Order Automatica cell effects

Launch Order Automatica ships 18 cell effects: nine positive stamps and nine negative ones. They are not relics you wear. They are temporary (usually) sentences painted onto a numbered tile. You buy them during preparation with Essence, they fire according to their printed trigger, and then most of them go away. The grid and positioning page explains where a unit should sit. This page explains what the floor is doing under that unit.

The Cell Effect button sits on the left of the preparation screen in the 1.00 UI. It costs Essence. If you End Preparation with leftover coins and an empty stamp slot in your brain, you probably should have bought a tile instead of staring at Draw Again.

What a cell effect actually is

A cell effect occupies one of the nine numbered cells. Positive examples from public footage and the developer commentary:

• Before battle, the unit in this cell gains a chunk of defense (SIX footage showed plus six on a Featureless parked on that tile).
• Before battle, the unit in this cell fires its special ability early.
• Column buffs that look like cell effects but are actually items (Column Incursio, column vigor) — those live on the item tier list, not here. Hover. If it is in the shop row as a book, it is an item. If it came from the Cell Effect button, it is a tile.

Negative examples that players actually die to:

• Heavy Stone / Cursed Stone style taxes that summon a blocking body onto a random empty cell. Your Hermit row just lost its empty tiles.
• Movement or lock effects that freeze a unit in place so you cannot slide it after the shop.
• Tiles that damage or kill the occupant unless you wanted that death for an Upon Death engine.

Steam’s own launch copy is blunt: 9 positive, 9 negative. The in-game Codex splits them as +Cell Effects and −Cell Effects. Unlock them by playing ranks, not by reading this page.

PAX East 2026 Order Automatica gameplay showing the 3x3 board and tile stamps

Timing: shop phase versus battle

Anything that happens in preparation persists. Mickey’s Seattle commentary is the rule: if you Poison-kill an Upon Death unit in the shop, the trigger already paid out and the buff is still there when the fight starts. Cell effects that say “before battle” or “when battle begins” fire after you press End Preparation, so they do not persist into the next shop unless a rare unit or item makes them permanent.

That permanence clause matters. Itch.io playtests called out Miner: the unit retriggers a cell effect in a way that makes a normally temporary stamp stick. The pickaxe item does a similar job. If your 1.00 Codex still prints that text, Miner is not a combat body. He is a way to keep a plus-six defense tile or an early-ability tile for the rest of the rank. If launch patched the wording, hover and believe the card.

How to buy without bricking the board

1. Read the occupant first. A defense stamp wants your cell-1 tank. An “early special” stamp wants Madame, Hermit, or anyone whose text you actually want to fire twice. A random chip stamp on an empty cell is a wasted coin.
2. Count empty tiles. Summoner boards need holes. A negative stamp that fills a hole is a Curse wearing a cell-effect costume. See candles and Curses.
3. Do not stamp a tile you are about to Distill off. If the unit is leaving, the floor bonus leaves with the fight, not with the Distill slot — but you still spent Essence you could have used on Draw Again or a merge.
4. The achievement Cell Effector asks you to buy three cell effects in one preparation. That is a trophy, not a strategy. Three stamps on a nine-cell board usually means you are ignoring the shop. Details on achievements.

Positive stamps worth the coin

Defense / life on a numbered cell. Park the bald tank. The SIX demo put Featureless on a plus-six defense cell because that is the entire joke of cell 1: eat the first punch.

Early special ability. This is how a backline Mage or a death engine cheats attack order. Combined with Book of the True Cell on cell 5, you can get a pre-fight poke and a battle-start poke. Combined with Madame, you can detonate two neighbors before anyone swings.

Column or row language on a tile. If the stamp buffs a column, fill the column first. An empty column with a column stamp is the same mistake as an empty column with a column book.

Negative stamps you will be offered

Curses sometimes are cell effects. The enemy also gets tiles. A negative cell on your side is a tax you chose or a Curse you picked. A negative cell on their side is a gift. Do not spend Essence “fixing” a bad tile if Distill or a move would be cheaper.

Heavy Stone occupying the only empty cell is the classic collapse. Hermit, fish summons, and on-death spawn items all need a hole. If the stone is already down, Distill the summoner or kill something on purpose to open a seat. Do not Draw Again hoping the stone leaves. Temporary stamps usually last the fight, not the shop.

Lock in place. Some units and keys interact with locks (Cell Key in demo footage “unlocks unit / prevents lock”). If a tile or Curse roots your tank in cell 7, you have a backline wall. Move it before the stamp, or treat that body as dead weight and Distill.

Miner, pickaxe, and making a stamp stay

Until your Codex says otherwise, treat Miner and pickaxe as the “make this tile permanent” package. That is the only reason a cell effect becomes a build instead of a one-fight trick. A permanent plus-defense cell 1 is Adept-viable. A permanent random-damage cell 9 is still a lottery.

Pair permanence with the unit tier list. Miner without a tile you care about is a C-tier body. Miner on a tile you already paid for is an engine.

Enemy tiles

The opposing ritual uses the same 18-effect pool. If their cell 1 is glowing, assume a defense stamp and stop chipping the backline. If their empty row is glowing, assume a summoner tax is coming and fill your own holes first. The enemy tier list covers the portraits; this page covers the floor under them.

Related reading

• Placement and attack order: grid and positioning
• Essence math: shop, Distill, and merge
• Persistent layer: Indulgences and Curses
• Trophy hunters: achievements

Stamp one tile that matches a unit you already committed to. Then End Preparation. Three random stamps is how candles go out.