Starting Out


1. Who should I buy first?
You should try out the champions before you buy them (you receive trial champions, like League of Legends). But I would recommend Aurora, Bug, Martel or Crank first (There is a starter DLC pack on Steam, check it out if you want 3 champs for really cheap.) Bug is the best all-around ranged champion, the other ranged are good but very niche picks.

2. Which ship should I buy?

I would recommend buying a ship early, because the skybucket, starter ship, has 1 less health. The Bombshell or Beast (same stats) is the best all-around ship, followed by the Sparrow. Then I would recommend working towards getting 6 champions at least. You can only deploy 3 champions on the field, but you can have 6 champs max on your starting bench. The other ships are very unique and should only be used by experienced players, as the -1 or -2 health penalty for their bonuses aren't taken advantage of if you don't know exactly what you're doing.

3. Where can I find the Beast (the ship)?

You'll have to go hunting for him! It's a fun easter egg in the game, does not give you an advantage other than looking beastly. It is more fun if you find him on your own though :) You might be staring right at him and you don't even know it.

4. How do I gain shilling (blue currency) to buy champions, ships, shells etc?

You gain shillings from completing career missions, daily missions, completing achievements and badges (Click on the Badges button to look at list of achievements), levelling up.

5. Where are my trial champions?

When the game asks you to hire a champion, they are going to be one of your trial champions. Since the Aug2014 patch, if you own no champions, you get 3 trial champions (and it is on a trial rotation, like League of Legends). If you own 1 champion, you get 2 trial champions rotating, and if you own 2 or more champions, you get 1 trial champion rotating. Trial champions should have a banner on their portrait saying trial. When they leave, that means their trial has expired and you get another trial one (you get a 30% ae coin discount at the end of their trial, this is the best time to buy them)

6. I have no clue about any of the champions, ships, and shells??

There are already very informative guides on each. Sine's Champion Analysis guide goes over each champion in detail and their strengths/weaknesses, prokeke's Ship guide ranks and explains each ship's traits and purpose, and my Shell Guide has a list of all shells and basic shell strategy.

7. Where is my friendslist?

Go to casual queue, and you can search up player names and add them as a friend. You can also use that search function to challenge anyone online in the game to a friendly match. If you want to look at your friendslist, don't search anything, and it will load automatically.

GAMEPLAY QUESTIONS


1. How does aether work?

Aether is like Mana. Champs need mana to use their abilities. Ship needs aether to use shells.

For champion aether, the champion gains 1 aether at the start of each of their turns. They gain 1 aether for every basic attack they do, or if they step on a caether (champ-aether) tile they gain +1 aether. The champion's Super attack (2ndary) uses up 2 aether, Ultra attack (3iary) uses up 5 aether.

For ship aether, you gain as much ship aether equal to the amount of damage dealt to your ship. If enemy does Aether Discharge shell on your ship (shell deals 3 damage to ship), you gain 3 ship aether.
You also gain (1) ship aether every time you damage ENEMY ship. You do Aether Discharge to the enemy ship, you gain (1) ship aether, they gain (3) ship aether.
You can also step onto a saether (ship-aether) tile to gain 1 saether.
Each time a champion is killed, it deals 2 damage to their ship. (so if you kill an enemy champion, you gain +1 saether, they gain +2 saether)

2. How does knockback and knockback damage work?

You can knock off enemies from the map if they are on the edge, or you can be pushed into the death tile (tile with skull) - both result in kills.
If you knockback a champion into a champion that can move, they move back and both take +1 damage.
If you knockback a champion against a wall or against a champion that can't move, they all take +2 damage.
If you knockback a champion against a ship, the champion takes +2 damage, the ship takes +1 damage.

3. How does knockbacks, leaps and pulls interact with tiles?

If you get knockbacked over a tile (healing tile, saether/caether) the tile stops the movement of the champion, even if you did a 2-move knockback like Baron. If you do a leap over a bonus tile, it will stop your movement too, but if you land beside your target you still damage them.
Baron's hook pull will still damage you even if the target does not reach his saw (ie target's movement got stopped by tile).

4. Can you attack a ship over an empty gap or death tile?

Yes, if harle does his super attack over gap on Dome Argus to attack ship, he will hit it for 3 dmg, then die. Same goes for over death tiles.

5. How does the ranking system work?

As of the August 2014 patch: The ranking system is very similar to Hearthstone. You need to have (depending on the league) 1/2/3/4/5 consecutive wins or losses to move up or down a rank. Each time you win, you gain a star, and if you earn all stars for your current sub-rank, you move up to the next one. Each league (bronze,silver,gold,platinum,diamond,aethermasters) has sub-ranks within them. The highest league, Æthermasters, has a system called League Points (LP), in which you win or lose a certain amount of LP depending on your opponent's league/rank.

6. Who wins if it becomes 0-0?

Both ships are at 2 health- If your Harle leaps over gap to attack enemy ship, he dies and ship gets damaged, then both ships are reduced to 0 health. But the person who did the finishing move wins the game, no draws!

7. How do I pass my turn?

Click the timer to pass your turn. You do not want to allow two turns to pass idly, or you will auto-surrender (anti-AFK mechanism)

NON-GAMEPLAY QUESTIONS


1. Can you play with friends in private matches?

Yes! The challenge feature has been implemented as of the July patch. Use the search function (click on the Casual queue, you'll see the search list on the right), and search up your friend's username, (add them to your friendslist so it's easier next time) challenge them to a custom game, enjoy!

2. What does Early Access packages give you?

Founders package/Gift code: Aurora, Crank, Mary + Packer ship
Deluxe package: Aurora, Crank, Mary, Butcher, Harle + Sparrow ship + Packer ship

3. I can only access the Practice option, not ranked or Casual.

You need to click on the Career missions button, claim the prize, and that will unlock the other queues.

4. The game isn't starting!

If you have issues loading up the game, read through this thread for solutions:
Support/Troubleshooting Thread, and try posting on the steam forums if its a specific issue.

or send an email to their support team (aerena-support@cliffhanger-productions.com) for any other issues (did not receive package contents, etc.)

5. I got disconnected, or found a bug!

Sometimes people have connection issues, or steam services have complications and Aerena also suffers. ♥♥♥♥ happens. If its a gameplay bug, report it on steam forums here: Bug Thread


Do not let any encounter with a Bug discourage you from playing :-) GL HF