Stars & combining

Three copies of the same piece combine into a stronger version. Every piece has three star levels.

How combining works

• 3 × ★ → ★★. A ★★ piece has roughly double the health and damage, and a stronger skill.
• 3 × ★★ → ★★★, which takes 9 copies in total.
• With Auto Combination on (the default), buying the third copy merges them straight away, even if your bench is full. Copies on the board are included while there are more than 5 seconds of preparation left.
• Pieces on the board also combine when you move matching copies onto it.
• Your bench has 8 slots.

Each piece's page lists its stats at every star level, for example Axe.

Piece level

Several rules use a piece's level: its cost, +2 for each extra star (maximum 9). A ★ 1-cost piece is level 1; a ★★★ 5-cost piece is level 9. Level decides how much damage a surviving piece deals to a losing player, how much it sells for, and what Ogres and Priests can affect.

★★★ monopoly

When a player makes a ★★★ piece, all remaining copies of that piece are removed from the shared pool for the rest of the game, unless that ★★★ is sold. Druids are exempt.

Special ways to combine

• Druids need only two copies to combine once you have enough different Druids on the board: 2 Druids for ★★, 4 for ★★★, and 6 to merge two ★★★ Druids into the Altar of Spirits.
• Io works as a wildcard: Io★ plus two identical ★ pieces on the board make a ★★ of that piece (and Io★★ with two ★★ copies make a ★★★).
• The Lucid Star relic gives a chance for a recruited piece to arrive as ★★ if you already own it.
• The Greevil Egg relic can hatch pieces at higher stars.