Speed and turn order
From the Polandball Go Wiki
Speed decides which ball acts first when both sides make the same kind of move in a duel round. It never adds damage. In most rounds it changes nothing at all, and in the rounds where it does matter, it decides the whole exchange: the faster ball lands its KO and the slower one never swings.
1 The formula#
The game publishes Speed as four numbers multiplied together, then rounded:
- Diplomacy, the ball's country stat, from 1 to 100.
- Level: 2% more for each level above 1. Level 20 is ×1.38, level 30 is ×1.58.
- Rank: 5% more for each rank above 1, where rank is the ball's stars plus its prestige. A 6★ ball at prestige 4 is rank 10, ×1.45.
- Ultimate orbs: the third Type Proficiency track. Level 1 adds nothing, then 2%, 4%, 6%, 8% and 10% at level 6, 12% at 7, 15% at 8, 18% at 9 and 20% at 10.
Diplomacy is the base, and everything else stretches it. A Diplomacy 100 ball fresh from Recruit as a 1★ Common has a Speed of exactly 100. The same ball at level 30, rank 10 and Ultimate 10 has 100 × 1.58 × 1.45 × 1.20 = 275.
CP has no part in Speed. Two copies of a ball at very different CP have the same Speed if their level, rank and Ultimate level match, and a 9,000 CP ball can be slower than a 4,000 CP one.
2 What Speed decides#
A duel round resolves in a fixed order: Swaps, then Blocks, then Attacks, then Weapons. Speed only matters inside the last two steps.
- Attacks. When both balls Attack, the ball holding Momentum goes first, whatever the Speeds. Momentum comes from a Block that stopped an Attack. If neither ball holds it, the faster ball goes first.
- Weapons. When both balls fire a Weapon, the faster one fires first. Weapons always land after every Attack in the round, so a slow ball's Attack still hits before a fast ball's Weapon.
- Ties. An exact Speed tie is settled by a coin flip.
- A KO cancels the hit. A ball knocked out before its turn loses its move for that round. A Weapon aimed at a ball that has already fallen is skipped.
Swaps and Blocks don't use Speed at all. A Swap always happens first, so the ball coming in takes whatever is thrown that round, and a Block is in place before any Attack lands.
Being faster by 1 is exactly as good as being faster by 100. The game's rules include a bonus for striking first that would scale with the gap, but it is set to zero, so the gap itself is worth nothing. See How a duel works.
3 Worked examples#
The United Nations and the British Empire. In one recorded ladder duel, a United Nations with Diplomacy 100 at level 21, rank 9 and Ultimate 10 had 100 × 1.40 × 1.40 × 1.20 = 235. A Global Dominion British Empire with Diplomacy 92 at level 22, rank 9 and Ultimate 7 had 92 × 1.42 × 1.40 × 1.12 = 205. The UN struck first every time both Attacked. It still lost that ball, because the Empire's Military of 98 against the UN's 60 meant it hit far harder.
Russia and Switzerland. Switzerland has Diplomacy 95 and Russia 70. Built the same way, Switzerland is always faster: at level 24, rank 9 and Ultimate 10, Switzerland has 233 and Russia 172. To outpace Switzerland, Russia has to be built further. A Russia at level 24, rank 9 and Ultimate 10 has 172, while a Switzerland at level 20, rank 7 and Ultimate 1 has 170. That 35% head start in Diplomacy took four levels, two ranks and nine Ultimate levels to close.
Two balls on their last hit. Your ball has 1,900 HP left and theirs has 2,100. Yours hits for 2,400 and theirs for 2,500, so each will KO the other with one Attack. If both Attack, whoever is faster wins the round and keeps its ball, and the other one never lands its hit. If they Blocked last round and stopped your Attack, they hold Momentum and go first regardless of Speed.
4 When Speed matters#
Speed decides a round only when both balls Attack, or both fire Weapons, and the first hit is enough for a KO. In any other round, both hits land whatever the order.
So Speed is worth at most one hit per exchange. Across a whole duel it can be worth a lot more than that sounds, because a KO race decided by one hit decides which ball survives, and a surviving ball keeps attacking.
At equal CP and stats, Speed rarely beats raw damage and HP. In the duel above, Switzerland swings first in every round against Russia at 5,000 CP, but Russia's harder hits and bigger HP pool still KO Switzerland in the second round. See Country stats.
5 Raising Speed#
All four parts can be moved, but only one is a choice made for Speed alone:
- Diplomacy is fixed for each ball, and shared by all its forms. Picking high-Diplomacy balls is the only way to change it.
- Level comes with Influence spending you'd do anyway. Level 30 is worth 58% more Speed than level 1.
- Rank comes from stars and prestige, which also add CP. Each step is 5%.
- Ultimate is the one track that does nothing else in a duel. It adds 10 CP a level like the other tracks, but none of its effect goes to damage or defense. It's only worth orbs on a ball whose job is to win close races. See Type proficiency and orbs.
Momentum is the other way to go first. A Block that stops an Attack gives your next Attack priority, which beats any Speed. Since the other side can't Block two rounds running, the round after their Block is a safe time to Attack.
6 Speed outside PvP#
Alliance war attacks are duels with the same move order, so Speed works the same way there. Speed has no published role in raids.
7 On polbielytics#
Each ball's page shows its Diplomacy and how it ranks. The PvP Duels guide covers turn order with the other duel rules.