Shattered Crown

The castle — page one has 12 slots for your army: the hero, 8 for the faction’s units and 3 for mercenaries. You are free to build several identical tier-1 units and set each on a different development path. Build two Acolytes — upgrade one to Templar and the second to Ardent Priest — and the same with any unit.

Page two — the halls: forge, infirmary, mage guild, temple and others. The buildings have varied, extensive functionality, from passive HP regeneration for your units to unlocking new development branches and mechanics!

The factions really differ on page one: they share no units — each side leans towards its own mechanics. Page two is the same for all three factions, only the look of the buildings changes to match the faction’s theme.

• Over 300 units in the game — over 80 for each faction
• Units have their own progression and development branches
• Buildings with different mechanics that directly affect gameplay

Each faction has three heroes — you choose one of them. A hero is stronger than a rank-and-file soldier, and has the ability to cast spells.

During a battle the hero accumulates spell power, and can cast any researched spell instead of a regular action.

• Heroes — unique, powerful warriors with their own development branches
• Build the Mage Guild — research new spells.
• The hero — and certain special warriors and items — accumulate spell power in battle
• Seven spells for each faction!

A recruit is a starting point, not a purchase. Every unit sits at the root of a tree, and every upgrade is a fork: the same conscript becomes infantry, cavalry or a standard bearer, and each of those branches again.

The branch is permanent, and you choose it per unit rather than per account — two players in the same faction can end up with rosters that share nothing. No decision in the game lasts longer, so the tree shows you the whole line before you take the first step.

• Pick a line along the bottom to see its tree.
• Tap a node for its card. Stats are shown as the change from the unit before it.
• Tap a stat or an ability on a card to have it explained.

Three regions, ten levels each. A level always has the same enemies, in the same cells, with the same equipment — so a level you lose is a level you can prepare for.

Every region is guaranteed to drop two kinds of crystal. That is how you decide where to go when you are short of one for a recipe.

• Tap a level to see who is waiting on it, and where they stand.
• Six cells, two per row. Melee only reaches the front row; ranged reaches anyone.
• Levels 3, 6, 9 and 10 end in a boss fight.

Eighty-four items in five rarities. Common and rare items stack; every epic and mythic is unique, so you can only ever own one of each. Shattered is not a step above mythic — it is epic in power and price, and sits in its own rarity so tournament rules can count it separately.

An item is more than its stats. It carries a passive, it can require a tag before a unit is allowed to wear it, and it can add or remove tags: Bloodless turns a Zombie into a Skeleton, and every effect that works on Zombies stops working on that unit.

• Filter by rarity along the top.
• Every card is the game’s own item card.
• The passive under the name is the main thing an item does.

There are six kinds of crystal, and you earn them from everything you do — runs, errands, the Colossus. You end up with a pile of some and not enough of the ones you need.

Transmutation fixes that. You spend two kinds you have to spare and get back a third kind of your choosing. It costs time rather than gold — about an hour — and you have to build the lab first.

• Tap a corner to pick a crystal, then set the amount with − and +.
• Hold − or + to move in fives.
• The timer is shortened here so you can watch it finish.

Engraving permanently changes one unit’s stats. You pick a set of three stats: one goes down, the other two go up. You do not choose the amounts — the stat you give up falls about twice as far as each of the other two rises.

A higher tier scales all three numbers up together. You pay in Valor from the Colossus, in gold, and in tokens that only drop in the Crown Tourney. An engraving can be replaced later, but never removed.

• Pick a unit, pick a set of stats, then spend the points with − and +.
• Every number shown is that unit’s real stat.
• The eighth set trades passive ranks instead of stats.

One boss per faction per week, ten thousand health, and the whole faction attacking it together. The damage you deal counts towards your own rewards, and all three factions can see how far the others have got.

It is not just a large health bar. It has four phases and casts a different set of spells in each: stone and grasping hands at full health, rot and roots below three quarters, bells and a death sentence below half, and fire at the end. Units that fight it come back exhausted, and you pay to bring them back.

• Attack a few times and watch the phase change.
• Tap another faction to see how far along it is.
• In the game, Attack starts a real battle.