Cocklefighting

How the board works#

Trumpet keeps 3 commissions at the Tidemark. They are drawn for you alone, and the board is kept: it does not wipe overnight, so a rare one can be saved for when you have the time.

A commission counts nothing until you take it on. Accepting one snapshots where you are, and only what you do after that counts toward it. You can carry 1 at a time to begin with, so a board of 3 is a choice about which to chase. Giving one back frees the slot and loses its progress; a finished one has to be claimed rather than returned.

The Commission Board in Shallowmere buys more room: one extra commission at building level 4, a second at its ceiling of 8, for 3 at once, which is the whole board.

You turn the board over yourself, with two controls that work like the Pit’s fight list. Swap claimed replaces only the commissions you have already claimed, so nothing in progress and nothing you are saving is ever taken. New board replaces everything you have not taken on.

Each is limited twice: a cooldown that paces a session, and a count that resets at midnight. Swapping is ready every 30 minutes, 4 times a day; a new board every 4 hours, 2 times a day. A cooldown alone would only slow a re-roll down, and somebody chasing a legendary would wait it out all evening; the daily count is what keeps a rare draw a matter of luck rather than patience.

Your first commission is Your first tide, the one every cockle gets. It is uncommon, has five steps instead of a target, never expires, and pays 250 gold, 5 turns back and 1 skill point. Once claimed it is gone for good.

Rarity#

A commission carries the same six-band rarity as gear and magic, and the band decides three things at once: how much work it is, how much it pays, and what it can pay in. A legendary is not simply a longer common.

What a legendary pays#

Everything the bands below it pay, and then a boon: one of your five stats lifted by 25% for your next 25 attacks. Which stat is rolled with the commission and shown on its card from the moment it is cried, so you always know what you are chasing. It is the only reward in the game that changes how a cockle fights rather than what it owns, and a fresh one replaces whatever was running rather than stacking.

What a commission pays#

Each is sized in wins-equivalent work and pays 45% of what that many wins already yield at your level, so the board is a bonus on play you were doing anyway. Gold and XP both ride your own level, fixed at the level you were when the commission was cried.

“Turns back” is a refill, not a bigger pool. It tops up the turns you have right now and never touches your cap, so it is clamped by it: if you are already full, those turns are lost. The only thing that raises the cap for good is a trophy.

A same-level win is worth about 603g and 310 XP at level 50, which is the figure every number above is derived from.

The pool#

A commission is only drawn once you could actually finish it, so the pool widens as you go. Targets scale with your level; the rarity decides how many times over.

* Also needs somewhere in Shallowmere to do it, and a day there long enough to hold the whole ladder.

Trophies for the board#

Two ladders at the Tidemark watch your commissions. One counts how many you finish; the other counts consecutive days you claimed at least one, which cannot be caught up on later and so carries the rarer bands and the titles.