Dark War Survival — what I wish I knew on day 1

Tristan's Rain Fire fires twice via Twin Ballistics. Both strikes deal identical damage: 47,760 each in Calderon, 88,999 each in Mummy. Francis's Fire Barrage and Catherine's Go Rex Go also dealt the same damage when at the same star and skill level. Three battles, multiple rounds — always identical.

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It determines where your investment goes. Active skills fire once every 10 rounds for massive burst. Normal attacks fill every round between. Passive buffs compound through the entire pool permanently. Knowing the cycle tells you where skill books have the most impact.

Star unlock bonuses for S-tier heroes: 1★ +180%, 2★ +360%, 3★ +540%, 4★ +780%, 5★ +1,300%. The 5-star bonus alone exceeds the sum of all previous stars. A-tier heroes get roughly half these numbers, creating a permanent DPS gap.

Answer: Tristan's weapon splits his damage. Tristan's exclusive weapon "Endgame Echoes" has the Twin Ballistics passive: Rain Fire fires twice, but each hit deals only 75% damage. So Tristan's 2,668% multiplier is effectively 2,001% per strike (2,668 × 0.75). Guy's Blade Storm at 2,586% lands as a single full-power hit — no weapon penalty. Credit: Portgas D Acee for the weapon card find.

The per-hit comparison (71,218 vs 47,760) was misleading. Tristan's total output is 47,760 × 2 = 95,520 — higher than Guy's 71,218. Twin Ballistics isn't a penalty, it's a net 50% damage bonus (75% × 2 = 150%). The damage formula is clean. The weapon modifies the delivery.

What this means: Displayed skill percentages are accurate — but weapon passives silently modify how skills deliver damage. Always check the hero's exclusive weapon before comparing per-hit numbers. Tristan remains the top Fighter DPS.

Answer: Yes, but barely. A controlled test on S497 (25 Mar 2026) showed normal attack skill levels add roughly +0.37% damage per level in troop battles. That's a tiebreaker, not a priority. Levelling normal attack skills from Lv.17 to Lv.18 added ~50 damage on a base of ~13,500.

What this means: Skill book priority confirmed as Passive > Active > Normal. Normal attack levels aren't wasted — they just don't earn their place until your passives and actives are maxed.

Every hero skill loses ~3.4% damage per 10-round cycle as troops die and the pool shrinks. Every skill except Eagle Strike, which loses 16% — nearly 5× faster. Something in its damage formula interacts with a variable that degrades at a different rate.

Current theory: Farhad is a 4-star hero — lower star level means lower troop HP, meaning his troops may die faster. If the pool weights each hero's surviving troop contribution individually, Farhad's faster troop losses would accelerate his skill's damage decay. We need combat logs comparing a 5-star hero and Farhad in the same battle to confirm.

Why it matters: If you're building a Shooter roster around Eagle Strike as your primary burst, the effective DPS over a long fight is significantly lower than the Round 11 number suggests. Late-round performance matters in drawn-out rallies.