Initiative is a temporary individual stat that prioritises the Trooper's turns (i.e. actions) higher than the rest of the troops, thus allowing him to take his turns first (moderate boosts), or even take several turns before the others can do anything about it (high boosts). Initially the stat is null, once a trooper gets a boost, he can act while his initiative drops rapidly back to 0 over short while, right until the natural order of turns is restored. This is noticeable by examining the timer at the top right corner – once anybody gets a boost, the timer stops with a blue bar appearing underneath it; after the initiative bar runs out, the time flows again. With time stopped during boosts, Poisoned troopers don't lose health.
It's not clear how the process works exactly, as opposing troopers with boosts seem to be able to take over on some points. Cold Blooded is also witnessed to allow troopers to shoot during somebody other's boost, happen the former take aim before that. Covering Fire seems to cause enough problems as well.
One shouldn't underestimate the importance of such a stat, once witnessing Solo Mission in effect, its value is undeniable.
Note that Initiative is reset to 0 between waves, unless the trooper has the Restless skill.
Ways to Affect Initiative[]
Improving[]
- Promoting troops to Comms. Officiers (used both on the battlefield and in reserves) who can occasionally use Solo Mission to give a big boost to a single unit, or Commando to give a small boost to a clustered group of units. Alternatively, utilizing a Radio which covers aforementioned basic Communications-based abilities.
- Promoting troops to Spies, who are granted +50 IP at the start, and additional +10 IP with each new level.
- Manning a Motorcycle (moderate boost in case of successful deployment).
- Deployed by Talky-Walky Skill (with moderate boost upon deploying).
- Utilizing a Twinoid (+500 IP at a cost of ing).
- Upgrading to Adrenaline (little boost per shot that misses the skill owner).
- Upgrading to On Point (+200 IP).
- Upgrading to Frenetic (+200 IP per trooper killed by the skill owner).
- Upgrading to Bounce Back (+100 IP after getting up, additionally the skill negates Fall Damage, and allows to get up immediately after being knocked down).
- Upgrading to Vendetta (+50 IP per teammate lost).
- Upgrading to Restless (+200 IP at the beginning of the next wave).
- Utilizing a Talky-Walky does give a initiative boost as shown in this replay http://army-of-rage.minitroopers.com/b/view/raid
- Upgrading to Martyr (+150 IP to up 5 other troopers deployed shortly after the death of the skill owner).
- Upgrading to Suspicious (+200 IP per hostile Spy).
Deteriorating[]
- Utilizing Glue Grenade (-200 IP per trooper affected by the area of effect).
- Utilizing Binoculars (-400 IP for the next enemy trooper).