SpellWars: A Comprehensive Guide

Part 1: Getting Set Up

You need the following:

Getting the game:

  1. Copy this link to the clipboard: https://github.com/FluffyJay1/SpellWars.git
  2. Clone the repository using git or use Eclipse to import a git project with the URI
  3. Open the project in Eclipse

To run the game, run mechanic.Game.

Part 2: The Controls

Menu controls:

Action Player 1: Player 2:
Select combatant W, S Up, down arrows
Change AI level A, D Left, right arrows

In-game controls:

Battle phase action Spell select phase action Player 1: Player 2:
Movement Move spell selector WASD Arrow keys
Cast spell Select spell E . (period)
Shoot pellet Deselect spell Q / (slash)
--- Finish selecting spells T L

Part 3: Basic Gameplay

In this game, two players occupy two different sides of an 8x4 grid battlefield.

The battlefield in SpellWars.

Player 1, the red player, can move anywhere in his 4x4 area on the left. Likewise player 2, the blue player, has control over the 4x4 area of panels on the right.

Each player starts with 500 health. The objective of the game is to destroy the other player by bringing their health total to 0. In order to achieve this, each player can shoot pellets at each other, which deal 5 damage each. This method is tedious, so players have another option at their disposal:

CASTING POWERFUL SPELLS.

Players casting spells. The blue player also stole a column of panels from the red player.

Every 15 seconds, players choose from a wide variety of spells to load 4 of them into combat. These spells have effects ranging from dealing a burst of damage to altering the landscape of the battle. During the so-called combat phase, it's up to the players to maximize the effectiveness of their spells through creative combinations and planning from the spell select phase.

The spell select panel.

If, however, playing against another player isn't your cup of tea, you can instead play against various AI characters. You can also change their difficulty setting in the menu. You could even pit two AIs to fight against each other and watch them go.

A player playing against the computer.

Part 4: Advanced Gamplay

Shields

Shields block damage from all sources and can stack. Different projectiles interact differently with shields. For default behavior, if a shield is active, it will block all incoming damage from the unit or shields below it, even if its health is lower than the projectile's damage (i.e. a shield with 1 hp will still block an entire pistol shot).

Spell Frequencies

Not all spells are created equal. Certain spells will appear more often than others. In the spell selection panel, the most frequently occuring spells will appear first. Keep this in mind when trying to find spell combos.

List of Spell Combos

When you select 3 specific spells (usually 3 of the same spell), the spells combine into a more powerful version as you enter the combat phase.

Combo Recipe Description
Awp Shot 3x Pistol Shot Instantly shoot a piercing, shield-penetrating bullet dealing 200 damage to the first target
Dragon's Breath 3x Firebreath Shoot a moving wall of fire, dealing 125 total damage to each row
Hopes and Dreams 3x Wish Upon a Lucky Star Unleash a barrage of stars upon the opponent's field
Knife Volley 3x Knife Throw Throw a bunch of knives with reduced damage
Chronosphere 3x Stun Grenade Instantly freeze an area in front, enemies caught take bonus damage
Za Warudo 3x Time Dilation Directly enter the spell select phase, then stop time for everything else for 10 seconds
Tempest 1x Wind Cannon, 1x Vacuum Cannon, 1x Hurricane Cannon Blow all enemies all over the place for 10 seconds
A Chronosphere spell being created.

(An example of a spell being combined as the battle phase starts)

Corrupt Spells

A Corrupt Hell Rain appearing in the spell select panel.

Every once in a while, a player will come across what looks like a normal spell, but purple. These are corrupt spells: spells that are vastly more powerful than their vanilla counterpart. This power, however, comes at a price...

Spell Description
Corrupt Pistol Shot Deal immense damage
Corrupt Vulcan Shoot an immense number of bullets
Corrupt Hell Rain Say goodbye to your opponent's panels
Corrupt Electro Bolt Spread electricity everywhere

Special Status Effects

Corrupt

Gets applied to you whenever you cast a corrupt spell. At 1+ stacks, your healing input gets reduced, you take periodic damage, and corrupt spells appear more frequently in your spell select panel. At 2+ stacks, your movement becomes erratic. At 3 stacks, you trade your health and control over your character in exchange for raw power.

Bleed

Applied from the knife projectile. Each stack of the debuff is additional 1 damage per second for 10 seconds, as well as a minor slow. After 10 seconds, rather than the debuff disappearing, the stack count gets decreased by 1 and the debuff refreshes. This mean that 1 stack deals 10 damage total, 2 stacks deal 30 damage, 3 deal 60, 4 deal 100, etc.

Mei's frost

Applied from Mei's attacks and ultimate. In addition to slowing for each stack, at 20 stacks, the target becomes stunned.

Ruptured

Applied from the Rupture spell. Deals 5 damage for every grid unit moved.