Abilities & Stances
Every round an Icaroid can move and shoot, but some components or glyphs you bolt on grant abilities - leaps, deployments, terrain reshaping, beacons - and a few of them are stances you toggle on and leave running. This guide explains the round-action slots an ability spends, the toggled stances that change how you fight, the limits that keep the strongest abilities in check, and what every ability in the catalogue actually does.
What an ability is
An ability an extra tool you can perform each round. It is separate from the built-in move and fire actions every Icaroid already has - you only get an ability if something on the frame provides it, whether that's a dedicated module, a mobility part, or an ichor glyph that grants it. Wreck the carrier component and the ability goes with it.
Abilities cover a wide span: burst movement that ignores terrain, reshaping the map underfoot, dropping mines and beacons, repairing your own structure, or dropping into a defensive stance. What they share is a cost paid out of your round's action slots, and - for the strongest ones - a cooldown or a hard cap.
Action slots & cost
Each round an Icaroid has three independent action slots:
- Move - the normal step-by-step movement budget. See Movement & Positioning.
- Fire - shooting a weapon at a target.
- Ability - a third slot reserved for abilities, independent of move and fire.
Every ability declares which slots it consumes. That is
the whole of its cost - an ability that consumes move
replaces your movement that round, one that consumes fire
replaces your attack action, and one that consumes only ability can be
used alongside moving and firing because it spends the third
slot nothing else touches.
| Consumes | What you give up | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Ability only | Nothing else - still move and fire this round. | Resonate, Drop Beacon, Fire Everything |
| Move | Your movement for the round. | Jump, Flow, Deploy / Undeploy |
| Fire | A weapon shot (some fire the carrier weapon anyway). | Raise Terrain, Deploy Mine |
| Move + Fire | Both - you only act through the ability this round. | Fortify Position, Mining Repair |
Stances: toggled abilities
Most abilities resolve once and are done. A stance is different: it toggles a status effect on and leaves it running until you toggle it back off. You spend the slot to enter the stance, then it costs nothing to hold - but you also can't shake it without spending a slot to leave.
Deploy / Undeploy
Deploy / Undeploy is the signature stance. Toggling it on anchors the Icaroid in place and applies Deployed: missile accuracy climbs sharply and indirect-fire deviation drops to zero. The catch is in the name - you cannot move while deployed, and pulling out costs your move slot again on the round you undeploy. It's the stance for artillery and snipers that want to plant and pour on full accuracy, exactly the "shoot, don't scoot" side of the accuracy-versus-evasion trade.
Fortify Position
Fortify Position is a heavier commitment - it consumes both move and fire to convert the hex you stand on into fortified cover, applying Fortified for heavy cover and reduced explosive damage. You sacrifice an entire round of offense to become very hard to shift, which suits a frame holding an objective or weathering a barrage it can't out-trade.
Cooldowns & uses
The most powerful abilities carry one of two brakes - sometimes both - so use them with care:
- Cooldown
- A number of rounds that must pass between uses. Jump and Charged Dash sit out two rounds; Resonate waits three; Flow only one. The clock starts the round you use it.
- Uses per battle
- A hard cap across the entire battle, no matter how long it runs. Placement abilities like Place Planet Siphon and Drop Beacon are limited to two deployments each - spend them where they count.
Abilities with neither brake - Deploy / Undeploy, Fortify Position, Raise Terrain - are limited only by the slots they cost. You can use them every round you're willing to pay for them.
Movement abilities
These replace your normal move with a burst of motion that ordinary movement can't match - clearing terrain, crossing gaps, or breaking contact. They all consume the move slot, so you fire as normal the same round (unless you'd rather not).
| Ability | Reach | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Jump | 6 hexes | A burst leap that ignores terrain height entirely - cross chasms and clear obstacles. 2-round cooldown. |
| Flow | 5 hexes | A fluid surge that ignores terrain move penalties and the fall damage of steep descents. 1-round cooldown. |
| Charged Dash | 5 hexes | An electric rush that deals 30 electrical damage to enemies adjacent to the path it crosses. 2-round cooldown. |
Jump clears the climb-height limit outright, making it the cleanest way off a ledge or over a wall; Flow trades a hex of range to suppress the crash damage of a long drop; Charged Dash turns repositioning into a small attack in its own right. Pair any of them with a light, evasive frame to relocate without ever standing still.
Terrain & placement
This family changes the board itself - raising and dropping elevation, or leaving destructible objects behind. Most consume the fire slot, and the terrain-shapers fire the carrier weapon on the same action.
Reshaping the ground
| Ability | Effect on the map |
|---|---|
| Raise Terrain | Permanently raises the target hex by 2 elevation steps and deals heavy stability damage to anything standing on it - build cover or threaten a crash. |
| Resonance Quake | Permanently drops half the hexes in a 2-hex radius by 1 step, dealing light stability damage across the area - collapse high ground and rattle a cluster. |
Both raise fire the carrier weapon as they work, and both lean on the stability rules - a crash is a real threat to anything caught on a shifting tile. Reshaped terrain is permanent, so a well-placed Raise Terrain rewrites the sightlines for the rest of the battle.
Leaving things behind
| Ability | What it places |
|---|---|
| Deploy Mine | Fires an explosive mine to a hex; it stays hidden until detected and detonates on entry. Fires the carrier weapon too. |
| Drop Beacon | Places a decoy structure enemies see through the fog as an Icaroid you control. 2 uses per battle. |
| Place Planet Siphon | Places a structure that boosts nearby friendly Chorus Icaroids' glyph effectiveness. 2 uses per battle. |
Placed objects are destructible and sit on the battlefield until killed. Deploy Mine denies a lane; Drop Beacon feeds the enemy a false target through the fog of war; Place Planet Siphon rewards building a glyph-heavy Chorus force around it.
Support & utility
The remainder keep your own side running - sharing effects, mending structure, or trading condition for ammunition.
- Resonate
- Pulses out from the user, pushing your positive effects onto allies and your negative ones onto enemies within 3 hexes. Spends only the ability slot, but waits 3 rounds between pulses - time it for when both your buffs and the enemy's debuffs are worth spreading.
- Mining Repair
- Mines the surrounding terrain to repair this Icaroid's own structure. Consumes both move and fire and has a 2-round cooldown - a full round spent patching up instead of fighting.
- Fire Everything
- Overloads the autoloaders to replenish up to 40 ammo, at the price of 25% structure and armor damage to a random component. A gamble that trades a component's health for staying in the fight when your magazines run dry - see ammo.
Putting it together
Abilities are where a build's plan shows. A deployed gun platform wants Deploy / Undeploy and a slow, accurate weapon; a skirmisher wants Jump or Flow and never plants its feet; an engineer reshapes the board with Raise Terrain and Deploy Mine before the enemy arrives. Because most abilities cost a slot you'd otherwise spend moving or firing, the question is rarely "can I?" but "is this round better spent on the ability or on a shot?"