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THE FIELD NOTES · CRITTERFRONT

A team is more than its creatures.

Five attacking threats. Five defending roles. Two connected puzzles in every team.

Count distinct deployed families.

Every recruit has one threat trait for its marcher and one defending role for its tower. The thresholds are 2, 4, and 5 different deployed families. Duplicate copies count once, regardless of star. Bench creatures and summons add no faction members.

A pair can therefore help one side without activating the other. Mushroom and Seed share Evergrowth, but their tower roles are Blaster and Binder. Dog and Pollen share Catalyst, but their attacking threats are Swiftclaw and Brood. The planner displays those counts separately.

Attacking threats

MARCHER THREAT

Swiftclaw

  1. 2 families Marchers move 20% faster.
  2. 4 families Marchers move 40% faster instead.
  3. 5 families Marchers move 60% faster instead.

Families: Bat, Dog, Cat, Birdie, Bunnie.

MARCHER THREAT

Nightveil

  1. 2 families Marchers are Veiled: distant turrets cannot directly target them until they are Revealed.
  2. 4 families In addition, every 6s one random enemy turret within 2 hexes of any allied Nightveil marcher is disabled for 2s (shared owner cooldown).
  3. 5 families The shared turret-disable cooldown is reduced to 2s.

Families: Spider, Wyrm, Bomb, Lurker, Petal.

MARCHER THREAT

Ironhide

  1. 2 families Marchers gain Ironplate equal to 20% max health. When it breaks, enemies on adjacent hexes are stunned for 0.5s. Blast removes Plate at 2x efficiency; other non-pure damage at 0.5x.
  2. 4 families Ironplate increases to 50% max health and its break stun increases to 1s.
  3. 5 families Ironplate increases to 100% max health and its break stun increases to 1.5s.

Families: Cactus, Treant, Scorpion, Dragon, Hermit King.

MARCHER THREAT

Evergrowth

  1. 2 families Marchers continuously regenerate 3% max health per second. Taking damage does not interrupt regeneration.
  2. 4 families Regeneration increases to 6% max health per second.
  3. 5 families Regeneration increases to 10% max health per second.

Families: Mushroom, Seed, Demon, Hydra, Angel.

MARCHER THREAT

Brood

  1. 2 families Each non-summon marcher hatches one temporary Broodling when finally defeated.
  2. 4 families Each defeated non-summon marcher hatches one additional temporary Broodling.
  3. 5 families Each defeated non-summon marcher hatches one further temporary Broodling.

Families: Pollen, Bee, Egg, Ghost, Soul Mage.

Defending roles

TOWER ROLE

Blaster

  1. 2 families A tower hit that damages multiple marchers leaves a telegraphed 40%-damage Blast Aftershock (shared 3s cooldown).
  2. 4 families Blast Aftershock damage increases to 80%.
  3. 5 families Blast Aftershock deals 100% damage and has no cooldown.

Families: Mushroom, Cactus, Birdie, Soul Mage, Bomb.

TOWER ROLE

Binder

  1. 2 families Two different Binder families impairing one marcher within 2.5s Tether its hex with a strong slow for 3s.
  2. 4 families The Tether also occupies one available adjacent hex.
  3. 5 families Created Tether hexes persist for the rest of the battle.

Families: Bat, Seed, Ghost, Hermit King, Lurker.

TOWER ROLE

Hatcher

  1. 2 families At battle start, hatch one shared living Guardling on the owner's battlefield. Marchers stop to fight it.
  2. 4 families Hatch one additional shared Guardling at battle start.
  3. 5 families Hatch one further shared Guardling; all Guardlings block their next 3 hits.

Families: Egg, Treant, Hydra, Bunnie, Petal.

TOWER ROLE

Catalyst

  1. 2 families Every qualifying Catalyst tower buff or debuff echoes to one additional valid target.
  2. 4 families The effect echoes to two additional valid targets instead.
  3. 5 families The effect echoes to three additional valid targets instead.

Families: Dog, Pollen, Spider, Scorpion, Angel.

TOWER ROLE

Ravager

  1. 2 families A Ravager tower kill orders another Ravager tower to make an immediate 60% bonus attack (shared 2s cooldown).
  2. 4 families The immediate bonus attack increases to 100% damage.
  3. 5 families The immediate bonus attack increases to 200% damage.

Families: Cat, Bee, Demon, Wyrm, Dragon.

Use the roster matrix.

Every threat-role intersection contains exactly one family. You can follow an attacking row, a defending column, or combine both. Remember that a fifth member competes with other needs in a team capped at six deployment slots.

One family in every threat × tower role combination
Marcher threatBlasterBinderHatcherCatalystRavager
SwiftclawBirdie4 gold · tier 2Bat3 gold · tier 1Bunnie5 gold · tier 4Dog2 gold · tier 1Cat2 gold · tier 2
NightveilBomb2 gold · tier 2Lurker5 gold · tier 3Petal2 gold · tier 3Spider3 gold · tier 2Wyrm4 gold · tier 4
IronhideCactus3 gold · tier 2Hermit King2 gold · tier 3Treant2 gold · tier 3Scorpion4 gold · tier 3Dragon5 gold · tier 5
EvergrowthMushroom2 gold · tier 1Seed2 gold · tier 1Hydra4 gold · tier 4Angel5 gold · tier 5Demon3 gold · tier 4
BroodSoul Mage5 gold · tier 5Ghost4 gold · tier 3Egg3 gold · tier 2Pollen2 gold · tier 1Bee2 gold · tier 2

Try a four-family exercise.

Dog, Cat, Pollen, and Bee give you two Swiftclaw and two Brood families on attack. Their tower roles give two Catalysts and two Ravagers. This makes a useful way to inspect four different thresholds in the planner. It is a mechanics exercise, not a proven competitive composition, and needs sufficient deployment capacity in a real match.

Then replace one family and see which thresholds disappear. Read ability conditions alongside the badges: a Catalyst echo still needs a qualifying effect and valid targets; a Ravager order still needs the appropriate kill trigger.

Positioning decides whether many of those conditions occur often enough to help.