Battle Animations are a game mechanic in the Stick War series. Usually a short sprite played when a unit's health is gone, but these animations vary greatly depending on what the unit was killed by and what game they were in.
For the sake of the article, Battle Animations encompass both death animations and idle animations.
History[]
Stick War[]
In the original Stick War, there was much less variety in Battle Animations than later installments to the series.
- Most units use the same standard death animation of falling to its knees, before collapsing forward. Some units have slight variations to the animation:
- In addition to the standard death animation, Swordwrath have several additional possible death animations:
- Similar to the standard, but the Swordwrath's arm is severed at the shoulder and it uses its remaining arm to grasp the wound, and the dead Swordwrath remains on its knees instead of collapsing. This occurs at random.
- If killed by a headshot from an arrow or thrown spear, the Swordwrath is thrown backward, clutching the arrow in its head. (If the headshot was from a spear, an arrow is still shown in the corpse.)
Stick War II: Order Empire[]
In addition to a standard death animation that differs for each unit, special kill animations can play out when one specific type of unit is killed by another specific unit. This is only triggered if the two units are attacking each other and one lands the last hit on the other; if the slain unit is not actively attacking, the animation does not occur. The victorious unit is invulnerable during the animation.
- Spearton vs. Swordwrath: The Spearton impales the Swordwrath through the neck and hoists the corpse up, before dropping it.
- Spearton vs. Juggerknight: The two clash once, then the Spearton backs up and performs a running leap at the Juggerknight to impale it on his spear.
- Spearton vs. Crawler: The Spearton impales the Crawler mid-leap and pushes the carcass off his spear with his foot.
- Juggerknight vs. Swordwrath: One of the following animations plays at random.
- The Juggerknight catches the Swordwrath's sword mid-swing, then impales the Swordwrath with it. The Swordwrath squirms briefly on the sword before expiring.
- The Juggerknight throws his axe into the Swordwrath's head, then grabs the axe, swings it upward with the blade still embedded in the Swordwrath's head, then slams it down on the ground to split the Swordwrath's head open and free the axe.
Other non-standard kill animations can be triggered by specific scenarios.
- If a Swordwrath is killed by an arrow, the Swordwrath will be thrown back with an arrow in its head.
- If a Swordwrath or Crawler is killed by Burn or an explosion, a normal death animation plays, but the corpse will be on fire.
- Any ground unit killed by Petrify is turned to stone with the exception of Bombers Giants and Enslaved Giants.
Stick War: Legacy[]
Death animations in Stick War: Legacy are similar to animations in the original Stick War, with a few changes:
- The Swordwrath's kneeling death animation no longer has its arm being severed.
- The headshot animation and kneeling death animation previously exclusive to Swordwrath can now play for all units except the Giant and Meric. Additionally, spear headshots will still have the spear stuck in the victim during the animation, instead of turning into an arrow.
- If a unit is killed by a headshot from behind, a new animation is added in which the unit is thrown forward with the projectile in the back of its head.
The Magikill no longer disintegrates upon death and now uses the regular death animations. Merics always disappear in a puff of smoke regardless of how they are killed.
Additionally, Swordwrath and Spearton have various idle animations:
- Both: The unit gets down and does a few push-ups.
- Swordwrath: The Swordwrath raises its sword and inspects it, does a one-armed push-up before jumping up, spinning the sword with their wrist, or the moves its sword arm to relieve tension
- Spearton: The Spearton rolls its shield along the ground, before it rolls back.
When a moving Spearton comes to a halt, it will strike its spear (or kopsis if the spear was previously thrown) against its shield with an audible clang.
Stick War III[]
Most animations are the same as Stick War: Legacy. However, the Spearton's shield-rolling idle animation is removed, and headshot kill animations now always show an arrow in the unit's head regardless of the killing projectile.
As of Version 2023.2.2127, weapons and other items dropped by killed units are now subject to physics and can be flung around by impacts, spells, and explosions. Magikill, Speartons, and Juggerknights can now lose their headwear on death, and killed Deads and Juggerknights may be dismembered or decapitated, with the fallen items and body parts being subject to physics effects.