new to ultron? here are some tips that might help

Vhailorx

I don't think ultron has been run in a while, so newer players may not know quite what to expect. Here are some tips, but note that they may not apply perfectly given the recent changes announced by demi, and the more sugnifcant changes to the game in the year+ since this event was last run. I will try to update if any of this advice turns out to be dead wrong, or if new strategies emerge.

Remeber that ultron is a puzzle-y boss, and it's essential to prevent his bomb tiles from dropping to the bottom of the board, especially in the higher rounds.

I will assume that people are more familiar with ultron sentries from ddq, but the general rule of thumb is to target gunners (blue) first, then swarmers (green), then flyers(that's what they are called, I think)(yellow).

As for boss ultron himself:

(1) Board control is very important. Otherwise mediocre characters with strong board control moves become much better when you need to destroy those bombs.

So characters like gsbw (3 active, targeted tile destruction powers), and IW (locking bombs and then blowing them up is fun), and qs (cheap tile manipulation) are all surprisingly effective. For low level rosters, 1* Hawkeye is a great option. He will probably be too squishy in later rounds, but you can try to tank for him.

(2) flaptain kicks **** against bosses. If you can get 5+ protect tiles on the board he starts doing significant damage. Hopefully he is boosted; if so, he can drop 60k bosses in 1 or 2 strikes. His red nuke is more efficient than imhb of even cyclops for high health targets.

(3) now that ultron makes matches himself passives that trigger on damage received should be a good tactic (assuming he has 5* match damage).

(4) as always, lazy cap is a pve beast. he was typically a bit slow against higher levels of ultron. But rejoice! Now we can use im40 to solve that problem and start hucking shields asap.

(5) random boardshake is less powerful than is normally the case, because there is a significant risk that it will detonate it lower bombs. So i would be careful if using characters like switch, if, xfw, iceman, 3* cyclops, etc. even IM46 and Phoenix might be risky in rounds 7 or 8.

(6) 3* punisher is another good character against bosses. Don't risk his green against ultron if there are lots of bombs on the board, but his red can drop any boss regardless of health (as long as they are below the health threshold). With against 60k health bosses, that's a very good deal. And it's a great teamup!

(7) any tank (preferrably with true healing) + iron fist + Ghost rider. If makes black, tank tanks, GR black drops the hammer when enough damage has been stored up. This strategy worked well in civil war, and for GRs few node against galactus. I don't know if it will be fast enough for ultron in rounds 7 and 8, but I will list it here for now and update when the event goes live.

Edits after event goes live:

1) Ultron's bombs don't seem to be aoe anymore (at least through round 4). That makes board shuffle a bit less suicidal
(but will still require careful use of sacrificial characters at higher rounds), and . . .

2) that's good because ultron making matches is a very significant increase in the rate of bomb drop. In earlier runs, the player could rely on 6-8 rounds to harvest ap. Now the first bombs may start going off much earlier if ultron makes some bad matches. Not looking forward to rounds 7 and 8.

3) round 6 has 49k health and 15.3k bomb damage. Round 7 has 73k health and 23k bomb damage. If you are willing to eat the healthpacks (or have OML to tank), GR is very effective: his black can one shot ultron after 1 or 2 bombs go off.

Wjohnson992

Thank You!

xidragonxi

3* Punisher is pretty great at downing bosses as well. If you can get their health down to 40%, his red does the rest.

I'm pretty sure Hulk-bombing was a viable strategy against Ultron, but I may be confusing it with Galactus.

Vhailorx

xidragonxi wrote:

3* Punisher is pretty great at downing bosses as well. If you can get their health down to 40%, his red does the rest.

I'm pretty sure Hulk-bombing was a viable strategy against Ultron, but I may be confusing it with Galactus.

Hulk bombing was hard when ultron didn't make matches, but now I would expect it to be incredibly dangerous.

Not a terrible strategy for galactus though.

SnowcaTT

Board control (and Cap's value compared to his low(ish) health) will be much bigger/harder issues this time since Ultron will be moving tiles.

dsds

Don't use hulk, he is unpredictable. In fact don't use any board shakers because they are unpredictable. My ideal team would be captain marvel, captain America and IM40. The blue ap can be used to either overwrite bombs or if you have too much ap, just use im40's blue. Never made it to the final rounds, so not sure how well this team will do when ultron becomes much stronger.

dsds

I wonder if 4thor can use her yellow ability to turn bomb tiles into charged tiles?

revskip

Thanks for this Vhailorx. This is my first Ultron run so the advice is very helpful.

Vhailorx

revskip wrote:

Thanks for this Vhailorx. This is my first Ultron run so the advice is very helpful.

Nooooooooo! You can't use my advice until you admit that I am right about the new pve scoring system!

(jk, good luck!)

Vhailorx

dsds wrote:

I wonder if 4thor can use her yellow ability to turn bomb tiles into charged tiles?

Post nerf I think she only affects strike, protect, and attack tiles. Not sure about JG either, since they keep on changing what her purple can and can't affect.

TxMoose

well the first 2 runs were April and June of last year, so over a year since then and most of our rosters look much much different for those that were here. lots of strategies that didn't exist then will emerge, like a GR based one. Thanks for somewhere to put it all.

Malcrof

Keeping this thread in General until after the event is over, then will move to tips and link in the FAQ, just making sure this stays in general for the duration to help out newcomers.

OneLastGambit

add to that list of tactics

GR/fist/any tank.

Let tank soak up damage (i use oml) then let fist generate black so you can down with GR. I used this on round 8 iron man and downed him in one many times

xidragonxi

Vhailorx wrote:

dsds wrote:

I wonder if 4thor can use her yellow ability to turn bomb tiles into charged tiles?

Post nerf I think she only affects strike, protect, and attack tiles. Not sure about JG either, since they keep on changing what her purple can and can't affect.

At 5 covers, Yellow will overwrite countdowns. I don't think Ultron's bombs would be affected.

Vhailorx

xidragonxi wrote:

Vhailorx wrote:

dsds wrote:

I wonder if 4thor can use her yellow ability to turn bomb tiles into charged tiles?

Post nerf I think she only affects strike, protect, and attack tiles. Not sure about JG either, since they keep on changing what her purple can and can't affect.

At 5 covers, Yellow will overwrite countdowns. I don't think Ultron's bombs would be affected.

True! But at 5 yellow there is basically no reason to use her. She exists to chain blue into red for massive damage.

DTStump

dsds wrote:

Don't use hulk, he is unpredictable. In fact don't use any board shakers because they are unpredictable. My ideal team would be captain marvel, captain America and IM40. The blue ap can be used to either overwrite bombs or if you have too much ap, just use im40's blue. Never made it to the final rounds, so not sure how well this team will do when ultron becomes much stronger.

But I think the idea is to use Hulk solely for his black passive, and let him tank for a much more useful green and red user (GSBW, for example).

amusingfoo1

DTStump wrote:

dsds wrote:

Don't use hulk, he is unpredictable. In fact don't use any board shakers because they are unpredictable. My ideal team would be captain marvel, captain America and IM40. The blue ap can be used to either overwrite bombs or if you have too much ap, just use im40's blue. Never made it to the final rounds, so not sure how well this team will do when ultron becomes much stronger.

But I think the idea is to use Hulk solely for his black passive, and let him tank for a much more useful green and red user (GSBW, for example).

Yes, that's why you'd use him, but the randomness of his passive makes it very likely that he will cause bombs to drop to the bottom faster.

Vhailorx

The problem, dtstump, is that hulk's green will churn the board randomly, dropping bombs closer to the bottom row. And if any bombs reach the bottom row in the later rounds you will die. The ap is nice, but it's not worth the risk.

Vhailorx

Hah, I almost added 1* Hawkeye to my list in the first draft. Will add him now.

mpqr7

IF/QS should be helpful as well, as the QS Black can move in tiles to match away bombs.

Wolarsen

I will try IM40/LCap/GSBWidow