10 rules you should know about battling in Empire of Code

Empire of Code
4 min readNov 30, 2015

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Need help conquering the universe? Here are some things you should know before battle on Empire of Code

#1 Use Practice Mode to test and learn algorithms

You can Practice with other players from your language’s clan. If you do so from the Attack window system, the game will find you an opponent according to your rating. During practice mode nobody looses resources or troops. After all, it wouldn’t really be practice if you did.

In this mode, you have a pretty good chance to steal algorithms after winning. I’ll tell you more about it in a moment.

You can only Practice on opponents who are part of your language’s clan.

In practice, you’ll need to pay for each match with 50 Crystalite.

#2 Use Conquer mode to steal resource and increase your rating.

The attack window has one more option “Conquer” where you can find opponents related to your rating. In this mode, the opponent will not be a part of your language’s clan.

You have a small chance to steal algorithms from the opponent here, but the chance is much smaller than in practice mode.

Conquer mode has no safety net, so it is possible to lose your troops should you fail to overcome the enemy.

While troops may be lost, all destroyed buildings will be recovered immediately after battle.

You can’t steal more resources than you have room for in storage.

In conquer mod, you’ll need to pay for each match with 250 Crystalite.

#3 Use direct practice with your friends.

When a friend opens up a base under the flag of your language, you can set up direct practice matches with them.

The direct practice is a bit different than ordinary practice. Here you cannot obtain your opponents code, nor will you or your opponent receive notifications about the battle.

Direct practice battles are free.

#4 Campaign is a starting point.

Before you reach level 5, the only place you can join a battle is in the Campaign.

Campaign combines elements from Conquer and Direct Practice. Battles in the campaign are a risk, but the reward is high. While it is possible to lose troops in combat, you can earn precious resources if you are victorious. After defeating the enemy, you may come back and fight the battle again where, like direct practice, you will not earn resources or lose troops.

On some campaign levels it is possible to steal predefined code in your clan’s language.

#5 Each side of the battle can steal their opponents algorithms.

Only algorithms that are used during the battle can be stolen afterwards. This means that defender can steal craft code and the offense can steal code from defensive buildings.

It is not possible to steal an algorithm if you already have it.

#6 Increasing unit levels give them more functionality.

You can increase the level of units in the laboratory. New levels provides increasing stats and open new functionality for units such as messaging between units, or the ability to use the wait function.

#7 The first defense rematch is free.

Rematch only works in Conquer mode.

If you fail to defend or attack, the game will give you the opportunity to have a rematch of the battle.

Every rematch costs Energon except for the first defensive rematch.

You can have as many rematches as you want until you win.

#8 Not all players can be conquered.

There is a set of rules that allows protected players from being conquered:

  • A player can’t be conquered if their level is lower than 5,
  • A player can’t be conquered they have never played in conquer mode before,
  • Players can’t be conquered if they are actively online. Leaving the browser opened doesn’t protect you though, you should code, build or go scouting so the system consider you as an active user,
  • A player can’t be conquered for 4 hours if they were successfully conquered and didn’t play in conquer mode afterwards.

#9 Battle is open to everyone

You can run and test your code locally.

Feel free to propose changes in the source code.

#10 Victory Point calculations use the Elo rating system with a few modifications.

You can learn more from a specific forum post where we discuss this mechanic and related functionality with the community.

We have also a specific forum section where users discuss their strategies and algorithms.

We hope you enjoy the game! We are working very hard to improve Empire of Code and help it become the game we all have always wanted to play.

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