The Bard fights at 80% of a normal kit and hands the other 20% back to the tower it is standing in, so where you stand matters more than what you shoot. Each of the three kits pays that 20% back a different way: the Minstrel copies a tower-mate's class with every attack and gives everyone else in the tower 10% more damage, the Dark Bard turns tower-mates' killing blows into attack speed for the rest of the tower, and the Stage Master marks one enemy so the whole team hits it harder. Playing a Bard is about placement and timing: park it in the busiest tower so the most players are covered, and every kit finishes with Fortissimo, which for 6.5 seconds makes whatever you give the tower six times as strong. It does not clear waves by itself, so its strength scales entirely with the teammates around it.
On a team: The Bard raises everyone around it, so it belongs wherever your team's firepower is already concentrated. A tower with a Bard in it fights harder than the same tower without one, which is the trade for the Bard's own reduced damage.
Base attack
The three kits
MinstrelFree default
A mimic that plays back your tower-mates
Minstrel is the free default Bard kit: each attack copies the fighting style of one tower-mate's class, taking them in turn one attack each, at 81.5% of that class's damage rate, never their upgrades and never their subclass. Alone in a tower you simply play your own note for 9 damage every 1 second, and everyone else in your tower deals 10% more damage, with only one bard's buff counting per tower. Its spells are Encore, which fires one real attack of your own and then makes every other player in your tower instantly repeat their attack at double damage, and Fortissimo, which for 6.5 seconds plays your tune six times as loud, taking that tower damage buff from 10% to 60%. The loop is to stand in the busiest tower, where you have the most styles to copy and the most players to buff.
Lute: You play back the people around you: each attack copies the fighting style of one tower-mate's CLASS, taking them in turn, one attack each. You copy the shape of that class's basic attack (its targets, its splash, its slow, its poison, its armor removal) at 81.5% of that class's damage rate, never their upgrades and never their subclass. Alone in a tower you play your own note for 9 damage every 1 second. Everyone else in your tower also deals 10% more damage; only one bard's buff applies to a tower. (9 damage every 1s, range 10)
Spells: Encore · Fortissimo
Dark BardUnlockable kit
Weaken notes that pay off on kills
Dark Bard is an unlockable kit that plays Weaken damage instead of ordinary hits: 49 Weaken per attack, which only counts toward your contribution if the enemy dies before the damage returns, so you race to finish what you have marked. On top of that, every killing blow a tower-mate lands gives each non-bard in the tower +25% attack speed for 3 seconds, stacking twice and capped at +50%, so kills feed the whole tower's tempo. Its spells are Dark Encore, which fires one attack of your own and makes every other player in your tower repeat theirs at double damage with a 22 Weaken rider on everything struck, Requiem, which deals 65 to every enemy carrying your Weaken and makes that Weaken permanent, and Fortissimo, which for 6.5 seconds makes each Weaken note withhold six times as much health. Where the Minstrel steadily buffs, the Dark Bard rewards a tower that keeps racking up kills.
Dirge of Fading: Your attacks deal 49 Weaken damage instead of normal damage. Weaken counts toward your contribution only if the enemy dies before the damage returns. When a tower-mate lands a killing blow, every non-bard in the tower gains +25% attack speed for 3 seconds, stacking up to 2 times. That attack speed can never go past +50% in total, even with several Dark Bards in the same tower. Aura Mastery raises the per-stack amount and that cap together, and only the strongest Dark Bard buff applies. (31.85 damage every 2s, range 10)
Spells: Dark Encore · Requiem · Fortissimo
Stage MasterUnlockable kit
A spotlight that marks a shared target
Stage Master is an unlockable kit whose Spotlight beam deals 12 damage every 1.35 seconds and marks one enemy at a time so the whole team deals 15% more damage to it (half that on the boss), turning the Bard into a focus-fire director. It aims at unmarked enemies first, and the mark holds about 7.3 seconds in a five-player match, shorter as the team grows. Its spells are Encore: Limelight, which marks one enemy for 30% more damage taken and then has you and every other player in your tower fire one attack into it, each hitting 25 harder, Pyrotechnics, which instantly fires 4 real beams for your normal beam damage plus 35 each and spreads your mark to everything they hit, and Fortissimo, which for 6.5 seconds makes every marked enemy take six times that bonus damage from your tower. Where the Minstrel buffs its own tower, the Stage Master points the entire team at one priority enemy.
Spotlight: A beam that marks one enemy for 7.3 seconds in a 5-player match (shorter with more players, longer with Aura Mastery): while marked it takes 15% more damage from every source on the team (half that on the boss itself). 12 damage every 1.35 seconds; targets unmarked enemies first. (12 damage every 1.35s, range 10)
Spells: Encore: Limelight · Pyrotechnics · Fortissimo
Upgrades only the Bard is offered
No other class can be dealt these 7 cards in the draft. Every kit is also offered from the shared pool on top of them; the full list is on the upgrades page.
Any Bard kit
- Louder Refrain: x1.17 all damage for everyone in your tower.
- Orbiting Hammer: A spectral hammer latches onto an enemy within 8 range and slams it for 25; your tower-mates deal +14% damage to it. When it dies the hammer moves on and slams again.
Minstrel only
- Second Verse: Spending mana on spells fills a meter. At 13 mana spent, your tower-mates each instantly repeat their last attack at 350% damage.
Dark Bard only
- Dark Chorus: When the Weaken you have stacked reaches 100 points, Requiem casts itself: 60% of that Weaken bursts into damage at once, and that damage is +37% bigger.
- Funeral March: When your tower kills an enemy, your tower gains +25% attack speed for 4 seconds, stacking up to 3 times. Stacks fall off one at a time.
- Second Verse: Spending mana on spells fills a meter. At 13 mana spent, your tower-mates each instantly repeat their last attack at 350% damage.
Stage Master only
- Curtain Call: Your marks last 75% longer, and when a marked enemy dies your mark leaps to the nearest unmarked enemy within 8 range and lasts 7 seconds there.
- Funeral March: When your tower kills an enemy, your tower gains +25% attack speed for 4 seconds, stacking up to 3 times. Stacks fall off one at a time.
- Showtime: When an enemy carrying your mark dies, a firework bursts where it fell, dealing 27 damage to enemies within 1.8 range.
Numbers on this page are the live base values from the game's content files. Wave scaling and the upgrades you draft change them in play, and a card's own numbers grow with every Empower you have banked.