Chain lightning, ricochet arrows, and cascading heals.

Chaining Abilities

A chaining ability doesn't stop at the target you cast it on. After the hit lands, it jumps to the next nearest valid target and hits that one too, then the next — chain lightning, a ricocheting arrow, a heal that cascades through your party.

Chain vs. AoE vs. follow-up#

These three look similar in the editor and behave nothing alike:

	What it does	Where range is measured from
AoE shape	Hits everything inside an area, all at once	The impact point
Chain	Walks outward one target at a time, with its own falloff	The target it just hit
On-hit ability	Fires a different ability once when the first hit lands	The caster

That middle row is the whole point: a chain's reach has nothing to do with your range or your AoE radius. It walks.

Setting one up#

Open Database → Abilities and edit (or create) an ability.
Go to the Targeting & AoE tab and scroll to the chain panel.
Tick Chains to nearby targets.
Set Extra Targets — how many more victims after the first. 2 means three in total.
Set Jump Range — how far the arc may reach from each victim, in tiles.
Set Damage Falloff — the share of the previous hit each jump deals. The editor shows what the last jump will actually land for.
Set Jump Delay so the arc visibly travels instead of every target being hit at once.
Pick Jumps To: enemies, allies (a cascading heal), or "same as ability".
Save. Chain settings are read when the ability loads, so roll the game server to see them in play.

Fields#

Field	What it does
Chains to nearby targets	Master switch. Off = the ability hits its target (and its AoE, if any) once and stops
Extra Targets	How many additional targets the arc hits after the first. Capped at 12
Jump Range (tiles)	How far the arc may reach from the target it just hit. Nothing in range ends the chain early. Capped at 30
Damage Falloff (%)	Share of the previous hit's damage each jump deals. `100` = no falloff; `70` = each jump hits for 70% of the one before it, so the second jump lands 49%
Jump Delay (ms)	Pause between jumps. `0` hits everyone at once, which reads as a bug — give it 100–200ms
Jumps To	Enemies, Allies (cascading heal), or Same as ability, which reuses this ability's own Target Mode
Arc VFX	A VFX definition played on each new victim as the arc lands. Leave as None to reuse the ability's impact visual
Jumps apply status effects	Whether each jump also rolls the ability's status effects. Off means only the first target gets the debuff
May hit the same target twice	Off (recommended) stops the arc bouncing back and forth between two nearby targets
Only the main target chains	On (recommended). Off lets every target caught in an AoE start its own chain, which multiplies the hit count fast

How a jump resolves#

Every jump is a real hit: it rolls crit, runs the element and resistance pipeline, can be absorbed by a shield, pulls aggro, and can kill. It simply carries the reduced damage multiplier. What it does not do is repeat the cast: no extra mana, no extra cooldown, no second cast animation, no ability effects (summons, teleports, displacements) firing once per victim.

Targets are chosen when the previous hit lands, not when you cast — so an arc reacts to what's actually happening. Anything that stops a normal hit stops a jump too: safe zones, allies you can't damage, boss immunity windows, targets in another instance, and the dead.

Gotchas#

Roll the server after editing. Ability definitions load at boot.
A chain on an AoE ability multiplies fast. Leave Only the main target chains on unless you have counted the hits.
Chaining stuns lock down packs. Leave Jumps apply status effects off for hard crowd control — it's the single easiest way to make a fight unwinnable.
100% falloff is not "no chain", it's "no falloff" — every jump hits for full damage.
A cascading heal needs Jumps To = Allies. With enemies (the default) a heal has nowhere to jump and stops after the first target.
Jump Range is not your ability's range. A long chain can walk well outside what you could have cast on.

Chain vs. AoE vs. follow-up#

These three look similar in the editor and behave nothing alike:

	What it does	Where range is measured from
AoE shape	Hits everything inside an area, all at once	The impact point
Chain	Walks outward one target at a time, with its own falloff	The target it just hit
On-hit ability	Fires a different ability once when the first hit lands	The caster

That middle row is the whole point: a chain's reach has nothing to do with your range or your AoE radius. It walks.

Setting one up#

Open Database → Abilities and edit (or create) an ability.

Go to the Targeting & AoE tab and scroll to the chain panel.

Tick Chains to nearby targets.

Set Extra Targets — how many more victims after the first. 2 means three in total.

Set Jump Range — how far the arc may reach from each victim, in tiles.

Set Damage Falloff — the share of the previous hit each jump deals. The editor shows what the last jump will actually land for.

Set Jump Delay so the arc visibly travels instead of every target being hit at once.

Pick Jumps To: enemies, allies (a cascading heal), or "same as ability".

Save. Chain settings are read when the ability loads, so roll the game server to see them in play.

Fields#

Field	What it does
Chains to nearby targets	Master switch. Off = the ability hits its target (and its AoE, if any) once and stops
Extra Targets	How many additional targets the arc hits after the first. Capped at 12
Jump Range (tiles)	How far the arc may reach from the target it just hit. Nothing in range ends the chain early. Capped at 30
Damage Falloff (%)	Share of the previous hit's damage each jump deals. `100` = no falloff; `70` = each jump hits for 70% of the one before it, so the second jump lands 49%
Jump Delay (ms)	Pause between jumps. `0` hits everyone at once, which reads as a bug — give it 100–200ms
Jumps To	Enemies, Allies (cascading heal), or Same as ability, which reuses this ability's own Target Mode
Arc VFX	A VFX definition played on each new victim as the arc lands. Leave as None to reuse the ability's impact visual
Jumps apply status effects	Whether each jump also rolls the ability's status effects. Off means only the first target gets the debuff
May hit the same target twice	Off (recommended) stops the arc bouncing back and forth between two nearby targets
Only the main target chains	On (recommended). Off lets every target caught in an AoE start its own chain, which multiplies the hit count fast

How a jump resolves#

Gotchas#

Roll the server after editing. Ability definitions load at boot.

A chain on an AoE ability multiplies fast. Leave Only the main target chains on unless you have counted the hits.

Chaining stuns lock down packs. Leave Jumps apply status effects off for hard crowd control — it's the single easiest way to make a fight unwinnable.

100% falloff is not "no chain", it's "no falloff" — every jump hits for full damage.

A cascading heal needs Jumps To = Allies. With enemies (the default) a heal has nowhere to jump and stops after the first target.

Jump Range is not your ability's range. A long chain can walk well outside what you could have cast on.