Every fight in this game runs on one small rule and one small list. The rule is a circle: each troop beats one other troop and loses to a third. The list is six formations, and once you see what they are made of there are really only two of them. Learn both and you will understand why a raid you were in went the way it did.
- Knives beat guns. Guns beat bikes. Bikes beat knives.
- All three kill the mortar car. The car only hurts the gate.
- A formation is three ranks. Its name says who stands in rank 1.
- Wedge puts behind rank 1 whatever rank 1 kills.
- Square puts behind rank 1 whatever kills rank 1.
Who kills who
The circle, and there is no fourth troop in it
Knives cut down guns. Guns cut down bikes. Bikes cut down knives. That is the whole thing, and it never changes. Nothing in the game beats everything: the troop that wins your fight is the one that happens to face what it beats.
The mortar car is not a fourth troop — it is a battering ram
The mortar car does one thing: it damages the gate, which is the building itself. It cannot fight. All three troops kill it, and they kill it easily. That is why a car without troops around it is just a gift to the other side, and why some raids need cars in them and others do not.
Your luxury car is a different vehicle and a different job — it goes with your troops every time. Do not confuse the two: the mortar car goes only when the call asks for it.
The six formations
A formation is three ranks, in an order
Every formation lines your troops up in three ranks, one behind the other. The name tells you who stands in rank 1 — the front. Bruiser means knives in front, Hitman means guns in front, Biker means bikes in front. What changes between square and wedge is only who lines up behind them.
Wedge leads with its prey; square leads with its predator behind it
Both words describe the same circle, read in opposite directions.
- Wedge — rank 2 is whatever rank 1 kills, and rank 3 is whatever rank 2 kills. Knives in front, then guns, then bikes.
- Square — rank 2 is whatever kills rank 1, and rank 3 is whatever kills rank 2. Knives in front, then bikes, then guns.
| Formation | Rank 1 | Rank 2 | Rank 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bruiser Square | knives | bikes | guns |
| Hitman Square | guns | knives | bikes |
| Biker Square | bikes | guns | knives |
| Bruiser Wedge | knives | guns | bikes |
| Hitman Wedge | guns | bikes | knives |
| Biker Wedge | bikes | knives | guns |
Six names, one rule, and you never have to memorise the table.
Where the formation lives
Formations belong to the Underboss, not to the raid: open your own avatar, top left, and choose Formation. More of them unlock as the Investment Center goes up. The Raid Leader's formation is the one the raid fights in — yours matters when you are the one leading.
What this means for you
Send what the call asks for, especially the front rank
The three-digit mix in the call is not a suggestion and it is not decoration — it is the formation, translated into what has to leave your hand. When the mix asks for knives and everyone sends guns instead, the front rank goes into the fight nearly empty and gets erased, and the ranks behind it fight without cover.
The formation is the plan. The mix is your part of it
It has already cost us, and here is the number
Upstate Arsenal VIII, August 28. We fought in Bruiser Wedge — knives, then guns, then bikes. Twenty-three of our twenty-six members sent one token knife and filled up with guns, so the front rank went in with 45,093 knives against their 1,327,718. Every one of ours died. Their side loaded knives, which are exactly what eats guns, and those knives outkilled their guns and bikes put together.
We still won — our guns met their bikes, which is the other side of the circle, and their bikes lost 82% of their number. But we won on volume, not on shape, and the front rank was a gift we did not have to give.
Knives beat guns, guns beat bikes, bikes beat knives — and the call already knows it.