How Wars Work in Merge a Nuke

Current war rules after the July 13 patch

If you came here from search, start with the current rules. The July 13, 2026 patch changed how wars are started and added Allies, betrayal wars, one-war-at-a-time limits, and diplomatic status icons on the targeting UI.

• Declare War can be triggered from the targeting UI instead of relying only on repeated attacks.
• Only one active war can run per player, so you cannot stack several war payouts at once.
• Standard wars are still the normal PvP cash-risk loop: build war score, resolve the fight, and expect a large cash swing.
• Allies give both players +10% cash income while the alliance is active.
• Attacking an ally cancels the alliance and starts a betrayal war with much harsher score and cash penalties.

War vs Allies vs Betrayal

• War: a direct PvP state against another player. Use it when you are ready to risk cash for a payout.
• Allies: a temporary friendly status that grants +10% cash income to both players.
• Betrayal: the punishment path after attacking an ally. Reports list 1,000% war score for the attacker, 500% for the defender, a 25% defender-cash win if the betrayer succeeds, and a 75% attacker-cash loss if the betrayer fails.
• Targeting UI: the July 13 redesign shows diplomatic status icons so you can avoid accidentally betraying an ally.

What Hoplas2's July 10 video shows

This section summarizes one high-end PvP loadout exactly as shown in Hoplas2's Roblox video — not speculation beyond that footage and our existing raid guide. If a detail is not spoken on-screen or already on this wiki, it is marked as unverified below.

• At the time of the video, attacking the same player three times could declare war on them.
• War score tracks the fight, and the video UI shows 100% as the resolution point.
• The winner receives 50% of the loser's cash when war score resolves in the footage.
• The session focuses on leaderboard PvP: Hoplas2 joins a public server with a maxed base and picks high-nuke opponents.

Commanders Hoplas2 equips for war

Before hunting targets, he swaps off income commanders and equips four offense-oriented units. Below is what he reads from the cards on camera — compare with our commander detail pages if your numbers differ (commander level affects some timers).

• Siege Breaker — launches a warhead that weakens the target's lock timer by 20% (video narration). Our Siege Breaker guide lists 10% lock reduction plus 20% damage on the next nuke — confirm on your in-game card.
• Stalker — buffs the Reign of Commander on your plot by 1.5× and retaliates against attackers with a warhead that lasts 20 seconds (video narration only; Stalker remains pending card verification on this wiki).
• Sovereign — +20% nuke damage, auto-attacks city events, bonus damage to event targets (video narration). Our Sovereign page lists +15% passive damage — likely a level or patch difference; verify in-game.
• Carrier — after you hit a player's base or the city, jets scramble, deal damage, and reduce base lock timer by 40% (video narration). Our Carrier guide documents 30s / 40s lock timer cuts at max level, not a percentage — treat the 40% line as unverified wording until you read your card.

War loop shown in the video

• Pick a server with strong opponents (Hoplas2 targets players with millions or billions of nukes on the board).
• Lock your own base before counter-attacking during server-wide events (the silo event interrupts several fights in the video).
• Launch repeated nukes at the same locked base — Siege Breaker and Carrier are used to shave shield time before the third hit.
• After three hits on one player, the UI announces war (example: “You started a war with …”).
• Keep trading hits until war score resolves — Hoplas2 wins one war but still loses half his cash in that fight, which surprises him on camera.
• When desperate, he uses the new Launch All Nukes option to dump his entire board on an exposed base.

Caveats Hoplas2 hits on camera

• You can lose the cash payout even when you feel ahead — he loses ~50% of his money after a war he thought he was winning.
• A cooldown message appears when trying to keep attacking the same opponent immediately after a war (“you were on a cooldown with this guy”).
• Launch All Nukes on an unlocked base did not always wipe the board as expected in one clip — treat extreme swings as anecdotal, not guaranteed.
• Opponents can leave mid-war or bring friends into the lobby, so public-server wars are messy.

What this means for your base

Wars raise the stakes beyond a single raid. If you spam-attack the same player, expect a formal war and a potential 50% cash loss. Lock before you go offline, upgrade Lock Base duration when lobbies turn aggressive, and only declare wars when your economy can absorb a bad outcome — the video is basically a cautionary tale about that last point.

For mechanics we already verify on the wiki (Lock Base shields, raid timing, July 4 patch banner), start with the raid guide and update log rather than this blog alone.