Who would have thought a game combining typical mobile RPG mechanics and ultra-simplified Blackjack would be.. fun? But here we are with Battlejack, the latest Nexon-published mobile RPG and it actually doesn’t suck. It’s crazy!
If you went into or are going into Battlejack expecting an actual Blackjack-like experience, you’re going to be disappointed. But if you go into it with the mindset that it’s a Puzzle & Dragons-like with a card-drawing combat system, you’ll be a little more prepared for what’s in store with Battlejack.
In this guide we’re going to be going over the ins and outs of the game’s combat system and how you can make it work for you instead of against. Winning battles is easy enough until you get to the dusky land of the Haunted Forest, and from then on out, the game tests your heroes and combat instincts — and failing one of those tests in combat means lost energy for you.
After playing a few days (and really enjoying) Battlejack, I’ve compiled some advice that I wish I knew or thought of before wasting a ton of energy on losing missions. And we’re going to get into that right now.
Toss Blackjack Rules Out the Window
This is the first thing you need to always keep in mind — while you may be rewarded for getting a hand equaling 21, the rules of the game are not that of Blackjack itself. There is no hand-splitting, there is no doubling down. You either get a number below 21, 21 itself, or nothing at all.
With that in mind, let’s move onto a set of tips related to separating Battlejack from its derivative game.
Do Not Let Getting a Battlejack Tempt You; It’s Better to Get a Small Hit in Than None at All
This is something I ended up learning the hard way and you may be, too.
It’s all well and good to get the coveted 21 — but if you’re looking to do some damage and keep your skill cooldowns moving, you need to just accept getting lower numbers.
It’s not Battlejack, but it’ll do.
One thing new players somehow overlook is that your skill cooldowns do not tick down if you go over 21. That’s right: If you bust (go over 21) or do not activate any heroes, that turn does not count toward your skill cooldowns.
It’s a good idea to set a threshold — a number you will generally try not to draw above, in case you go above 21. It’s imperative to keep your cooldowns moving as active skills are a huge part of the game. My personal threshold is 14, but sometimes I go over. We’ll talk about when to suck up smaller hits and when to risk a bust shortly.
When to Just Accept a Weak Attack and When to Risk Busting
So you’ve set your threshold — now when do you break your own rules? Getting your skills ready to use should be your second priority, with your first being staying alive and the third being to kill your enemies.
When to risk busting
Avoiding drawing too high all the time just isn’t all that fun, is it? Part of the fun is the risk, and there are certain situations where it’s recommended to just push past your threshold and go for broke:
- If the only way to beat the enemy or boss you’re fighting is to do a large amount of damage very quickly
- If the cards you’ve drawn have not activated any heroes (are not the color of any of the heroes on your team) — you may as well try to get a 21 or an active color, since you’ll lose that turn if none of your heroes can act
When to absolutely avoid busting
This should be pretty obvious:
- When you are trying to get your skills ready to use, especially a heal
You never want to bust, but if you are in need of healing you must try to avoid busting. You usually need that HP more than you need to deal a large amount of damage.
As a side note, if you’re hitting an armored enemy who is only taking one damage at a time, just focus on smaller hits to play it safe unless you’re really in a bind and need to shoot for 21.
Make Use of Hero and Enemy Traits
It’s pretty easy to overlook this aspect, but if you’re trying to survive in Battlejack you need to know about hero traits.
Traits are those icons you see on a hero’s information screen at the bottom left of their portraits. Some do additional damage to certain enemy types, such as Spell Caster to Magical enemies; while others have unique effects such as Undead being immune to Silence and having no Recovery.
I go over this in more detail in my Battlejack beginner’s team building guide, though you can certainly see hero traits in-game.
To sum this up, know your hero traits and tap on enemies to see theirs to attack efficiently.
The Importance of Element
There are some mobile RPGs where elemental strengths and weaknesses are implemented but aren’t real battle-changers until late game. That is not the case here.
Elemental strengths and weaknesses play such a huge part in how well you will do in a particular dungeon that you simply have no choice but to alter your teams to handle many element-specific dungeons.
Pay Attention to Enemy Traits and Colors Before Entering a Dungeon
This should be common sense, but it’s not and you should definitely do it.
Traits are less important than element, but if you know certain enemies in a dungeon happen to be strong to most of your party (such as your whole team being Flying while the enemies are almost all Ranged), you need to do some character swapping before pushing forward.
3 Cards of One Color Grants an Area Attack
Just one thing to be aware of, and pretty handy!
Everyone on Your Team is Hit When an Enemy Attacks
This is one thing worth noting, in case you haven’t realized it yet.
The HP bar you see is a combination of the health of all your heroes. No one individual can die, but they all individually get hit when an enemy attacks.
This should really drive home how important elemental effects are, as well as your characters’ Defense stats. To add to this, individual characters can also be missed by an enemy attack.
Make Good Friends
At all stages of the game, the partner you choose to take with your party is important. It provides much-needed stats, a leader skill, and hopefully a good active skill.
Early on, you should try to choose friends who both have a strong active skill and are at 4+ stars at a high level. At early levels, those 4+ star high level heroes are immensely powerful and can completely turn the tides in your favor.
In Arena: A Tip on Enemy Focusing
This is my last combat-oriented tip, and it may just be one you need.
When going against other players in the Arena, each enemy is given a reserve shield that must be broken before you can actually deal damage to them. They cannot heal the shield.
One thing you definitely one to keep in mind when doing Arena is that you cannot deal damage past the shield amount on the same turn you demolish the shield. So if you break an enemy’s shield on one turn with one hero, another hero can’t just knock it dead on the same turn.
In addition, it’s often best to focus the enemies who are either the lowest level of the bunch or have the most devastating active skill. Enemies in Arena can use their active skills outside of their turn, making them especially irksome.
That’s it for this chunk of advice, though I’m sure to come up with more. Thanks for reading, and if you enjoyed the tips be sure to check out my other Battlejack guides.
