User:Rhetorical/Sandbox

Overview

Card skills can be passive skills that automatically activate at battle start, or active skills which activate when a card is used.

The majority of cards affect Influence (Attack) or Defense, such as increasing a player's own Influence/Defense, dealing more damage to an argument (enemy), or lowering an enemy's Influence/Defense. There are also some R cards which have skills that activate when placed in the Support Deck such as cards with the skill Formidable.

These skills can be upgraded using various skill up items that can be obtained from Anomaly Levels and NXX Headquarters - File Room.

Skill Variants

Skills come in the following types:

• Combat Skill
  • Damage Amplification
    • These skills directly increase the damage of outgoing attacks from that card. Example: Preemptive Strike deals x% Influence dmg to a single argument.
  • Stat Boost
    • These skills increase the influence or defense of subsequent cards for N turns. Example: Logical Conclusion β I boosts the Influence of your LOGIC cards by x% for 2 turns.
  • Enemy Stat Reduction
    • These skills reduce the influence or defense of the enemy for N turns. Example: Negative Interrogative γ II reduces the opponent's LOGIC Defense by x% for 3 turns
• Self-Enhancement Passive
  • These skills increase the influence or defense of the card itself in debates. Example: Emotional Appeal boosts the card's base Influence by x for every EMPATHY card in the Primary Deck
• Primary Deck Passive
  • These skills increase the influence or defense of all cards in the primary deck. Example: President's Orders boosts the base Defense of all Marius cards in the Primary Deck by x
• Support Deck Passive
  • These skills also increase the influence or defense of all cards in the primary deck, but only take effect when the card with this skill is placed in the support deck. Example: Formidable boosts Influence by an additional 0.19% when this card is in the Support Deck.

Cards unlock skills in a specific pattern based on the card rarity:

Level	R	SR	SSR
1	Combat Skill	Combat Skill	Combat Skill
40	Support Deck Passive	Self-Enhancement Passive	Self-Enhancement Passive
70	-	Primary Deck Passive	Primary Deck Passive

Tiers

Cards will have skills belonging to one of three different tiers: I, II, and III, belonging to R, SR, and SSR rarity cards respectively. Skills of higher tiers will have higher multipliers than those of lower tiers, even if they have similar effects.

Example:

• Preemptive Strike I deals 108% Influence DMG to a single argument at level 1, and 140.04% at level 10.
• Preemptive Strike II deals 109% Influence DMG to a single argument at level 1, and 145% at level 10.
• Preemptive Strike III deals 110% Influence DMG to a single argument at level 1, and 149.96% at level 10.

Attributes

Stat boosting skills can either affect a single attribute, or all attributes (neutral). While neutral stat increases are more flexible, they generally have lower modifiers than single attribute stat boosts.

Example:

• File:Lure & Bait icon.png Lure & Bait γ I at level 1 boosts the Influence of your EMPATHY cards by 3.6% for 3 turn(s)
• Layer by Layer γ I at level 1 boosts your Influence by 2.2% for 3 turn(s)

Cards cannot obtain skills that boost a different attribute than the card's own attribute - they will only either be neutral or the same as the card.

N turns

Skills that boost Influence or Defense for N turns can come in three different variants: α, β, and γ, applying effects for 1 turn, 2 turns, and 3 turns respectively. Generally, effects that last for more turns have lower multipliers per turn, but result in higher overall stat increases.

Example:

• Indirect Approach α I at level 1 reduces the opponent's EMPATHY Defense by 11.4% for 1 turn(s)
• Indirect Approach β I at level 1 reduces the opponent's EMPATHY Defense by 7.8% for 2 turn(s)
• Indirect Approach γ I at level 1 reduces the opponent's EMPATHY Defense by 7.2% for 3 turn(s)

Self-Enhancement Passives

Enhancement passive skills can be either a flat base increase, an flat increase per number of specific cards in the primary deck, or a % increase per number of specific cards in the primary deck.

Example:

• Balanced II boosts the card's base Influence by 144 during debates
• Deductive Reasoning II boosts the card's base Influence by 21 for every LOGIC Card in the Primary Deck
• File:Painstaking icon.png Painstaking boosts the card's base Influence by 1.15% for every LOGIC card in the Primary Deck

Cards can be specified based on attribute or on the featured character.

Example:

• Deductive Reasoning II boosts the card's base Influence by 21 for every LOGIC Card in the Primary Deck
• Sharp One II boosts the card's base Influence by 21.5 for every Marius card in the Primary Deck.

Primary Deck Passives

Similar to self-enhancement passives, primary deck passives can be a flat increase per number of specific cards in the deck, or a % increase. They can also specify cards based on attribute or on the featured character. These skills only affect the primary deck if the card is in the primary deck itself.

Example:

• Drastic Measures II boosts the base Influence of all EMPATHY cards in the Primary Deck by 1.15%
• Strike Weakness II boosts the base Influence of all EMPATHY cards in the Primary Deck by 21
• President's Orders III boosts the base Defense of all Marius cards in the Primary Deck by 27

Support Deck Passives

Support deck passives only take effect when the card with the skill is placed in the support deck.

Currently this comes in the skills Formidable and Progressive, and is limited to R rarity cards.

Buff Stacking

Skills that affect Influence or Defense for N turns each individually apply their own stack to the player/enemy. These stacks have their own timers based on the number of turns they last. Multiple stacks can co-exist at the same time, including those of "identical" skills from multiple cards. All buffs are additive.

Example:

• Card A is Logic-type and deals 1000 damage normally to the enemy.
• Logical Conclusion β II (Boost Influence of Logic cards by 5.2% for 2 turns) is used. Card A will now do 1052 damage to the enemy.
• Logical Conclusion β II is used. Another card also uses Logical Conclusion β II. Logic influence is currently increased by 5.2 + 5.2 = 10.4%, so Card A will now do 1104 damage to the enemy.
  • If another logic-type card attacks after Card A, it would only receive +5.2% influence because the first Logical Conclusion β II buff already expired.
• Logical Conclusion γ II (Logic influence +4.5% for 3 turns) is used. Logical Conclusion β II is used. Logical Conclusion β II is used. Logic influence is currently increased by 4.5 + 5.2 + 5.2 = 14.9%, so Card A will now do 1149 damage to the enemy.
• Layer by Layer γ II (All cards influence 2.7% for 3 turns) is used. Logical Conclusion β II is used. Logical Conclusion β II is used. The neutral influence buff still stacks additively with logic influence buff, so logic influence is currently increased by 2.7 + 5.2 + 5.2 = 13.1%. Card A will now do 1131 damage to the enemy.

Card Development

SSR vs SR vs R: Since higher rarity cards cards scale higher in both base stats and skill modifiers, it is recommended to focus on leveling up any SSR cards, followed by SR cards.

That being said, if the player is in need of more cards for their deck, it is often not a bad investment to raise some R cards to lv40/70. Since every R rarity card comes with a support deck passive, R rarity cards can always be retired to the support deck and still contribute with their passive skill.

Influence vs Defense: High damage is needed to meet the turn limit on many debates, and the faster you kill an enemy, the less damage you take. Prioritize influence over defense with offensive skills such as

• Layer by Layer: Boosts all Influence for N turns
• Attention to Detail, Logical Conclusion, Lure & Bait: Boosts the Influence of your <Attribute> cards for N turns
• Preemptive Strike: Deals X% Influence DMG to a single argument
  • This is a more selfish skill but can still be a good skill to raise, especially in conjunction with buffs and on your highest leveled card.

Leveling distribution: Skill levels take increasing amounts of skill up items for every level. But each level only increases the skill modifiers by the same amount. To be resource efficient, it is recommended to level up skills somewhat equally among all cards in the deck, prioritizing your higher leveled and higher rarity cards. The exception being R cards skills as R cards are more likely to get retired out of a deck by most players.

Flat base increase vs flat increase per # of cards vs % increase per # of cards: At earlier levels, flat base increases to the card will generally net the most value, as there are often not enough cards of the same attribute or character in the deck to match the flat base increase. Furthermore, flat base increases are consistent even when the card is used as an off-type in other attribute decks (e.g. being one of two intuition cards in predominantly logic-focused deck). Increases per number of specific cards only begin to outscale flat increases as deck size increases and the player collects many more cards fitting the criteria. Finally, % increases generally don't outscale flat increases until very high levels (level 80+).

Card selection: For players who have access to a wide variety of cards, it can also be worth looking at what skills the card unlocks before determining which cards to prioritize leveling. For instance, most cards which have an influence self-enhancement passive will have a defense primary deck passive, and vice versa. However, there are cards which don't meet this pattern, such as Luke "Timely Rescue" which has triple offensive skills. This fact makes it slightly more valuable to raise if you are prioritizing offensive skills.