What exactly happens when there are multiple bloodstone golems on board?

The production of two or more active Bloodstone Golems can be surprising to those unaware of how it works. It can also be frustrating to lose to when you receive more damage than expected.

Let's begin with this screenshot.

Here we see the player lose to the opponent's production because of the accumulated damage from the Golems.

If you are already familiar with Bloodstone Golem, you know he should have only been dealt 16 damage (I will explain why and how this is calculated).

However, we are told the player had 17 life. How did he die?

Before I answer this question, let's go through what you should know about Bloodstone Golem. I'll explain the effect and show you an equation to calculate the damage. I will also link gifs of in-game examples.

Bloodstone Golem's Effect

Bloodstone Golem

Production - Create 1F in each well.

• This is the production effect, and is triggered at the start of the owner's turn.

Whenever faeria is harvested, deal 1 damage to your opponent.

• This is NOT part of the production effect. This is a passive effect. It happens WHENEVER faeria is collected, even on your opponent's turn.

The production from multiple creatures do not trigger at the same time. It happens sequentially, starting with the creature on the left-most column. If there is more than one creature in that column, it's from top to bottom.

Therefore, if there are two golems, the wells will be refilled twice, and a creature adjacent to a well will collect both times.

All this happens during the production phase of your turn (before you can use the wheel and move/attack with a creature).

The (incomplete) Equation

What is a simple equation that I can use to calculate the damage?

D = G^2 x C

D=Total damage dealth from Golem's Production effect.
G=number of Golems on the board
C=number of wells that are collected from during production

This equation applies only to the production phase.

What is the logic behind this equation? For the first refill, we deal damage equal to the number of collections multiplied by the number of golems. We repeat this for each refill, so we multiply again by the number of golems.

Note: There is another factor to consider. The complete equation will be shown at the end.

Here are some in-game examples, tested in single-player pandora.

2 Golems, 2 Collections

Remember production triggers sequentially. We see the left Golem refilling the wells as the production phase starts.

Then each creature collects, and because I have two Golems, each collection will deal 2 damage.

Next the right golem's production triggers. We collect and deal damage again, 8 in total.

Applying the equation we have 2 golems, and collect from 2 wells. 2^2 x 2 = 8.

3 Golems, 3 Collections
3^2 x 3 = 27.
We see the opponent's life fall from 20 to -7.

2 Golems, 4 Collections
This is the same situation as the one shown in the screenshot.
2^2 x 4 = 16.

So the question still remains. If he had 17 life, how did he die?

Let's take a look at this.

We have 2 Golems, 3 collections. As expected we deal 12 damage.

What's important though is the uncollected faeria afterwards in the bottom-right well.

In the following production phase, this uncollected faeria is collected first, before a golem refills the wells.

And it is this uncollected faeria why even the more experienced players get confused and believe Bloodstone Golem is bugged.

The complete equation is then:
D = G x U + G^2 x C
U: A well with uncollected faeria that will be collected during production.

Now we can understand why the player died in the screenshot. I speculate:

• Two turns ago, the opponent had a beastmaster and azure wisp on board, and then played a golem.
• In his following turn, he collect 3 times and deals 3 damage, hence 17 life. There is an uncollected faeria in one of the wells.
• Then he uses aurora's creation and plays a second golem.
• Finally, during the production phase of the next turn (shown in the screenshot), the player receives 2 damage from the opponent collecting the uncollected faeria, and then further receives 16.

Hopefully this settles any confusion with Bloodstone Golem. There is no bug, it works as intended, and it has always been this way.
Thanks for reading :)