PVE: The Gauntlet (2016-09-11 to 2016-09-18)

JackTenrec

This marks the first time I was able to complete Gauntlet, which is a pretty big deal for my roster both because a) I've never been able to get to, let alone beat, the final node and b) I've always been locked out by missing essentials.

I'm squarely in 3* - 4* transition land, with most 3* champed and no max-covered 4* (but it helps that my most usable one, 5/1/5 Ant-Man was boosted). I actually found that going to the unboosted well was the stronger play in a lot of nodes -- 3* Cap, SW, and of all people, Doc Ock did some heroic lifting in the Global Domination sub.

DapperChewie

5/3/5
3/5/5
5/5/3

This team got me through the last mission, quite effectively. Take out Deadpool first, he is the most dangerous by far. KK keeps everyone healthy, use hulk green, and fire magneto powers as often as you can, and use kk purple to make more green. Use it on yellow or black, help clear them off.

Good luck everyone!

optimus2861

Ugh. Hood, Loki, Deadpool was just annoying. The only thing saving it from a total disaster is that Loki tends to spend the purple on Illusions rather than saving it for Whales. Barely cleared it as it was. That doesn't exactly fill me with confidence that I'm going to make it very far into sub-3...

EDIT: Magneto, Loki, Ultron. Try #1, KK, IM40, 4hor, obliterated. Try #2, same team, blew through it with barely a scratch. Sometimes you just can't get past the luck factor.

sambrookjm

I'm now up to Sim 40 - Prof X, Daken, and X-23. Good Lord, the "luck" the AI is having with this team is incredible.

First match, first turn, and they get a match 5 of purple, doing about 8K damage to my lead character. Prof X goes invisible, and my team (Invisible Woman, Hood, Elektra) goes down thanks to a lot of greens.

Second match, three match 5s on a single turn wipe out Iceman and IM40, followed by X23 taking out Kingpin.

Third Match, two straight turns with two match 5 wipe out my team of 4-star Wolverine, Iron Fist, and 4star Cyclops.

I didn't even get a chance to try to Super Whale this one...any good teams for this node?

---

Edit - Hulkbuster, Jean Grey, and 3-star Cyclops did the job. All I needed to do was get two match 5 of my own on the first turn...and Repulsor Punch Prof X into oblivion before he can go Invisible...and get 30 purple for Jean Grey's ability. Incredibly lucky board...but I'll take it!

Realstuff_NameChange

sambrookjm wrote:

I'm now up to Sim 40 - Prof X, Daken, and X-23. Good Lord, the "luck" the AI is having with this team is incredible.

First match, first turn, and they get a match 5 of purple, doing about 8K damage to my lead character. Prof X goes invisible, and my team (Invisible Woman, Hood, Elektra) goes down thanks to a lot of greens.

Second match, three match 5s on a single turn wipe out Iceman and IM40, followed by X23 taking out Kingpin.

Third Match, two straight turns with two match 5 wipe out my team of 4-star Wolverine, Iron Fist, and 4star Cyclops.

I didn't even get a chance to try to Super Whale this one...any good teams for this node?

---

Edit - Hulkbuster, Jean Grey, and 3-star Cyclops did the job. All I needed to do was get two match 5 of my own on the first turn...and Repulsor Punch Prof X into oblivion before he can go Invisible...and get 30 purple for Jean Grey's ability. Incredibly lucky board...but I'll take it!

Yeah this was the node that finally kicked my ****, I don't know how many times I lost, went through all my best combos and all my healthpacks and finally just said screw it and whaled it.

Weapon X kills or near enough most characters with 1 green, prof x kept getting multiple match 5 cascades that would kill someone off. It sucked.

pinoles

Stussi wrote:

I confirm that for sim 42, KK (lv261), IM40 (168) and Hulk (264) is a good choice to win. Not an easy win because Black Bolt cast his "scream" doing 8k damage to all my team killing Hulk (other character with 1k life remaing)...................................................

I failed this node easily 8 times in a row, 6 of which were using the above suggestions (KK, IM40, {Hulk | CMags | 5hor]). Even tried LazyCap, but no joy.

Basically I take out DP, then Peggy just knocks me silly. Every time. Whether I target her second or not. BB and PC are usually at about 10k+ to 15k+ by this time.

One specific problem I see is that I can't use KK's green until DP is down. His black just ruins my Hulk immediately. And of course a healthy Peggy makes it difficult-to-impossible to get any power off quickly.

Any other suggestions .... ??

UPDATE: LazyCap, KK, Hood FTW. FINALLY.

KillaBeeSwarm

stochasticism wrote:

PeeOne wrote:

The final sim has got me!!!

Cruised through everything else with BP KK CMAGS unless against them

42 I've tried a few combos with no luck.. Last attempt was Cmags BP hulk was the best effort with only Peggy left at 2500 then she ultimate soldiered BP

Anyone wanna peruse my roster and suggest something else

Try Cmags/KK/IM40

This team is about fast AP generation and hitting with CMags blue/red and kk green. I would actually run kk 3/5/5 here to get as much green out as fast as you can.

Another option is to swap out kk with hood. MAke hood 3/5/5 as his yellow will be too expensive to use and his black at 5 could be useful if you run into a bonanza of yellow.

Thanks for the advice, that did the trick for me! 175 IM40, 278 CMag and 254 KK. Wound up trading with the AI. I downed DP, it got KK. I downed Peggy, it got IM40. Energy channeling was doing a number on CMags, luckily I got enough blue on my last move to finish off BB.

optimus2861

Any tips on the Panther essential #1? Carnage, Ant-Man, Sam Wilson? That one gets away from you real fast with Ant-Man & Carnage filling the board up with specials, Sam enhancing them, and Ant-Man stealing away the friendlies! I bailed on my first attempt when it was obvious I was toast; I was facing at least 10 attack tiles before I had enough AP to fire even one ability, and had eaten a Scythes too thanks to a lucky match-5 red that dropped into the AI's lap.

EDIT: Huh, never mind. Second try, I crushed it. Panther + Hulk + CMags. I got a quick start with 9 yellow to put strikes out and snowballed from there. Got out with barely a scratch.

Moon Roach

I guess nobody else has seen a problem on the Panther essential nodes in Global Domination?

For me Panther had no active powers. 4* Cyclops and 4* Deadpool for the win on all 3 nodes, but having one character able to do nothing was a bit of a handicap.

Cousin Simpson

First time finishing Gauntlet without whaling any nodes! Thank Kirby for my champed 4clops!

optimus2861

Wow, I powered through Sim-38 and 39 just now using CMags, BP, Bullseye. I didn't even need a health pack after Sim-38.

I've never reached Sim-40 before. I can see X-23 may be tough; that purple would one-shot me if I trip on it.

Oh, and I've yet to use Whales or one single set of boosts. Every node so far, I've cleared the ol'fashioned way.

EDIT: First use of Whales on Sim-40. As predicted, X-23 just kept murdering me. Her purple gets so cheap, so fast, and it's either a nearly-fatal wound or an insta-kill for my 3* champs.

auralgami

Took four tries to get through sim 42. For me, it's "Deadly". IM40+KK+Hulk failed, so I tried LCap+KK+Hood (failed), CMags+KK+IM40 (failed) and finally got through with a redo of IM40+KK+Hulk.

Took out Deadpool first, then Bolt, then Peggy. Deadpool's Countdown for What threw two of those matches, so I denied purple and collected green as much as possible, both to fuel KK/Hulk and deny Bolt his scream. IM40 never got off a recharge, but at least got to Unibeam Bolt before being downed.

Now it's just to backtrack through the essentials.

I also used a lot of She Hulk + Loki + Hood on the way up. They even took out sim 41.