A Formation (aka Team or Group) is a 3 * 3 grid (up to 9 characters) filled with a main and various mercenaries (aka mercs). This is the set of characters you use to enter combat.
The are 2 types of Combat in Atlantica Online, Normal Combat and TBS.
Press Alt+F to see the Formation window (shown in the image on the right).
Enemies, whether other players or monsters, fight in the same type of formation.
Creating Formations[]
Formations are highly customizable. A typical low level formation is composed of melee, ranged/stunners, and healers. There is, however nothing stopping a player from creating a mass melee or mass ranged team. Since there are now over 70 mercenaries in Atlantica, you are able to experiment and create unique teams.
Adding Mercenaries[]
You can recruit mercenaries in various ways: hiring them outright, performing a recruitment quest, buying them from the market, winning them as an event reward, buying them from the Item Mall.
You can swap mercenaries in and out of your formation when you are of combat. This is most easily done using merc rooms and legion storage. See merc storage for details.
Removing Mercenaries[]
As stated above, you can swap mercenaries in and out of your formation when you are of combat.
Players can also fire unwanted mercenary to make room for new or better fitting merc in their formation. Be aware that by firing, you lose this mercenary and any investment you have in that mercenary (e.g. growth vials, experience gained, skills learned). If possible, you may be better off storing or employing the merc instead, if possible, to retain your investment.
Character Slots[]
Atlantica Online Mercenary display
The portraits at the bottom toward the right side of the screen shows a portrait for each character currently in your formation. The current character is shown larger than the rest. This is the character for which information will be displayed in the Character Information windows if you open it using Space or I. Press 1 - 9 to select another character in your formation).
You can assign any character in your formation a different slot number by selecting the character, holding down the Ctrl key and pressing a number between 1 and 9.
Formations in Combat[]
You can swap out mercenaries during combat from an open merc room (PvE only).
A Mercenary can also be swapped during combat from the Mercenary room (PvE only) but a newly swapped mercenary starts with 0 Action power. This only applies to the first 4 Mercenary room slots.
Dungeon Formations[]
Some dungeons require you to play with less than a complete set of characters in your formation. Most often, this means using only your main + 5 mercenaries, for a total of 6 characters (e.g. Trials individual dungeons). Some dungeons restrict you even more (e.g. the nation dungeon Perils of Avalon only allows your main + 4 mercenaries, for a total of 5 characters.
Click the Participate button under the Main Character's Portrait to enable all mercenaries in the formation.
Enabling and Disabling Mercenaries[]
You can enable or disable mercenaries in the Formation window, which gives the remaining enabled mercenaries more Action Power each turn, as well as other benefits. See Disabled for details.
Click the Participate button under any Mercenary's Portrait to enable that mercenary.
Auto-Battle[]
If you have an Auto-Battle License, your formation can fight completely autonomously for the number of Auto-Battle fights available to you.
Click the Merc Auto-Battle button under the Main Character's Portrait to enable Merc Auto-Battle for all mercenaries in the formation.
You can enable Auto-Battle for individual mercenaries or your full formation from the formation window.
Click the Auto-Battle checkbox to enable Auto-Battle. Auto-Battle applies to your Main Character and any enabled mercenaries in your formation.
Mercenary Auto-Battle[]
Mercenary Auto-Battle is always available to you, without any license requirement. You can enable Mercenary Auto-Battle for individual mercenaries or your full formation from the formation window.
Click the Merc Auto-Battle button under any Mercenary's Portrait to enable Merc Auto-Battle for that mercenary.
Formation Back Row[]
Formations have a back row that cannot be used by standard characters (main or mercenaries). This row, like other rows, has 3 columns, which can be filled by:
- Search Robots: these robots can search for you or even attack enemies
- Inventor mercenary summons: the inventor can summon a catapult or ballista to fight for you
Mercenary Limits[]
The main character's level determines how many mercenaries you can have in your formation.
- Level 1 - 4: 2 Mercenaries max + Hero
- Level 5 - 9: 3 Mercenaries max + Hero
- Level 10 - 19: 4 Mercenaries max + Hero
- Level 20 - 29: 5 Mercenaries max + Hero
- Level 30 - 39: 6 Mercenaries max + Hero
- Level 40 - 49: 7 Mercenaries max + Hero
- Level 50+: 8 Mercenaries max + Hero