The FAQ Project

drcassino

seizeman wrote:

21. How is my "strongest color" determined?

A team's strongest color is the color with the highest match damage value on that team. Typically, this will be the highest match color of the character with the highest level on the team, and may change as characters on that team are downed. In the event of a tie - as happens when more than one character on a team are of the same level - the order of the characters on the team comes into play. First priority is given to the character in the middle on the character selection screen, then the left, then the right. Enemy teams made up entirely of goons do not have a set strongest color, so abilities that target or drain the enemy's strongest color (such as Blade's Nightstalker) may target multiple colors over the course of a match, even if no enemies are downed.

It looks like the tie situation does not always work as expected. I try to optimize my 2* steam of Thor, OBW, and Classic Storm so that Storm never makes any matches. However, I have noticed that sometimes even if the damage values are equal and Thor is in the center position, Storm ends up making the green matches. As in now Thor level 122 and Storm level 89 both have green 52. No matter how I position the characters, green tiles have Storm logo.
It is as if the game actually uses non-integer values for calculating the damage and the comparisons are done with those.

You're right that some characters have invisible fractional values. They seem to be most common in older characters, but we don't have great information on them (because, you know, invisible and all).

drcassino

What is "winfinite"?

Winfinite refers to any of a number of strategies that rely on a series of cascades and ability uses that effectively prevent the opposing team from taking a turn. Such strategies are similar to, but distinct from, stunlock strategies, in which the opposing team takes turns, but is unable to do anything during those turns because all of the members of that team are stunned.
The most common winfinite team in current play consists of Professor X, Grey Suit Black Widow and the Scarlet Witch (sometimes referred to as a "Charlie's Angels" team). So long as the characters are leveled such that purple is the most powerful color (generally by not fully leveling Professor X), Scarlet Witch's passive often creates purple Match-5s, which lead Prof X's passive to generate more purple, which can then be used by GSBW's purple ability to generate Green Match-5s, which lead Prof X to generate more purple, and so on. Such strategies can be useful in PVE, but are of limited use in PVP, as they are considered to be weak on defense.
Other winfinite teams have been suggested. In the past, Mystique and Magneto (Marvel Now!), often paired with Mohawk Storm, provided a winfinite combination, and Wolverine (X-Force), Loki and Magneto (Classic) may function as such under some circumstances in the current game.
Winfinite strategies have been considered by the developers to be problematic for game play, as preventing the opposing team from ever taking a turn goes against what they see as the spirit of the game; their decision to change Mystique and Magneto's (Marvel Now!) abilities are attributed to this belief. Such strategies are also frowned upon by other players in PVP, and may invite disproportionate retaliations.

AXP_isme

Given the proliferation of certain tropes in the forum I think there should be a few more questions:

Where are my OML covers (what does true randomness look like)?

Why do I see so many AI cascades (where can I learn more about confirmation bias)?

Also, having re-read the questions: where do the mods draw the line between being patronising or condescending and trolling.

The Smoking Ace

I have a good one as I can't seem to find it anywhere. Do legendary tokens expire if you never use them? Is so what is the deadline to use it before it expires? Thanks.

jffdougan

The Smoking Ace wrote:

I have a good one as I can't seem to find it anywhere. Do legendary tokens expire if you never use them? Is so what is the deadline to use it before it expires? Thanks.

Tokens don't expire. Event-based tokens will eventually rotate out, but you can still access them, and they're good the next time those events roll around.

Vhailorx

Is there a list of upcoming 1k cover rewards?

I thought I had seen something to this effect somewhere on these forums in the past, but I can't find it now in any of the obvious places (events, tips and guides, etc).

Am I missing something?

Mod Edit, added question to the post, moved to FAQ

johnnyzero

Vhailorx wrote:

I thought I had seen something to this effect somewhere on these forums in the past, but I can't find it now in any of the obvious places (events, tips and guides, etc).

Am I missing something?

Ask and ye shall recieve

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing


***Keep in mind that these are predictions, not provided by D3. They are generally pretty accurate, but the devs have been known to switch things up occasionally. X23 being the reward during Women of Marvel was not in alphabetical order for example.

It also doesn't take into account future character releases, so if you're looking to find out exactly when the next say, Red Hulk cover is coming up, it probably won't be on July 26th because we'll have likely have 2 (+) new characters before then.

Mod Edit, added quote of question to the post, moved to FAQ

drcassino

Vhailorx wrote:

Is there a list of upcoming 1k cover rewards?

I thought I had seen something to this effect somewhere on these forums in the past, but I can't find it now in any of the obvious places (events, tips and guides, etc).

Am I missing something?

Mod Edit, added question to the post, moved to FAQ

Also, you can always figure out the order of 1K cover rewards, because they're done in alphabetical order, save when a new character is introduced (though the order picks right back up afterwards). As for what cover of that character is rewarded, they're cycled in character order: so a character with red/green/blue will have their red cover awarded first, and so on, until their blue cover is followed by their red.

drcassino

jffdougan wrote:

The Smoking Ace wrote:

I have a good one as I can't seem to find it anywhere. Do legendary tokens expire if you never use them? Is so what is the deadline to use it before it expires? Thanks.

Tokens don't expire. Event-based tokens will eventually rotate out, but you can still access them, and they're good the next time those events roll around.

Some players hold on to the event-based tokens, as they provide early information what events are upcoming, and which characters will be featured in them, though this has been made largely irrelevant by D3 Forum posts detailing future events.

drcassino

Why am I seeing these 1 and 2 star teams with such high scores in PVP? (AKA, "What's a Cupcake?", AKA, "How are players getting 3000 points in PVP?")

Players with high scores in PVP will often coordinate in order to briefly put up intentionally weak teams in PVP, with the intent of allowing their alliance mates, or other players with whom they are coordinating, to queue those teams, and beat them easily once the player putting up the weak team has shielded.
To understand how this works, it's necessary to review some basics about PVP and shielding. When other players find you in PVP, they will see the last team that you used to win a battle in that particular event. Once you shield, anyone who has already queued you up may hit you, but you will not lose points when they do so. Players who do not have you queued may also find you after you have shielded, provided you are in their "cache," that is, you are among the next 5 teams that they would have queued up, had they cycled through the teams available to them. Once you have shielded, you will no longer turn up in any new caches, or when players cycle through their available matches.
By using outside communication platforms - mostly the Line app - players have figured out how to exploit this system in order to give easy battles to other players, allowing for enormously high scores. To do so, players will typically follow these steps:

1) Climb as high as possible before shielding
2) While shielded, queue up three easy teams (most often, three "cupcakes", or intentionally easy teams with high scores)
3) Hit the first team they've queued up with their normal/strong team
4) Announce to other players that s/he is "baking," that is, making a cupcake via outside communication
5) Beat the second team with an intentionally weak team
6) Tell other players to queue them up
7) Beat the third team with their normal/strong team
8) Shield
9) Return to step 2

Using this strategy, the weak "cupcake" team will be available for other players to queue up only for the amount of time it takes for the player to complete step 7: as this most often is a strong team fighting a cupcake team, it can generally be completed in less than 90 seconds. During that period, anyone who queues up the baking player will queue the cupcake, rather than the strong team. Once the baking player has shielded, other players will use that cupcake to bake themselves, giving the first player more cupcakes, allowing another round of baking. The cycle continues for as long as players are willing to use shields to repeat the process. It is possible to find and queue up cupcake teams without being part of the outside communication, but doing so is a matter of luck, and/or being familiar with the names of frequent bakers in a time shard.
Often, players may be able to "double" a cupcake, hitting the same team twice (or even three times), by strategically resetting their cache. Done correctly, this will allow them to repeat step 3 several times, gaining an even higher score (300 points, or even more) during a single hop.
Players who choose to bake generally understand that it is a risky proposition, especially at high scores. Some players intentionally hit players who bake before they shield, out of malice or simple disregard for the conventions followed by most players coordinating their PVP play. Others may hit the player unintentionally, or use the queue later, but inadvertantly do so while the original baker is hopping. Bakers also generally are unable to "break" at the end of an event, playing 1-2 matches at the very end, as they're likely to be hit by others who have their cupcakes queued up (summed up as, "If you bake, you can't break."). In the eyes of the bakers, these risks are generally outweighed by the status within the community that can be gained through a reputation as a reliable baker, the benefit to the whole group of players within the shard that comes from having more points available for everyone, and the thrill of having to complete step 7 before being hit. Frequent bakers may also expect to be hit less often generally, as even non-coordinating players will recognize that they are likely to bake, and wait to hit the easier team.
Some players may also put out a cupcake team at the end of their hop, beating the first and second teams in their queue with a strong team, and the third with an intentionally weak team. This has the advantage of allowing the player to limit the amount of time their cupcake is available (as they can shield as quickly as they like), but the disadvantage of having their cupcake team available immediately once they begin their next hop (as it will be the last team that they won with once they show up in other queues). As such, this baking technique is most commonly used when a player is shielding until the end of the PVP event.
Bakers generally expect that other players will follow established norms of behavior when hitting their cupcakes, and players who fail to do so are likely to be targeted by allies of the baker, and others who coordinate with him or her. These norms include waiting 7-10 minutes before hitting a player who is unshielded above 1000 points, and waiting 3-5 minutes before hitting a cupcake team.
Comments from D3 representatives on the official forum have reinforced the notion that the devs see cupcaking as a problem to be fixed, as it is "not intended gameplay." In the past, several fixes intended to fix the problem have been floated (such as removing the names of players from match-ups in PVP), but it is not clear which, if any, would be used to address the issue.

edited 9/7 to add Hi-Fi comments on cupcaking

drcassino

Why does the amount of ISO needed to max a character keep going up?

Many players have observed that the amount of ISO needed to level a character seems to go up as they gain more ISO. When training a character by adding more levels, you have the option of adding one level, or adding a number of levels simultaneously with a button press. The confusion, in which it seems as though the amount of ISO needed to level a character is increasing as you save more ISO, comes from the fact that the multi-level advancement is (1) not necessarily taking the character to it's maximum level (based on the number of covers for the character and its rarity), and (2) based on a combination of how much ISO you currently have, and how much additional ISO you could get by buying the largest single ISO purchase from the game.
So, if the total amount of ISO you currently have, plus the amount you could buy with the largest single ISO purchase from the game (currently a "motherlode"), is not enough ISO to take the character to its max level, the multi-level advancement button will tell you that you can take the character to level (for example) 150 for 90,000 ISO, despite the fact that you do not have 90,000 ISO, and the character could, based on rarity and levels, be levelled past 150. If you were to earn 10,000 additional ISO, the multi-level advancement button would then report the level your character could be taken to if you had 100,000 ISO, rather than 90,000. The multi-level advancement button will only report the amount of ISO needed to take the character to the maximum level currently available is less than the total amount of ISO you currently have, plus the amount you could get from purchasing a motherlode.
The actual amount of ISO needed to take a character to max level depends on the current level of the character, but the costs to take a character from starting level to rarity cap are: 28,420 ISO for a 1*, 69,530 ISO for a 2*, 119,919 ISO for a 3*, 365,821 for a 4*, and 553,929 for a 5*.

broll

This FAQ needs an acronym list. I've been coming here for a few months now and still find new acronyms daily that I have no idea what them mean. For example TU??

DevilMayGrind

broll wrote:

This FAQ needs an acronym list. I've been coming here for a few months now and still find new acronyms daily that I have no idea what them mean. For example TU??

TU stands for - Team Up.

drcassino

broll wrote:

This FAQ needs an acronym list. I've been coming here for a few months now and still find new acronyms daily that I have no idea what them mean. For example TU??

Good idea! I'll start here:

AOE = Area of Effect/All of Enemy (Ability that impacts the entire enemy team)
BP = Black Panther
CoTS = Call the Storm (3* Thor Ability; the "o" is there because of the similarity to "Rage of the Panther")
CP = Command Points
DD = Devil Dinosaur. Not Daredevil, because no one ever talks about Daredevil.
GoT = Thor (Goddess of Thunder)
HP = Hero Points OR Health Packs
IMHB = Iron Man (Hulkbuster)
IF = Iron Fist
KK = Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel)
IW = Invisible Woman
LTs = Legendary Tokens
MF = Mr. Fantastic (also, what players say when they pull a Mr. Fantastic)
MMR = Match-Making Ranking
OML = Old Man Logan
RoTP = Rage of the Panther (Black Panther ability)
Sim = SHIELD Simulator
TU = Team-Up
XFDP = Deadpool (X-Force)
XFW = Wolverine (X-Force)

edited to add names of characters to list

JackTenrec

drcassino wrote:

Good idea! I'll start here:

Nice. Some additions:

BSS(M): Black Suit (5*) Spider-Man
DDQ: Deadpool's Daily Quest
JG: Jean Grey (4*)
OBW: Original (2*) Black Widow
PX: Professor X
PHX: Phoenix (5*)
SW: Scarlet Witch

jffdougan

Much of the current version of the OP has been pasted into the MPQ subreddit wiki. Please, please, please - help organize/create pages/provide links. I spend 3 hours a day driving and another 7 in front of students; I don't have much time for extras.

tizian2015

Please add for the "cupcakematter":

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=50586&start=40#p564503

"Cupcaking" is not intended gameplay and we're working on some ways in which we can take care of the issue in the near future.

drcassino

tizian2015 wrote:

Please add for the "cupcakematter":

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=50586&start=40#p564503

"Cupcaking" is not intended gameplay and we're working on some ways in which we can take care of the issue in the near future.

Done.

Quebbster

Question 38 and 44 are no longer relevant...

Kolence

34. Is there an action order within each turn in the game?

The order of actions within each turn is as follows:

1. Passive abilities activate
- this includes abilities like Scarlet Witch's Arcane Incantation, Luke Cage's Unbreakable, and Iron Fist's Exquisite Technique.
- This step is skipped on the player's very first turn of the game, which is why these abilities activate for the AI Turn 1, but not the player until Turn 2.

2. Goons generate AP (if present)

3. Countdown Tiles tick down

4. Active turn
- the active player (or AI) get to use abilities
- the active player (or AI) gets to match a tile
- matching a tile moves onto the next phase

5. Attack tiles activate
- This includes hidden attack tiles, like Elektra's Ballet of Death.

6. Turn ends
- priority hands over to the other player

I tend to think of 1-3 as the Start phase, 4 as the Main phase, and 5-6 as the End phase. Most of this stuff is more a technicality, but it does explain why IF/Cage/SW don't get a tile placed until Turn 2 for the player. It's also a bit relevant if you're thinking about a character like Human Torch, where you have two similar abilities (Flame Jet and Inferno), in terms of when the abilities actually hit for damage.

This is incorrect. Elektra's Ballet of Death definitely procs before the player's active turn. I tested with Elektra plus Ant-Man and Torch. You get 3 separate ticks - first the Ants! Ants! Ants! and Ballet of Death, then Flame Jet once its turn comes with all the rest of the CDs on the board. So, I really don't understand what these "hidden attack tiles" are. There are abilities which say "deal damage at the start of the turn" such as Ants! Ants! Ants! and Ballet of Death, but those definitely don't proc when attack tiles do (after the player's turn).