In The Horus Heresy: Legions, Traits and Effects are, in the broad sense, what a Card can do after you play it (whichever way it was played), sometimes as it comes in and other times after a condition has been met (ending the turn, playing other cards, spending energy, etc), while Abilities could be call a combination of both.
The trigger for such is individual to each one, but some synergize with each other (Arcana-Focus, Attrition-Vantage, etc), or need other traits to be in effect first (like ambush needing stealth).
They're categorized by the corresponding icon to help you visualize it, and the only way to remove them is by jamming or otherwise with a card that states that can remove them, but new ones can be applied as many times as possible.
While most commonly found on Troops, Tactics will also often have a Trait, but in those cases it will act like an extra effect (or require the condition for said effect), as the Tactic won't stay in play after being used.
While it is common to just call them all "Traits" (and most likely than not the community will just call them that), they are divided in different categories:
Trait[]
The most common type, a Trait could be defined as "The innate ability of a unit". Another way to call it will be the "Skill" that a card possess and that it brings to the match. Traits can only removed by Jams (but only for your Troops, not your Warlord), if a card states that can remove a particular Trait, by themself (like Drop Pod) or by your interaction (attacking with a Duplicitous troop).
● Examples of Traits[]
- The Trait, most of the time, will stay with the card that has it and be reusable every time said Trait allows it:
-Battle Honour will always trigger as long as your Unit kills a target and survives.
- Or if another Trait allows it:
-Sacrifice can be used indefinitely as long as the Unit has Survivor.
- This is true even if the Trait only works, ideally, once:
-Flank will only work the turn it goes into play, even if you give a Troop Flank more than once (as after the first turn is just normal gameplay). However, Flank will always stay with the Troop, used or not.
- Some needs other Traits to be in place or trigger before:
-Landing cannot trigger if a Troop doesn't have a Drop Pod that survived the previous turn.
- The order of the trigger of a Trait (starting or ending the turn) is bound by the order of the Units you have as they were played (except for Relentless, which will always trigger first):
-If your Warlord has Exemplar, you played a troop with Stealth, and then one with Awakened, the order next turn will be= Trigger Exemplar→Remove Stealth from the Troop→Trigger the chance of Awakened.
- Note that groups of the same Trait will trigger together, and still in order of played/applied:
-Using the previous example, lets add (last) Awakened to the stealthed Troop, the order will be= Trigger Exemplar→Remove Stealth from the Troop→trigger Awakened from the third card→Trigger Awakened from the stealthed Troop.
- Some Traits don't do anything by themself:
-Savage needs the Unit to attack first, Rage needs the Unit to receive damage first, etc.
- Others need special resources to be spent first:
-Arcana cannot trigger if you have no Psychic Energy to spend.
- Some are a hindrance to you:
-Maintenance lowering the amount of Energy you have, Sentinel don't allowing you to draw cards, etc.
- And some trigger before a disruption (like Jam) happens:
-The enemy attacks with a Troop (that Jams other Troops when dealing damage) your Troop with Backlash and kills it. The Backlash will trigger first in this scenario nevertheless.
As stated before, if a Tactic has an ability that can be categorized as a "Trait", it only applies it as an Effect or using its condition to do so. Thus, they don't (necessarily) follow the same rules as before, but there are some that still work the same:
- The order of triggers still applies.
- Needing the special resource.
- Triggering before disruption.
● All Traits[]
Ambush ◆ 
Arcana ◆ 
Attrition ◆ 
Awakened ◆ 
Bastion ◆ 
Backlash ◆ 
Battle Honour ◆ 
Berzerk ◆ 
Blood Thirst ◆ 
Can't Attack ◆ 
Cleave ◆ 
Courage ◆ 
Drop Pod ◆ 
Duplicitous ◆ 
Exemplar ◆ 
Fast ◆ 
First Strike ◆ 
Flank ◆ 
Front Line ◆ 
Hunt, 
Landing ◆ 
Maintenance ◆ 
Murder ◆ 
Overload ◆ 
Pack ◆ 
Perfection ◆ 
Poisonous ◆ 
Precognition ◆ 
Pride ◆ 
Psyker ◆ 
Quest ◆ 
Rage ◆ 
Reactor ◆ 
Relentless ◆ 
Requiem ◆ 
Resolution ◆ 
Sacrifice ◆ 
Savage ◆ 
Sentinel ◆ 
Shield ◆ 
Shutdown ◆ 
Siege ◆ 
Sneak Attack ◆ 
Speartip ◆ 
Stealth ◆ 
Streak ◆ 
Survivor ◆ 
Terror ◆ 
Unstoppable ◆ 
Vantage ◆ 
Ward
Effects[]
Effects are ideally (and functionally) the same as Traits, the "main" differentiations are that an Effect usually only happens once, and doesn't interact anymore with the card or board, or it gets "applied" to your cards or the enemy cards, but otherwise doesn't come "from" the card itself. A good example of this is Stun, as there are no cards WITH Stun, only cards that APPLY Stun.
Tactics will always use Effects when acting, or use a Trait for its effect-condition.
They might be still be categorized and viewed in the card like Traits, for example Focus or Nemesis, but after a card comes into play if their necessary condition for said Effects triggering was (or wasn't) met, then it won't be able to trigger after.
Effects don't get "removed" as Traits does. A Troop loosing Murder won't be able to trigger Murder anymore (unless reapplied), but if a Troop looses Rally it won't matter, as the Effect already triggered.
● Examples of Effects[]
- Will always get applied to a card or cards:
-Stun, Jam, Mutation, etc.
- Some can only be used on your cards:
-You can only give Marks of Chaos to your Troops.
- Or to your enemy:
-Nemesis can only trigger by targeting an enemy Troop.
- Some Effects don't do anything by themself:
-You can give Sentence 20 to an enemy, but if you don't do at least 1 damage to it, nothing will happen.
- Sometimes they can be an Effect and more (but the use still comes from an Effect):
-Offering (the effect) needs Offerings (the resource) that comes from Offering (the unique WB Trait) to trigger.
- Effects can disrupt the order of triggers:
-Using the example in Traits, lets add Poison (last) to those cards, and it does enough damage to kill the stealthed Troop. The order will then be= Trigger Poison of Warlord→trigger Poison of stealthed troop→trigger Poison of Awakened troop→kill the stealthed Troop→trigger Exemplar→trigger Awakened.
- While most of what an Effect does is set, some need to be used more than once for them to fully act or repeat the Effect:
-Daemonhost needs to be applied 6 times (after rotating between 5 different daemonic buffs first) before starts giving the same result.
At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if an Effect is called a Trait (and vice versa), but it is important to know the difference, so you can know what better to expect from a Faction and how to build them properly (the Alpha Legion thrives with Effects more than with Traits, for example).
● All Effects[]
Daemonhost ◆ 
Disorient ◆ 
Focus ◆ 
Invulnerable ◆ 
Jam ◆ 
Mark of Chaos ◆ 
Mutation ◆ 
Nemesis ◆ 
Offering ◆ 
Ordnance ◆ 
Poison ◆ 
Rally ◆ 
Reflection ◆ 
Sentence ◆ 
Strategy ◆ 
Stun
Tribes[]
A "Tribe" or "Tribal Trait" is a common term in the TCG/CCG Community (in other words, not a set-in-stone game mechanic) used to categorize certain cards as members of said Tribe. You can easy identified them by their unique icon, and they will always be from the same Faction (the World Bearers can create a troop with "Cultist", but said troop will always be from the Chaos Faction).
While it works as any other Trait, the main goal of the Tribe is to work in tandem with each other, outside of the same type of cards. So, it is important to not confuse a card "categorization" (Infantry, Vehicle, Daemon, etc) with a Tribal Trait: A Vehicle will always be a Vehicle, but not a Solar Auxilia Vehicle if it doesn't have the corresponding Tribal.
Some Tactics can also have a Tribal Trait, and works virtually the same as a Troop (except that it won't remain after used, only the interaction will).
Troops that belong to a Tribe are only from the Neutral Factions or Dark Angels Faction, while Tactics are from the AotS and AL Factions. Missions are a unique type of Tribal (and thus not bound by the same mechanics as the others) that almost all Faction can use.
● Troops with a Tribe[]
Solar Auxilia (IA) ◆ 
Traitor Auxilia (CH) ◆ 
Cultist (CH) ◆ 
Lesser (CH) ◆ 
Greater Daemon (CH) ◆ 
Ravenwing (DA) ◆ 
Dreadwing (DA) ◆ 
Deathwing (DA)
● Tactics with a Tribe[]
Seal (AotS) ◆ 
Secret Card (Trap, Secret Order, Secret Identity)(AL) ◆ 
Mission (all Factions except DoC, LL and TL)
Abilities[]
Beside ACTIVE or PASSIVE abilities (which needs to be activated or are always in function, respectively), Abilities are pseudo-traits that some cards can have and while they don't have a corresponding icon in game (but do an animation), they're common enough to be recognizable as such.
They all interact with cards rather than "come from" a card (a Unit that uses Heal is using Heal on a card, but the "healing" doesn't come from itself).
Unlike the other Traits that are set in their condition for activating or the targets it chooses, Abilities can trigger in many different ways (some with an active ability, others with passives, some after a trigger of other Trait has been met, etc).
● All Abilities[]
● Heal- Restores X amount of life to a Unit, and can only be used on your cards.
● Copy- Copy a card. The copy might be added to your hand, deck or board, and the target of such can be any card (yours or your opponent).
● Choose- Lets you choose between 3 options, only appear in cards that creates other cards.
● Remove- Removes a particular Trait or Effect (unlike Jam that targets all of them). Works on Poison, Stealth, Precognition, Stun, Overload, Awakened and Can't Attack.
● Destroy- Destroys a Troop without inflicting damage, and bypassing any Trait it has (Backlash or effects that do something when the Troop dies will still trigger).
● Cantrip- Searches in your Deck or graveyard for a specific Card, and adds it to your hand.
● Active and Passive Abilities[]
● Activated Ability- Spends Energy to do something.
● Passive Ability- Is always in action, and its effect triggers after the specified condition is met.
● Activated Psychic Ability- Spends Psychic Energy to do something.
Full List of Traits[]
| Icon | Name | Description | Type | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Ambush | Trigger an effect when this unit loses Stealth during your turn | Trait | |
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Arcana | Trigger an effect after you spend Psychic Energy | Trait | |
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Attrition | Trigger an effect when a friendly unit uses an activated ability | Trait | |
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Awakened | 50% chance of acting by itself at the start of its turn | Trait | |
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Backlash | Does Something when dying | Trait | |
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Bastion | Absorbs up to X damage, except when attacking | Trait | |
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Battle Honour | Does something after attacking and killing and enemy | Trait | |
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Berzerk | Must act every turn | Trait | |
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Blood Thirst | Can act twice per turn | Trait | |
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Cantrip | Choose one card from your Deck or graveyard | Ability | |
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Can't Attack | Cannot attack enemy units | Trait | |
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Choose | Choose one card among 3 random options | Ability | |
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Cleave | When attacking, deal X damage to target and adjacent units | Trait | |
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Copy | Create a copy of a card in your hand, deck or board | Ability | |
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Courage | Does something when played from hand if your opponent has more units | Trait | |
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Cultist | Sub-category of a troop that functions as a Trait, but not a Trait itself | Tribe | |
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Daemonhost | Gains a buff and becomes a Daemon in addition to its current category | Effect | |
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Deathwing | Sub-category of a troop that functions as a Trait, but not a Trait itself | Tribe | |
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Destroy | Destroys a Troop without inflicting damage and bypassing any Trait (except Invulnerable) | Ability | |
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Disorient | When attacking, target is chosen randomly among all other units in play, until next turn | Effect | |
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Dreadwing | Sub-category of a troop that functions as a Trait, but not a Trait itself | Tribe | |
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Drop Pod | Absorbs damage done to this unit, until your next turn or until destroyed | Trait | |
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Duplicitous | The enemy Warlord can't target this unit until it attacks, unless it has Fron Line | Trait | |
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Exemplar | Does something at the start of your turn if you don't control other Custodians | Trait | |
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Fast | Can act on the same turn it goes into play | Trait | |
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First Strike | When attacking, enemies killed don't retaliate | Trait | |
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Flank | Can act the turn it goes into play, except to attack the warlord | Trait | |
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Focus | When playing this card, choose to spend Psychic Energy to trigger additional effects | Effect | |
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Front Line | Protect your other units from attacks | Trait | |
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Greater Daemon | Sub-category of a troop that functions as a Trait, but not a Trait itself | Tribe | |
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Heal | Restores X amount of life to a Unit | Ability | |
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Hunt | Trigger an effect after attacking, if the target survives | Trait | |
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Invulnerable | Cannot be damage or destroyed | Effect | |
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Jam | Cancel all card abilities and active effects | Effect | |
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Landing | Does something when exiting a Drop Pod which hasn't been destroyed | Trait | |
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Lesser Daemon | Sub-category of a troop that functions as a Trait, but not a Trait itself | Tribe | |
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Maintenance | Reduces your available Energy while in play | Trait | |
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Mark of Chaos | Gain a Chaos blessing. With 4 Marks, become a Greater Daemon | Effect | |
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Mission | Gives an objective that grants a reward when completed | Tribe | |
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Murder | Trigger an effect when this card deals excess damage during your turn | Trait | |
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Mutation | Choose a daemonic buff. Reduce Maintenance by 1 | Effect | |
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Nemesis | Does something when played from hand if the enemy controls a troop with higher or equal attack | Effect | |
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Offering | When played from hand, trigger an effect if you have X Offering or more | Effect | |
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Ordnance | Deal X extra damage to Vehicles, Structures or Titan Weapons | Effect | |
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Overload | After attacking or using an ability, Stun this unit | Trait | |
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Pack | Does something when another friendly unit attacks | Trait | |
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Perfection | Does something if playing this card spends all remaining energy | Trait | |
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Poison | At the start of your turn, receive X damage and lower Poison by 1 | Effect | |
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Poisonous | Apply Poison X to enemies damaged in combat | Trait | |
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Precognition | Cannot be targeted by attacks | Trait | |
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Pride | Trigger an effect at the end of your turn if this unit is damaged | Trait | |
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Psyker | Gain X Psychic Energy at the start of your turn | Trait | |
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Quest | Choose a secret Quest. Complete it to trigger an effect | Trait | |
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Rage | Does something when damaged | Trait | |
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Rally | Does something when played from hand | Effect | |
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Ravenwing | Sub-category of a troop that functions as a Trait, but not a Trait itself | Tribe | |
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Reactor | Gain X Plasma at the start of your turn | Trait | |
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Reflection | Can be played multiple times during the same turn | Effect | |
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Relentless | Does something at the start of its turn | Trait | |
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Remove | Removes or make it lose a particular Trait for one or all Units of a player | Ability | |
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Remove Awakened | Removes Awakened from one or all Units of a player | Ability | |
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Remove Can't Attack | Removes Can't Attack from one or all Units of a player | Ability | |
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Remove Overload | Removes Overload from one or all Units of a player | Ability | |
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Remove Poison | Removes Poison from one or all Units of a player | Ability | |
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Remove Precognition | Removes Precognition from one or all Units of a player | Ability | |
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Remove Stealth | Removes Stealth from one or all Units of a player | Ability | |
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Remove Stun | Removes Stun from one or all Units of a player | Ability | |
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Requiem | Does something when an adjacent troop dies | Trait | |
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Resolution | Does something at the end of it's turn | Trait | |
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Sacrifice | Triggers when killed during its turn, even if saved by Survivor | Trait | |
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Savage | Trigger an effect after attacking | Trait | |
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Seal | Sub-category of a Tactic that functions as a Trait, but not a Trait itself | Tribe | |
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Secret Card (Trap) | Adds a secret card to your opponent's deck | Tribe | |
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Secret Card (Secret Order) | Adds a secret ability to a troop | Tribe | |
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Secret Card (Secret Identity) | Start the game as an Alpha Legionary | Tribe | |
| File:Sentenceiconbig.png | Sentence | After taking damage, take X extra damage | Effect | |
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Sentinel | While in play, you don't draw cards at the start of your turn | Trait | |
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Shield | Absorb all damage from one attack or effect | Trait | |
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Shutdown | When this unit is attacked and receives damage, Stun it | Trait | |
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Siege | Ability needs to be prepared, by using it once without effect | Trait | |
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Sneak Attack | When attacking, enemy does not retaliate | Trait | |
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Solar Auxilia | Sub-category of a troop that functions as a Trait, but not a Trait itself | Tribe | |
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Speartip | Does something when it is the first card played from hand in a turn | Trait | |
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Stealth | Cannot be targeted for one turn, or until it attacks | Trait | |
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Strategy | When playing this card from hand, choose between two different effects | Effect | |
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Streak | Triggers when played from hand, if it's not the first card played this turn | Trait | |
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Stun | A stunned unit cannot act during it's next turn | Effect | |
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Survivor | When dying from damage, instead heal X and lose Survivor | Trait | |
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Terror | When attacking, troops with lower attack don't retaliate | Trait | |
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Traitor Auxilia | Sub-category of a troop that functions as a Trait, but not a Trait itself | Tribe | |
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Unstoppable | Can ignore Front Line units when attacking | Trait | |
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Vantage | Can use an activated ability the turn it goes into play | Trait | |
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Ward | Can't be targeted by enemy tactics or abilities | Trait |
[For simplicity of navigation in the site, Effects, Tribes and Abilities will be in the Category: Traits.]
Notes[]
For more info on how to play or specific subjects, check our Guides:
- New Player Guide -For the basics of the game.
- Advance Guide -For more complex mechanics.
- Deck Building Guide -Tips on how to build Decks.
