What is Marriage in Bloodline?

At this point, the game doesn't do a great job explaining marriage. Marriage is just the way you upgrade a champion's traits. Two champions are chosen and merged together to produce a fully grown child that is essentially a duplicate of the first champion, but has a single trait replaced with one from the other champion.

The Royal Hall

The Royal Hall is where champions are married. You can get there either by clicking on the map or by clicking the 'marriage' icon when viewing a champion.

Once you are in the Royal Hall you will see two slots. One will tell you to choose a hero and one will tell you to choose their spouse.

Hero Champion

The "Hero" is the champion you want to upgrade by giving a new trait. The child born from this marriage will be almost a complete duplicate of this champion.

Things that will change:

• Champion's name

• One trait (of your choice)

• The genealogy

Things that will stay the same:

• Champion's level

• Champion's star level

• Champion's skills

• Champion's racial trait

• Three remaining traits (assuming the champion is mythic)
  *Gear will be removed, but not destroyed. It just has to be equipped again.

Spouse

The "Spouse" is the champion that has the trait you want to give to your Hero. This champion will be gone, and will give only a single trait to the child born from the marriage.

Traits

Each clan has a male and female version. At their core, there is no difference between one male/female and another male/female of the same clan. The difference in stats is made by the traits.

The level of trait can be 1-22. The level depends on the rarity of a champion for rolled champions and the intimacy of a companion for heir champions.

Racial Traits

Each clan has their own racial trait. This trait cannot be removed from that champion, but it can be passed on to its offspring even if that offspring is from another clan.

Example: A Male Tidestorm has the racial Aggressive, but his mother was from the Yivnian clan and was born with that clan's racial Focused as well. In this case, Aggressive cannot be removed, but Focused can be removed for a different trait with further marriage.

The Racial Traits:

• Aeson - Devout: When the battle starts, increases all Champions' Healing and Healed efficiency by x%. This effect can't be removed nor stacked.

• Doombringer - Lion-heart: Each attack made increases Total Damage by x%, up to 15%

• Elzedith - Fearsome: When attacking, there is a 10% chance to Stun the target for x seconds.

• Fulgur - Hulking: When the battle starts, increases all Champions' Strength by 5%. After that, increases their strength by x% every 2 seconds, up to a total of y%. This effect can't be removed nor stacked.

• Gryphon - Cunning: When the battle starts, enemies' Energy gain rate is reduced by x% for 3 seconds.

• Huntsdorf - Eagle-eyed: Each attack made increases Critical Rate by x%, up to 10%.

• Ignis - Pyromancer: When attacking, there is a 20% chance to inflict Burning (the target takes damage equal to x% of the attacker's strength) to the target for 3 seconds

• Karg - Foolhardy: When attacking, if the target has more than 80% Constitution, deals an additional x% damage.

• Karguk - Vengeful: Upon being attacked, there is a 20% chance to reflect x% of the damage taken.

• Lionstone - Ambitious: When the battle starts, gain an additional x Energy.

• Lume - Sanguine: When the battle starts, increases all Champions' damage by x%. After that, increases their damage by x% every 2 seconds, up to a total of x%. This effect can't be removed nor stacked.

• The Luxuriant - Zealous: When attacking, there is a x% chance to remove all buff effects from the target.

• Lycanis - Clever: When attacking, ignores x% of the target's Fortitude.

• Nasse - Berserker: In battle, increases damage by x% for each 1% Constitution lost, up to 13%

• Sallyhorn - Dexterous: Upon being attacked, there is a 50% chance to reduce damage taken by x%.

• The Scorching Fire - Dutiful: When defeated, restores x energy for all teammates.

• Tidestorm - Aggressive: Each attack made increases Strength by x%, up to 20%

• Travain - Agile: Attack Speed is increased by x%

• Ugrull - Inspiring: When the battle starts, increases all Champion's damage by x% for the first 10 seconds. This effect can't be stacked.

• Yivnian - Focused: When the battle starts, increases Energy gain rate by x%.

• Zaess - Inventive: When release skills, there is a 50% chance to gain a Shield, which absorbs damage equal to x% of the Champion's Strength

** Adding secondary racial traits will be done more late game. Traits generally shouldn't be added if the trait is under level 22.

Regular Traits

These are the traits that any champion can have. They are can be broken down into a few categories:

Flat Increase Traits

• Athletic - Strength is increased by x

• Confident: Leadership is increased by x

• Healthy - Constitution is increased by x

• Scrappy - Fortitude is increased by x

This increase their respective stat by an amount per level. They are okay to use early to mid game, but by late game these will fall off and should probably be replaced with a second racial.

Percentage Increase Traits

• Brutal - Strength is increased by x%

• Loyal: Fortitude is increased by x%

• Noble - Leadership is increased by x%

• Energetic - Constitution is increased by x%

These are what I consider S-Tier traits. To decide which trait belongs on which champion you should read their skills.

For example: Male Lionstone's main ability creates a shield for all teammates that lasts 8 seconds, which absorbs damage by x% of the Caster's Strength. This means while he is a tank and should have traits like Loyal and/or Energetic, the Brutal trait would also work on him because it would help his shields become stronger.

Total Increase Traits

• Fierce: Total Damage is increased by x%

• Honorable: Total Damage Reduction is increased by x%

These are also S-tier traits for me. Honorable works for both tanks and damage classes as it makes them both harder to kill. Fierce is a must have for damage dealers because it gives them a raw power upgrade.

Attack Based Traits

• Bestial - Restores Constitution by x% of the Strength for every 5 attacks.

• Cutthroat - When attacking, increases Lifesteal Rate by x%

• Hex-proof - When attacking, there is a 20% chance to Silence the target for x seconds.

• Pure-Heart: When attacking, there is a x% chance to remove all debuff effects from the Attacker.

I don't really care for these traits. They could be good situationally, but I think Percentage Increase Traits, Total Increase Traits, and secondary Racial Traits would take priority over these.

Battle Traits

• Tenacious - When the battle starts, gains an additional shield that lasts for 10 seconds, absorbing damage equal to x% of their Strength.

Most Battle Traits are in the Racial Traits. Tenacious is the only one at this time that is a regular Battle Trait. It can be okay for someone with high strength. I've had it on lower level champions and I've liked it, but for the most part I have never chose Tenacious over Honorable.

Trait Rules

1. A clan's racial trait cannot be removed off a member of their own clan.

2. You cannot upgrade a racial trait through marriage. This is done at the altar.

3. A champion cannot have two of the same trait.

4. A champion may have more than one racial trait.

5. Lower level traits can replace higher level traits (You will receive an ingame warning before performing this type of marriage)

Marriages

Now that you understand about traits, how they work, and how to choose them we can talk about marriages themselves.

Starting Notes

Wedding Rings are required for performing marriages.

As of right now, Wedding Rings can only be obtained two ways: Completing the Campaign and buying them from the store in game.

Its important to be as efficient as possible with Wedding Rings because of few you actually acquire in the long run. A Wedding Ring in the store costs 500 gems, which I think is ridiculous. If you were to purchase gems from the cash shop that would be just under $10 worth of gems. (Not that you should purchase gems from the cash shop. There are better ways to spend your money in this game, but I'll go over that elsewhere).

One trait will usually require around 2-6 Wedding Rings. If you have a team of five that needs all four traits replaced that could end up costing over 120 Wedding Rings.

For most marriages, your goal should be level 22 traits.

On my F2P account I did some marrying early on and gave my team basic mythic level traits (level 18). This helped me progress, but now that I'm in a position to give my champions level 22 traits, I don't have enough rings to do it. So, if you feel like you need to give your champions better traits early on, do so extremely sparingly.

Do not use your Commons as fodder.

Commons (using the method I will talk about) are very important for marriages. You will get a lot of different rarities and you can use any of them for fodder (even mythic champions at some point), but leave your commons alone. After your companions are leveled up, you don't get commons from them anymore. You can get them from the dungeon, exploring, or some rolls, but you will always need more.

Genealogy starts becoming important after you start marrying off your heir champions.

Closely related champions cannot marry.

• Full Siblings/Half Siblings - Cannot Marry

• First Cousins (share a grandparent) - Cannot Marry

• Aunt/Uncle to Niece/Nephew - Cannot Marry

There must be two marriages to make them no longer closely related.

Example: Champion One: Heir (Your Child) -> marriage -> Champion (Your Grandchild) -> marriage (Your Great Grandchild) and Champion Two: Heir (Your Child) can marry because there was two marriages separating them.

**Note - I have seen guides that said the marriages can be one on one side and one on the other, insinuating first cousins can marry, but that has not been my experiences.

Easy Separating Tips:

The game doesn't have a great system for separating champions, so I use levels to 'mark' them. You can use whatever system you want, but mine is like this:

• Level 2 - Mythic Fodder

• Level 3 - Common Champions

• Level 4 -Main Team / District Champions reset for Might

• Level 5 - Mythic Champions with level 22 traits
  
  
  

Picking Your Hero

As mentioned earlier, the 'Hero' is the champion you want to give a new trait.

District Hero

Eventually you will reach a point when you will start putting Leadership traits on Mythic Champions to make them more effective in your districts. This should be done late game as your combat champions will be more than enough early to mid game.

Combat Hero

The majority of your marriages will be with champions you will use on your main combat team.

You should pick a champion that you want to keep on your team for a long time if possible. A champion you are planning to replace shouldn't be upgraded in most situations.

Once you know what champion you want to be your Hero, you should look at their stats. Ideally, a champion should have all level 22 traits. Start by picking which trait you want to replace and take note of your Hero's clan and gender.

Picking Their Spouse

Now that you know who your Hero is, you need to pick their Spouse.

-Remember: You will lose this champion permanently-

• The Spouse needs to be the opposite gender of your Hero.

• If possible, the Spouse should be of the same clan to increase the chances of getting the trait you want. (This is because they share a racial trait)

• The Spouse should have the level 22 trait that you want.

Back to Traits

If we think back to what we learned about traits, we know that a Champion cannot have two of the same trait. That means, the more traits the Spouse has in common with the Hero, the greater chance we have of getting the trait we want.

My Hero has:

Hulking
Cutthroat
Fierce
Brutal
Athletic

Their Spouse has
Agile
Pure-Heart
Cutthtroat
Athletic
Fierce

There isn't anything we can do about the racial traits. They are different and there is a risk that the child born from this marriage can get the Agile trait. The goal is to make that chance as low as possible.

Athletic is the one we plan to put on our new champion, so that one needs to stay on the Spouse.

Cutthroat is a trait that both champions share, so these two cancel each other out and therefore can stay on the Spouse.

Fierce is also a trait that both champions share, so that one can also stay on the Spouse.

The odd one out is Pure-Heart. If we were to marry these two champions as is there is only a 1 in 3 chance that the child could come out with the trait we want.

To fix this, we need to get rid of Pure-Hearted and make it the same third traid of our Hero, which is Brutal. We are going to do this by marrying the future Spouse to a common.

Preparing for the Main Marriage

The Marriage

Once the Spouse is fully prepared with all the correct traits you can begin the actual marriage.

Steps:

1. Place the Mythic Female Fulgur (The Hero you chose) into the Hero slot

2. Select the Athletic Trait (The trait you want to replace for the new trait)

3. Place the Mythic Male Travain (The Spouse you chose and prepared) into the Spouse slot.

4. Marry them.

If the Hero and the Spouse are from the same clan there will be a 100% chance to transfer the trait you want to your Hero.

If the Hero and the Spouse are from different clans, there is a 50% chance that the clan trait will transfer to your Hero instead of the desired trait. If this happens, its just bad RNG and you'll have to repeat the whole process.

Ending Thoughts

This method is what I believe to be the least wasteful.

I was using a different method before where you use a common as the secondary hero and as the primary spouse, but that felt like I was leaving too much up to chance. I would have a 1 in 4 or 1 in 5 chance (depending on the clans) of getting the trait I wanted.

If it failed on step one (Common to Mythic Marriage), then I was down one ring, one mythic champion, the trait I wanted was lost, and I now had a useless trait sitting around.

If it failed on step two (Mythic to Common Marriage), then I was stuck with a level 1 racial trait on one of my main champions.

At least with this method, worst case scenario I have a level 22 racial that isn't what I wanted, but isn't as bad as a level 1 racial trait.

Credit to my brother, Dyora, for coming up with this method and teaching me over and over until I understood it :)