The centrepiece of the new Triara is the squad. A champion is no longer an anonymous copy that drops out of a chest: it has its own name, it belongs to exactly one team in your league and, if you want it, you have to sign it.
The squad
A new team starts with six Rookie champions, two per role, and one of them wears the captain’s armband. Three starters play each match, one per lane: tank, fighter and shooter. They come from the deck in play, a saved line-up; you can keep another deck ready and change the one in play once per round. The rest make up the bench. The limit is six champions, fifteen with the Order of the Crown.
The bench is not decoration. It trains with half the experience your starters earn and, if a starter leaves (through a transfer, a release or unpaid wages), the strongest substitute of the same role takes over the lane along with its pet, in every deck. The notice tells you who comes in.
Value, wage, clause and price
Under every card you find the figures that drive the market:
- Value: what the champion is worth given its category and power. It grows with the square of power, so a well developed champion is worth a lot more than a newcomer.
- Wage: what it earns per round, from around 3 coins for a Rookie to around 45 for a Legend, a little more the stronger it is.
- Release clause: what someone has to pay to take it without your permission. By default it is twice its value, and you can set it anywhere between 1.5 and 3 times the value. Lowering it is free; raising it costs a tenth of the increase.
- Sale price, if you list it: any figure between its value and its clause. Whoever pays it takes the champion straight away.
How a champion joins your team
Available champions. Every Monday free agents appear in your league at their value: twenty in Bronze, twelve in Silver, eight in Gold and six in Platinum. The higher the league, the fewer and the better. In Bronze most are Rookies; in Platinum Pros and Stars are common, with the odd Legend. Any nobody signs disappear after two weeks. Released champions and those who leave over unpaid wages also end up here.
The transfer market. It lists the champions for sale in your league. If a champion is for sale, you buy it instantly at its price.
Paying the clause. If it is not for sale, you can pay its release clause from its owner’s profile. The money is held in deposit and the owner gets a notice. They have one day to shield the champion, raising the clause at least 25% above your offer and paying a 10% fee on the new figure. If they shield, you get your deposit back. If not, the transfer completes on its own when the window closes. Shielding is a perk of the Order of the Crown: non-members see the offer but cannot shield.
Trading. Direct trades between players still exist. A champion you receive counts as a signing and pays the same tax as a transfer.
Rules that protect you
- The captain cannot be signed away or sold.
- A newly arrived champion is protected for seven days, as is a new team and a champion that has just been shielded.
- You cannot pay the clause of champions whose owner is below level 5.
- Each team can pay two clauses a day, and each champion accepts only one pending offer.
- The seller receives the price minus a 10% tax.
- The champion leaves with its skills, but its gear (weapons, armour) stays in the seller’s bag.
Payroll
Wages are paid when each league round closes. If you do not have enough coins, your most expensive champion other than the captain goes unpaid. If it happens again the next round, that champion leaves for your league’s free agents and its gear returns to your bag. Both steps come with a notice.
In practice wages are modest next to what a league win pays, but you will feel them if you fill your bench with Stars who never play. They are the brake on hoarding champions you do not use.
You can also release a champion from the barracks: it joins the champions available in your league and its gear goes back to your bag. Never the captain, and never if you would drop below three.
Development
Champions go from level 1 to level 10 with experience. Each level improves their stats and base health, up to 20% at level 10. Since value and wage follow power, a champion that grows is also worth more. That is the manager loop: sign cheap, grow them, sell high.
Every fight pays a base for winning or losing:
- League: 30 for a win and 15 for a defeat.
- Cup: 25 for every round won and 10 for the one that knocks you out.
- Friendly: 20 for a win and 10 for a defeat.
The base is the floor. Whoever does the most for their team earns more, up to double: tanks by the damage they take, everyone else by the damage they deal and what they heal their allies. Pets are measured against the other pets. The bench gets half the base, and every completed quest gives the whole squad 10.
To decide who to sign, the champion guide goes through what to look for on each card.