Squad and formations in LAN: how to place your letters

Updated 26 October 2026 · by marcojlv

In LAN you don't control your letters during the run: you place them beforehand and they fight on their own. That makes the squad the most important decision in the game after what to upgrade. Good placement can give you hundreds of extra meters with the same letters at the same levels. This guide explains the rules behind it and how to use them.

What to know about each letter

In the Squad tab, tapping a letter (in the formation or on the bench) shows its full card: role, damage type, stats, skill, copies and level. Two of those decide where it goes.

The role

• Tanks: lots of health and defense, little damage. They're there to take hits.
• Melee: they hit hard up close; they hold out a bit, but less than a tank.
• Ranged: they shoot from afar and have little health. At the back they're safe; at the front they fall in no time.

Melee letters and tanks don't stand completely still: when a number comes within 8 cells of their spot, they step out to meet it and walk back when nothing is in sight. They move mostly sideways (up to 3.5 cells), so in a row of two they help each other. Ranged letters never leave their spot.

The damage type

Each letter deals numeric (NUM) or literary (LIT) damage, and each number has a defense against each type. This is the lever for building squads.

The game works out damage like this:

damage = attack × crit × 100 / (100 + defense)

Defense never cancels damage, but it cuts it hard: at 50 defense, 67% of the hit gets through; at 100, half; at 200, a third. A crit multiplies by 1.5.

Some of the first numbers already punish single-type squads:

• 3 has sky-high numeric defense: bring literary damage.
• 0 has very high literary defense and also cancels the first hit it takes, taps included.
• π deals literary damage and has lots of literary defense: against it, numeric damage.

That is why a mixed squad climbs quite a bit higher than a single-type one. On top of that, each letter picks by itself, among the numbers in reach, the one its damage type hurts most: mix them, and each takes care of the ones that suit it best.

Formations

How to read them

A formation is how your slots split into rows, front to back, written in numbers: 3-2 is three letters in front and two behind; 1-3-1 is one alone in front, three in the middle and one at the back. There can be up to 4 rows and up to 6 letters per row, and the game generates every possible combination from your slots.

Free and paid ones

Each slot count comes with one free formation, with as few rows as possible, at most three letters per row and the fuller rows in front: 1, 1-1, 2-1, 2-2, 3-2, 3-3, 3-2-2, 3-3-2… The others cost 5 triptongs each and are yours for good. You build them with a row editor: add or remove rows, and one more or one less letter per row, until the total matches your slots.

Why the front row matters

Numbers go for the nearest living letter, unless their quirk says otherwise. That means the front row takes almost all the damage and the back row shoots in peace. The general rule follows on its own:

• Front: tanks and melee letters with good health.
• Back: ranged letters and the ones that heal or shield.
• Neither too few in front nor too many: if the first row is a single letter, everything hits it; if you put everyone in front, the low-health ones fall early.

During the run the formation and placement can't change. If a run went badly because of the order, change it before the next one.

Example squads with the first letters

With the first five letters (A, B, C, D and E) you can already build squads that make sense. They're not the only good ones, but they're a reliable starting point:

Slots	Formation	Front	Back	Why
2	1-1	A	B	A holds and B shoots from behind.
3	2-1	A, C	B	C hits several at once and adds literary damage.
4	2-2	D, C	A, B	Dome holds and shields; A steps out to help from the second row.
5	3-2	D, A, C	B, E	Both damage types spread out, and Echo's shots bouncing from the back.

Dome (D) deserves a mention: every few seconds it shields the living letter with the lowest share of its health. It deals hardly any damage, but it keeps the others standing. In the middle of the front row is where it pays off most.

Spoiler: ideas with letters from higher up

• G (Guard) makes nearby numbers attack it first, even the ones going for the back row. It is the ideal tank once numbers that skip the first row start showing up, like the 33 or the 23.
• H (Halo) heals all your letters every few seconds. At the back, safe.
• K (Kamikaze) explodes when it falls and deals heavy damage around it: in front, where numbers pile up.
• W (Wifi) makes nearby letters attack faster, the closer the faster: in the middle of the squad, surrounded by your heaviest hitters.
• R (Revive) brings back the last letter that fell every so often: at the back, so it lasts as long as possible.
• 17 is immune to area damage (cleaves, blasts, novas, orbits…): you want at least one letter that hits one target at a time.
• 58 swats away ranged letters' shots: a squad of shooters only has a hard time against it.

Common mistakes

• Putting ranged letters in front because they hit harder. They fall in seconds.
• Bringing a single damage type because those letters have higher levels. When the numbers that resist that type arrive, the wall shows up all at once.
• Spending triptongs on formations before slots. One more letter almost always adds more than a different split.
• Not reading the letter's card. Role and damage type are right there; they settle nearly all of the placement.

If you're just starting, also read getting started in LAN and, to know what to spend your slot triptongs on, the currencies guide.