The Artificer

The Artificer does not try to hit their opponent: they try to make sure their opponent is in the wrong place at the wrong time. They place charges, move them, align them, and light them. All their attack spells are really placement spells.

• 700health
• 12action points
• 6movement points
• 30%resistance to AP removal
• 35%resistance to MP removal

The passive: Steady hand

The notch progression is the real engine of the class. A charge placed and lit in the same turn deals 25 to 36 points, raised by 15%. The same charge left in place for five turns adds 86 fixed points on top. The whole difficulty is surviving long enough for your charges to age — and making sure your opponent does not destroy them in the meantime.

Immunity to your own blasts is what allows you plays no other class can make: standing in the middle of your three charges and lighting everything.

The Artificer’s eight spells

Explosive charge

2 AP · range 1 to 6 · free tile · 1 placement per turn · no cooldown

A charge with 70 health that blocks its tile and explodes 2 tiles all round for 25 to 36, plus the bonus from its notches, when you light it. Destroyed, it vanishes without exploding. One placement per turn. Every charge already placed makes the next one 1 AP dearer: the first costs 2, the second 3, the third 4 — nine AP for three charges, over three turns. Three at most on the map.

Two aligned charges, at most 10 tiles apart, create a firing line between them, which burns anyone who enters it or starts their turn in it, you included: 35% of the damage of each linked charge, only once per game turn — each fighter’s turn.

Grapeshot

3 AP · range 1 to 5 · 2 casts per turn · no cooldown

21 to 31 damage and the enemy is pushed one tile away from you. Your only direct attack — and even then, it is mostly there to push: into a firing line, next to a charge, or against a wall, where the blocked push adds 22 collision damage — and whatever they crash into, another entity or your own charge, takes half of that.

Against a wall — the blocked push hits almost as hard as the shot.

Ignition

2 AP · range 20 · no line of sight · 1 cast per turn · no cooldown

Blows up the targeted charge, up to 20 tiles away, even behind a wall. The explosion spreads: your charges caught in the blast, or linked to it by a firing line, go off in turn. A single Ignition can therefore set off all three — it is the spell that turns ten turns of preparation into one turn of conclusion.

Shove

2 AP · range 1 to 4 · 2 casts per turn · no cooldown

Pushes an entity 3 tiles away from you: one of your charges, a summon, or your opponent themselves. If it hits a wall or someone, it takes 12 collision damage per missing tile, and the entity struck takes half. Two AP to move a charge three tiles is cheaper than placing a new one.

Against a wall — 12 damage for each tile the push could not travel.

Gather

3 AP · range 0 to 6 · cross of 6 tiles · 2 casts per turn · no cooldown

Target a tile, even an empty one: all your charges on its row or column, within 6 tiles, slide towards it until they reach it or hit an obstacle. Neither you nor your opponent moves. Three AP to regroup a field of scattered charges around the tile your opponent is standing on.

Relay

2 AP · range 1 to 8 · 1 cast per turn · no cooldown

Swap places with one of your charges, in line of sight. It is your longest and cheapest move: every charge you place is also an escape hatch eight tiles away. Placing a charge behind you early in the match is often better than placing it under your opponent.

Fine powder

3 AP · on self · 3-turn cooldown

For 2 turns, your charges already placed deal 40% more damage and gain 50 armour. A charge placed after the spell gets nothing: the powder fell before it was there. No effect on you, and the spell cannot be cast if you have no charge on the field — place first, boost second. The 50 armour counts as much as the 40%: it takes a charge from 70 to 120 effective health.

Roll

2 AP · range 1 to 3 · free tile in sight · 1-turn cooldown

You roll to a free tile in sight, 3 tiles at most, and get 1 MP back. The short-range retreat, when Relay has no well-placed charge — or when you need to get out of a firing line you have just created.

The variants

Each spell slot has a second version, and so does the passive: before the fight, in the grimoire, you choose one version per slot. The Artificer’s variants place turrets — an assault one, a healing one — which play by themselves, on their own turn, with two spells each (the second at level 3 for the assault turret, from level 2 for the healing turret; each one 2 times per turn on 2 different targets), and stay until destroyed. The choice is locked when the fight starts, and the opponent sees it. All are available, in every mode.

Playing the variants

The variants trade charges for two turrets — one assault, one healing — that play on their own, on their turn. The plan is slow and steady: place, level up, protect. The original spells you keep work on turrets too.

Levelling the turret, over three turns

1. First turn — Assault turret (3 AP) — under cover. No Upgrade this turn: a turret that has just been placed cannot level up.
2. Second turn — Upgrade (2 AP) — the next level; only one per turn.
3. Third turn — Upgrade (2 AP) — the last level.
4. Right after — Command volley (2 AP) — at the last level it is the biggest hit in the kit, and it also strikes enemies next to the target.

During those three turns the turret fires by itself, and each time you have enough left to keep the opponent at bay. Do not move it without a reason: every move costs it a level.

Gather and strike (8 AP)

1. Grapple (3 AP) — on the group: everything in the square tightens towards the centre.
2. Rivet (3 AP) — damage and a one-tile push — against a wall or an entity, the target loses movement.
3. Command volley (2 AP) — on the enemy with the most neighbours.

Command volley only fires every other turn, and only if the assault turret is in play.

Three combos

The setup, over two turns

1. First turn — Explosive charge (2 AP) on your opponent’s path, then Fine powder (3 AP): this charge — and only this one, the ones placed afterwards get nothing — gains 40% damage and 50 armour for 2 turns.
2. Second turn — Explosive charge (3 AP) on the same line as the first, on the other side of the path: a firing line forms between them.
3. Third turn — Explosive charge (4 AP), the third, placed back from the action: it is your landing spot for the Relay, which only works once per turn.

One charge per turn: the ground is prepared slowly, but every charge placed early has time to arm — it gains a notch every turn. Meanwhile, the remaining AP go into keeping your opponent at a distance.

Place, then light (7 AP)

1. Shove (2 AP): your opponent goes 3 tiles — towards the firing line, or against a wall for 12 collision damage per missing tile.
2. Grapeshot (3 AP): the damage, plus a one-tile push — and if the push is blocked, 22 collision damage, almost as much as the shot.
3. Ignition (2 AP) on the charge nearest to them: the blast spreads to the others along the firing line.

The order is the spell: you push first, you light second. A charge lit too early is a wasted charge — and a notch lost.

Gathering a scattered field (5 AP)

1. Gather (3 AP) on your opponent’s tile: all your charges aligned with it slide towards them.
2. Ignition (2 AP) on one of them.

Gather moves neither you nor your opponent: it moves only your charges. That is what makes it the most underrated spell in the class — five AP to bring together and set off a minefield you placed three turns earlier.

Combos that work

These lines are the ones that come up most often, and pay off most, across several thousand training matches played by the game’s automatic opponents at their best level. For each one: the spells in order, what you need, what you get out of it, the most common follow-up, and when to do without it. A sequence missing from this list is not necessarily a bad one.

Volley, rivet, two grapples (11 AP)

• Conditions. An assault turret in play, the enemy in sight and close: Rivet has a short range. The higher the turret’s level, the harder Command volley hits.
• Result. The turret strikes on command, Rivet pushes them — against a wall, a machine or the edge of the map, they are pinned and lose MP — and the two Grapple casts hurt them while bringing them back where you want.
• The line. I play Command volley, Rivet, then Grapple twice; they answer by going after the turret, or by getting next to me; then, with the volley on cooldown, I have Rivet, Grapple twice and Upgrade.
• When not to play it. With no assault turret on the field: the volley has nothing to command. Against a wounded Brute, who asks for nothing better than to be brought back into melee: Grapple does her a favour.

The turn without the volley (11 AP)

• Conditions. Command volley only fires every other turn: this is the line for the other turn. You need a turret within range of Upgrade.
• Result. The same hits, and a turret that gains a level: the next volley will hit harder.
• The line. I play Rivet, Grapple twice, then Upgrade; they answer by shooting at me from afar, or by coming into melee; then I have the previous line, with Command volley back.
• When not to play it. When the turret is already at the last level: keep those AP for a Gangway, and reposition yourself.

Place, shoot, shove (10 AP)

• Conditions. The enemy within range of Grapeshot. Place the charge on the side your shots push them towards. Each charge already placed makes the next one more expensive.
• Result. Two shots that push them back one tile each, then Shove throws them: against a wall, a charge or the edge of the map, each missing tile costs them collision damage. The charge, meanwhile, arms for later.
• The line. I play Explosive charge, Grapeshot twice, then Shove; they answer by coming back — Charge and Mace smash for a Brute — or by destroying the charge, which then disappears without exploding; then I have the same line with a second charge, lined up with the first to draw a firing line.
• When not to play it. On open ground, far from any wall and from the edge: Shove only pushes them away. And do not push them out of range of your own charges.

The sapper’s relay (10 AP)

• Conditions. The enemy is right next to you. Place the charge far from them, then take its place with Relay: the charge ends up where you were, against them.
• Result. You leave melee without spending MP, a charge stays beside them, and your two Grapeshot shots are fired from afar.
• The line. I play Explosive charge, Relay, then Grapeshot twice; they answer by chasing me — Warrior’s leap then Lunge twice — or by hitting the charge; then I have Relay and Ignition if the charge has had time to arm, or a second charge to place.
• When not to play it. When your shots would push them out of the charge’s blast: check the preview before shooting. And a charge placed this turn has no notch yet: its explosion is still weak.

Bringing the charges in (12 AP)

• Conditions. Charges already placed, on the row or column of a tile close to the enemy. All your AP go into it.
• Result. Two shots that move them, then your charges slide up to them: next turn, Ignition finds the charges armed and well placed.
• The line. I play Grapeshot twice, then Gather twice; they answer by moving away from the charges, or by healing their losses if they are an Arcanist; then I have Ignition, and enough left to shoot again.
• When not to play it. When your charges have just been placed: they have almost no bonus, wait for them to arm. And if the opponent can destroy them before your turn, the charges disappear without exploding.

Their weaknesses

What beats the variants

• Only one turret of each kind. The whole plan rests on two machines: a destroyed turret takes its levels with it, and the one you place again starts back at the first.
• Moving costs a level. Placing a turret again lowers it: an opponent who switches sides of the map forces you to choose between range and power.
• No turret, nothing to command. Command volley needs an assault turret in play, and without Ignition you can no longer blow up your machines yourself.

Who you face, and how

Against the Warrior and the Brute, play your charges as walls: they block tiles. A charging Brute stops against them instead of reaching melee, and a Taunt only pulls you as far as the charge. A Leap cannot land on a charge’s tile.

Against the Arcanist, Relay is your only way to rebuild distance quickly: place a charge ahead, in sight, then swap. Against the Shade, your blasts hit tiles and not targets — it is one of the best answers to invisibility in the game. Against the Clockmaker, careful: Pivot rotates your charges like everything else, and an alignment shifted by one tile no longer makes a firing line.

With turrets come other reflexes. Against the Warrior, a Barrier blocks your turrets’ sight: reposition yourself with Gangway rather than placing them again. Against the Brute, the beasts come for your machines: Grapple bunches them up under the explosion of a falling turret. Against the Clockmaker, their spells go through their rifts and reach a turret you thought was safe; Diving bell keeps you in place against Call of the void and Breaker. Against a healing Arcanist, a Command volley at the last level hits harder than their biggest heal.

Frequently asked questions