Strategy Spotlight: Untargetable?

Welcome to Strategy Spotlight, a new series on the Chip Theory Games blog in which we break down some key strategies and rule reminders for the biggest CTG titles. Today, we’re going to tackle a topic that has made many a Gearloc pull their ears in despair: the difference between damage dealt to targets and non-targets. A common rules question we get at Chip Theory Games goes something like this: “In Too Many Bones, how am I supposed to win a fight against a Baddie that keeps activating its Untargetable Skill? And what about Kollossum’s Jungle King and Challenge Skills? Did you people make an unkillable Tyrant just to mess with us?”

It’s an understandable question, especially because you know we love to mess with you. The answer, however, lies in one of the most important distinctions in Too Many Bones: Some dice deal Dmg to a Gearloc’s target, and some deal Dmg to untargeted enemies. First, the obvious: When you’re rolling Atk dice, you’re rolling those dice against the target of your attack. That means that when that Minikin Monkey rolls a bone for the umpteenth time, his Untargetable Skill activates and he becomes immune from your attacks. Just look at that dumb little monkey, laughing at you as he swings through the jungle with not a care in the world.

However, a good Gearloc has other ways of bringing down that persnickety primate. Take, for example, Tantrum. Tantrum’s Axe Collector consumable represents the number of throwing axes available to everyone’s favorite rage-filled adventurer at a given moment. If you tick down his axe counter by one, he “throws an axe” and deals 2 Dmg to any non-adjacent Baddie.

Notice that this text does not say “deal 2 Dmg to your target.” Instead, you can chuck those axes at any Baddie on the board, provided it’s not next to you. So convenient! Tantrum is far from the only Gearloc with this useful bit of utility. Boomer’s bombs work much in the same way, as do Duster’s Throwing Knives. The king of non-targeted damage dealing, however, is Gasket. Our steam-powered mech buddy loves using his Skill dice to arc, blast, ram, cut, gut, get, and grab Baddies all over the Battle Mat, and none of his Skills specify that they must be used on a target. The minikin won’t know what hit him!

So next time you find yourself with no one to punish with your Atk dice, take a look at your Gearloc’s reference sheet and check to see if you have other, non-target-specific options. If there’s one thing all of our adventurers are good at, it’s causing chaos in unexpected ways.