How Does Counter Work?

Screenshots provided by a BC player who wanted to clear up myths about counter and provided the PvP screenshots for this blog post. Please respect their request for anonymity.

The Battle Camp description for Counter is shown in the screenshot below. It is very detailed in all that counter does, however it does not explain which two monsters will have counter cast on them.

"Counter - Active: Reduce ability damage by 40% and reflect 100% of the damage. Reflected damage cannot exceed 50% of Health. Lasts 2 turns and is cast on 2 monsters."

Ability damage is incoming damage from your opponents active ability (for example, snipe or sacrifice).  Most abilities will target your monster(s) with the highest current health.

If the ability damage hits a monster who has counter cast on it, the counter will reflect up to 100% of this damage back to attack the monster it came from.

There is a limiting factor though.  The amount of damage reflected can at most be only 50% of the maximum health of your monster with counter.  A passive like bulwark or protector is the best for counter as they both increase your monsters health by 65% and 55% respectively.

Counter is cast onto two of your monsters and lasts 2 turns.

It's this last sentence in the definition of counter that has caused confusion among players as there is no indication of which two monsters counter will choose... and that's the topic of this blog post.

Myth: You should only have one counter on your team.

Myth: Counter is always cast onto the 2 monsters with the highest maximum health.  

Myth: Counter is always cast onto the 2 monsters with the highest current health.

Reality: Counter is always cast onto the casting monster (with counter) and the monster with the highest maximum health.  If you have multiple counters, the result is that each monster with counter as an active, will be protected by counter and so will the monster with the highest maximum health irrespective of its current health (causing some overlap when stacking).

Proof Example 1 - More than 1 counter can be used on a team

In this example, our helpful BC player has provided as screenshot of their team (viewed as the opponent team) using 3 monsters with counter.  As you can see in the screenshot below, 4 monsters have counter cast on them at the same time.

The three monsters on the right of the above screenshot each have counter as their active.  The monster on the left of the above screenshot is the monster that has the highest health on this team.  Each of the three counters has cast itself onto themselves and the phosphroller on the left (monster with the highest maximum health).

Relevant Monster Information:

Phosphoroller: 11282 HP, max health mob, has counter applied

Firebat: 7075 HP

Iguatic: 1725 HP - counter active, has counter applied

Rockhead: 1736 HP - counter active, has counter applied

Snowmonk: 9525 HP - counter active, has counter applied

This information about each monster in the team is provided in the screenshots below (click to enlarge).  

Note:  If one of the counter monsters had the highest maximum health, its counter would apply to itself and the monster with the next highest health. However, if there is another counter monster in the team, its counter would apply to itself, but then also the first counter that had the highest maximum health.  As such, it's possible that using 2 counters will only result in 2 monsters being protected by counter, instead of the maximum possibility of 3. This is likely to be one of the sources of confusion in how counter works.

Proof Example 2 - Counter applied to Max Health Mob Always

In this following example, proof is presented that counter is always applied to the monster with the maximum total health, irrespective of its current health.  

Again, in this example, the opponent team is the one with counter that we're considering.  This team has only one counter on the Shaogun, which also has the maximum health. The Hydrogon has the second highest maximum health and is the other recipient of the counter cast.

Relevant Monster Information:

Brrrskimo: 24175 HP

Shaogun: 59400 HP, counter active, maximum health

Hydrogon: 31732 HP, second highest maximum health
Glitterblaster: 22483 HP

BouncingBunshee: 30079

This information is provided in the screenshots below. (Click to enlarge)

In this first screenshot, counter has been cast for the first time to the shaogun (has counter, highest max health), and the hydrogon (second highest maximum health).

In the following screenshot, counter has been cast for the second time.  The hydrogon's current health is around half of its maximum, and has a lower actual health than the glitterblaster and brrrskimo at this time.  However as the hydrogon has the highest maximum health, it still has counter cast onto it.

In this final screenshot, counter has been cast for the third time (an extra turn has occurred before this screenshot was taken but you can see that a minute has passed since the last screenshot).  The hydrogon's health is even lower, however it still has counter cast onto it.