In addition to general army commands, the Stick War games allow the player to directly control individual units, sometimes granting statistical bonuses to those units.
Stick War II: Order Empire and Stick Empires use a different type of unit control, and as such are generally not included in the context of the game mechanic.
Description[]
In Stick War, Stick War: Legacy, and Stick War: Saga, the player can control an individual unit by clicking/tapping on it. A unit being controlled by a player will be marked with a gold star over its head. The player can then have the unit move, attack, and use abilities at will, using either keys on the keyboard (in Stick War) or on-screen buttons and joystick (in the mobile games).
While controlling a unit, the screen will be locked on that unit, keeping it in the center of the screen. User control lasts until the player releases control of the unit (by clicking it again in Stick War or with a button in Legacy and Saga) or the controlled unit dies.
Stick War[]
User-controlled units deal double damage. AI-controlled units will ignore user-controlled units when maintaining formation.
When controlling an Archidon, the unit will be placed near the edge of the screen to give the player increased field of vision for aiming arrows.
Stick War: Legacy[]
In addition to the increased damage, user-controlled units will now restore health over time at a rate of 10 health every 5 seconds. The cooldown between heal instances is tied to the player and not each individual unit. User-controlled Merics' healing is also doubled. Certain Crown of Inamorta contestants can also control units. Unlike players, they have the ability to user control summoned Deads.
When controlling an Archidon, a button appears on-screen that can be held down to track a fired arrow.
Skins grant additional bonuses to user-controlled units:
- Classic: Increased movement and attack speed (for Swordwrath only).
- Leaf: Increased movement speed.
- Ice: Attacks immobilize enemies instead of slowing them.
- Savage: Increased movement and attack speed.
- Lava: Attacks burn enemies.
- Undead: Enemies killed by the unit revive as Deads.
- Voltaic: Attacks release lightning bolts on hit.
- Vamp: Melee attacks deal splash damage around the target.
Stick War: Saga[]
When tapping a unit, a command card will appear over that unit, with a button that allows the player to control that unit. The projectile tracker given to Archidons in Legacy is available to all ranged units.
User-controlled units no longer receive stat bonuses or health regeneration. However, user-controlled units do have a lower targeting priority for the AI, meaning that AI-controlled enemy units (except Castle Units) have a chance to ignore a user-controlled unit and instead attack an AI-controlled unit in their line of sight.
In the campaign, all Generals are user-controlled by the AI and have marginally different behavior from other AI units.
The following cards interact with user-controlled units:
- Control Whip: User-controlled units gain increased movement speed and 20%/40%/60% more damage on headshots and attacks from behind.
Ability Use[]
The following unit abilities will not be used by AI-controlled units, and thus can only be used via user control:
Stick War: Legacy[]
- Spearton - Throw Spear (can also be ordered by using Spearton Madness)
- Giant - Earthquake
Stick War: Saga[]
- Miner/Enslaved Miner - Build Wall
- Shadowrath - Parry
- Enslaved Giant - Catapult Mode
- Atreyos - Summon Clicky
- Kytchu - Dodge, Targeted Volley, Multishot
- Xiphos - Rage, Block
- Spearos - Deep Freeze, Ice Path
- Thera - Flight of the Foretold
- Wrathnar - Jump Slam
Notes[]
- In Stick War: Saga, along with the gold star, user-controlled units will also get username of player who controls them above their head.
- Summoned units (such as any type of Deads in Stick War: Legacy, units created with Tower Spawn, units summoned by Generals' abilities, etc) can't be user-controlled