Madness

Madness is a devastating allegiance debuff that causes the afflicted unit to perceive everything as an enemy. A unit with Madness becomes completely uncontrollable and will attack any nearby unit, friend or foe, indiscriminately. Unlike Charmed, which switches a unit to a specific team, Madness makes the unit a threat to everyone on the battlefield, creating chaotic and unpredictable combat situations.

Madness can be applied by the Blood Frenzy ability and certain other sources. When caused by specific sources, Madness becomes permanent and cannot be removed by temporary cleansing effects, making it one of the few truly irremovable debuffs alongside Exhaustion. This permanent variant reapplies itself automatically if cleared by any effect. The Mad elite buff applied to enemies grants Madness along with +1 All Stats Up and 4 healing on each kill, plus an extra turn per round, making Mad-buffed enemies extremely dangerous and erratic.

When your own cat is afflicted with Madness, it becomes a liability that can attack your other cats. In multi-cat teams, a mad cat with high Strength or powerful abilities can quickly tear through your own squad. The best response is often to focus the mad unit down quickly or position your other cats far away from it. When applied to enemies, Madness can be used strategically to turn groups against themselves, particularly effective in encounters with many enemies clustered together. The chaos of Madness means affected enemies may waste turns attacking each other instead of your cats.