In Crystalborne: Heroes of Fate, the only way to get anything done is to fight for it. Whether you need upgrade materials, gear, or new characters, you have to engage in some kind of combat in order to get it. Plus, the most exciting part of the game is its massive Guild Conquest world, where you get to battle other guilds to extend your territory and capture more resources. If you’re going to stand a chance in this jungle, you’ll have to know exactly how combat works.

In what follows, we’ll look at the different types of heroes and how you should combine them into a functional team. We’ll also look at the most common buffs and debuffs used in a battle so that you know what to expect from your opponents and how to counter their strategies. In the process, we’ll uncover multiple combat mechanics and help you each of your characters to the full extent of his or her potential.

Hero Types, Classes, and Affinities

There are two hero types in Crystalborne: HoF – Energy and Physical. These do not have any specific advantage over one another, but rather draw their power from different sources. Energy characters deal Energy damage, which scales with their Energy stat, whereas Physical characters deal Physical damage, which scales with their Physical stat.

Just because you’re up against a team of Energy heroes doesn’t mean that you should turn to Physical damage. However, you will draw advantages from creating a team of predominantly Energy or Physical characters. The reason is that an Energy hero will most often buff their allies’ Energy attack and decrease the opponents’ Energy defense. A Physical hero on the same team will not benefit from these effects, which is why you would rather create homogenous teams of either Energy or Physical characters.

In addition, there are three main classes in the game. The ideal team composition will include at least 1 Defender, as well as 1-2 Supporters, and 1-3 Attackers:

Defenders

whose role is to absorb most of the damage and utilize Taunt abilities in order to draw enemy fire. This, in turn, allows your other heroes to deal enough damage to clear the opposing team.

Supporters

who can heal your allies, as well as apply buffs and debuffs. It is particularly important that your Supporters are of the same type as your Attackers. While most legendary Supporters will increase both the Energy and Physical attack of allies, this is not the case with lower-rarity characters, who will only buff their own stat.

Attackers

who generally feature 1-2 single-target skills and one AoE ability and whose role is to damage the enemy’s heroes. Some Attackers rely primarily on direct damage, while others apply damage over time effects such as Bleed or Poison.

Finally, heroes have one of five possible affinities:

• Red, which is strong against Green and weak against Blue.
• Green, which is strong against Blue and weak against Red.
• Blue, which is strong against Red and weak against Blue.
• Light and Dark, which cancel each other out.

Choosing heroes of the correct affinity to counter the enemy team can be advantageous since this will help the former deal more damage and take less damage at the same time. However, this is generally a luxury reserved for players who can unlock multiple high-rarity heroes and who have enough resources to level up 1-3 characters for each affinity.

The Most Common (and Useful) Buffs and Debuffs

Winning a battle in Crystalborne: HoF is not only a matter of using your heroes to deal damage. Instead, you must devise a composition of characters that has high DPS potential and the ability to CC and weaken the enemy team. The following buffs and debuffs are the most important to pay attention to:

Taunt

All Defender heroes should have a good Taunt ability. For a limited number of turns, a Taunt allows a character to draw enemy fire and mitigate it thanks to their high HP pool and survivability. Beware, though: enemy Defenders will also attempt to use Taunts in order to protect their own damage dealers. You need either powerful hitters that can eliminate Defenders swiftly or buff removal abilities to counter them.

Play Crystalborne on PC

Shield

Some Defenders and Supporters can place Shields on themselves or their allies. These Shields will reduce incoming damage until their value is exceeded and can therefore act as a kind of preemptive healing.

Attack Up/Down

Supporters will often place Attack Up buffs on allies and Attack Down debuffs on enemy heroes to increase and decrease damage, respectively. Remember that each character has either Physical or Energy attacks. A Physical character will draw no benefits from having their Energy Attack increased and vice-versa.

Defense Up/Down

All characters have two defensive stats – Energy defense and Physical defense. If your Supporters feature Defense Down abilities, make sure that the defense being lowered is the correct one for your Attackers. Conversely, you should use Defense Up Supporters that increase the type of defense that would best counter the team you’re up against.

Critical Hit Up/Critical Avoid Down

This pair is designed to increase the DPS of your damage dealers by boosting their critical hit chance and decreasing the likelihood of enemy heroes avoiding their crits.

Buff/Healing Immunity

These two debuffs prevent an enemy hero from receiving buffs and healing, respectively. They are particularly important against teams that rely heavily on Supporters to increase heroes’ survivability and DPS.

Speed Up/Slow

While Speed Up allows your heroes to act faster, Slow decreases the speed of enemy units. The right mix of Speed Up buffs and Slow debuffs not only ensures that your heroes act first, but can even give your heroes additional turns and subtract turns from your opponent.

Ability Seal

Perhaps one of the most important debuffs in the game, Ability Seal prevents an enemy hero from casting their abilities for a limited number of turns. Characters that inflict Ability Seal can be used to effectively cancel out a dangerous enemy unit for as long as the rest of your team needs to remove the latter altogether.

Once you’ve become accustomed to these effects and had the chance to pick up a few high-rarity heroes, it’s just a matter of creating the right composition in order to take on most battles in both PvP and PvE. If you have the right heroes, but were unable to upgrade them so far, feel free to check out our guide to resources, currencies, and shopping (link to “Crystalborne: Heroes of Fate – Shopping and Resources Guide”). Otherwise, it’s time to crush your foes with a mix of heavy CCs and devastating damage dealing abilities.

Download BlueStacks Now