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Glossary of collection RPG terms

Community shorthand in this genre is dense, and a new player reading advice written for experienced ones will misunderstand most of it. These are the terms used across this library and the ones you will meet in guides elsewhere, defined in general terms. Individual games apply their own names to several of these systems; where a definition and a game's own wording disagree, the game is right.

Roster and progression

Roster

Every character on an account, whether built or sitting unused. Distinct from a team, which is the small group taken into one encounter.

Rarity

The tier a character occupies when acquired, usually shown as stars or letters. It sets a character's ceiling rather than its current strength, which is why a fully built low-rarity character routinely outperforms an unbuilt high-rarity one.

Ascension

A step change that raises a character's level cap and often unlocks an additional ability. Gated by scarce materials, and the point at which a broad roster narrows to a handful of characters in practice.

Mastery

A secondary progression tree, usually a grid of small passive improvements, unlocked once a character is reasonably developed. Cheap individually, slow in aggregate.

Account level

A separate progression track measuring the account rather than any character. Typically gates which content is available and how much of the daily resource can be stored.

Grind

Repeating content already cleared to accumulate materials. The main long-run activity of the genre and the thing automation exists to shorten.

Equipment

Gear set

A group of equipment pieces that produces an additional effect when worn together. Usually the reason a piece with poor individual attributes is still worth equipping.

Main stat

The primary attribute on a piece of equipment, fixed by its slot and type. Predictable, and therefore the part you plan around.

Substat

A randomised secondary attribute. Two identical pieces can differ enormously in usefulness because of substats, which is why equipment optimisation outlasts character acquisition as an activity.

Roll

An upgrade instance on a piece of equipment, where the improvement is applied to a randomly chosen substat. “Four rolls into speed” describes a fortunate outcome, not a decision.

Combat

PvE

Player versus environment: encounters against the game rather than another player. The bulk of content in this category, and the setting for most progression.

PvP

Player versus player. In collection RPGs this is typically asynchronous — your defence team is attacked while you are offline — rather than live competition.

Turn meter

A hidden or visible gauge determining when a character acts. Filled by a speed attribute, and the reason speed is treated as the most important attribute in most games of this type.

Speed tuning

Setting characters' speed values so that abilities resolve in a chosen order every round. The most technical planning activity in the genre and the clearest example of the category being a planning game rather than a reflex one.

Buff and debuff

A temporary improvement applied to your side, and a temporary impairment applied to the other. Most difficulty in this category is a specific debuff you cannot remove or a specific buff you cannot apply.

Cleanse and block

Removing a debuff already applied, and preventing one from landing. Different abilities, frequently confused, and a difficulty wall will usually require one specifically.

Sustain

A team's ability to keep itself alive over a long encounter, through healing, shielding or damage reduction. The usual missing role when a team clears short fights and fails long ones.

Auto-battle

Automated resolution of an encounter, generally using a simple rule such as the lowest-numbered available ability. Suited to repeating cleared content, unreliable for new content.

Affinity

An elemental or typed advantage system determining how well one character performs against another. Where a game uses one, ignoring it is the most common cause of an inexplicable loss.

Acquisition and economy

Randomised draw

The acquisition mechanism common to the genre: a paid or earned action that returns a character determined by chance, at stated odds. Also called a pull or a summon, and in wider usage a gacha, from the Japanese capsule-toy machine.

Banner

A time-limited draw with an adjusted pool, usually promoting a particular character. The mechanism by which acquisition is tied to a schedule.

Pity counter

A counter guaranteeing a result of a given rarity after a set number of unsuccessful draws. Where one exists, its rules are published in the game; where one does not, none should be assumed.

Energy

The metered resource consumed by repeatable content, regenerating over time. The mechanism that sets a game's natural session length.

Free-to-play

Playable without payment, with optional purchases available. Describes the entry price and says nothing about the pace of progression without them.

Premium currency

A currency obtainable both by playing and by purchase, used for draws and convenience. Its dual nature is what makes spending decisions in this genre less clear-cut than a straight purchase.

Community shorthand

Meta

The set of characters and strategies currently considered effective by experienced players. A description of a moment, not a property of the game, and it shifts with each content update.

Tier list

A ranking of characters, usually assuming a developed account with resources a new player does not have. Read as a statement about a context, not as instructions.

Clan or guild

A player group unlocking co-operative content. The point at which a game acquires a schedule, since group activities commonly have daily or weekly windows.

Whale

Community shorthand for a player who spends heavily. Used descriptively here, and worth knowing because advice written with such accounts in mind is not transferable.

Quality of life

Interface and convenience improvements — batch upgrades, saved teams, a faster repeat function. A significant factor in how a long-running game feels, and one publishers describe in their own update notes.

Terms this library avoids

A few pieces of common shorthand are deliberately absent from Everworks pages. “Broken” and “must-have” are judgements about a moment in a game's balance, and they date within weeks. “Pay-to-win” compresses a real question — what portion of content is reachable without spending — into a label that stops the analysis rather than starting it. “Whale bait” and similar attribute intent to a designer, which is not something a third party can know. And “free”, used unqualified, describes an entry price while implying something about the whole experience.

Where those ideas are genuinely useful, this library states the underlying fact instead: which content a publisher says is available, what a game's own information screens disclose about acquisition, and what the reader would need to check themselves. It reads less briskly and it survives an update.