Warriors of the North Bonus: Ice and Fire's Experience System

This post is something you can skip if you're not terribly interested in some technical minutia of Ice and Fire's unit experience system, especially since this is a fairly incomplete understanding.

Some ground rule points: a given unit cannot gain more than...

30 to Attack and Defense

20% to Damage

40% to Health

15 to base crit chance

15 to their overall resistance

1 to Speed and Initiative

3 Runes in total

+50% to summoning

+50% to healing

regardless of what its bonuses might theoretically lead to. Additionally, going off a combination of the internal file designations and personal experience, stats other than Attack and Defense cannot be acquired until certain minimum levels, specifically...

Damage is unlocked at Level 6

Health is unlocked at Level 5

Crit chance is unlocked at Level 3

Resistance is unlocked at Level 4

Initiative is unlocked at Level 6

Speed is unlocked at Level 7

Runes are unlocked at Level 4

Summoning increase is unlocked at Level 3

Healing increase is unlocked at Level 5

So basically a unit's first level will always be just some amount of Attack and Defense, and the most consistent/dramatic boosts take a while to get to. Fairly sensible.

Also note that when leveling provides increases to resistance, this is always to every damage type except Astral by an equal amount, regardless of the unit's own resistances.

Secondly, the game's experience mechanics are based around classes. Every unit belong to at least one class, and each class has its own set of bonuses, with units that belong to multiple classes pulling from all the classes they belong to to determine their bonuses.

Those classes are the following list, with the names based on the names in the .txt file.

... though note I may have made errors in attributing which units are in which class. Some of the internal designations are difficult to keep straight, such as how Mystics and Contemplators are internally 'mystik' and 'mystique'. I think I've got it all right, but if your experience doesn't line up somewhere, it may be I messed up a unit's placement.

Base Class

Includes: Everything.

Parameter 2: +1 Attack

Parameter  3: +1 Defense

Parameter 4: +1% Crit chance

Parameter 5: +1 Attack

Parameter 6: +1 Defense

Parameter 7: +1% Crit chance

Parameter 8: +1 Attack

Parameter 9: +1 Defense

Parameter 10: +1% Crit chance

Note that since Attack and Defense directly cancel each other out, the impact of the Base class is primarily things like 'units you're first getting up to speed in the late game are going to be behind'. Two units of similar level with no other experience classes being involved will frequently end up with their Attack/Defense levels canceling out, or very close.

Light Shooter

Includes: Thorn Hunter, Ice Thorn, Gobot, Worm, Skeleton Archer, Goblin, Bowman, Priest, Slinger

Parameter  2: +1 Attack

Parameter 3: +1 Initiative

Parameter 4: +1% Crit chance

Parameter 5: +1 Rune

Parameter 6: +1 Attack

Parameter 7: +1% Crit chance

Parameter 8: +1 Defense

The big one here is that Initiative bonus, though the Rune is nice if a bit random in what you'll actually get.

Also note that there's seven parameters, to the 9 the Base class has. Only the Base class has 9 parameters, with the majority of other classes having 7. I'd originally thought this correlated to how the player's maximum level on units is 10 (9 level-ups, since you start at level 1) while the AI's max is level 8 (7 level-ups), but at this point I'm reasonably confident that's basically a coincidence, and am not sure of the actual implication of it.

Shooter

Includes: Beholder, Ice Spider, Elf, Faun, Repair Droid, Goblin Shaman, Catapult, Inquisitor, Gorguana, Elder.

Parameter 2: +1 Attack

Parameter 3: +1 Initiative

Parameter 4: +1% Crit chance

Parameter 5: +1 Attack

Parameter 6: +1% Resistance

Parameter 7: +1% Crit chance

Parameter 8: +1 Rune

As with Light Shooter, Initiative and the Rune are the main things that are a big deal. That said, Ice Spiders and Repair Droids both have a base resistance large enough for the resistance bonus to be legitimately kind of noticeable in real play, especially if you're making sure to get Guardian.

Heavy Shooter

Includes: Hunter, Avenger, Ent, Scout, Alchemist, Cannoneer, Evil Beholder, Gorgon, Royal Thorn, Brontor, Axe Thrower.

Parameter 2: +1% Crit chance

Parameter 3: +1 Attack

Parameter  4: +1% Crit chance

Parameter 5: +1 Attack

Parameter 6: +1 Rune

Parameter 7: +1 Initiative

Parameter  8: +5% Health

Heavy Shooter is notable primarily for the Health gains, when compared to the other Shooter classes. Most of the list appreciates it just in terms of being units that perform okay in melee. Even Hunters have this true to an extent. (Though not Avengers)

Light Trooper

Includes: Skeleton, Undead Spider, Pirate Ghost, Zombie, Ghost, Pirate, Spider, Venomous Spider, Fire Spider, Snake, Swamp Snake, Devilfish, Lake Dragonfly, Fire Dragonfly, Thorn Warrior, Hyena, Wolf, Robber, Marauder, Peasant, Swordsman, Lake Fairy, Forest Fairy, Sun Fairy, Snowflake Fairy, Ice Nymph, Gobot, Miner, Imp, Skald.

Parameter 2: +1 Attack

Parameter  3: +1% Resistance

Parameter 4: +1 Defense

Parameter 5: +1 Attack

Parameter 6: +1 Rune

Parameter 7: +1 Speed

Parameter 8: +1 Defense

Notice that while this is primarily fairly basic/generic melee units, it actually includes Gobots, which showed up under Light Shooter as well. 

Trooper

Includes: White Werewolf, Werewolf, Unicorn, Black Unicorn, Orc, Furious Goblin, Bear, Ancient Bear, Sea Dog, Royal Snake, Griffin, Decaying Zombie, Vampire, Cursed Ghost, (regular) Gorgul, Vengeful Gorgul, Scoffer Imp, Cerberus, Guardsman, Dwarf, Viking, Berserker.

Parameter 2: +1% Resistance

Parameter 3: +1 Attack

Parameter 4: +1% Crit chance

Parameter 5: +1 Defense

Parameter 6: +1 Speed

Parameter 7: +1 Defense

Parameter 8: +1 Rune

Notice that, along with Light Trooper, a lot of melee units in Ice and Fire can eventually pick up additional Speed. This has a surprisingly pronounced impact on the mid-late game, and makes enemy melee notably more threatening. It also gives you more incentive to consider using melee yourself, at least once you're done with Grand Strategian.

Elite Trooper

Includes: Jarl, Warrior Maiden, Polar Bear, Royal Griffin, Witch Hunter, Assassin, Knight, Paladin, Horseman, Black Knight, Ancient Vampire, Ram-Thor, Winged Shadow, Highterant, Brontor, Advisor, Demon, Executioner, Demoness, Orc Veteran, Ent, Guard Droid, Foreman, Frost Unicorn.

Parameter 2: +5% Health

Parameter 3: +1 Speed

Parameter 4: +1 Attack

Parameter 5: +1% Resistance

Parameter 6: +1 Defense

Parameter 7: +1 Rune

Parameter 8: +1 Initiative

Notice that Brontors were also under Heavy Shooter. Sadly, since Initiative can't stack above a bonus of 1, this doesn't do much to make up for their lacking Initiative... though at least they can actually walk places if you level them up enough without having to rely on Ram or skip out on attacking in a given turn.

Healer

Includes: Priest, Inquisitor, Paladin, Engineer, Repair Droid, Faun, Orc Tracker, Sorcerer, Soothsayer.

Parameter 1: +10% healing power

Parameter 2: +10% healing power

Parameter 3: +10% healing power

Parameter 4: +10% healing power

Parameter 5: +1 Defense

Parameter 6: +1% Resistance

Parameter 7: +1 Rune

Naturally exclusive to units that heal, causing them to eventually provide up to 40% more healing than they usually provide. This is particularly impressive for the portion that can actually resurrect units, of course, which happens to be everything in the list except poor, poor Priests.

Low Supporter

Includes: Thorn Warrior, Thorn Hunter, Ice Thorn, Dryads, Ice Nymphs.

Parameter 2: +10% summoning amount

Parameter 3: +10% summoning amount

Parameter 4: +10% summoning amount

Parameter 5: +10% summoning amount

Parameter 6: +1 Defense

Parameter 7: +1% Resistance

Parameter 8: +1 Rune

A class just for Thorn summoners, which does not include Royal Thorns... which is because they're in the next class instead.

I'm not entirely sure why there's a Thorn-summoning experience class. It's a little weird.

Supporter

Includes: Royal Thorn, Royal Griffin, Ice Dragon, Gorgon, Demonologist, Demon, Evil Eye, Necromancer, Orc Tracker, Shaman, Engineer, Chosha, Druid.

Parameter 2: +10% summoning amount

Parameter 3: +10% summoning amount

Parameter 4: +10% summoning amount

Parameter 5: +5% Health

Parameter 6: +1 Defense

Parameter 7: +1% Resistance

Parameter 8: +1 Rune

Less focus on summoning than Low Supporter, but in exchange you can get a boost to Health. The Demon particularly appreciates this, and the Chosha is the only unit that would probably rather be in Low Supporter.

In the case of Shaman, the summoning boost increases the amount of Health their Totems of Life and Death spawn with, which is actually kind of whatever.

Battle Mage

Includes: Pyromage, Archmage, Rune Mage, Witch Hunter, Shaman, Blood Shaman, Goblin Shaman, Elder, Gorguana Ghost, Gorguana, Mystic, Contemplator, Demonologist, Evil Eye, Necromancer.

Parameter 2: +1% Resistance

Parameter 3: +5% Health

Parameter 4: +1% Resistance

Parameter 5: +5% Health

Parameter 6: +1 Attack

Parameter 7: +1 Initiative

Parameter 8: +1 Rune

Interestingly, this includes the Witch Hunter, where the list is otherwise made of ranged magical units.

High Level

Includes: Cyclops, Troll, Jotun, Red Dragon, Green Dragon, Black Dragon, Ice Dragon, Bone Dragon, Necrox, Tirex, Archdemon, Ogre, Orc Chieftain, Rune Mage, Giant, Ancient Ent, Snow Falcon.

Parameter 2: +1 Attack

Parameter 3: +1 Speed

Parameter 4: +10% Damage

Parameter 5: +1 Rune

Parameter 6: +10% Damage

Parameter 7: +1 Defense

Parameter 8: +1 Initiative

Basically Level 5 units collectively have their own class, instead of being lumped into one of the melee classes or one of the ranged classes. Naturally, it's a really good class, with pretty much every major non-specialized bonus in the list. 

Particularly worth pointing out is that Giants and Ancient Ents can thus reach 2 Speed, giving them much higher potential utility than in prior games.

Vikings

Includes: All Viking units.

Parameter 2: +1 Attack

Parameter 3: +1 Initiative

Parameter 4: +1 Rune

Parameter 5: +1% Crit chance

Yes, Vikings have a class all to themselves just to make them better. Though for several Vikings the Initiative bonus is redundant with their other class.

Overall, it slants them toward aggression and Runes, which is in line with their faction design overall.

Level 4 Damage Bonus

Includes: Alchemist, Cannoneer, Engineer, Advisor, Elder, Brontor, Chosha, Ram-Thor, Winged Shade, Necromancer, Evil Eye, Gorgon, Contemplator, Royal Thorn, Royal Griffin, Demonologist, Demoness, Pyromage, Knight, Paladin, Jarl, Mystic, Soothsayer, Shaman, Blood Shaman, Ent.

Parameter 2: +10% Damage

Paramter 3: +10% Damage

Level 4 Damage Bonus is there to make Level 4 units get a Damage bonus. In conjunction with High Level giving Level 5 units bonuses to Damage, almost all units above Level 3 have the advantage over lower-Level units of gaining actual Damage boosts, encouraging using higher-Level units in the long haul, given how important base Damage is to a unit's utility.

Do note however that Damage bonuses from leveling are... applied erratically. Some units apply the bonus to their attacking Talents. Some units do not. There's no pattern that I can identify, and it can be fairly counter-intuitive in its behavior, with Talents that are essentially a variation on a normal attack failing to benefit while weirder stuff like the Tirex's Primal Fear Talent does benefit from Damage increases from leveling.

At least the Talents update their displayed damage appropriately, so you can readily tell.

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I'm not entirely sure how the process of stat selecting from leveling is handled in its details. I do know that it's random... as part of worldgen.

That is, if you start a run, save before doing any fighting, and then raise your Berserkers to Level 10, you'll end up with some specific stat spread. If you then load that save from the beginning of the game and do things in a different order and all, but still eventually raise your Berserkers to Level 10, they'll still end up with the same stat spread. But if you start a new run, and raise your Berserkers to Level 10 in that run, they'll (probably) end up with a slightly different final stat spread.

Particularly odd and counter-intuitive is that the game randomizes a unit's level-up boosts twice: once for you, and once for the AI. That is, every enemy Zombie will have the same level-ups as every other enemy Zombie, but your own Zombies will have a different chain of level-up benefits. So looking at a unit in AI hands in the late game will give you an idea of what that unit can have at high levels, but it's not going to be informative of exactly what your own units will have at Level 8.

Notably, the game doesn't seem to enforce minimum guarantees of any kind. I've had cases where I raised a unit to Level 10 that included Speed as a potential gain by class, and that in AI hands did get Speed, but for me capped out its level without ever gaining a point of Speed.

From experience, I think what the game does is randomly pick a boost three times per level-up out of all the possibilities a unit has access to, with the enforced minimum levels seeming to force the game to re-roll if a boost can't be selected that early. This is probably why the Base class duplicates three possibilities three times apiece: to bias level-ups toward its effects.

That said, I have seen units gain 4 separate boosts from a single level-up, so there's got to be more to it than that.

Regardless, I do actually appreciate that level-ups are also randomized at worldgen in specific. It means savescumming unit level-ups isn't a thing, and it's also another way for two different runs to end up very different experiences; one run may find a given unit fantastic due to its level-up picks, and a different run end up not using it so much because it didn't get Initiative or Speed or whatever in that particular run.

I just wish the game actually communicated this fact somewhere.

Anyway, one of the main takeaways of level-up bonuses is that in the late game basically anything that isn't a dedicated archer -and even some of those- has the potential to pick up a point of Speed, which has a fairly pronounced impact on stuff like how effective eg Freeze's 1 Speed reduction is on melee units. This further contributes to the Warriors of the North fast-paced gameplay, since it's a lot harder to stall out enemies, and your own melee can often get to the fighting sooner, in the late game.

Some other points of note:

-Experience requirements scale fairly rapidly: the experience requirements per level work out as 100/250/500/1000/1800/3000/4800/7000/10000. This means that reaching Level 10 takes more than twice as much experience as reaching Level 8 does! (Level 10 is the maximum, incidentally, which is different from Red Sands where max level is 20)

-5 experience is the 'default/minimum' value broken out for eg Talents that don't target other units, 'killing' an Ice Spike, etc, though a unit may gain less than that from certain actions. (I've seen a Tirex gain 3 experience from using Primal Fear, for example)

-Experience is capped at how much you can gain from attacking enemies by your unit's current level: at the first level units can only gain 15 at max, then 20 for the next three, then 25 for the next three, then 30 for the last two. (Discounting Level 10, of course, where you can't gain experience at all)

-Non-lethal Talents that target specific units actually scale experience in a similar way to lethal ones, except they seem to have more generous calculations: a Gorguana may find itself getting 25 experience for attacking an enemy stack and 27 for slapping Mark of Blood onto it. This even applies when targeting allies, and so units with such Talents can generate 'free' experience quite rapidly.

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And with that we're done covering what I know for a fact about the experience system, coupled with some speculation.

So back on to the Vikings it is.

Comments

  1. Shooter list should also include Gorguana, who is both shooter and battle mage.

    "Pretty much everything in the list appreciates it just in terms of being units that perform okay in melee. Even Hunters, Avengers, and Scouts have this true to an extent." - Hunters, sure. Avengers and Scouts deal only half damage in melee and have no abilities/talents that could help them here.

    Trooper list should have Gorgul and should not have Gorguana. I guess you were confused by their internal names.
    In case you are wondering, Gorguana and Gorgul once (during development) were a single unit (called Gorguana) that was a below-average melee with some magic capabilities. Later they became two units, but their internal names may be confusing.

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    1. Figured I missed some stuff given the internal names throwing me... correcting.

      And yeah whoops I took a while to properly internalize that Avengers and Scouts don't actually have No Melee Penalty. Updating that bit, too.

      Ah, that makes more sense for the shared name. I'd long been confused by that particular case.

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