Lineup chemistry

Some players make each other better, and some never find each other on the ice. Chemistry is the game’s measure of that. It belongs to a unit, not to a player, and it is one of the reasons to keep a line together once it works. Set your units in the lineup.

How chemistry works

Every unit you set has its own chemistry: how well those players play together. Keep a unit together and it grows; who you put together decides how far it can go.

That means every forward line, defense pair, power-play unit and penalty-kill unit. At even strength a forward plays with his line’s chemistry and a defenseman with his pair’s; on the power play and the penalty kill it is the chemistry of the whole unit on the ice. Goalies are not part of it.

Three things make a unit’s chemistry:

• Personality fit — whether the players’ personalities sit well together. It decides where a new unit starts and how high its chemistry can ever go.
• Language — whether they can talk to each other on the ice.
• Familiarity — how many games they have played together as a unit. It is the part you build, and it lifts the unit toward the ceiling the fit allows.

Personality fit

Every player has a persona, shown in the Personality section of his info panel: Competitor, Inspirer, Peacemaker or Tactician. Check it before you build a unit. If two players clash — Competitor with Peacemaker, Inspirer with Tactician — they do better on different units.

The persona is the player’s main leaning. A player may also lean a little toward a second type, and that counts too, to a lesser degree. The fit is judged between every two players of the unit, and the unit gets the average.

	Competitor	Inspirer	Peacemaker	Tactician
Competitor	Fine	Good	Clash	Fine
Inspirer	Good	Good	Good	Clash
Peacemaker	Clash	Good	Good	Good
Tactician	Fine	Clash	Good	Good

Most types sit well with their own kind. Two Competitors only get along. The opposites clash: Competitor with Peacemaker, Inspirer with Tactician. One clashing pair does not ruin a line of three, but it pulls the average down.

Language

The languages a player speaks are listed on his info panel. A language the whole unit speaks fluently helps a little; two players with no language in common cost the whole unit. If a player shares no language with a linemate, move one of them.

When every player in the unit shares a language he speaks fluently with each linemate, they read each other a little better. A language they both speak only at a basic level neither helps nor hurts. With no common language, the unit is judged by its weakest pair: one player who cannot talk to a linemate is enough. It costs less when a linemate who can talk to both bridges the gap, so that everyone in the unit reaches everyone through someone. Players whose native tongues are related understand each other a little better than players with nothing in common.

Players pick up new languages over the years they spend abroad; see player personality.

Familiarity

Familiarity is the part you build: keep a unit together and it climbs, game by game, through New, Developing, Established and Bonded. Every unit gains the same from it; the fit decides where it starts and where it stops. If you have to break up a unit, the one that has played together least loses least.

It grows with every game the unit plays together, as you set it in the lineup. It grows slowly: a unit needs a run of games to move up a level. Games in the preseason and the playoffs count too, but the level moves only during the regular season; a unit that stops playing together loses ground only then as well.

Familiarity lifts a unit’s chemistry, but never past what the personality fit allows:

• A unit of good fits can grow into the best chemistry there is.
• A unit whose fits are only fine can become strong.
• A unit with clashes can be brought back toward neutral with time, the worst clashes only slowly, but never into a strength. A group whose fits are fine or good starts about where time could take it, so if a unit has clashes, rebuild it rather than wait.

Familiarity belongs to the exact group of players. Moving players around inside a unit, such as switching your wingers, keeps it. A player who is in more than one unit, say a line and the first power-play unit, builds each of them separately.

What chemistry does on the ice

Chemistry changes how well each skater in the unit plays, up or down, every shift that unit is out. A unit with excellent chemistry plays a little above itself; one with toxic chemistry plays below itself, whatever its talent.

It lasts all game long. What counts is the group that is actually on the ice. If an injury breaks a unit up during a game, the players who step on together have the chemistry of that group, which is often a group that has never played as a unit.

What breaks it

A new player in a unit makes it a new combination. If you change a unit for a game or two, put the old group back soon.

• Changing a player. Swap one player into a line and it is a new combination that starts from New. The old combination keeps what it earned for a while, so putting it back together soon costs little.
• A game-day stand-in. When a player can’t play and another takes his spot, the stand-in’s group earns familiarity from that game as its own combination, and your usual unit earns nothing from it until you put your player back.
• A long spell apart. During the regular season, a combination that stops playing together loses its progress toward the next level, and over a longer spell it wears down a level at a time.
• A player leaving the club. When a player is traded or released, every combination he was part of is gone with him.
• A poor fit. Adding a player whose personality clashes with his linemates, or who shares no language with one of them, lowers the unit’s chemistry and its ceiling, however long they play together.

Where you see it

Edit lineup shows how much familiarity each unit has earned; the Assistant report after each game shows its full chemistry. If you are weighing a swap, place the player on the unit in Edit lineup and read Familiarity before you save.

Edit lineup. Each line, pair, power-play and penalty-kill card shows Familiarity, as a word and a short meter, or “No games together yet” when that group has never played a game together as a unit. The reading follows every change as you build the unit, so you can see what a swap would cost before you make it. It shows nothing while a slot in the unit is empty, and the shootout card has none. If the players of a unit have not all played the same games together, the lowest level is shown. Edit lineup shows only the familiarity a unit has earned: it does not judge personality or language for you.

The Assistant report. After each game, the Chemistry card lists each unit as it took the ice with three meters: Chemistry (from Toxic, Weak and OK up to Strong and Excellent), Familiarity, and Potential, the ceiling the fit allows. A unit appears there only when it played as you assigned it. The report also says in words which units played well together and which did not.

Worth knowing

• Moving players around inside a unit, such as switching your wingers, keeps its familiarity.
• Preseason and playoff games add familiarity, but the level moves only during the regular season.
• A player on a line and a power-play unit builds familiarity with each of them separately.
• A game-day stand-in’s group earns the familiarity from that game; your usual unit earns none until you put your player back.
• Edit lineup shows only earned familiarity. Personas and languages are on the players’ panels, and the ceiling the fit allows shows as Potential in the Assistant report.