Combat Mechanics — Meroveil Guide

The one-paragraph version

Fights are auto-resolved. What you control is the squad you bring: each hero's stats, their element versus the enemy's, their speed (who acts more often), and your formation (who stands in front). Get those four right and you win — the rest is handled for you.

Turns & speed

Meroveil doesn't use fixed rounds. Every unit has an action value — a countdown to its next turn. A unit's first turn lands after 10000 / Speed ticks, and after it acts the countdown refills the same way. The practical result:

Speed is turn frequency, not just turn order

A hero with 120 Speed acts about a third more often than one with 90 — over a fight that's extra hits, extra healing, extra everything. Because Speed doesn't grow when you level (only HP/ATK/DEF do), a naturally fast hero stays fast relative to the field forever. Fast assassins and supports get disproportionate value.

Each turn a unit takes one action — a basic attack, a skill, or its ultimate. Skills and ultimates run on cooldowns (roughly 2 and 5 of that unit's turns), and both are available immediately on turn one — there's no charge meter to build. Battles resolve quickly; if neither team is wiped out within the round cap, the fight is called a draw, so bring enough offense to actually close.

The damage formula

A hit lands like this (verified from the engine):

Damage = ATK × Skill% × [ ATK ÷ (ATK + DEF) ] × Element × Formation × Crit × (0.90–1.10)

The piece that surprises people is defense. DEF doesn't subtract from damage — it scales it by ATK ÷ (ATK + DEF). That has two big consequences:

Defense has diminishing returns and can never reduce a hit to zero — a wall still takes a chunk every time.
Every landed hit deals at least 1, and a single hit never overkills (it's capped at the target's remaining HP).

Attacker ATK	Target DEF	Damage dealt
100	0	100% of base
100	50	67% of base
100	100	50% of base
100	200	33% of base
100	400	20% of base

Then a fixed ±10% damage roll is applied to every hit, so identical attacks vary slightly.

Critical hits

Every hero has a 5% base crit chance for +50% damage (a ×1.5 multiplier). CRIT sub-stats on gear push both that chance and your crit damage higher, with the effective crit rate capped at 75%. Crits are live and roll on every hit, so stacking crit gear on a high-ATK carry is a real damage lever.

Elements & type advantage

Every hero carries one of five elements: ✦ Fire ❀ Wind ❋ Water ☀ Light ☾ Dark. Hitting an enemy you're strong against multiplies your damage; hitting into your counter cuts it.

The core triangle

Fire scorches Wind, Wind whips Water, and Water douses Fire. Winning the matchup deals ×1.30; losing it deals ×0.75.

Light & Dark

Light and Dark are each other's natural enemy: whoever attacks deals ×1.30 — there's no losing side, so striking first matters. They're neutral against the Fire/Wind/Water triangle.

Full multiplier matrix

Read a row as the attacker, a column as the defender:

Attacker ↓ / Defender →	Fire	Wind	Water	Light	Dark
Fire	1.00×	1.30×	0.75×	1.00×	1.00×
Wind	0.75×	1.00×	1.30×	1.00×	1.00×
Water	1.30×	0.75×	1.00×	1.00×	1.00×
Light	1.00×	1.00×	1.00×	1.00×	1.30×
Dark	1.00×	1.00×	1.00×	1.30×	1.00×

The most reliable edge in the game

Some heroes also carry elemental resistances on top of the wheel — a few Fire and Light bruisers are built as near-walls against their weakness. Check the type chart before you commit a squad; a clean element advantage is a free ~30–55% swing.

Formation & positioning

Where a hero stands changes how much damage they deal and take. The front line shields the back; the back line hits harder but is exposed if the front falls. These multipliers are live and stack with everything above:

Situation	Effect
Attacking a front-row target	×0.85 damage
Attacking an exposed back-row target	×1.10 damage
Attacking from the back row	×1.12 damage
A guardian screens the target	×0.72 damage
An assassin flanks a back-line target	×1.40 damage

How to build a formation

Put your Defenders up front — their high HP/DEF soak hits and the guardian screen cuts incoming damage by nearly a third. Keep squishy carries and supports in the back, where they deal more and stay protected as long as the front holds. If the enemy fields an assassin, a collapsing front line gets your back row deleted — so depth matters.

Roles & battle AI

Each hero auto-pilots according to its role and combat archetype:

Attacker

Damage. Most attackers open with their biggest ability and chase the lowest-HP enemy to secure kills.

Defender

Front-line walls. High HP/DEF, screen the back row, and shift to bigger abilities when the squad is in trouble.

Support

Utility. They prioritize keeping the squad going; the two dedicated healers (Kingdom Medic, Cleric of Sol) top up your lowest-HP ally.

The AI also targets smartly — assassins dive the back line, controllers focus the biggest threat, and several heroes get more aggressive once their own HP drops. You don't issue orders; you win by bringing the right roles in the right formation.

What's being expanded

Combat already runs deep: stats, element, speed, formation and role set the foundation, and on top of that each hero's signature abilities deal their own authored damage — a bigger skill or ultimate multiplier means a bigger hit — and critical hits land for bonus damage. It stays provably fair: the same inputs always produce the same outcome, verified on the server so no one can fake a win.

◷ Coming soon

Status effects & richer kits

The next frontier is status effects — stuns, damage-over-time, cleanses and team-wide buffs — plus multi-target abilities that reach beyond single-target damage and healing. Those are still being built out, so today's tier ranking leans on the levers that decide fights right now: stats, element, speed, role, ability kit and crit.