Overall
Lysander's kit transforms the entire battlefield into a chess game. At battle start, every hero is assigned a piece based on position: front-liners become Pawns with reduced stats, back-center becomes the King with massive damage reduction, and back-sides become Rooks with distance-scaling damage and knockback. His ultimate shifts function depending on his own piece role. Pawns that push deep enough promote to Knights, gaining a major stat swing and recovering health and energy on transformation. Knights teleport to priority targets and shred defense permanently with each strike. The King's death detonates nearby allies, but a rescue mechanic swaps the King with a Rook to block fatal damage, granting both invincibility and sustained recovery. Rooks gain permanent haste with each ultimate, and their ranged strikes inflict max-health damage against distant targets.
Skills
Grandmaster’s Opening
UltimateAuto-casts at battle start with control immunity, assigning chess piece roles based on position: front line becomes Pawns, center back becomes King, back sides become Rooks. Subsequent casts have reduced energy cost.
Pawn March
ActivePawns have reduced attack and defense until they advance near the enemy back line, transforming into Knights with major stat boosts. When Lysander is a Pawn or Knight, his ultimate delivers multi-hit attacks that permanently shred defense and can refund energy on kill.
Royal Protection
ActiveKings deal greatly reduced damage. When a King dies, nearby allies suffer massive health loss and enemies lose all energy plus bonus damage based on lost health. When Lysander is King, his ultimate grants Inspired to front-line allies while debuffing front-line enemies with reduced energy recovery and tenacity.
Iron Siege
ActiveRooks deal increased damage at range and knock back distant enemies, but take more damage from close targets. When Lysander is a Rook, his ultimate hits the farthest enemy with multi-strike attacks that deal percentage-based health loss. Rooks permanently gain haste and attack speed each time they use their ultimate.
Signature Item
Golden Stratagem
When a Pawn transforms into a Knight, they recover health, gain full energy, and receive Inspired. All other allies also gain Inspired, with refreshed and boosted effects if already active.
Furniture
Furniture
When a King takes fatal damage, it is blocked and the King swaps positions with the nearest backline Rook, gaining invincibility. Both heroes then recover health and energy over time. Triggers once per battle.
Engravings are not listed here because they upgrade existing skills directly. See the Skills tab for engraving effects alongside each skill.
At the start of battle, Lysander immediately casts his Ultimate without spending any Energy, and while casting, Lysander is immune to control effects. All heroes—both enemies and allies—are defined as chess pieces with different functions. Heroes in the front line, the center of the back line, and the sides of the back line are defined as Pawns, Kings, and Rooks, respectively. These chess piece effects do not disappear when Lysander dies. Depending on the chess piece effect of Lysander himself, subsequent uses of his Ultimate will have different effects. When Lysander is deployed to the front line, his normal attacks are melee. From the back line, his normal attacks are ranged.
Front line heroes are Pawns: The Attack and Defense of Pawns are reduced by 40%. If a Pawn comes within a certain distance of the enemy back line, it will transform into a Knight, and their Attack and Defense will be increased by 80% instead. When Lysander is a Pawn, his Ultimate stabs at an enemy in front of him, dealing damage equal to 550% of his Attack Rating and knocking them into the air. When Lysander is a Knight, his Ultimate teleports him in front of an enemy hero, prioritizing Kings as the target. He then stabs multiple times, launching 4 strikes that deal damage equal to 280% of his Attack Rating, while the final strike deals damage equal to 620% of his Attack Rating.
Heroes in the center of the back line are Kings: Kings inflict 65% less damage and health loss. When a King dies, they inflict AoE health loss equal to 60% of the King’s max health to allies in a large area. When Lysander is a King, his Ultimate grants the 2 allied heroes closest to the enemy’s back line position the “Inspired” effect for 9 seconds, increasing their Energy Recovery Rate and Tenacity by 20 and 50 points, respectively. It also applies a debuff of the same value on the 2 enemy heroes closest to the allied back line position.
Heroes on the sides of the back line are Rooks: Rooks deal more damage the farther away the enemy is, for a max damage boost of 75%. Upon dealing damage to enemies beyond a certain distance away, the enemy is also knocked back. This knockback effect can be triggered up to 1 times every 2 seconds. However, enemies also deal more damage to Rooks the closer they are, for a max damage boost of 50%. When Lysander is a Rook, his Ultimate deals 5 strikes of damage equal to 450% of his Attack Rating to the enemy farthest from himself.
Golden Stratagem
Enhances: Strategic EmpowermentWhen an allied Pawn transforms into a Knight, they recover 50% of their max health.
When an allied Pawn transforms into a Knight, they recover 200 Energy.
When an allied Pawn transforms into a Knight, they recover 500 Energy.
When an allied Pawn transforms into a Knight, they gain the Inspired effect.
When an allied Pawn transforms into a Knight, all other allied heroes gain the Inspired effect. If a hero is already Inspired, then the duration of the buff is refreshed and its effects are all boosted by 80%.
When an allied King takes fatal damage, if there is an allied Rook on the battlefield, the fatal damage will be blocked and the King will become invincible for 3 seconds. The King and Rook will also swap positions, prioritizing Rooks that are closest to the back line position. This effect can only be triggered once per battle.
For 8 seconds after this effectis triggered, the 2 heroes that swapped positions will recover 10% of their max health and 100 Energy every second.
When an enemy hero suffers health loss from the death of a King, their Energy is cleared and they suffer an extra strike of damage equal to 20% of their lost health, not to exceed 600% of Lysander’s Attack Rating.
Every time allied Rooks use their Ultimate, they permanently gain 20 points of Haste and 20 points of Attack Speed. This effect can be stacked up to 5 times.
Within Arena of Heroes, Legends' Challenger Tournament, Legends' Championship, Treasure Scramble, and Heroes of Esperia: