Game Mechanics

= In-Game =

Leveling Up
Leveling Up your Hero in-game (Battle level) allows you to gain and choose Hero Upgrades for the Hero's abilities. You can level up by gaining experience, mainly from killing enemies, but there are also Trap Parts that can help. Each level requires more Experience than the last one.

You can choose one upgrade from three choices at Battle Levels 2, 4, 7 and 10. Maximum level is 20 and leveling up also gives you significant stat boosts:


 * + 2,5% HP per Battle level (from base)
 * + 11% damage per Battle level (from base)

Battle level and hero upgrades are independent of every match, you start at Battle level 1 at the start of every match.

Account level unlocks content at the main Game Mode, Survival. You gain experience to level up by completing matches on any mode. The playable battlegrounds are divided in 4 difficulties that are unlocked by leveling up your account:


 * Apprentice
 * War Mage: Unlocks at account lvl 8.
 * Master: Unlocks at account lvl 20.
 * Rift Lord: Unlocks at account lvl 40.

Leveling up gives you some small rewards too, 250 per level up, max level is 100.

Also leveling Up your account affects the stats of your Guardians, Gear and gives your Heroes a Boost:


 * + ~0,8% HP per Account level (Multiplicative, from previous level)
 * + 1,4% damage per Account level (Multiplicative, from previous level)

Both leveling systems have an increasing amount needed of experience to level up as you progress. Account level has a much more steep curve.

Hero Upgrades
Every Hero has a total of 12 Hero Upgrades. Hero Upgrades affect Hero Abilities and hero base stats, changing their effects, their behaviors or just their stats.

The 12 Upgrades are dividided in 4 groups of 3. You can choose one upgrade from one of the groups (three choices) at Battle Levels 2, 4, 7 and 10.

Hero Upgrades persist for the rest of the match but are reset like the Battle Level every match.

Scoring
Score is a mechanic that shows your performance in a match. Score is calculated using several variables and some of them are specific to different game modes:

The Base Score calculation (Kill and Combo Score) is calculated the same for all the modes, each minion kill provides a base score that depends on their type (Kill Score) and a Combo Score that is calculated depending on how high the combo on that enemy was at the time of the kill. To calculate Kill and Combo Score, the game simply adds up the score from each minion kill.

To the Base Score, there are multipliers applied depending on your performance in the following criteria: Hero Deaths, Waves cleared (Endless mode only), Par Time (Except Endless mode) and Rift Points (Except Endless mode).

More info at Scoring

Combos
Combos provide extra score, extra coins, extra XP and also fill the Unchained Meter. Each combo provides all the mentioned before and the higher the combo is, the higher the amount of them it gives.

Combos are obtained by killing enemies that have been hit by different damage sources (traps, gear, heroes abilities, environmental traps) or affected by different debuffs/statuses (slow, Damage over Time (DoT), stun, mesmerize, etc).

Each different (being hit twice by the same type trap, e.g Floor Spikes only adds 1 combo point) source of damage or debuff adds a combo point to the enemy affected. Combo points added by a direct hit have a duration of a few seconds 2-4, after that the combo point fades away.

Each different effect or debuff also adds 1 combo point but they only last as long as the effect/debuff does.

More info at Combos

Unchained Meter
The Unchained Meter is a mechanic that gives the players a big temporal boost. Once activated, it refreshes the cooldowns and temporarily doubles Hero's HP and Mana, reduces Hero Abilities cooldowns by 60% and amplifies the damage by 125% (dealing 2.25x damage) for 15 seconds.

The Unchained Meter is filled by killing enemies with combos, higher combos mean faster filling of the meter. It can also be filled by picking up Unchained Drops that appear randomly from killing enemies (or Stinkeye Upgrade) or forced to activate with Unchained Scrolls or Spells in Sabotage.

Each activation (or forced activation) lasts for 15 seconds but these 15 seconds can be prolonged by picking up Unchained Drops or from effects from Traits or Hero abilities. Also after each activation of any type and after depletion, the unchained meter is exponentially harder to fill again.

Activating it at the same time of other players boosts the effects and duration of the temporal boost.

Pick Ups
Pick Ups are random drops that appear in the map from killing enemies that the players can pick. Mercenaries always drop a pickup when they are killed.

There are currently four types of pickups:


 * Health Pick Up: Heals you for 50% of your maximum Health.
 * Mana Pick Up: Fully fills your hero's mana. Non-mana heroes can't pick them up.
 * Unchained Pick Up: Fills a part of the Unchained Meter, the amount filled depends on how many times you have used the Unchained mechanic.
 * Coin Pick Up: Provides 100 coins to the player.

Some Heroes can create Pick Ups too:


 * Scrap Pick Up: Brass can create scrap pickup by hitting with her Wrench Enemies or randomly by using primary attack against Enemies. Only Brass can pick them up, their base value is 15 Scrap.
 * Delicious Meals: Bloodspike Generates Delicious Meals from enemies that die, killed by him or just attacked them. Only Bloodspike can pick them up (Other Heroes can see them but look like Ogre Waste for them)
 * Coin Bags: Dobbin Generates coin bags with his dynamites and Dust Devil by hitting enemies. Everyone can pick them up and they give coin.
 * Tears of Oasis: Stinkeye Generates them with the proper Hero Upgrade, upon totem disappearence a Tear appears. Everyone can pick them, they provide Health, Mana and Unchained Meter.

Also Powerup Damage and Shield Powerup Traps create a pickup right underneath them that Heroes can pick up to get the bonuses.

Elements
Elements in Orcs Must Die! Unchained are the different types of damage Heroes, Enemies and Traps have.

There are currently 5 Elements in the game: Physical, Fire, Lightning, Frost and Arcane. Magic element refers to the last four.

Elements have unique effects and synergies with other buffs, debuffs, effects, etc.

Heroes and Enemies have Armor that reduces the damage from different elements. There are also many ways of increasing a Heroes' Armor or decreasing an enemies' Armor against certain elements in order to deal more damage and create synergies.

More info at Elements

Armor
Armor is a stat that affects the damage received/done. There are 6 types of armor, one for each element/damage type in the game: Physical, Ice, Fire, Arcane and Lightning. The Sixth type of armor is Magical, which englobes the last four, magic armor gives armor against all four magic elements.

Every point of Armor provides 1% effective health against the attacks of the same damage type. Armor grants damage reduction against a type of damage. It can also be expressed as following: if you have 1000 Health Points (HP), each armor point grants 10 Effective Health Points (EHP) (1%).

Armor applies to both, heroes and enemies. All Heroes have 0 armor as base, most enemies too. Armor doesn't have a cap in either direction.

More info at Armor

Rift
Rifts are the precious sources of magic of this world and all Factions will fight to have the control over them. In this game, players' objective is to defend the rifts on different locations from the various invading hordes and incoming waves of Enemies.

In-Game, all enemies except Mercenaries and Hunter Minions will head to the rift. If they enter the rift they will score a varying amount of Rift Points (they will take Rift Points away from the players), the amount depends on the Enemy but ranges from 1 to 6.

Every Battleground starts with 25 Rift Points left, if you lose them all, the match ends as a defeat.

= Dashboard =

Loadout
A loadout is the selection of traps, gear, and other resources available for use in each match. Each player can save up to 8 unique loadouts containing:Gear x2 – These are reusable items with unlimited uses per game such as Mage’s Clover (mana regen), Vegetable of Mending (health regen), or Teleportation Ring (teleports you back to the rift). Guardians x2 – Guardians are special rift defenders that can be summoned into battle at key strategic locations in each battleground.Traps x7 – The bread and butter of orc-gibbing and ogre-slaying. Traps come in a variety of types that can be configured into any number of clever, carnage-inducing combinations.Traits x4 – Traits provide special bonuses for your hero, such as Bonus Damage to Enemies or Bonus Starting Coin. Consumables x2 – Single-use items that provide an edge in survival battlegrounds and endless matches. 

You can create them at Your Profile, top-right corner "Loadouts"

Currencies

 * [[File:Currency_Coins.png]] Coins: In-game currency, obtained by killing enemies and used to place Traps and Guardians.


 * [[File:Currency_Skulls.png]] Skulls: Obtained by completing Quests, leveling up and from playing battlegrounds. Used to buy Heroes, Upgrade Traps and buy Traps from the Deals.


 * [[File:Currency_Gibs.png]] Gibs: Obtained by earning extra cards of Traps already Tier 7 or Trap Parts exceeding the amount of slots they can be used in. Used in the Premium Shoppe to buy Traps Chest, Parts Chest and Vanity Items.


 * [[File:Currency_Gold.png]] Gold: Obtained through Daily Logins or real cash. Used in the Store to buy Heroes, Vanity Items, Chests and Battle Passes.

Guilds
All players can create guilds by paying a small fee of 1000 and invite their friends and teammates to join them.

Players can show off their guild designation in lobbies and after matches, chat with other guild members in a private chat channel, and track progress of their guild and guildmates on the leaderboards.

Guilds don't have any other purpose than to gather players in a place and provide a chat channel. Sabotage Guild Rank is calculated by the average of its ranked members.

Community Events
Work together as a community to complete goals and earn seasonal vanity prizes -- backplates, titles, and avatars – and complete all goals to earn a special skin.

Past Events Goals were killing X enemies, survive waves, earn stars, save rift poionts, win matches, etc.

Past community events: Endless Summer, Wu Xing Invasion and Merry Riftmas!

Quests
Quests are daily missions that players can complete for rewards. Players receive 3 Quests every day which can be re-rolled independently once a day.


 * First Quest: General missions, reward: Survival Chests (highest difficulty unlocked)
 * Second Quest: Kill minions mission. Either in Sabotage or any mode. reward: Survival Chests (highest difficulty unlocked)
 * Third Quest: Hero related missions. reward: 500 [[File:Currency_Skulls.png]]

Daily Login Rewards
This rewards are obtained by logging in daily to the game. The logins don't need to be consecutive and it only advances days from logging in.

Possible rewards are: Skulls,  Gold, Survival Chests (highest difficulty unlocked), Consumable Chests and Chaos Trials Keys.

Battle Pass
Battle Pass can be bought in the Store for a duration of 1, 3, 7 or 30 days. With the respective price of 175, 450, 750 and 2000

It gives the following bonuses to the account while activated:


 * +25% XP Bonus (Account level)
 * Double Skulls Rewards from games
 * +5% XP Bonus for your teammates (Account level)

Item Rarity
In Orcs Must Die! Unchained the items are divided into 5 different levels of rarity. Higher rarity means that the item is harder to obtain but not necessarily better or superior functionally than lower rarity items. From lower to higher:


 * Common
 * Uncommon
 * Rare
 * Epic
 * Legendary