Puzzle update

Yesterday was quite the mixed bag.  I found that Hawkeye (modern) and Magneto make for one hell of a team, using Maggie's purple power to make critical tiles out of blue ones.  They pretty much decimated the opposition, which was awesome.

In fact, I even managed to finish the final mission, facing the Hulk.  I was about to say at level 322, because that's where he was when I first looked.  But when I finally tried it (right before bed), he had increased to 330.  He had somewhere between 18-20k hit points, and it was a ridiculously close battle.  What saved me was that Magneto was doing most of the damage, but had the lowest tile-damage, so he hid in the back until the other two were both downed.

I got, I think, four 5-matches before Hawkeye went down, and those provided the bulk of the damage.  I also got off one of Magneto's red explosions before they went down.  Hulk was still ahead on hp when they were the only two left, but Magneto had a lot of blue AP and a little red.  He triggered his blue power a couple times (three, actually, although the third one was destroyed by the second before it went off), and finally finished it off with one more red blast.  I wasn't watching AP, but I think Hulk was only a couple turns from toasting Magneto when that happened.  Ugh.

It was ridiculous, though.  I pounded all the missions until the points were ridiculously small, even putting some time in to space things out a little, and I still was only able to squeeze into the top-50 (barely; I think 48th or 49th) for the day.  That doesn't bode well, although it's true that the last several events I've had my worst day on the first (so maybe there's some hope).

I'm kind of pissed that they limited available covers on Jean Grey, though.  The last several, top-150 was good enough for a single cover, now it's back down to top-100.  More annoyingly, I think every event I've been in has had top-50 be good enough for two covers, while this one requires top-20.  I suspect, as with Ant-Man, I'll have to be happy if I can get one (although that was actually two, since they had the separate Ant-Man event, from which I got a second.  Both of those were a lot of work, though).

Anyway, getting to Deadpool, a couple things.  One is that I was wrong that the prize cover is also the character leading the second wave in the two-wave mission.  That can be the case, but isn't necessarily true.

Two, yesterday was a bitch.  I was able to get through the first four missions with a minimum of hassle, but the fifth had an absolutely ridiculous first wave.  They had three Teisatsu, one kind of hand ninja that is normally only annoying, who were just pumped up to a ridiculous degree.  Starting on turn three, they were just pumping out an attack every round that did an insane amount of damage.  And when you finally killed them, they dropped two attack tiles that did over 100 damage per turn.

The first time I tried it, I eked out a win in the first round, but Storm and Black Widow were both below 300 hit points (remember, multiple 100+ pt attack tiles in play), Thor was down to half of his, and I had very few AP.  I managed to take out one second-rounder, but even that was a close call.

The second time, I prepared a little differently, waiting until attacks appeared to match red tiles.  Actually, I waited until they were about to explode.  In that way, I was able to defuse the first five or six attacks, but the next one got through and left Widow with less than 200 hit points.  Somehow, despite Storm and Widow both going down, I managed to squeak into the second round (yes, despite the apparently-better start, I still did worse overall) with Thor.  But it was with virtually no AP, and so, it was not at all surprising that he went down without even seriously challenging the second round heroes.

Basically, it was ridiculous.  I think, to win that one, you'd need a super-high level group (think three four-star heroes at level 200+), and you might still have trouble.  I wish today's, with Deadpool as the prize, was like that (since, not having Deadpool, I wouldn't see it).  Very annoying, since it was a cover I wanted and because I could seriously use the 2k Iso-8 prize for doing all five missions.

Today's Hulk missions are quite a mixed bag.  Most of them have been pretty easy, although the last one was absurd.  It had Yelena Belova with two snipers, which doesn't sound bad.  But the snipers do 4550 damage per shot.  That's enough to take down Magneto or Hawkeye with one shot.

And they did take Hawkeye down with one (the first one, actually).  I was unable to destroy it, and on the turn before it went off, I only had one move, which was moving yellow tiles, the only ones for which Hawkeye would have to move them.  I was able to win, eventually, but it was a close fight.  Two more of those shots, and I'd've been gone.

I haven't finished the day's missions, but I'm off to a good start.  I hope I can finish them, and finish the day at least as high as yesterday (although having depleted my health packs getting there, this morning, does not help.  Nor did that near-loss)

Deadpool update

One thing I forgot to mention about the Deadpool Daily challenges, yesterday.  Several of the missions have restrictions on characters.

Specifically, the first one only allows one-star characters.  The two-wave and 'third times the charm' missions only allow one- and two-stars.  You can't use characters who are being used against you in the one-wave misions (including alternate versions.  So if Black Widow (classic) is there, you can't play Black Widow (modern) or Black Widow (grey suit))

In the remaining two missions, though, you can use any characters you want (except, of course, that in the 'dat required character' mission, you do need to play that character).

Also, I didn't mention it, because it hadn't happened yet when I wrote that, I finished all five missions for the second time in two days (and second time ever) yesterday.  That felt good.

Today, I've already beaten the three-mission sequence, but I'm not sure about the other two.  She-Hulk is the required character (and prize), which is great, because I want to play her.  But the defenders in the required character mission include Black Widow (classic) and Thor (Marvel NOW!), my two standbys for playing that mission (Widow actually being the more important of the two).  Bullseye being the third is not a happy-making thing, either.  I'll probably try it, but I'm not optimistic.

Oh, and the latest even finished up this morning (for me, at least).  I finished 49th; was irritated that my last match did not finish before the deadline (especially since it was a tough one, and I killed it).  So I got two (more; I thought I'd sold her, and now am glad I didn't) Psylocke covers to make today's missions way easier.  Got diddly/squat for other covers, though.  I was really hoping for a third Scarlet Witch cover (but at least the purple cover for her, that came as a points-mandated prize, made her much more playable).

The PvE event starting today is somewhat interesting, though.  It's a seven-day one (only the second of those with which I've been involved), with a prize of a new four-star, Jean Grey.  I'm of mixed feelings about this.  Jean Grey was a favorite of mine, growing up, but the events with new characters are the toughest ones (presumably because people who don't play every day come out to play those events).  I got shut out in the event for The Thing, and just squeaked in to getting one cover for Ant-Man.  I'm going to be seriously bummed if I can't get at least one.

I hope they do a side event, similar to the Ant-Man one, so that I can be sure of getting at least one cover for her.  I suspect, though, that they won't, and that they only did the Ant-Man one as a tie-in to the movie that is coming (came?) out.

New threshold

No, not a biking post.

I was playing Puzzle Quest yesterday, and there's this thing called the Daily Deadpool.  It's a set of five missions that run every day.  They aren't identical every day, but they follow a pattern.

The first is taking on a two-star hero with two NPCs (for lack of a better term.  These might be robots, or soldiers, or ninjas, but things which don't get to move the tiles).  The hero is level fifteen, and the two sidekicks are level ten.  Win that one, and get 500 Iso-8.  Pretty easy (though I do remember when it was a challenge).

The second, which requires taking on the first, is two waves of foes.  The first wave is four NPCs of around fortieth level (there's some variation here).  When you defeat that wave, a second appears that is one three-star hero with three more NPC sidekicks.  Again, all around fortieth level.  Win that one, and you get a recruiting token for a two-star or better prize (though their definition of two-star leaves much to be desired.  It includes healing packs, for goodness' sake) plus 200 Iso-8.

This one has been routine for me for a while.

If you beat that one, you can continue on to the 'Third time's the charm' mission.  That one features three seventy-ish level heros (and you can't use those heroes to fight them, which can suck badly).  That one I've shied away from, but I took it on yesterday and beat it (with both of my games, even).  Win, and you get 1000 Iso-8.

Irrespective of the results of those three, there are two more missions.  The first requires you to have a particular three-star hero (it occurs to me now that this is also the hero that leads the second wave of the two-wave fight; never noticed that before), who you then use, along with two others, to fight three sixtieth-level heroes.  Since this is generally one for whom I have one cover (and is therefore only level forty), this one is quite a challenge for me still.  I've been winning it, but it's been nip-and-tuck every time.  If you win, you get another two-star token (again, for some weird definition of two-star).

If you win that mission, you get a final challenge, four waves of a mix of NPCs and heroes, each around level one hundred to one-thirty.  I've tried this a couple times before, and gotten my butt kicked each time.  But if you win, you get another cover for the three-star hero from the 'Dat Required Character' mission.  Only predictable way to get a three-star cover, although it's limited in a couple ways (first, it's a cover that you already have, and second, it can't be a four-star).  Still, it's pretty sweet.

So, yesterday was Spider-Man, and I was feeling optimistic, so I tried it again.  And this time, after a long and painful battle, I won.  It was kind of draining, as I was feeling like I was about to lose both times when the wave of heroes appeared.

And to add to that, I realized yesterday that, if you finish all five missions, you get a 2000 Iso-8 prize (that was part of why I wanted to try the four-wave mission yesterday).  It turns out that I was more excited about the Iso-8 than I was about the Spider-Man cover, yesterday, though I can think of a number of characters for whom that would not be the case.

Still, it felt really good, and makes me look forward to the day when even the four-wave battle is an easy one (that won't happen anytime soon).

Quick update on that last

Trying the current day's set of missions, and I'm just getting my butt kicked.  I was definitely wrong about what drives difficulty, because I'm running into easy missions that are against guys at level 117.  I guess that'd be fine if the heroes I have that are boosted were similarly high level, but the ones I have that are boosted that high have no useful powers (Ant-Man and Scarlet Witch.  Both can be very powerful, but I have a total of three covers between them, and it isn't nearly enough.  If my Scarlet Witch one were purple, that'd help a lot.  As it is, she's basically cannon fodder).

It doesn't help that this event has most characters locked.  Nor does it help that I jettisoned my two-star human torch the other day (I have the three-star with a number of covers, so I couldn't think of a reason to keep the two-star as well (they have identical powers)); that was definitely a mistake.

Meanwhile (and this is what makes it really stand out), my second game just tore through all of the missions without trouble.

I wonder... yesterday's missions went similarly at the end.  That is, I was able to win the third-to-last one a couple times with my secondary game, but got my butt handed to me twice when I tried it with my main game.  The levels faced were certainly different, which helped, but I mostly attributed it to a much stronger Ms Marvel (5 red covers vs three) who could dish out serious pain very quickly.  Now, however, I'm wondering.

Today's, though, I was seeing differences of 10-30 levels in the opposition (the 30s, not surprisingly, were the ones I noticed first).  Anyway, I'm not sure what to make of it, but it's interesting.

Puzzle Quest recap

As I've mentioned, I've been playing a ridiculous amount of Marvel Puzzle Quest.  Basically, I've been trying to collect high-rarity heroes for playing.

And I've mostly been doing that in the PvE (Player vs Environment) competitive matches.  In those, you can get a couple of two-star hero covers and one three-star for reaching point thresholds over the span of the whole competition.  You can also get up to three covers of a three-star hero for your placement in your group of 1000.

I haven't been tracking it closely, but I play two games, and have generally been getting top-100 finishes with both games.  In one of the games, I've gotten a number of top-50 as well, one or two top-20s, and a top-10.

I'm starting to find it harder, rather than easier, to get those finishes, however, despite leveling my heroes up when I can.  I'm not sure what's driving that; it might be the way the system does divisions into echelons of one thousand.

One thing that has worked well is that the levels haven't (mostly) gotten a lot more difficult.  So I think the difficulty scaling is done by what your highest-level character is.  Mine is, and has been, almost since the start, seventy-four, and I'm deliberately not increasing that.  The last several weeks has seen me pushing up the levels of my characters to get to about 70.  My plan is to get my most-played ten or fifteen all to that level, then save up 150k Iso-8 (or thereabouts) and bump at least four of them up to the two-star max of 94.

I imagine I'll probably stay at that level for a while as well, getting the rest of the good characters up to that range.  After that, who knows?  I'm already projecting further ahead than I should.

I'll get a good comparison of whether that strategy is a good one tomorrow, though.  A friend of mine, who's around the same level as me, got frustrated and bumped his two-star Thor up to 90th level (way ahead of the rest of his heroes).  The difficulty scaling didn't kick in immediately, but he still hasn't finished the most recent competition (he finishes tonight; I finished this morning with placings of 90 and 101).  If it kicks in tonight, with the next competition, I'll know that's how they're doing it.  If not, I'll have to re-evaluate my own strategy.