Supplemental Resources and Information

Duelist's Rush: Name one non-Elite, non-Boss enemy who has attacked an ally this battle. You and the chosen enemy each choose a combat action or combat Skill. Each character takes turns using their chosen action until either character is defeated.

Welcome to Attack on Castle High! If you've correctly registered for the game, your character - along with any name that you have publicly associated with that character - should appear listed in the "Castle High Forces" list below.

The goal of each battle is to whittle down the enemy fortress's HP to 0 while keeping Castle High's HP above that point. Lower the HP of enemies by attacking them, and look out of reach other to make sure none of you drop too early!

All you need to do to control your character is to post the actions you'd like for them to take (preferably formatted in a way that I can easily identify them). Your character will then do their best to execute those actions, the enemies will respond with their own, and the battle will continue in this series of turns until a victor is decided! You can take as many actions as you want, but be warned that once you fail an action, you can't take any more for the turn, and constantly taking multiple actions a turn can put you at a disadvantage later.

Other parts of the game will be explained later on, so keep an eye out for these spoiler boxes. In the meantime, why not try to attack the enemy now? Remember, your ultimate goal is to destroy the enemy castle; though, I'm sure the enemy won't just let you have your way with them.

Advantage (abbrev. Adv) is a key stat every combatant has; a higher Advantage stat means that the success rate of your actions will be higher, while actions of opposing combatants against you will be less effective and less likely to succeed. Obtaining and maintaining a strong Advantage stat can be key against many opponents, especially stronger ones!

The best way to gain Advantage is to simply contribute to the fight - actions which have a direct benefit to the fight will give you Advantage! However, taking multiple actions in a turn can cause you to lose Advantage. You'll have to decide whether steadily generating Advantage or seizing an immediate upper hand with a burst of actions is the correct play each turn!

Congratulations on completing your first battle in Attack on Castle High! Whenever you defeat a castle, you'll gain XP, and with enough XP, Castle High will increase its level, which will in turn increase the power of its forces.

You'll also be able to vote on one of three possible upgrades for Castle High, which will allow it to be better prepared for certain encounters. Vote wisely...

In the meantime, you can also take this time for after-battle socializing, though you won't be able to take any more actions. Hopefully that'll tide you along until everything's been cleaned up, the defeated castle's been searched of its goods, and Castle High is ready to take off into the sky again!

After every battle, your character will be given a new Training Mission. These missions are some form of mini-task that will require your character to adjust the actions they perform in battle. Upon completing the required task, your character will gain a new Skill, associated with your character and the training performed! Progress on Training Missions carries over between battles.

At the end of every battle, all players have their (non-negative) Adv. converted into Training Points (TP). If you wish to "re-roll" your Training Mission -- perhaps because it is not feasible to complete, or its completion won't result in a Skill you would like -- you can do so by spending TP during the time between battles. It costs 1 TP to re-roll a mission, and for each re-roll made, the cost increases by 1. The cost is reset to 1 after the next battle.

The time has come for Castle High to decide its next target! Listed below are two castles that are available to attack for the next wave. Due to the moving nature of Castle High, it may not be possible to return to these castles later, so choose which to attack carefully.

Pay close attention to the level associated with each castle! The higher a castle's level, the better rewards and experience you'll get from defeating it, but the more difficult it will be to defeat. The enemy castle itself will be more resilient, and the castle's forces more dangerous and harder to affect. You should compare the level of an enemy castle to Castle High's level: if the enemy castle's level is higher, expect a more difficult battle.

Each castle comes with a brief description of its makeup, the surrounding area, and the enemy occupying the castle, as well as a list of potential rewards that the reconnaissance division has scouted out. Some of these rewards will be more practical and go directly to the players, most obviously the loot to be acquired from the castle. Rewards that benefit the castle as a whole, meanwhile, will determine what type of reward options you will get for upgrading the castle at the wave's conclusion. Remember the ultimate goal of this campaign: to improve yourself and Castle High itself, to defeat any and all foes!

Finally, you'll need to pick a leader to join you in the next battle. Leaders are powerful allies that fight alongside your regiment in the battle. Each has very different abilities and styles of combat, so choose accordingly which leader best suits the battle you're facing. For now you only have two leaders to pick from, but as the castle does better and more leaders feel they can trust you and your cause, more will be willing to join the fight.

Welcome to your second battle, Regiment 1-31! Take note of the new environment you've found yourselves in: this is no empty field! The thick forest surrounding Castle Sylvik will present some additional challenges. Some enemies will start the battle concealed, as they hide in the treeline or the treetops above, and the Castle itself will start the battle with the Obscured and Distant statuses, which will make ranged attacks less effective and melee attacks impossible (respectively). These statuses will be removed once enough enemies have been defeated for your forces to advance on the castle, so keep fighting!

On the other hand, this rich environment can also be used to your advantage. There may be all sorts of items or resources scattered throughout the woods, and the trees can make for good cover or even tools for a clever trap. Don't be afraid to get creative! Some types of enemies are particularly weak to tricks or out-of-the-box techniques, and in some cases, it may be near-impossible to overcome a powerful foe without doing so.

Meet Emilia, your first Elite enemy! Elite enemies are foes that are more complex and powerful than the usual minions protecting enemy castles. Elite enemies are very similar to players: they have Abilities, Techniques, and can take multiple actions.

Although Elite enemies are dangerous, they also can present unique opportunities: some Elite enemies can be recruited, though how easy this is to accomplish can vary wildly, and will often necessitate having a greater understanding of the Elite themselves. Recruited enemies become allies, who will lend their unique skills to the betterment of Castle High and can accompany your Regiment into battle. Many Elites also have special weapons or items, which will be gained upon their defeat.

Congratulations Regiment 1-31! You've won this battle without destroying the enemy castle! This is certainly not always possible, but can be in some cases. Taking a castle without destroying it can mean better rewards or potential allies, and can sometimes be easier than destroying the castle itself. Taking a castle can be possible by defeating or pacifying all enemy forces, but considering the scope of the battles Castle High engages in, this will often be infeasible. When it is however, it's a great opportunity to take advantage of!

As the castle's forces continue to battle against enemy strongholds, you will acquire more and more items. All items are stored in the Castle Treasury until a player withdraws them. The Castle Treasury can only be interacted with in-between battles, so make sure you have whatever you need before you go!

In general, every character has the following item slots:
1 weapon slot - your currently equipped weapon. Used for all action rolls.
1 armor slot - your currently equipped armor. Used for defending against enemy actions.
1 specialty armor slot - a supporting piece of armor such as a helmet, cape, or shield.
3 item slots - These hold anything not currently equipped. A collection of small items only takes up one slot.

Any stats on your equipment that name particular attributes (charisma, intellect, etc.) will effect your Effective Advantage when performing actions that use that attribute. The other primary stat on equipment is Power, which determines the actual effect of your actions (but not their success rate!) These stats and modifiers will effect you even if you aren't actually using the equipment in your actions, so watch out for negative modifiers!

Crafting is the act of combining items into new items! It can technically be performed anywhere, but it might not be the best idea to be creating things out on the battlefield, and you'll need to bring the raw materials with you.

Every character can attempt to craft one item in-between waves, with crafting materials going on a first-come, first-served basis. The chances of succeeding in crafting depend on the complexity of the item you wish to make, the quality and quantity of the items you're crafting with,  and how closely the materials you're using match your desired end product. One especially impactful factor is whether the materials you're using are flagged as Crafting Materials. Crafting Materials are items specifically meant for crafting, and will allow you a wider range of freedom and a greater chance of success than trying to use non-crafting materials.

Upgrading is a subset of crafting. Due to the lack of magical or alchemical resources in Castle High, it's rare for a soldier to hold onto or upgrade their weapon too many times before just getting a better one, but with the proper materials and an item that's well-suited to them, some items can be upgraded, potentially leading to extra powerful or rare equipment.

Thanks to the last castle upgrade, you can now use the Smithy! The Smithy allows you to spend 1 TP in order to destroy 1 item in your personal Inventory. Doing so will refund some of the Crafting Materials that could be used to create that item, though not enough to actually reconstruct the item. Note that deconstructing enchanted or magical items will often produce the raw source of that item's power, which could be utilized in a different weapon.

In order to craft, upgrade, or deconstruct any item, simply post a reply in the current battle thread, and you will have a swift reply informing you of your results.

GM NOTE: Please do not destroy items that other players have expressed clear interest in wanting to use. Failure to do so will result in disciplinary action.

Some materials have been contradictory regarding how actions are calculated and their impact determined in the past, especially regarding Advantage. In this guide, I hope to clear up any misconceptions regarding this.

QUICK SUMMARY OF THE BELOW:
-Effective Advantage (your normal Advantage + the stat for your action  + any modifiers) is used to determine how easy or hard it is for you to succeed in actions. It also determines how easy or hard it is for enemies to succeed in actions against you.
-Power determines how much damage, healing, etc. you actually do, ie the number you get.
--To use an example from  D&D, it's like Advantage increases your D20 roll (your chance to succeed), and then Power increases your Damage roll (how much you do).
-You get 1 advantage every turn you only take 1 action and lose 1 advantage for every action after the first you take.
-You also get 1 advantage on any turn you defeat an enemy.

There are two primary statistics that affect the actions of all characters: Effective Advantage (EA) and Power. Each of these statistics do different things, without overlap.

Effective Advantage (EA) determines the likelihood of success. The higher your EA is, the higher your chances of achieving success. Because AtoH implements partial success, having a lot of Advantage will also mean it's unlikely for you to totally fail, even if you're unlucky, and more likely to at least partially succeed to some degree. Please note: EA has no direct affect on the effectiveness or impact of your actions. It may do so indirectly, because your average action will succeed more and so your "average Power" will be higher, but Advantage cannot increase your effectiveness beyond a complete success.

Additionally, a character's Effective Advantage is used to calculate the chance of an opponent's action targeting them succeeding. When a character is attacked, they are more likely to block or dodge the attack if they have a high EA.

Power determines the outcome of success. To be specific, the Power of an action is used to determine the amount of "effect" your action has for a total success. In simple terms, this means that having more power will let you deal more damage, heal more HP, create barriers with more health, etc. Every single action has a Power associated with it, from supporting actions to investigation actions and everything else there is. Please note: Power has no direct affect on your likelihood of succeeding at an action. Increasing your Power means that your partial successes will do more, but it won't help you avoid only succeeding partially or outright failing.

Advantage is a resource used by all characters. At the end of every turn, all characters gain 1 Advantage if they only performed 1 action that turn. This Advantage is then added to your relevant stats and item modifiers to give you your EA. So if a character has 1 Advantage, +1 strength, and swings a sword, their EA is +2. Advantage is a rather valuable resource: since it applies to all actions and all enemy attacks, you could imagine each point of Advantage reading "+1 to all actions, +1 to all defenses".

Advantage also has another use: it allows you to take extra actions. All characters passively gain 1 Advantage every turn if they only perform 1 action. For every additional action you take, you consume 1 additional Advantage, up to a maximum of 4 actions at the cost of 3 Advantage. In-game, this is described as your character being exhausted and losing their momentum. Note that you can only use "raw" Advantage to do this, not any item modifiers or stats. Choosing the right time to burst through all your Advantage to make a big play is a crucial skill!

There are some circumstances in which Advantage can be awarded for free. The most common is that a character is awarded 1 Advantage if they defeat any number of enemies in a turn. Note that it doesn't matter if you defeat 1 enemy or 100, you will only gain 1 extra Advantage. Conversely, when a character is reduced to 0 HP, they fall to 0 Advantage.

Finally, some fringe cases:
-If a character is at 0 Advantage, they can still take 2 actions. However, doing so will reduce them to -1, giving then Negative Advantage. Please see the README on this topic for more information. Do note, however, that Negative Advantage means you are actually increasing the odds of enemy attacks against you succeeding.
-If a character's second/third/fourth action is to take a defensive stance or be ready to counter, the Advantage for this action is not consumed until they are actually hit. If they are not hit, no Advantage is consumed.

If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask me privately or in the group chat.

All player characters are a part of Regiment 1-31, but Castle High has many more Regiments than that! Every Regiment has a number, which can be read in the following way:

• The first number corresponds to a Regiment's Division, the general role that group of people has. Division 1 is the Active Combat Division, but there are several others. Division 2, the Logistics Division, keeps track of resources and logistics to make sure all soldiers are equipped and fed. Division 3, the Development Division, are the architects and engineers who see to improving and maintaining Castle High, and are the primary division that oversees gathering materials from defeated castles. Finally, Division 4 is the Reconnaissance Division, lead directly by Commander Scarlett, who gather intel about new castles to attack and what resources those castles could provide.
  
• After the dash, the next number corresponds to which Formation a regiment is a part of. All Divisions are split up into Formations, smaller subsets of units that have their own leadership. In the Active Combat Division, these Formations are very literal, with Regiments of the same Formation being closer together on the battlefield.
  
• The final number is the Regiment Identifier Number (RIN), which designates which member a Regiment is of its Formation. These simply count up, starting from 1 and going as high as necessary. Any Regiment with a RIN of 1 is the leader of the Formation it belongs to.
  

Putting all this together, Regiment 1-31 is designated as a part Division 1, the Active Combat Division, a member of Formation 3, and is in fact that Formation's leader with a RIN of 1. This makes Regiment 1-31 the castle's premiere battle unit, and is why the player party is ultimately the one who wins the day! Most other Regiments focus on securing the flanks and defending the castle from non-frontal assaults. Below is the full map of all Formations for the Active Combat Division, once fully deployed.

Formation Map:

[No reconnaissance data available]

Reconnaissance Report: Castle is of sturdy wooden construction and is situated in a small clearing within a vast forest nearby. Only viable attacking option is to land in another nearby clearing and push through the forest with Castle High's forces. Locals report that the castle was once a guard post to protect nearby settlements, but has since been taken over by beasts and creatures of the wild. Scouts who made it near the castles' walls reported only seeing a single person moving into and out of the castle: a female wielding a shortbow, whom the forest creatures paid no mind.

Potential Rewards:

• Leftover weapons from when the castle was a guard post could be used to better outfit the army.
  
• High-quality wooden construction materials could be recovered from the castle and could be used to build better facilities or siege weapons.
  

Reconnaissance Report: Castle is a re-purposed temple to some unknown deity, situated in a large, putrid swamp. Personnel will need to be available to stop swamp water from flooding into Castle High upon landing for attack. The temple is of stone construction with large, gnarled roots snaking through its foundation. Due to the aggressive and territorial nature of Castle Zervix's forces, locals largely ignore this area, leaving the only reports of the castles' occupants a handful of personal stories. The common feature of these stories is that the temple is guarded by serpent-like humanoids wielding cruel weapons and a strange type of swamp magic. Scouts who neared the temple noted several of these beings, usually carrying dead animals into the temple, as well as one black-scaled serpent with a scimitar who prowled the temple's perimeter.

Potential Rewards:

• Auxiliary weapons, including magical weapons or tomes, may be found within the temple.
  
• A large, local town has agreed to reward the castle's forces with amenities (linens, pillows, mattresses, soap, etc.) for ridding the area of the dangerous castle.
  

Reconnaissance Report: The building known as the Emerald Lighthouse has dozens of folk legends surrounding it, making actual facts about it difficult to find. The port town it resides in, Port Clandeli, used to be a major coastal hub, but at some point, something caused the nearby oceans to become incredibly dangerous. All local reports claim it to be the work of the Emerald Lighthouse, and its Emerald Light. The most popular myth says that anything or anyone struck by the Emerald Light is dragged into the sea's depths by the spirits of drowned sailors. The town has since been abandoned, but the lighthouse continues to function. No reports of anyone who has gone into the lighthouse and returned. Due to the building density surrounding the lighthouse, the army will need to traverse the abandoned town in order to attack. Personal note from Scarlett: Something doesn't add up about this place. Be very cautious.

Potential Rewards:

• The lighthouse is of magical make, and could be de-constructed to acquire high-quality magical crafting materials and machine parts. These could be used to create powerful weapons or empower the magic of Castle High itself, such as allowing the castle to fly faster and further then possible before.
  
• In particular, the magical focus of the lighthouse could be used to upgrade Castle High's observatory. Empowered astral devices could be used to divine otherwise unknowable information.
  

Dragonskull Colosseum - Lv 11 The Arena of the Lost

Reconnaissance Report: Colosseum is slightly larger than Castle High itself and is constructed from the bones of an ancient dragon, notably its massive skull. It is hidden between two sheer mountains, only accessible on foot through a series of hidden tunnels through the mountains. An inside source informs us that the Colosseum is run by someone called the Gilded Champion, who claims to have killed the dragon himself to build his arena using his space-splitting blade. Criminals from around the country bring prisoners to fight in the Dragonskull Colosseum, with victory earning massive wealth for their captors. Castle High will be able to land nearby and go for a frontal assault, but our forces will likely be outnumbered. The Gilded Champion is also a wildcard: we couldn't find any information on his actual fighting abilities, but his golden weapon and armor are said to be divinely enchanted to always ensure victory. He's said to have never lost a battle.

Potential Rewards:

• Freed prisoners of the Colosseum with nowhere to go could be offered positions in Castle High's forces, not only increasing the size of our army, but also giving extra hands to understaffed divisions, such as the Medical and Reconnaissance Divisions. Personal note from Scarlett: We also kick the asses of a bunch of slavers and criminals, which is definitely a reward.
  
• The immense wealth of the Colosseum could be seized for Castle High. Some money would be distributed to the soldiers, and the rest could be used to buy better information, hire professional help on particular projects, or barter for exotic materials.