Gods of the Arena — mechanics & reference

Gods of the Arena — mechanics and reference

See overview, illustrated kits and items, and policy and host surface.

Map, teams and objects

Default map size is 116×116, with even sizes 64–256 accepted by map generation. Map seed 54 is distinct from match randomness. Read mapWidth, mapHeight, mapLayers and selfLayer. walkTo(x,y) clamps coordinates to the map and uses engine pathfinding; castPoint(slot,x,y) rejects coordinates outside the map, then limits valid ground aim to spell range. Neither call accepts a destination layer. Static terrain queries have explicit-layer variants, work through fog, and describe terrain rather than guaranteed path reachability or occupancy by units/towers.

Teams are Red = 0, Blue = 1. Seats 0–4 are Red, seats 5–9 Blue.

Object kinds: 1 fort, 2 hero, 3 footman, 4 tower. Non-heroes have class -1. Allied objects are included; enemy objects require team visibility. Object-list indexes are temporary; actions use stable object IDs. Tower objectAlive requires positive HP and exposure: outer → inner → gate in each lane. The fort becomes exposed when any one lane has no surviving towers. Its alive flag includes that exposure condition. This is a targeting constraint, not evidence that a protected structure has died.

Economy and recovery

Heroes start at level 1 with 150 gold. Maximum level is 20; the XP requirement for each next level is 100 + (level - 1) * 75. Hero-attributed killing hits award:

Footmen have 60 HP and 12 base damage; tower HP is 600/800/1000 by tier; fort HP is 400. These rewards are not an automatic whole-team payout for every kill.

Inventory has six slots (0–5). Consumables stack to eight; a full existing stack rejects another purchase, even with an empty slot. Equipment duplicates are rejected. Buying requires a living hero, gold and inventory capacity, with no shop-distance or minimum-level condition. Held equipment applies immediately; useItem is for consumables and rejects equipment. Increasing maximum HP/mana also increases the current value by the same delta in refreshHeroStats.

Consumables: ration (ID 1) heals 40 for 30 gold; elixir (2) heals 90 for 50; mana potion (3) restores 60 for 45; poison (4) deals 35 for 40. Healing/restoration caps at maximum and rejects a full resource. Poison requires the hero's selected enemy to be hittable within basic-attack range, including visibility and structure exposure. See the guide for equipment IDs' names and bonuses; the enum in content source gives IDs 5–20.

Respawn retains level, inventory, gold and script memory; restores HP/mana and clears movement/attack state. Abilities start the new life fully charged. The death sequence waits 24 animation ticks plus 192 respawn ticks (9 simulated seconds counted after entering Dying). Living hero updates regenerate one mana every six ticks, capped at maximum.

Combat and spells

Basic attacks cost no mana and use no spell charges. They are separate from four ability slots: 0 passive/Q, 1 primary/W, 2 secondary/E, 3 ultimate/R. The names do not prohibit explicit casting of slot 0. castTarget and castPoint expose all four. BASIC bots also use automatic casting: the combat path tries the passive, then the ultimate, secondary and primary until one of the latter three succeeds. Human-control mode disables that automatic spell path; the BASIC host exposes no toggle for it.

Ability availability depends on mana, charges and cooldown, not level unlocks. Cooldown and recharge queries return ticks, while guide tables show seconds. Charges recharge one at a time; spending another charge does not reset a running recharge timer. Cast acceptance consumes resources; delayed impact checks eligible targets later. Valid ground shots can miss. An accepted target order does not prove that a hit occurred. Replay command records likewise capture attempts before acceptance.

Use effective abilitySpec results, not only BaseAbilitySpecs: primary overrides set three charges, 2-second cooldown and 12-second recharge for nine listed attacks; Molten Fist's effective mana cost is zero.

Movement and scoring

Mobile units separate from living tower bodies on the same navigation layer. Footmen skip route waypoints already passed after a combat detour.

The game returns score 1 to winning-team seats and 0 otherwise. An unfinished fort contest at the time limit returns ten zeros. total_xp is separate output. Consult the active league for its rating and ranking rules.

Sources: simulation, effective content, host, terrain, map configuration.

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Maintained by Codex, an automated agent working for James Boggs.