Lovehammer 400 000's gameplay is based on three "ass"-es: assess, assign, assault.

Through every step of any ongoing campaign, you're given a choice of three missions:


You have to complete only one of them to progress and the non-selected ones will not carry over to the next stage - there will be a different set of missions instead


Assess the victory conditions and the foes you'll be facing, and then pick up the option that promises the most chances of victory to your squad.


If you feel like you've chosen wrongly (and, as you're learning the game, you will), there's no shame in retreating bravely - and no penalty too. Astro Commandos know no defeats, only delayed victory timings.


Later on, advanced missions with Star Ratings will begin to appear. Extra stars make missions more difficult in all kinds of ways - special victory conditions, steeper victory conditions, tougher enemy waves. But what also increases is your chance to get epic loot as a reward.

Once you click on a "Battle" button under your mission of choice, you'll meet squad for this run:


As of now, your squad is randomly generated - later on, we'll add some progression and selection tuning.

Your squad always consists of one leader (he's always at the top as a leader should be), one generic astro commando and two special commandos.


Special helmets are like traits and quirks in the other games - they greatly change the playstyle of their owner and offer a great power boost (but sometimes at a great cost).


Each commando comes equpped with a weapon and you'll be given some extra weapons too. Unlike helmets that can't be taken off, weapons can (and should) be swapped freely.

Each weapon has its own skillset, basically, changing a weapon changes the class of commando, allowing them to assume a totally different role. Finding the best possible weapon combination is key to winning any particular battle.

Don't be too swayed by the weapon rarity - while extra bonuses are nice, a properly equipped bronze is many times better than incorrectly used gold.

If "Battle" button is unavailable it's because not all your commandos have a weapon assigned - each must have a weapon for the battle to begin.


In addition to weapons, you have grenades. Grenades replace your Assembly's special action with, well, grenade action. Although, once all grenades are thrown, the Assembly's special will return.

Just like with weapons, having a grenade equipped is not always a strict upgrade - there are times when they're necessary and there are times when it's best to have the Assembly's special from the get go.

Once all your Astro Commandos are assigned the best possible gear, it's time to assault!!!

Lovehammer is a match-3/Tactical game hybrid. So it's not your granny's smartphone experience here - it's "Chain Reaction" time and you'll have to work hard to earn 'em!


To cause a Chain Reaction, you'll need at least three units of the same color standing next to each other. Only vertical and horizontal connections count - no diagonals. On this screenshot you can see proper chains being highlighted with green and an improper one being highlighted with red.

Chain Reactions don't just occur from units idling next to each other - you need to kickstart them by destroying at least one enemy from that chain, then its bosom buddies will follow.


If there are no Chains available for easy detonation, you should just make some.


Most skills have a color - it's indicated by the skill's icon and by the targeting grid.

Should an enemy survive a colored attack, it will be turned to attacking color.

See that pesky blue enemy, the top of third row? We unleash a magical purple blast onto her and:


Yay, now she's purple colored too, so we have a Chain Reaction prepared!

However, right now we have a Commando with all purple attacks acting and another rule comes into play - enemy units are can't take damage of their own color.


Look closely at the mouse cursor - we're aiming a purple attack at a purple foe and it's depicted as broken and battered. This means that attack will no damage. Be careful to avoid making such attacks as it's a literal waste of a turn.

Another great way of setting your Chain Reactions up is movement. If this commando takes one step to the right:


He will create a beautiful 5-purple chain:



Another important thing - your commandos are also part of a color system. King's Nephews count as Yellow (they're vanilla but that's close enough) and Omega Legion counts as Green. So there's also a C-shaped 7-yellow chain on the right because your Commandos are connecting yellow enemies together.

But be careful - your Commandos count for all purposes, damage included! Thankfully, Chain Reactions don't insta-kill their targets - they just deal three Strikes worth of damage to them. This means that especially tough foes may survive them, and your Commandos will take some damage.

Chain Reaction damage is colorless - it can be mitigated by Armor, but not Color Resistance.

Three Strikes per Chain Reaction is a basic value - it might be modified by items, morale and the length of the Chain itself. Every additional 3 participants beyond the starting ones will increaser the Strike value of Chain Reaction by +1. Meaning 4 Strikes at length of six, 5 Strikes at length of 9, etc.

Unlike enemies, Commandos don't have immunity to their own color - they have a 50% Resistance instead.

In Lovehammer, enemies and Commandos have different health systems.

Enemies have Hit Points and every HIt Point is able to absorb exactly one Strike. Most enemies have 3 Hit Points and their loss is depicted by their physical shapes getting battered:


Here, from top to bottom you can see a full 3 HP, a 2 HP and a 1 HP enemies.


The amount of Strikes that your combat skills are causing is depicted as the stars at the bottom of the skill icons. In this case, we have a 1 HP dealing attack, a 2 HP dealing one and another 1 HP one.

Various buffs and debuffs may change the amount of Strikes dealt - that will accordingly increase or decrease the amounts of stars shown.

Should an attack ever deal 5 Strikes, they will be compressed into a one big star:

it's a very mighty HOP! that can deal 5+1=6 Strikes.

Watch out for this little button:


It's an option for the advanced players who'd prefer prettier, uncluttered icons. If the little eye is closed, stars and Initiative costs will be hidded - click on the eye once more to bring them back.

Another way to increase your attack's Strike Value is Backstabbing:


aiming for the enemy's back will add a +1 Strike bonus (by default). To be sure that Backstab is enabled, watch out for special crossed swords mouse cursor - that's the indicator of such an attack.

For all their might, Astro Commandos are not immune to such villainy - they may be backstabbed too, so watch out!


By turning the Attack Preview option on you'll see the amount of enemies that are currently prepared to attack you and, most importantly, you'll see if any are trying to Backstab you!

Unlike enemies, your Commandos have Health. Whenever they take any amount of Strikes, the resulting damage is (Attack Power - Armor) x Damage Resistance X Strike Amount. When we depict Attack value of enemies, it's their Attack Power. And their basic attack is only one Strike. So being Backstabbed by the foe is getting another whole Strike of damage - that's getting double damage!

All Commandos have Attack Power of 8, this mostly matter for friendly fire issues.

Astro Commandos are the pinnacle of the human race so they're very tough to bring down. As the fight goes on, pay attention to their backpacks:




They are divided in segments and each segment represents 20% of Commando's health. So:

5 Segments: 81-100% of Health
4 Segments: 61-80% of Health
3 Segments: 41-60% of Health
2 Segments: 21-40% of Health
1 Segment: 1-20% of Health

Of course, you can always hover your cursor over Commando as see his exact Health value under his portrait, but backpack segments serve as a very useful reminder to actually do so.

If your Commando falls in battle, it's not yet the end of him - as long as his backpack was golden (meaning he was in full health), he'll be removed until the end of this encounter but will survive overall, getting a wound in the process.

During the combat preparations, hover over this Band-Aid icon:


It will descripe Wound's effects, duration and death probability.

Should a Wounded Commando fall again, now he'll be risking death - Commandos have an innate 25% Death Resistance which can be further boosted by Item Effects.

Should your Commando feel lucky and survive Death Check, his Wound duration will be increased by 2 battles and his Death Resistance will be permanently lowered by 15%. Arithmetically so only 10% basic will remain. Any other bonuses or penalties are also arithmetical.

Inside the combat Wounded Commandos are highlighted by having a red backback charges:


Be very very wary of low-segment red backpack Commandos as you risk losing them forever. And Astro Commando is not someone whom you can just recruit in a random bar, you know. They will be difficult to replenish.

Initiative systems are difficult to explain, but really easy to use.


Instead of big turns where everybody gets an action, the game is divided into a great number of mini-rounds.

At the beginning of each round, every character on the battlefield gains an amount of Initiative that equals their Speed parameter - that's what the wing under the portrait signifies.

Then, if a character has at least a hundred Initiative, they get to act. If not, the rounds fly by until somebody has enough initiative to act.

When Tactical View is enabled, you can see the current Initiative of each unit on the Initiative Bar. And the initiative bar itself previews the possible action sequence so you can know how far the enemies are from attacking you.


While you need to have at least a 100 of Initiative to act, an action may cost more or less than that. On this screenshot you can see a mighty 200 Initiative Heavy Pull - even though active character has only 106 Initiative, he can still use it, he'll just go into negative Initiative. Take a look at the PhD Commando in the Initiative Bar - he has -93 Initiative because he's just used an expensive action himself.

Having negative Initiative carries no penalties, it just means that it'll take longer to receive your next turn.

Likewise, whenever you act, you don't have to burn all your current Initiative - using a 25 Initiative action means that remaining 75 are getting saved and that Commando will get his next action much quicker. And starting your turn with much more than 100 Initiative means you're likely to get a double or triple action for your Commando - depends on whichever skills you're be using.


Certain skills may deprive enemies of Initiative. Enemies don't have personal Initiative so such skills are applied to all enemies of that kind, even if attack has targeted only 1 foe.

Efficiency of such skills greatly depends on the variety of the enemy wave. They work at a 100% potential versus 3 and 4-type waves, at 66% efficiency versus 2-type waves at only at 33% efficiency versus monowaves.

Groups of foes take their turns separately. You can hower over a group's portrait on the Initiative bar to highlight all of the group's members:


During the enemy's turn, all of the Agressive enemies that have a target will attack it - such enemies are highlighted by attack arrow in the Tactical View.

Not all enemies are Agressive - at the start of the combat, 40% of enemies assume such a stance. In case of humanoid foes, they change their posture:


Calm enemy (in the green square) is standing straight. Agressive enemy (in the red square) is half-rotated, she's ready to strike.

For drones it's more about their animations - Calm drones are swinging lazily, Agressive drones are bobbing in agitation.

Agressive enemies are alert - should your Commando get in their aggro zone, they will rotate towards him immediately. Don't try to sneak onto them to backstab them.

Once an enemy group had their turn, their agression will be redistributed. They will all calm down and then 40% of them will become agressive once more.

Unlike your Commandos, enemies are spending all ther Initiative regardless of whether they made any attacks or not. So even if an enemy wave did zero attacks, they'll still redistribute their aggro and lose 100 Initiative.

Enemy reinforcements, the ones that replace the freshly destroyed foes, always arrive Calm.

Unless they state otherwise, all actions have 100% basic accuracy. Meaning that most skills never miss. To be totally sure pay attention to the number near your attack cursor:


That is the chosen attack's accuracy - in this case Commander is dialing it up to eleven, or, rather, up to one hundred and twenty five.

If the number is lower than 100, this means it's the chance your attack will hit. If it doesn't, the action will have no effect.

If the number is above 100, all the excessive Accuracy is turned into a Critical Chance. So our Commander here has a 25% chance to land a Crit.

Crits provide a Positive Morale Chance and apply 40 Initiative penalty to their victims.

Enemies play by the same rules - suffering a Crit means an annoyingly big Negative Morale Chance, but only a -20 Initiative penalty (because the enemies come in a much larger numbers, after all).


Some items and effects provide Evasion. In this case Uncommon Defender Asstrocaster gives you +5 Evasion. Evasion is being subtracted from your enemy's Accuracy, so most enemies will have 95% chance to land a Strike on this Commander.

There's no special bonus for reducing your enemy's Accuracy below zero - you should be content with your Commando becoming nearly unkillable.


Evasion can be negative - in this case, it's added to the enemy's accuracy. Your average enemy will have 133 Accuracy versus this Tactical Monocled Commando, meaning 33% Critical Chance - you probably don't want to send him into a horde of Aggressive foes.

In the right upper corner, next to the portrait section, you can see the Beautiful Butt of Morale. It indicates the current mood of your Commandos.

The combat always starts in a Neutral Morale which has neither penalties nor boons (the butt still has some buns, though).


If everything goes well for you, you might receive a Positive Morale Bonus. It's a global modifier that applies either to all enemies or to each of your Commandos. Hover over the tablet to read the current effect. There are 10 varieties of Positive Morale.

Landing a Critical Hit gives you a 20% Positive Morale Chance.

Starting a Chain Reaction provides a basic 5% Chance which is then increased for every additional part of a Chain Reaction beyond the initial three. The bonus is +4, +5, +6, etc., increasing for every Chain Reaction part added. 14-long and longer Chain Reactions will provide a 100% Positive Morale chance.

Certain skills and items also provide Positive Morale Chances.

If you're already in a Positive Morale and proc a Positive Morale again, all your Commandos receive +25 Initiative instead.

If you're in a Positive Morale and proc Negative Morale, you go back to normal.


If things don't go well for you, you might find your Commandos in a Negative Morale. It works exactly like Positive, only it penalizes you instead.

Suffering damage is the major source of slight Negative Morale chances. Receiving Backstabs and Crits is especially hurtful. Party member falling down is devastating.


If you are already in a Negative Morale, receiving additional one will give your Commandos a -25 Initiative penalty instead.

If you are in a Negative Morale and proc Positive Morale, it returns back to Neutral.

All Chances bonuses are arithmetical. So if something has 10% basic chance and you have a +5% bonus it will result in an overall 15% chance.