The abilities

Hexwing has 1,300 base abilities. Every merge of two or three of them is a new ability with its own name, look and numbers: 1,688,700 two-merges and 2,191,932,600 three-merges, all generated deterministically from the ability's key, so both players always see the same thing.

Shape families

Each ability is drawn from one of eighteen families, and a merged ability layers its parts: orb, star, bolt, shard, ring, feather, missile, crescent, rune, spiral, gear, comet from the first wave and eye, skull, shuriken, snowflake, flame, hex from the second. Nothing is ever still: layers spin, breathe, rock or flicker, in the arsenal and in flight, in both renderers.

Flight patterns

Clash classes

When two shots meet, their clash class decides it: a fragile shot dies to anything and destroys nothing but hits harder for it; a normal shot trades one for one; a sturdy shot destroys what it meets and flies on, hitting softer. Homing, split, big volleys, bounce, speed and size push an ability toward fragile — strength is paid for.

The budget

Every ability spends the same per-second damage budget for its tier — base, merged or triple — so a fast volley hits softly and a slow heavy shell hits hard. About one base in eight is a heavy (one hard shell every few seconds), and a third of those are siege shells that charge while you hold fire. A slice of abilities carry a debuff instead of full damage: slow, jumpy or skewed aim. Some are beams: a sweeping ray that passes through cover.

Utilities: control, not damage

Thirteen kinds of ability do no damage at all and control the field instead: snare and scramble orbs, a one-way reflector, a gravity well, a decoy, a portal pair, a stasis bubble, a repulsor, a smoke bank your shots hide in, a sentry turret, a mine layer, a one-way shield wall and a shot thief that fires back what it catches.

Shot traits

One shot in seven carries a trait and pays for it in damage: mortar, phasing (through mirrors, blockers and bars), chain (a hit destroys the victim's nearby shots) and leech (heals its owner a third of the damage).

Specials

Every ability also has a special form for the special button, one of twenty-two modes: nova, barrage, wall, rain, beam, orbit, mirror, swarm, mega, scatter, spiral, pincer; and the defensive and weird ones — snare, counter, well, phase, mend, pulse, time stop, cloak, overclock and hex.

Merges, Primes and the Forge

Two different abilities merged in order give a new one; three give a triple; order matters, so every ordered pair and triple is distinct. The Forge rolls the outcome: the first ingredient sets a 60–80 % chance of the expected result, 3 % gives a Prime (about 40 % more damage budget, gold-ringed, a stronger special), and the rest gives another order of the same parts. The Forge shows the odds first and never rolls into a result you already own while another remains.