4* DDQ: Howard to the MAX

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Comments

  • Tryke
    Tryke Posts: 320 Mover and Shaker
    Piece of cake with a 0/0/4 Howard. Used some purple ap boosts to get the invisibility going earlier, but honestly didn't need them.
  • stryke
    stryke Posts: 107 Tile Toppler
    Realising I didn't have KK I decided to persevere for the ISO bonus.

    Took 11 tries but I did beat it with a single purpleflag.png cover after running out of damage boosts with just the +2 pink. I really don't reccomend it, takes ages and you are incredibly dependent on there either being no green dropping at all, matching every green first or being able to distract him with a four or blue match.
  • Escape2victory
    Escape2victory Posts: 64
    +2 pink/blue, +2 all colours, 100% damage boost. Collected pink first while trying to mop up green. Don't leave anything to chance if possible, go for moves unlikely to create cascades (you know the ones, you've all been playing long enough). My level 70 2 pink covered (sitting) duck took a Green on his bill but I survived on 12 health until bull neck hit the dust. Another green attack and the feathers would have been flying.
  • ClydeFrog76
    ClydeFrog76 Posts: 1,350 Chairperson of the Boards
    People doing it with nothing but purple covers are being *extremely* lucky with the board. Got him down to 495 health once with my 0/0/1 Howard, and that was with 100% match damage boost (which I've subsequently run out of). Takes so damn long that it is nigh on impossible to deny green completely and once he fires off two of those - one if you can't get Howard's purple off quick enough - you're duck pancakes. Given up after around ten attempts.

    Not sure why they felt like they couldn't make this Titans more easily do-able by everyone. Yay celebrations! icon_rolleyes.gif
  • jackstar0
    jackstar0 Posts: 1,280 Chairperson of the Boards
    Scraped through and end the season with Howard at 2/2/2. No complaints.
  • Vhailorx
    Vhailorx Posts: 6,085 Chairperson of the Boards
    ClydeFrog76 wrote:
    People doing it with nothing but purple covers are being *extremely* lucky with the board. Got him down to 495 health once with my 0/0/1 Howard, and that was with 100% match damage boost (which I've subsequently run out of). Takes so damn long that it is nigh on impossible to deny green completely and once he fires off two of those - one if you can't get Howard's purple off quick enough - you're duck pancakes. Given up after around ten attempts.

    Not sure why they felt like they couldn't make this Titans more easily do-able by everyone. Yay celebrations! icon_rolleyes.gif


    Keep at it clyde. It is absolutely doable, even without HP boosts.

    Priotize green. NEVER leave a green match on the board. Then collect as much purple as possible after the board is drained of green (should be easy since punisher won't take purple mathces unless it has to). At level 70 you can survive 1, but probably not 2 of his green aoe, especially if you get invis out early. So you much prevent him from getting 8, and preferrably even 4, green matches. Sometimes the board will screw you, but if you just prioritize green denial, it will eventually go your way. But you have to really prioritize green denial. Don't take a match 4 purple if it will leave a green match on the board. Don't make matches at the bottom of the board if the cascade might set up a green match. The only way you can win is in a long, slow-paced match. So play conservatively!
  • jgomes32
    jgomes32 Posts: 381 Mover and Shaker
    Impossible with 2 purple covers. So stupid....
  • OzarkBoatswain
    OzarkBoatswain Posts: 693 Critical Contributor
    I beat it first try with 1/1/3 Howard. Deny green then go for purple. Easy.
  • CaptainFreaky
    CaptainFreaky Posts: 451 Mover and Shaker
    Did it first try with 0/0/2 Howard - +2 P/B, +1 All, +100% G/B (cause you match a ton of green along the way).

    Took one Green hit from Punpun, but managed to keep him from getting off a second (which would have finished me).
    As long as you can keep Pun from matching green, and perhaps get a bit lucky that green doesn't fall from the sky for him, this is doable with 1-2 pink covers.

    If you don't get it the first time, do it again, I suspect it can be done by most in 4-5 tries - your luck may vary.

    Now I have a Green Howard sitting in queue - should I add it to Howard or just take the 1000 ISO? Cause I doubt I'll ever use Howard again for anything other than a DDQ type match.
  • DeNappa
    DeNappa Posts: 1,398 Chairperson of the Boards
    I think it should be doable with a 0/0/1 Howard. But the RNG is giving me TERRIBLE board layouts.

    If you get his invisible tiles out soon enough you will be able to eat 2 of his green attacks, but somehow the game keeps denying me purple (even with +4 purple starts!) to get invisibility out until Howard is at least halfway dead.

    Best attempt I had was getting Mr. Neck down to 2K health, after which a board shuffle and an AI match forced me into making the only turn left on the board.... Involving the 2 purple invisible tiles i had left. icon_rolleyes.gif
  • Quebbster
    Quebbster Posts: 8,070 Chairperson of the Boards
    jgomes32 wrote:
    Impossible with 2 purple covers. So stupid....
    No,not at all. I did it with two purple covers only, someone else mentioned doing it with just one purple cover. Keep at it!
  • DeNappa
    DeNappa Posts: 1,398 Chairperson of the Boards
    It's a drag. It's really a 'DON'T CASCADE INTO GREEN DON'T CASCADE INTO GREEN' match all the time.

    Yet another attempt, had him down to ~1500 health. The board is stuck with one move... and if I make it, this will cause green to fall into a position where the AI can match it so he can finish me off. Sigh.
  • jgomes32
    jgomes32 Posts: 381 Mover and Shaker
    Quebbster wrote:
    jgomes32 wrote:
    Impossible with 2 purple covers. So stupid....
    No,not at all. I did it with two purple covers only, someone else mentioned doing it with just one purple cover. Keep at it!

    Maybe not impossible, but extremely hard and totally luck based. Got him down to 1900 and in i'm done. 10 health packs and a lot of precious Iso wasted.

    Edit: 2 more tries and i did it. Now i'm stuck at 1/0/2 forever!
  • 20three
    20three Posts: 371
    I don't know what I was expecting. They give you the purple cover and do this event putting the idea into your head that it would take a while to win, but at least you'll be safe. Then they pit you against a character with far too high a level, 2 of your 3 colors, and AoE that it is cheap and powerful. What a joke...
  • DeNappa
    DeNappa Posts: 1,398 Chairperson of the Boards
    Okay, another few attempts down the road I managed to beat him with my 0/0/1 Howard.

    I used +2all/+2 blue/purple boosts, and +50% blue/purple damage. But +100% all damage is really feasible too here, as it will increase damage output even more thus leaving the RNG less time to screw you over.

    It's all about board control. Prioritize purple first so you can get invisibility tiles out as quickly as possible. After that it's all about:
    • Deny green
    • At all times try to keep at least one invisibility tile on the board, otherwise you'll be match damaged to death in no time (especially if he placed enemystrike.png )
    • Deny green
    • Make absolutely sure a different match will not put a green match into position for the AI. You might get lucky sometimes when he will prefer to make a blue match, but don't count on it.
    • Hope the RNG will not create green matches for the Neck, or worse, make green skyfall matches (I've seen at least one occasion where the AI made a horizontal match 3, and the tiles dropped at the top were 3 greentile.pngs two times in a row icon_e_confused.gif )
    • Match purple when you can, so you can cast more invisiblity tiles (increased protection and damage output)
    • Hope the RNG will not force all your invisibility tiles to be matched
    • Sometimes you can take advantage of the AI's preference to prioritize a match-4 above all else.
    • Did I mention 'deny green' already?

    Near the end of my match there was an awful lot of green on the board and the AI needed only one more green AP to win. The only move that did NOT leave a green match directly was making a vertical double match-3, so at that moment it was really down to dumb luck. But the RNG had mercy on me icon_lol.gif .
  • Sluggo
    Sluggo Posts: 504 Critical Contributor
    Did this with an 0/0/2 Howard, level 80.

    Strategy: Deny green, collect purple, go invisible ASAP, keep denying green. And hope. Used +B/P, +all AP, +match damage.

    First four attempts I got a grand total of three purple matches. And it's not like I was passing on them in favor of green or blue, they just didn't exist.

    Attempt #5 I had a match-5 purple off the bat and actually got one invisibility off. I survived about 20 turns before Punisher got two greens off and killed me.

    Attempt #6 I got invisibility off 3x, and only allowed Punisher to fire green once. Won the match with 560 health left.

    Strategy helps, but needed a lot of luck. And the fight took FOREVER.
  • St1nkf1st
    St1nkf1st Posts: 128 Tile Toppler
    Pretty easy, won at first try with 2/1/2 Howard. However, somehow I forgot that reward was another Howard cover, so I was a bit dissapointed when I didn't get a LT but Howard green icon_e_smile.gif
  • Cousin Simpson
    Cousin Simpson Posts: 1,086 Chairperson of the Boards
    Four tries with my 0/0/2 @ 86, +2 all, +2 blue/purple, +100% all match damage. In my winning game, I got purple out very early and was able to deny green until the end, when I let the AI get one Merciless Charge off to make it feel better about itself.

    Got a green Howard for my efforts!
  • Crowl
    Crowl Posts: 1,581 Chairperson of the Boards
    20three wrote:
    I don't know what I was expecting. They give you the purple cover and do this event putting the idea into your head that it would take a while to win, but at least you'll be safe. Then they pit you against a character with far too high a level, 2 of your 3 colors, and AoE that it is cheap and powerful. What a joke...

    Sharing your colours is a good thing, you need to be denying ap anyway so better that it is stuff you can actually use and you do decent match dmg on.
  • ClydeFrog76
    ClydeFrog76 Posts: 1,350 Chairperson of the Boards
    Vhailorx wrote:
    Keep at it clyde. It is absolutely doable, even without HP boosts.

    I have no doubt it's doable, but I am done trying to do it.

    Got him down to FIVE HUNDRED health again just then, and the AI deems it necessary to bestow upon him a match 5 from a random cascade, which generates the critical tile right next to 2 greens, which just happens to be the exact amount needed for him to fire off his second Merciless charge to kill me. And that was a fifteen minute damn game to get to that point!

    **** this ****. Seriously.

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