Codex’s core set has two factions: the (red) Blood Anarchs and the (green) Moss Sentinels. Each has 3 heroes. There are 4 expansion factions, each with 3 more heroes plus a starter set with 2 heroes. That’s 20 heroes in total across all expansions. Each hero has an associated “spec” with a fun name, meaning the type of stuff they specialize in. We’ll look at all 20 specs in this series of articles and examine how each plays, what the art looks like, and what the philosophy is for each.

Before we go on, let’s review some fundamentals about how the game works though.

• When you play the mode of the game used for competitive play, you pick a team of 3 heroes and during the game you’ll have access to all the cards of those 3 specs.
• If you want to cast a SPELL, you need a HERO. You specifically need the Anarchy hero to cast an Anarchy spell, etc.
• If you want to make a UNIT (or an upgrade or building), you need a TECH BUILDING. You start with tech 0 cards you can always make because your base produces them. You need a TECH I BUILDING to make a tech I unit though. That’s a flexible building because it can produce units of any spec!
• You must specialize at tech II though. When you make a tech II building, it’s of a CERTAIN SPEC ONLY. If you pick Anarchy, it can only produce Anarchy tech II stuff. Also, it means your tech III building must be Anarchy tech III once you build that.

What I want you to keep in mind as you read about all the specific specs though, is that you don’t have to use ALL of a spec at once. You might have an Anarchy hero (who can cast Anarchy spells), but you’re still free to make a Fire tech II building if you want. Think of it as your build order having 9 branches at the start of the game: you rely on 1 of your 3 heroes and 1 of your 3 specs once you make your tech II building, and they don’t have to match.

These articles will mostly talk about using both parts of the spec together (the hero+spells part and the everything-else part), but that’s just so you get the theme of the spec. You’re free to mix it up!

You can brush up on those rules even more with this article.