In v3 morale will be removed, and replaced by a rage system and fury forms.
Morale is another stat that axies have. It determines how often they go into last stand and apparently increases the chance of critical hits. I still haven't found a formula for criticals, the more the better that's all we know but we don't know how much each morale worth to increase critical chances exactly, so this will be about last stands. Check Morale-LS page for examples if you would rather memorize it.
axiezone morale chart
With a quick look you can see the classes base morale. Aquas and Mechs merely 27, Dusk and Dawn 31, Plant/Reptile/Bird 35, bug 39 and Beast 43.
But each beast or bug card adds 3 morale (with 1 speed or 1 hp) to this, and each bird or plant card adds 1 morale (with 3 speed or 3 hp).
So the total is 27 for Aqua (and Dawn), 35 Reptile, 41 Bird/Plant, 57 bug and 61 Beast.
For secret classes each combination within their group is giving 7,5% attack and shield bonus, so they are still pure with any combination of 4 out of 8 cards. Making Dusk 37 morale and mechs 47.Dawn 27 morale after changes in s20.Dawns changed to 27 in exchange for 4 extra speed.
The number of last stand ticks are on the picture below. above 31 you got two, 52+ gives 3. 62 for 4 and 71+ for 5. These last two can only be archieved with extra bonus, since the maximum is normally 61. It can also be reached in PVE since all stats scale up.
Other than that there are 3 cards that interact with morale, giving or removing the multiples of 20%.
A killing blow received by an axie is higher damage than their remaining health.
The excess damage (anything under 0) is calculated for the morale.
If the remaining Hp plus the remaining hp multiplied by Morale and divided by 100 is more (or equal) to the damage received, the axie enters last stand. In last stand the axie glowing red with 1 to 3 bars, which mean 1 to 3 actions before his death. Each hit on axie will remove 2 bars, each move removes 1 bar (technically a hit is a move and 1 bar). Each action that doesn't hit an axie removes 1 bar as well. Some cards interact with last stand.
Blue moon: while the target is in last stand, since it's wasteful to spend 2 energy on 2 cards, when 1 removes 2 ticks, this is a really weird card for drawing and ending last stand, too situational.
Shoal star: the morale won't count toward the last stand so you only need to reduce health to 0.
Oranda: slightly more damage and armor (enough to out armor and kill a shoal star aqua with same cards). The effect in turn is weaker, sometimes requiring more cards to end last stand. When the opponent has 3 ticks, it ends in one hit while other cards would only remove 2/3.
Jaguar: slightly higher armor than usual beast cards and basically starts turn with first attack regardless speed order, if it's in last stand. Can be combined with axie kiss for guaranteed criticals.
Revenge arrow: 150% damage in last stand, hard to base on it but quite decent effect for a high damage card.
Shiba: the first 2 attack might crit more often but you need to go first in order to get that bonus, it applies to any axie in your team.
Cloud: it skips the last stand, so while it's doing that also removes a tick for each card used, it's not really a consistent strategy but the card is high damage and medium armor.
Pupae: if you are in last stand, can get double attack from this card with 0 cost. Also highly dependent on circ*mstances with a slow bug, you have to end the sequence with this card or removes the other ticks too, but there is no reason not to use when you expect the bug to die.
Other than this, each zero cost can be used to stop the last stand (nimo or mitebite, lagging), each card that has no damage still counts as a tick removal (pumpkin, bidens, cuckoo), each card that skips the axie in last stand (each backdoor except perch and tri spikes). Also an interesting interaction which I personally use: when an aqua attacks a potato leaf, that cannot be targeted. Which means a single card can't kill a plant in last stand, but nobody uses 2 to stop a last stand, on 2 ticks they use 1 card or an oranda on 3 ticks. Some people do nothing, to refill their cards and energy hoping you will do an action and remove the last stand by that. In case of 3 ticks, this saves the plant and can do a potato leaf with another card like serious (play potato last if the effect more important), leaf bug or any other. In case of 2 ticks, you get hit behind you(which can be bad for high damage cards, but can make aquas faster than their opponents), and you die after the potato damage. Since you are at last stand, you are faster than a same speed plant, so even if they got a plant, he won't end your last stand before you move, so no loss to try this trick.
Now some advanced math.
First of all, the description everywhere is confusing.
Instead of calculating excess damage then removing that from morale, you can calculate hp and bonus hp based on morale. For example on 100 health, 60 morale will count for 60 more health, adding up to 160, if you hit for 161 the axie dies if you don't it goes into last stand, honestly it's confusing if it has to be equal or more, so I just included both, it also helps to see if this formula ever changes. So basically the morale acts as a hidden shield, in practice the attacker has to account for that shield and the maximum shield the attacker can put up when dealing a killing blow. When you count energy and cards probably, you can expect how many cards can put up and which cards, so how much armor does it have and a bit more to make sure it kills. If you add too much, you waste a card an one energy, if not it can attack 1-3 times.
In defense, if your opponent is faster, you will need to know how many cards he can use, which axie, how much damage, do you have a chance to defend it, and how much armor can you put up to go last stand at least. Otherwise you got to give up the axie, save energy. Cards don't matter if you die, so you can use the 0 cost cards. The order is in order of importance (energy gains and effects, then shield) as you can't know for sure if you survive or how many ticks you will get left. Against a terminator you will need to clear a stun but against others you will need the shield last, as it will still count for armor but won't matter for damage but removes a tick and your other cards might not matter.
Check the picture again.
Most people just wing it, guess it by experience, but the formula is easy to quickly calculate. You can add two zeros at the end of the damage (the final damage without combo so 110% if it belongs to your axie or the value on card then the advantage or disadvantage +-15%) and divide by morale+100 of target, ignore decimals as it's round down. You already see if you kill it, but under that value will go last stand. You can check damage in Cardfilter2rAtk Disa Same Adv columns.
Damage has to be equal of the Health plus the health times morale per 100. So each morale will count as 1% of health for each 100 hp. Only the last hit counts, not the full health before the attack sequence. So 27 morale will be 0.27 coefficient for each hp while 61 will be 0.61 health. In other words: for 100 hp you just add morale to health and count to be more damage than that.
No it's not always the case (1 morale not equal 1 health), the higher the remaining health, the more morale matters, as it's more bonus. This is to reduce fast burst, if an axie is above 100 or 150 health, a single card will send it more often to last stand. On 50 hp the morale only counts 50% and on 25 hp will count 25%. You can get a grasp of what would be for 75 (75+75 times 0.27 to 0.61 so 75+20 for 27 morale and 75+45 for 61 morale). Based on the combo bonuses pretty sure it's round down.
Health in this formula will be equal to 100 times the damage divided by morale plus 100. Which means everyone gets 100 morale on default. In the other article I calculated that every axie gets 25 stacks or 150 health for free, and each stack counts as 6 health ingame. Which means in this case each morale worth 1/6 health for each 100 hp ingame. Which means morale worth 16% of hp as it only triggers last stand close to death. Even if you count morale for each 100 health, plants and reps got around 5x 100 hp, aquas around 4x 100 hp, beasts only get around 336 health, which is barely more than 3 stacks of 100. The highest damage from a single card (no combo damage since single card) is around 165-175 (the last one and ronin) not including crits. Each stat removes the possibility of having other stats. For example if you are slower than the other axie, doesn't matter 1 speed or 30 slower, you go after him, in that case health would worth more than speed. In case of morale, especially on medium speeds, the beast and bug advantage of morale is around 20-30 compared to other classes, and last stands occur up to 175 health or below. So the total worth of that 20-30 morale is 0.2-0.3 per morale 35 to 53 health. But hold on, everyone gets 100 pseudo morale based on the formula! so a beast would have 161 units while an aqua 127. This means that the morale advantage is barely noticeable.
In case your opponent crits, the morale might be higher worth, but if he crits while not having enough energy, it's a win for him, if he crits while he would kill you anyway, it's a shame, but overall you can't base your games on lucky crits, you have to try to use enough damage, so either case it's a win, morale as a defensive option is really unreliable. Even aquas got 84 health advantage over beasts, faster than them, and dealing enough damage with 3 cards to kill them.
The last formula: Morale has to be equal or higher to (Damage minus remaining healt) divided by the health. This isn't that useful as the other two. But basically you can reverse the thinking: if they attack you with a 140 damage card while you only got 100 hp, you would need 0.41 coefficient or 41 morale to survive the attack and go last stand ( a bit harder for other health values, as you would need to count it for less). if they attack you with 120 damage while you got 80 health, you would need either 51 morale to survive or increase your shield to 90 and 30+ morale. Shield acts as a temporary health in this case.
Also not sure on the formula on how many tics each morale adds. Seems likely that if the damage is far from hitting trough the hidden shield, it adds 3 ticks (beasts, bug, plant sometimes on high hp), if it's closer adds 2 (reptile, bird) and when is barely any difference then only one (aqua). This is also a reason why mechs only get 2 shield and not 3 which matters, as 1 extra hit leaves beasts at 1 tick, while mechs die, so that can be an extra ronin hit.
Going in last stand might waste them 1-2 cards, a specific card or 1-2 energy, so it's worth the trouble. Hopefully this helped you understand how morale works. Also to realize that it might be easier to skip the thinking with a Shoal star, but it really isn't that hard to calculate damages, and Oranda will be better damage and armor versus everything else or Kestrel will give extra speed (less hp higher morale, same speed you go faster than other aquas) and disable a horn.
My opinion is that morale is overrated, it has a low value compared to health or speed, classes are not bound to use their own cards, and beast eyes/ears are mediocre, bug eyes/ears are bad for speed and suboptimal for health. So taking enough beast or bug damage is more effective to counter the Rock (Dusk, Plant, Reptile) than actually using beast or bug class. And cards giving 3 morale each, terminators getting 9 morale on top of the base. For some shady reasons dusks crit more than reptiles in average despite having 4 less morale on base, despite having barely any more base morale than aquas, despite having same 3 bug cards just as reptile terminators. And while they only got 7,5% instead of 10% attack and shield, some crits give more advantage than losing 2,5% of those values, while having the ability to have 46 speed and use a single lagging to go before full speed aquas. This is unproven, but in my experience, crits will attract other crits, it might be some sort of balancing, that if you got a crit on you then you will more likely crit. And while playing aquas I rarely ever crit in a full game, sometimes I see 4-5 crits both sides in a game after I got hit by one.
