Questions after about 3 weeks of playing

Tanglefoot

1. How are moves executed in PVE? When it is my turn, I can move 1 gem. When it is the enemy’s turn I have counted as many as 9 separate tile moves without 4+ tile matches. I don’t understand why I get 1 move and the enemy gets 9.

2. What is the “flashing tokens” when it is your turn supposed to mean? It appears it is “the move the enemy wants you to make which is most advantageous to the enemy”. There is 0% chance it is “YOUR best available move”. Just today it flashed for me to make a 3 purple match, that would result in no visible cascades, while there was a 5 tile match in my most valuable color with high potential for cascading - I did the 5 tile match and got like 4 cascades, overfilling every single one of my colors. So, why did the game flash the 3 purple match at me - is it a deliberate feint? Is it “what the enemy WANTS you do do?”  Like the most useless move available? 

3. if I have a limited roster (29 slots) which is about 50% tier 2, 45% tier 3, and 5% tiers 1 and 4, am I better off entering events at an SCL2 or SCL3 to where I can finish the event in the top 10-15, and help champion and maximize my tier 2s, or enter events at like SCL 4 where I have no chance to complete, might finish in the top 200 with some luck, but might get more 3 and 4 star covers, or SCL5 where I will not win more than 3  matches in the harder missions and probably not finish in the top 50. BTW, my roster is FULL and if do not have enough hero points to buy a new spot yet.

4. I don’t understand how the gem layout is built and managed. I lost a PVE match today against a team like 40 levels lower than me. My characters covered blue, red, green, purple, and yellow. In the entire match, there was never a match available in any of my colors - only black and silver, and I never got a single cascade. Meanwhile, the enemy team would make a match, and would regularly get 5+ cascades. I ended the game with exactly 0 gems gathered in MY colors, 30 blacks, and 20+ silvers. This seems to happen quite a bit. Is it just **** luck or does the game always short you on your most important colors?

5. Are there a lot of enemy PVE characters who have the ability to change a tile color? Many times, after my turn, I see a tile change color, then make a 3, 4, or 5 tile match where there was no match available when it was my turn. It feels really frustrating when I am making a match in a color which none of my characters use, then watch a black tile turn red and let the player make a 4 gem patch, fully load a big power and wipe out my team. Mostly fighting mob characters and spies for the Hunt event, but it happened lots during the last event fighting the extradimesional brutes et al.

lots more questions, but reading guides and experimenting to see how many I can answer practically.

thanks for any responses.

Tanglefoot

Thank you for the detailed reply! 

DAZ0273

It is also worth noting that the Dev's changed Story mode a while back to limit the amount of cascades that can happen in 1 turn for the AI to favour the player. However this does not apply to Versus mode where cascades could potentially wipe an entire team if unlucky.

Also - whilst not an enemy you may face that often (maybe Simulator), Domino has a power that manipulates tiles drops in favour of black tiles, so the board will be skewed in such matches.

Another character who you might encounter in the early part of the game who can change tile colours is 2* Magneto but he is limited to changing tiles to blue, although his change is targeted and not random. Kamala Khan on the other hand can change tiles to green through her purple power but that is random (which probably suits the AI a bit more to be honest). 3* Black Widow can also change tiles to green.