two muscle goons

loroku

Specifically, in the prologue -> Venom -> Yelena Belova node, you fight her + two "muscle" guys. These are the ones that drop two 100-something strike tiles on a yellow or blue, and then hit your team for 300+ plus the strike tiles. The node itself has 100 HP potentially as a reward, so it's very inviting, but those two guys eviscerate me.

Given this node is really for the 1* -> 2* transition period, just looking for any tips on who would be useful for destroying those yellow and blue tiles. My normal strategy of going full beat-down is absolutely not working, since it only takes about 6 turns before they have multiple strike tiles out, and then my tank is getting hit for 300+ each match and the team is taking 600+ each blue explosion. It's about 12 matches until you're dead, and I can't get the necessary colors together quickly enough to respond. (Yelena is a particularly nasty pairing, since she can steal your AP away.) I might just replay until the perfect board appears, but that's a pretty bad strategy when you want all 4 rewards.

Someone like Storm or Juggernaut seems like they'd be useful, but the random chance factor is too high, and I can barely get enough green anyway. 2* Magneto is similar - the randomness still isn't useful enough in the end. Are there any 1* or 2* characters that can destroy a specific yellow or blue tile with only a few AP? I'm not finding any. All I can think of at the moment is maybe Bagman but who wants to use a precious, precious character slot on that? Or maybe 5 red cover 1* Hawkeye / 2* Hawkeye (but again, with super limited space, I've been dumping all my Hawkeyes)?

Unknown

1* Hawkeye is useful for this; both his skills can get rid of specific tiles (and it's easier to take out the CD tile first, since it usually creates 2 strike tiles). 1* Black Widow can also help by freezing one of the muscle guys; this will also freeze his CD tiles.

That being said, level for level, the muscle is the toughest opponent in the game, and I didn't beat that level until I had beat most of the entire next stage.

loroku

Thanks for the tip. 1* Black Widow is great but I find that unless I stun the right one (and sometimes even that isn't enough) I still can't match up nukes fast enough on a semi-dry board to make a difference. Plus Yelena is still matching and stealing while they're stunned, so it's not like the other one won't keep dropping countdowns while the first is stunned. And she's so squishy. About 3 or 4 blue explosions means she's toast, even in the back and without strike tiles.

Yeah, I thought the lieutenant was bad news - and two of those is a HUGE headache thanks to all that healing - but the muscle guys just work too well when you pair them. Individually they aren't as bad, even with other heavy goons or heroes, but two at once grabbing all that AP each turn... It's a killer.

Unknown

When I was at that node, I think my setup was: IM35, hawkeye, storm.
IM35 for damage, hawkeye/storm for clearing.

What is key is to have enough covers for them to be effective.

If you have 2*s then Thor, MNmag, Ares is good too.

HairyDave

silentwind wrote:

When I was at that node, I think my setup was: IM35, hawkeye, storm.
IM35 for damage, hawkeye/storm for clearing.

What is key is to have enough covers for them to be effective.

If you have 2*s then Thor, MNmag, Ares is good too.

Also OBW and I hate to say it, Bagman, make short work of these guys. If you can control the CD tiles they're not a threat.

Moonstone isn't a terrible option either (Control Shifting a Tommy Gun is amazing fun!) but Control Shift is insanely expensive and you need four before you can manipulate the blue tiles.