The glossary the player reads

Keywords

Every rule printed on a card. The number is how many entries in the content print it.

Targeting

Adjacent	0	Targets enemies within one slot of the caster's own slot.
All Allies	0	Targets every living ally, the caster included.
All Enemies	0	Targets every enemy in the line.
Back	3	Targets the enemy in the highest occupied slot.
Every Other Ally	0	Targets every living ally but the caster. Only part of an Active uses it, never its own rule.
First N	0	Targets the first N enemies, front to back. The card states N; fewer than N standing means fewer targets, never a failure.
Front	13	Targets the enemy in the lowest occupied slot. Melee auto-attacks always strike Front, which is what makes the front unit the de-facto tank.
Front Ally	0	Targets the ally in the lowest occupied slot — whoever is standing at the front right now.
Highest Attack	5	Targets the enemy with the highest Attack — the biggest threat, wherever it stands.
Highest-Attack Ally	0	Targets the ally with the highest Attack, the caster included: the party's biggest hitter. Never the Porter.
Last N	0	Targets the last N enemies, back to front. The card states N; fewer than N standing means every one of them.
Lowest HP	1	Targets the enemy with the least HP left, counted raw: the smallest body, wherever it stands.
Lowest HP%	0	Targets the enemy with the smallest fraction of its maximum HP remaining: the most wounded.
Lowest-HP Ally	0	Targets the ally with the smallest fraction of its maximum HP remaining.
Most HP	2	Targets the enemy with the most HP left, counted raw: the biggest body, wherever it stands.
Most HP%	0	Targets the enemy with the largest fraction of its maximum HP remaining: the least wounded.
Random Enemy	0	Targets one enemy drawn from the encounter's fixed seed. Reloading replays the same fight.
Self	3	Targets the caster and nobody else. A self-targeted ability still costs focus.

Stat

Attack	73	Scales every point of damage the unit deals, from auto-attacks and Actives alike. Damage is Attack × the coefficient × 100 / (100 + the target's Defense). Heals, shields and statuses that say so scale on it too.
Attack Speed	37	How often a unit acts, written as the time between two actions: 1 atk / 1.25s. Every action is a cast when the unit can afford its ability, and an auto-attack otherwise. Frost slows it.
Crit Chance	8	Added to a hidden accumulator on every attack and every ability. When the accumulator reaches 100 the hit crits and 100 is subtracted. 25 means exactly every fourth hit. Never a dice roll. A crit deals 150% damage.
Defense	41	Reduces all damage — auto-attacks, Actives, the Pressure — by 100 / (100 + Defense). Percentage mitigation, never flat subtraction. It does nothing against Poison, Burn and Bleed. Heals, shields and statuses that say so scale on it.
Focus Regen	13	Focus gained per second, continuously. It is the only source of focus: attacking, being hit and killing grant none.
HP	74	Health. A unit reduced to 0 is dead, permanently. HP persists between floors; the only field healing is spending rations. Heals, shields and statuses that say so scale on maximum HP.
HP Regen	8	HP regenerated every second of a fight. Anything that forbids healing stops it too.
Starting Focus	3	Focus a unit brings into the fight. Enough to pay the ability's cost means the unit's first action is a cast, which lands before anyone has swung.

Expedition

Bag	0	Fifteen slots, rising with the Porter. Rations stack five to a slot; gear and relics take one each. A ten-floor push for a full party is fifty rations, which is ten of the fifteen.
Cairn	0	What a wipe leaves at the floor where it happened: the bag, all lent gear and all relics, guarded by the fallen party, risen. Nobody knows why the dead get up. A later expedition that reaches the floor can reclaim it, if it has the bag space.
Death	7	Reduced to 0 HP, a unit leaves the line at once, stops acting and fires its On Own Death triggers. Death is permanent. If the party wins the fight, a dead Fighter's Items lie with the spoils: carry them if the bag has room, or lose them. If the Porter dies, the expedition ends after the fight, and the bag stays with a Cairn.
Floor range	0	Ten floors of the Tower with their own creatures, encounters and boss. Deeper ranges ask more of a party: encounter relics, key units, attacks on the bag.
Lift	0	A rare working lift: ride it up a few floors at once, free, and it is remembered for later climbs. A lift never carries you past a boss.
Porter	5	The fifth body. It carries the bag, occupies a slot and can be targeted, pushed and pulled. It normally never auto-attacks and has no ability or focus; its Passive may change that. If it is still standing when the last fighter falls, the fight goes on: it can still win. If it dies, the expedition ends after the fight.
Ration	30	Food, and the run's only currency of both range and health. The party eats one ration per living body per floor, and spending more is the only healing outside a fight.
Rope	0	Packed in the bag, a slot each. A rope rigs a shaft into a Shortcut.
Shortcut	0	A way up found by looking back: standing on a higher floor, the party finds a passage down to a lower one and marks it, or rigs it with a rope. On later climbs, the lower floor offers it: straight up, free, with no idea what waits at the top. Shortcuts can collapse.

Status

Bleed	14	Stacks. Every time the bleeding unit casts its ability, it takes damage for each stack, after the ability resolves. Auto-attacks do not set it off. It never decays.
Burn	22	Stacks. Every time the burning unit auto-attacks, it takes damage for each stack, after the swing lands. Casting does not set it off. It never decays: only a cleanse or the end of the fight puts it out.
Frost	15	Stacks. Each stack slows the unit's actions by a tenth, down to a fifth of its pace, so it swings and casts later. Stacks thaw slowly on their own.
Poison	27	Damage every second that ignores Defense, stacking in intensity. It is the answer to a heavily armoured enemy. Stacks decay slowly on their own.
Stun	3	The unit cannot act at all for the stated seconds: no auto-attacks, no casts. Its focus still fills. A second Stun does not add to the first; the later end wins.

Cost

Cheap	0	30 to 50 focus: three to five casts in a balanced fight. Small heals and status application live here, and pay for their frequency in raw output.
Heavy	1	140 to 180 focus: one or two casts. Nukes and fight-deciding swings, where missing the second cast by two seconds is how the build loses.
Standard	0	80 to 100 focus: two or three casts in a balanced fight. Main damage and healing.

Combat

Collapse	0	On any death the survivors shift forward to close the gap. Gaps never exist.
Focus	0	Focus is the cooldown. It accumulates from Focus Regen and nothing else. When a unit acts and can afford its ability, the ability replaces that action's auto-attack. Focus is deducted, not reset, so overflow carries to the next cast.
Overflow	7	What a heal would give past its target's maximum HP. Overflow: X on a card says what the holder's Overflow does; any heal can have one. Written Overflow: 1 Poison for every 5 HP, to the enemy with the highest Attack.
Shield	10	A barrier that absorbs auto-attack, ability and Pressure damage before HP does. Poison, Burn and Bleed go around it. Shields stack. Shield (X): it lasts X seconds, written like a Rush (Shield (8): every ally, 1.5× Attack); a shield with no clock lasts until it breaks or the fight ends. A shield is not a Rush: nothing that counts Rushes or starts them again touches it.

Clock

Count	19	Count (N): an effect that fires on every Nth auto-attack the holder lands, counting from the first of the fight. Something may fire every Count the holder holds early, now, which leaves the counters where they are. Written Count (3): strikes Highest Attack for 1× Attack.
Pressure	4	At 60 seconds the Tower bears down: every unit on both sides loses HP every second, the same amount before Defense reduces it; a shield takes it first. It starts small and rises every second, and deeper floors press harder. A big body lasts longer in it than a small one; nothing lasts forever.
Rush	23	Rush (X): an effect that lasts X seconds and is then gone. Alone, it runs from the start of the fight; anything that starts later names its condition first (On Ally Death: Rush (8): +40% Attack) and runs from that moment. In an Active's own text a Rush starts on the cast and needs no condition (Rush (6): +50% Attack Speed). Every timed effect is written this way, except a shield, written Shield (X), and a Stun, which keeps its seconds. Borrowed power: a Rush build has to close before its advantage evaporates.
Stack	11	A counter on an Item or relic that grows by one each time its condition happens, and carries from fight to fight until the expedition ends. The stacks belong to the Item or relic: hand it to someone else and they keep them. Written Stack (condition): effect per stack. A level Passive may carry a Stack too; its stacks are the recruit's own.
Stall	22	A passive that switches on at X seconds and stays for the rest of the fight. Stall (X, Y, Z): it arrives again at each moment, and the steps add up. Something may bring a Stall sooner; once it has arrived, it stays. Deferred power: a Stall build has to survive to collect.

Trigger

On Ally Auto-attack Crit	1	Fires when an auto-attack crits on the holder's side, the holder's own included. Only an auto-attack's crit: the crit of an Active, or of anything else, does not fire it, nor does an enemy's.
On Ally Death	9	Fires on every surviving ally when one of them dies.
On Ally Poison Applied	1	Fires when anyone on the holder's side applies Poison, the holder included. One application is one moment, however many stacks it carries, and Poison landing on several units at once is one moment too. A swing it gives sets off nothing that would give another.
On Ally Rush	2	Fires when a Rush of the holder's side starts, the holder's own included, whatever it comes from: a Passive, a Trait, an Item, a relic, an Active. A Rush belongs to the side that gave it, so a debuff the side puts on an enemy counts, and an enemy's debuff on the side does not. A Rush that starts again starts anew.
On Ally Rush End	1	Fires when a Rush on any ally, the holder included, runs out or is ended early. A Rush that starts again has not ended.
On Ally Shield End	1	Fires when a shield on an ally (the holder included) runs out with some of it left, whoever gave it. An enemy's shield does not fire it, nor does a shield that breaks.
On Ally Stall	1	Fires when a Stall arrives on any ally, the holder included, whatever it comes from. Each moment of a Stall (X, Y, Z) is a Stall of its own.
On Any Stall	1	Fires when a Stall arrives on any unit, on either side, the holder included. Each moment of a Stall (X, Y, Z) is a Stall of its own.
On Enemy Death	4	Fires on every unit when one on the other side dies, whoever killed it. A mount's fall counts, as for every death trigger.
On Fight Start	2	Fires on every unit at the first instant of the fight, before anyone acts. Like On Pressure, it is the fight's moment, not a unit's.
On Own Bleed Applied	0	Fires on the unit that applies Bleed, each time it does.
On Own Burn Applied	0	Fires on the unit that applies Burn, each time it does.
On Own Cast	8	Fires when the unit casts its ability.
On Own Count	1	Fires each time one of the holder's Counts fires, from its own hits or fired early. A Count fired twice fires it twice.
On Own Crit	1	Fires when the unit's attack crits.
On Own Death	0	Fires when the unit itself dies, before it leaves the line.
On Own Frost Applied	0	Fires on the unit that applies Frost, each time it does.
On Own Full Focus	0	Fires when the unit first reaches its ability's cost.
On Own Hit	1	Fires when the unit's auto-attack connects.
On Own Hit Taken	8	Fires when the unit is struck by an auto-attack.
On Own Kill	6	Fires when the unit lands the blow that kills an enemy.
On Own Mount Fall	1	Fires when the holder's mount falls: its half of the bar has run out. A fall is a death for every death trigger, so it fires On Ally Death on the holder's side too, Stacks included.
On Own Overflow	0	Fires when a heal the holder gives overflows, with the Overflow as its amount. Overflow: X is this trigger.
On Own Poison Applied	0	Fires on the unit that applies Poison, each time it does.
On Own Ration Consumed	5	Fires each time the holder eats a ration out of its side's bag in a fight, once per ration. Meals between floors do not fire it, but they do add to a Stack that counts it.
On Own Rush	1	Fires when a Rush of the unit's starts: at the first second of the fight, when its own side gives it one, or when one starts again. A timed effect it gives an enemy is its Rush too; one an enemy gives it is not.
On Own Rush End	1	Fires at the moment a Rush on the unit runs out, or is ended early. A Rush that starts again has not ended. Often the more interesting beat to build around.
On Own Shield	2	Fires on a unit when a shield lands on it, whoever gave it: its own Active, an ally, a Passive. An enemy's shield on an enemy does not fire it.
On Own Slot Change	0	Fires on a unit whose slot changes for any reason, including a Collapse.
On Own Stall	4	Fires at the moment a Stall switches on. Stalls triggered are counted for the whole fight and for the whole expedition, which is what relics key on.
On Own Status Cleansed	0	Fires on a unit when a cleanse lifts one of its statuses.
On Own Stun Applied	0	Fires on the unit that Stuns an enemy, each time it does.
On Pressure	3	Fires on every living unit when the Pressure begins.

Displacement

PushSuspended	0	The target moves back N slots. Everyone it passes shifts forward one, and the line re-forms around the mover. Capped at the end of the line, where it under-delivers rather than failing.
PullSuspended	0	The target moves forward N slots. Everyone it passes shifts back one. A Pull can drag a back-line caster into the front, where every melee swing lands.