Jacksmith Battle Guide: Cannon, Elements and Loot

From the shop to the trail

Each day starts with the wagon parked on a trail. The first area is the Lowlands, and the trail is drawn as a line of stops along the bottom of the screen. Soldiers come to the counter and place their orders, and once their weapons are made they march out with them. The soldiers are animals in armour (the first to arrive is a pig), and the enemies they meet are animals too: geese, sheep, bulls, goats, hornets, spiders, snakes, slugs, bats and more, all the way up to dragons.

You fire the cannon

It is easy to assume the battle plays itself, but it doesn't. Flipline's description says that as your warriors fight, you gather loot and man the cannons. The wagon has a cannon, and over the campaign you unlock more cannonballs for it. The game describes each one itself:

Cannonball	What the game says it does
Cannonball	A regular cannonball
Fire Bomb	Leaves flames around an enemy that slowly deal damage
Ice Bomb	Freezes an enemy so they cannot attack
Lightning Bomb	Lowers an enemy's strength with an electric zap
Repair Bomb	Repairs your soldiers' weapons
Booster Bomb	Gives your soldiers a boost in attack power

The Repair Bomb exists because weapons have Durability and wear down as soldiers fight. If a soldier's weapon is about to give out, a repair shot keeps them going. One badge asks you to hit one enemy with Fire, Ice and Lightning Bombs at the same time. Another asks you to win battles on three days without firing the cannon at all, so leaving it alone is something you choose to do.

The eight elements

Enemies are sorted by element, and the game has an Element Chart in its help pages. The elements are eight: Fire, Water, Ice, Stone, Lightning, Wind, Plant and Shadow. The Beasts book on the counter is a bestiary. Each enemy you have met gets a page that shows how many you have killed and what it is weak to, for example "Weak to Fire". New enemies get a pop-up the first time they appear.

A weapon's element comes from its Element Boost, which you unlock by filling a mold's Star Meter (the forging guide on this blog covers it). Before you forge, look up the next enemies' weaknesses in the Beasts book and give the soldiers who will meet them a boost of the right element. Badges such as "Fight Fire with Fire" ask for the opposite, hitting enemies with their own element. Those are challenges, not tips.

What enemies drop

Fallen enemies leave loot on the field, and you click it to collect it. The game's badges count three kinds:

• Ore: Copper, Bronze, Iron, Steel and Gold all appear as battle loot. This is what you forge with.
• Weapon parts: new parts to fit onto future weapons.
• Gems.

There is also treasure, which gives either weapon parts or a scroll with a new weapon design. When the battle ends, the end-of-day screen totals your money and XP and shows how close you are to the next level.

The road to Dudley

After the Lowlands, the caravan travels on to Alpine Ridge, Boneyard Dunes, Cinder Springs, Evershade Forest and Wormwood Hollow, each with its own travel badge, and then to the Castle Ruins. That is where the final badge waits: "Defeat Dudley and rescue Princess Liliana." Flipline calls him the Great Wizard Dudley, and the whole trip is a push toward him.

Quick battle habits

• Keep clicking loot while the fight runs. Ore and parts are what tomorrow's weapons are made from.
• Save the Ice Bomb for an enemy that is about to land hits, and save the Repair Bomb for soldiers whose weapons are wearing out.
• Look up a new enemy in the Beasts book once it has appeared, so you know its weakness next time.