Baldy vs. Red Menace

qandols

I have not yet mastered this. I gave up after two invisibility tiles and shadow step after step. I could not make a dent in her. And only one match 5. And that took  nearly 10 minutes. Will try again though. A really tough fight.

froggerjohn

Ditto for my 1/1/1. At first, I was able to gather enough purple to replace invisibility, but Ballet of Death makes that harder once those are up. After 15 minutes, I had her down to 500 and an invisibility in a good spot. But a lucky AI cascade spawned a match-4 that took it out, and with no purple, was wiped out immediately thereafter.

Next time, I'll throw some more iso into my Sharon Carter and bring damage boosts.

Another option would be a support that fortified specials, to protect the invisibility, but it's already a major slog so I can't imagine making that even longer.

Persephone

I tried once with my lvl 152 4/2/1 and failed.  I added +2 blue and purple, plus 50% damage for critical tiles and 50% damage for blue & purple.  
I noticed the board was light on purple, though I was able to get enough AP to fire off invisibility.  However, the way the gems dropped, Electra removed my invisible tile and I didn't have enough purple to fire it off again.  Plus, there were no +5 moves to make to really get her. 
I did match as much black as possible which delayed her going into shadow step mode.  Eventually, though, she got my Prof X.  
I'll try again later.  But, I concur that this one's tough.  

froggerjohn

Ok, using a Fortify support is definitely not recommended. What happens, is that Elektra is dropping strike tiles, so those end up getting targeted instead of the Invisibility. So I still lost it.

Worse, the lack of damage was even more pronounced than I expected. 20 minutes into the fight, she was still >10k.

I'll try again after the 2h cool-down, so I can go back to my Sharon Carter support.

One of the keys is going to be figuring out how to get her out of perma-Shadow Step for the end game. It's probably beneficial initially to deny red and black, to get as much early damage in as possible, but once she has her red rolling, it's useless (and in fact, counter-productive) to collect those because she steals them. If your red/black are zero, there's nothing to steal. So at some point in the match, you definitely should avoid picking those colors up.

TPF Alexis

First try, with Chuck at 5/5/3 Lvl210, there wasn't enough purple on the board, and the one time I did get an Invisibility tile out, Elektra immediately cascaded into a match-4 that took it out.

Second try, I dumped in all the ISO I had, bringing him up to 259*, and there was enough purple that I was able to stay ahead of Ballet of Death and replace my Invisibility tile twice. Also meant that Elektra fired Double-Double Cross a bunch, so pretty soon there were some monster Strikes on both sides, and it basically came down to whether she was going to take out my Invisibility tile or run out of Shadow Step traps first. Fortunately, my Invisibility tile was down in a corner, and I got one of those ridiculous cascades that just won't stop, which cleared out all her traps and then a couple more of the matches from it dropped her.

Token was a Ghost champ level.

This is a weird Crash. Professor X is one of the most Support-oriented Characters in the game, so he doesn't do well on his own. It would take forever and a day against any Character who isn't giving him Special tiles to buff, and it takes a long time anyhow. Also, it's one of the ones that's possible with even just a single cover, but potentially very difficult even for a champed Professor X.

*He has more saved covers than anyone else on my Roster, so he's been on my list to champ for a while anyhow.

froggerjohn

Ah, that must be a huge difference with tile-buffing. That requires at least level 2 of his purple power, so I don't have that.

Starting to realize I was extremely lucky to get within 500 points of a win my first try.

There's zero margin for error in this one. A low-level ProfX can't survive even a single move once things get started. And it's really hard to maintain 7 purple, so victory requires a well-located invis tile, and great care to avoid situations that can lead to its destruction. (And that's super challenging to maintain for the 20-30 minutes the match requires).

furbear00000

I would recommend to anyone to just keep restarting until you get a couple match 5s from the start. If you don’t win immediately, you won’t win at all. 

froggerjohn

Match-5s don't help at low covers. Only 1000 points each, which won't make a dent. But boards with minimal red/black would sure help.

If you avoid collecting red/black mid-game, it avoids the permanent Shadow Step condition, so you'll be able to get the hits in. (I suspect you don't want to collect black even from the start. Or at least not very much of it). The problem for me with 1/1/1, is that I can't do enough damage in those windows. But If you have at least 2 in the purple, you can buff the strikes she gives you, and that should be enough.

Don't be too eager to fire the invisibility right away. Damage is minimal in the beginning, so wait until the purple tiles on the board are in a favorable position to get a good spawn location that can survive for awhile.

Once you get a good invisibility position, defend it.
- don't run out of moves, so the board has to shuffle
- be aware of what is potentially dangerous, and avoid dropping tiles into those scenarios
(other purples near your invis, or combos that could lead to match-4s in the same row/column)

Almost every attempt, I've been able to sustain play for 15 minutes. I got within 500 points once, and low thousands multiple times. All of those are winnable matches with buffed strikes.

Persephone

I won on fourth try.  I decided to switch boosts to 50% of each dual AP color.  I collected as much purple as possible, ignoring all red and black matches.  That's right, I never made a single match in red or black. 
I was lucky and was able to stay invisible early and continued it because I favored purple.  By matching blue and yellow, I strengthened my purple strike tiles.  When she converted them, I matched them as quickly as possible.  
I paid attention to all her shadow steps.  When she was between firing that power, I was able to make a match 5 and knocked her down quite a bit.  
It took a good 15 minutes but I won.  
LT gave me a green cover for Je4n Grey.  

PuceMoose

Second try for my level 275 Prof X. On the first try I forgot to respec him to 5/3/5, and died a quick death after she matched away my invisibility tile.

On my second try I set the Prof to 5/5/3, and equipped my level 126 Destroyer gun, for the fortify + extra purple damage. It was still a rather ridiculous fight - I spent turn after turn buffing my strike tiles that Elektra gave me, only to not be able to do any damage because of Shadow Step. By the time I finally managed to get some damage through, my strike tiles totaled 5,000+ additional damage, so all it took was one match.

I never managed a single match-five in either attempt.

My reward was a 4Clops champ level.

BigSoftieFF

2nd try for my 5/5/3 lvl 150 X. Honestly not sure what happened, I was invisible and cascaded into a bunch of match 5’s that powered up the strikes she dropped to really high levels. Two standard matches later and it was over.

froggerjohn

Finally got her with my 1/1/1 after about 8 tries.
5* level 150 Sharon Carter support
+2 purple AP
+50% damage boosts for r/y and b/p

Avoided black from the beginning, and prioritized purple, red, blue, yellow.
Waited for a favorable board layout to fire Blind Spot, and got a good location.
Tried to make sure every match created a new match (to prevent a stale board, and keep move options as open as possible).
Counted Shadow Steps so I knew when to set up and make matches in my best damage colors.

Token for the post-Loki hoard.

jamesh

I ended up with a pretty easy match for my level 282 Prof X.  Elektra didn't manage to fire off any of her powers, and I lucked into three match 5's over the course of the match.  I never went invisible, but didn't end up needing to.

qandols

Finally after six attempts I got a supercascade after the first match. Three head wobbles later and she was down. Board condition is essential for this to work. LT was a Ghost rider champ level.

Jormagund

Won my first ever crash of the titans with a one cover Prof X in purple.  Had a few goes not expecting to win but it was fun to see how long I could last.  Then got lucky and matched all of her trap tiles away when she'd given me several strike tiles.  Got her down to about two thousand health and she got her red and black going again; she also had three or four moves when she could have matched my invisibility tile but chose an adjacent purple on all but one and that time I still had purple from previously clearing her Dance of Death trap tiles.

Finally got a lucky cascade wiping out both sets of traps again then she left me a match five in yellow with the crit tile falling on two blue tiles and two team-up tiles.  Wiped out her last 800 health or so in one go.

Was on 216 health for over half an hour and was so lucky the board didn't shake more often and the match fours were always in the wrong column/row for the invisibility tile.  Don't think I'll be so lucky ever again, or back here for a while in general.  I'm still in three star land with my best four star only having six covers.  Normally match damage alone finishes me but in this case the invisibility power does make it possible.

DAZ0273

For everybody frustrated, keep at it. If you have that purple cover you have a chance. The first time I attempted this I had Prof with 2 covers in purple and that was it. I got to within Elektra having 96 health match damaging her over a painful 20 minutes and didn't notice that a cascade took out my invisibility tile and all of a sudden the next turn her Ballet of Death which had been out killed me (I had been ignoring it previously). That is the closest in 3+ years of playing this game that I have come to wanting to quit. However, I did finally manage to win it.

Well done to all that are attempting this first time and those who have won - it is horrible but you can do it with the power of purple!!!

thechairman

Champed Charles took 4 tries with no supports. Eventually got out invisibility before her Shadows/Ballet started and that's all it took.

I will echo the keep trying sentiment even with 1 purple, you can do it!

I think I got a black Loki cover.

Jaedenkaal

thechairman said:

Champed Charles took 4 tries with no supports. Eventually got out invisibility before her Shadows/Ballet started and that's all it took.

I will echo the keep trying sentiment even with 1 purple, you can do it!

I think I got a black Loki cover.

Yeah mine took about that many tries. Frustratingly dependent on the amount of Purple on the board, and where.

Quebbster

I tend to lament the lack of any special tiles when Professor X is fighting solo since he has nothing to buff, thus dragging the fight out. Then it occured to me that I could assign him a support that creates special tiles.

Alas, it seems I have no support to assign to him that creates attack or strike tiles, and I don't have a strong need for protect tiles.

Jaedenkaal

Quebbster said:

I tend to lament the lack of any special tiles when Professor X is fighting solo since he has nothing to buff, thus dragging the fight out. Then it occured to me that I could assign him a support that creates special tiles.

Alas, it seems I have no support to assign to him that creates attack or strike tiles, and I don't have a strong need for protect tiles.

If you let her get 7 Purple, Elektra will make a few Strike tiles for you.

Quebbster

Jaedenkaal said:

Quebbster said:

I tend to lament the lack of any special tiles when Professor X is fighting solo since he has nothing to buff, thus dragging the fight out. Then it occured to me that I could assign him a support that creates special tiles.

Alas, it seems I have no support to assign to him that creates attack or strike tiles, and I don't have a strong need for protect tiles.

If you let her get 7 Purple, Elektra will make a few Strike tiles for you.

I am aware of this. Would be nice if there was a faster way. It was a lot more fun fighting Carnage, though I suppose that made the fight too easy.