Reaction
Reactions are an uncommon stat found on a handful of cards. They serve as alternative ways for these cards to trigger besides their Counter reaching 0. In many cases, cards with Reactions don't even have Counters at all, and thus can only trigger via the Reaction.
Information and Strategy
Reactions are found on both player and enemy cards, represented with an exclamation point ( ! ) inside an orange sun icon (as opposed to Counters, which are represented by a number inside a yellow sun). When a card reacts, it triggers basically identically to any card that triggered via its Counter; the card will trigger against the front enemy in the row (unless it also has Barrage, Aimless, or Longshot, in which case it follows the targeting of the ability), and if the card has Frenzy then it will trigger multiple times. The most common Reaction is the Smackback keyword, which causes the card to trigger against any card on the field that hits it. Notably, Smackback has a unique interaction with Frenzy; if the reacting card has more Frenzy than what is required to kill its attacker, the extra attacks do not occur. For instance, if a Warthog with 5 Frenzy reacts against a card with 1 health, it will attack that card once and kill it, but its four additional attacks go to waste. Other Reactions do not do this and will use up as many attacks as possible. Additionally, if a card with Smackback also has Barrage, Aimless, or Longshot, it does not trigger against its attacker and instead triggers according to the ability.
However, Smackback is not the only Reaction; other Reactions that are not keyworded are written in orange ability text to indicate what triggers the Reaction. Any other abilities the card may have are colored normally. For instance, Mega Mimik has the orange text "Trigger when an ally in the row attacks," indicating its trigger condition, and "Lose 1 Scrap" in normal text, indicating that this is an ability unrelated to what causes the Reaction.
As long as a card is inflicted with Snow, any Reactions it has will stop working. Even if the Reaction's conditions are met, the card fails to trigger. This includes if the card would react to the hit but the hit inflicts it with Snow; for instance, Snoof attacking a Spike Wall will not trigger the latter's Smackback. If a card with a Reaction is inflicted with Ink, all its abilities are negated and thus the ability that triggers the Reaction is negated. If the card would react to being hit but the hit inflicts it with Ink, it will not react. For instance, Maw Jaw triggers when hit by anything. Using the Flask of Ink on it counts as a hit (since the Flask of Ink has an attack icon), but because it Inks Maw Jaw it cannot react.
Reactions are separate from any non-triggering ability that activates under a specific condition, and those abilities can still activate even if the card is Snowed. For instance, if a card has the Punchfist Charm and the Tiger Charm attached, it will gain Smackback and "Gain 1 Teeth when hit." However, if this card is Snowed and thus cannot trigger via Smackback, it will still gain Teeth when hit by something.
Reactions trigger immediately whenever their conditions are met. This means that counterattack reactions like Smackback will interrupt attackers with Frenzy, reacting before the Frenzy attacks finish (which may even kill the attacker before they finish their attacks). Similarly, Mimik and Mega Mimik trigger in between hits if the attacking ally in the row has Frenzy. If a card's Reaction causes it to trigger against multiple specific enemies at once (such as if Snoffel inflicts the entire enemy field with Snow while Kobonker is on the field), the card will trigger against each appropriate target. If a card with Smackback attacks another card with Smackback, the cards take turns repeatedly attacking each other until one of them is destroyed. The only game state action that is higher-priority than checking a card's Reaction is checking if the card's Overburn should cause it to explode. If a card would react to something that also inflicts it with sufficient Overburn, it will explode before it gets the chance to react. If the card survives its own explosion, such as with Block, it will react after the explosion.
Cards and effects that interact with Reactions
| Player cards with Reactions | Player effects that interact with Reactions | Enemy cards with Reactions |
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