The Shade never wins a straight exchange. They vanish, they poison, and they turn the ground into a minefield the opponent cannot see. Their typical win does not look like a fight: it is a run of turns where the other player loses health without ever having anyone to hit.
Six movement points: the game’s standard, no longer a tile ahead. Their mobility now rests on one spell — Shadow veil and its 2 immediate MP, once every six opportunities — and on their 40% resistance to MP removal, which leaves them their legs more often than the others.
8% chance to dodge the direct damage of an enemy spell that hits you, as its target or in its area. The damage, not the effects: push, pull, removal, poison, mark or position swap still apply.
Eight percent cannot be planned around. It is a passive that spares you a blow now and then, and it must never enter a calculation: play as if it did not exist. It only cancels the spell’s direct damage — the AP removal, the push or the pull of a damaging spell (Quake) still apply — and nothing else can be dodged: not ticking poison, not traps, not glyphs, not collisions, not charge explosions, not turret shots or the Artificer’s Command volley.
24 to 34 damage in melee, 35% more if the target is poisoned, and 30% more if they are below 40% of their health — the two multiply: 75% more on a poisoned, wounded target. It is the only reason to go into melee with this class: on a target under Venom, two Daggers do far more than a Lifesteal, for two AP less each.
28 to 41 damage at range, and you get half of it back as health. Your only heal. Five AP is expensive for the Shade: keep this spell for the turns when you are already hurt, not for opening turns.
No immediate damage: the target loses 19 to 27 health at the start of each of its next 2 turns. Its peculiarity: the damage lands on the victim’s turn, so far from you. Nothing within reach, nothing to strike back at — and nothing that can make you reappear.
17 to 25 immediate damage to everyone inside the cross when someone enters it, then a poison of 15 to 24 per turn for 2 turns. Poisons from several traps stack: two poison traps set off one after the other hurt for a long time. It lasts 8 turns, and you set it off too.
42 to 63 damage, and the victim is pushed one tile away from the centre — 12 extra collision damage if it hits an obstacle. The most brutal trap in the game. Placed against a wall, the push becomes guaranteed damage.
29 to 42 damage, and the victim is pulled one tile towards the centre of the trap. Less damage than the Blades, but it moves inwards: it is the piece that links two traps together, by bringing your opponent onto the next cross.
Cast from melee: target a free tile in a straight line behind the entity adjacent to you; they flee there and stop on the first trap they set off — it is that trap’s hooks and blades that send them on to the next ones. If an obstacle cuts their flight short, they take 12 collision damage per missing tile. Three AP that turn a mined zone into an execution: see “Building a trap combo”.
You become invisible until your next turn and gain 2 MP right away. Your opponent no longer sees you and can no longer target you — but a spell aimed at a tile or an area can still hit you. Two things reveal you: taking damage, or an enemy aiming at your tile with a spell that needs a free tile (a trap, a summon, a leap) — they run into you and lose their spell. Attacking gives nothing away, and neither does standing next to the opponent. Five-turn cooldown: it is once every six opportunities, not a play style.
Each spell slot has a second version, and so does the passive: before the fight, in the grimoire, you pick one version per slot. The Shade’s variants play with luck, and luck nobody knows in advance: each luck spell draws its outcome the moment you cast it — one time in two it succeeds, otherwise it is a Miss. The tooltip and the preview show the odds and the outcomes, never the result. A Miss is not entirely wasted: each one gives you 10 crit points until the end of the turn, 30 at most. Its base kit doesn’t change. The choice is locked when the fight starts, and the opponent sees it. All are available, in every mode.
Replaces Dodge.
Luck is on your side: your chance spells succeed 60 times out of 100 (instead of 50) — Luck of the draw and Evil eye keep their odds. Your critical hits rise to 20% (instead of 10%), and a critical always lands in the upper half of the spell’s damage.
Replaces Quick dagger.
A 50/50 bet on an enemy next to you. Success: they take again half of the damage YOU dealt to them between the start of their second-to-last turn and the start of their last turn — your previous turn, in other words: this turn’s damage does not count yet. Miss: you take a quarter of it yourself, and you gain +10 crit points for this turn (30 at most). Nothing dealt: nothing happens.
Tip. Cast it on the turn after a big damage turn: on a Success, it replays half of what you dealt to them on your previous turn — what you deal this turn does not count yet. Its catch: on a Miss, you are the one who pays — do not try it when the backlash can finish you.
Replaces Lifesteal.
An unpredictable blow on an enemy up to 5 tiles away, 50/50: 80 to 100 damage, or only 8 to 16 — a Miss, which gives you +10 crit points for this turn (30 at most).
Tip. Your big ranged hit, one time in two. Play it early in the turn: if it misses, your critical hit chance goes up for what follows. Its catch: you lose the heal from Lifesteal, and a turn built on it alone can yield almost nothing.
Replaces Creeping venom.
Your critical hit chance rises by 15 points, for this turn only.
Tip. Almost free: cast it first, before all your hits of the turn. Even better with Lucky hand. Its catch: it only affects critical hits, not the success chance of your chance spells.
Replaces Poison trap.
One outcome drawn at random out of eight, revealed when the spell is cast. Hot blood (16%): +30% damage until the end of the turn. Second wind (16%): you recover 45 to 60 HP. Surge (14%): +2 AP right away. Light feet (14%): +2 MP right away. Thick hide (14%): 40 armour until your next turn. Hex (10%): the nearest enemy loses 2 MP on its next turn (it can resist). Jackpot (4%): +2 AP, +2 MP and +30% damage. Miss (12%): nothing, except +10 crit points for this turn (30 at most), like any Miss.
Tip. Cast it at the start of every turn, to adapt the rest to what comes out: AP, movement, damage, armour or a heal. Its catch: never count on a specific outcome — plan a turn that holds even if nothing comes out.
Replaces Blade trap.
A 50/50 chance to recast for free, on the same tile, the last spell cast this turn (if it can still target it); otherwise, nothing: a Miss, which gives you +10 crit points for this turn (30 at most). A chance spell can only be recast if it has just failed: it then tries its luck again. Impossible after a trap, a self-buff spell or Twist of fortune.
Tip. It tries to replay your last spell of the turn for free: cast it right after your most expensive hit, or right after a lost gamble — it tries it again. Its catch: it cannot follow a trap, a self-buff or Twist of fortune, and a chance spell that has just succeeded cannot be replayed. Keep an original attack spell, such as Lifesteal or Quick dagger, so you always have something to replay.
Replaces Hook trap.
Trap invisible to the opponent, on its tile and the 4 tiles diagonally around it, twice per turn. Whoever enters its area stops there and triggers it: everyone in it takes 20 to 28 damage and a 1-turn penalty (their next turn) drawn at random at that moment: −2 AP or −2 MP, 50/50. You trigger it too. Lasts 8 turns.
Tip. Two traps per turn that the opponent cannot see: sow them on the tiles they must cross when you have nobody to hit. The penalty falls at random, on AP or on movement. Its catch: you trigger them too, and it no longer pulls the victim towards your other traps as Hook trap did.
Replaces Fear.
You jump to a free tile next to you (not diagonally) and gain 1 MP right away. Until your next turn, the next enemy spell that wounds you, poisons you, removes AP or MP from you or pushes you deals 40% less direct damage to you. A poison or a removal on its own uses up this parry without reducing anything; traps and turret shots ignore it.
Tip. A step that gives movement back, plus a parry: to get out of a line or an area, or to end the turn out of range. Its catch: a single tile, and the parry only covers the next enemy spell that hits you — even a mere poison uses it up, and the next hit lands in full.
Replaces Shadow veil.
A 50/50 chance to deal 65 to 80 damage to an enemy; otherwise, nothing — and you will have 1 fewer AP on your next turn. That Miss gives you +10 crit points for this turn (30 at most).
Tip. A big ranged hit, or nothing. Try it when it can finish the opponent, or when a failure does not cost you the next turn. Its catch: it takes the slot of Shadow veil — no more invisibility — and on a Miss it takes one AP from your next turn.
The Shade’s variants replace poison and almost all her traps with gambles. Her turns no longer look alike: some yield almost nothing, others decide the match. It is a kit for players who accept losing a turn to a Miss.
Every Miss adds crit points until the end of the turn: a turn that starts badly often ends better. You have a little AP left, sometimes more if Luck of the draw gave you some.
Twist of fortune only counts the damage of your previous turn, never the current one: after a turn of Misses, keep your AP. And on a Miss it sends part of the stake back at you — do not try it when you are nearly dead.
A single trap deals 17 to 63 damage. Five traps set off at once deal nearly 200, eight nearly 300. That is the whole art of the Shade: lay the crosses, link them together, then send your opponent in. Every scene in this section is played by the game engine, and every number is the one it calculated.
Spread-out crosses cover more ground than overlapping ones. You just have to link them: the hooks bring the victim onto the neighbouring cross, the blades drive them on to the next.
99 damage and a poison, for a single step from your opponent.
72 damage: 54 from the blades, 18 from the collision (an impact of 12, critical here). Against a wall, the push becomes guaranteed damage.
78 damage from the very first turn, for 11 AP.
195 damage and a poison, from a single Fear.
307 damage up front, plus two poisons that keep eating away for two more turns: nearly a third of a Brute’s health, without them ever seeing you.
These three layouts were found by the game engine, which tried thousands of placements: every trap placed goes off. They assume your opponent stays where they are; in a real match, mine the tile they have to cross — they cannot see your traps — and save Fear for the turn they get there.
Your opponent starts their turn losing 19 to 27 health, with no target to hit and no idea which side to look for you on. Order no longer matters: attacking does not reveal you, so the Veil can come first.
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.
Fear (3 AP)
Quick dagger (3 AP)
Quick dagger (3 AP)
Lifesteal (5 AP)
Quick dagger (3 AP)
Quick dagger (3 AP)
Lucky charm (1 AP)
Fickle blade (4 AP)
Double or nothing (3 AP)
Evil eye (4 AP)
Fickle blade (4 AP)
Quick dagger (3 AP)
Quick dagger (3 AP)
Loaded die (2 AP)
Poison trap (4 AP)
Blade trap (4 AP)
Hook trap (4 AP)
Against the Warrior and the Brute, mine the path rather than the destination: they advance in a straight line and both have a long-range closing spell. The Blade trap placed against a wall punishes them twice, with the damage and then with the collision.
Against the Arcanist, the Shade is at ease: 6 MP and one Veil are enough to cross the gap, and only their Elemental can push you away. Against the Artificer, beware of Shove — it sends you onto your own traps just as readily as onto their charges. Against the Clockmaker, your 40% resistance to AP removal is your best asset: yours is the class that takes their Hourglass best.
The variants change the timings. Against the Warrior, wait for Bulwark to end before your big gambles, and do not strike into a Holy respite: nobody takes damage there. Against the Brute and her beasts, Pack bond shares your hits: wait for it to end, or aim at the most wounded beast. Against a healing Arcanist, Twist of fortune counts what you dealt, even if it was healed in the meantime. Against the Artificer’s turrets, keep Evil eye for the hero’s path: a turret does not walk.
The Shade is played by preparing the ground before striking: place the traps on the tiles people walk through, poison from range, then vanish. Their three traps cost 4 AP each, are placed once a turn and have no cooldown, so a single turn is enough to mine a crossroads. No spell you cast breaks invisibility: you can strike without reappearing, as long as nothing hits you back.
The Shade has 700 health, 12 action points and 6 movement points: the game’s norm, and one tile more than the Clockmaker every turn.
Shadow veil costs 4 AP, makes the Shade invisible until their next turn and gives them 2 MP immediately. Your opponent can no longer target them, but a spell aimed at a tile or an area can still hit them. Two things reveal them: taking damage, or an enemy aiming at their tile with a spell that needs a free tile. Attacking gives nothing away, and neither does standing next to the opponent. The spell has a 5-turn cooldown.
The Blade trap: 42 to 63 damage, plus a one-tile push away from the centre that adds 12 collision damage if the victim hits an obstacle. The Hook trap pulls one tile towards the centre instead, which serves to bring your opponent onto another cross. All three traps cost 4 AP, last 8 turns and go off under your own feet too.
With area spells aimed at an empty tile, which hit without needing to see it: the Arcanist’s Blast and Comet, the Brute’s Quake, the Artificer’s charges. Refusing to enter the mined area works too: an opponent who attacks from far away forces the Shade to leave the ground they prepared.
No. Each chance spell draws its outcome at the moment it is cast: neither you nor your opponent knows it beforehand. The tooltip and the preview give the chances and the possible outcomes, never the result. A chance spell succeeds one time in two, and a little more often with the Lucky hand passive.
The Shade rewards patient players: their best turns are the ones where they deal no damage at all.
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