The basic gameplay is explained well enough for someone with prior auto battler experience. (I can't really comment on the point of view of an absolut beginner.)
However, there are also some issues (not really bugs).
A lot of the initial difficulty of the game seems to be caused by important information being hidden or given in a somewhat misleading/inconsistent way.
Regarding the hidden part of the problem:
IMO most important for planning ahead would be the various lvl 2 or lvl 3 unit descriptions. It takes quite a few (or maybe a lot) runs to get every unit to lvl 3 at least once.
I assume the "Choose Deck" menu (Coming Soon) is going to solve this is in a more suitable way.
EDIT: Actually, there is a list of most unit/book descriptions on one of the past pages of comments, but it seems to be partially out-of-date.
Regarding the misleading/inconsistent part of the problem, i.e. mostly description issues:
The fast forward button has the tool tip "Move units to last space, ignore special effects".
I would assume this includes movement-based effects like Bat Curse and ranged attacks. But they are not ignored.
Is the description simply out-of-date?
If not, what special effects are ignored?
It seems Blacksmith + Farmer can not buff the same ally at the same time. :-( So "give ally directly behind" might make it clearer.
A few unit/book descriptions differ between preparation phase and battle phase.
Examples:
- Blessing book lvl 3 in preparation screen is missing the "Double Damage!" part … which is kind of important.
- Bone book lvl 3 in battle sreen is missing the "ironic" … which isn't nearly as important. ;-)
Shield claims to "Reduce 2 damage.", but it neglects to mention that minimal damage is still 1.
Ratfolk claims to summon Ratling(1)(1), but it is Ratling (1)(Red Skull – dies on hit), so buffing summon health is pointless here. Also " " is missing.
The target area of unit's abilities should be consistently stated like "first", "on lane", "random", "any", "directly in front", "directly behind".
E.g. Kobold targets weakest enemy on lane while Rocker targets any summoned ally. Both are missing these important details.
Related: It is unclear what "weakest" means. Lowest enemy tier? Or most damaged?
When several units buff the same unit (e.g. 2 bards on a summon or Nurse(s) + self-buffing unit) the animations are a bit misleading. If I am not mistaken the accumulated buffs are applied at once, but the visuals do not match. This can lead to the (hopefully wrong) conclusion that at least one buffer failed to do its work.
And then there are a few undocumented and somewhat surprising game mechanics.
Summon overflow:
Units that summon more than one unit on death might not summon all of them if there is not enough space directly behind them or at the end of their line where they could push their allies to – IIRC they never push towards the enemy.
This seems to be more of a feature you have to plan for than a bug (you can summon a Skeleton (1)(2) directly in front of a Snitch to take it and the sole Idiot out — or it could in turn cripple your summoner strategy) – so this mechanic should be explained somewhere. "On Death – Summon up to X Things if there is space" in the description might help make this clearer. And/or an additional page of the "?" regarding summons.
Succubus' issue with the royals:
Prince and King are immune to the direct charm (succubus lvl 1–3).
But the bounced charm (only lvl 3) seems to deal 99 damage to the unlucky 2nd enemy (any type). This kills the enemy before replacing it with a converted copy – except for the royals … they just die. (As pointed out by Isaac 576.)
This makes some kind of sense, but is a bit surprising.
Related:
The enemies max health during battle seems to be hard-coded to 99 even if the king has already grown to 100+ health outside of battle. (See future comment below.)
EDIT: A few of the older screen shots on previous pages already cover this. And apparently all stats are capped at 99.
