Ant-Man Event: Developer Advice For Victory

David [Hi-Fi] Moore
David [Hi-Fi] Moore Posts: 2,872 Site Admin
Hi everyone,

Some players have expressed frustration with the level of difficulty in the Ant-Man "Growth Industry" Event. With that in mind, Demiurge have written up a bit of helpful advice to help you obtain your very own Ant-Man.

Demiurge:
"These tips are good for Survival missions in general, and they'll help with this event:

For Mission 3 - The key is to bring someone with a Stun ability. You want to be able to build up and save as much AP as possible against the last character from each wave, finish with a cheap ability, then use your powers to crush the next wave before it can get into motion. In the first wave Yelena and Black Widow aren't too dangerous. Special tile generators, and characters who steal AP are especially effective in wave battles. You have time to build up a critical mass of Strike, Protect, and Attack tiles against the early waves to carry you through the end. You also have time to set up powerful character combinations, like Patch/Loki. Make sure you down Deadpool first, don't let him use his healing power.

For Mission 5 - Again, Stuns are key. End each wave with an ability, Stun or down the tile mover. Then build up AP against the minions while matching away their countdown tiles. 4-Star Thor, Captain America, Spider-Man, Storm (Classic) especially paired with Magneto, and 1-Star Black Widow do a good job of it across the rarities. Ant-Man is also a valuable resource in this fight, even at level 70. Small Time Crooks has a lot of great special tiles to steal, especially in the 2nd wave. Pym Particles can put out a lot of Attack tiles, which benefit from any strike tiles you have stolen and make it hard for enemies to make purple countdown tiles. After the board is flooded you can Grow to deal 5000 damage, quite effective for a min-level character."

Also, The difficulty of the event stays the same through the end, and there's plenty of time left, so keep leveling your team and you'll have a great shot at beating it before it ends. Hope that helps!
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Comments

  • Punisher5784
    Punisher5784 Posts: 3,845 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited July 2015
    I find it amusing how CStorm and MNMags were used an example to beat the last survival even though Mags pink was nerfed and CStorm didn't receive the health buff that 95% of the characters received.

    Overall I like the fact that you're giving players suggestions on how to beat it. I hope we have a Growth Industry type event every month/week for a 4*.

    I used Daken, Ironfist n Cage to beat it. Daken was pumping out 5 strike tiles that made IF attack tile more powerful against DP to down him, then I unleashed powers on the other two. Rinse and repeat.
  • Linkster79
    Linkster79 Posts: 1,037 Chairperson of the Boards
    A quick build up of AP is a must especially in mission 5, like many I used Hood for his steal (5 blue covers), this powers Captain Americas blue shields and when they start returning you are only 1 match 3 blue away from being able to cast again. Likewise with Caps red shields. Don't scoff at the loan Ant Man being level 70, if you are a new player he can be your shield protecting the other 2 and even if you pair him with 2 level 166 characters his purple can still flood that board with special tiles. So much so that by the end I really wanted to skip my turn as I would have destroyed some of those all important special tiles.

    Like David said down the last enemy with as cheap ability as possible and save those stun moves for the board mover in the next wave, Hoods black is great for this as well as making those countdowns tick down that little bit quicker.

    Overall a great event and as long as you don't go mad with scaling the next time you do something like this I can't wait for another.
  • ZeiramMR
    ZeiramMR Posts: 1,357 Chairperson of the Boards
    The big tip missing is that you should manage enemy AP in Mission 3 to keep Deadpool from using Whales! Whales! Whales!. Moonstone in wave 2 and Devil Dino in wave 4 have cheap purple abilities that will likely only do match damage. If you can defeat or stun Deadpool to keep him from using that ability, you will be in a better position for the other challenges.
  • TxMoose
    TxMoose Posts: 4,319 Chairperson of the Boards
    I could use advice on how to avoid the 20 iso reward repeated over and over again when 3/4 rewards remain unclaimed... sorry, but that is frustrating when the opponent levels are so high. makes a great event where I got a **** cover relatively quickly, without the 4 or 7-day grind, leave a lasting negative impression. I never really beat the drum on how bad the 20 iso reward (when there are rewards remaining) is until this event. I am currently 1/9 on the last 3 nodes combined and those 3 have 1/4, 1/4, and 2/4 rewards claimed (finally got a reward to pull recently). please address. thanks.
  • I love how CStorm and MNMags were used an example to beat the last survival even though Mags pink was nerfed and CStorm didn't receive the health buff that 95% of the characters received.

    Could it be that this actually proves the nerfs made sense? These two plus Hawkeye are an incredible team who can take out teams much higher level than them. When I can't beat a team with any of my high level guys, I often can take them out with only 20% health loss with these three.
  • "David wrote:
    Moore"]
    Also, The difficulty of the event stays the same through the end, and there's plenty of time left, so keep leveling your team and you'll have a great shot at beating it before it ends. Hope that helps!
    but the difficulty for my event went down?
  • I love how CStorm and MNMags were used an example to beat the last survival even though Mags pink was nerfed and CStorm didn't receive the health buff that 95% of the characters received.

    It actually works to be honest. I used this exact team on my alternate account and relied heavily on Ant-Man to take me to victory. MNMags red when I could for extra damage and prioritizing the opposing match maker first before goons.

    On my main account I used, CMags and Xforce and still beat with the same process and results.

    Edit: I forgot to mention that Cstorm on alternate account is max level and MNMags was level 72.
  • rawfsu
    rawfsu Posts: 291 Mover and Shaker
    Just wanted to thanks to the developers for handing out advice! I finished the event, but think it's cool you guys took the time to help those struggling!
  • san
    san Posts: 421 Mover and Shaker
    Although I finished this event in less than 30 minutes, I can certainly appreciate that there are a number of individuals with much less diverse rosters that are struggling handily in this. I will provide the advice I have, based on what I generally do in survival nodes - this has worked well for me over the last several months in PvE.

    I tend to choose characters from 3 categories:

    1) AP denial if you can (hood OR OBW)
    2) strike tile/attack tile generator (blade is best IMO, but mohawk, patch, daken, and yellow wolvie will all do)
    3) EITHER LCap OR a AOE damage power (Lthor, DP, KK, cStorm, etc.)

    Reasons:

    1) you need this to keep enemy at bay, so that the goons don't get a chance to generate enough AP for the next wave to kill you
    2) strikes increase your hit power EVERY turn. This is good. Even without any powers, my blade can make each attack 1000+ damage per match. Combine with OBW's double match for a real nasty surprise for the enemy team
    3) LCap is best - he can damage, collect his red, and then damage again. he can also stun. Sure he doesn't kill the whole team, but 2 stuns + 1 kill = pretty much the same idea. Did I mention he REGENERATES HIS AP!? Failing that, any AOE power is great. I try and make this my third character, and choose by rainbow. Some options are LThor, cStorm, cMags (red power is awesome with hood), KK, DP, etc.

    Again, I have a lot of choice, some others do not. However, I'd argue that if someone has less than these basic tools, perhaps they aren't ready to have a 4* yet?

    EDIT: Forgot that Ant-Man is essential in this one. DO NOT discount his powers. He is actually really great with multiple covers. Give his powers a shot. I know it made my game easier.
  • Skorche
    Skorche Posts: 47
    I think another valuable tip on survival nodes is use a power to down the last person of the wave. That will give you the first turn on the next wave. For example if I remember I used match damage to kill one wave and the next wave sentry came out and fired off his big aoe. If I would've used a power to kill last minion then I'd have been able to go first and stun sentry giving me a few turns to deal with him before his big aoe goes off.
  • wymtime
    wymtime Posts: 3,759 Chairperson of the Boards
    An interesting survival team was Patch Cmags on #5. I normally don't bring patch to survival mode because he gives strike tiles to the other team. With ant man you can steal them back and Cmags gives some strong protect tiles. Also after you deal with the board mover you don't need to worry too much about those tiles. Ant mans attack tiles are awesome with Patch too.

    Note to those who are doing this node after you get Ant Man. Make sure you take the loaner Ant Man as a 1 cover Antman is not nearly as effective as the one D3 gives you.
  • TLCstormz
    TLCstormz Posts: 1,668
    Thanks for this, David!!!

    To those talking about MagStormEye, that team is INCREDIBLE.......when you're mostly a 2* player. Once you face enemies in the 100s that are moving the board, it's frequently a phail.
  • I haven't seen her mentioned on here but for Inner Space Cadet, She-Hulk was a tremendous help to keep the ai from pulling off any powers. Anytime the opponent would collect a good amount of purple, it was countered with Shulk green until I got rid of it. My actual team was IMHB/BP/Shulk, but Shulk was the mvp for that round.
  • ClydeFrog76
    ClydeFrog76 Posts: 1,350 Chairperson of the Boards
    Also, don't underestimate the usefulness of team-ups, especially AOE ones. I helped my 2* mate achieve victory by sending him a Rage of the Panther and Whales, which took care of the second last and last waves of mission 5 respectively.
  • I beat it on day one with Falcon/Blade/Steve Rogers. If you prioritize blue Falcon can take out special tiles while you get Steve's stun train going. Once that's in effect, the protect tile his blue return generates makes match damage negligible with an inspiration or two. Blade can get you thousands of passive damage per turn once you get him going (with inspiration) and he denies AP with his black. Captain Steve's red takes everyone to Poundtown. Fin.

    A Widow's Sting TU is also great to have for emergencies.
  • Thanks for the tips David and crew. Growth Industry was definitely challenging but not impossible. I will rather have Growth Industry every month than have Gauntlet or Ultron for a single 4* cover. This event was practically a give away. 30 days to beat 5 nodes. Sign me up!
  • mr_X
    mr_X Posts: 375 Mover and Shaker
    Thanks for this. I was fortunate enough to be one of the 30 minute crew. In part due to my improved equipment and survival training provided to me by Deadpool.

    Nonetheless I think it is cool that you put this together to help players get their Antman.
  • puppychow
    puppychow Posts: 1,453
    On the one hand, I appreciate D3 taking the initiative to offer suggestions for players to get their own Antman. On the other hand. . . the fact that D3 feels the need to step in reflects the frustration that many players are feeling regarding this event. Is it an issue of roster weakness? Lack of player experience? Plain bad luck? Who knows. Clearly, the data D3 is getting shows that a substantial player base is struggling to beat this event just once.

    Will players simply give up and rage quit MPQ in frustration? I'm afraid I could see this happening. icon_redface.gif
  • Malcrof
    Malcrof Posts: 5,971 Chairperson of the Boards
    puppychow wrote:
    On the one hand, I appreciate D3 taking the initiative to offer suggestions for players to get their own Antman. On the other hand. . . the fact that D3 feels the need to step in reflects the frustration that many players are feeling regarding this event. Is it an issue of roster weakness? Lack of player experience? Plain bad luck? Who knows. Clearly, the data D3 is getting shows that a substantial player base is struggling to beat this event just once.

    Will players simply give up and rage quit MPQ in frustration? I'm afraid I could see this happening. icon_redface.gif

    Actually, the point of the 30 day PVE is so now that the movie is out, the influx of new players have a chance at getting the character they just saw in the theaters, while giving them the time to build a roster to complete the event.

    This thread is for them, the new people (welcome!) who will play and search out the forums for help. This was explained, in detail, in the threads announcing the 30 day event, the why and how of it all.
  • CrookedKnight
    CrookedKnight Posts: 2,579 Chairperson of the Boards
    I love how CStorm and MNMags were used an example to beat the last survival even though Mags pink was nerfed and CStorm didn't receive the health buff that 95% of the characters received.

    Why, it's almost like complaints about the change to Polarity Shift are overblown and he's still one of the best 2* characters!