Ever confused by some of the acronyms and abbreviations I use in these articles — especially older articles with outdated terms? Here’s a key. UPDATED 06/1/2026
10% limit/10% cap — The rule preventing feats from being more than 10% of your total build limit.
Activation Click — A significantly lower-powered click than the one that follows it. Usually appears on the starting click of characters who transform from a weaker form to a more powerful one (e.g. Bruce Banner to Hulk).
AE —Alter Ego, a type of trait or Special Power. Also used to denote figures that use this game mechanic. No longer used.
AP — Armor Piercing, a Golden Age feat that prevents damage from being reduced to 0, rendering damage reducers less effective.
Armor — Blanket term for damage reducing powers and abilities. Also a common generic keyword.
ATA — Alternate Team Ability/Additional Team Ability. Originally, Alternate Team Abilities were a collectible feat card that changed a set of characters’ team ability to a new one. Additional Team Abilities later became their own “print-and-play” mechanic, adding to a character’s existing roster of team abilities (if any). No longer used.
AV — Attack Value.
BCF — Blades/Claws/Fangs, a standard attack power. Not to be confused with BFC.
Beat stick — A powerful attacking character. AKA Beastick.
BFC — Battlefield Condition, a tactic played at the beginning of a Golden Age HeroClix game that alters one or more rules of the game for that game only. Not to be confused with BCF.
Bizarro — An unofficial game format in which characters start on their final click and damage and healing click the opposite direction from normal.
Brick — A powerful attacking character with strong damage reducing powers.
Bush — Generic term for any hindering terrain. (Example: “My Batman’s using Stealth to hide in a bush.”)
Cardboard — Optional card elements of HeroClix, especially Feats and Battlefield Conditions and sometimes including Special Objects and Bystanders.
CCE — Close Combat Expert, a standard damage power.
Chase — An ultra-rare figure pulled only from boosters.
Cheese — a slightly derogatory term for highly effective characters, feats or other game elements. See also “min/max” or “meta.”
Con Ex — Abbreviation for convention exclusive.
CR — Combat Reflexes, a standard defense power.
CUR — Acronym for Common/Uncommon/Rare in the set configuration since the 2007 Avengers release. A full CUR set nets one all the non-Super Rare/Limited Edition/Chase figures.
Don’t Die — A meta play style involving figures that do not KO easily, usually though a unique special power or trait.
DV — Defense Value.
EB — Earthbound/Neutralized, a standard speed power.
EE — Energy Explosion, a standard attack power.
ESD — Energy Shield/Delfection, a standard defense power.
EW —Exploit Weakness, a standard damage power.
FB — Force Blast, a standard speed power.
FCBD — Free Comic Book Day. Sometimes HeroClix figures are released for this annual event and are identified with this acronym.
Feat — a Golden Age tactic in which cards could be attached to characters to enhance their effectiveness for extra point cost.
Flyer — a character with the Wing symbol or Flight ability.
Generic — A figure that doesn’t represent any individual person and could thus be played in multiples in the Highlander format. These characters usually have a Real Name of “Various.” (See “Highlander”)
Golden Age — An official game format in which all characters and tactics are allowed.
Highlander — A mostly unofficial game rule in which only one copy of any character can be used in a force unless the judge rules that the character is a generic character. But certain official formats, such as Pulp and Theme, use some version of this rule. (See “Generic”)
HSS — Hypersonic Speed, a standard speed power.
ICWO — In Contact With Oracle, a once-popular feat card.
IM / IT — Improved Movement / Improved Targeting, usually followed by whatever type of terrain or effect it ignores.
Incap — Incapacitate, a standard attack power. Also, the act of using this power.
Killbox — A formation, usually much closer to one’s own starting area than the opponent’s, that allows multiple attacks on an enemy figure without significantly repositioning the formation.
LAMP — An acronym for Lockjaw/Armor Piercing/Mastermind/Poison, a Golden Age strategy in which a character damages opponents for free using Poison and the Armor Piercing feat. Opponents’ counterattacks are shunted via Mastermind to a long-lived taxi (the Lockjaw character being the most efficient example), who chases down opponents that manage to flee the Poison trap.
L/C — Leap/Climb, a standard speed power.
LE — Limited Edition, a figure not available in boosters but only as tournament prizes or other promotions.
LOF — Line of Fire, a HeroClix game term. Often mistakenly referred to as Line of Sight.
LOS — Line of Sight, a game term for the short-lived Batman Alphaclix. Often mistakenly used instead of the correct term Line of Fire in the true HeroClix game.
Medic — A character that can use the Support power. Usually only on the team for this healing ability.
Meta — An adjective describing a top-level competitive element of the game.
Metagame — Basically, the aggregation of tactics, figures and strategies in a game that lead to the best chance of victory. (Not really Heroclixin’s thing.)
Min/max — A team or the act of building a team with minimal weaknesses and maximum effectiveness. Usually not even slightly thematic or fun. (Not really Heroclixin’s thing.)
MM fodder — Short for Mastermind fodder. A figure or figures whose chief purpose on a team is to be chosen by a friendly character using the Mastermind power.
Mod — Short for modification. A figure whose factory-made sculpt or paint job is altered or customized by a fan.
Modern Age — An official game format in which only characters with character cards and elements from roughly the past two years are legal to play. Check with win.wizkids.com for the official list.
MOE — Masters of Evil team ability.
OMA — One Man Army. When a starting force’s offensive capability is limited to just one fig, usually 200+ points.
OOTS — Acronym for “Out Of The Shadows,” a Special Power belonging to Justice League Batman #001. Used to identify this popular and powerful Batman figure. Also frequently applied to any newer character with a similar ability to be placed into or out of hindering terrain before or after acting.
OP — Overpowered. Also an acronym for Organized Play, an official WizKids event furnished with Limited Edition prize figures.
Oreo — Term for the larger, newer style of HeroClix figure bases on figures produced from late summer 2011 to present.
PB / PPB — Psychic Blast and Penetrating/Psychic Blast), a standard attack power.
Pick A Power — A trait or special power allowing choice of a standard power or ability (See also: Swissblade)
Pit crew — A group of characters on a force that collectively supply 3 or more of the following powers: Telekinesis, Outwit, Probability Control, Perplex, Support.
Pog — a Bystander character.
Prob — Short for Probability Control, a standard damage power. Also the act of using it.
PS — Precision Strike, a standard attack power.
P/T — Phasing/Teleport, a standard speed power.
PW — Pulse Wave, a standard attack power. Also, the act of using this power.
RCE — Ranged Combat Expert, a standard damage power.
Reducers — Blanket term for any power that reduces damage taken such as Toughness or Impervious.
Restricted — An older official format allowing, roughly, only the past 2-3 years of sets in a game. Replaced by the Modern Age format.
Retal — Colossal Retaliation, a common trait or special power found on meta teams that allows free attacks against enemies that hit your force last turn.
REV — Acronym for Rookie/Experienced/Veteran, the chief designation for figures prior to the 2007 Avengers set and character cards. No longer relevant in the modern game.
RS — Running Shot, a standard speed power.
Rollouts — a blanket term for powers such as Super Senses, Shape Change, and Impervious that grant a chance of either evading, avoiding or negating damage from attacks, especially when more than one of the above is available.
SE — Steal Energy, a standard attack power.
Short-clicking — A cheating method in which players do not click their characters the proper amount of damage taken. Don’t be the scumbag who does this.
Silver Age — An official format for figures with character cards that have the dial printed on them (2016’s Superior Foes of Spider-Man and newer). Formerly, it was a popular term for any unofficial format meant to bridge the gap between the official Modern Age and Golden Age formats.
SP — Special Power.
SR — Super Rare.
STOPP — An acrostic for the five supporting powers of Support, Telekinesis, Outwit, Probability Control, Perplex, the five “pit crew” powers used to buff and back up a core of more powerful attackers or to maximize the potential of a well-balanced team. See also: TOPPS
Swarm — A large team of low-cost figures.
Swing — The maximum number of squares away that a character can make an unaided attack. For example, an 8 Speed figure with Charge has a 5-square swing while a 6 Speed figure with Running Shot and 4 range has a swing of 7.
Swissblade — A figure with a trait or special power allowing it to choose a standard power or ability (See “Pick A Power”)
TA — Team Ability.
Taxi — A character whose role is to carry other characters. Also the act of doing so.
Tentpole — A figure that either takes up around half the build total or costs significantly more than other characters on the force and would deal the majority of the damage. (See also OMA)
Tie up — The tactic of deliberately becoming adjacent to an enemy to prevent it from moving freely or firing. Also a character used for this tactic.
TK — Telekinesis, a standard attack power. Also, the act of using this power.
TOPPS — An acrostic for Telekinesis, Outwit, Perplex, Probability and Support, the five “pit crew” powers used to buff and back up a core of more powerful attackers or to maximize the potential of a well-balanced team. Inspired by Topps, the original owner of WizKids. (See also STOPP)
Unrestricted — An older official format allowing all characters and elements. Replaced by Golden Age.
WC —Wild card, a type of character that can use the team abilities of friendly characters.
WP — Willpower, a standard defense power.
WizKids / WK — The company that produces HeroClix.
2099: Marvel 2099 collector’s set
AFFE: Avengers Fantastic Four Empyre
ASM: Amazing Spider-Man
BA: Batman Alpha
BM: Batman (2012 set)
BP: Black Panther
D75: DC 75th Anniversary
DK: Dark Knight Rises
DoFP: Days of Future Past action pack and/or Days of Future Past CTD
DR: Danger Room starter set
GG: Galactic Guardians
GL: Green Lantern Gravity Feed set
GSX: Giant-Size X-Men
HALO: Halo
HOB: The Hobbit
IG: Infinity Gauntlet
IH: Incredible Hulk
JH: Jonah Hex
JL52: Justice League 52
LL: Lantern Legacy
LOTR: Lord of the Rings
M+M: Mutations and Monsters
MOT: Masters of Time
NOT: Notorious
SF: Street Fighter
SI: Secret Invasion
SM: Superman
SND or S&D or S+D: Smash And Destroy
ST: Strange Tales
TB: Tab Apps
VE: Venom
WK: WizKids Exclusive
WOV: Wheels of Vengeance
WR: War of the Light starter set
WOTR: War of the Realms
WS: Web of Spider-Man
XRF: X-Men: Rise and Fall
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Did I miss something? Comment and I’ll add it to the list (…IF it’s a term I’m likely to use on this site)!
Anyway you could add some updates to this glossary? This is helpful for me but there are still MANY terms that get used on the boards over at hcrealms that as a home player I don’t get. Killbox, and metagame come to mind. Thanks for any and all help and love your site!
EXCELLENT suggestion. Although I’m less likely to use those terms here on Heroclixin’ (where it’s more about fun than meta), I still want to be a resource for players. I’ll see what I can do about getting some new glossary terms that have cropped up in the last six months or so since I finalized the current page.
As always, thanks for reading!
Just stumbled across this blog today and I was excited to see a glossary… was specifically looking for a definition of “metagame” too.. only to then realize the possible update was mentioned 2 years ago.
OMG. I distinctly recall doing that update and adding definitions and all, but it seems it never got to the actual site! Hopefully THIS time’s the charm…?