Cloudspire: The Graft – Faction Expansion

Grotesque Reflection

The majority of The Graft’s minions are “grafted” versions of familiar minions from other factions that The Graft has absorbed into its ever-growing mass of tissue. You’ll recognize familiar talents that can be used in deadly new combinations against their former compatriots.

Since The Graft is one giant organism, it has a unique promotion mechanic that involves absorbing defeated grafted minions into nearby spires. When those minions redeploy in a later wave, they come out on their promoted side, in which they have been grafted yet again with another previously-existing minion type. It’s gross, yes, but it’s also a riotously fun take on past factions that will have you thinking about your skills in a new way.

Nucleus of Power

But it’s not all about grafted minions. The heart of The Graft is Nucleus, the faction’s starting hero that also operates as a mobile fortress gate. The Graft’s fortress upgrades often impart new abilities to Nucleus itself, leading to a powerhouse that you can deploy to ravage your enemy (and, if you’re not careful, a tempting target for your opponent to take down).

Though Nucleus is the brains of the operation, The Graft also is home to a variety of parasitic worms that live in its many nooks and crannies. These worms have a variety of nasty abilities, but one of the worst is Infest, which allows the worms to embed themselves in opposing heroes and villains and drain their HP away, step by deadly step.

There are two types of minions in the Graft’s arsenal: worms and grafted units. Worms are semi-autonomous creatures who thrive in the folds of the Graft and who can be called upon for nasty parasitic purposes. Some of them spit acid, but all of them have in common the Infest ability, which allows them to burrow into opposing units and cause them to take damage whenever they attack. If you see one of your worms about to take the fall, try to use its Infest ability, denying your opponent a Source reward and hastening their demise in the process. Grafted units are melds of familiar base game faction units. When they upgrade, they will gain additional abilities from a different base game faction unit, symbolizing the Graft’s further processing and reshaping of the matter it absorbs. They also look pretty gross, and we love that for them.

Besides Nucleus, the two other Graft heroes fall into one of the two unit types. Fury Worm represents a particularly powerful worm unit, while Graft King Nestor is the former heir monarch (brother to Jaelana) who has fallen prey to the Graft’s onslaught.