Erannorth Reborn – Beginner’s Guide

Even though Erannorth Reborn is pretty easy to learn and get into, underneath hides many concepts that perhaps are new or different than similar games. So I’ll start with the basics and move into more advanced concepts like synergy and echo chaining.

Character Creation Basics

Note: Credit goes to Raven

Creating a character in Erannorth starts by choosing your Race & Class.

This is a very important decision as it will define:

Your starting Attributes 

Your starting attributes are the sum of your Race base attributes & Class attribute modifiers. You can further increase or reduce them by spending points up to 20 and down to 6 before you start playing, and during your level up after you start playing.

Pro Tip: Increasing an attribute over 16 at level up costs 2 points instead of 1. So if you plan on let’s say have two attributes at 16, it will be more cost-efficient in the long run if you set one at 15, and the other at 17. Then at level up you can spend 1 point instead of 2, to make your 15 a 16.

Your starting Deck 

Your starting deck contains 9 class cards and 3 race cards, but you can change it as long as it doesn’t have less than 12 cards. The main problem you will face is that at this point you don’t have access to any additional cards or skills. So which starting deck cards you are getting will make your life easier or harder.

Your starting Skills

Your starting skill cards consist of 12 Racial Skills & 18 Class Skills. Which you can freely add as cards to your deck up to 3 copies at any time as long as your Deck count isn’t above 60. Or remove as long as your deck count doesn’t go below 12.

Your starting Equipment 

Your starting equipment consist of 1 main weapon from your class and in certain cases 1 offhand (weapon or shield) also from your class. But then during game you can find both Racial, Class or Generic Equipment.

Equipment are special cards that you can consistently use once per turn. You are only obliged to have a Main weapon. The other 3 slots Offhand, Armor & Accessory are optional.

You choose when to use your Main and Offhand and they keep coming back each turn. Whereas are Armor and Accessory always trigger automatically to target you at the start of your turn.

Pro Tip: Trigger order for synergies is Echo Actions => Armors => Accessory => 1st Card you Play

The Perks you can access and which further Disciplines you can learn 

Your Race & Class each has access to a different set of perks you can learn by spending experience. In a few rare cases they may be common, but still unlock at different levels. As long as the perk unlocks for either race or class you can take it but only once. 

So while having a class & race fully compatible with each other can enhance your strengths, it will also not mitigate any of your weakness and may offer you similar choices in terms of growth.

Your starting resistances & affinities 

There are 11 damage sources in ER, having a positive resistance of +x means that you receive x less damage from that damage source. While -x means that you are vulnerable and receive x more damage from that damage source.

Resistances can only be acquired from your Race, Perks & temporarily from Cards you play or have equipped.

Affinity is how effectively you can use a damage source. +x means that your cards of that damage source deal +x max damage. While -x that they deal -x max damage. Your damage range is then always max/2 to max.

For instance if you go to the Card Collection without having any class or race ie. at game boot. You’ll notice that x card deals 0 to 1 Piercing damage, and another y card 2-4 Astral etc.

This means that your affinity will make these cards stronger or less powerful. In the first example if my character has +3 Piercing that x card now deals 2 to 4 damage. But if they have -2 Astral that same y card will now deal 1 to 2 damage.

Pro Tip: Mind your affinities!

Affinities are acquired by your Race, Class, Perks, Attributes & temporarily from Cards you play or have equipped.

Main & Derived Attributes

Attributes are really important as they determine your damage source affinities and also other secondary attributes. Like initial HP, AP and Handsize.

Clicking on the help icon, next to attributes will tell you this:

Physical & Mental Attributes affect how well your character performs in situations and skill checks that require them.

Attribute Factors in Derived Attributes

Strength:

Grants bonus to Slashing [xx], Bludgeoning [xx] & Piercing [x] Damage.

Agility: 

Grants bonus to Slashing [x] & Piercing, Poison [xx] Damage and to your Initial actions [xx].

Resilience:

Grants bonus to Bludgeoning [x] Damage and to your Initial Health [xxx].

Willpower:

Grants bonus to Fire, Water, Earth & Air [x], Light & Dark [xx] Damage and to your Initial Actions [x].

Intellect:

Grants bonus to Fire, Water, Earth & Air [xx], Astral, Poison [x] Damage and to the Initial Hand Size [xxx]. (Hand size can never exceed 7 regardless of Intellect bonus or Perk Benefits.)

Charisma: 

Grants bonus to Astral [xx], Light & Dark [x] Damage.

Overall xx means that value is multiplied 2, x means that is multiplied by 1, then the result is added and divided by 3. This gives the value to get the bonus from. xxx doesn’t mean what you think 😛 it means that this attribute is the only one governing this affinity or secondary attribute.

That’s all nice and cool, but it’s not what you needed this guide. Let’s talk formulas.

Derived Attribute Formulas

Slashing Affinity
= (2x Strength + Agility) / 3 

Piercing Affinity
= (Strength + 2xAgility) / 3

Bludgeoning Affinity
= (2x Strength + Resilience) / 3

PoisonAffinity
= (Intellect + 2xAgility) / 3

Elemental Affinity (Fire, Air, Earth, Water)
= (2x Intellect + Willpower) / 3

Karma Affinity (Light & Dark) 
= (Charisma + 2xWillpower) / 3

Astral Affinity
= (2x Charisma + Intellect) / 3

Initial HP
= Base Race HP + Base Class HP + Resilience Bonus (see below)

Initial AP
= Base Race AP + Base Class AP + [(2x Agility + Willpower)/3]

Hand size
= 4 + (Intellect Bonus – 1) + Perk Bonus/Penalty
* Intellect Bonus – 1 can go only down to 0
* This result is capped at 7

We then take this result to calculate the bonus

Result =

• 0,1,2,3,4 => Penalty -3
  
• 5,6,7 => Penalty -2
  
• 8,9 => Penalty -1
  
• 10 => No Bonus/Penalty
  
• 11,12,13,14 => Bonus +1
  
• 15,16,17,18 => Bonus +2
  
• 19,20,21,22 => Bonus +3
  
• 23,24,25,26 => Bonus +4
  
• 27,28,29,30 => Bonus +5
  
• 31,32,33,34 => Bonus +6
  
• Higher/Equal 35 => Bonus +7

So assuming I have 10 Charisma & 12 Intellect, I can then find my Astral Affinity: 32/3 ~ 10 which translate to no bonus or penalty. While a 12 Charisma & 10 Intellect would be 34/3 ~ 11 which is a +1 bonus.

Now that we calculated the attribute effect in Astral Damage, we add any racial or perk modifiers to finally reach at the value displayed in the character sheet.

The value you then see in there is what is added to or subtracted from the card base (Max) damage, to finally come up as the Max/2 to Max range.

Increasing Attributes

You can further increase your Initial Attributes by spending LP (Level up Points). You gain 1 LP in each Level up, and you can reserve & spend them whenever you wish. Increasing Attributes lower than 16 costs 1 LP/point, while increasing Attributes higher than 16 costs 2 LP/point.

Increasing Affinities

You can increase your Affinities by increasing your attributes or unlocking relevant perks. The higher an affinity the deadlier that damage source will be.

Level Up Benefits & Perks

Level up? Or spend the XP to gain new Perks?

First let’s get out of the way that you need [Current Level] * 50 XP to gain a new Level. Once you do your XP are back to 0. So starting from 0 XP:

• To reach Level 2 I need +50xp
  
• To reach Level 3 I need +100xp
  
• To reach Level 4 I need +150xp
  
• To reach Level 5 I need +200xp

etc.

Level Up Benefits

• Your Max HP become = Initial HP + (Level – 1) * (4 + Resilience Bonus) and additionally you gain half this much as bonus HP. Let’s just say they increase shall we? 😛
  
  
• Your Max AP become = Initial AP + (Level – 1) * (2 + Willpower/2 + Agility/2) and additionally you gain half this much as bonus AP. Let’s just also say they increase shall we? 😛
  
  
• You get +1 LP you can spend to increase an attribute of your choice.
  
  
• You gain access to that level’s (unlocked) Skills, Perks & Equipment

Your Cards though don’t become stronger, unless increasing an Attribute does the trick (see previous chapter). And you can’t access Skills you haven’t unlocked through mastery in any of your runs. So in some cases delaying level up to gain a Perk might be a better choice.

Perks Benefits

Perks have all sort of wacky, utility or power boosting effects.

Let’s see an example:

Let’s say we have 50 XP to spend. That’s possible after Level 2+. (As by the moment I get 50xp as a Level 1 Char, I become a Level 2 Char with 0 XP.)

1) I could spend 50xp to get Strong: You gain +1 Strength & deal +1 Bludgeoning Damage.
2) Or perhaps 50xp to get Tenacious: You gain +10 HP and +2 Resilience.
3) Or 50xp to get Mobility: Your Defend & Retribution effects increase by +1.

Perhaps I could wait till I am level 3, where I can spend up to 99xp and get Disciplined: You gain +1 Handsize and +3 Willpower.

Or wait till I am level 4, where I can spend up to 149xp and get with 125xp Cryokinetist: Your Freeze effect increases by +1. You gain +2 Water Resistance.

Hmm, what about 175xp for Ink Rune (Clarity): You gain +2 Intellect. Your Discard effect is reduced by -1. Your Synergy Focus effect is increased by +1.

You understand of course that not all class & race combinations have access to these example perks, and some not necessarily at the level you have the xp to purchase them. 

Perhaps a 50xp cost perk is not very common for x class but its still something they can learn to do so it unlocks much later than in class y who specializes in the perk’s field more. But better later than never, and by that time you’ll have more XP to spare.

So my own decision tree goes like this: If I can unlock skills & equipment I feel are necessary for my build in the next level, I go for the level up. If I can unlock a useful perk I need for my build or something that will increase my chances of survival or don’t have any more skills or equipment to unlock any time soon, I’ll go for the perk. 

Generally I choose what will increase my chances of survival at the present, I play with permadeath on always, so dying is game over. I’ll take a longer moment to plan for the future possibilities of my build when I feel that the character is doing well, and death at this stage appears to have low possibilities.

Surviving Against the Odds

One of the game core concepts is Survival. 

You may think that when presented with a certain encounter that optimal choice is to kill everyone, or failing that as many of them as you can. But in most cases this will turn out bad for your long term survival. 

Manage your AP well

For instance for most Class & Race combinations managing your AP is more crucial than managing your HP. 

But Raven, if I run out of HP I’ll die! Yes, in most cases the same is true if you run out of AP. Remember your AP refill at the rate of half your Initial AP. (Rounding in ER is always rounded down)

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should

Perhaps you have both the cards and AP to clean the area. But just because you can doesn’t mean it’s always a good choice. If the AP you’ll end up spending, are more than the damage you’ll get it’s not worth it. 

If you have the choice between preserving AP at the cost of receiving 1 or 2 damage and you have go for it. (That is if that damage isn’t lethal or leave you truly exposed.)

Know thy Enemy

If you face many tough opponents you can’t kill without spending all your cards and AP, or even worse just can’t kill more than half even after spending all your resources, it’s preferably to kill one and force the remaining 3 to heal, rather than kill 2 and spend all your AP. 

This way you have one less opponent to deal, exhausted their healing capacity for a couple of turns, and saved yourself some serious damage.

How to know that an enemy will heal?

All Enemies with the Healing tactic, will try to Heal if you drop them below 1/3 or Use a defensive tactic if you just dropped them below 1/2 of their initial HP.

Observe and Learn

Learn from your mistakes. Experiment. Observe your enemies. 

Study Subject No 1: Con Artist

For example the Con Artist has ‘Healing, Hex, Concealment & Illusory Copy’ as his tactics. You can click on him to view that. He can do those things, but he won’t pick randomly. He’ll use his common sense and will choose from them based on his state when his turn arrives.

If unharmed will try to do the Illusory Copy (His best offensive Tactic) which can create an 1-level-less clone of him.

Enemies can only use Illusory copy once.

Then switch to attacking you. Dropping his HP at 1/2 (half) will make him go for his best defensive option, which is Concealment: Chance to avoid all damage.

Enemies can get up to 3 Concealment counters. Then he’ll resume attacking you.

Dropping his HP at 1/3 will instead force him to Heal. 

After Healing an Enemy can’t heal again till all the healing counters are gone.

Study Subject No 2: Novice Infiltrator

Has Healing, Poison & Concealment. My guess is that she will Apply Poison (Best offense) & keep attack till harmed (dropped below 50% HP).

Ok, she done exactly that. Next I drop her down to 1 HP. 

Do you think she will Heal or use Concealment? 1 HP means she is below 1/3 so no time to be elusive but instead cautious. (So yes, she will Heal.)

The 1st turn they choose to Heal enemies, won’t attack you! So its a good way to remove them from the equation. But make sure they actually have the healing tactic and that you can drop them below 1/3.

Study Subject No 3: Bounty Hunter

Healing & Defensive Stance. Easy right? Attack if unharmed (no offensive tactic), Defensive Stance at 50%, Healing at 33% of original HP. Next.

Study Subject No 4: Order Hydromancer

Healing & Dispel. Anyone? Dispel if unharmed (has offensive tactic), Healing at 33% of original HP. Next.

Study Subject No 5: Centaur Animist

Healing, Gallop, Animal Ally. Both Gallop & Animal Ally are defensive tactics. So unless dropped to 50% this one will attack us.

At 1/3 HP, she will always favor Animal Ally over Gallop. Then won’t be able to summon more allies as long as she has the summon counters.

If still at the same HP, At her next turn she will then Gallop +2 Max damage & 10% chance to avoid all damage. And while there keep attacking, alternating with Animal Ally summons if possible. If dropped further (less than 1/3) will instead Heal.

Use an inevitable doom to grow

Which simply means don’t restart. Keep observing your enemies till your char’s last breath. They’ll have the same behavior next time around. And you’ll show them.

So recapping the Enemy AI can be broken down into Offense, Defense, Survival. Study them to learn their mondus operandi and you can’t go wrong. It’s state based decision making, not RNG and we (as Human observers) have the ability to (precisely) know what will happen.

Mastering Echo, Synergy & Multicast

(Or how they play awesome together)

Perhaps the most versatile and powerful effects in the game, and probably quite complex to grasp for anyone unfamiliar with how exactly they work.

Let’s amend that, by start by explaining a bit more how each effect works.

Echo

An action with Echo x lasts for x Turns. So if we are the target we reap the action benefits for x turns without paying the cost again or incurring fatigue. Cool. If the enemy is the target they also reap their damage or negative stati, as long as they are alive.

But that’s not what happens. What happens is that at every EoT, after let’s say pass priority to the enemy, before they act, you get to re-cast for free the Echo Action to the original target, till the target dies, or Echo counter becomes 0.

I bet you liked the first explanation more. But what does it really mean that you get to recast the action for free. Hmm. Let’s keep that question in the back of our head.

Multicast

An action with Multicast x or all, affects the first x or all enemies. Hmm. RNG? Nope. You can drag and drop to reposition and reorder the enemies precisely as you want. So always do that.

But again that’s not what happens. When you cast a Multicast Action, it literally splits into x copies and they are cast in succession in each target.

Again, I bet you liked the first explanation more. But you’ll be happy it’s not the case when will start analyzing what this really means in practice.

Synergy

An action with Synergy [Effect]: x, injects the effect into your next action. X is the base value. As a modder would declare it while creating a new card. It’s affected by the next card’s upgrades, affinity, empower etc. It inherits the next cards level, damage type etc.

Why this is cool? 

Case Study 1: Bypassing Resistances

Let’s say your enemy is total immune to Dark. But weak to Fire. And damn! You have several Dark cards but one of them gives Damage Synergy and a Fire Card that doesn’t deal any damage at all. Solution: Give Damage Synergy to the Fire Card. And use it on your Enemy instead of your Self. Watch the go down in a Blaze of Fire. (Well not literally, you should know by know I despise the time wasting vfx, even if they do look cool let’s say the first two times)

Case Study 2: Overcoming Level Resistance

No matter how hard you try your Tier 1 Action can’t stun that level 3 enemy. Even though they aren’t immune. Why? Your caster + action level is too low.
You do have a Tier 3 card, but it can’t stun. Damn! Well if you can synergize Stun, from even a Tier 0 card, into your Tier 3 card. Then Stun will resolve as an at least Level 3 effect. Meaning you actually now have a chance to stun that pesky enemy.

Case Study 3: Taking advantage of Higher Affinities or Amplify bonuses

Synergizing Damage into cards you have higher affinty or amplify bonuses, will increase your damage output.

Let’s say we have +3 Damage Synergy card.

I also have a card that Deals 2-4 Dark Damage. And another one that doesn’t deal any damage but I have Astral affinity +8 and it happens to be a Tier 5/Level 3 Astral card. Hmm. Guess which one I should use on my enemy.

Precisely. Synergy will add 3 Base damage to my Astral Card. Which my Astral Affinity will boost by +8, and its 3 levels by +3. Let’s count:

The Dark card will end up dealing 4 +3 = 7 (3 to 7) Dark Damage
The Astral card the one without any damage before? will end up dealing 3 + 8 + 3 = 14 (7 to 14) Astral Damage. Cool huh.

Case Study 4: Having fun with Multicast 

So what do you think will happen if you add an Amplify +2, Damage +2 Synergy in a Level 0 Fire Card with Multicast 3 that all it does is giving Vulnerable 2? (I have +2 Fire Affinity)

Those who said that all the enemies will get Vulnerable 2, and take 3-6 fire damage are wrong. 

Remember I am casting 3 copies in succession.

1st Copy / 1st Enemy: Vulnerable 2, I get +2 Fire Damage, Card Deals 3-6 (+ 2 vulnerable) fire damage
2nd Copy/ 2nd Enemy: Vulnerable 2, I get +2 Fire Damage (+4 Total), Card Deals 4 -8 (+2 vulnerable) fire damage. Fire Damage bonus drops by 25% (-1 rounded down)
3rd Copy/ 3rd Enemy: Vulnerable 2, I get +2 Fire Damage (+5 Total, lost 1 before), Card Deals 4 – 9 (+2 vulnerable) fire damage. Fire Damage bonus drops by 25%.

Can you imagine? We just delivered a devastating AoE effect with nothing but toy cards.

What about a Mass Stun? By adding Synergy Stun to the exact same card?

Or fill the battlefield with fireworks by Synergizing an AoE effect in each of our copies.

Case Study 5: Having fun with Echo 

When you synergize an effect to an Echo card, it will resolves at the time of the casting. Then will keep echoing as the original copy. But if an Action has both Echo & Synergy, Synergy passes to the next card, which can be another Echo Card, or your Armor or your Accessory.

Trigger Order is Echo=>Armor=>Accessory.

For example I am back in the corner. Without much AP to use Actions. I have an Echo in effect that gives +7 Healing synergy for 3 more Turns. But several expensive cards and an Echo card that deals 1-2 Slashing Damage to an enemy for 3 Turns. What you think is my play?

I use the 1-2 Damage dealing card on *Me*. True for the next 3 turns, I get 1-2 Slashing Damage, but the previous Action in the stack will keep passing on that precious +7 Healing effect. 

So in a sense I got myself a free 3-turn regeneration system, that will keep me alive while replenishing my AP and hoping for better draws.

That’s just 5 possibilities of what you can do by combining these effects together. Looking forward to hear of your crazy & wacky combos.