identical in all three formations.
DEF sub-buff: 161–174%.
Rain Fire ×2 lands identical numbers inside each formation. Tristan's gear did not fire twice. The pool did.
Who wears the gear is irrelevant for skill damage.

Actionable

Upgrade your best D5 set on whoever's easiest. Don't hoard gear on "main hero".

The game doesn't read "this is Tristan's helmet." It reads "+X ATK in the bucket."

// Section 4 · Special Weapons (Exclusive Equipment)

Tristan's cannon fires Rain Fire twice. Free.

F2 R11 skill round showing Rain Fire x2 — F2 · R11 · Rain Fire fires, then fires again

Requiem Shield effect in F2 — Francis's Requiem · Shield every round post-R11

Exclusive Equipment total: 1.7M — us. Enemy: 0.
Tristan's Twin Ballistics fires Rain Fire twice. F1 R11: 31,563 × 2 = 63,126 HP. F2 R11: 32,430 × 2 = 64,860 HP.
That's a Guy Blade Storm's worth of damage. Every skill round. Free.
Francis's Requiem shields every round post-R11. You'll see "Requiem! gained Shield effects" in R12–R15, R22–R25, R32–R35. That shield absorbs hits that would otherwise kill troops.

Actionable

Star up Tristan's Twin Ballistics if the path exists. It's doing real tonnage.

// Section 5 · Troops

We had half their strength. We won three times.

Us: Lv.9/10 · ~9,500 troops · 5.1–5.2M Unit Strength.
Enemy Sombie: Lv.10 · 13,600 troops · 10.9M Unit Strength — 2× our strength per unit.
Enemy Chief Zombie: 1581.9% ATK and DEF from heroes. Nothing else. No tech. No vehicle. No equipment. No season. No faction.
Us: 916–932% heroes · 268% vehicle · 180% tech · 161% equipment · 72% faction — ~1,800% effective.

Correction — the big one

More troops = wins fights. TRUE.

But only if your stack is in the fight. Sombie had 2× our troops and still lost three times because their buff stack was a single number (1581.9% heroes) against our multi-layer stack (~1,800% effective).

Read it this way: stack × troops = damage. Kill either side of the equation and you lose. We won because our 1,800% on 9,500 troops outpunched their 1,581% on 13,600. Feed both sides of the equation.

// Section 6 · Research

Research: 180% ATK you can't see.

Tech ATK: 180.4%. Identical all 3 fights (account-wide).
Tech DEF: 182.9%.
Tech HP: 7.2%.
Tech DMG: 7.8%.
3rd-biggest ATK/DEF source. After heroes and vehicle.
Faction-specific tech adds ~11% more for concentrated troops (per kb).

Actionable

Tech grows silently. Keep it fed.

It can't be tested marginally from one dataset, but its size tells you it deserves continuous investment — especially faction tech if you've already picked a lane.

// Section 7 · Buffs overall

Where damage is actually made.

Ranked by contribution to Troop Total ATK (F2 numbers):

#	Source	ATK contribution
1	Heroes (passives)	262.2%
2	Mod Vehicle	268.1%
3	Technologies	180.4%
4	Hero Equipment	~161%
5	Faction Bonus	72.2%
6	Season	40%
7	Decoration	7%
8	Alliance Tech	6%
9	Skins	5%

F1 buff detail page 1 — F1 · detailed buff stack

F2 buff detail — F2 · detailed buff stack

F3 buff detail — F3 · detailed buff stack

Skins (5%) and Decorations (7%) are footnotes. Do not spend money here for combat.
Faction Bonus is only 5th by raw % — but it's the single most variable lever per formation. Hidden in plain sight.
Hero "%" is dominated by passives, not stars. 5★ with low passive books is a wasted star.
Mod Vehicle ≈ Heroes on ATK/DEF. Tie, not win.

// Section 8 · Combat log reading

Skill round = 6.5 normal rounds of damage.

F2 normal round pattern — Normal round · 2 ours + 1 counter

F2 R11 skill round — Skill round · R11 · 7-hit burst + Sombie Crushing Blow

Normal round anatomy (R1–R10, R12–R20, etc.):

Delta normal → Sombie counter → Delta normal
2 of ours, 1 of theirs. We win the damage race per round ~1.5×.

Skill round anatomy (R11 / R21 / R31 / R41):

Rain Fire ×2 → Fire Barrage → Requiem (shield cast) → slot-3 burst → Blade Storm → slot-5 burst → DW-2 Armor Piercer
Then: normal → counter → Sombie Crushing Blow ×3 → Sombie normal → Delta counter
Skill round hits Sombie for ~230–290k. Normal round hits for ~38k.
Every skill round = 6–7.5 normal rounds of damage.

F2 R31 skill round — F2 · R31 · late-game burst

F3 R11 skill round — F3 · R11 · Megan swap visible

Why F2 won

F2 reached round 31 earlier. Finished round 34. F1 and F3 ground to 41.

Every skill round you reach earlier = fight ends earlier = fewer troops lost. That's it. That's the whole story.

Degradation: all damage drops ~3.4% per 10 rounds. Eagle Strike drops ~16% per 10 — the Farhad anomaly. Still unsolved. See kb/unsolved/.

// Lies the game quietly tells you

Eight illusions. Now exposed.

"Each hero commands their own unit." False. One pool. One blob. Equipment distribution irrelevant for skills.
"Gold hero better than purple hero." Conditional. In-faction fit + passive books + burst size matter more than rarity color.
"Star level is the power driver." Partial. Passive skill books produce more pool-multiplier than the star itself.
"Heroes are the biggest buff source." Tie, not win. Mod Vehicle ≈ Heroes on ATK/DEF.
"More troops = wins fights." · (we previously called this false) True. But only if your stack is in the fight. Sombie's 2× troops lost because their stack was 0%. Feed both sides of stack × troops.
"Vehicle is just cosmetic." False. 268% ATK, 268% DEF, always on. Biggest single source.
"Tristan's second Rain Fire is a visual effect." False. Twin Ballistics fires a real second shot. ~32k HP free, every skill round.
"Skin buffs matter in combat." Barely. 5%. Bottom of the stack. Cosmetic with a sticker.

// Do this tomorrow

Eight moves. In order.

Concentrate one faction. Whatever you play, don't mix. Highest-ROI change you'll ever make.
Fix your Faction Bonus number. F3 dropped that from 72% to 50% and paid in blood. Any out-of-faction hero better be worth the trade.
Upgrade passives before stars. ~1% per book, compounds through the whole pool.
Finish vehicle mods. 268% sitting there. Under-appreciated.
Star up your best exclusive weapon. Tristan's Twin Ballistics adds ~32k free HP per skill round.
Pick the biggest-burst hero for slot 3. C&R (43k) beat Barnett (20k). 2× burst shortened the fight by 7 rounds.
Don't chase gold off-faction trophies. A-tier in-faction hero buffs every round. A gold sitting out-of-faction contributes nothing 9 rounds out of 10.
Stop paying for skins for combat. 5%. It's a cosmetic with a combat sticker.

// Where to go next

If you want the deeper mechanics.

Deep dive

How troop battles actually run

Ten-round skill cycle. Pool math. Degradation curves. Read a combat log like a sheet of music.

Read the walkthrough → Roster strategy

Heroes: the multiplier layer

Which heroes scale the pool hardest, which are passive-only, and hidden equipment quirks like Twin Ballistics and Go Rex Go.

See the roster guide →

// Credits

Test designed and executed by [-qp-]Delta96 on Server 497, 16 April 2026. Three sequential battles against the same Lv.51 Sombie, with full pre-fight buff stacks, round-by-round combat logs, and battle reports captured across 130+ screenshots. Analysis, burst-damage reading, and mental model by Delta96 & CerealKiller. Raw source data in /kb/reference/test-reports/.

Known unresolved: Eagle Strike degrades at ~16% per 10 rounds while every other skill sits at ~3.4%. The Farhad anomaly. No confirmed cause. Flagged in kb/unsolved/.