Unicorn Overlord: Tactics and conditions, explained

As soon as you’re introduced to Tactics and conditions in Unicorn Overlord, the information can get a little muddled and difficult to understand at first glance. Luckily, I’ll explain the basics of how Tactics and conditions work.

How Tactics and conditions work in Unicorn Overlord

Tactics in Unicorn Overlord are your “if, then” statements for your party members to listen to when jumping into a battle. Tactics are split into Active and Passive Skills, and you can assign two conditions to each of them. You’ll find your Tactics in the character menu, or when you’re looking at character details when examining your unit formations.

You also have your list of priorities, which you can alter depending on which Active and Passive Skills you want your characters to enact first. Then each Tactic can have a condition that’ll decide in even further detail who to prioritize this Tactic toward, amongst other conditions. Take a look at my Lex, as an example.

Since Viperfang can use Poison Slash as an Action to inflict Poison on an enemy, I want that in priority spot one. I also added a condition to prioritize armored enemies first. Another good condition could be to prioritize enemies with the lowest HP, which is what I gave Warding Slash, my second Active Skill.

How are conditions prioritized?

Conditions are a little weird in Unicorn Overlord. While you may think condition one is prioritized first over condition two, this isn’t the case. Players online have noted that the game’s conditions don’t go in order, and in fact, it’s usually random, sometimes enacting the second condition first.

In this example with Yahna, you can see that I have Icebolt to prioritize either enemies with the lowest HP, or enemies in the back row. I can’t control which condition is met first, but what I can do is add the same skill again. This is because if either two conditions aren’t met, I can still have Yahna cast Icebolt, but now with another condition to prioritize armored enemies.

You can add multiple tactics of one skill if you want to get technical, but it’s also important to know that if the condition you’re applying says, “This skill will not activate otherwise”, your party member will only do this skill if that condition is met and under no other circumstance. This is unless you have that same skill added as another action in your Tactics without one of those condition types.

This is why it’s important to read the red text under your condition’s description. Other conditions can have the text “The skill will override default targeting rules,” which just means it’ll ignore its normal rules in favor of your set condition.

Which conditions are best?

I know it’s a lot to take in, but understanding which conditions are the best for each party member is very crucial for victory. As an example, if you’re deciding on the Tactics and conditions for a Knight like Clive, you know that Knights are deadly against infantry.

With this knowledge in mind, you may want to set his “Assaulting Lance” skill with the condition to prioritize infantry. Then you have Rolf, who’s a Hunter. Hunters are effective against flying foes, so make sure to prioritize their attacks toward flying enemies.

Tactics and conditions work for Passive Skills as well. You can decide to have your Hoplites prioritize guarding the weakest members, or perhaps members in the back row. Even healing abilities can have conditions to prioritize party members with the lowest HP.

Since knowing details on each class is important for assigning conditions, you should know about the best classes in Unicorn Overlord.