Techniques are the tactical layer of Cromon Quest's Arena, the 3v3 mode of
the creature-collection RPG on Cronos. A team stands on a 3 by 3 grid and
each Cromon can carry one technique, which fires from the rows it is legal
in. There are 11: Guard, Pierce, Sweep, Ambush, Mend, Gale Shove, Afflict, Haze, Tidal Balance, Reversal Blow and Formation Bond. Every Cromon knows
Sweep at rank 1 from birth; the others are drawn from
capsules bought with Shards (1,500, 3,000 or
6,000 for a draft of 1,
2 or 3) and
trained at the Dojo: 8 hours to rank 1,
12 hours and 3,000 Shards
to rank 2, 24 hours and 8,000
to rank 3. Rarity sets how many a Cromon can know, 2 for a Common
up to 5 for a Legendary, never how strong they get.
The hall works on one Cromon at a time: pick it first, then open a capsule or start a training job on it.
What does each technique do, rank by rank?
Each card is one technique: what it does, the rows it fires from (lit on its small 3 by 3 grid, front row on top), how often it comes out of a capsule and its exact chance in the capsule you pick. Flip a card for its numbers at ranks I, II and III and its path through the Dojo. A technique fires only from its legal rows; ready on an illegal row, it stays dormant and the Cromon attacks normally. Coefficients multiply a normal hit, so a technique never bypasses the stat rolls, it stacks on them. These are the same cards the Dojo shows in game.
Odds in
Common drop
Guard
Defense · On its first action
Front or Mid. Its first legal action arms Guard with a full strike. It then takes one single-target hit meant for the ally directly behind it, softened, and its guard comes back at the start of every round.
Chance in this capsule
35%
Guard
Opening strike · redirected hit
Rank I100% · −30%
Rank II100% · −40%
Rank III100% · −50%
the opening replaces its first normal attack; it then takes one single-target hit meant for the ally behind, and its guard comes back every round
To I
8 h
Free
To II
12 h
3,000
To III
24 h
8,000
Common drop
Pierce
Offense · At full Focus
Front or Mid. At full Focus, it hits its target, then the foe directly behind it in the same column.
Chance in this capsule
35%
Pierce
Behind-hit power
Rank I25%
Rank II40%
Rank III50%
the target takes a full hit first; both hits resolve separately
To I
8 h
Free
To II
12 h
3,000
To III
24 h
8,000
Innate
Sweep
Offense · At full Focus
Mid only. At full Focus, it hits its target and any foes directly left and right in the same row.
Known from the start
Sweep
Side-hit power
Rank I20%
Rank II35%
Rank III45%
each adjacent foe in the target row; the target takes a full, non-interceptable hit
To II
12 h
3,000
To III
24 h
8,000
Common drop
Ambush
Offense · At full Focus
Mid or Back. At full Focus, it ignores Guard and strikes the highest-ATK enemy in the Mid or Back row.
Chance in this capsule
26%
Ambush
Back-row strike power
Rank I75%
Rank II85%
Rank III90%
targets the highest-ATK enemy in Mid or Back, ignores Guard and replaces the normal attack
To I
8 h
Free
To II
12 h
3,000
To III
24 h
8,000
Uncommon drop
Mend
Support · At full Focus
Mid or Back. At full Focus, it gives up its attack to heal the living ally with the most missing HP, itself included.
Chance in this capsule
16%
Mend
Heal
Rank I3 + 0.25×Resolve
Rank II4 + 0.3×Resolve
Rank III5 + 0.4×Resolve
rounded to HP, then capped at the target’s missing HP; replaces the normal attack
To I
8 h
Free
To II
12 h
3,000
To III
24 h
8,000
Common drop
Gale Shove
Offense · At full Focus
Front or Mid. At full Focus, it hits a foe, then pushes the unit that took the hit one row back if the destination is free.
Chance in this capsule
26%
Gale Shove
Strike power
Rank I90%
Rank II95%
Rank III100%
then pushes the unit actually hit one row back if the destination is free
To I
8 h
Free
To II
12 h
3,000
To III
24 h
8,000
Uncommon drop
Afflict
Offense · At full Focus
Mid or Back. Strikes a foe and afflicts it with the caster's element: the foe takes damage at the end of each of the next 3 rounds.
Chance in this capsule
16%
Afflict
Strike · damage per round
Rank I80% · 12% of a hit × 3 rounds
Rank II85% · 16% of a hit × 3 rounds
Rank III90% · 20% of a hit × 3 rounds
each tick is a share of the raw hit (type counts; no crit, dodge or block) at the end of the next rounds; a new Afflict replaces the old one
To I
8 h
Free
To II
12 h
3,000
To III
24 h
8,000
Uncommon drop
Haze
Support · At full Focus
Mid or Back. Wraps the most endangered ally in a haze: much harder to hit until the end of the next 2 rounds.
Chance in this capsule
16%
Haze
Dodge bonus
Rank I+12% for 2 rounds
Rank II+16% for 2 rounds
Rank III+20% for 2 rounds
on the most endangered ally, from the moment it is cast; total dodge chance capped at 60%; a new Haze replaces the old one
To I
8 h
Free
To II
12 h
3,000
To III
24 h
8,000
Rare drop
Tidal Balance
Support · At full Focus
Mid or Back. At full Focus, it shifts HP from the healthiest ally to the most wounded one, then strikes a foe at half power. With nobody to help, it keeps its Focus.
Chance in this capsule
10%
Tidal Balance
HP shifted · strike
Rank I40% of the gap, up to 2 + 0.4×Resolve · 50%
Rank II50% of the gap, up to 7 + 0.4×Resolve · 50%
Rank III60% of the gap, up to 12 + 0.4×Resolve · 50%
moves HP from the healthiest ally to the most wounded one, never below half the giver’s HP, then strikes
To I
8 h
Free
To II
12 h
3,000
To III
24 h
8,000
Rare drop
Reversal Blow
Offense · Passive, always on
Front or Mid. Passive: every hit it lands draws on its Defense when that beats its Attack. Built for sturdy Cromons.
Chance in this capsule
10%
Reversal Blow
Attack from Defense
Rank I60% of DEF
Rank II65% of DEF
Rank III70% of DEF
each hit uses this share of its Defense instead of its Attack, only when that is higher
To I
8 h
Free
To II
12 h
3,000
To III
24 h
8,000
Rare drop
Formation Bond
Defense · Passive, always on
Front or Mid. Passive: bonds with the ally directly behind it at the start of the fight. A shield refilled every round absorbs hits until that ally falls or moves.
Chance in this capsule
8.4%
Formation Bond
Shield per round
Rank I1.5 + 0.15×DEF of the ally behind
Rank II3.5 + 0.15×DEF of the ally behind
Rank III5.5 + 0.15×DEF of the ally behind
rounded to HP, refilled every round, never stacked; it blocks hits, not damage over time
To I
8 h
Free
To II
12 h
3,000
To III
24 h
8,000
Odds are for a Cromon that knows only Sweep. A technique it already knows leaves the pool, so the others come up more often. Sweep is innate and never comes out of a capsule.
Techniques a Cromon can knowCommon 2Uncommon 3Rare 3Epic 4Legendary 5(Sweep included)
When does a technique fire?
Three triggers. Guard is an opening: on its first legal action with a living ally directly behind it, it arms its posture and swings its opening blow the same turn; the posture is spent on the first single-target hit it intercepts and comes back at the start of every round while that ally stands. Reversal Blow and Formation Bond are passive: always on from a legal row, no gauge, no turn spent. Every other technique runs on Focus, a gauge that starts at 0, gains 25 at the start of every round and 15 the first time the Cromon is targeted in a round, caps at 100, and casts at 100 before resetting: the earliest cast is round 3 if the Cromon was hit in rounds 1 and 2, round 4 otherwise, and it repeats without limit.
Interception has rules of its own. Guard catches single-target hits: normal attacks (a Reversal Blow hit included), Pierce's first hit, the strikes of Gale Shove, Afflict and Tidal Balance, a Guard's own opening blow and the bonus strikes a fast Cromon gets from Speed. It never catches Sweep, a secondary hit or Ambush, which is the whole point of Ambush. A Formation Bond shield, on the other hand, soaks every hit its carrier takes, secondary hits included, but not the damage over time of Afflict.
Turn order is Speed with a jitter each round. A normal attack first picks the Arena's target: the lowest-HP enemy, forced when your type beats it; otherwise a coin flip between the lowest-HP enemy your type beats and the plain lowest-HP enemy, with a 2% chance of the highest-HP enemy that resists you. Half of the time it keeps that target; the other half it first draws a row, the front-most occupied row weighing most, then applies the same type and HP rule inside that row. The front row therefore takes more hits than the back, techniques or not, which is exactly what Guard and Formation Bond are built around.
How do capsules and the memory cap work?
Pick the Cromon first, then buy and open a capsule on it: Basic at 1,500 Shards draws 1 technique, Premium at 3,000 offers 2 and Ultra at 6,000 offers 3, and you keep one. The pool is weighted, out of 100: Guard 18, Pierce 18, Ambush 13, Gale Shove 13, Mend 8, Afflict 8, Haze 8, Tidal Balance 5, Reversal Blow 5 and Formation Bond 4. It is drawn without replacement and minus what the Cromon already knows; Sweep is never in it: every Cromon is born knowing it, and it never drops from a capsule. Weight is rarity of appearance only: the newest techniques are the rarest draws, not the strongest. The capsule is consumed when the draft is created, there is no reroll, and the Dojo refuses to open one when the memory is full or nothing is left to discover.
The draw enters memory at rank 0, known but not playable until the 8-hour job lifts it to rank 1. Memory is counted in distinct techniques, innate Sweep included and rank-0 discoveries included: 2 for a Common, 3 for an Uncommon and a Rare, 4 for an Epic, 5 for a Legendary. Mastering a technique frees nothing. To make room, forget one at the Dojo: it is free and cannot be undone, its ranks are lost, it leaves every saved team, and it only comes back from a new capsule draw, at rank 0. Sweep can be forgotten too, but it never comes back, since it never drops from a capsule.
How does training work, and what does it lock?
The ladder is rank 0 to 1 in 8 hours for nothing, rank 1 to 2 in 12 hours and 3,000 Shards, rank 2 to 3 in 24 hours and 8,000 Shards: 44 hours and 11,000 Shards from discovery to mastery. One job runs per Cromon and one per Keeper at a time, so whatever your roster size, one rank step advances at a time, and a finished job that was never collected still blocks the next one. A Cromon in training is locked out of every mode until the timer elapses, and a Cromon busy elsewhere cannot start training. Training follows the token: if the Cromon changes hands mid-job, the new owner collects. In the Arena a technique is played at its learned rank, and only rank 1 or higher can be equipped. A fusion carries the base Cromon's techniques onto the new token and drops the two fuels', which is one more reason to train the copy you will keep.
Which techniques go where on the grid?
Think in columns and rows, because two techniques only work with an ally directly behind the carrier, in the same column. Guard goes in the front or middle row, directly in front of the Cromon you most want alive, like a front-row Armachild covering the striker behind it. Formation Bond wants the same column, with the Cromon with the highest Defense behind the carrier, since the shield grows with that ally's Defense; the formation editor marks a Bond or a Guard with nobody behind it.
Reversal Blow belongs in the front or middle on a Cromon whose Defense is well above its Attack: at rank 3 it pays only when 70% of the Defense beats the Attack, and then on every hit it lands. Pierce wants the front or middle, in the column where the enemy stacks two fighters. Sweep needs the middle row and pays when the enemy line is full, a Voltrick there hitting three foes at once. Gale Shove, from the front or middle, pushes a front-liner out of Sweep and Pierce range.
The support techniques sit in the middle or back. Ambush aims at the enemy's back-row striker and ignores their Guard. Mend and Tidal Balance both scale with Resolve: Mend creates HP, Tidal Balance moves it from a healthy ally to a wounded one and still strikes at half power. Afflict keeps hurting its target at the end of each round after the strike, and Haze shields whoever has the lowest HP ratio, the caster included.
Techniques fire in the Arena and in the World Boss raids fought on the grid; the Pit and the maze use the technique-free engine. Your defense team plays its saved formation while you are away, so it deserves a Guard or a Bond as much as your attack does; an unsaved defense is backfilled with your first three Cromons on the front row, without techniques.
Teach your first technique
Free to start: connect your wallet, receive three starter Cromons, and every one of them already knows Sweep.
3,000