ENDLESS Legend 2 combat

Auto-resolve versus placing units

Auto-resolve exists so a 4X campaign does not become a tactics game on every barbarian bump. Use it when the power gap is obvious, when the army is a scout, or when monsoon movement already ate the clock. Place units when the fight is on a landbridge, when a river can drown someone, when a hero active would swing the result, or when an achievement is on the line. Out of their Depth requires drowning an army in a river; auto-resolve will not aim that for you.

Steam says one faction wants a patient commander stacking adjacency, another wants numbers. Kin of Sheredyn are the patient adjacency kit: adjacent-unit shields, Chosen juggernauts, fortification that starts before the fight. Necrophage are the numbers kit: spawn warriors from victories, infection larvae, little diplomacy. Aspects support themselves outside friendly territory once coral is down, so a fight on someone else's coast is still their fight. Last Lords heal with Dust, so a battered stack can be bought back to full without a Food city.

Heroes change the same binary. Plays-with-Fire is a flying warrior with swarm bonuses; that kit wants the tactical map. Talak Emburu is a ranged caster illuminating targets; that kit wants the tactical map. Uwe Rach's capture-point companion wants captures, which are not auto-resolve flavour. If the hero is sitting Council, auto-resolve the trash fights and save the map for the stack that actually has a commander.

Terrain, drowning, and faction doctrines

High ground, cover, and chokepoints are the Steam terrain list. Tidefall adds a fourth: the new isthmus that did not exist last season. A chokepoint you trained for in Clear Skies may be a wide beach after the ocean steps back. Re-scout before you assume last season's wall still faces the only road. Kin want that wall facing the new road. Necrophage want burrows under it. Aspects want coral on it.

Drowning is first-party because it is an achievement. Rivers kill stacks. Monsoon makes that more likely. The same water that blocked an army in Clear Skies can become a weapon in Monsoon or a road in Tidefall. Do not park a non-flying army on a hex you cannot explain after the season widget flips. Plays-with-Fire flying and Skyscale-style Aspects units are the insurance policy.

Bait and Switch is the other named combat trick: use Bait to move a Doomwraith with at least three Horrors to another capital. That is a tactical-map puzzle, not an auto-resolve checkbox. Mic Drop and Grandmaster are win-condition achievements that still require you to win fights on Endless difficulty; they do not care whether you placed units, but the fights that get you there will.

Armies, units, and named rosters

Signature units are named on the factions board: Envoy and Skyscale for Aspects, Sentinel and Chosen for Kin, Necrodrone and Behemoth for Necrophage, Initiate and Wrath Bearer for Tahuks, Vitreous Titans for Sandshapers. Rogues reuse parent rosters with a different battle affinity. Steam does not publish HP or damage sheets for those lines.

Build the army to the doctrine. Kin want a wall and a stack that benefits from adjacent shields. Aspects want coral down before the fight leaves home. Last Lords want Dust in the bank so the stack heals. Necrophage want a corpse pipeline so the next fight is larger. Tahuks want range and Oculum conversion. Sandshapers want teleport-and-strike Titans. Custom factions mix those kits; they still auto-resolve or place on the same map.

For the commanders who carry actives, see heroes. For the first campaign's advice on when to click auto-resolve, see the beginner's guide. For the season that rewrites the chokepoints, see Tidefall.

A simple rule for the first fifty fights

If the enemy stack is a village patrol on open ground and your power is obviously higher, auto-resolve. If the hex is a river, a cliff, a landbridge, or a capital wall, place units. If a hero with a kill bonus or a capture trait is in the army, place units. If you are hunting Out of their Depth or Bait and Switch, place units. That four-line filter covers the beginner mistakes: drowning your own Kin stack in monsoon, auto-resolving a Doomwraith, and skipping adjacency shields.

Necrophage players can auto-resolve more often because the doctrine is numbers; still place the fight that sits on a burrow exit. Aspects should place any fight outside home until coral is down, because the store copy is explicit that coral is how they support themselves in hostile territory. Last Lords should look at the Dust bank before they place a long fight — healing after the map is a Dust bill, not a Food bill.

After Tidefall, re-evaluate the same hex. A chokepoint that was a one-hex ford can become a beach. Save before the first fight on a new isthmus. The platforms page does not change combat rules across PC and consoles; controller support is listed on Steam, but the tactical map is the same Saiadha grid.

Frequently asked questions