Complete DDQ4 (Crash) Guide - Tips for all Matchups

Fightmastermpq

Gonna pick up the torch here.... Original thread for additional commentary.

Looks like the DDQ4 matchups are going to be repeating so I figured it would be nice to have a one-stop shop for tips on how to maximize your DDQ4 potential, while minimizing the resources you spend on them. I love DDQ4 because the fights are so challenging. For me it brings the puzzle back to puzzle quest, and I just want to share my passion with others and hopefully make what can be a frustrating experience a little more fun.

First some general tips....

• Treat it like a puzzle - slow down, and think ahead.
• Understand your priorities, including offense vs. defense.
• Keep an eye on enemy AP
• Remember that sometimes it's better to break up potential enemy matches than to take one for yourself and give up another one
• Be mindful of what matches the enemy will make - it will always take a match-5 line, then match-4 over anything else.
• Use appropriate boosts

Current Crash: Now runs all week!
Howard the Duck vs. The Punisher MAX

So they decided to throw Howard into the mix the week because.......boomerangs???? It's against a Level 222, 0/2/2 Punisher, so not terribly difficult.

Enemy Info:
HP: 12,317
Match damage: 83/74/65/13/12/11/ 43 / 4.5x
Abilities:
- Merciless Charge, 10 AP - Does 1488 damage - even if you are invisible.
- Weapons Expertise, 8 AP - Creates 1 strength 149 black strike tile. Passively improves strength of strike tiles by 12%

Main Strategy: Deny green, go invisible, win.

Tips:

• His green does AoE so you can't just go invisible and wait for the win, you actually do have to deny some. If you have Howard's green it makes this a little easier since you can collect green yourself and then when you get in a pickle and can't deny - just wipe all the green from the board.
• His blue does next to nothing, and your blue is a direct counter to it. Honestly you can kind of ignore blue if you want.
• Get your 12 purple as quickly as you can and go invisible, you want to deny green over protecting your invisi-tiles, but your purple tiles are going to be doing damage, so try to keep them out as best you can.

Recommended Boosts:

• +50% B/P Damage - Both your colors, will make the match go quicker.
• +50% G/B Damage - Finishes off all 4 colors.
• If you want to go the +all route, then a +2 B/P AP and +1 All AP will get you to your purple 1 match sooner.

Low level/cover characters that have completed this challenge(if you have a low level or unique color configuration and managed to finish either respond in here or PM me!):
Level 70, 0/0/1 by Pwuz_
Level 90, 0/0/2 by QuebbsterBoosts used

Crash Order:

Venom (Agent Venom)
Agent Coulson (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D)
X-23 (All-New Wolverine)
Iceman (All-New X-Men)
Jean Grey (All New X-Men)
Winter Soldier (Bucky Barnes)
Peggy Carter (Captain America)
Sam Wilson (Captain America)
Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers)
Professor X (Charles Xavier)
Cyclops (Classic)
Invisible Woman (Classic)
The Thing (Classic)
Carnage (Cletus Kasady)
Quake (Daisy Johnson)
Iron Fist (Danny Rand)
Drax (the Destroyer)
Nick Fury (Director Of SHIELD)
Venom (Eddie Brock)
Thor (Goddess of Thunder)
Gwenpool (Gwen Poole)
Spider-Gwen (Gwen Stacy)
Kate Bishop (Hawkeye)
Iron Man (Hulkbuster)
Medusa (Inhuman Queen)
Riri Williams (Ironheart)
War Machine (James Rhodes)
Wasp (Janet Van Dyne)
Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew)
Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze)
Star Lord (Legendary Outlaw)
Moon Knight (Marc Spector)
Mordo (Master of the Mystic Arts)
The Punisher (MAX)
Blade (Modern)
Luke Cage (Power Man)
Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards)
Nova (Sam Alexander)
Ant-Man (Scott Lang)
Miles Morales (Spider-Man)
Red Hulk (Thunderbolt Ross)
The Hulk (Totally Awesome)
Deadpool (Uncanny X-Force)
Elektra (Unkillable)
Kingpin (Wilson Fisk)
Wolverine (X-Force)

In order to have a crash a character must have been the essential 4* character in PvE twice. This gives players enough time to get some covers for newer characters before their first crash. Here are the characters that haven't had their first crash yet.......

Unkowns...
Venom (Agent Venom) vs. ?????
Agent Coulson (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) vs. ?????
Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) vs. ?????
Iron Fist (Danny Rand) vs ?????C4ge?????
Gwenpool (Gwen Poole) vs. ?????
Medusa (Inhuman Queen) vs. ?????
Riri Williams (Ironheart) vs. ?????
War Machine (James Rhodes) vs. ?????
Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) vs. ?????
Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) vs. ?????
Mordo (Master of the Mystic Arts) vs. ????? (let's face it, this will be Strange)
Blade (Modern) vs. ?????
Luke Cage (Power Man) vs. ?????Danny?????

And here are your guides in the order that they will occur.....

Venom (Agent Venom) vs. ?????

COMING SOON!

:coulson: Agent Coulson (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) vs. ?????

COMING SOON!

X-23 (All-New Wolverine) vs. Elektra

This battle was one of my favorites - the puzzle factor is pretty high. And I can't tell you how many times I had it won, but then Elektra hit me with a Shadow Step and I fizzled.

Enemy Info:
HP: 13,974
Match damage: 83/74/65/13/12/11/ 43 / 3.5x
Abilities:
- Double-Double Cross, 7 AP - Steals 2 (3 if she has a trap tile out) of your strike tiles and increases their strength by 245, give you 3 strike tiles of strength 18.
- Shadow Step, 10 AP - Creates 5 black trap tiles. Every time Elektra would take damage instead a trap tile is destroyed, and does 925 damage.
- Ballet of Death, 8 AP - Creates a red trap tile that does 1247 damage at the beginning of her turn.

Main Strategy: Save your AP and fire everything at once - this seems to offer the greatest benefit. This is one of the few DDQ battles where you can go on the offensive, but still be mindful of your denial.

Tips:

• Remember that Elektra's trap tiles are generated in specific colors. If you can't or don't want to deny red/black, just be aware of where the trap tile(s) is likely placed so that you can try to eliminate it.
• If she does get a Shadow Step off, keep track of how many trap tiles have been eliminated. You don't want to try and nuke her with your Tracking Prey only to have all that damage negated. Also, don't even use Tracking Prey if there are no purple matches to set her up with and she is close to getting 10 black AP
• Letting Elektra get 7 purple AP is awesome because it gives you strike tiles that reduce the cost of your purple. Letting Elektra then get ANOTHER 7 AP is really really awful, because then she steals your attack tiles and boosts the hell out of them.
• I think the first time through I saved up 24 green, 9+ red, and 18 purple allowing Elektra to double-double cross me once before firing my green 3 times in a row, and then my purple 3 times in a row crossing my fingers hoping that Elektra then matched one of my purple trap tiles.
• The more red covers you have the easier this battle is. Elektra doesn't have nukes, so you can deal with taking damage each turn matching red and purple (and to a lesser extent green) until you can eliminate her strike/attack tiles if you have to.

Recommended Boosts:

• +2 G/B AP - Puts you 2 green matches from Berserker Fury (although you will most likely want to use this one multiple times at once)
• +2 B/P AP - Because your purple decreases with strike tiles out every extra purple AP you have helps.
• +50% G/B Damage - Hard to pick a color set here, try B/P and R/Y as well to see what works - maybe All is really best here.

Low level/cover characters that have completed this challenge(if you have a low level or unique color configuration and managed to finish either respond in here or PM me!):
Level 111, 2/1/2 by Nutty Sakerton & Vhailorx
Level 111, 2/2/1 by cooperbigdaddy
Level 115, 2/0/3 by CT1888 info
Level 127, 3/0/2 by Salauk
Level 127, 0/2/3 by Miztiq Story

Iceman (All-New X-Men) vs. Jean Grey

Recognizing the horror that is the Mr. F battle they followed up with one of the easiest in Iceman v. JG. You'll notice a theme with me calling out JG as the most overrated character in the game, and this battle yet again proves my point......

Enemy Info:
HP: 13,995
Match damage: 83/74/65/13/12/11/ 43 / 3.5x
Abilities:
- Mind Over Matter, 10 AP - 3876 damage
- Psychic Feedback, Passive - Kicks your **** if you make a match-5 (2074 damage, 2 turn stun, reduces your green AP by 6)
- Full of Surprises, 12 AP - 3374 damage, creates 4 random strike/attack/protect tiles of strength 180

Main Strategy:
1. Stun her.
2. ???
3. Profit.

Tips:

• Don't make match-5s (See Ant-Man vs. JG tips below)
• If your starting board has 2 blue matches, take them and just stun her (assuming you have at least 3 blue covers). No need to punch, with 4 turns you can usually find two more blue matches and/or get rid of all the green/purple matches on the board.
• If you only have 1 or 2 blue covers this battle is a tad tougher, but still not really. You just need to use your blue a little more conservatively.
• You want to deny purple and green, which works out really well because those are your colors too!
• You can save your purple to fuel your green, or use it when there are lots of red tiles next to blue tiles to give you some free blue matches. Don't do this if you are going to trigger a potential match-5 when she is not stunned. Be smart.
• Unless you are just swimming in blue AP, use it primarily to keep her stun-locked, then come in with a punch at the end. Don't be afraid to match away your CD tile to stun for another 4 turns - it's worth it.

Recommended Boosts:

• +2 B/P AP - puts you 2 purple matches away from Cold as Ice
• +50% B/P damage - Two colors you will be matching. Green AP doesn't help much since you are still 4 matches from Whiteout.
• +50% G/B damage - Another color you share.

Low level/cover characters that have completed this challenge (if you have a low level or unique color configuration and managed to finish either respond in here or PM me!):
Level 70, 1/5/5 by Sm0keyJ0e
Level 94, 1/2/1 by Vhailorx
Level 111, 0/1/3 by Natsufan01

Jean Grey (All New X-Men) vs. Moonstone

This one is harder than you would think - mainly because JG is really weak 1v1. Her purple and green are expensive for the damage they do to a single target.

Enemy Info:
HP: 18770
Match damage: 83/74/65/13/12/11/ 43 / 3.0x
Abilities:
- Gravity Warp, 8 AP - Swaps a tile with one of your special tiles, if you have none does 2,072 damage
- Photon Blast, 11 AP - Does 760 damage, plus 389 damage for each red tile on the board
- Control Shift, 9 AP - Steals up to 3 of your special tiles

Main Strategy: Deny red. Deny purple until you have green, then deny black until you have purple. Your green counters her purple, your purple counters her black.

Tips:

• You can use your green to prevent getting nailed by gravity warp, but then you have to be careful of her black. Odds are you don't have enough green for Full of Surprises because you have been focusing on red, purple, and black.
• If you can manage to collect 12 green before she can get 7 purple those special tiles can help speed up the battle a bit - but again, you will need to deny black in this case. Really you would only do this if the board was pretty starved of purple from the start of your battle.
• Unfortunately her strongest color is purple, so it doesn't make a lot of sense to try and set up a match-5 for her so to trigger your blue. Most of the time you will be better off taking it yourself and using the critical tile to boost damage.

Recommended Boosts:

• +1 B/P AP - puts you 3 purple matches away from Mind Over Matter, +2 might be better putting you 6 matches away from double firing it (you will probably need 2 to win anwyay).
• +50% B/P damage - Two of your colors, one of which you are prioritizing, makes sense.
• +Crit damage? I dunno really, +Green AP might work as well, but at a cost of 12 the extra 1 or 2 may or may not really be helpful.

Low level/cover characters that have completed this challenge (if you have a low level or unique color configuration and managed to finish either respond in here or PM me!):
Level 147, 3/4/4 by Eec411
Level 150, 2/2/4 by Vhailorx
Level 152, 3/1/3 by Wilk_Stepowy w/+2 all, +all damage, and +crit damage

Winter Soldier (Bucky Barnes) vs. Black Panther

COMING SOON!

Peggy Carter (Captain America) vs. Wasp

COMING SOON!

Sam Wilson (Captain America) vs Captain Marvel

This is a tough one, Flaptain's blue is almost completely useless here, and Captain Marvel has a direct counter to his yellow, which really neuters his red. I managed to beat this one with just 1 red cover the first time around and I remember most people thinking it required at least 3 at the time.

Enemy Info:
HP: 15641
Match damage: 83/74/65/13/12/11/ 43 / 3.0x
Abilities:
- Photonic Blasts, 7 AP - 1853 Damage, destroys all of your protect tiles
- Hypersonic Punch, 9 AP - 3107 Damage, 2 turn stun, gives you a 65 damage strike tile
- Energy Absorption, Passive - If Captain Marvel takes more than 863 damage, gives her 5 red and 3 black AP

Main Strategy: Deny red first, then black. The puzzle in this fight is in the yellow. It's going to be your 3rd priority, but Captain Marvel has a passive yellow, so she will fight you for the yellow matches, and after you do fire your yellow she will match away your protect tiles. Lastly, you want to accumulate a lot of yellow AP, but then not fire your yellow ability until there are a lot of yellow tiles on the board while also having 14 or even 28 red AP stockpiled.....yeah, I said this was a tough one!

Tips:

• I say deny red first because you need so much red to win that it makes sense. That 2-turn stun from the black can be rough though depending on the board. So you really need to deny both red and black pretty hard.
• Really just forget you even have a blue ability. Your focus should be on denial first and then manipulating the yellow tiles on the board. If you happen to strengthen a protect tile with your blue then great, but that should be the last thing on your mind.
• Whether or not you use your yellow early will depend on the availability of yellow. You should never have 18 yellow AP though. This will likely be a long battle, and using those protect tiles early to eliminate match damage will really help.
• Save your red until you have a ton of protect tiles out.
• Be careful on your boosts/crits. You don't want to inadvertently trigger her Energy Absorption.
• If you don't have many red covers this battle turns into a battle of match damage because you have to kill her with your red or else feel the wrath of her Energy Absorption, so get your protect tiles out early and deny red and black hard to keep them out and keep her from nuking you.

Recommended Boosts:

• +2 R/Y AP - you need all the red AP you can get.
• +50% R/Y damage - You should be focusing on red/yellow anyway, so this just makes sense
• +2 All - I wouldn't normally recommend this, but additional damage boosts can have you triggering Energy Absorption, you could even leave this slot empty.

Low level/cover characters that have completed this challenge (if you have a low level or unique color configuration and managed to finish either respond in here or PM me!):
Level 94, 1/2/5 by CT1888
Level 145, 4/2/2 by Vhailorx
Level 152, 2/4/1 by PeterGibbons316

Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) vs. ?????

COMING SOON!

Professor X (Charles Xavier) vs. Elektra

So with the changes to how Carnage's red works they actually realized how near impossible this battle would have been and changed it to one of the easiest fights they could think of (thanks D3!!!)

Main strategy: Go invisible. Match tiles for ~1 hour. Claim LT. It's really that simple. A level 70 0/1/0 could finish this battle (I used my dupe and was damn close to that myself).

Tips:

• I guess you should deny red/black until you have 7 purple, but you can actually focus on collecting purple to go invisible before denying.
• Try to get rid of all the easy purple matches before firing your purple for the first time. If you have to take a couple extra hits to do so, no big deal.
• Try to build up a reserve of at least 7 purple. That way if she does match your invisibility tile you can just make another one next turn.
• Deny black when you can, as her shadow-stepping your every move really does prolong the battle.
• Yellow will make this match go a lot faster if you can get her to feed you some strike tiles. Once you have your purple and reserve, allow her to make the purple matches so she can try to double double cross you.

Recommended Boosts:

• +2 B/P AP. This puts you 2 matches from going invisibile, and 2 more from doing it again if you need to.
• +50% B/P damage. These are your two strongest colors and this is going to be a LONG fight won on match damage - might as well speed it up.
• +125% crit damage. When else are you going to use these? Any other damage boost would work just as well here.
  
  Low level/cover characters that have completed this challenge:
  Level 70, 0/1/0 by Cousin Simpson

Cyclops (Classic) vs. IMHB

This is when I fell in love with Cyke. I whaled IMHB when he came out mostly because I thought his scene in the Avengers movie was sweet as hell, but I also recognized his potential to be pretty OP early on. Taking out my beloved IMHB with a 152 4/2/1 Cyke made me realize his potential. I've since champed him and use him every day - really a great character.

Enemy Info:
HP: 17,810
Match damage: 83/74/65/13/12/11/ 43 / 3.5x
Abilities:
- Repulsor Punch, 9 AP - Uses all red AP doing 630 damage/AP
- Overdrive, 11 AP - Does 1541 damage to Iron Man, generates 9 red AP, creates 2 strength 354 strike tiles.
- Hulk Proof, 9 AP - Converts 7 green tiles to red, creates 3 strength 72 protect tiles

Main Strategy: Deny black above all else. Due to ability firing order he will always wait a turn after using Overdrive to hit you with the Repulsor Punch, but if you see him charging up, make sure your last move is a good one.

Tips:

• You only want him using black if he is under 1700 health as he will mostly kill himself.
• Try to forget about your yellow. You need to deny black/red/blue and don't really have time to be collecting yellow. If it happens - great, but don't make it a priority. You will probably want to hold your red until you have 10 TU, so you will need to collect some TU AP, and if you have 5 yellow available - go ahead and use it before you make a TU match for the bonus red AP.
• You have some small shake-up abilities in both red and blue, use them to your advantage. You should try to save your blue until you really need it to deny multiple red matches, but you can also use it as a shake up to pull some red tiles and start a cascade.
• If the green and red tiles are separated you can allow blue and then use your blue to steal the generated red tiles. His protect tiles are pretty annoying though, so really better to try and just deny blue.
• Don't be afraid to use your red early (before you have 10 TU AP). Again - removing just 1 tile is sometimes all it takes to create a match-5 opportunity. You have 17k health to get through, it's probably going to take more than 1 red anyway, and it's unlikely that you will manage to get 20-30 red and 20-30 TU all while trying to deny blue/black as well

Recommended Boosts:

• +2 R/Y AP - Puts you 1 yellow match from Uncanny Strategist, and 3 red matches from Combined forces
• + 2 B/P AP - Two matches from Called Shot.
• +50% R/Y damage - Probably won't be making many yellow matches, but it is one of your colors so this just makes the most sense.

Low level/cover characters that have completed this challenge (if you have a low level or unique color configuration and managed to finish either respond in here or PM me!):
Level 135, 4/1/1 by Henry Tilney

Invisible Woman (Classic) vs. Quicksilver note: characters have been reworked since this was written, strategies may have altered - stay tuned for updates as this crash approaches

This is one of my favorite DDQ4 battles, and after two times through IW is still my only 4* still at level 70. Let's face it, IW is terrible, and we don't want to have to spend any more ISO on here that we have to. Good news - if you have 1 yellow cover, you can complete this battle!

Enemy Info:
HP: 13,995
Match damage: 83/74/65/13/12/11/ 43 / 4.0x

Abilities:
- Idle Hands, 9 AP - Does 1404 damage, and swaps two tiles. Costs 1 AP less for each locked TU tile on the board.
- Supersonic, Passive - Locks a TU tile whenever anyone makes a blue match, if there are 4 locked TU tiles when a blue match is made does 3141 AoE damage (will hit you even when you are invisible.
- Fists of Fury, 8 AP - Does 3260 damage, creates 1 locked TU tile. Costs 1 AP less for each locked TU tile on the board.

Main strategy: Go invisible ASAP. Don't allow any blue matches with 4 locked tiles/force bubbles on TU tiles.
Tips:

• They changed QS's blue to only activate when TU tiles specifically are locked, so you can use your blue to lock some tiles early on if it helps you control the board, but just make sure you don't drop any force bubbles on TU tiles.
• You kinda try to deny black/green early, but if you get a board with some easy yellow matches on it, you can safely just take the 3 yellows, go invisible, and then focus on avoiding his blue.
• Don't be afraid of blue matches. You need the blue AP and if the match is going to be made it's better for you to grab the AP than QS.
• Chain your force bubbles. For most of us IW's green will eliminate fewer force bubbles than blue generates. So the only safe way to ensure that they all go away (you don't want to leave force bubbles on the board to make it easier for QS to use his blue) is to chain them all together or in groups of two. That way it doesn't matter which combination blow up, all are eliminated.
• Don't make TU matches. Leave the TU tiles on the board so that when blue matches create locked TU tiles they are more easily matched.
• If you are swimming in green AP, but have no blue, you can fire green back to back. Only do this if you have enough yellow to replace your invisibility tile as it could get removed.
• It's OK to have more than 4 locked tiles/force bubbles on the board, just don't let anyone match blue while they are out there. I've used my force bubbles to lock a battle-ending blue match in place until I could gather enough green AP to deal with it.

Recommended boosts:

• +50% G/B damage - I think this is hands down number 1. You deny QS two colors (pre-invisible) and then the green matches that you make to build AP do more damage
• +50% B/P damage - Like I said before, you can't be afraid of blue matches - you need the AP, make them hurt QS more than they hurt you.
• +50% Y/R damage - Really all damage could be used in place of this or even the last one, but I don't like to recommend using "all" boosts because they cost HP to replenish and if you run out it's not worth the HP to replenish.
• I DO NOT recommend any AP boosts here. This battle is typically very long, and you will build tons of AP as you go. It costs 9 yellow to go invisible so even a +2 to yellow puts you 3 matches from going invisible without a match-4. MAYBE you could go with a +2 yellow, +1 all, and all damage. That would probably result in the fewest attempts, but if you are all out of +all boosts you can still finish this one with the smaller damage boosts.

Personally I tried this one 3 times unboosted, and after losing the 3rd battle when QS had 600 health left I added G/B and B/P damage boosts and won within 2 more attempts.

Low level/cover characters that have completed this challenge (if you have a low level or unique color configuration and managed to finish either respond in here or PM me!):
Level 70, 1/0/0 by.....tons of people have finished this one having just 1 yellow cover, it takes some patience, and the battles are long - but it can be done.
Level 70, 3/4/2 by PeterGibbons316

The Thing (Classic) vs. Human Torch

Enemy Info:
HP: 13035
Match damage: 83/74/65/13/12/11/ 43 / 3.0x
Abilities:
- Fireball, 8 AP - 4207 Damage, destroys 2 red tiles
- Inferno, 10 AP - Makes 8 attack tiles in the center of the board that do 281 each, only overwrites basic color tiles
- Flame Jet, 5 AP - Creates a 1-turn CD that does 335 damage for every green AP each turn, reduces HT's green AP by 1 each turn as well


Main Strategy: Deny red, use green to mitigate black.

Tips:

• Don't get hit with a fireball. Seriously, HT's fireball is one of the strongest per AP moves in the game, so you will need to deny red harder than anything
• Use your stun to your advantage. If it isn't going to insta-kill him, save it until you need an extra turn to deny two matches, or set up a match-5 for yourself.
• HT's green is weak because the AI doesn't know how to use it, and typically after 1 turn it isn't doing anything. You will want to collect your own green, and deny green if he does get a Flame Jet CD out, but for the most part - not a threat.
• Inferno is scary if it lasts more than a couple turns. You can mitigate by avoiding matches in the middle of the board once he has 10 black. Save your green and use it to try to destroy any lingering attack tiles.

Recommended Boosts:

• +1 R/Y AP - puts you 3 matches from Clobberin Time. Alternatively +2 R/Y and +2 All gets you two matches away.
• +50% R/Y damage - You should be focusing on red which is your color anyway, so this just makes sense
• +50% B/G damage - I think damage here over AP because Yancy is 12 AP and an additional 2 doesn't do much for you. You will probably be denying black often enough to make this worthwhile.

Low level/cover characters that have completed this challenge (if you have a low level or unique color configuration and managed to finish either respond in here or PM me!):
Level 94, 1/1/2 by CT1888
Level 168 0/4/4 by Vhailorx

Carnage (Cletus Kasady) vs. Dr. Octopus

Enemy Info:
HP: 13995
Match damage: 83/74/65/13/12/11/ 43 / 3.0x
Abilities:
- Manipulation, 11 AP - Swaps 16 pairs of tiles, dealing 1296 for each attack, protect, strike tile
- Insult to Injury, Passive - Whenever Doc Ock matches your special tile he generates 2 strength 173 attack tiles
- Armed and Dangerous, 12 AP - 1881 damage, 2 turn stun, increases special tile by 232, steals 2 green AP (OUCH!)


Main Strategy: Don't have any black covers for your Carnage . Seriously, my first time through he was 5/0/1 and this was a breeze. If you do have black covers it gets a little trickier, but can still be won. Remember that your black only triggers when someone uses an ability - if you can deny green/blue you don't ever have to worry about the black abilities.

Tips:

• Focus primarily on green. Seems a little counter-intuitive since Manipulation can be pretty devastating, but it's only devastating if you have a bunch of special tiles out.....and you won't.
• Ideally you can horde your red AP and fire several scythes in a row after he uses his blue and then throw in a green to take advantage of the special tiles generated, but if you are pretty low level/don't have many red covers you might want to generate some attack tiles early to speed up the battle. If you do, you will obviously want to try to match away any enemy tiles generated, but also protect your own - if Doc Ock matches them he generates strike tiles that you don't want feeding the attack tiles he generated. I don't recommend this as a main strategy though because there just ends up being too much to try to control on the board (deny 2 colors, protect your tiles, match his tiles.....not realistic).
• Save your green to try to eliminate special tiles that are stuck in a corner or otherwise difficult to get rid of.

Recommended Boosts:

• +1 R/Y AP - puts you 2 matches from Scythes (although if you are saving red maybe +2 or +0 here). Alternatively +2 R/Y and +2 All gets you one match away.
• +2 G/B AP - 3 matches from Rules.
• +50% G/B damage - if you are playing conservatively match damage will have a pretty big impact. You should be constantly denying green, and will get additional benefit from black matches so G/B is the way to go here.

Low level/cover characters that have completed this challenge (if you have a low level or unique color configuration and managed to finish either respond in here or PM me!):
Level 94, 2/1/1 by Nutty Sakerton

Quake (Daisy Johnson) vs. Invisible Woman

COMING SOON!

Iron Fist (Danny Rand) vs ?????C4ge?????

COMING SOON!

Drax (the Destroyer) vs. Star Lord

COMING SOON!

Nick Fury (Director Of SHIELD) vs. Magneto

This one is easier than it seems, despite Magneto being regarded as one of the better 3*s and Fury as one of the lacking 4*s - he holds his own pretty well here.

Enemy Info:
HP: 13,995
Match damage: 83/74/65/13/12/11/ 43 / 3.5x
Abilities:
- Coercive Field, 9 AP - Converts 17 random tiles to protect tiles of strength 65.
- Polarizing Force, 8 AP - Destroys all TU tiles dealing 324 damage for each tile.
- Magnetized Projectiles, 10 AP - Swaps 7 pairs of blue/red tiles doing 884 damage per swap.

Main Strategy:Deny red, gather purple quicker than he gathers blue. Avoid his yellow if you can, as it is annoying and prolongs the fight.

Tips:

• Your yellow is garbage, and his is just annoying. It might make sense to prioritize purple over yellow if you have a decent number of purple covers. At 4 purple covers you will actually steal 9 blue AP from Magneto, so it can be used as a nice counter as well.
• Your Escape Plan strike tile is pretty massive and so that CD and strike tile should be protected.
• I think you might actually be able to go on the offensive in this one. If you can get Escape Plan off early and keep that strike tile out, keep matching blue, and keep TUs off the board you don't really have to deny much at all.
• Try to manipulate you trap tiles to get Mags to match them for you as they do twice as much damage when he matches one.

Recommended Boosts:

• +2 B/P AP - You really only need +1 to get you 3 matches from Demolition, but since you purple is so strong and you might not be able to make many purple matches the extra one to start with will probably help.
• +50% B/P Damage - Most of your matches should be blue, with some purple thrown in as well.
• +50% R/Y damage - This will cover all 4 colors you are matching. If you are going mostly offensive a TU damage boost would work really well here to - how often do you get to use those?!?!?

Low level/cover characters that have completed this challenge(if you have a low level or unique color configuration and managed to finish either respond in here or PM me!):
Level 106, 2/0/2 by mitchjewitz with 2+ all, 2+ b/p, 2+ r/y
Level 112, 3/4/3 by PeterGibbons316
Level 115, 3/2/5 by Henry Tilney by allowing blue when it was going to be stolen by Fury's CD

Venom (Eddie Brock) vs. Carnage

It's everyone's favorite person to fight against! Thematically it works, and he is at least undercovered (looks like 3/3/4)....

Enemy Info:
HP: 15, 641
Match damage: 83/74/65/13/12/11/ 43 / 3.0x
Abilities:
- Symbiote Scythes, 7 AP - Hits for 2110 damage.
- Alien Instincts, Passive - Whenever an ability is used creates 2 strength 103 attack tiles for Carnage and 2 strength 90 attack tiles for you.
- Carnage Rules, 11 AP - Destroys 12 random tiles dealing 559 for each special tile destroyed.

Main Strategy: Deny red, deny/collect green. Save everything until the end and fire together.

Tips:

• He is undercovered so you can take a hit or two from his red, but you still need to deny as hard as you can. At only 7 red AP it doesn't take much to get hit by it.
• Don't think that you need to allow him to use his red/green to make your green cheaper. You can accomplish the same thing with your own yellow (which will create 2 protect tiles for Carnage), and subsequent greens (each will give him 2 additional attack tiles when his Alien Instincts kick in.
• There is no reason to try and do damage early. He has no heal, and no AP steal - so hold your yellow until late to avoid giving him protect tiles.
• Even though his attack tiles reduce the cost of your green, it's still in your best interest to get them off the board - especially if he is getting close to 11 green AP of his own.

Recommended Boosts:

• +50% G/B Damage - This felt more important than the AP boosts to me for some reason.
• +2 G/B AP - I suppose every green AP you can get helps, but since the cost drops with special tiles on the board it's hard to get a feel for how much you will need.
• +50% R/Y Damage - Maybe yellow AP would help here instead, or a +all AP to get you more green would probably be good, but this will round out the damage for most of your matches.

Low level/cover characters that have completed this challenge(if you have a low level or unique color configuration and managed to finish either respond in here or PM me!):
Level 100, 3/2/2 by CT1888 +100% all, +50% r/y +2all
Level 111, 2/2/1 by 3noiv 30% all, 50% r/y, 50% g/b boosts
Level 111, 1/2/2 by AsylumTKJ y/r dmg, b/g dmg and all dmg

Thor (Goddess of Thunder) vs. Rags

I found this battle to be surprisingly challenging and after numerous failed attempts I actually took my 4/4/1 Thor to level 166 to knock this one out. Really illustrated to me just how hard they hit her with the nerf bat from the XFW/4Thor days.

Main strategy: Deny red/green, try to kill in a single turn. Rags blue will heal, so you can allow him blue while at full health and then nuke him once you have enough AP.

Tips:

• Run the numbers when you start on how much red/yellow AP you need with what number of charged tiles on the board to finish him off in 1 turn, and then save.
• Yellow should be low priority since it won't ever generate any charged tiles.
• Use your charged tiles as a source of additional damage for Smite, not as an AP source.
• Use your blue sparingly. The stun is powerful if you need it to prevent Rags from making multiple matches, or using an ability. You want to be in a position to be able to fire your red before Rags recovers from the stun from your blue.
• You can allow blue, but make sure you are managing the charged green tiles generated.

Recommended Boosts:

• +2 R/Y AP, this battle will largely be decided by how quickly you can fire multiple Smites, the more red AP you start with the better. Normally I wouldn't recommend the 2nd red AP since 3 matches with +1 will grant enough AP for Smite, but you will likely need to fire it at least twice to win, so more is still better here.
• +2 B/P AP, this honestly won't help much since you are still 3 blue matches away from a Power Surge, but there really isn't much better (besides a +2 all AP here)
• +50% R/Y damage, again - not really much help. If you are denying red, green, and blue - preventing the heal from your matching - then this could help. But realistically your match damage is likely to get healed and you are going to win by taking most of his health toward the end of the battle.

Low level/cover characters that have completed this challenge (if you have a low level or unique color configuration and managed to finish either respond in here or PM me!):
Level 131, 2/1/3 by SirLanik

Gwenpool (Gwen Poole) vs. ?????

COMING EVENTUALLY SOMETIME MAYBE

Spider-Gwen (Gwen Stacy) vs. Miles

You share all colors so denial isn't too bad, but Miles has some pretty strong abilities that are pretty cheap, and invisible opponents are never fun to deal with.....

Enemy Info:
HP: 13,995
Match damage: 83/74/65/13/12/11/ 43 / 4.0x
Abilities:
- Hide & Seek, 7 AP - Miles goes invisibile and this ability becomes Surprise! (8 purple AP to deal quite a bit of damage to you)
- Power & Responsibility, 8 AP - Creates 4 web tiles. Passive - Whenever a match with a web tile is made Miles gains 1 red, purple, yellow AP.
- Venom Blast, 6 AP - 3,266 damage and stuns you for 1 turn.

Main Strategy:Deny red, deny purple, encourage yellow late.

Tips:

• The ideal path to victory is to get 7 (or 8) web tiles out and have 12 (or 18) red AP on hand so you can hit him with your Cherry Bomb 2 (or 3) times for half the AP cost. The only reason to use red sooner is if there are a bunch of web tiles out that are likely to be matched away soon.
• You still have to deny yellow because while anyone can use web tiles, only Miles gets AP when you match them.
• I'm not 100% on this, but I think that web tiles don't generate more than 1 AP per turn, and I also think that they have to be matched (i.e. web tiles eliminated with cascades or other match-4s don't trigger Miles passive).
• Remember that his purple works a little differently from most invisibility abilities. Once he goes invisible you can match away the tile, but his next purple move will be Surprise! which packs a punch.
• Use your purple wisely, as it does a number of things that may or not be favorable at the time. Use purple for a stun when you can't make a critical denial. Use it for a web tile if you need an extra one to reduce your red cost. But be careful adding web tiles to the board that could ultimately end up giving Miles more AP.
• You have no allies so your yellow won't heal you.

Recommended Boosts:

• +2 R/Y AP - Your red is your only true weapon and since the cost fluctuates you will want as much of a headstart as you can get, use +all AP too if you are struggling.
• +50% R/Y Damage - You'll be denying red pretty hard and you share all colors so this will help a lot.
• +50% B/P Damage - Purple denial should be strong as well so this will help speed things up, or +all AP here.

Low level/cover characters that have completed this challenge(if you have a low level or unique color configuration and managed to finish either respond in here or PM me!):
Level 90, 0/2/1 by CT1888 with +2r/y, +50%r/y, +100%all
Level 100, 1/2/2 by ttjiong with r/y AP boost, r/y dmg boost, and rainbow dmg boost (all max)
Level 100, 3/3/2 by PeterGibbons316 - First try with +2 R/Y, +50% R/Y boosts.
Level 105, 1/5/2 by pabasa130 with +2 R/Y and +2 All boosts.
Level 131, 1/3/2 by stochasticism

Kate Bishop (Hawkeye) vs. Old Man Logan

COMING SOON!

Iron Man (Hulkbuster) vs. Incredible Hulk

This one is D3 throwing us a bone. Hulkbuster was designed specifically to defeat The Hulk, so here is your legendary battle in all it's glory!
Enemy Info:
HP: 18,523
Match damage: 83/74/65/13/12/11/ 43 / 3.0x
Abilities:
- Thunderous Clap, 10 AP - Does 1489 damage and destroys 3 tiles plus 1 for every 2 green AP.
- Smash, 14 AP - Does 3625 damage, drains 10 green AP from Hulk, does 433 damage for every green AP remaining, if more than 10 green AP does 30% damage to Hulk.
- Anger, Passive - When damaged for more than 926, creates a 1 turn black CD that converts 5 basic tile to green, damages him for 108, you for 216

Main strategy: Collect/Deny Red. Don't make him angry! Seriously, be careful with your Overdrive - if your strike tiles are getting him angry with every match the board will quickly fill with green tiles and it won't be pretty.

Tips:

• Check your overdrive strike tile damage and determine whether or not you can safely make matches with them out without getting him angry. If you can, do it - this will really speed up the match. If not, save your overdrive until you can finish him off.
• Avoid getting the clap. The damage hurts, but these DDQ4 battles are about managing the board, making shake-up abilities more powerful than usual. Maintain your advantage by keeping control of the board.
• The defense tiles are nice, but saving your blue until there are more green matches than you can deal with might be preferred.
• Black is actually low priority, and leaving black tiles on the board so that Anger tiles can be easily matched after a Repulsor Punch is helpful.
• Wait to fire your red. Nothing is gained by getting him angry at half health if you can wait and kill him in one shot. You've got 18k health to get through, don't take unnecessary damage by trying to rush it.
• Fire your red! Lolwut? If your HB doesn't do a ton of damage with red you are going to have to fire it more than once anyway, go ahead and fire it off when the board is dry of green and/or full of black. That way you can potentially match his Anger tile, or if it does resolve it is less likely to generate cascades if there are very few green tiles on the board.

Recommended Boosts:

• +2 G/B AP. Overdrive costs 11 AP, so starting with 2 black means you only need 3 black matches to fire your overdrive.
• +2 R/Y AP. Red AP won't go to waste.
• +50% R/Y damage. G/B would probably work well here too, but I think you'll be making more red matches than anything.
• Be careful stacking +all damage boosts as you don't want to inadvertently trigger his Anger, a little math goes a long way here and can save some frustrating trial and error.

My IMHB is maxed, so this one was really easy for me. If others that have struggled and won have better tips let me know and I'll add them.

Low level/cover characters that have completed this challenge (if you have a low level or unique color configuration and managed to finish either respond in here or PM me!):
Level 111, 2/1/2 by D-Train514
Level 131, 3/2/1 by Azoth658

Medusa (Inhuman Queen) vs. ?????

COMING SOON!

Riri Williams (Ironheart) vs. ?????

COMING SOON!

War Machine (James Rhodes) vs. ?????

How is it possible that we haven't had this one yet???

Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) vs. ?????

COMING SOON!

Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) vs. ?????

COMING SOON!

Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze) vs. Galactus

Everyone freaked out about this at first because Ghost Rider was so new, and everyone still remembered how game-breakingly OP Galactus V 1.0 was. As it turns out Ghost Rider is incredibly proficient 1 v 1 so long as you have a couple black covers. (I think I recall seeing 0/0/2 Ghost Riders winning this one), and just recently had a 2/2/0 - so it can be won without black as well!!!

Enemy Info:
HP: 21,953
Match damage: 64/64/64/64/64/64/ 64 / 3.0x
Abilities:
- Great Machines, Passive - Creates a 3 turn CD tile that does 1029 damage and generates 2 cosmic tiles
- Devourer of Worlds, Passive - Destroys all cosmic tiles, and generates 1 AP in each color for each tile destroyed
- Cosmic Wrath, 28 AP - You lose.

Main Strategy: Collect black AP so that you can use Penance Stare.

Tips:

• Have at least 2 black covers - 3+ preferred.
• That's pretty much it. You can try to match away CD and cosmic tiles if you want, maybe fire off a red or green. But ultimately you just need to collect as much black as you can, and then fire it as many times as you can before he kills you with Cosmic Wrath.
• Wait until you know you will kill him before using your Penance Stare.

Recommended Boosts:

• +2 G/B AP - Probably won't help much, but if you manage a match-4/5 it could help.
• +50% G/B Damage - Match damage boost might help.
• +2 R/Y AP - In case you want to use your Hellfire ability.

Low level/cover characters that have completed this challenge (if you have a low level or unique color configuration and managed to finish either respond in here or PM me!):
Level 86, 2/2/0 by rastafari7 .... with no boosts! INCREDIBLE!!!
Level 90, 0/3/2 by Natsufan01
Level 110, 1/2/4 by Vhailorx
Level 115, 1/1/3 by PeterGibbons316

Star Lord (Legendary Outlaw) vs. Gamora note: characters have been reworked since this was written, strategies may have altered - stay tuned for updates as this crash approaches

This is one of the toughest matchups in DDQ4. Star-Lord is primarily a support character with abilities that are better suited for fighting with a full team against a full team. Gamora is largely the opposite. She excels when she is the only character left on her team and fights well against single characters and enemy teams alike. So you are already at a pretty big disadvantage from the start.

Main strategy:Deny red. String your attacks, pay close attention to friendly and enemy AP alike. Deny black/green.

Tips:

• Use your abilities together and multiple times if possible. Your yellow and red both stack so if you can manage to get a couple yellow tiles on the board you can fire your red a lot more times with the same amount of AP. Then it's just a matter of protecting the CD tiles.
• You want to try to save your red for as long as you can, but if Gamora starts collecting enough AP to start doing some damage you will want to think about cashing in your red early to increase the cost to her. Careful though, once you begin this process it's tough to reverse without just killing her.
• You really, really, really don't want her to get her black off. Because of how it works it will necessarily generate a ton of strike tiles against you, and they can be hard to deal with efficiently.

Recommended Boosts:

• +2 R/Y AP. This won't ever go to waste, and will make it easier to get the ball rolling sooner
• +50% R/Y - Red will likely be your primary color, so boosting red should help.
• Just about anything else here works

Low level/cover characters that have completed this challenge (if you have a low level or unique color configuration and managed to finish either respond in here or PM me!):
Level 120, 4/3/3 by amusingfo01
Level 168, 5/0/2 by Vhailorx

Moon Knight (Marc Spector) vs. X-23

COMING SOON!

Mordo (Master of the Mystic Arts) vs. ?????

COMING SOON!

The Punisher (MAX) vs. Carol Danvers

COMING SOON!

Blade (Modern) vs. ?????

COMING SOON!

Luke Cage (Power Man) vs. ?????

COMING SOON!

Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards) vs. Doom note: characters have been reworked since this was written, strategies may have altered - stay tuned for updates as this crash approaches

This is one of (if not) the hardest DDQ4 battles out there. Mainly because Mr. F is universally agreed to be garbage even as a support character, which is especially weak for a 1v1 battle. And to make matter worse, Doom (while not considered a top tier 3*) is a self-feeding beast that really excels in long drawn out battles (as any 1v1 with a support character is guaranteed to be). I had to take my Mr. F to 166 to finish this one the first time around, and I'm still bitter about having a 166 on my roster that I only use when forced to.

Enemy Info:
HP:

Fightmastermpq

Reserved for future updates.

Fightmastermpq

Reserved for future updates.

Fightmastermpq

Please PM me with any mistakes that need corrected, and if you have any success stories as we move through these crashes - write about it in here, and help me out by sending me a PM with a link to your post and what level/build you had. Thanks!

Quebbster

Fightmastermpq wrote:

I believe the running theory is that a character must be a PvE essential twice before it gets a crash. So here is a list of characters that haven't yet met that requirement.....

:venom: Venom (Agent Venom) vs. ?????
Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) vs. ?????
Gwenpool (Gwen Poole) vs. ?????
Medusa (Inhuman Queen) vs. ?????
Riri Williams (Ironheart) vs. ?????
War Machine (James Rhodes) vs. ?????
Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) vs. ?????
Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) vs. ?????
Blade (Modern) vs. ?????
Luke Cage (Power Man) vs. ?????
Drax (the Destroyer) vs. ?????

This is not a theory, it is how Brigby told us it worked:

Brigby wrote:

I spoke with the developers, and the reason War Machine, Wasp, and Spider-Woman were skipped is because of the following line listed in the Deadpool's Daily Quest: Crash Of The Titans Adjustments article:

There are two special cases where this is not true: 1) The character is being added to the order before players have enough time to develop the character and 2) special events like the anniversary (Devil Dino) and Duck Season (Howard the Duck).

In this case, War Machine (James Rhodes), Wasp (Janet Van Dyne), and Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) have not been featured at least twice in a Story Event, and that's why they decided to go with Ghost Rider instead.

Hope this helps!

As it happens War Machine, Wasp and Spider-woman have all been awarded in PvE recently (or right now in Spider-woman's case), so they should be good to go next time. Drax already had his first Crash, too.

Also, my inner academic cringes a bit at all the uncredited copy/paste even though I appreciate the work to update this. Do you think you could credit PeterGibbons where you use his texts?

Dayv

Applying glue.

cubnad

As a player whos staring to get more and more 4 clash ready this is really helpful

Fightmastermpq

Quebbster wrote:

This is not a theory, it is how Brigby told us it worked:
As it happens War Machine, Wasp and Spider-woman have all been awarded in PvE recently (or right now in Spider-woman's case), so they should be good to go next time. Drax already had his first Crash, too.

Thanks! I updated with that info, and cleared up the wording. Was just trying to show which characters haven't had a crash yet and have unknown opponents.

Quebbster wrote:

Also, my inner academic cringes a bit at all the uncredited copy/paste even though I appreciate the work to update this. Do you think you could credit PeterGibbons where you use his texts?

He's fine with it. The original thread is linked and still intact as well.

JohnnyBlood

Ant Man's purple makes attack tiles, not strike tiles and thus the Ants! Ants! Ants! ability doesn't benefit from those. However, his attack tiles could benefit from resolved Ants! Ants! Ants! tiles, which create strike tiles.

Fightmastermpq

BlackBoltRocks wrote:

Some of the tips need updating. For example, the Miles vs Starlord crash, you've provided stats for pre-buff Starlord. So there might need to be a slight change in strategy. I'm sure a 1/0/0 Miles still a realistic chance at winning, for example, but now you have to be aware that using Hide and Seek (and Surprise, although if Miles IS at 1/0/0 you'll only use Surprise when you can down Pete with it) will set off Pete's Everyone with Me, and if that is at 5 covers it will lower his Sleight of Hand to 8AP and also gain 3 random AP, unless you match the tile away. And if Pete does get his Sleight of Hand tiles out, at 5 covers there'll be 3 of them and they may be on colours that you wouldn't normally chase (i.e. green, blue, black)

Stuff like that.

Thanks, I made a note to update these. What other characters have been reworked? IW, Miles, Star-Lord, Mr. F......any others?

kyo28

Very helpful guide, just gave a thumbs up

iron-n-wine

Fightmaster, you can add Cho to the list of characters that have had a rework

stochasticism

Fightmaster, thanks for continuing this thread. It's a great resource. One small nit though. The order of Crashes is slightly incorrect. Drax should be between Quake and Nick Fury as per the initial announcement. Also, JG should be moved down two spots.

Fightmastermpq

iron-n-wine wrote:

Fightmaster, you can add Cho to the list of characters that have had a rework

Got it, thanks!

stochasticism wrote:

Fightmaster, thanks for continuing this thread. It's a great resource. One small nit though. The order of Crashes is slightly incorrect. Drax should be between Quake and Nick Fury as per the initial announcement. Also, JG should be moved down two spots.

Awesome, thanks! I copied the list from some other thread and didn't even notice the order was a little off. Thanks for helping me keep things accurate!

ElMac

Sorry can't PM yet.

Won today's matchup with a 2/0/0 + 2 P/G , +50% P/G dmg and +100% all dmg

Won in first try - simply go invisible, and kept matching purple & yellow.
Her purple hit me twice and revealed me but was able to go invisible immediately on the next turn.

Fairly easy compared to some other fights...

Fightmastermpq

Sorry team, I'm out of the country on business this week and didn't give this Crash the attention it deserves. I don't think the strategy really changes all that much, and Chulk is actually kinda good now so this should be one of the easier ones.

Good luck!

Teskal

Fightmastermpq wrote:

[*]Be mindful of what matches the enemy will make - it will always take a match-5 line, then match-4 over anything else.

I always thought the AI can't see a match-5. Especially if it is not a straight one, I had it often that the AI took another match-4 if it was better for the enemy, but I'm not sure if it ever happend with a straight match-5 line.
(And the AI could work different for DDQ4!)

Fightmastermpq

Teskal wrote:

Fightmastermpq wrote:

[*]Be mindful of what matches the enemy will make - it will always take a match-5 line, then match-4 over anything else.

I always thought the AI can't see a match-5. Especially if it is not a straight one, I had it often that the AI took another match-4 if it was better for the enemy, but I'm not sure if it ever happend with a straight match-5 line.
(And the AI could work different for DDQ4!)

It won't make a T or L-shaped match-5, but it will always take the match-5 in a line.

geno685

I just beat Elektra's clash with her at lvl 115 (1/2/3), s that special or no? also i used NO boosts

Fightmastermpq

Good one today - the first ever crash. I remember how tough this was my first time through even with a max covered XFW, but today I had a quick one by collecting black and hitting him with a surgical strike after he fired his yellow with a board FULL of red tiles....12k damage in one shot.

stochasticism

Fightmastermpq wrote:

Good one today - the first ever crash. I remember how tough this was my first time through even with a max covered XFW, but today I had a quick one by collecting black and hitting him with a surgical strike after he fired his yellow with a board FULL of red tiles....12k damage in one shot.

This is actually the first time I've ever beaten this crash. All prior attempts my xfw was L131 and just couldn't get it done. I finally champed him right before his last scheduled crash and then they updated the schedule, pushing him out 6 months. It felt really good unloading all that past frustration in one final surgical strike to finally beat that smug looking FlandersClops.

And with that a perfect crash cycle.