Combat in Deep Sky: Tracers is automatic. You do not control individual attacks. But that does not mean combat is out of your hands — it means your control happens before the fight starts.
Every decision you make during Recruit and Loadout — which units you buy, where you place them, which chips you equip, which contract you chose — feeds directly into how combat plays out. Combat is entirely skill-driven: your preparation defines the outcome.
That makes understanding how combat works one of the most useful things you can learn. If you know the rules, you can read why fights end the way they do — and change the outcome next time.
[PICTURE OF TWO BOARDS FACING EACH OTHER AT THE START OF COMBAT]
Who attacks first
At the very start of a match — turn one — the first attacker is randomly determined. After that, the rule changes: the player who lost the previous combat attacks first in the next round. If the previous combat was a draw, the first-attacker priority alternates from whoever went first last time.
This matters more than it looks. Going first means your leftmost unit gets to deal damage before taking a retaliation hit. Going second means your leftmost unit gets hit before it can act. That difference can determine whether a key unit survives long enough to do its job.
You cannot directly control who goes first after turn one. But you can plan for it. If you lost last round, you know you are attacking first — so your frontliner gets the opening trade. If you won, prepare for your opponent to swing first.
[PICTURE OF THE FIRST ATTACK IN COMBAT SHOWING WHICH SIDE STRIKES FIRST]
Why left-to-right order matters
Within each side, units attack in slot order — left to right, starting from the lowest slot index. Your leftmost unit acts first. Your rightmost unit acts last.
This is the core reason positioning is real strategy in Deep Sky: Tracers. Slot placement is not cosmetic. It is the combat script. You are writing the order in which your board executes.
That means:
- Your leftmost unit absorbs the first incoming attack and delivers the first outgoing one.
- Support effects that trigger on attack or death fire in sequence — earlier units trigger before later ones.
- Chips like Payload fire on the first attack, so a Payload carrier in slot one gets its burst out before anything else happens.
- Uplink chips buff adjacent allies, so their position relative to neighbors determines who benefits.
- Seer subtype effects care about units to the right — placing a Seer on the far right wastes that synergy.
A board with the same units in a different order can produce a completely different outcome. That is one of the deepest strategic layers in the game, and it costs nothing — just attention.
How retaliation changes trades
When a unit attacks, the target retaliates immediately with its own power. This is not a separate turn — it happens as part of the same exchange.
That means every attack is a trade. Your unit deals its power as damage. The target deals its power right back. Shields absorb first, then HP takes the rest.
[PICTURE OF AN ATTACK-RETALIATION EXCHANGE BETWEEN TWO UNITS SHOWING DAMAGE NUMBERS]
Retaliation makes tanky units genuinely dangerous to hit. A frontliner with high HP and a Loopback chip is not just absorbing damage — it is punishing every attack against it. Conversely, a fragile damage dealer attacking into a high-power tank can lose more HP than it deals, especially if it has no shield protection.
This is why chip placement matters so much. A Firewall chip on a frontliner gives it shields to absorb retaliation damage on the first exchange. A Payload chip on a damage dealer lets it burst through before taking the counter-hit. Every trade interaction is shaped by what you set up beforehand.
Shields, poison, dread, fear, and corrupted
Combat involves several status effects that modify how trades resolve. Understanding them helps you read why certain outcomes happen.
Shields (temporary HP) absorb damage before regular HP. If a unit has 3 shields and takes 5 damage, the shields absorb 3 and the unit loses 2 HP. Shields are granted by Firewall chips, certain hero abilities, contract effects, and synergy bonuses. They do not regenerate between rounds unless re-applied.
Poison stacks are applied by Worm chips (and some other effects). Each attack from a Worm-equipped unit adds poison stacks to the target. Poison ticks at the end of each combat round, dealing damage equal to the stack count. Stacks are capped at 6. Poison is a slow burn — it rewards longer fights where the damage accumulates.
Dread is a power debuff. A unit affected by Dread has its next attack's damage reduced, and the Dread is consumed when it fires. V0!D's abilities are the primary source of Dread. It weakens the enemy's output without directly dealing damage.
Fear is a control effect. A Feared unit skips its next attack entirely. It does not deal damage, it does not trigger on-attack effects, it just loses its turn. V0!D's ultimate can apply Fear to the strongest enemy. Against a key damage dealer, Fear can swing an entire combat.
Corrupted is a self-destructive buff. A Corrupted unit gains +5 attack power but dies after performing 2 of its own attacks. It comes from V0!D's active ability, Blood Corruption. It turns a unit into a short-lived weapon — massive burst, guaranteed death.
[PICTURE OF COMBAT SHOWING STATUS EFFECT ICONS: SHIELD, POISON STACKS, DREAD, FEAR]
None of these effects are random. They trigger based on specific sources — chips, hero abilities, contracts — and resolve in a predictable order. Once you learn what creates each one, you can plan around them.
Hero Pulse during combat
Both heroes — V0!D and H00_t — have a Pulse system that builds during combat. Pulse generates after a full attack cycle completes, as long as the hero still has at least 2 non-token units alive.
Pulse fuels hero abilities:
- 1 Pulse = Spark ability. V0!D's Spark applies Dread to the strongest enemy. H00_t's Spark heals the most wounded ally for 2 HP (with overheal converting to shields, up to 2).
- 2 Pulse = Ultimate ability. V0!D's Ultimate applies Fear to the strongest enemy and Dread to all. H00_t's Ultimate heals all allies for 2 HP (overheal to shields) and gives the most wounded ally +3 HP.
Pulse builds naturally during combat — you do not activate it manually. But your board composition affects whether it triggers. If too many of your units die early, you may not have enough non-token allies alive to generate Pulse at all.
This creates a strategic tension: boards that survive longer generate more Pulse, which makes their hero abilities fire more often, which helps them survive even longer. Building for durability is not just about HP — it is about enabling your hero's combat kit.
[PICTURE OF THE HERO PULSE BAR FILLING DURING A COMBAT CYCLE]
How combat winners are decided and how hero damage is dealt
Combat ends when one side has no units left, or after a maximum of 40 rounds.
The winner is determined by:
- More surviving units wins.
- If tied on survivors: higher total remaining HP wins.
- If still tied: higher total damage dealt wins.
- If everything is exactly equal: the result is a draw.
After combat, the losing player's hero takes damage. The formula:
Hero damage scales with the winner's Network Tier and the strength of their surviving board. Higher tiers and more powerful remaining units mean more damage.
Hero HP starts at 30, so late-game losses are devastating — two or three bad rounds against a strong board can end your match fast.
[PICTURE OF THE TURN RESULT SCREEN SHOWING HERO DAMAGE CALCULATION BREAKDOWN]
This is why both board strength and Network Tier matter in the late game. A narrow win with one low-cost survivor deals minimal hero damage. A dominant win with a full board at high tier can nearly end the game in one shot.
Understanding this formula helps you think about not just winning combat — but winning it by enough to matter.
Want to go deeper on positioning strategy? Read the positioning guide. For hero ability details, check out the hero pulse system guide.