Elevated terrain represents terrain at different levels above the battlefield. Elevated terrain can contain other kinds of terrain like hindering or blocking which would have the properties of both elevated terrain and the other terrain. Elevated terrain itself can’t be destroyed. Characters, objects, and terrain features on elevated terrain are considered elevated and their level of elevation is the level of the elevated terrain they occupy. Characters, objects, and terrain that are not elevated are grounded or at elevation level 1. Characters at different elevation levels are not considered adjacent for any game effect. A character at a lower elevation is adjacent to elevated terrain when the only reason the square in question is not adjacent is because it is a higher elevation.
MOVEMENT: STAIRS AND LADDERS
If a character has no other means to enter and leave areas of elevated terrain (such as the Leap/Climb power or the Flight ability), it must use stairs and ladders. A character can’t “jump off” elevated terrain to a different elevation unless a game effect allows it to ignore the effects of elevated terrain on movement. Part of a stairway or ladder is on terrain of a lower elevation and part is on terrain of a higher elevation. A character must pass through the two squares of different elevation to change the character’s elevation. On some maps, the 2 squares of different elevations have numbered triangles where the number indicates the level of elevation of each side of the red boundary line. Characters occupying the two squares through which a character can change elevations can make close combat attacks against each other as if they were adjacent. Stairs and ladders are clear terrain, unless there are map boundary lines indicating otherwise. Elevated terrain itself has no other effect on movement.
LINE OF FIRE
If a line of fire between two characters on the same elevation crosses elevated terrain of a higher level, it is blocked. The line of fire between characters on the same elevation is not blocked by elevated terrain of that level or lower, though other terrain at that elevation level crossing the line of fire affects it normally.
LINE OF FIRE: THE RIM
A square with a red line running through it with an elevation of a lower level sharing an edge with it is considered “the rim”. Characters on the lower elevation are not adjacent to the rim any more than they are adjacent to a character occupying the square that the rim borders. A line of fire between characters on different elevations is blocked by:
•Blocking terrain on the same elevation as the character on the lower elevation.
•Elevated terrain of any level higher than the level occupied by the character on the lower elevation, except the square occupied by the character on the higher elevation.
•Characters.
A line of fire between characters on different elevations is not affected by hindering terrain, or characters, except for the square the target occupies.