1. HMB
2. Guide - Speed Game Mechanic

Research and information was provided by Discord user ryrynot.

To understand more about how speed works in this game, we start from the player facing concept of taking turns. This occurs whenever the player (you) or the enemy (AI) has a Xen with a full turnbar to take its turn.

This is what we shall refer to as a game turn.

How speed works is by the SPD stats of each unit, that is added to their respective turnbar till any one Xen in the game has a full turnbar. Each time a Xen unit gets their SPD stat added to their turnbar, all other Xens also have their respective SPD stats added.

This process is not observable by the player, and each turn is what we refer to as a speed turn.

A game turn is a speed turn, but a speed turn may not be a game turn.

A Xen unit takes a turn when its turnbar is full, which happens when its turnbar capacity of [B]1000[/] is reached or exceeded.

These are the rules when a Xen unit takes a turn:
1. Only one unit can takes its turn in a game turn.

2. If more than one unit has a full turnbar on the same turn, the unit which exceeds the turnbar capacity more moves first. i.e; Unit A has 1000/1000 turnbar, Unit B has 1100/1000 turnbar, Unit B moves first.

3. Tiebreaker rule for units with the exact same number in their turnbar has yet to be established.

4. When taking a turn after another unit with a full turnbar, if another unit also has a full turnbar in this game turn, the unit waiting still gets its turnbar increased and whichever unit with the highest turnbar value across units ready to take a turn will go first.

5. On the turn a unit takes their turn, their turnbar is reset to 0 AND it doesn't not get its SPD added to its turnbar on that speed turn.

So far, all turnbar reduction effects are applied on the current turnbar value. i.e; Unit A has 666/1000 turnbar, and gets hit by 50% turnbar reduction effect. Unit A now has 333/1000 turnbar after the effect.

Since all turnbar have a threshold of 1000 to reach before a unit is applicable to take a turn, we derive the following table of optimal SPD stat from the formula ceil(1000/<Unit SPD>)=<Number of speed turns> for reaching this threshold as soon as possible.

Unit SPD	Turns till turnbar >= 1000
84 SPD	12 turns
91 SPD	11 turns
100 SPD	10 turns
112 SPD	9 turns
125 SPD	8 turns
143 SPD	7 turns
167 SPD	6 turns
200 SPD	5 turns
250 SPD	4 turns
334 SPD	3 turns

This is called the table of SPD thresholds, which are the optimal SPD stats every Xen unit should be at as excess SPD doesn't directly contribute to the unit taking a turn.

We only list this range as they consist of SPD value that are possible in the game.
(Material type units with 0 SPD cannot be used in battle and are excluded)

However, because of the other SPD mechanics, if two Xens are able to take a turn at the same time, tiebreaker rules are applied and the unit with the highest value in their turnbar takes their turn first, which wastes the waiting unit that added another turn's worth of SPD stat to its already surpassed turnbar.

Simply put, exceeding a SPD threshold without reaching the next one to take a turn before another unit in the same threshold is still possible and potentially very common in PvP, hence it's not recommended to religiously follow the table unless it suits your team's needs.

This player guide is to be moved to a proper game mechanic explanation page in future.