Mechanics · stat aggregation
How stat bonuses combine
Your account has dozens of bonus sources — research, governor gear, charms, pets, hero stats, alliance tech, VIP, town skin. They don't all combine the same way, and some of the most important ones never appear in your battle report at all. Getting this layering right is what separates a real simulator from a spreadsheet that adds percentages.
1. Two channels: visible and hidden
There are two completely separate accumulation channels, and the mental split between them is the single most useful thing to internalize.
Visible stat bonuses
Everything that raises the four core troop stats: research, governor gear, charm, pet stats, masters, town skin, VIP, alliance tech, outposts, island, hero base stats and gear, widget stat bonuses, and the Helga/Amadeus unique passives. This is what your scout and battle reports show.
Hidden SkillMod
Hero and joiner skill effects — the flat op bonuses, chance buffs, periodic skills, pity procs. These never show in the report. They build the multiplier on top of the stat-based per-troop values. Covered separately →
2. Section A — the additive base
Within the visible channel, the base bonus for a given stat is simply the sum of every source. Governor gear plus charm plus tech plus pets plus the rest — all added together. The leader's hero Attack/Defense % joins here too, but only for the leader's own class (an Infantry leader's % applies to Infantry only).
Confirmed The basic bonus shown in scout and battle reports is exactly this sum. No hidden multiplier at this stage — it's plain addition.
3. Section B — the multiplicative passives
Two heroes break the additive rule. Helga's Power of the Deer and Amadeus's Born Leader are multiplicative on top of the additive base — and only if that hero is actually in your leader trio.
| Hero | Stats | Squads | ⭐1 | ⭐2 | ⭐3 | ⭐4 | ⭐5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helga — Power of the Deer | Attack & Defense | All | 2% | 4% | 6% | 8% | 10% |
| Amadeus — Born Leader | Lethality & Health | All | 3% | 6% | 9% | 12% | 15% |
Probable These passives apply at the per-troop factor stage, multiplied after the additive base — they are not folded into the visible aggregate. This was verified by subtractive peeling of real battle reports; an earlier write-up that lumped them into the additive sum was wrong, and the engine was always doing it the right way.
4. Section C — territory garrison
Garrisoning a building inside allied territory adds +10% Attack and +10% Defense — applied multiplicatively on top of the base, plus a flat add of the same percentage.
5. Section D — active buffs
Consumables ("Troop Damage Up 20% / 12h"), pet skills, minister appointments and turret effects form one more layer on top. The important and frequently-botched part is how your buff interacts with the enemy's matching debuff.
Probable Within a single active source, your buff and the enemy's debuff on the same stat cancel additively before composing with other layers. So +20% of your own attack against −20% of enemy attack-down nets to ×1.00 in that layer — not ×1.20 × ×0.80 = ×0.96. The simulator layers these sources and nets same-stat pairs inside each layer; getting this wrong quietly drifts the result by a few percent on every contested buff.
6. Why a Gordon joiner equals an HP pill
Here's the trap. A joiner's first skill that grants a flat stat percentage — Gordon's +25% Health, for instance — does not appear in your battle report, because it isn't registered as a report bonus. People conclude it does nothing. It does everything.
Confirmed A reproduction test settles it: 8,000 cavalry versus 10,001 infantry produces the identical casualty count whether the defender's HP comes from a Gordon joiner (+10%) or from a +10% HP city pill. The joiner skill feeds the hidden SkillMod side and combines multiplicatively with your visible stats — same effect on casualties, invisible in the report.
This is exactly why the simulator models both channels. A tool that only reads what the battle report shows will systematically undervalue stat-granting joiners and mis-rank your rally.
Next: who actually contributes these bonuses — Rally & garrison rules →
Model your real account
Enter your bonuses once and the simulator carries them through every layer correctly.