Erogenous Jones
Combative Codger
13,550 Points
-
150
-
150
-
500
Seeing as I've been one of the loudest with my complaints about how Mission 10 became damned near impossible after the first change to Helena's Special, I thought I would put together a few Tips on how to beat Mission 10 (Flameborne at least) now that her Special has been changed for a second time.
Note that these Tips are based on my Deck and what I have to work with, and may not work for everyone.
Also in keeping with my belief in full disclosure, here's the Deck I've been using for Flameborne 10.
So now that the legal has been dispensed with, down to business...
Mission 10 has been made a lot easier with the latest tweaks by the Devs.
We now get more Cards at the start (usually 9 now) and Helena's Special has been modified to deal 65 Damage to all of our Units, but it now kills one of her own, rather than one of ours.
This change, more than anything else imo, makes Mission 10 far more accessible to more people than ever before.
Troop Movement:
So, to start off with, you'll want to spread your Units out as widely as possible, as quickly as possible, (Dragons with Flight 2 are handy for this) and find some Mana Wells to enable you to summon your best Units as you go along.
However, while doing this, you'll want to be sure that you keep them close enough to each other, so that when Round 4 comes around, you'll be able to take a substantial force and move them to one of the spaces adjacent to Helena's Home Portal.
Building your Attack Force in a ring around her Home Portal, on the second spaces out, helps ensure that you will be able to move enough Units to one space directly beside her Portal on Round 4, and have a good numerical advantage for that Battle.
It's imperative that you get Gwydion into Early Battles so you can get his HP back up to 140, as well as heal your other Units from the damage they will have received from Helena's Gnashings as they entered the game.
If you have a WtW, getting it into early Battles is also helpful because you may have the opportunity to increase your Unit's Stats with it's Special as well.
When you move your Attacking Force to the space beside Helena's Portal on Round 4, also move the remainder of your Force to spaces that will enable them to join your Attacking Force on Round 5. Helena's forces will likely retreat if they are sufficiently out numbered in the Round 4 Battle, but they will be back on Round 5, and they'll bring reinforcements. Having a substantial numerical advantage in Rounds 4 and 5 gives you a very good chance of being able to go into Armageddon with a big advantage in Units, and with that comes a far greater chance of Victory.
Battle Tactics:
My personal strategy has always been to take the easy kill because I've always felt that HoC is a numbers game. The greater your advantage in manpower, the greater the likelihood you'll win.
As such, I usually tend to "over-target" (use more Unit's to Attack a specific Unit than should really be necessary if they were to all hit, because they won't wink ) the weakest Units on the opposing side.
In the case of Mission 10, that's Helena's DD and Scarabs. Yeah, Zerakyl's and Slaughter Wheel's Special can do a lot of damage, but whittling her forces down early seems to work for me.
When you over-target opponent's, odds are, you'll kill your target's before all of the Unit's you used on the target will have Attacked, but that's cool as long as the target dies.
On Round 2, Check Gwydion's health, and if he's anything below 130, use his Special to heal.
If he's over 130, use your Succubus to control Helena, and over-target the weakest 2 or 3 enemy Units, regardless of what they are.
Round 3 gives you 30 AP to use, and if Helena hasn't used her Special (she may use CoC if she has it) you may choose to use another Unit's Special. Rakyl, Mardu or Scar's Stun on Helena, or any other Special that seems advantageous, but if she has used her Special in the previous round, heal with Gwydion to keep his HP up. Helena's Specials will come sooner or later and Gwydion must survive.
On Round 4, use your Succubus again, and heal with Gwydion.
After that, it's kind of "wash, rinse and repeat" til it's over. smile
General Tips:
Because Units summoned with OTG in Round 6 do not enter the Final Battle (I've confirmed this on multiple occasions), if you're using an OTG Deck, you'll want to use them before this, even if it means not summoning a more powerful Unit.
Gnashing hits every Unit you summon to your Home Portal, so OTG is useful again in early rounds when you may not have found additional Portals yet. If you have the choice between OTG and summoning a Unit to your Home Portal, take the OTG.
Try to get both of the possible Early Battles for the reasons I mentioned earlier.
Having Gwydion at a full 140 HP when he enters Armageddon is imperative, and the numerical advantage gained by winning Early Battles makes the Final Battle far easier than having even numbers.
Try not to collect 6 Victory Portal prior to Armageddon, as that will lock the game and even if you win, you'll lose.
While keeping an Attuning Unit on Mana Wells is important, try to balance the need for having a strong force for Early Battles with gaining Mana. If I have both of my Succubi available, I use them to Attune while the rest of my forces position themselves for the Early Battles.
If you are fortunate enough to have 2 Succubi, try to control Helena every round from Round 2 onwards BUT be willing to sacrifice using her Special in deference to keeping Gwydion's HP above 130.
When not using Gwydion's Special, make sure you target a non Damage Aura Unit for his Attack. One that is healthy, and unlikely to die unexpectedly before his Attack, creating the possibility of him hitting a DA Unit.
Known Glitches:
Dead Units stay in Battle.
I've had this countless times, where I go to select a Unit for it's Attack and the game freezes, only to realize at that point, that it's HP is 0 despite it's health bar indicating that it's still alive.
A Refresh will solve the lockup, but the dead Unit will remain until the Battle is done.
Endless Game. A lot of people, myself included have run into this one. If you collect 6 Victory Portals before Armageddon and you beat Helena and her forces, the game will lock, with no way out. When I had it, the Main Map came back up after I won Armageddon, and I had Units available to move! I moved them, pressed "Done", Refreshed and pressed "Done" again, and then it was as if another game started on the same Map, as 4 of Helena's Units came out to fight and I had several more Rounds of Battles before I finally lost due to Gwydion being killed.
It would be interesting to see if you could Win a second time by defeating Helena's zombies.
***Edit*** Reading This Topic, it looks like if you kill the zombies, you're left with no option but to force a forfeit, thereby losing not only your Win Credit, but any Essence you would have received. I'd suggest maybe figt another round or two if you wanted maximize your Essence, but make sure to ultimately lose.
Suspected Bugs:
I have been able to confirm on multiple occasions that the Essence reported during the game does not add up to the Essence granted when the game is over. I think it's a bug just like the old Specials Glitch, but others have suggested there might be some sort of capping going on. I tend to go with Bug, because I've never played enough in a single day to be capped.
Gwydion's Special not registering.
I've had at least two games where Gwydion's health after using his Special, was the same as it was before using it.
Really keep an eye on his health because as we all know, as goes Gwydion, so goes your game.
And that's about it.
Using this strategy and my Deck (which I know is probably better than many people have, even if it's not all that impressive by Level 73 standards) I've been able to win numerous times and have about a 50% win rate, which compared to my success rate of 0% with other methods (admittedly, pre-Helena's latest Special update) is pretty good in my books.
If you have anything to add, or would like to comment on how this works for you if you decide to try it, I'd like to hear. smile
Note that these Tips are based on my Deck and what I have to work with, and may not work for everyone.
Also in keeping with my belief in full disclosure, here's the Deck I've been using for Flameborne 10.
So now that the legal has been dispensed with, down to business...
Mission 10 has been made a lot easier with the latest tweaks by the Devs.
We now get more Cards at the start (usually 9 now) and Helena's Special has been modified to deal 65 Damage to all of our Units, but it now kills one of her own, rather than one of ours.
This change, more than anything else imo, makes Mission 10 far more accessible to more people than ever before.
Troop Movement:
So, to start off with, you'll want to spread your Units out as widely as possible, as quickly as possible, (Dragons with Flight 2 are handy for this) and find some Mana Wells to enable you to summon your best Units as you go along.
However, while doing this, you'll want to be sure that you keep them close enough to each other, so that when Round 4 comes around, you'll be able to take a substantial force and move them to one of the spaces adjacent to Helena's Home Portal.
Building your Attack Force in a ring around her Home Portal, on the second spaces out, helps ensure that you will be able to move enough Units to one space directly beside her Portal on Round 4, and have a good numerical advantage for that Battle.
It's imperative that you get Gwydion into Early Battles so you can get his HP back up to 140, as well as heal your other Units from the damage they will have received from Helena's Gnashings as they entered the game.
If you have a WtW, getting it into early Battles is also helpful because you may have the opportunity to increase your Unit's Stats with it's Special as well.
When you move your Attacking Force to the space beside Helena's Portal on Round 4, also move the remainder of your Force to spaces that will enable them to join your Attacking Force on Round 5. Helena's forces will likely retreat if they are sufficiently out numbered in the Round 4 Battle, but they will be back on Round 5, and they'll bring reinforcements. Having a substantial numerical advantage in Rounds 4 and 5 gives you a very good chance of being able to go into Armageddon with a big advantage in Units, and with that comes a far greater chance of Victory.
Battle Tactics:
My personal strategy has always been to take the easy kill because I've always felt that HoC is a numbers game. The greater your advantage in manpower, the greater the likelihood you'll win.
As such, I usually tend to "over-target" (use more Unit's to Attack a specific Unit than should really be necessary if they were to all hit, because they won't wink ) the weakest Units on the opposing side.
In the case of Mission 10, that's Helena's DD and Scarabs. Yeah, Zerakyl's and Slaughter Wheel's Special can do a lot of damage, but whittling her forces down early seems to work for me.
When you over-target opponent's, odds are, you'll kill your target's before all of the Unit's you used on the target will have Attacked, but that's cool as long as the target dies.
On Round 2, Check Gwydion's health, and if he's anything below 130, use his Special to heal.
If he's over 130, use your Succubus to control Helena, and over-target the weakest 2 or 3 enemy Units, regardless of what they are.
Round 3 gives you 30 AP to use, and if Helena hasn't used her Special (she may use CoC if she has it) you may choose to use another Unit's Special. Rakyl, Mardu or Scar's Stun on Helena, or any other Special that seems advantageous, but if she has used her Special in the previous round, heal with Gwydion to keep his HP up. Helena's Specials will come sooner or later and Gwydion must survive.
On Round 4, use your Succubus again, and heal with Gwydion.
After that, it's kind of "wash, rinse and repeat" til it's over. smile
General Tips:
Because Units summoned with OTG in Round 6 do not enter the Final Battle (I've confirmed this on multiple occasions), if you're using an OTG Deck, you'll want to use them before this, even if it means not summoning a more powerful Unit.
Gnashing hits every Unit you summon to your Home Portal, so OTG is useful again in early rounds when you may not have found additional Portals yet. If you have the choice between OTG and summoning a Unit to your Home Portal, take the OTG.
Try to get both of the possible Early Battles for the reasons I mentioned earlier.
Having Gwydion at a full 140 HP when he enters Armageddon is imperative, and the numerical advantage gained by winning Early Battles makes the Final Battle far easier than having even numbers.
Try not to collect 6 Victory Portal prior to Armageddon, as that will lock the game and even if you win, you'll lose.
While keeping an Attuning Unit on Mana Wells is important, try to balance the need for having a strong force for Early Battles with gaining Mana. If I have both of my Succubi available, I use them to Attune while the rest of my forces position themselves for the Early Battles.
If you are fortunate enough to have 2 Succubi, try to control Helena every round from Round 2 onwards BUT be willing to sacrifice using her Special in deference to keeping Gwydion's HP above 130.
When not using Gwydion's Special, make sure you target a non Damage Aura Unit for his Attack. One that is healthy, and unlikely to die unexpectedly before his Attack, creating the possibility of him hitting a DA Unit.
Known Glitches:
Dead Units stay in Battle.
I've had this countless times, where I go to select a Unit for it's Attack and the game freezes, only to realize at that point, that it's HP is 0 despite it's health bar indicating that it's still alive.
A Refresh will solve the lockup, but the dead Unit will remain until the Battle is done.
Endless Game. A lot of people, myself included have run into this one. If you collect 6 Victory Portals before Armageddon and you beat Helena and her forces, the game will lock, with no way out. When I had it, the Main Map came back up after I won Armageddon, and I had Units available to move! I moved them, pressed "Done", Refreshed and pressed "Done" again, and then it was as if another game started on the same Map, as 4 of Helena's Units came out to fight and I had several more Rounds of Battles before I finally lost due to Gwydion being killed.
It would be interesting to see if you could Win a second time by defeating Helena's zombies.
***Edit*** Reading This Topic, it looks like if you kill the zombies, you're left with no option but to force a forfeit, thereby losing not only your Win Credit, but any Essence you would have received. I'd suggest maybe figt another round or two if you wanted maximize your Essence, but make sure to ultimately lose.
Suspected Bugs:
I have been able to confirm on multiple occasions that the Essence reported during the game does not add up to the Essence granted when the game is over. I think it's a bug just like the old Specials Glitch, but others have suggested there might be some sort of capping going on. I tend to go with Bug, because I've never played enough in a single day to be capped.
Gwydion's Special not registering.
I've had at least two games where Gwydion's health after using his Special, was the same as it was before using it.
Really keep an eye on his health because as we all know, as goes Gwydion, so goes your game.
And that's about it.
Using this strategy and my Deck (which I know is probably better than many people have, even if it's not all that impressive by Level 73 standards) I've been able to win numerous times and have about a 50% win rate, which compared to my success rate of 0% with other methods (admittedly, pre-Helena's latest Special update) is pretty good in my books.
If you have anything to add, or would like to comment on how this works for you if you decide to try it, I'd like to hear. smile
