How a Relay Rivals battle works: charge, relay, win
A Relay Rivals battle lasts up to three minutes. You spend charge to send robot cards from your pads. Your robots walk down three lanes and fight on their own. You win by breaking the rival's turret and then its core. If time runs out, the base with more core health wins.
The arena
Every arena is long and flat, with your base at one end and the rival's at the other. Your team is blue, and your core is round: the top of the screen says "YOU · CIRCLE". The rival is orange, with a diamond-shaped core: "BOT · DIAMOND".
- Three lanes run from base to base.
- The Relay sits in the middle of the middle lane.
- Each base has a Turret in front and a Core behind it.
There are three arenas: The Workshop, Copper Foundry and Sky Garden. They have the same parts but different spacing. Read about them on the campaign page.
Charge: what your cards cost
Charge is what you spend to play a card. You can see it next to your cards as a number and a bar.
| Charge fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Charge at the start of a battle | 5 |
| Charge you gain | 1 every second |
| Most charge you can hold | 10 |
| Card costs | 2 to 5 |
The rival gets charge in exactly the same way. When your charge is at 10, new charge is lost, so it is a good moment to send something.
Card recharge time
After you play a card, that card needs a short rest before you can play it again. The card shows Recharging and a fill bar until it is Ready. The rest is between 1.7 seconds (Boltling pair) and 5 seconds (Pulse Net and Pop Rocket). All the times are on card stats.
Pads and lanes
You send each card from a pad. Pads A, B and C are at your base, one per lane. Robots sent from a pad walk down its lane toward the middle. Once a robot passes the middle, it heads for the rival's base.
But robots do not just walk. A robot that sees a rival robot close by goes to fight it, even if that robot is in the next lane. When no rival robot is near, it walks on.
Some cards are not walkers. Anchor Pad and Decoy Beacon stay on the pad where you put them. Pulse Net and Pop Rocket work around that pad. So the pad you pick decides where these cards help.
The relay and the forward pad
The Relay is the round pad in the middle. To capture it:
- Get a robot into the relay ring.
- Keep it there for 4 seconds. A bar at the top fills up and says "Taking the relay".
- When the bar is full, the top says "Relay is yours".
Now your Forward pad (⇥) opens near the relay. Robots sent from there start much closer to the rival's base, and they head straight for it.
Things to know about the relay:
- If robots from both teams stand in the ring, the top says "Relay contested" and nobody captures it.
- If your robots leave the ring before the four seconds are up, the capture starts again from zero.
- The relay stays yours until the rival captures it back. Then your forward pad closes.
- Anchor Pad, Decoy Beacon and Kite Drone cannot capture the relay.
- In the middle lane, walking robots stop in the relay ring and wait until the relay is yours. Then they march on.
- The relay gives no extra charge and no extra power. It only gives you a better starting place.
The turret and the core
Each base has two parts, and both start at 100%.
| Part | Health | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Turret | 1,200 | Shoots the nearest rival robot close to it, about every 0.75 seconds. It can hit flying robots too |
| Core | 1,800 | Must be protected. If it reaches 0%, that team loses |
The core cannot be hurt while its turret still stands. A sign under each base says Core protected while the turret stands and Core exposed once it falls. The health numbers here are hidden in the game, which only shows percentages, but they help you compare: a Drill Walker does 108 damage to a turret with each hit.
How you win, lose or draw
| What happens | Result |
|---|---|
| The rival's core reaches 0% | You win: "Nice plan. You won!" |
| Your core reaches 0% | The rival wins: "The bot won this round" |
| The clock reaches 0:00 | The core with more health wins |
| The cores are equal at 0:00 | The turret with more health wins |
| Cores and turrets are both equal | It is a draw: "An even match!" |
The clock at the top counts down from 3:00.
Helpful signs in battle
| Sign | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ↑ Flying | A Kite Drone. Most ground robots cannot hit it |
| ◷ Slowed | This robot is in a rival Pulse Net and moves at half speed |
| + Repairing | A Repair Beetle is fixing this robot |
| ⚠ Incoming rocket! | A rival Pop Rocket will land inside the orange ring |
| Rings | Mark attack targets and show the range of the robot you picked from this pad |
When you pick a card, the line under the cards tells you what it does and whether it "Hits flying units", hits "Ground targets only" or is "Support: no attack". These signs stay on even with calm moving effects.
Too many robots?
The arena holds up to 80 robots at once, from both teams together. If it is full, the game says "Arena is full" and your card is not sent. Wait until some robots are gone.
