In Dicevaders, hitting high defense thresholds requires more than just drafting high-strength alien invaders. You need multiplicative mechanics that scale your attack output. Among the various keyword traits in the game, Repeat stands out as one of the most explosive scoring modifiers.
Despite its importance, the tutorial does not heavily emphasize the term, leading many players on the official Steam discussion boards to ask what the mechanic actually does. This guide explains how the Repeat keyword works in Dicevaders, how it calculates attack, and the specific units and artifacts that maximize its impact.
What Does Repeat Do in Dicevaders?
According to in-game keyword tooltips verified by community discussions on Steam, the Repeat keyword causes a unit to resolve its scoring process and card abilities an additional number of times equal to its Repeat value.
When a column is rolled and scored:
- Base scoring activates the unit once for its base strength multiplied by the column's dice power.
- Each stack of Repeat triggers that unit's scoring and on-score effects again.
- A unit with +1 Repeat scores twice total (1 base activation + 1 repeat).
- A unit with +3 Repeat scores four times total (1 base activation + 3 repeats).
Repeat does not simply apply a flat arithmetic multiplier to your final column damage. Instead, it re-executes the unit's scoring phase. If a unit triggers secondary abilities when scored—such as launching mini dice, generating resources, or triggering other invaders—those effects fire again on each repeat activation.
Key Units with Built-In Repeat
Several units come with native Repeat modifiers or conditions that unlock the keyword based on grid positioning and dice power.
| Unit Type / Description | Requirement or Trigger | Repeat Bonus |
|---|---|---|
| Shooter | Must be placed in the bottom row of your grid | +3 Repeat |
| Rusher / Dice Power Scaler | Automatically scales with the column's active dice power | +1 Repeat per dice power |
| Bottom Row Specialists | Triggered by ending up in the lowest slot via swaps or sacrifices | +1 to +3 Repeat |
The Shooter provides one of the earliest demonstrations of positioning requirements. If you place a Shooter in the top or middle rows, it acts as a standard unit. Moving or swapping it into the bottom row activates its passive +3 Repeat, causing it to fire four full scoring instances whenever its column is rolled.
Artifacts and Perks That Grant Repeat
Artifacts, starter perks, and boss rewards can distribute Repeat globally, conditionally, or to specific grid columns.
Commonwealth
Commonwealth is a specialized artifact that grants all common units +2 Repeat while significantly increasing their appearance rate in the shop. This artifact allows basic starting units like Migos to remain viable deep into late-act planet invasions by tripling their scoring frequency.
King Migo
King Migo targets the common Migo archetype directly. While this artifact is held in your active relic slots, all Migo units gain +1 Repeat whenever they are scored.
Shimmer
Shimmer creates direct synergy with shield-based strategies. While active, any unit that possesses a shield receives +1 Repeat. This allows high-strength units to score multiple times while preserving their protective barrier until hit by breaking mechanics.
Ruby Shard
Ruby Shard applies a localized buff. While slotted, units positioned within that specific column gain +1 Repeat and a flat +200 strength bonus. Placing end-game attackers or multi-target spitters directly beneath Ruby Shard drastically amplifies that single column's output.
Single-Turn Buffs and Warped Mimics
Certain temporary rewards and artifacts modify scoring on the fly:
- Board triggers that state "The next unit scored this turn has +1 repeat" amplify the first unit hit during a launch sequence.
- Triple roll bonuses that grant "+2 repeat to units scored by a triple" reward building pairs into three-of-a-kind rolls using budges.
- Warped Mimic effects allow you to spend budge resources to repeat the activation of an artifact in its corresponding column.
How Repeat Interacts with Dice Power and Multipliers
To reach the multi-million attack benchmarks required by late-game defense targets and pilots like Roxy or Noel, understanding how Repeat stacks with the rest of the damage formula is essential.
Dice Power Stacking
When multiple base dice or mini dice land in a single column, that column gains dice power (functioning as a multiplier for units inside that column). For units that gain Repeat based on dice power, rolling a pair or triple creates compounding scaling. You gain both higher dice power per hit and additional repeat activations.
Global Multipliers (Malt)
Temporary multipliers—referred to in-game as malt or global malt—multiply your total accumulated attack score before resetting between turns. Because Repeat triggers a unit's attack calculation multiple times in succession, all of that aggregated base damage feeds into your active malt multiplier at launch.
Positional Swapping and Sacrifices
Because key Repeat units like Shooter require placement in the bottom row, managing grid space is critical. Using shop abilities like sacrifice (destroying a lower unit to pass its raw strength upward) or positional swaps allows you to place high-strength units directly into active Repeat rows.
If a unit on the bottom row is destroyed while paired with artifacts that respawn units on empty tiles, you can funnel collected strength into a newly positioned bottom-row attacker to leverage +3 Repeat immediately.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Repeat trigger on-death effects?
No. Repeat applies specifically when a unit is scored by dice rolls during a launch. On-death effects trigger when a unit is destroyed via shop sacrifices, pilots, or self-destruct mechanisms, which are separate from the scoring phase.
Does Repeat work with mini dice?
Yes. When mini dice land in a column containing a unit with Repeat, scoring that column triggers the unit's Repeat value just as standard dice rolls do. However, certain artifacts specify that effects only trigger from "base dice," so reading the exact wording on your support relics is required.
Can Repeat trigger multiple times if a unit is hit twice?
If a column is scored multiple times across distinct rolls or secondary dice launches within the same turn, the unit resolves its full scoring sequence—including all Repeat instances—each time that column scores.
