The buff layer: 6,791 effects and who applies them

Counted from relinks/buff-source.jsonl (41,512 application edges, each pinned to its source component and field) — build 20212986, patch 2.7.0x.

Wrath of the Righteous is famously a game you play in the rest menu. The data agrees: 6,791 distinct buff blueprints receive 41,512 recorded applications from everything else in the client.

Who does the applying

| Source | Applications | |---|---:| | Units | 8,827 | | Abilities (spells & attacks) | 8,329 | | Features | 7,318 | | Other buffs | 6,679 | | Command actions | 2,094 | | Area effects | 2,074 | | Etudes (story state) | 1,372 | | Activatable abilities | 1,077 |

Two things worth stopping for:

• Buffs apply buffs — 6,679 edges are buff→buff composition. Auras that stack a status each round, forms that grant sub-effects, feats that upgrade existing states: the layer is a dependency web, not a list.
• Story applies buffs too — 1,372 etude-driven applications mean plot state changes what your character is, silently, outside any combat system.

The classics, ranked

The most-applied named buffs read like a level-one wizard's shopping list:

| Buff | Application sites | |---|---:| | Mage Armor | 506 | | Barkskin | 451 | | True Seeing | 422 | | Heroism | 408 |

These four are referenced by hundreds of items, creatures, and NPC casters apiece — when the bestiary says an enemy casts like a wizard, this is the shelf it reaches for. (The top entry overall, at 672, is Unlootable — proof that the buff system doubles as the engine's generic state-flag mechanism, loot rules included.)

Where it connects

• The crusade layer adds another 401 kingdom/unit buff applications through projects and events.
• The difficulty grid ships with RemoveAnnoyingBuffsAfterCombat enabled on every preset without exception — the one rule no difficulty changes.
• The etude machine carries 1,372 of these edges inside its 40,360-reference graph.

Sources

• relinks/buff-source.jsonl — every inbound edge per buff, with sourceType, component type, and field path.
• Build: 20212986 (patch 2.7.0x).