The Battle Cats – Comprehensive Talent Orb Guide

Ultimate Guide to Talent Orbs

By Xanthopathy

General Information

How do they work?

• Talent Orbs are items that improve a unit’s stats against a specific trait. They can be equipped by opening the talent window at the upgrade menu. 
• Just like talents, the orbs only affect the true form of the unit.
• Units with talents have 1 orb slot each, while units with ultra talents tend to have 2 orb slots. Units that don’t have talents won’t be able to equip them.
• Multiple of the same orb equipped on the same unit will stack additively.
• Orbs can be merged while in Storage and while equipped. 
• Unequipping an orb costs 10 NP. This will return the equipped orb back to your storage.
• You can overwrite already equipped orbs by tapping on the already equipped orb in the Talents menu and selecting a new one. This will delete the orb completely, unlike unequipping, but will not cost you any NP.

Grades / Ranks

• Orbs come in five grades (also called ranks), indicating their potency: S, A, B, C, D. Lower-grade orbs can be merged to form higher-grade ones.

Types

• There are currently five types of orbs: Attack Up, Defense Up, Strong Effect Up, Massive Damage Up, and Tough (Resistant) Effect Up.
• They are also split into two (semi-official) categories:
  • Normal orbs: Attack Up and Defense Up.
  • Special orbs: Strong Effect Up, Massive Damage Up, and Tough (Resistant) Effect Up.
• All units with an orb slot can equip normal orbs of any trait, but special orbs can only be equipped by units with the respective ability, as well as the targeting trait. For example, Ramen Cat can equip Attack Up Red, Defense Up Floating and Tough Effect Up Angel, but not Tough Effect Up Alien, Strong Effect Up anything or Massive Damage Up anything.

Targets / Traits

• There are 8 obtainable orb traits, which determine what trait the orb type affects: Red, Floating, Black, Metal*, Angel, Alien, Zombie, and Aku. There is no Traitless or Relic orb currently.
• Applying an orb does not give a unit a new targeting trait. For example, applying a Defense Up Black D orb to Ramen Cat will not let its Resistant ability also apply to Black enemies.

* Metal only has Defense Up orbs.

Effects

Note: The following calculations assume fully maxed treasures.

General Chart

Attack Up

• Increases the amount of damage dealt.
• The amount of damage increase is equal to 100%-500% of the unit’s base damage, which is its (the true form’s) damage at level 1 with no treasures.
• The general damage increase for this is equivalent to +10 levels, but it will not scale with higher levels (past level 60/70), due to how the leveling curve works.
• The attack buff given by the orb is added AFTER most other damage calculations*, meaning it isn’t affected by the following effects and abilities: Curse, Weaken, Strengthen, Savage Blow, Critical Hit, Strong Against, Massive Damage, Insane Damage, and Attack Up Talents.
• The only exceptions to this are: Wave, Mini-Wave, Surge, Mini-Surge and Attack Up Combos.

• Example scenario: A level 30 Kitty of Liberty has 17850 attack power. This means that the cat’s base attack is at [17850 / (30 / 2 + 2)] = [17850 / 17] = 1050 damage.
• The cat has an S-grade Alien attack orb equipped, which increases the damage dealt to Alien enemies by +500% of its base damage. In other words, the cat deals [1050 x 500%] = 5250 additional damage to Alien enemies, so the cat has [17850 + 5250] = 23100 damage in total against Alien enemies. 
• The cat is then weakened to 50% power. Now, it will deal [17850 x 50%] = 8925 damage against Non-Alien enemies, and [(17850 x 50%) + 5250] = 14175 damage against Alien enemies

* This is only specific to Attack orbs. The other orbs will be still affected by abilities such as those listed, unless stated otherwise.

Defense Up

• Reduces all damage taken from a trait. 
• The reduction percentage is -4% to -20% (or 0.96x to 0.8x).
• This damage reduction is completely unaffected by Curse.

• Example scenario: A level 30 iCat has 20400 hp. The cat meets a Red enemy that deals 10000 damage, and takes a hit. 
• The cat has an S-grade Red defense orb equipped, which reduces all incoming damage from Red enemies by 20%. The cat receives [10000 x (100% – 20%)] = [10000 x 0.8] = 8000 damage from that enemy instead, and is now at [20400 – 8000] = 12400 hp.

Strong Effect Up

• Reduces all damage taken from a trait, as well as increases the damage multiplier from the “Strong Against” ability.
• The defensive damage-reduction effect works exactly like defense orbs, besides the actual percentage, which is from -2% to -10% (or 0.98x to 0.9x).
• The offensive damage-multiplier-increase effect directly adds to the existing Strong multiplier on the unit, from +0.06x to +0.3x
• Both the defensive effect and the offensive effect are affected by Curse.

• Example scenario: A level 30 Cameraman Cat has 9690 hp and 5610 attack power. It has Strong vs. Floating, which means it takes 0.4x less damage and deals 1.8x more damage against Floating enemies. The cat meets a Floating enemy that deals 10000 damage, and takes a hit.
• The cat has an S-grade Floating strong orb equipped, which:

+ Reduces all incoming damage from Floating enemies by 10%. The cat receives [10000 x (0.4 x 0.9)] = [10000 x 0.36] = 3600 damage from that enemy instead, and is now at [9690 – 3600] = 6090 hp.
+ Increases the damage multiplier dealt to Floating enemies by +0.3x. This means that the cat will deal [5610 x (1.8 + 0.3)] = 11781 damage against Floating enemies.

Massive Damage Up

• Increases the damage multiplier from the “Massive Damage” ability.
• This effect works exactly like the offensive effect of strong orbs, directly adding to the existing Massive Damage multiplier on the unit, from +0.1x to +0.5x.
• This multiplier increase is affected by Curse.

• Example scenario: A level 30 Pizza Cat has 15725 attack power. It has Massive Damage vs. Black, which means it deals 4x more damage against Black enemies.
• The cat has an S-grade Black massive damage orb equipped, which increases the damage multiplier dealt to Black enemies by +0.5x. This means that the cat will deal [15725  x (4 + 0.5)] = 70762.5 damage against Black enemies.

Tough (Resistant) Effect Up

• Reduces all damage taken from a trait.
• This effect works exactly like defense orbs, as well as the defensive effect of strong orbs, reducing damage from -5% to -25% (or 0.95x to 0.75x).
• This multiplier increase is affected by Curse.

• Example scenario: A level 30 Ramen Cat has 17850 hp. It has Resistant vs. Angel, which means it takes 0.2x less damage against Angel enemies. The cat meets an Angel enemy that deals 10000 damage, and takes a hit.
• The cat has an S-grade Angel resistant orb equipped, which reduces all incoming damage from Angel enemies by 25%. The cat receives [10000 x (0.2 x 0.75)] = [10000 x 0.15] = 1500 damage from that enemy instead, and is now at [17850 – 1500] = 16350 hp.

Optimization

How should you equip orbs?

Attack orbs should not be equipped on most units. The big problem with it is that it scales badly, whether it be with diminishing returns with level boosting and talents, with damage-related abilities that don’t affect it like Savage Blow, or when compared to strong and massive damage orbs. 

The units worth using them on are:

• Units with the Target Only ability, who have very high base attack power: Immortal Shingen, Mad Doctor Klay, and Orbital Annihilator Ragnarok. 
• Other units with high base attack power, usually at least 3000 (aka 51000 at level 30). Some examples are Aku attack orb on Divine Kai (with Shield Piercing talent), Greater Balrog and Cats in the Cradle (wave is one of the few abilities that work with it).
• Units who are meant to go in, deal damage, and die. This mostly refers to units with 1 kb, for example Kitty of Liberty and Dancer.
• There’s also an argument to equipping Zombie attack orbs on units whose main job is to deliver ZKills. This mostly refers to Housewife.
• Damage dealers who have mini-wave or mini-surge. Units like Li’l King Dragon, Artist Orthos CC, Divine Coppermine gain very significant damage boosts due to each separate mini-attack (which are only 20% of the original attack) getting the full damage increase of the orb.

Defense orbs should be equipped on most units, except for those with abilities that have their respective orbs (special orbs). This is because unlike attack orbs, defense orbs will scale with the unit’s levels, abilities, and talents.

Usually, it will be best for the orb’s trait to match that of the unit’s targeting trait, for example equipping a Metal defense orb on Catasaurus. Though, it’s certainly not a bad idea to equip a general attacker with orb traits of more formidable traits, like for example equipping an Aku defense orb on Pizza or Housewife.

Strong, Massive Damage, and Resistant orbs should be equipped on units with those respective abilities.

However, in the case of resistant orbs, there’s certainly an argument for using defense over resistant orbs due to the former not being affected by curse.

Should you farm orbs?

It is not advised for players that aren’t in late-game yet. For late-game-and-up players, it’s still not quite worth it, but its relevance has been gradually increasing with the introduction of aku orbs, as well as ultra talents, giving units 2 orb slots. In 12.2, with the addition of base/decoration upgrades reducing up to 15% of damage taken to all units, the cumulative benefit of these damage reduction effects have definitely made the appeal of farming orbs more alluring.

If you decide to farm them, do note that it will not be easy to get S-grade orbs, even if you farm them optimally, as the drop rate is rather evenly spread between orb types. This isn’t the case for the Metal trait, however, as it only has defense orbs, so getting those to S-grade will be much faster.
If you do not care about orbs, or you have some spare orbs that are irrelevant to you, you can sell them. D-grade orbs should be exchanged for 1 NP immediately, but higher-grade orbs should be merged until they’re at S-grade and then sold.

How to efficiently farm them

The most efficient way overall is to farm Lv. 16 – Lv. MAX of Baron stages, especially since it has the best drop rate for special orbs. An interesting thing to note is that the NP-to-energy rate is surprisingly very good (1.0167 NP per 100 energy for Lv. MAX), better than Siege farming (0.54125 NP per 100 energy) even.

Island of Hidden Treasure is much less efficient, but it’s a regularly scheduled farming stage unlike the former. 

Orb Enigma stages are not worth enigma-farming to do them, but are still very much worth doing whenever one shows up.

How to Obtain

Note: The following methods all unlock after clearing ITF3.

Island of Hidden Treasure

• This is a map dedicated to farming talent orbs, with every stage inside costing 300 energy.
• The stages’ naming scheme reflects both their orb traits and their drops’ value.
  • +Trait (in order): Crimson (Red), Cheerful (Floating), Ebony (Black), Holy (Angel), Azure (Alien), Rotten (Zombie), Adamantine (Metal).
  • +Drop value (in order): Dawn, Apex, Refuge.
• Schedule:
  • Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday: [11:00 – 13:00]
  • Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday: [20:00 – 22:00]

Drop Rate

Note:

• The rate is split evenly in 3 between the special orbs, and evenly in 2 between the normal orbs.
• Since Metal currently only has defense orbs, its stages’ drop rates (7, 14, 21) are unique.

Orb Enigma Stages

• Enigma stages are special stages that have a chance to drop whenever you clear a stage with an energy cost in Legend Stages (excluding Enigma stages themselves, as well as Continuation stages and Catamin stages). Orb Enigma stages are part of the possible drops. Each of these stages have an equal chance of being discovered.
• The stages’ naming scheme reflects both their orb traits and their drops’ value.
  + Trait (in order): Red (Red), Sky (Floating), Black (Black), Holy (Angel), Cosmic (Alien), Necro (Zombie), Steel (Metal), Bad Instinct (Aku).
  + Drop value (in order): Cradle/Origin, Summit/Apex, Frontier/Refuge.

Encounter Chance

Drop Rate

Note: The rate is split evenly in 3 between the special orbs, and evenly in 2 between the normal orbs.

Baron Continuation Stages

• Baron Gauntlets are sets of 20-stage no-continue maps, each with a unique Colossus boss that has both a normal trait, and the Colossal sub-trait.
• Currently, there are 7 Baron Gauntlets, each dropping orbs respective to their boss’ normal trait:
  Baron Seal Strikes – Red Alerts (Red), Mega Menace – On Mighty Wings (Floating), Le’Grim Strikes – Rampage (Black), Divine Archangel Strikes – Blessing (Angel), Horrorpotamus – Cosmic Juggernaut (Alien), Big Peng Z Strikes – Wandering (Zombie), and Attack of the Omens – Three Omens (Aku).
• Beating a stage inside these maps has a chance of giving you a continuation stage, which will drop an orb. This chance becomes 100% starting from level 16 to level 20. Refer to the chart below.
• Overall, special orbs have a 75% chance to drop compared to normal orbs’ 25% chance, making these stages very excellent for farming special orbs.

Encounter Chance

Drop Rate

Note: The rate is split evenly in 3 between the special orbs, and evenly in 2 between the normal orbs.