History VideoGame / Calculords

** Cytonistor makes several references to the Franchise/XMen, like saying "To me, my mutates!" (a variation of Professor X's "To me, my X-Men!") or his title, "Master of Mutates" (a reference to Magneto's "Master of Magnetism").

A sequel, ''Calculords 2'', was announced on the game's Facebook page on January 2, 2016, [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/611279740/calculords-2-rise-of-the-shadow-nerd/ with a Kickstarter going to secure funding.]] This was sadly not successful, however it is still said to be under development "with no set timetable."

* PokemonSpeak: Stardog says nothing but her name with different inflections.

* SuperSpeed: The Double-time ability, which makes a unit moves twice as many spaces. HATE BIT's Cosmo Wreckers [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules seem to be faster than other units with the ability]], moving more than halfway across the battlefield in one turn. The Stardog and Shadow Nerd updates both added some cheap Push units with Double Time, for when you want to gain ground fast.

* TheMedic: Cards with the "Bandage" ability, meaning they heal your Soldier units that take damage during the opponent's turn. Most of them have some kind of medic or field hospital-related name to them. Cards with "Repairs" are the equivalent for vehicles, and "Mutate Feeder" cards for Mutates. As it happens, healing cards tend to have low AP even if they're red Attack cards; Green healing cards usually have 0 AP.

** This is essentially HATE BIT's strategy, flooding the lanes with units, especially the weak-but-speedy Cosmo Wreckers who do bonus damage to your base, and his version of Cosmo Wreckers have the Phalanx ability, which yours do not, so he always puts at least one fast in every row every turn.

** Cytonistor makes several references to the [[Franchise/X-Men]], like saying "To me, my mutates!" (a variation of Professor X's "To me, my X-Men!") or his title, "Master of Mutates" (a reference to Magneto's "Master of Magnetism").

* CrypticBackgroundReference: Tyson Zan is said to be humanity's greatest hero, but it's not explained what he did or how HATE BIT got hold of him.

Battles are conducted in the Calculords system. The playing field consists of three lanes where you can deploy your cards, each with 19 spaces in them--nine for you, nine for the opponent, and a single neutral square in the middle. Due to "space treachery", the AI always goes first. There are three card types: Offense units (red), which are typically the heavier hitters; Push units (green), which can push enemies back and away from your base (and into their own, destroying them), and Tactics (purple), which are one-offs that have numerous effects that disappear after use. All units have AP and HP--attack points and hit points. Various buffs, nerfs, and direct damage can alter any one of these traits, and when a unit loses all its HP, it disintegrates...into a slab of meat. To deploy a card, you have to match is numerical value. To do that, you punch in numbers generated at random in your Star Calculator. (though through whatever numbers you choose when building your deck). When you use all your numbers, you generate a Calculords Bonus, which gives you a fresh set of numbers to use the rest of the cards in your hand. And should you use all of them in a turn, you get a Star Nerd bonus, and get your hand refilled. Once you are satisfied with your turn, or can't deploy anything else, you tap "Fight!" and they charge forward four[[note]](Eight if they have Double-Time)[[/note]] steps. Upon contact with enemy units, the attackers shoot at the defenders, or at the base, if they're close enough. When a player's base HP reaches 0, they lose.

* AntiArmor: The Can Opener, the only unit with the Vehicle Slayer ability, does bonus damage to vehicles.

* AntiInfantry: The Soldier Slayer ability gives bonus damage against soldiers. You could count the Mutate Slayer ability here, too.

* DoWellButNotPerfect: Many of the medals are hard to get, but look at Under Siege. You have to draw a battle out to ''30'' turns, which is not likely to happen unless you're deliberately stalling. There's also the Purple Heart medal for winning with 1 Base HP left; generally you have to carefully engineer this yourself. To get these (and many other) medals on Fancybot and Stardog you have to ''really'' hold back.

** Notable in this regard in Oneshot, a sniper who has "Surprise!" but 0 starting AP, meaning he can't deal any other damage without buffs.
* EvilCounterpart: The Shadow Nerd is this to the player character. He also has cards based on evil (or eviler) versions of other enemy commanders, like Bizarro Blok and Evil Stardog.
* FlyingSaucer: They make up a good portion of the vehicles, and are mostly used by and won from Uracillon. Believe it or not, they'e piloted by aliens! Some of the heavier ones only ''hover'', though, and don't even avoid damage from landmines. There's even a UFO Abductor card, which removes the weakest enemy unit from the lane[[note]]as long as it has under 5 HP[[/note]] upon being deployed.

** The Shadow Nerd update introduced warped versions of the enemy commanders as playable units; Shadow Krak has a staggering 10 AP (the highest starting AP of any card other than potentially Mutatro and/or Commander Shazzu) but just ''1'' HP, plus Self Destruct and Double Time.

* MiniMecha: Some of the vehicles are soldiers in tall robot suits. Almost all are alien, excepting only the Tinker Walker.
* MobileShrubbery: The SMC Flanker is a soldier unit hiding behind a bush, wearing a headband with branches sticking out from it. It's ''very'' mobile, since it has [[SuperSpeed Double Time]].

** HATE BIT often declares his love for tanks, with many of the tank cards used by other commanders, one that's normally only available through DLC, and one that deploys three tanks at once.
** Stardog's vehicles are tiny, so she fields Microtanks, which are cheap and have no special abilities.

* TheEngineer: Cards with the Fortify ability heal your base for 1-2HP every turn.
* TheMedic: Cards with the "Bandage" ability, meaning they heal your soldier units that take damage during the opponent's turn. Most of them have some kind of medic or field hospital-related name to them. Cards with "Repairs" are the equivalent for vehicles, and "Mutate Feeder" cards for Mutates. As it happens, healing cards tend to have low AP even if they're red Attack cards; Green healing cards usually have 0 AP.

** Fancybot is... ''not'' hard to beat. He doesn't have the worst cards, but never deploys many at once and skips a turn every now and then. Your first battle with him is essentially a field test of what you learned in the tutorial, and defeating him again afterwards (for his cards, one would hope) only gets easier and easier. He gets ''concerned'' if you don't beat him quickly enough, and even indirectly insults you over it.

** This is essentially HATE BIT's strategy, flooding the lanes with units, especially the weak-but-speedy Cosmo Wreckers who do bonus damage to your base. The Shadow Nerd uses a more focused version, deploying en masse in one lane until you start to push him back, at which point he simply starts deploying in some other lane.

* AchillesHeel: Commander Shazzu is one of the scariest cards the Shadow Nerd can throw at you, but takes dramatically increased damage from non-direct sources, especially HerdHittingAttack tactic cards.

** After that, however, it's averated. The multiplier is permanently set to 1, and even at max level you can still get "level ups" that will usually give you a rare card. You can get many of the Shadow Nerd's cards this way, even without buying the Shadow DLC, though at a much slower rate than beating the Shadow Nerd repeatedly.