The Guide to Obelisk's Status Effects, Combat & Terminology

Obelisk- Simplified for beginners and an information dump for those Veterans who want to know how the game runs.

Starting out in AtO can be quite daunting with all the status effects being applied between your party and enemy's parties. It leads to trying to learn a lot of new things at once, and can also lead to things being missed until it's too late.

This guide aims to provide a place to look up the glossary to see what things do when you want to learn how to make your party more effective in combat! (For Beginners and Veterans)

It also includes a detailed breakdown of the game's technical side both in Basic (Simplified for beginners during their first few runs) and Advanced sections for those who want to learn how to be effective with combat/card mechanics.

Any additional questions or information you think I should add, you can ask or mention in the comments!

The Glossary is a handy-dandy encyclopedia of all things Obelisk and can be found on the "Glossary" tab of the player's logbook.

-The aim of this guide is to expand on the glossary and to provide even more information so you can be equipped with the knowledge of what you want to know to go in and improve your runs.-

You can access the logbook during play by clicking the brown book icon in the top right of your game window.

There are two types of statuses, Auras and Curses. They are effects applied by cards and enchantments to various specified targets. Any active status effects on a character are seen below their health bar. The color of the square that the status is in, signifies whether it is an aura or curse.

Auras- Blue

• Are combat statuses that apply a beneficial effect in the target. The duration, and power of it, is based on its own amount of charges. Usually protecting characters or boosting damage. Auras are removed by purging them.

Curses- Red

• Are combat statuses that apply a harmful effect in the target. The duration, and power of it, is based on its own amount of charges. Usually damaging characters or reducing resistances. Curses are removed by dispelling them.
  
• Curses can be prevented preemptively, by applying Buffer (Icon below) to a character you want to protect before an enemy has time to apply Curses to them.
  
  

Applying Status Effects- Stacking vs. Replacing

• When a status effect that is not cancelled is applied to a character, one of two things will happen. I will either Stack with any currently existing amounts of it which can lead to a greater effect.
  
  eg- 1 burn + 4 burn is 5 burn. (Which also affects resistances as seen in the mechanics section of this guide later on.)
  
  
• Or If a card does not stack with other cards, the current amount a character has can be REPLACED/REPLACEABLE by a higher amount on another card. It will not be additive.
  
  eg- 1 evasion replaced by 3. but it will not become 4

In the "Stacking?" category on the charts below, a "No" is meant to be considered Replaceable instead.

- Auras

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Icon	Name	Stacking?	Descrption
	Bless	Yes	Damage done and Heal received +1 per charge. Remove one charge at the end of the turn.
	Block	Yes	Prevents 1 damage per charge. Remove all charges at the end of the round. Cannot be purged unless otherwise specified
	Buffer	No	Prevents 1 curse per charge, remove one charge when this happens. Charges do not stack.
	Courage	No	Holy, Shadow, and Mind resistances +30%. Remove one charge at the start of the turn.
	Energize	Yes	Gain one extra energy per charge at the start of the turn, then remove all charges. Cannot be purged unless specified. NOTE: Energize applied to heroes does not show up below their health bars, but rather when you hover over the character. It will appear in the top left of the screen.
	Evasion	No	Prevents one hit per charge, remove one charge when this happens. Removes Shackle from the target.
	Fast	No	Speed +2 per charge. Prevents 1 slow per charge, remove one charge when this happens. Remove one charge at the start of the turn. NOTE: If slow is already on character, Fast stacks will first remove slow stacks before applying to the character.
	Fortify	No	Block is not removed at the end of the round. Remove one charge at the end of the round.
	Fury	Yes	Damage done +3% per charge. At the end of the turn, suffer X Bleed (X equals your Fury charges), then remove one charge.
	Inspire	Yes	Draw one extra card per charge at the start of the turn, then remove all charges. Cannot be purged unless specified. NOTE: Inspire applied to heroes does not show up below their health bars, but rather when you hover over the character. It will appear in the top left of the screen.
	Insulate	No	Fire, Cold and Lightning resistances+30%. Remove 1 charge at the start of the turn.
	Invulnerable	No	Immune to damage and harmful effects. Remove one charge at the start of the turn. NOTE: harmful effects includes curses and enemy enchantments. But it CAN be purged.
	Mitigate	Yes	Damage taken -1 per charge. Maximum 10 stacks. Remove 1 charge at the start of the turn.
	Powerful	Yes	Damage and healing +5% per charge. Maximum charges 10. Remove 2 charges at the end of the turn.
	Regeneration	Yes	Heal 1 HP per charge at the start of the turn and then remove one charge.
	Reinforce	No	Slashing, Blunt, and Piercing resistances +30%. Remove one charge at the start of the turn.
	Sharp	Yes	Slashing and Piercing damage +1 per charge. Remove one charge at the end of the turn.
	Shield	Yes	Gain 1 Block per charge at the start of the turn, then remove all charges. Cannot be purged unless specified.
	Stanza I	No	Mind damage +1. When this is removed at the end of the turn, gain Stanza II, then remove Stanza I. Cant be purged.
	Stanza II	No	Mind damage +2. When this is removed at the end of the turn, gain 1 Energize and Stanza III, then remove Stanza II. Also counts as Stanza I. Charges cant be purged.
	Stanza III	No	Mind damage +3. When this is removed at the end of the turn suffer 1 fatigue . Also counts as Stanza I and II. Cant be purged.
	Stealth	Yes	Damage and Heal +20% per charge. Not targetable directly. Remove all charges after playing a card. Remove one charge at the start of the turn.
	Taunt	No	Become the target of all hostile opponent cards. Remove one charge at the start of the turn.
	Thorns	Yes	Deal 1 Piercing per charge to the attacker when the target is hit by an enemy, remove one charge when this happens. This damage can be blocked and is not affected by other modifiers. Remove 1 charge at the start of the turn. NOTE: Thorns are NOT affected by auras such as sharp or powerful.
	Vitality	Yes	Gain hp and max hp +5 per charge. Remove one charge at the start of the turn. NOTE: When vitality charges are removed, they reduce from the max health which will remove health lost first. eg. 355/360 will become 355/355

- DLC Auras

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Icon	Name	Stacking?	Description
	Zeal	No	All resistances +7% per charge. Healing from Sanctify +20% per charge. Damage done +1% per Burn Charge. Remove all charges at the end of turn.

- Curses

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Icon	Name	Stacking?	Descrption
	Bleed	Yes	Lose 1 hp per charge at the START of the turn, and then remove 1 charge.
	Burn	Yes	Fire resistance -0.5% per charge. Suffer 1 fire damage per charge at the start of the turn, then remove 1 charge. This damage can be blocked and is not affected by other modifiers
	Chill	Yes	Cold resistance -1% per charge. Speed -1 per 5 charges. Remove 1 charge at the start of the turn.
	Crack	Yes	Blunt damage taken +1 per charge. Remove 1 charge at the start of the turn.
	Dark	Yes	Shadow resistance -1% per charge. Upon reaching 25 charges explodes: Remove all charges, then suffer 2 shadow damage per charge. This damage can be blocked and is not affected by other modifiers. Remove 1 charge at the end of the turn.
	Decay	No	Heal received -50%. Remove 1 charge at the end of the turn.
	Disarm	No	Unable to play "Attack" cards. Remove one charge at the end of the turn.
	Doom	Yes	Dies when charges reach 0. Remove 1 charge at the end of the turn. Cant be dispelled or prevented. NOTE: Doom is a unique mechanic found only for certain bosses and madness levels.
	Insane	Yes	Mind resistance -1% per charge. Damage done -0.5% per charge. Remove 1 charge at the end of the turn.
	Mark	Yes	Damage taken +1 per charge. Prevents 1 Stealth per charge, remove 1 charge when this happens. Removes stealth from the target. Remove 1 charge at the end of the turn. NOTE: Mark can be applied via area of Effect cards (eg. Targets: All monsters) to already stealthed units and reveal them!
	Paralyze	No	Skip the next turn, then remove 1 charge.
	Poison	Yes	Lose 1 hp per charge at the END of the turn, then remove 1 charge.
	Sanctify	Yes	Holy resistance -1% per charge. The attacker heals 1 hp per charge when the target is hit by an enemy, remove 1 charge when this happens.
	Shackle	No	Speed reduced to 0. Removes evasion from the target. Remove 1 charge at the start of the turn. NOTE: Shackle overrides all other speed modifiers and WILL set it to 0.
	Sight	Yes	Reveal 1 card per charge. Remove 1 charge at the end of the turn.
	Silence	No	Unable to play "Spell" cards. Remove 1 charge at the end of the turn.
	Slow	No	Speed -2 per charge. Prevents 1 Fast per charge, remove 1 charge when this happens. Remove 1 charge at the start of the turn.
	Spark	Yes	Lightning resistance -1% per charge. Deal 1 lightning damage per charge to the target sides at the start of the turn, then remove 1 charge. This damage can be blocked and is not affected by other modifiers. NOTE: Wet does not increase spark damage.
	Vulnerable	Yes	All resistances -5% per charge. Maximum 10 charges. Remove 2 charges at the start of the turn.
	Weak	No	Damage and heal done -50%. Remove 1 charge at the end of the turn.
	Wet	Yes	Lightning damage taken +1 per charge. Prevents 1 Burn per charge, remove 1 charge when this happens. Removes Burn from the target when applied. Remove 1 charge at the end of the turn. NOTE:There are a lot of cards that can transform wet into other status effects!

- DLC Curses

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Icon	Name	Stacking?	Descrption
	Scourge	No	Damage received from Dark Explosion +10% per charge. Spread 50% of the dark charges of this target to the target's sides, and suffer 1 Shadow damage per Chill charge at the start of the turn, then remove all charges. This damage can be blocked and is not affected by other modifiers.

Below are the Glossary definitions (with some notes from me) regarding all things to do with cards.

- Card Mechanics

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Icon	Name	Descrption	Notes
	Energy	Gain X energy. Used to cast cards. The energy that hasn't been used will be accumulated next turn.	NOTE: Check the getting technical section for how the item "Mana Loop" affects energy.
	Energize	Gain one extra energy per charge at the start of the turn, then remove all charges. Cannot be purged unless specified.	NOTE: Energize applied to heroes does not show up below their health bars, but rather when you hover over the character. It will appear in the top left of the screen. NOTE: Stacks
	Fatigue	Gain 1 less energy per charge at the start of the turn, then remove all charges. Can't be dispelled unless specified.	NOTE: Fatigue applied to heroes does not show up below their health bars, but rather when you hover over the character. It will appear in the top left of the screen. NOTE: Stacks
	Inspire	Draw one extra card per charge at the start of the turn, then remove all charges. Cannot be purged unless specified.	NOTE: Inspire applied to heroes does not show up below their health bars, but rather when you hover over the character. It will appear in the top left of the screen. NOTE: Stacks.
	Stress	Draw 1 less card per charge at the start of the turn, then remove all charges. Cant be dispelled unless specified	NOTE: Stress applied to heroes does not show up below their health bars, but rather when you hover over the character. It will appear in the top left of the screen. NOTE: Stacks.
	Discard at random	As an additional cost to play this card, you will discard a card from your hand if possible.	NOTE: If you have no cards left in your hand after you play this card and have nothing to discard, nothing happens.
	Innate	The card starts the combat at the top of the deck.	NOTE: If there is more innate cards in your deck than you can draw in your opening hand, the initial ones will be chosen randomly, and any extra ones will be first to be drawn off the top of your deck.
	Vanish	This card is removed from the combat when it is played.	NOTE: To access your vanished card pile, right click the character you want to see the pile of and click the vanished cards tab on the right side of the screen.

- Card Terminology

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	Name	Descrption
	Chain	Repeat the card's effect to a target next to it X times. Each time, damage and heal done -50%.
	Discover	Show X cards from your class pool. The displayed cards are selected at random.
	Dispel	Remove X curses or those specified. If not specified, the oldest X curses will be removed. (left to right)
	Jump X (bonus %)	Repeat the card's effect to a different target X times. Each time damage and heal done +Bonus %.
	Overcharge [OC]	Pay 1 extra energy to apply the stated effect. You can repeat this as long as you have energy.
	Purge	Remove X Auras or those specified. If not specified, the oldest X Auras will be removed. (left to right)
	Repeat up to X	Pay 1 extra energy to repeat the card's effect, can pay up to X times.
	Repeat X	Repeat the card's effect X times.
	Reveal X	Show X cards from your draw pile. The displayed cards are selected at random.
	Steal	Remove X Auras from the specified target and apply them to you.
	Transfer	Remove X Curses from you and apply them to the specified target.
	Additional Terms	Refer to the "Wording" Section below to see breakdowns of additional terms.

So you want to learn more about the above stuff and the interactions between things in this game? Well. Do I have a couple sections for you!

• Resistances/Damage Types: Basic and Advanced
  - All about resistances and damage types, the good, the bad, and how they work.
  
  
• The order of combat
  - Shows a detailed breakdown as to how combat plays out. Useful for knowing the order of when effects will trigger.
  
  
• All about Speed
  - Manipulating Speed and how different fast or slow effects will modify combat.
  
  
• Importance of Wording
  - Interactions between cards and what will and won't work. eg. [Damage when hit]
  
  
• FAQ (General and Mechanics)
  - Specific Questions and Answers people have asked about how things work

Resistances/Damage Types: Basic

Resistances are the modifiers for how much damage a player or enemy character takes when they're hit by a spell or attack card. You can find each character's resistances by hovering over them during combat. It shows up in the top left of the screen-

















Listed are the 9 types of damage found in the game and how much resistance the character has to them.

• A negative resistance means they are weaker and will take more damage from that source. eg. Burn/Fire damage in the picture at -15%.
  
• A positive resistance means they will take less damage from that damage type. eg. the best resistance the Trunky has is currently blunt resistance 40%.

A lot of Obelisk is finding ways to reduce enemy's resistance numbers, and/or increasing how much damage you do per hit to finish them off.

More information on how to use resistances and damage stacking in your favor is in section below- Resistances/Damage Types: Advanced. (It will break them down by the numbers.)

- Chart of Basic Damage Types

Below is a chart that summarizes the damage types and how to either make sure you hit harder with them or how to increase your defenses against them.

Icon	Name	To Do more Damage, use:	To Protect Against, use:
	Slash
	Blunt
	Piercing
	Fire
	Cold
	Lightning
	Holy
	Shadow
	Mind

ALL of these damage types also benefit from Applying:

• Powerful, Fury and/or Stealth to your characters
  
  
  
  -and/or-
  
  
• Mark and/or Vulnerable to the enemy you really want to hurt!
  

The most important thing to know, is that the damage boosts all stack to make the damage done even better! However, powerful, fury, and stealth's % boosts are additive to each other, not multiplicative.

*More information on how to use resistances and damage stacking in your favor is in a section below- Resistances/Damage Types: Advanced. (It will break them down by the numbers.)

- Chart of D.O.T.s (Using Curse Statuses)

Another way to apply damage which will trigger once per turn is through -Damage Over Time (D.O.T.)s.

• They are status effects that get applied to characters and continually do a steady amount of damage each turn until they run out (Usually at a rate of 1 stack per turn) or are removed via Dispel.
  
• The more charges you stack, the more damage they do.

Below is the chart of D.O.T.s and their differences/effects.

Icon	Name	Damage Triggers At:	Additional Notes
	Bleed	At the Beginning of the character's turn before cards are played.	Not modified by anything. When bleed is applied and deals damage, it IGNORES ARMOR . Damage is as seen- damage preview is shown as dark red on health bar. If the character will die to bleed, it is shown as a skull with red eyes. 1 Bleed Charge = 1 Damage. INTERACTION: The downside of the damage boosting Aura "Fury" (Icon below) on a character, is that at the end of the turn, it will actually apply charges of bleed to that character = to the charges of Fury on that character. These charges CAN be prevented via buffer. (Or left on for a self- bleed build)
	Poison	At the End of the character's turn after cards are played.	Not modified by anything. When poison is applied and deals damage, it IGNORES ARMOR . Damage is as seen- Damage preview is shown as dark green on health bar. If the character will die to poison, it is shown as a skull with green eyes. 1 Poison Charge = 1 Damage.
	Burn	At the Beginning of the character's turn before cards are played.	BLOCKED by Armor. The more stacks of burn the character has, the more damage it will do them, as their resistances will be lowered. 1 Burn Charge = 1 Damage x (% Resistance) NOTE: All burn charges on a character can be removed at once by applying Wet.
	Spark	At the Beginning of the character's turn before cards are played. *Targets adjacent characters only.	BLOCKED by Armor. The more stacks of Spark the adjacent characters have, the more damage it will do, as it will lower their resistances to it. Spark does no damage to the character it is applied to, but rather to the characters to the right and left of them. (Those characters use their lightning resistance modifiers) Not affected by other modifiers, such as wet or mark.
	Dark	As soon as 25 Stacks have been appllied on the character.	BLOCKED by Armor. The more stacks of Dark you have, the more damage it will do. If you apply more dark charges than 25 before triggering the explosion, the additional charges are calculated in the damage explosion and have their resistances apply, and then are removed after the explosion Not affected by other modifiers. 1 Dark Charge = 2 Damage x (% Resistance) ONLY when dark stacks explode

*More information on how to use resistances, D.O.T.s and damage stacking in your favor is in a section below- Resistances/Damage Types: Advanced. (It will break them down by the numbers.)

Resistances/Damage Types: Advanced

As I mentioned in the BASICS section, A lot of Obelisk is finding ways to weaken enemies to finish them off all while at the same time making yourself tougher to make sure that you'll survive the fight.

So how do you actually do it, why do those things mentioned in the BASICS section work?

Through reducing enemy's resistance numbers, and/or increasing how much damage you do per hit.

This is done through the status effects displayed on those charts. Some methods are more effective than others- and in this section I'll provide a breakdown as to how it works for both doing damage and defending.

- Increasing your Defense

-The First thing is to know how to increase your defense against these effects.-

First, a breakdown as to how incoming damage is calculated when a character is hit.

Any time Damage is done, it is calculated as.....

• 1. The Base damage is modified by Auras, Curses, Perks, Items, and Active Effects.
  
• 2. Then it is blocked by the block amount of the target
  
• 3. And is finally resisted by the target's percent resistance (Based on it's damage type)

Normally in game, this is all calculated for you and the results will be shown. But if you want to understand what's going on behind the scenes, this breaks down what's actually being said here.......

1. This is referring to effects such as evasion, invulnerability, enchantments, and auras such as sharp, crack and mark- being calculated to see first if the damage will hit the target; and then the total amount of damage.




2. The Damage is then blocked by any block that the character has. This damage is NOT affected by resistances. The only way to reduce damage when it hits block is through Mitigate. (This is the point [When Blocked] effects trigger if the damage is fully blocked)




3. And finally, after all available block has been used up, if there is still more damage to come through, it is modified by the character's resistances. (Damage x %Resist)

• This can mean that the damage can change severely in value if the character has a very high or low resistance.
  
• At this point, the three main resistance boost auras (Reinforce, Insulate, Courage) are added to the character's existing resistance value. Each one adds +30% to it's respective resistances shown on the chart in the BASICS section.
  
  
  
  
• Next, calculated in the character's total resistance are the stacks of certain curse effects characters have on them which will subtract from their resistance value. This will include burn, chill, shock, sanctify, dark, insane and vulnerable. The more charges of the curse, the more the resistance will be reduced.
  
  
  
  NOTE: Each curse has slightly different resistance reduction amounts, with vulnerable being the most effective at -5% per charge to ALL resistances and burn being the least effective at -0.5% burn resistance per charge to offset how easy or not easy they are to apply.

4. Once the character's total resistance has been multiplied by the damage, the damage will hit the character for health loss. (This is the point that [Damage with Hit] cards trigger.)

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A general rule of thumb is....At 0% Resistance the damage is as shown on the attack card. If a character had 95% resistance, the damage will be almost fully negated. If they have -95% resistance, the damage will be almost doubled.

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-Additional things to Remember-


-Buffer

• To prevent Curses from being applied to yourself (and your resistances being lowered), apply Buffer to characters that you need to protect.
  
  
  
  
• Buffer can also protect against other effects like paralyze, silence, stress or fatigue which could otherwise cost your character turns.
  

-Dispelling

• Curses that have already been applied to a character can be removed by being dispelled.
  
• When you dispel or purge, the # of effects that will be removed are usually stated on the acting card.
  
• When targeting someone, it will show the effects that will be removed when hovering over the card.
  
• The effects the get removed will be the effect that had its first stack applied the earliest. So the first things to get dispelled are the ones at the top left of the list. This means if you want to protect your own positive status effects, it's valid to trigger some that you dont care about as much first, and then the ones you dont want to lose.

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- Increasing Damage Output

The second thing to know is the ways of increasing your damage output. It is recommended to combine them as much as you can to get the biggest payoff.

Any time Damage is done, it is calculated as.....

• 1. The Base damage is modified by Auras, Curses, Perks, Items, and Active Effects.
  
• 2. Then it is blocked by the block amount of the target
  
• 3. And is finally resisted by the target's percent resistance (Based on it's damage type)

This section will focus on steps 1. and 3. of the above damage calculations.

1.

This is referring to effects such as sharp, crack, mark, powerful, fury, and stealth- Which are all the damage boosting auras/curses being applied (when relevant) to the card that has been played's damage. This calculation determines what the the actual amount of incoming damage to the target will be.

• These three increase their damage types (slash/piercing, blunt, ALL Damage) by +1 for every charge.
  
  
• There is no cap to how many charges can be on a character. (Madness levels aside)
  
  
• This damage can still be modified in resistance modifiers in step 3. of the above damage calculation- so the number of charges may not equal the exact damage done.
  
  
• Since both Slash and Pierce damage are affected by Sharp, any cards that have both in the same attack like fan of knives, have the sharp stack affect both damage types separately!
  -This means that the damage boosting property of sharp in this situation is doubled!
  

If 4 sharp was applied to the above fan of knives, instead of 4 additional damage, it would hit for 8 more. (+4 slash/ +4 pierce)





The next three, Powerful, Fury and Stealth, are all percentile values that are added together, and then multiplied with the total damage from the card + any additional stacks of Sharp.

eg. a character using a spell that does 100 damage with 3 powerful, 3 fury, 1 stealth on that character is....
15% powerful + 9% fury + 20% stealth = multiplier of 44% damage.
44% x 100 damage= 144 total damage

• Powerful is capped at 10 charges per character, and increases damage done by 5% per charge.
  
  
• Fury is not capped by default, and increases damage by 3% per charge, but adds bleed = fury charges to it's character at the end of their turn.
  
  
• Stealth is not capped, and each charge adds 20% damage. However, it is hard to accumulate, since a stealthed character will lose stealth upon playing a card.
  
  
• Two ways around the stealth restrictions, are to either have an armor that applies stealth to the character or to have other characters apply additional stacks of stealth.
  
  
• It is important to note that these three auras only affect the damage of AURAS. And will not affect curse modifiers such as mark/wet/crack.

3.

In step 3, any damage that is still being assigned to the character after the blocking in step 2 is modified by the character's resistances. (Damage x %Resist)

• This can mean that the damage can change severely in value if the character has a very high or low resistance.
  
  
• If the character receiving the damage has a positive resistance, the damage will be reduced, and if the resistance is negative, the damage will be increased.
  
  
• Calculated in the character's total resistance to the damage are the stacks of certain curse effects characters have on them which will subtract from their resistance value. This will include burn, chill, shock, sanctify, dark, insane and vulnerable. The more charges of the curse, the more the resistance will be reduced.
  
  
  
  NOTE: Each curse has slightly different resistance reduction amounts, with vulnerable being the most effective at -5% per charge to ALL resistances and burn being the least effective at -0.5% burn resistance per charge to offset how easy or not easy they are to apply.

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- Effective D.O.T. Stacking

The comparison of items that add charges vs items that apply more DOTs on [Damage with Hit]

A lot of new players tend to get tunnel vision over the application of DOTs such as bleed and poison, and usually will pick weapons that have +charges of stats, such as Butcher's knife.













Each time you apply bleed, 1 additional bleed is added. This 1 bleed is added to any additional bleed perks you've selected, so an attack card that applies 2 bleed, may actually add 5 bleed. (2 bleed from cards + 2 from perks + 1 from Butcher's knife)

• No damage is required to trigger it.
  
  
• The Important thing to note about this, is cards that just apply bleed and/or double it, will also get +1 to their effect.
  
  
• So "Bleed Out" which doubles a character's bleed but doesn't do any damage, used on a character with 15 bleed will apply 31 bleed. (30 bleed is applied and then one additional one is added since it is adding +1 with it's effect- perks can also add to this additional amount)

Another option for bleed application instead of just adding charges, is [Damage with Hit] which can be found on weapons such as Bone Claws.















When you do damage to an enemy, bone claws don't add +1 bleed charge. But are instead considered to be a whole separate instance of a bleed stack being applied. Meaning even if your card you played doesn't have bleed being applied, a stack of bleed will be applied as long as damage was done.

• Damage is required to trigger it.
  
  
• Cards that don't have bleed on them will now apply the bleed amount mentioned on the weapon. It's added even though the cards do not have it displayed on them when played.
  
  
• The important thing to note, is that because it is considered a separate stack of bleed. The Perks and +Charge effects on items will Trigger a second time.
  
  
• In other words, if you have a card that does 5 damage and applies 3 bleed (1 from card, 2 from perks) on a character who has Bone Claws, and the damage is not evaded......
  
  Another Stack of bleed charges will be applied since damage was done. And this stack will do 3 bleed as well- because bone claws have 1 bleed by default but the character's perks also apply to this application of bleed, adding the additional +2.
  
  This will lead to a total of 6 bleed. Whereas, the earlier mentioned butchers knife, would have only done 4 total bleed. (1 from card, 2 from perks, +1 from Butcher's knife)

This example mentioned in this section applies to all Curse status effects that stack.

To take this a step further- using the above bleed example, cards that have repeat on them, will trigger [damage with hit] multiple times.

-Using the card "Carnage" as an example-















If you have +2 Bleed from perks and Carnage is applying 1 Bleed per hit, it hits three times applying 3 bleed each time for a total of 9 Bleed.

• If you were to use the Butcher's Knife effect of bleed charges +1. It would add 3 additional bleed for a total of 12 Bleed. (+1 bleed per hit)
  
  
• If you were to use the Bone Claw's effect of Apply 1 bleed on [Damage with Hit]. It would add 9 additional bleed for a total of 18 Bleed. (+1 bleed and +2 from perks per hit)

The more hits you can do, the effectiveness of [Damage when Hit] becomes even more powerful.

The Order of Combat

This is the breakdown of how exactly combat's order of operations plays out for those who are interested.


A. First Round of Combat begins

B. Beginning of combat character traits trigger (Front hero to back if multiple trigger at same time)

C. Beginning of combat status effects trigger (eg. items like Malukah's Voodoo Doll applying dark)

D. Corruption Effects trigger (eg. Hexproof corrupter giving enemies buffer)

E. Speed is calculated and initial order is determined

F. In order, each character takes their Turn

-CHARACTER TURNS-

• 1. Start of turn aura effects trigger (left to Right)
  
  
• 2. Start of turn curse effects trigger (Left to Right)
  
  
• 3. If the character has a pet, the pet plays their associated card.
  
  
• 4. Items Trigger, Left to right.
  
  
• 5. Character's hand is drawn.
  
  
• 6. When Boon/Curse is drawn, effects are applied, and then a new card is drawn if applicable.
  
  
• 7. Characters play their desired cards.
  
  
• 8. When finished, players click end step button.
  
  
• 9. End of combat status effects trigger. (Left to right)

G. After the last character has gone for the round, the turn timer moves to next notch.

H. At the beginning of the new round, corrupters apply any new effects for that turn.

I. Steps F. to H. are repeated until a victor emerges.

J. Upon finishing combat, end of combat effects apply. (eg. bandages)

Note: Any time Damage is done, it is calculated as.....

• The Base damage is modified by Auras, Curses, Perks, Items, and Active Effects.
  
• Then it is blocked by the block amount of the target
  
• And is finally resisted by the target's percent resistance (Based on it's damage type)

All About Speed

Speed is the mechanic that determines the order of combat. In Obelisk, many of the game's veterans will swear by "The best defense is a good offence."-In this case, the offence usually involves using speed to their advantage to control the battlefield. It is invaluable to making sure that you have time to pull off the combos and daring rescues that you need to.

For instance, you may want to try and make sure your healer is faster than your warrior to dispel them before the bleed on them triggers and kills them.

Or you may want to use a particular order of characters to manipulate statuses in your favor. For instance, a rogue applying poison to another character, and then having a healer turn it into wet stacks, and finally baptizing the character to turn the wet stacks into bless. All before the newly Blessed character has a chance to go, to make sure they hit as hard as possible.
-----> ----->

Or maybe you want to have a slow warrior who goes last in combat to apply shields and fortify to the party, and slows to the enemy to manipulate who goes in what order- all for the next turn.

You can make lots of combos as simple or complicated as you want, all thanks to speed.

This is displayed at the top of the screen during combat:



The number on the character's portrait is their total speed based on perks, starting speed, Items and Statuses.


Perks
- A total of 3 additional permanent speed may be added to a character for 7 of their perk points (1/3/3) before your run begins.

Items
- Items can have speed changes built into them, such as +1 Speed or -1 Speed
- They can also have an effect that applies a "Fast" (See chart below) status at some point during combat which applies a temporary +2 speed per charge.

NOTE: The most important distinction for times of "Fast" application on items are-

• At the start of combat
  - Character starts combat with 2 additional speed during initial round start
  
  
• At the start of your turn
  - The character does not receive the speed boost until their turn has already started, and it will only apply for the next turn, not this current one.

Statuses
- The most common way to manipulate speed is through the four speed oriented statuses.

	Fast	Does NOT stack	Speed +2 per charge. Prevents 1 slow per charge, remove one charge when this happens. Remove one charge at the start of the turn. NOTE: If slow is already on character, Fast stacks will first remove slow stacks before applying to the character.
	Slow	Does NOT stack	Speed -2 per charge. Prevents 1 Fast per charge, remove 1 charge when this happens. Remove 1 charge at the start of the turn.
	Chill	STACKS	Cold resistance -1% per charge. Speed -1 per 5 charges. Remove 1 charge at the start of the turn.
	Shackle	Does NOT stack	Speed reduced to 0. Removes evasion from the target. Remove 1 charge at the start of the turn. NOTE: Shackle will only set your speed to 0 if it is currently higher than 0.

ADDITIONAL SPEED FACTS:

• If you apply a speed buff to a character who has yet to go on the same turn, they will use up one charge of the applied speed buff that turn!
  
  
• If player characters match an enemy's speed, the player character will go first.
  
  
• If two player characters have the same speed, the rightmost one will go first.
  
  
• If two enemy characters have the same speed, the leftmost one will go first.
  
  
• It is possible to have negative speeds- usually achieved with stacks of chill. At this point, characters affected with "Shackle" are faster.
  
  
• Shackle and Chill do not stack. The lower value takes over.

Importance of Wording

Did you know you can make Magnus a mage that can do respectable damage? No? Well, due to wording on cards, you can!

In Across the Obelisk, the order of operations/effects, is crucial to how combat plays out. The wording on the cards can change the way they do or don't take effect.

• Some cards have a requirement to trigger part of them, while other effects are always in effect.

For instance, in Magnus's case. His third trait card "Thunderclap" is worded in a way that specifically states that All of his damage is +150% while the enchantment is active. But as soon as you play an [Attack] card, the enchantment is used up.















So, as long as you don't play a Melee/Ranged Attack card, the enchantment effect persists.

One way that I've found it be useful is taking perks geared towards spells on Magnus, and then combining him with Wilbur. During combat, using Wilbur's character card or various spell tomes to put a larger spell card in Magnus's deck. Since it isn't considered an attack card, the spell will receive the damage boost without triggering the enchantment's removal!

Is it a super viable combo? Not exactly :P, but he has been used to beat madness 16!

Down to Business:

Like Magnus's enchantment above, some cards have specific requirements that need to be met for some of their effects to trigger. The most common terms on cards that require specific conditions to trigger are:

Apply

• Apply will still inflict status effects on an enemy with armor and evasion. (Only invulnerable ignores apply)

Combat start -vs- Start of your turn -vs- every turn -vs- First turn

• Mostly found on items, enchantments and pets.
  
  
• Very important in regards to speed- more info in the "All about Speed" section

Damage with hit

• Triggers when health is lost. If an attack hits block only or someone with evasion, it will not trigger.
  
  
• Thorns do not trigger damage with hit.
  
  
• Is considered and additional application of a status effect if it is the same effect is being applied as one already on the card. SEE: - Effective D.O.T. Stacking
  
  
• NOTE: Charges +X vs Damage with hit (Eg. butcher's knife vs yogger's cleaver) comparison can be found in the Resistances/Damage Types: ADVANCED.

Damaged by others

• Triggers when health is lost. If an attack hits armor or someone with evasion, it will not trigger.

When Healed/When you Heal a Hero

• Triggers when actual health is healed on a hero. Healing someone who is at full health doesn't count!
  
  
• NOTE: Vitality is NOT considered healing a hero.

When you Block

• Triggers when you FULLY block an attack. Using only block and no life is lost.

Transform Damage to

• Overrides other damage types and makes all card's damage the chosen type.
  
  
• Status effects remain the same, only damage is affected.
  
  
• NOTE: When you transform damage to another type, such as from slash damage to fire damage, be aware you might lose benefits from things such as sharp!

FAQ (General and Mechanics)

If you have any questions you want answered, just ask in the comments!

-General-

What is this "Madness" I keep hearing about?

• It is an option that makes the game harder in various ways.
  
• To unlock it, beat the game once.

Help! Perks are confusing to me!
- At the time of writing this guide, perks are still being worked on. When they settle down, I'll put something here.

How do I unlock cards faster?

• Use Divinations in town as much as you can early on when starting out in the game.

How do I unlock "X" Character?

• I recommend checking out this guide by Otaku Oblivion-
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2654263360

-Mechanics-

What is the maximum hand size?

• 10

How do I get more energy each turn to spend?

• Apply the status effect "Energize" (Image below) to the character who needs it. (Hint- The mage class works best at this)
  
• This will give the character more energy their next turn, as signified by the green bars displayed in their energy bar. (Max 10)
  

What order are cards placed on top of deck when done by card effect like setup?

• It goes from left to right. This may change in the future to be a selected order but right now it's just left to right, top to bottom.

What is the maximum number of Enchantments you can have on a character?
• 3

Is there any way to remove Enchantments from characters besides uses?
• If you somehow put more than 3 enchantments on someone/something the oldest is removed.
  
• Otherwise, invulnerable should stop negative enchantments from being applied to you.

Eve's Enchant Weapons vs. Transform

• Eve's enchantments will override weapons that transform damage.
  
• eg. Volcanic axe's effect can be overwritten with lightning or ice damage.

Stealth and on Hit + Pets.

• Stealth and on hit effects DO apply to pets if they do damage.

Do thorns trigger [Damage when Hit] effects?

• They do not.

Can Stress and Fatigue be stopped in some way?

• They can be buffered
  
• Alternative methods are invulnerable or applying inspire and energize.

If someone had 95% resistance but all their resistances added up to 115%, would they stay at 95% with additional resistance reducing curse charges on them?

• Yes, until the additional 20% has been reduced. Then it will reduce as normal. This is to cap the maximum damage done modifier.

-Specific Items-

How does the ring Mana Loop Work?

• You still start with your initial energy.
  
• 0 Cost cards will give you +1 energy.
  
• 1 Cost cards will pay for themselves, but you still need 1 starting energy to play the first card.
  
• Anything over 1 cost will require their normal energy, but will refund 1 energy upon being played.
  
• Boons that give energy when drawn still will.

When you have both "Cup of Death" and "The Dark One" Which dark explosion modifier is in effect, 16 or 34?

• The Dark One @34

Is Bloodstone Max HP or the HP you have at the time?

• Max HP

[⇜Pazz⇝]

Thank you so much!

[SgtNoGlory]

Good questions!

1. The effect would be multiplicative. (The 225 damage in your example)

2. The leftmost enemy would go first.

3. Insane is a weird one. It has 2 points of triggering. Firstly, the damage reduction from Insanity you are wondering about is triggered during the outgoing damage calculation in the first step. (I will try to confirm exact moments during combat when I can eg. before or after auras are applied- tbd)

After that, Insanity is taken into account again during the third step as a flat resistance reduction.

4. Good catch! I can see I had a brain fart and thought "well the opposite of doubled is halved." That's entirely an error on my part. Your assumption is right- the damage will be nearly entirely resisted (95%). I'll rewrite that correctly.

I'll add these to the guide as I find out the answers!

Cheers!

[⇜Pazz⇝]

Great guide! It answered most of my questions, but I had a few questions about a few different things if you know the answers:

Is the percentage for the keyword "jump" multiplicative? For example say I had a card that does 100 damage, and jump 2 (+50%), the second target would take 150 damage, but would the third target take 200 (+50% of the original again) or would they take 225 (+50% of the previous hit)?

For Speed, you specified that if two player characters have the same speed, they go in order from right to left; but what about if two enemies both have the same speed?

When is the damage reduction for "insane" on an attacker factored into damage calculation?

And finally, in the "Resistances/Damage Types: Advanced" section, under "Increasing Your Defence" you said that a character with 95% resistance has damage reduced by about half. Can you elabrate? I assumed that 95% resistance would mean they would take 95% less damage.

Thanks in advance!

[SgtNoGlory]

The guide is overhauled! Thank you for your patience! At this point, I might just do minor tweaks here and there, but otherwise anything else you want to see added, just let me know in the comments!

[SgtNoGlory]

As a heads up, there have been some tweaks to things in this guide (Especially Dark). I will be overhauling this over the next couple of weeks to be more accurate and fill in missing information.

[SgtNoGlory]

Damage with hit is when you play an attack card and hit an enemy causing armor or health loss.

So if you have the bloodseeker weapon which applies 3 bleed on "Damage when hit" then any time you use an attack card on an enemy which causes them to lose armor or health, it will apply 3 bleed.

If you're referring to armor applying an effect such as dark on "damage with hit" then any time an enemy attacks the person wearing the armor and cause armor/health loss, they will receive that amount of dark.

Also, if you use a spell or attack that repeats or hits multiple people, that damage when hit will trigger each time the enemies are hit and vice versa.


To clarify another question people might have, evasion will avoid "damage when hit" affects but NOT cards that APPLY effects. (a card that does 3 dmg and applies 2 bleed, 2 poison- the dmg is evaded but bleed and poison still trigger)

[Mizu]

What does "damage with hit" mean? Only direct damage or with the hp loss?

[SgtNoGlory]

updated w/fortify!

[Kenpachi]

Hey Sgt, thanks for replying! I just realized you posted this almost a year ago, so good on you for still checking in on your guides (that's rather rare in the 'steamverse' these days).

Ah, I bet it's from that golem tank character. Ok, thanks!

[SgtNoGlory]

Oh holy smokes, I missed one! (I'll get it up when I have some spare time)

The rook icon is Fortify- which means that your shield/armor will carry over into the next turn. More fortify means more turns of your armor carrying over rather than being wiped at the end of that character's turn (-1 fortify per turn until it's all gone). Fortify is mainly applied by cards.

Usually in the case you mentioned, fortify builds will rely on getting massive amounts of armor up and steelskin allows for some other synergy to having all the fortify charges. Hope that helps!