Effectiveness

Every unit belongs to one of four combat types: Astral, Infernal, Primal or Umbral. The combat types form a counter cycle, and units fighting against a countered type get an effectiveness buff of up to +100%. The buff is applied in every fight, for the attacker and the defender alike.

Combat Types

The counter cycle is: Astral beats Infernal, Infernal beats Primal, Primal beats Astral. Umbral units stand outside the cycle — they counter nothing, but nothing counters them either.

Combat Type	Beats	Beaten By	Units
Astral	Infernal	Primal	Athlas, Vahloc, Ovivi
Infernal	Primal	Astral	Guard Naki, Ranax, Raider Naki, Teryx
Primal	Astral	Infernal	Grass Spirit, Forest Spirit, Elder Spirit, Nyxi
Umbral	—	—	Spotter Naki, Druid Naki, Pangoan

Hero units share the combat type of their special unit. The full unit list with combat types can be found in the Unit Overview.

Calculation

In a battle, the strength share of each unit type is calculated first (check out the fight system for more details). For each unit type, its share of your total strength is multiplied by the share of the enemy strength it counters. The sum over all your unit types is your total effectiveness buff — so if all of your strength counters all of the enemy strength, you get the maximum of +100%.

Unlike other buffs (runes, field upgrades, artifacts), the effectiveness buff is applied multiplicatively: your strength is first increased by the sum of all regular buffs and the result is then multiplied by the effectiveness buff.

Example

The attacker sends 400 Guard Nakis (Infernal) and 200 Druid Nakis (Umbral) with a raw attack power of 30'000. The defender has 320 Elder Spirits (Primal) and 600 Nyxis (Primal) with a raw defense value of 30'000. Infernal counters Primal, so the Guard Nakis are effective against the entire defending army. The defenders (Primal) would counter Astral units, but the attacker has none.

	Guard Naki (Infernal)	Druid Naki (Umbral)	Elder Spirit (Primal)	Nyxi (Primal)
Strength	24'000	6'000	24'000	6'000
Share (%) of own army	80%	20%	80%	20%
Counters % of enemy strength	100%	0%	0%	0%
Effectiveness contribution	80%	0%	0%	0%

Attacker: The Guard Nakis make up 80% of the attack strength and counter 100% of the enemy strength, the Druid Nakis contribute nothing. This gives a total effectiveness buff of +80%, raising the total attack power from 30'000 to 54'000.

Defender: No defending unit counters Infernal or Umbral, so the defender gets no effectiveness buff and stays at 30'000. In this fight the attacker would win (other buffs such as field upgrades or runes were ignored for simplicity).