How to stack troops in Total Battle: the formula for maximum damage

Send a single troop level at a monster squad and you'll see the same story every time: the enemy wipes out your strongest type in one hit, and those troops contribute nothing but their deaths. That's thousands of riders gone without landing a single blow — cavalry sent in for no reason.

This guide covers the formula for stacking two levels of each troop type, why the game's battle mechanics make it work, how mercenaries fit in, and the side-by-side results that show what it's worth in valor points.

How monster squad battles actually work

Before the formula makes sense, you need to know three things about battle mechanics against monster squads (the examples here use a Fenrir squad from the Ragnarok tournament, but the dynamics are the same):

• First strike is a coin flip. When you attack, it's a 50/50 chance who hits first. After that, the battle strictly alternates: them, you, them, you — or you, them, you, them.
• The enemy targets your biggest threat. The monster squad attacks your strongest troop type first. In practice that's usually riders, and one hit can wipe the entire type out.
• The first few attacks follow threat order, then it goes random. Roughly the first three enemy attacks work down your troop types by threat level; after that the targeting is random, and you can land several attacks in a row.

Put those together and the problem is obvious. If you bring only one level of each troop type and the enemy strikes first, your strongest type is dead before it acts. With no second rank of that type, it can never fight back — if your only archers die, nothing fires arrows for the rest of the battle.

The stacking formula

Stacking means bringing two levels of each troop type, sized so the lower level packs the same total punch as the higher one. If the level 4s get wiped, the level 3s step in and deliver the exact blow the level 4s would have.

The formula, for every 100 of your highest-level troops:

(strength of highest level x 100) / strength of the level below
= number of lower-level troops per 100 higher-level troops

That's it. One division per troop type, and it tells you the ratio to maintain at any army size.

Worked example: archers, spearmen, riders

Check each troop's strength on its card in your army screen, then run the numbers. (The card also shows the subclass and bonuses that decide which types to bring in the first place — see the guide to Total Battle troop types.)

Archers. Level 4 archers have 290 strength each. 290 x 100 = 29,000. Level 3 archers have 160 strength, and 29,000 / 160 = 181.25 — round down to 181. For every 100 level 4 archers, bring 181 level 3 archers, and both ranks hit equally hard.

Spearmen. Same strength values as archers, so the same ratio: 181 level 3 per 100 level 4. No extra calculation needed.

Riders. Level 4 riders have 580 strength. 580 x 100 = 58,000, divided by the level 3 strength of 320 gives 181.25 — again 181 per 100.

Scaling up is just multiplication. Sending 700 level 4s of a type means 7 x 181 = 1,267 level 3s behind them; 800 means 1,448; 900 means 1,629. If you don't have enough of the lower level, train more in the barracks before you march — the ratio is the point, not the raw count. A useful convenience: the game saves your troop selection between attacks, so once a stacked lineup is set you only adjust the numbers.

The ratios above are from one account's troop cards — run the formula against your own strength values rather than copying the 181.

Where mercenaries fit in

Mercenaries are dramatically stronger per unit — 2,030 strength each in this example, so a stack of 234 mercenaries represents about 475,000 strength. The formula still applies to them: treating riders (580 strength) as the reference, 58,000 / 2,030 = 28.5, so a "stacked" mercenary rank would be just 28–29 mercenaries to match 100 level 4 riders.

But there's a case for ignoring that and sending every mercenary you have, and it comes down to how mercenary losses work:

• If mercenaries get attacked, you lose 10% of what you sent — not the whole stack.
• Send 29 and you lose about 3. Send all 234 and you lose about 23. It's 10% either way.
• If you happen to win the first-strike coin flip, a full mercenary stack deals enormous damage.

Since the proportional loss is identical, the upside of maximum damage on a lucky first strike outweighs the flat cost. Send them all when you're chasing points.

Rebuild with silver and food, not gold

Reviving a wiped army with gold is a trap — gold is far too valuable for that, as the rundown of what each Total Battle currency is for shows. Instead:

• Rebuild troops with silver and food in the barracks. It's slower but sustainable — and it's why your farm-to-mansion balance matters, as the Total Battle buildings guide explains.
• The one exception is your captain — reviving the captain with gold is worth it.
• Clean out your temple. Go back and delete the troops you're not going to revive, so they stop counting against your food allowance while they sit there dead.

The results, side by side

Three attacks on the same monster squad, same captain, same monsters:

In every one of these battles the enemy won the coin flip and struck first, wiping the riders immediately. The difference in attack 2 and 3 is what happened next: the level 3 riders stepped in and delivered the blow the level 4s never got to make, then the mercenaries in attack 3 piled on. Same bad luck, 80% more points.

Before your next attack

Write the formula down and make it a habit: check the strength of your highest-level troop, multiply by 100, divide by the strength of the level below, and keep that ratio for every troop type you send. Bring all your mercenaries when points matter, accept the 10% loss, rebuild with silver instead of gold afterwards, and clear the dead from your temple. A couple of minutes of arithmetic before each march is the difference between troops that die for nothing and an army where every rank gets to hit back.