Tears of Metal — Battalion Management

Why Your Battalion Matters

Your Hero is the spear tip, but your battalion is the shaft — without it, damage and control collapse quickly across Paper Cult's three-Act campaigns. Scottish soldiers fight alongside you automatically, respond to commands, and carry persistent names and levels between encounters within a run. When they die, they are gone for good: no mid-run resurrection, no retroactive save scumming. Battalion management is therefore central to Tears of Metal's roguelike identity, not a passive background system.

Players who ignore troop HP arrive at bosses with a skeleton crew unable to hold aggro or absorb mechanics. Players who over-invest in roster size without upgrades spread thin buffs and lose veterans to stray projectiles. This guide teaches recruitment pacing, mid-fight command priorities, and Village systems that reduce permadeath pain without eliminating stakes. Pair it with Soldiers Guide for settlement-level detail and Survival Without Healing for keeping HP bars intact.

Recruitment and Roster Composition

Recruitment opportunities appear at Village deployment, field events, and certain Act milestones. Early Access rewards conservative recruiting: a smaller elite roster often outperforms a large untrained mob because healing and buffs scale better on quality units. After unlocking Training Grounds upgrades via Village Upgrades, widen your roster gradually until you can absorb two deaths without losing mechanic-critical roles like archer focus or shield wall.

Composition basics: maintain at least one block of melee frontliners, one ranged damage source, and one utility type if your Act route features elites with shields or regeneration. Hero choice influences ideal mix — Ruadh Stonecrusher wants durable frontliners who stay in his healing aura, while Wallace benefits from flanking units that exploit his crit openings. Review Ruadh Stonecrusher and Wallace pages for squad templates.

• Recruit after training upgrades, not before — base recruits die too easily
• Replace losses immediately if resources allow; under-strength squads snowball failures
• Pause recruitment during low-heal routes until Act checkpoint shrines
• Sell or dismiss underleveled units only when replacement events are guaranteed soon
• Track veteran soldiers mentally — losing a leveled unit hurts more than losing a fresh recruit

Command Priorities Mid-Combat

Battalion commands should be issued before HP crises, not during them. Open fights by marking priority targets — casters, bombers, and elite captains — so DPS concentrates fire while your Hero handles bruisers. Pull soldiers out of ground hazards the moment telegraphs appear; AI pathing is competent but not perfect on environmental damage. During boss encounters like Gilles the Hog, assign soldiers to add control phases instead of face-tanking the boss chest.

Co-op squads should verbalize command intent to avoid conflicting orders — see Co-op Multiplayer. Solo players bind command keys documented on Keyboard Controls and practice issuing focus fire during Act 1 trash packs where mistakes are cheap. Emblem families that buff allied units multiply roster value; check Emblem Synergies for family lines that treat soldiers as build carriers, not expendable extras.

Long-Term Roster Recovery Between Runs

Permadeath within a run does not mean permanent account helplessness. Village systems rebuild recruitment pools, unlock better base gear, and provide companions with passive battalion bonuses — read Companions Guide for persistent allies that supplement lost soldiers. Investment order matters: prioritize Training Grounds and recruitment capacity before cosmetic settlement upgrades if battalion losses block your Act progress.

Charms that alter squad size rules or grant bonus recruits can accelerate recovery runs — see How to Get Charms for unlock paths. Daily Challenge rewards sometimes include soldier XP boosters or recruitment vouchers documented in Daily Challenges. Accept that some campaigns will end specifically because the battalion broke; learn which fights are worth soldier sacrifice and which are signals to retreat and preserve veterans for the next encounter.

Equipment upgrades from the Equipment Guide also raise soldier durability when you unlock battalion-wide gear slots at the Village. A run-ending wipe often traces back to three preventable soldier deaths ten minutes earlier — review command logs mentally after failures and adjust target priority before your next deployment.