Transformers: Earth Wars

Transformers: Earth Wars
"...fuel cells!"
Developer	Space Ape Games (2016-2026) Yodo1 (2026-present)
Publisher	Backflip Studios (2016-2019) Space Ape Games (2019-2025) Yodo1 (2017-present China,[1] 2025-present global)
Platform	Android, iOS
Release date	June 2, 2016

Transformers: Earth Wars is a mobile game developed by Space Ape Games and (initially) published by Hasbro subsidiary Backflip Studios with a long-running weekly storyline overseen by brand founding father Simon Furman, which means FURMANISMS BEYOND MEASURE! The aim of the game is to assemble an army and build a fortress, then try to defend your base while destroying the enemy's. Essentially, Transformers meets Clash of Clans, without Hog Riders. Going with a formula that ain't broke evidently paid off, as somewhere along the way Earth Wars became second only to a licensed spinoff of industry titan Angry Birds for the crown of longest-lived video game in the history of the Transformers brand.

The setting is for the most part straightforwardly Generation 1 based, though as has been known to happen for projects this long in the tooth, characters from places like the Beast Era, Unicron Trilogy, Shattered Glass, G.I. Joe, Prime and even the odd wholly new faces have crept in over time.

Plot

The Autobots and Decepticons return to Earth to battle over resources. At launch, Furman promised that while it "appears to be about the same old stuff" initially, "as we progress through the game, more is revealed about Megatron’s master plan and what he’s looking for on Earth."^[2]

Campaigns

One part tutorial, one part single player campaign, these missions establish the gameplay mechanics and the basics of the setting:

• Get Optimus! / Get Megatron! (present at launch)
  • Jetfire and Starscream arrive on Earth and set up their base of operations. Soon, Ironhide and Bludgeon arrive through their Space Bridges, and after raiding a few bases, both factions find a crystal powerful enough to power their Space Bridges and bring their leaders to Earth.

• The Lost Map (present at launch)
  • With the arrival of Optimus Prime and Megatron, the Autobots and/or Decepticons set out to find the Fractal Map pieces with the help of their human allies. Both sides find a Gunner Crystal and recruit Sunstreaker and Swindle, respectively.

• Power Play (present at launch)
  • After collecting three of the map pieces, both factions try putting the pieces they collected together, only to find out they need a Codex Key to break the encryption.

• The Codex Showdown (present at launch)
  • With the help of the recently recruited medics Ratchet and Hook, both sides fight over the Codex Key, and find the location of a legendary artifact.

Later campaigns introduced newly layered mechanics while interweaving with the ongoing weekly narrative:

• Combiner Wars (Added November 2016)
  • With the Enigma of Combination, the Autobots and Decepticons harness the power of Combiners. The gestalts prove unstable, however, and require Ore-13 and high-ranking bots to be useful.

• Secrets of Nebulos (added October 2017)
  • Some weird pieces of Nebulos technology called "Power Cores" have landed on Earth. Starscream and Optimus gather some troops, and both Starscream and Optimus Prime fight over the Power Cores. The power cores gathered, however, have been rigged to explode, and so both sides have to start from scratch with building up their power core stocks.

• Return to Cybertron (Added December 2018)
  • A power play involving Starscream, Straxus, and Rodimus Unicronus results in the Autobots and Decepticons teaming up to assault Cybertron-based fortresses with overpowered defenses in the finale of the conflict over the mystical Prime Cores.

• War for Cybertron (Added July 2020)
  • Flashbacks to the struggle for the AllSpark in Cybertron's ancient past introduce the Omega Supreme and Overlord combiners to the present day, along with the War for Cybertron cosmetic skin cores.

• Regenesis (Added September 2020)
  • Autobots and Decepticons team up once more to retrieve the mysterious Project: Regenesis.

• Titans on Earth (Added October 2021)
  • The Titans Metroplex & Trypticon are summoned to Earth to help their allies.

• Prime Relics (Added September 2025)
  • An exercise in competitive archeology digs up a way to unseal the original Thirteen Primes themselves from beyond space and time as the consequences of the gang's dabbling in primordial forces begin to come home to roost.

In practice, the game's story mode declines to present the campaigns in release order, prioritizing the "tutorial" aspect over narrative intelligibility to introduce new players to mechanics in order of increasing intricacy. As of this writing, the "production order" is:

Events

Main article: Transformers: Earth Wars/Events

Every weekend, for three days, events are held to give players a shot at a regular supply of various resources. They usually alternate between solo and Alliance (read: guild) modes each week.

Events are frequently accompanied by "transmissions" of cutscenes providing context for the gameplay goings-on. New character additions in particular are introduced with stories strewn across two-to-eight week "sagas" (occasionally "seasons" when Space Ape slips into live-service industry jargon on main).

These arcs are additionally serialized between each other, and form an ongoing narrative that constitutes the bulk of the game's story content, if only by sheer volume.

A complete-ish accounting of story relevant events is given below, with the multi-part "sagas" given in bold:

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11} "One-shot" character introductions, largely predating the longform "saga" format.
2. ↑ Epilogue to "Combiner Wars" campaign.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Prologue to "Secrets of Nebulos" campaign.
4. ↑ The "Titans on Earth" campaign is part of this saga.
5. ↑ The "Prime Relics" campaign is part of this saga.

Character profiles

The third major story element of Earth Wars comes packaged with each individual character. Upon unlocking a new unit, the player is presented with a short, replayable (but only for standard Bots) cutscene referred to as a "character story" illustrating their personality, along with a prose bio in the classical back-of-box style squirreled away in their profile with their stats, equipped Power Cores, etc.

Character stories frequently tie into that character's corresponding saga, which, while delightfully immersive for veterans present during their initial rollout, has a way of producing gibberish full of unfamiliar characters for later players acquiring the unit via the game's normal "slot machine" mechanic. Accordingly, summaries of character stories can be found in the articles for their respective sagas.

Dispatch Missions

Main article: Transformers: Earth Wars/Dispatch Missions

Another minor source of story information comes attached to "Dispatch Missions," a mechanic wherein you can train up a handful of units you aren't using by sending them off on "away missions" where they gather experience points on their own. Each of these mission descriptions features a few paragraphs of prose describing the adventure upon which your bots are embarking.

Comic

Main article: Quantum Beast Leap

Earth Wars' plot has one last noteworthy component— kind of. As part of a community event tying into the 2017 "Beast Wars Saga" arc, Space Ape celebrated the game's escape from the boilerplate Generation 1 milieu with a comic produced in conjunction with various prominent Transformers fan forums elaborating on the arrival of Optimus Primal and Beast Wars Megatron to the Earth Wars. There's just one catch: Space Ape emphatically stressed that due to the terms of their license with Hasbro not extending beyond the game itself, the comic remained apocryphal, informing but not overtly supplementing the narrative of the game proper.

Characters and chronology

Given the live-service nature of Earth Wars' enormous and ever-growing cast, we've opted to break with our usual formatting a little and divide them by year introduced to illustrate the evolution of the game over time.

Launch

The game's initial cast featured all the old 1984 standards plus a suspicious number of combiner team characters from the then-recent Combiner Wars franchise.

2016

Late 2016 saw the debut of the hotly anticipated "Combiner" character class in the finale of the opening arc of the game's story.

2017

2017 was themed around the introduction of non-Generation 1 characters, including time travelers from the Beast Era and refugees from around the multiverse.

1. ↑ Most unusually, this Optimus Prime using a character model based on the famous Generation 2 "Laser Prime" toy is eventually revealed to be from the same dimension as his wavemate Armada Megatron in later Armada-centric arcs. (Then again, the two designs are very similar in terms of transformation and kibble arrangement...)

2018

2018 tied into the contemporary Power of the Primes franchise with a spin on the Prime Master concept in the form of "Prime Cores," the mystical remains of the original Thirteen Primes with minds of their own, built out of the extant "Power Core" mechanic. The storyline also featured the introduction of the Sentius twins, keepers of the Prime Cores and Earth Wars' first original characters, give or take a human.

2019

2019 was themed around an extended crossover with Transformers' sister G.I. Joe franchise.

2020

2020 saw a major shakeup to the game's mechanics as an extensive crossover with the War for Cybertron Trilogy franchise introduced a new "C.O.M.B.A.T Bot" character class broadly based on the Battle Master concept and built off a major expansion of the Power Core system, as well as the introduction of alternate skins for existing units.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Omega Supreme and Overlord are mechanically identical to normal Combiner units in game, and are only given unique titles denoting their in-fiction not-combiner-ness in supporting documentation.

2021

2021 introduced the "Titan" character class.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} First debuted in the game as non-playable "bosses" in Alliance Raids in 2019, only to be then made playable.
2. ↑ These alternate skins can only be accessed through gold or Gmetal bot-specific "Transmetal" cores of their respective bots (their equivalent of other characters' G1 cores), which, as its name suggests, changes their color scheme reminiscent of their Transmetal forms in addition to the bonus effects provided, whereas silver "Transmetal" cores changes the bot to sport a metallic coating instead.

2022

2022 featured a tie-in to the Shattered Glass Collection franchise, in no small part to introduce the concept of pay-to-play character skins via the game's new "Cyber Pass" subscription service. Notably, the bulk of the game's Shattered Glass cast occupies a peculiar state of "quasi-playable," fully present as distinct individuals in story segments but only mechanically represented with cosmetics for existing characters.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} First debuted in the game as non-playable "bosses" in Alliance Raids in 2021, only to be then made playable.

2023

2023 introduced the "Weapon" character class.

2024

2024 featured a time-travel plot (plus a couple overt skins) as a tie in to the origin-themed Transformers One franchise, plus the return of the Thirteen as fully fledged Bots and several Artifacts of the Primes in the tail end of the year as part of the run-up to the Thirteen-centric Age of the Primes.

1. ↑ This is notably Grimlock's second, unreleased "tiger stripe" Generation 2 deco, its name referencing the Legacy: Evolution line, which this deco was a part of when it finally saw its appearance on store shelves via the "Toxitron Collection" capsule.
2. ↑ This skin core was intended to belong to Brake-Neck as it matched Wildrider's G2 deco (or, more specifically, the one he had in the Combiner Wars G2 Stunticon set), but in-game, it was erroneously labeled as G2 Dead End and assigned to Dead End himself rather than the intended bot.
3. ↑ Was called "BW2 Coelagon" in the related newsletter and in-game Cyber Pass. However the skin core itself is actually called "Redeco Coelagon" instead.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Released for free as a promotion for the film.

2025

2025 featured an emphasis on the Armada franchise, presumably spinning out of its heavy representation in the Legacy toyline, as well as the introduction of the "Primes," a whole entire character class devoted to the Thirteen as the game's Age of the Primes synergy kicked into high gear.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4} Initially, these skins were only available through the game's web store, independent of the "Cyber Pass" program. Later, the "Shadow" skins were also made possible to obtain via special crystals from the "Trick or Transform" event.

2026

2026 thus far continues to see a heavy focus on the Thirteen alongside the still-ongoing Age of the Primes toyline.

† Upcoming characters

Gameplay

For further information, see: [Game Modes at the Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki]

Although the primary gameplay loop is as mentioned above, multiple different game modes has spun from it each with their own unique properties. All game modes involve choosing a battle zone depending your team's total squad power, which in turn gauges the difficulty of said battle zone, ranging from easy to very hard. You start out with two battle zones, with stronger zones unlocked by upgrading your Scanner. Each battle zone has a maximum limit in regards to the amount of rewards and XP you can obtain. Battles are completed by either destroying every building and defense on the base (discounting outposts, stasis mines, and walls) or, more commonly, destroying the headquarters, which triggers the explosive destruction of everything else (and death of any still-living and deployed outpost bots). The resources (or event points) earned from a battle depend on how much of the base is destroyed before the HQ is destroyed, while XP is distributed as evenly as possible among every bot who was deployed.

• Attack a Rival Player: The game's main PVP mode, this is primarily used for raiding other player's bases for alloy, Energon, medals (see below), and (if possible) Titan XP.
• Campaign: see above.
• Events: see above.
• Alliance War: A larger-scale PVP mode that pits your Alliance against another Alliance for 24 hours. The bases of four players and the opposing Alliance's Commander are chosen to set up a campaign-style "map" to progress through by beating each; the Commander's base is always the last one to defeat. Each battle gains points for your Alliance. However, you can only lose up to three attack across all five bases. The Alliance with the highest points wins and gets to progress their War League position, allowing them to take on higher-ranked Alliances. In addition, special war effects are active, which provides boosts to the buildings of defending bases. Alliance Wars can only be initiated by the Commander and Officers, at whatever time they want.
• Raid: Raid battles do not involve attacking another player's base, but rather multiple larger and much more difficult bases on Cybertron (with the names being sourced from known cities like Iacon and Uraya) that requires the cooperation of your Alliance to clear. 700 special energy cells are provided, allowing players to take on bases for 100 cells per attack. On top of that, the bases feature enhanced versions of the game's defenses in addition to their normal versions, and the final two raid bases are also defended by a Titan in their base mode and robot mode respectively. The rewards from this mode are Shanix and two Titan-related battle boosts, with the event-style reward track alternating between the two; the reward system functions like an alliance totaliser event, where the points from every Alliance member's attacks all add up. There are three different difficulties, which are selected by the Commander or Officer, each with different total reward amounts. Raid battles occur on an alternating middle-of-the-week (Tuesday morning through Thursday morning) basis.
• Elimination Mode: Mainly used for farming Z-Energon, this special PVP mode, as its name suggests, involves only being able to use your Bots once per battle regardless of whether you win or lose. Not only that, but Titans cannot be used in this game mode, and although Combiners can be brought into these battles, they cannot deal damage to your opponent's HQ. This mode will reset in tandem with the ending of the weekend event so you won't outright run out of Bots to use. Bots that have been used in other PVP modes will not be affected in this mode, and vice versa.
• Titan Assault: Instead of using regular ol' Bots, this mode instead pits your Titan against another player's base, as well as a sole Titan after every two bases, making for a total of 15 attacks for each Titan you own. Much like Alliance Wars, however, you can only fail an attack up to three times across all 15 bases. This mode is the main way of obtaining Titan Spark for each of your Titans, and much like elimination mode, it resets at the same time as an event coming to an end.
• Dispatch Missions: A completely different mode that doesn't involve PVP, this takes your Bots that may rarely see much action in battles and puts them to use in a different way by sending them off on away missions. While on these missions, the Bot cannot be used in any of the other game modes. Each mission will have different specifications for its squad, such as certain number of Bots of a specific class; every squad also a minimum power requirement. The missions have their own special names and blurbs explaining what the mission is about. This mode can be accessed through the Scanner once you reach HQ level 9. Upon first access, you start out with two mission slots, while another two slots can be purchased with 1000 Cyber Coins each for a total of four mission slots. You can also refresh missions for 200 Cyber Coins if you're not satisfied with the missions available at the time.

It should be noted, that with the exception of campaigns, Alliance Wars, raids, and Titan Assault, you are able to use alternate-faction Bots in these game modes once you unlock them (see below).

Bots

For further information, see: [Characters at the Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki]

"Bots" are the standard units of combat in Earth Wars, as well as the occupants of the "anime girl PNG file" ecological niche in its gambling mechanics. As of this writing, they are divided into six fundamental types, each with their own forest of menus: "standard" Bots, Combiners, C.O.M.B.A.T. Bots, Titans, Weapons, and Primes.

As is somewhat industry standard for such things, most classes of Bot can be drawn with a star rating from one to five, with rarity, stats, and pay-to-play price tag scaling accordingly.

Standard Bots

(present at launch)

For further information, see: [Bots & NPCs at the Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki]

The game's main bread and butter, standard "Bots" are your primary means of attacking players, and they are obtained using "Crystals".

In order to use them in attacks, they must first be added into a squad (which can be done in the Shuttle. While you're not limited to who you can bring in a squad, it should be noted that the same character but of different star ratings cannot be used in the same squad.

For use in battle, they first have to be deployed in the area around the shuttle. Once deployed, they will automatically attack the building (or wall) nearest to them, whilst doing so, you can use their "Special Ability" that either deals extra damage against enemies or provides support for other Bots in battle. Using these abilities spends "Ability Points", a set amount is given to at the start of the battle (the amount is determined by your HQ level), but you collect more throughout the battle by destroying buildings.

For every 10 levels your Bot reaches, they will no longer receive XP in battles and need to be researched using the relevant lab. Besides that, you can also upgrade their abilities using Energon and Spark, abilities can be upgraded to a total of 10 levels, although some Bots can have their abilities be taken to level 11 which provides and extra effect.

Unlocking new Bots will also contributes towards your "Collections", with some but having special collection groups based on subgroups such as combiner teams or the Wreckers. A leaderboard rank system is also found in collection which primarily serves as bragging rights.

Classes

Given they originally constituted the entire game, it should be unsurprising that standard Bots are significantly more complicated than subsequent breeds, and include a variety of sub-types:

• Warriors are armored front line melee fighters that rush into enemy defenses to open up the attack and protect other bots, but they have the lowest Damage per second (DPS). Warriors generally have a speed of 1.7, but some are slightly faster.
• Aerial units deal the highest DPS at a short range and can perform powerful airstrikes on single targets from great distances, but have low health. All air units have a speed of 2.
• Gunners shoot over walls and bombard large areas with their abilities from long range. like the Air units, they're deadly but vulnerable. All gunners have a speed of 1.8.
• Medics heal and support other bots in battle. They are only a few medics in the game, and they aren't durable themselves, so keep them in the back. Medics have a speed of 2.6.
• Special bots are highly individualized fighters with unique capabilities. This class incorporates leaders, scouts, and deployers.
• Triple Changers come with two special abilities making them highly versatile in battle. Triple Changers have speeds from 2.1 to 2.4.

Elemental Damage and Status Effects

As standard for games with multiple units with unique abilities, some bots can either receive special damage types (sometimes known as "Elements") or can apply status effects that can affect the properties of enemies for that is applied for a short period of time. The full list of the more uniques effects is as follows:

• Fire Damage: Sets targets ablaze and deals damage overtime, increases Acid damage by 20%.
• Acid Damage: Covers targets in acid that deals damage overtime, also denies the target from being healed (excluding lifesteal abilities), increases Fire damage by 20%.
• Electric Damage: Shocks enemies dealing damage overtime, increases Cryo damage by 20%.
• Disable: Completely renders the target unable to move, attack or use their abilities, is typically paired together with Electric damage abilities.
• Cryo Damage: Encases the target in "Cryo-fire" dealing damage overtime and slows down targets, increases Electric damage by 20%.
• Smash Damage: Exclusive to Warriors, deals extra damage against walls.
• Healing: Exclusice to Medics, restores health of allies unless under any healing preventing effects. Also restores 2% of their health for every 5 seconds.
• Hack: Causes the target to turn against their own allies.
• Taunt: Exclusive to Warriors, forces defenses to attack them instead.
• Stealth: Bots under this effect cannot be targeted by defenses.
• Glass Gas: Causes the target to take increased damage.

The following are functionally the same as normal damage, however they can be influenced by certain Titan effects:

• Beam Ability Damage
• Aerial Ability Damage

The following effects has since been replaced by other effects following a balance patch in 2025:

• Frozen: Freezes targets dealing damage overtime and slowing them down, when the affected target is destroyed, it shatters damaging nearby targets. Has been replaced by Cryo damage and Cryo Fusion Bomb.
• Stun: Deals electric damage and renders the target unable to move attack or use their abilities and extents Water damage,. Has been replaced by Electric damage and Disable respectively.
• Water Damage: Reduces the attack and defense of targets and extends Stun. Although removed, it's synergy with Electric damage would be carried over to Cryo damage.

Alternative Faction

(Added Spring 2017)

Available upon reaching HQ level 8, you're granted the ability to use bots from the opposite faction. While functionally the same as using bots from your main faction, it should be noted that you do not get access to neither Combiners nor Titans of the opposite faction. Another thing to note is that you cannot use a squad of mixed faction bots, meaning you can only use a squad consisting of strictly Autobots or Decepticons.

Military Ranks

(Added Winter 2022)

For further information, see: [Ranks & 5-Star Conversion Rate at the Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki]

Not long after the announcement of HQ level 18, a new rank-up system for standard Bots was introduced. Based on the military insignia system from the War for Cybertron Trilogy toyline, these serve as an extra layer to upgrading your bots outside of levelling them up as your Bots' rank is applied to all rarities of the same character. This is done through the use of Character Shards and Class Shards (see below) or alternatively 5-star shards can be used in place of Character Shards instead. Moreover, special Rank Skip Upgrade items could be obtained through Events or part of the Premium Cyber Pass rewards which allows you to completely bypass the need for both shards and rank up your Bot to the appropriate rank the item is meant for.

• Private: Default rank all Bots start at.
• Corporal: Increases your Bots' health, DPS/Healing, and ability damage by 5%, requires 5000 character shards (or about 750 5-star shards) and 15000 class shards to reach this rank.
• Sergeant: Increases your Bots' health, DPS/Healing, and ability damage by 10%, requires 15000 character shards (or about 2250 5-star shards) and 45000 class shards to reach this rank.
• Captain: Increases your Bots' health, DPS/Healing, and ability damage by 15%, requires 25000 character shards (or about 3750 5-star shards) and 75000 class shards to reach this rank.
• Major: Increases your Bots' health, DPS/Healing, and ability damage by 20%, requires 50000 character shards (or about 7500 5-star shards) and 150000 class shards to reach this rank.
• General: Adds a new battle effect to your Bot depending on the class, requires 100000 character shards (or about 15000 5-star shards) and 300000 class shards to reach this rank. The effects provided are as follows:
  • Warrior: Reflects 5% damage back at attackers.
  • Aerial: Heals every second by a percentage when using their ability for up to 4 seconds.
  • Gunner: Reduces enemy attack speed when hit by Bots' normal attack by 10%.
  • Medic: Heals allies in close proximity by x1 DPS for every 4 seconds.
  • Special: Gains 30% damage reduction shield when below half health.
  • Triple Changer: TBA

Combiners

(Added Fall 2016)

For further information, see: [Combiners at the Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki]

Accessible through completing the "Combiner Wars" campaign. Much like the toylines, Combiners are unlocked via assembling all of their component standard Bots, provided said components meet a minimum 3-star rating (and the player has 700000 Energon). Once the player has unlocked all of the components with a higher star rating (that is, any higher rating; a mixture of 4-stars and 5-stars will still unlock a 4-star) and an extra 3000000 Energon, that combiner is upgraded to a 4-star, and their third ability is unlocked. Their fourth ability is unlocked when they are upgraded to a 5-star, which requires all of their component bots at a 5-star rating, 300000 Z-Energon, and 2500 5-star shards.

Omega Supreme and Raiden or Overlord and Dinoking (depending on your chosen faction) slightly differs from the fact that instead of obtaining their standard Bot components, they instead require "Parts" to be unlocked. Parts effectively serve the same function as standard Bot components with the distinction of being able to directly acquire them instead of being at the mercy of the game gambling mechanics. Another difference is that they require 7000000 Energon in place of the 2500 5-star shards you would need to upgrade them to a 5-star (you will still need the aforementioned amount of Z-Energon however). Omega Supreme or Overlord's 2-star part is obtained upon completing the "War for Cybertron" campaign, whilst their 3-star and 4-star parts can be purchased via Shanix (for 5000 and 50000 respectively) and both must be obtained to upgrade them to their respective star-ratings, their 5-star part however will require 15000 5-star shards. Raiden or Dinoking's parts follows a somewhat more traditional method of requiring their six respective component bots to unlock them with the exception of the fact they're all non-playable. As of writing this, you can only obtain the Trainbots or Dinoforce members through events and there has been no available means of obtaining them outside of these events.

Combiners can be leveled up in the Combiner Lab (see below) with Ore-13 and Combiner Spark.

To deploy them in combat, you must first select one of them from the Combiner Lab's menu and spend 10 Ore-13 on its activation. In battle, they must be summoned individually in a special phase that temporarily clears the field of standard Bots. They deal massive amounts of damage, but can only stay on the battlefield for so long. Their four abilities do not use ability points, but have cooldown times. Once you reach HQ level 16, you unlock the Combiner Beacon, which allows you to put one on guard duty for your base in the same vein as an outpost. Unlike a normal outpost, however, they are only on guard for a limited amount of time, and it costs Ore-13 to both initially assign one and extend their time.

C.O.M.B.A.T. Bots

(Added Spring 2020)

For further information, see: [COMBATs at the Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki]

Introduced as a way to promote the War for Cybertron: Siege toyline, C.O.M.B.A.T. Bots are based on the Battle Masters under the toyline's C.O.M.B.A.T. System play pattern. They function as an expansion to the Power Core system meaning they both share the same unlock criteria and are managed using the Power Core Lab, however they instead take up a different slot within standard Bots allowing you some degree of customization within your Bots' loadout (with some even having synergy between the three). C.O.M.B.A.T. Bots can be obtained using "Chips" similar to Power Cores but instead fusing other cores to level them up, they instead use C.O.M.B.A.T. Spark.

Much like their larger counterparts, C.O.M.B.A.T. Bots can also be drawn with a star-rating of two to five, this however does not affect bringing the same C.O.M.B.A.T. Bot but of different star-ratings into the same squad.

Classes

Much like standard Bots, C.O.M.B.A.T. Bots are divided into different classes, with a certain classes of C.O.M.B.A.T. Bots being strictly exclusive to certain classes of standard Bots, though with some exceptions which are listed in their individual pages.

• Melee: As its name suggests, this class of C.O.M.B.A.T. Bots is reserved to Bots that use melee for their basic attack which usually applies to Warriors and melee-ranged Special class Bots. Abilities of these C.O.M.B.A.T. Bots besides increasing the Bots' damage can range from allowing your Bots to apply certain effects to targets upon dealing damage to providing them with a projectile that is fired periodically. Some C.O.M.B.A.T. Bots can also transform can carry on attacking once their user falls.
• Companion: Compatible with all classes of Bots, this class of C.O.M.B.A.T. Bots acts as extra units during attacks each with their own unique properties. Notably, this class features several mini-cassette characters however they do not strictly comprise of them.
• Ranged: Similar to Melee class C.O.M.B.A.T. Bots, this class is mainly reserved to Bots with ranged attacks, meaning Gunners, Air, ranged Special class and even Triple Changers. Abilities of these C.O.M.B.A.T. Bots range from allowing the user to fire a special projectile or outright changing the properties of the Bots' regular attack in addition to increasing the user's damage. This class also includes a sub-class of C.O.M.B.A.T. Bots which are dedicated to the Medic class of Bots, which provide effects in addition to increasing the Bots' healing output.
• Shield: Primarily exclusive to Warrior class Bots, these C.O.M.B.A.T. Bots provides extra damage resistance and an ability that can help with the longevity of their users in battles.

Titans

(added Fall 2021)

For further information, see: [Titans at the Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki]

Vastly different from any other Bots, the Titans act as both an extra means of both defense and offense. They are unlocked at HQ level 17 by completing the "Titans on Earth" campaign to unlock the Titan Lab (see below). This building is used to both manage which Titan you choose to be active in battles and defenses but also manage the Titan Tech Tree which unlocks perks for defenses, battles or the Titans themselves. Similar to Combiners, Titans require their own character-specific spark in order to be leveled up.

Upon first access to access to them, you start out with Metroplex or Trypticon at a 2-star rating depending on your chosen faction, with other Titans requiring 10000 3-star shards shards each to unlock them at the same rating. To upgrade them to a 3-star, another 30000 3-star shards (20000 for Metroplex or Trypticon) are required to unlock their required part. The same is applied to the 4-star and 5-star ratings requiring 40000 4-star shards each (300000 for Metroplex or Trypticon) and 25000 5-star shards each respectively.

For use in combat, whichever Titan is active at your Titan Lab will be the one you bring along for battle or be on standby for defense. When attacking, they will stand behind and provide fire for your Bots on the battlefield if your opponent's base lack a Titan. However, should you get matched against an opponent who has a Titan, your Titan will then walk up to the enemy Titan and engage them in combat, and if your Titan successfully defeats their Titan they will remain where they were and continue providing fire and even activate the Titan Inspire ability if they have it. They will only engage the moment your Bots are deployed into combat, and will stop once all Bots in your squad has fallen, they will also continue attacking when a Combiner is deployed. It should be noted that Titans can only be used in standard PVP and Alliance Wars.

Titans abilities are split into five different categories, all them can be managed via the Titan Lab:

• Titan Techniques: Functions like your typical Bot ability, and similar to Combiners, they have cooldown times instead of using ability points. Each star rating has their own unique technique ability that is unlocked upon upgrading to it's respective star rating, and you can only employ one ability in battles.
• Titan Attacks: These abilities functions as extra alternate attacks that your Titan does. Only two attack abilities can be active on a Titan however you start out with only being able to use one.
• Titan Passive Effects: These abilities serve as extra effects in battle, ranging from your Titan gaining damage resistance to providing passive healing to standard Bots or defenses. Only two passive abilities can be active on a Titan however you start out with only being able to use one.
• Titan Inspire: These abilities will only activate when the opponent's Titan is defeated, and will provide effects to attacking or defenses. Only one inspire ability can be active on a Titan and this will only be unlocked through the Titan Tech Tree (see below).
• Titan Base Effect: Unlocked at HQ level 18, these effects as its name suggest only applies to bases. With each Titan providing their own unique effects.

Titan Tech Tree

For further information, see: [Titan Lab: Titan Tech Tree at the Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki]

The Titan Tech Tree serves as an extra means of improving your defenses and Bots. It has its own levelling system with each level providing 1-3 points upon each level up, this is done with its own bespoke Titan XP which is obtained through PVP and Alliance Wars (see above). These "points" are your means of unlocking perks, with most perks requiring one point to unlock and one per level. Each perks have a total of five levels but certain more game-changing perks only has one level but requires five points to unlock. The points you spend on perks will grant you access to more perks locked behind "tiers" that require spending a certain amount of perks.

These perks are split into three different categories:

• Attack Perks: Perks that affect your attacking Bots ranging improving your Combiner's damage, increasing the health of Companion class C.O.M.B.A.T. Bots, or even giving Warrior class Bots immunity to being disabled.
• Defense Perks: Perks that affect your defending buildings, these can include increasing the health of outpost Bots, increasing the range of Mortars, and even making Shock Towers immune to being hacked.
• Titan Perks: Perks that affect your Titan, from increasing damage towards certain buildings or Bots to allowing Titans one extra ability slot. There are also perks exclusive to certain Titans that correlates to their abilities such as making Fortress Maximus or Scorponok's deployable hologram explode upon expiration.

Weapons

(added Fall 2023)

For further information, see: [Weapons at the Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki]

Weapons are usually-mystical doohickies mechanically identical to C.O.M.B.A.T. Bots, with the primary distinction being that they talk less. Meaning they also do not appear wandering around your base as would a C.O.M.B.A.T. Bot, however they do still appear as a static display piece when viewed though the showcase room via the Bot the Weapon is equipped to.

Unlike the trans-factional standard Bots in which you can own both an Autobot and a Decepticon version of the same Bot per star rating, you can only own one version of a trans-factional Weapon per star rating as it can a be equipped by both factions. Due to this, trans-factional Weapons will end up using the Autobot red background in their icons regardless of the player's chosen faction. (It should be noted that this also applies to the Skyboom C.O.M.B.A.T. Bot but is mentioned here as Weapons preceded the Skyboom's introduction to the game.)

Although they share a prize pool with C.O.M.B.A.T. Bots through C.O.M.B.A.T. chips, their 5-star versions are separated into their own batch of "5 Star Chips".

Primes

(added Fall 2025)

Initially released to promote the first year of Age of the Primes toyline, the Primes are functionally a mixture of Bots and Combiners. They can be unlocked at HQ level 8 by completing the "Prime Relics" campaign to unlock the Prime Lab, which is where they and their Artifacts can be managed. In addition to universal Prime Spark, each Prime also has character-specific spark (which requires 300 of to unlock a Prime). Either spark can be used to rank them up, though it costs less specific spark to do so than it does universal spark. The maximum rank is 10, and, with each rank-up, their passive ability and total HP increase. (Their passive ability gains new effects at ranks 5 and 10.) Like standard Bots, Primes can be maxed out, though this happens every 30 levels as opposed to every 10. XP level-ups have a minor effect on their DPS.

In terms of combat, Primes can be equipped to a special slot for them on any squad, so long as they're your chosen faction. They do not need to be activated like Combiners, nor do they have cooldown times like Bots; however, there is only one Prime slot per team. In combat, Primes are deployed once you gain a certain amount of ability point (30% of the total amount on the base), which you can then spend to send them into battle. They will land in combat within the range of whichever Bot you choose to deploy them near, dealing damage to all buildings or outpost Bots within a certain radius. Throughout the battle, they will have a passive ability going as well as a passive buff for the entire squad. If they have their Artifact equipped, they will periodically make use of their special ability as well. It should be noted that neither ability can be manually activated by the player. Primes lack a time limit, die when they lose all their health points, and fall back along with the other Bots if a Combiner is summoned. They cannot be healed or knocked back, and they are unaffected by hacking. Obviously, they also cannot be assigned to outposts. They can be taken into elimination mode, and are limited to once per week the same as normal Bots.

Prime character models are roughly the same height as Combiners, standing at double the size of your average Bot. They can also walk around the base with regular and C.O.M.B.A.T. Bots.

Artifacts

Unlocked with 300 of their specific shards, Artifacts function similarly to Weapons. However, they cannot be viewed in the Power Core Lab, only the Prime Lab, where they can be equipped onto their assigned Prime - and only their assigned Prime - to give them access to their special ability, or upgraded using a mix of regular and Cybertronian alloy (more of the normal kind is required than its foreign, golden cousin). Similar to when a Bot's special ability reaches level 11, Artifact abilities gain new effects at levels 6, 11, and 16 which then requires their specific shards in place of Cybertronian alloy to upgrade. When leveled up, Artifacts also increase their wielder's major DPS.

Bases and buildings

For further information, see: [Buildings at Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki]

Earth Wars being a strategy game, your base is the bedrock of your gameplay experience. It is composed of a litany of individual building units. You are given the ability to edit the layout of your base through "Edit Mode", allowing you to completely redesign your base layout from scratch or just move around certain buildings. Should you end up with a base layout you are satisfied with, you are able to save up to three layouts (the third save requires 500 Cyber Coins to unlock) which you can then load with the base layout already done with the buildings in the exact placements you made. In addition, a "Base Trials" game mode is available which allows you to test how well your defenses are from being attacked by other players. A similar game mode is also available if you wish to battle your fellow Alliance members.

Main

• Headquarters - The heart of your Autobot/Decepticon outpost, protect yours well, and destroy an opponent's Headquarters to win a battle! Upgrade it to unlock more upgrades and buildings!
• Shuttle - The shuttle carries Autobots and Decepticons into battle! Upgrade with Energon to increase maximum capacity.

Defense

• Auto Cannon - Provides a decent amount of damage and has medium range. Cannot target flying units.
• Laser Turret - Shoots off 4 smaller lasers that deal constant damage at shorter range, but deals double damage to flying units.
• Mortar - Long range defense that targets ground units and deals explosive damage from far away in an arcing pattern.
• Outpost - Assign an Autobot or Decepticon with a fraction of their normal stats to defend against attacks on your base. Triggers when enemy troops enter radius of them, though they do not deploy anything when undergoing upgrading.
• Beam Laser - Shoots off a long range Photon laser, dealing very high damage to a single target.
• Shock Tower - Delivers a nasty jolt of electricity to nearby bots and knocks them back, and is immune to EMP effects (except for shockfire)!
• Missile Launcher - Shoots off a barrage of rockets over a very long range at both ground and air units. Cannot target troops within its blind spot.
• Stasis Mine - Doesn't deal damage, but freezes enemies in place for 2–5 seconds.
• Wall - Used to shield defenses and slow down invaders. Upgrading each wall post gives it more health to better defend against opponent bots.
• Combiner Beacon (Formerly Combiner Outpost) - Originally unavailable to players and only seen in the Combiner Wars Campaign, this very long-ranged outpost that deploys a defensive Combiner of the player's choice.
• Shield Generator - When charged, shields HQ from all damage and absorbs ability damage for adjacent buildings. It costs Alloy to charge it for 24 hours, blanketing the HQ in a yellow cone when active.
• Multi-Defense System - Switch between three different modes and adapt to your foes! Immune to EMP and hack effects.
• Spider Mine - Releases explosive spiders rushing onto enemies.

Utility

• Energon Harvester - Harvests precious Energon for research and upgrading buildings. Upgrade with Alloy to increase production rate.
• Energon Storage - Stores Energon for later usage. Upgrade with Alloy to increase maximum storage capacity.
• Alloy Harvester - Harvests Alloy to upgrade buildings. Upgrade with Energon to increase production rate.
• Alloy Storage - Stores Alloy for later usage. Upgrade with Energon to increase maximum storage capacity.
• Ore-13 Harvester - Harvests the rare mineral Ore-13 for sending out Combiners to battle.
• Ore-13 Storage - A storage device strong enough to contain the power of Ore-13.
• Space Bridge - The Space Bridge is used to activate Crystals to bring in bots and resources!
• Research Lab - Upgrade your bots and their abilities with Energon and Spark to make them more powerful! Upgrade the lab to increase the max level that bots can be upgraded to.
• Combiner Lab - Used to activate Combiners and upgrade their abilities using combiner Spark. Unlocked upon completing the "Combiner Wars" campaign.
• Build Bot - Build Bots will build and upgrade buildings, but the bots themselves cannot be upgraded and have very low health. The number of buildings that can be upgraded at a time depends on the number of Build Bots on base. More Build Bots can be bought at 2000 Cybercoins or 5000 Shanix each. Until a later update, the build bots can now be upgraded & can be equipped with a power core.
• Scanner - Provides locations of rivals' bases so you can raid them. Upgrading it will give access to tougher battle zones. In a later update, dispatch missions were introduced and can be accessed through the Scanner.
• Power Core Lab - Equip, manage & fuse your power cores for your bots & buildings. Unlocked upon completing the "Secrets of Nebulos" campaign.
• Helio-Harvester - Can be obtained by completing the "Regenesis" campaign. When charged, increases the production of all Energon Harvesters by 100%.
• Prime Lab - Used to upgrade Primes and their Artifacts. Unlocked upon completing the "Prime Relics" campaign.
• Titan Lab - Used to upgrade Titans using their respectively named Titan Spark and also access the Titan Tech Tree. Unlike your typical buildings, the Titan Lab does not require any resources to build it nor does it take up time for it to be built. In addition it cannot be destroyed when being attacked as it serves as a pseudo-outpost for the defender's active Titan. Can be accessed upon completing the "Titans on Earth" campaign.

Power Cores

For further information, see: [Power Cores at the Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki]

Power Cores are pieces of Nebulan Technology that are used to enhance bots and buildings, that can be obtained from ‘’’Power Chips’’’ or from Bot duplicates. Unused cores can be "fused" to active ones, increasing the effectiveness of the latter, but annihilating the former. They are unlocked once the "Secret of Nebulos" campaign is completed, are managed via the Power Core Lab (see above).

Power Cores are divided into three different rarities, Silver, Gold, and Gmetal. During it's introduction a Bronze rarity was also included however this has since been made unobtainable unless you kept them after they were phased out. Each rarity has an increased level cap by increments of five levels meaning Silver Power Cores will have a maximum level of 10 whereas Gmetal Power Cores has a maximum level of 20. Should you have a surplus of lower rarity cores, you can also convert them into a higher rarity through the Power Core Lab. You can either choose convert 5 cores of any type into a Power Chip or 10 cores of the same type into a higher rarity version of that specific core, do note that they are divided into their Bot and Building cores categories respectively. Gmetal Power Cores can also be obtained from dedicated "Gmetal Power Chips" with 2500 Prime Core Shards, this is usually reserved for players who has already obtained all Prime Cores however.

Bot Cores

For further information, see: [Bot Power Cores at the Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki]

• Universal Bot Cores:
  • Attack: Boosts damage of regular attacks.
  • Vitality: Increases bot's health.
  • Rejuvenate: Heals bot every 5 seconds.
  • Tactician: The bot prioritizes defenses for a period immediately after deployment.
  • Wallbuster: Damage to walls increased.

• Warrior Bot Cores:
  • Trithyllium Plating: Partial protection from Auto Cannons.
  • Death Pulse: On 0 health, the warrior creates an EMP explosion, stunning targets in a large area.

• Air Bot Cores:
  • Reflective Coating: Partial protection from Laser Turrets and Beam Lasers.
  • Enhanced Ordnance: Increases special ability damage.

• Gunner Cores:
  • Flak Jacket: Partial protection from Mortars and Missile Launchers.
  • Volatile Mixture: Increases special ability damage.

• Medic Cores:
  • Ray Boosters: Increases power of healing done.

• Bot Specific Cores:

Certain bots have bot-specific cores that can only be equipped to one particular bot. Their effects are unique, and they also modify the visual appearance of the bot on which they're equipped - for instance, Optimus Prime and Rodimus Prime each have "Matrix" cores, which cause the Matrix to appear on their chests.

• G1 Cores: A more standardized iteration of Bot Specific Cores came with the introduction of "G1 Cores." Again, these can be equipped to specific bots, modifying or upgrading their abilities and modifying the visual appearance of the bots. But in the case of the G1 cores, the visual modification (usually) takes the form of a thicker black outline around the edges of each bot and cel-shaded panels, approximating the appearance of the classic animated series. Some non-G1 Bot Specific Cores also give the same shading effect to their wearers, specifically the "Aurex" cores for Armada characters introduced in 2025 or later (named after the universal stream designation for the Unicron Trilogy).

• Transmetal Cores: Instead of G1 cores, a smattering of the early waves of Beast Wars characters in this game have Transmetal cores, which also give them character-specific boosts. In terms of visual modifications, the silver versions of these cores give them a shiny, metallic appearance, while the gold and Gmetal versions change their color schemes to those of their 1998 Transmetal toys.

• Limited Time Cores:

Temporary cores that provide an XP boost for a specific period after being equipped. Once the period is completed, they are automatically destroyed.

• Squad Cores:

Faction- and class-specific cores that confer two buffs - one to the bot on whom it is equipped, and another on any bots of the same class in the same squad.

• Skin Cores:

Cores that will give your bots a different appearance, are equipped separately from other cores.

Building Cores

For further information, see: [Building Power Cores at the Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki]

• Universal Building Cores:
  • Attack: Increases attack.
  • Defense: Increases initial building health.
  • Repair: Restores building health periodically after receiving damage.
  • Death Pulse: Releases an EMP explosion when building is destroyed.

• Auto Cannon Cores:
  • Explosive Shells: Deals a reduced amount of damage to all targets in a small area, and eliminates knockback.
  • High Velocity Shells: Fires a reduced amount of damage through everything in a straight line and beyond.

• Mortar Cores:
  • Incendiary: Fiery explosions deal increased damage over 6 seconds, and eliminate knockback.
  • Target Protocol: Prioritizes gunners and medics, while increasing range and decreasing damage.

• Missile Launcher Cores:
  • Guided Missiles: Laser-guided single target missiles, dealing a reduced amount of damage.

• Laser Turret Cores:
  • Anti-Air Laser: Increases range and damage but reduces damage against grounded targets.
  • Laser Ricochet: Increases damage and bounces to another target dealing half the damage.

• HQ Cores:
  • Adaptive Shielding: Partial protection from Combiner damage and Special Ability damage.
  • Omni-Flamer: Torches all nearby enemies.
  • Point Defense Beam: Deals damage to a single nearby target. Can target airborne attackers, and prioritizes gunners.
  • EMP Defense Bolt: Deals electrical damage and stuns the target. Cannot hit at close range.

• Beam Laser Cores:
  • Cybertronian Charge: Increases range & deals more damage the longer the beam stays on target.
  • Slowdown Photon: Fires a beam that slows the target.

• Shock Tower Cores:
  • Thunderstorm: Increases range but deals a reduced amount of damage.
  • EMP Shock: Deals a reduced amount of damage & stuns targets temporarily.

• Stasis Mine Cores:
  • Glass Gas Mine: Affected targets take more damage when triggered.
  • Flare Mine: Nearby defences focus their attacks on a single target when triggered. Can detect bots in stealth mode.
  • Motion Sensing Mine: Prevents a bot from using their ability temporarily.

• Building Bot Cores:
  • Force Field Disruptor: Disables nearby enemy ability shields & dissipates zone damage cloaking.
  • Anti Electric Zone: Gains Electric damage resistance and provides nearby buildings resistance to Electric damage.
    • (Formerly) Lightning Rod: Shields nearby building from EMP effect. Build Bot is immune to Electrical damage.
  • Zone Heal: Restores health of nearby buildings every couple of seconds.
  • Ray Blockers: Blocks healing of invaders. Does not affect bots equipped with health regeneration core.
  • High Frequency Suppressor: Protects nearby buildings from getting hacked.
  • Anti Fire Zone: Gains Fire damage resistance and provides nearby buildings resistance to Fire damage.
    • (Formerly) Fireproof Dome: Shields nearby building from Fire damage. Build Bot is immune to Fire damage.
  • Anti Acid Zone: Gains Acid damage resistance and provides nearby buildings resistance to acid damage.
    • (Formerly) Anti-Dote Zone: Shields nearby building from Acid damage. Build Bot is immune to Acid damage.
  • Anti Cryo Zone: Gains Cryo damage resistance and provides nearby buildings resistance to Cryo damage.
    • (Formerly) Waterproof Dome: Shields nearby building from Water damage. Build Bot is immune to Water damage.

Prime Cores

For further information, see: Prime Master#Transformers: Earth Wars

Introduced to promote the Power of the Primes toyline, Prime Cores are functionally an extension of the Power Core system. These cores provide unique passive effects based on their respective Prime's characterization. Prime Cores are not obtainable from bot duplicates or standard core chips, and can be obtained only through the collection of Prime Core shards (typically special rewards from weekend events) via a "Prime Core Chip". One of the 12 will randomly be selected to be given to you upon opening them in the Space Bridge. Each one can only be obtained once, meaning the pool of Prime Cores you don't have will dwindle until you've obtained all 12 (akin to how 5-star Crystal batches work). It should be noted that Bot Prime Cores and Building Prime Cores are separated into their respective chips, and they cannot be used to level up regular Power Cores. Prime Cores are also treated of equal rarity to that of Gmetal Power Cores.

Bot Prime Cores

(added Spring 2018)

For further information, see: [Bot Prime Cores at the Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki]

12 unique cores (each corresponding to one of the ancient Primes) that provide particularly potent abilities, and in some cases alter the physical appearance of each bot. They require 5000 Prime Core shards each to obtain.

Building Prime Cores

(added Winter 2022)

For further information, see: [Building Prime Cores at the Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki]

As of writing this, 11 out of the 12 Prime Cores also gained Building Core versions which provides similar abilities to their Bot Power Core counterparts. These Prime cores can only be equipped on defense buildings excluding Stasis Mines and Spider Mines. You can only access them once you've completed collecting all of 12 of the Bot Prime Cores and they also cost more needing 7500 Prime Core shards instead.

Resources

For further information, see: [Currencies at Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki]

• Alloy - A metal substance used to upgrade buildings and walls. It is obtained through battles, events, duplicates from crystals and chips, and the Cyber Pass rewards system (see below).
• Cybertronian Alloy - Used to upgrade Artifacts, obtained through events.
• Energon - Energon is used to upgrade buildings, upgrade Bots' special abilities, and to perform research on Bots to make them stronger. It is obtained through the same methods as alloy.
• Ore-13 - A potent substance used to activate Combiners. It is only obtained via either an Ore-13 Harvester in your base or events and the Cyber Pass.
• Z-Energon - This higher grade, more-annoying-to-acquire (it’s obtainable through dispatch missions and pesky elimination mode battles) variant of energon is necessary to upgrade level 60 and above Bots and buildings. It's red!
• Binary Bonding Element - Used to upgrade a C.O.M.B.A.T. bot to level 11, obtained through events and bundles.
• Spark - Obtained from duplicate bots in the Space Bridge and event rewards, Spark is used along with Energon to upgrade Bots' abilities.
  • Combiner Spark - This type of spark is used only for combiners, and is obtained when you get a duplicate of a combiner component, in place of normal spark.
    • Prior to 2019, each combiner had their own specific spark, with Universal Combiner Spark being able to upgrade all combiners. This was changed to a singular Combiner Spark.
  • C.O.M.B.A.T. Spark - Obtained when you get a duplicate C.O.M.B.A.T. bot, it is used to upgrade them.
  • Titan Spark - Obtained from the Titan Assault game mode, and is used to upgrade the corresponding titan.
  • Prime Spark - This type of spark is used to unlock and increase the rank of the corresponding Prime, and is obtained through events and bundles.
    • Universal Prime Spark - Can be used in place of any Prime's specific spark to increase their rank.
• Crystal Shards - Also the result of holographic summons and events, shards are used to create powerful crystals to summon high star rating Bots.
• Character Shards - Obtained from duplicate bots (C.O.M.B.A.T.s and Weapons included) in the Space Bridge, these serve as an alternate means to obtain Bots, costing 100, 1500, and 7500 shards for 2, 3, and 4-stars respectively (only the 4-star rating of C.O.M.B.A.T.s and Weapons are available through this method). Alternatively, these can also be used to upgrade your Bots' military rank in tandem with another currency.
  • Class Shards - Used in tandem with the aforementioned character shards to upgrade you Bots' military rank, obtained from duplicate bots in the Space Bridge. The type of class shards received depends on the class of the corresponding duplicate bot.
  • Artifact Shards - Used to unlock and upgrade Artifacts at specific levels, obtained through events.
• Cyber Coin - Premium currency used for instantly obtaining resources and crystals, only obtainable through the shop and achievements.
• Shanix - Another form of currency, but more easy to get on account of them being given as rewards for the Alliance raids that happen every other week. These are exclusively used in the Shanix Store which contains items like special Power Chips, Z-Energon or even the 5-star versions of Optimus Primal and Beast Wars Megatron.
• Fuel Cells - Used to enter battles, refills over time.
• Energy Cells - Used to attack in raids, given a set amount at the start of the raid.
• Medals - Given (or lost) for PVP battles.
• Alliance Loyalty - see Alliance Headquarters
• Cyber Pass Points - see Cyber Pass
• Loyalty Points - see Loyalty Program

Battle Boosts

For further information, see: [Battle Boosts at Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki]

Battle Boosts are like Spells in Clash of Clans. They can only be used once in a battle, but provide extra offense or defense for your team.

• Incendiary Barrage MK. I, II, III, and IV: Rain down an artillery battery of Incendiary shells on the battlefield dealing medium damage
• Orbital Strike MK. I, II, III, and IV: Summon a powerful Orbital Strike from above dealing massive damage.
• Forcefield MK. I, II, III, and IV: Provides a forcefield that blocks 45% to 80% of damage taken and makes them immune to knockbacks for 6 seconds.
• Smart Bomb MK. I, II, III, and IV: Deals a set amount of damage to a single target.
• EMP blast MK. I, II, III, and IV: Stun all targets in a large radius for a set amount of time depending on the level.
• Field Repairs MK. I, II, III, and IV: Heal all friendly bots for a set amount of HP over 5 seconds.
• Shark Attack MK I, II, III, and IV: Call for 3 vicious 2-star Sharkticons (level 14, 30, 40, and 60, respectively) to attack a target. Warning: Fallen Sharkticons are highly explosive.
• Cryo (formerly Nanofrost) MK. I, II, III, and IV: Freeze a building for 8-15 seconds, then destroy it to freeze and slow down all buildings around the Bomb.
• Kremzeek: Coming in 6 variants, Kremzeeks can do quite a lot of things. However all of them share the same trait of jumping to a different building for up to 4 times so long as the target building they're deployed on are destroyed.
  • Red Kremzeeks set buildings on fire dealing 306 damage per second for 6 seconds, increasing every second when they jump to a different building.
  • Yellow Kremzeeks deal 153 damage over 15 seconds.
  • Purple Kremzeeks hack defenses and make them attack other defenses for you, albeit with less damage.
  • The rare Blue Kremzeek can stun defenses over a brief period of time.
  • The White Kremzeek makes the target building take more damage by applying the Glass Gas effect.
  • Green Kremzeeks rains acid on buildings dealing 47 damage per second for 15 seconds.
• Titan Beam MK. I, II, and III: Summon a Titan-powered beam that deals massive damage in a large area.
• Titan Smite MK. I, II, and III: Smites buildings dealing damage overtime for 8-12 seconds.
• Fury Surge MK. I, II, III, and IV: Increases your bots' DPS and speed in a small area.

Alliances

For further information, see: [Alliances at the Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki]

Like many mobile games of its type, Earth Wars features a descendant of the MMO guild, here referred to as Alliances, featuring up to 40 players. Alliances can be divided into two types, Alliances that are open to anyone and Alliances that manually accepts new members. Originally, you are only allowed to join Alliances of your chosen faction, but from 2023 onwards, you are allowed to join any Alliance regardless of your selected faction.

Membership in an Alliance opens up access to a variety of Alliance-exclusive Event types as well as king-size PVP battles known as "Alliance Wars." In addition, Alliance members will also get access to their own dedicated Alliance chats.

A player must have Level 4 Headquarters or higher to join an Alliance, and founding an Alliance from scratch costs 15000 Alloy.

Alliance roles

• Commanders: Typically assigned to whoever created an Alliance, Commanders have complete access to editing how their Alliance appears, from their Alliance emblem, description, and type. They also can create a "Message of the Day" which is a pinned message that appears at the top of the Alliance chat. Commanders are also in charge of adding or removing players, assigning alliance roles, and starting Alliance Wars and Raids.
• Officers: Assigned by Commanders, Officers can also manage the number of members, starting Alliance Wars and Raids, and create a "Message of the Day", effectively serving as the second in command in the Alliance. Up to three Officers can be assigned per Alliance.
• Defenders: Available upon unlocking the Defensive Operations, members who are assigned as Defenders gains health and damage bonuses to their own base on defense in Alliance Wars. Up to three Defenders can be assigned per Alliance but this requires levelling up the Defensive Operations to obtain all three Defender slots.
• Strikers: Available upon unlocking the Strikers' Outpost, members who are assigned as Strikers gains health and damage bonuses to their Bots on attack in Alliance Wars. Up to three Strikers can be assigned per Alliance but this requires levelling up the Strikers' Outpost to obtain all three Striker slots.
• Rookies: Available upon unlocking the Rookie Academy, members who are assigned as Rookies will have their base barred from being selected to be on the defending side of Alliance Wars, this is typically done to allow players with stronger bases to be selected instead ensuring the opposing Alliance will have to face more challenging bases leading up to the Commander. Up to five Rookies can be assigned per Alliance but this requires levelling up the Rookie Academy to obtain all five Rookie slots.

War Leagues & Rankings

For further information, see: [Alliance War at the Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki]

Serving as the game's more "competitive" side, for every victory your Alliance gains through Alliance Wars, your Alliance will progress in "League". Leagues affect the rewards you can obtain from winning Alliance Wars and also the minimum number of members needed to start an Alliance War. There are a total of 10 leagues with the final two leagues having a special "Hard Mode" in which players can score higher points than usual and special "War Effects" that are cycled periodically. It should be noted that losing Alliance Wars will also cause your Alliance to drop in league as well.

As with most games with these kinds of competitive modes, a leaderboard can be viewed showing all Alliances' full history of Alliance Wars and what league the Alliance is in.

Alliance Headquarters

(added Summer 2023)

For further information, see: [Alliance HQ at the Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki]

Alliances feature a larger analogue of players' individual bases, including their own building-ish things that impart various boosting modifiers on the gameplay of Alliance members. Each building has 5 levels, which each level increasing the percentage of their respective boosts, and they can only be levelled up via donations done by Alliance members. These range from resources like Energon and Alloy to Spark, Shanix and even Z-Energon, members can only donate once per building followed by a 16 hour cooldown period before the next donation can be made. Alliance Loyalty points are rewarded upon making donation, these points merely serves no purpose besides gauging player activity as these loyalty points carries over into other Alliances you've joined. It should also be noted that certain buildings will require other buildings to reach a certain level in order for that specific building can be levelled up.

• Mining Station: Increases the production rate of Alloy and Energon Harvesters.
• Intel Room: Increases the amount of Alloy and Energon taken when attacking a rival player.
• Rookie Academy: Unlocks the Rookies role. More slots in the Rookies role are unlocked with each level.
• Research Center: Decreases the research time taken in the Research Lab.
• Training Center: Receive bonus XP during battles, a separate donation of Alloy and Energon must be made in order the "charge" the building. Once charged, Commanders or Officers can activate the XP bonus at any time whenever they see fit.
• Defensive Operations: Unlocks the Defenders role. More slots in the Defenders role are unlocked with each level in addition to the increasing percentage of health and damage bonuses.
• Strikers' Outpost: Unlocks the Strikers role. More slots in the Strikers role are unlocked with each level in addition to the increasing percentage of health and damage bonuses.

Monetization

Bundles

For further information, see: [Bundles at the Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki]

Owing to it's nature as a free-to-play mobile game, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the game would have its own slew of incentives to entice players into spending money in the game. The most notable of these are the "Bundles", these bundles mainly comprise of crystals or other various items which can give players a headstart with the progression of game, from full-fledged Combiners or even owning certain 5-star rating Bots ahead of time.

In 2023, the game would introduce its own web store known as the "Cyber Store" which not only gives out free items periodically but would also have its own exclusive bundles such as exclusives alternate skins.

Cyber Passes

For further information, see: [Cyber Pass at the Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki]

Beginning around the middle of February 2022, Space Ape introduced a battle pass-adjacent "Cyber Pass" feature that, for 10 real American United States dollars, gives the player access to a whole second lane of fancier event rewards , a shot at exclusive character skins, and the ability to skip the resource costs associated with a limited number of upgrades for characters, buildings, etc once or twice over the course of each saga in addition to the first lane that's available for free. It should be noted that the Cyber Pass-exclusive character skins are periodically put back up for sale, so players need not necessarily hurt themselves forking out cash lest a skin be lost forever. After purchasing the "Premium Cyber Pass", players are also given the ability to purchase a "Premium Cyber Pass Gift" bundle which effectively lets players purchase another pass Premium Cyber Pass that is then given to another player allowing them to experience the same luxury as well.

Loyalty Program

For further information, see: [Loyal Player Program at the Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki]

Serving as the game's subscription service of sorts, the game would have its own "VIP Program" which would rewards players that spend money a slew of resources on a monthly basis. Throughout the game's lifespan, this program would see three different iterations be implemented.

Introduced not long after the game's launch, the first iteration of the program introduced was done through an application forum in which players that spend a certain amount of money could manually apply for it every 6 months. The forum is then manually reviewed by the development team to decide whether the player is eligible for the program. A revamped version of this iteration was made in 2023 in order to be transparent to players about its existence due to its confidential nature previously. Instead of an application forum, players can use the game's support contact feature to apply for the program. The criteria for applying was either when a player is at HQ level 17 and has played for over 1460 days or has spent a total of $500.^[3]

The second iteration of the program introduced in 2023 as well functioned more similarly to your typical subscription service in which players would need to spend a certain amount of money on a monthly basis in order to access the program.

The third and current iteration of the program introduced in 2024, now rebranded as the "Loyalty Program" is available to all players regardless of whether they spend money or not. The biggest change is the inclusion of a separate levelling system in which players would claim "Loyalty XP" every 24 hours to progress their levels, each level includes their perks which could either boosts the harvest rate of resources to increasing the amount of XP your Bots obtain in battle, each level also includes a "chest" which can be claimed every 24 hours as well that gives you certain resources. Whilst the monthly rewards would still retain, players could also spend "Loyalty Points" which are obtained in tandem with Loyalty XP to purchase chests that contain more rewards. The accumulation of Loyalty XP and points can also be done through the purchase of bundles to speed up the levelling process.

Miscellaneous

Player Rank

For further information, see: [Player Rank, Rank Rewards & Starting Ability Points at the Transformers: Earth Wars Wiki]

As all buildings requires certain criteria to be met in order to be levelled up, the same applies to your Headquarters. The Player Rank is what allows your Headquarters to be upgraded to higher levels, this done through "Player XP" which can be obtained through building new buildings, upgrading your preexisting buildings and researching Bots. For every rank up, you are given Cyber Coins and Crystal Shards.

Achievements

Main article: Transformers: Earth Wars/Achievements

As with most games, completing various goals and tasks will reward you with these achievements. Initially this would've applied you mobile's meta-game system however the number of in-games achievements would soon exceed the ones shown in Game Center and Google Play.

Shield

As your base is also subject to being attacked by other players, the shield prevents your base for being frequently attacked that way your resources aren't completely gone when you start up the game. The shield lasts for varying hours depending on how often you play the game and unlike other game with a similar mechanic, you do not lose your shield the when you choose to attack another player. The shield is only applicable in the main PVP game mode and Elimination Mode as you do not gain resources from attacks in Alliance Wars and Events.

Inventory

This where your Battle Boosts, Skip items and Resource items you gained from Events and the Cyber Pass goes. As these resources will not go into your storage buildings until you manually use them in the inventory, the same applies to XP items from events which you can then choose which Bot should gain that amount of XP.

Notes

• Furman has said that early in production, "we had to base it in the IDW continuity as it turned out". He also revealed it was him who pushed for Bludgeon to make it into the game as well.^[4]
  • A purple Decepticon Command Bunker can be seen in the mountainside of Decepticon bases as a counterpart to the Ark in Autobot bases.
• Character models are mostly based on each character's most-recent toy release. In many cases, this means Thrilling 30 to Age of the Primes. There are also some appearances from Legends, Unite Warriors, movieverse namesakes, 'original' Beast Wars and 'original' Generation 1, and a bit of Masterpiece in the mix.
• Additionally, from 2020 onwards, the poses of the robot modes in many of the stock renders released for Bots, C.O.M.B.A.T. Bots, and skins appear to be based on whatever their mainpic was at the time of their release. For instance, Leozack, Dile, and "Combiner Wars Deathsaurus" are all posed like their G1 boxarts, which were their respective pages' mainpics at the time they were added to the game; Quake is posed like the clean cover art for Transformers (2019) issue 11, which was his page's mainpic when he was added.
• Though the game's dialogue is depicted using text boxes, Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Soundwave still have voice lines. They are voiced, as usual, by Peter Cullen and Frank Welker, respectively.
• Apparently, the Mastermind Creations toys of the Predacons inspired the staff so much, that the in-game models of the Predacons are based on these third party toys.
  • The Predacons aren't the only ones guilty of this either! Motormaster had his in-game model based on TransForm Mission's toy based on the Stunticon leader!
  • Did we also mention that Menasor's model takes cues off of the "Perfect Effect" third party add on kit, along with the aforementioned Transform Mission toy?
  • On the bot side, Defensor is an interesting case, as rather than reuse the limb-mode rigs of Vortex, Ironhide and Brakeneck, Blades, First Aid and Streetwise use brand new frames for their limb modes. Don't even mention that Rook is combined upside down. The head, thighs and parts of the shoulders are the only bits of Hot Spot with any resemblane to the Combiner Wars toy, as everything else is based on the C+ Customs add-on kit for Defensor instead of retooling from Victorion (though the backpack kibble is shrunken down).
  • Abominus: Torso: Power of the Primes/Unique Toys. Legs: Power of the Primes. Arms: Power of the Primes/Unique Toys. Thighs: Unique Toys. Head: Unique Toys. Hands and feet: Unique Toys. Gun: Unique Toys (shared with Defensor).
  • Dinoking is entirely based on Fansproject's "Saurus Ryu-Oh", down to the incorrect limb arrangement (To add salt to the wound, Doryu and Rairyu have their names assigned to the wrong model!)
• The Furmanisms are baked into the bones of regular gameplay before we even get to story content via two voice lines: "It is over - finished!" (said by Optimus or Megatron after a victory) and "Now - Reap the whirlwind!" (spoken by Optimus Prime when deploying troops).
• Rumble is blue, Frenzy is red.
• As it turns out, Tracks' bot mode is based on his Masterpiece toy, but his alt-mode is entirely based on his United toy.
• Sky-Lynx is classified as a Triple-Changer now, this also marks the first time in a while that his dual mode Tiger and Dragon modes have been used.
• While the soundtrack is normally unique music made for the game itself, by default, you also have the choice of a Generation 1 soundtrack, using original Johnny Douglas tracks from the 1984 cartoon.
• Up until Defensor's debut, Superion was the only original G1 combiner for the Autobots.
• How do you know a combiner is coming? If all the bots of a known combiner group are available.
• Soundwave's H.I.S.S. tank model is the first instance of the character having a vehicle mode in the game. It draws from the Soundwave-themed HISS redeco.
• Hound's VAMP model draws inspiration from his Universe toy and from the Hound-themed VAMP redeco.
• Jetfire's Skystriker model draws inspiration from the Jetfire-themed Skystriker redeco. Skywarp, however, is the nutball in the group.
• Swoop was known as Strafe before the Technobot of the same name was added to the game.
• Making for a nice easter egg, transforming Blaster in the character viewer will result in him playing "The Touch." This also applies to Soundwave.
• The symbols on Drift's sword in his right hand translates to "penance" and "vengeance" whereas the sword in his left hand translates to "forgive" and "forget". Strangely enough, the symbols are in the Decepticon variant except for the first one which uses the Autobot variant.
• It is possible to bring both a combiner and its components into the same battle, though as normal troops vanish when a combiner is deployed, there will never be two of the same bot on the field.
• The game's matchmaking will occasionally pit you against a member of your own faction, in which case the enemy base and guardians will be reskinned into their opposing-faction counterparts. This feature was added to make up for the smaller amount of Decepticon-aligned players compared to those who sided with the Autobots.
• The Breastforce cannot activate their Breast Partner in the traditional way (gun, handgun, and animal) with Guyhawk being the exception. Either they are used as decoration, or don't appear at all.
• Other gimmicks that certain Transformers or Special Teams may have usually don't make it into the game (i.e. Skywarp's teleportation capabilities).
• A glitch in the game caused several bits of developer placeholder text to be seen accidentally, revealing some rather silly messages with questionable grammar like "This is an Ability description I have to make sure that it is really long because wer are doing huge descriptions nowdays".

Errors

• You can count on pretty much any character with tall shoulders to have said shoulders clip and cut through the character model when in battle stance.
• Drift does an awkward shift when going from vehicle to robot and the opposite way, seeing as his body warps and shifts so that he faces sideways in bot mode. This happens every time he attacks and every time he changes form.
• Most characters with extended shooting animations will sometimes lag out and be out of sync with the shooting animation.
• If activating an Aerialbot's ability, he may circle the target pointlessly for a while. Sometimes he even goes underground.
• Rampage and Razorclaw can have a victory animation while in bot mode and charging when the battle ends. They even have their swords.
• Sunstreaker has a giant gap in the back of his combined form leg.
• Sometimes Blast Off has his combination process distorted.
• Beast Wars Megatron's weapons sometimes don't properly align with the hand models.
• Sharkticons just don't know when to stop fighting. The animations for the fighting will still appear, and they still run to buildings, but they don't actually deal damage. Does not translate to Gnaw.
• Sometimes (although this is very rare), amalgamations will randomly appear, where parts of the robot mode and vehicle mode appear on the opposite modes. Examples include Blast Off becoming a Conehead, Ironhide gaining his movieverse look, and Optimus Prime having two truck cabs.
• Characters collision hitboxes will sometimes get caught on each other or on wall hitboxes and they will stay stuck in place for a good while. The bug where they get stuck on the Wall hitboxes can be fixed by letting the character walk in place, letting them get uncaught or destroying the wall. The bug where they get stuck in the collision hitboxes of each other can be fixed by activating the bot's ability. This most commonly happens with Medics and Gunners, and especially if you deploy your units in an extremely short fashion.
• Sometimes, when viewing your bots, after the bot transforms into their alternate mode, they won't transform into their robot mode, and remain stuck in alternate mode. This is fixed by restarting the game.
• There are so many issues with the hands, especially characters with aerial capabilities or alt modes, especially the helicopters. When they transform, more often then not, their hands slide into their arms and then randomly reappear in alt mode. This usually applies to jets, but Laser (G2) Optimus Prime has his hands visible in vehicle mode.
• Brainstorm's character model duplicates his shield kibble on his arm and on his back and his arm cannon just disappears when he transforms.
• Although Blaster and Soundwave eventually received alt-modes in an update, this came at a price. Both of their robot mode character models have extremely distorted upper arms that just levitate next to their lower arms.
• Mixmaster, when equipped with his G1 Core, will sometimes adopt a Transmetal texture in bot form. In alternate form, however, he'll switch back to the regular G1 look. It is unknown if this applies to other bots, and if the G1 core matters. This has since been fixed.
• Upon their introduction, Overlord and Omega Supreme were sometimes static while deployed, lacking their animations (though they'd return occasionally). This has since been fixed.
• Sometimes during dialogues, Inferno and Predacon Inferno get mixed up, leading to the Autobot Inferno hilariously talking like the Predacon Inferno.
• A few Decepticons use the Autobot dialogue box.
• Most bugs that affect gameplay are promptly resolved within a given time, and patch notes detailing what is currently being fixed are always released to the public.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Transformers: Earth Wars (トランスフォーマー：アースウォーズ Toransufōmā: Āsu Wōzu)
• Mandarin: Biànxíng Jīn'gāng: Dìqiú zhī Zhàn (变形金刚：地球之战, "Transformers: Earth Wars")

References

External links

• Official website
• Original Official Transformers Earth Wars Wiki / player guide (supported circa launch to 2022)
• Official Japanese Transformers Earth Wars Wiki / player guide
• Current Official Earth Wars Wiki
• Official Transformers: Earth Wars YouTube channel