Frequently Asked Gameplay Questions

Unknown

Gameplay Questions
Q: How do I get Iso-8 and Hero Points?
A: You can get Iso-8 and Hero Points by completing missions, participating in Versus Tournaments, and purchasing them through our store. You can purchase currency by clicking on the gold + icon on the top right of the screen in the Comic Store, Training Menu, and Collection Menu.

Q: I love the game but some missions are too hard! What should I do?
A: Have you tried replaying some of your previous missions? Every mission has multiple rewards so try going back to get some extra rewards in order to level up and recruit more characters.

Q: What’s the difference between the Prologue and Featured tab?
A: The Prologue tabs are missions and Versus Tournament events that you can access at any time. The Featured tab has missions and Versus Tournaments that are only available for a limited time so make sure you jump in those missions before they go away!

Q: Why are my characters swapping around as I do my attack?
A: In Marvel Puzzle Quest, you’re controlling a team of heroes. If you happen to chain multiple combinations, the character with the highest attack rate of that color will make that attack. So if you happen to chain three different colors, you may have three characters come up to the front to make the attack.

Q: How do I direct enemies to attack a particular character in battle?
A: When you make a match, the first character that you attack with will be the person in the front line taking hits for that turn. You can tell which character has the highest attack value in that color by the different symbols inside the gem.

Q: How do you find out the power costs to fire an ability?
A: Just tap on the gem color for that ability. The number below the ability symbol is how many of that color AP it costs to activate the ability. Outside of gameplay, you can go to the Comic Collection Screen, pick the character for which you want to check the ability, and scroll the page by clicking on the arrow sign to the right till you get to the ability description. The power cost for that ability should be listed on this screen.

Q: Why aren’t match fours giving me an extra turn?
A: The game is designed to be a little more faster paced than the original Puzzle Quest. To help this, four-of-a-kinds were redesigned to clear rows and columns and deal more damage instead of essentially causing the opponents to lose turns. In Marvel Puzzle Quest: Dark Reign, Five-of-a-kinds function similarly as the original Puzzle Quest but in addition to creating a wild card critical tile, lining up five-of-a-kind in a straight line will clear out that row or column and do extra damage. As well, 5-of-a-kinds can be made by creating T and L shaped matches of 5 tiles.

Q: Why do some enemies make attacks while other enemies don’t?
A: In Marvel Puzzle Quest: Dark Reign, only Super Villains are able to make direct moves on the board. Other enemies like the Maggia will lay down countdown tiles in order to attack your team.

Q: Can you explain how training and leveling up works?
A: You can train and learn new skills for your characters by merging two of the same Comic Covers. Each Comic Cover has a different ability associated with it so training in this fashion will increase the level of a specific ability. Alternatively, you can increase the ability level by using currency. However, you character must learn the skill first by merging two similar comics.

In order to train abilities, go to the training menu and click the character for which you want to train the ability. Click on the ability you want to train and select the comic cover or the currency option to increase the ability.

Increasing the ability level also increases your maximum level. Once in the Training menu, select the character you want to level up and click on the Raise Level icon. Then hold down the Raise Level button to increase the character’s level. Note that Iso-8 will be required to level up your character.

Unknown

D3PADMIN wrote:

Q: How do I direct enemies to attack a particular character in battle?
A: When you make a match, the first character that you attack with will be the person in the front line taking hits for that turn. You can tell which character has the highest attack value in that color by the different symbols inside the gem.

Something we've been puzzling over for a while now and could use official word on -- what determines who gets the front line if you match environmental gems first?

If you have a guest on your team, the guest seems to get the nod. If not, what's the determining factor, particularly since many characters are tied in that value?

Unknown

DefectiveChicken wrote:

Something we've been puzzling over for a while now and could use official word on -- what determines who gets the front line if you match environmental gems first?

If you have a guest on your team, the guest seems to get the nod. If not, what's the determining factor, particularly since many characters are tied in that value?

This is my guess and it's been consistent so far. When there are ties, the order of your team will determine who will be the front-line when matching tiles. The center person is #1, the one on the left is #2, and the one on the right is #3.

The reason why guest characters seem to get the nod is because they are right in center (position #1).

Unknown

There's a stat for that, each character has different values for environmental tiles.. usually between 3-4

Unknown

Yea, the stat is what determines it but I think ties are broken down by position. Since most characters have a stat of 3 for env, ties are common.

Unknown

Question: Are the Mission Rewards truly random, or are the odds of pulling each reward skewed based on the value of the reward (in the same way that 3* & 4* covers are less likely to be pulled from a Heoric pack)?

Example:
In a mission with 4 possible rewards (for the sake of argument, 100iso, 250iso, 500iso, 50HP), is there a flat 25% chance of getting each of them, or is there less of a chance to pull the 50HP?

IceIX

BigChris wrote:

Question: Are the Mission Rewards truly random, or are the odds of pulling each reward skewed based on the value of the reward (in the same way that 3* & 4* covers are less likely to be pulled from a Heoric pack)?

Example:
In a mission with 4 possible rewards (for the sake of argument, 100iso, 250iso, 500iso, 50HP), is there a flat 25% chance of getting each of them, or is there less of a chance to pull the 50HP?

At launch, it was a pure 25% chance for any of the 4 rewards, no weighting. Once a reward was gained, it would be replaced with a 20 Iso but no change in odds. In R40 there's a rising chance of getting a "new" reward every time you get one that resets once a new award is received. That can still result in a long run of 20 Isos if your luck is *particularly* bad, but it's less so. We'll be able to do more with R41, since with that version we can change odds per mission server side without changing everything (which would have been bad in the case of Unstable Iso-8).

Unknown

Question: Does the power limit go up high enough as your character levels that you can max every power? My Iron Man is only level 26, but his power limit has been 13 for a while. Will it eventually be 15?

Thanks.

Unknown

No, the power limit will stay at 13 sadly.

Unknown

Thats unforunate. Is there a way to respec? I'm guessing not.

Thanks for the answer.

Unknown

Saireck wrote:

Thats unforunate. Is there a way to respec? I'm guessing not.

Thanks for the answer.

Not at the moment, but it's one of most often raised suggestion, so we might hope that devs will hear us out one day

Unknown

Handful of questions. Dunno about "frequently" asked, but maybe people want to know. Not sure if these are covered in the original Puzzle Quest (or even if these are M:DR exclusive rules).

If you trigger multiple 5-matches in a single match, do you get multiple extra moves? (Answer appears to be no, based on experience; you get one max.)

It's pretty obvious that the amount of damage done by a 3-match is based on that of your strongest character, indicated by the number for that color tile on each character's stat sheet (training, in-game, etc.). On a 4-match, all of the tiles in that line do damage. Do they all do the damage of the strongest character for each respective tile, or do they do the damage of the character that made the 4-match (your strongest for just those 4 tiles)? (IOW, Iron Man matches 4 yellows in a row where the other four are greens, and Storm is on your team - do the greens do Storm's bigger damage, or Iron Man's smaller damage?)

Do crit tiles count as the tile matched for purposes of damage, or do they only multiply the damage of the other 2-4 tiles?

Do crit tiles multiply the damage of tiles in the whole line if used in a 4-match, or only on the other three matched tiles?

Do crit tiles stack? (I managed to have two crit tiles in the same row, close enough that I can put two matching tiles between them, or match them in separate 3-matches. Assume the opponent is stunned. (I was pretty surprised myself.) Suppose the tiles all do 5 damage, crit tiles only multiply damage rather than count as their own color tile, don't apply to the rest of the line, and my crit multiplier is 3; two 3-matches would be 2*2*5*3 = 60. If I use them both in the 4, it might be only 30 (crits only apply once maximum - sadface!), or they might do 90 (2*5*3*3), and that's not counting the rest of the line...)

Unknown

- no
- no idea
- they appear to only multiply, but I'm not 100% sure
- appears to only be the matched tiles, but I'm not 100% sure
- no idea

Those are interesting questions Mehhh, I'd like to know the answers myself!

Unknown

Mehhh wrote:

It's pretty obvious that the amount of damage done by a 3-match is based on that of your strongest character, indicated by the number for that color tile on each character's stat sheet (training, in-game, etc.). On a 4-match, all of the tiles in that line do damage. Do they all do the damage of the strongest character for each respective tile, or do they do the damage of the character that made the 4-match (your strongest for just those 4 tiles)? (IOW, Iron Man matches 4 yellows in a row where the other four are greens, and Storm is on your team - do the greens do Storm's bigger damage, or Iron Man's smaller damage?)

I'm pretty sure whoever matched the 4 also shatters the others. I remember at one point I chose a match 4 that was weak over a strong match three. The match 4 shattered the the same amount of tiles of the match 3 color, but the damage was really low. I would have been better off matching the 3. That said, I could be wrong or it could have changed.

Unknown

I did a little careful watching, and I think I managed to answer some of my own questions.

If you trigger multiple 5-matches in a single match, do you get multiple extra moves? Confirmed: no, you get one extra no matter how many cascading 5-matches you made.

Do all tiles in a row do damage per each respective strongest character, or just the character that made the 4-match? The latter. Not only that, but if you match two sets of 3 in a single move, they both do the damage of the character for the tile you had your finger / mouse on. That'll also be the character in front for the opponent's move, so it's a tradeoff.

Do crit tiles count as the tile matched for purposes of damage, or do they only multiply the damage of the other 2-4 tiles? They count as the tile matched. Example: Black Widow has a 4x multiplier, does 10 damage per blue tile, and matches a crit and two blues. She'll do 4 * (3 * 10) = 120, not 4 * (2 * 10) = 80 damage.

Do crit tiles multiply the damage of tiles in the whole line if used in a 4-match, or only on the other three matched tiles? The crit tile only applies to the 4-match, not the other four tiles in the line. I had Iron Man match a crit and four yellows; he had IIRC a 3x multiplier and 12 damage per yellow. He did 3 * (4*12) = 144 from that. There were also two environment tiles and two reds; he did normal damage for the reds (26 total IIRC) and got only 6 total AP for the enviros.

Do crit tiles stack? Sort of. In my case, I remember Storm put two black tiles between two crits and did a total of 305 damage, and she did 11 base per black, and I think her crit multiplier was 3. If crit tiles count as blacks here, a crit-black-black match would have done 3*(3*11) = 99. But a crit-black-black-crit should have done 3*3*(4*11) = 396. So either both crits multiply BUT only one of them counts as a tile (3*3*3*11 = 297 plus whatever trash was also on that row), or the formula's slightly different / buggy, or my memory just failed me.

Ronfar

For what it's worth, a match that includes two critical tiles does do more damage than a match of the same size that only includes one. I don't know exactly how much it stacks, but it does.

Also, if your critical tile matches two different colors at the same time (like in a "RRCGG" formation) both colors will clear, but only one will get the critical multiplier applied.

Unknown

Can someone explain to me exactly how the point system for the event battle completions work?

Example- I've noticed that in the beginning of a Hulk sighting, a battle awards 100 red ISO or whatever, then towards the end of said sighting the same battle awards 2000. Huh?? Is there any point to playing early on, or am I just a chump for doing so?

Also, regarding the progression awards in PvP, how is anyone supposed to advance in rank if all of the battles that pop up are worth 1-15 points regardless of how many opponents I skip through, yet every time I'm attacked I lose over 30? Does anyone actually get those top rewards (in the shield training for example), or are they merely carrots being dangled in the proverbial horse's face?

Unknown

BigChris wrote:

Can someone explain to me exactly how the point system for the event battle completions work?

Example- I've noticed that in the beginning of a Hulk sighting, a battle awards 100 red ISO or whatever, then towards the end of said sighting the same battle awards 2000. Huh?? Is there any point to playing early on, or am I just a chump for doing so?

The PvE events have all had different scoring methods to date. Follow the thread(s) in the General forum for details.

BigChris wrote:

Also, regarding the progression awards in PvP, how is anyone supposed to advance in rank if all of the battles that pop up are worth 1-15 points regardless of how many opponents I skip through, yet every time I'm attacked I lose over 30? Does anyone actually get those top rewards (in the shield training for example), or are they merely carrots being dangled in the proverbial horse's face?

That shouldn't be happening, but PvP scoring has been messed up as of late (it was completely broken for the 3*; I'm not sure about Avengers since I was attacked all of 3 times).

How it used to work -- you get 25 points for someone who has the same number of points as you have, no matter what that is. If they are below you then you get less than 25 points, if they're above you you get more than 25. Up until around 700-800 points the person you defeat loses fewer points than you gain, injecting points into the system. As an example, if you and your opponent both have 400 points then you would gain 25 points but they would only lose about 13. At 750 points you would gain 25, and they would lose 25. At 800 points if you're attacked by someone with 600 points then they'd gain around 35 and you'd lose 35, etc. The most points you can gain or lose in a single match is 50.

This makes progression awards above 700-800 points increasingly difficult to get, since you get knocked back toward 700-ish at increasingly large amounts.

It used to be possible for top players to reach 1000 without too much difficulty, 1100 with some effort, and a few players would make beyond that. With the shorter tournaments (and the messed up scoring) this is proving more difficult. Also many high end players found it easiest to do when there was something else going on (Lightning Rounds, other tournaments, PvE events) which reduces the chance of retaliations.

As for SHIELD? Yeah, those high point rewards are jokes. First off, they're just not worth the effort. Second, the scoring pushing people back toward 750ish makes them difficult to reach, especially since when you're at the top all the matches are worth less than 25 points. Plus top players simply don't bother with SHIELD. We can get ten times the rewards for a tenth of the effort in the PvP tournaments.

Unknown

Statistically speaking, in an ELO system you need at least 10 guys with a score of X for a guy to reach the score of X+400, and that's assuming the guy with the score of X+400 never loses. Obviously this assumption is ridiculous in this game's context. The progression rewards beyond the point where they stop generating extra points should be based on having X victories over guys with rating greater than or equal to #10 in your bracket (shouldn't be that high, but otherwise you wouldn't even know what rating to look for), so that there's a reason to actually grind out more games before the last 3 hours of the tournament and encourage people to actually play higher rating opponents.

optimiza

sps-puzzlequest wrote:

DefectiveChicken wrote:

Something we've been puzzling over for a while now and could use official word on -- what determines who gets the front line if you match environmental gems first?

If you have a guest on your team, the guest seems to get the nod. If not, what's the determining factor, particularly since many characters are tied in that value?

This is my guess and it's been consistent so far. When there are ties, the order of your team will determine who will be the front-line when matching tiles. The center person is #1, the one on the left is #2, and the one on the right is #3.

The reason why guest characters seem to get the nod is because they are right in center (position #1).

This has actually not been my experience. I usually use OBW, Thor, and (forced character here) and unless the person has a larger than 3 Env multiplier, it always seems to default to OBW regardless of position. I think it could be a combination of the Env stat and the crit stat? This would make sense since OBW has a 4x crit stat. I think if I had her and Wolvie on the same team position might break a tie.

Unknown

optimiza wrote:

sps-puzzlequest wrote:

DefectiveChicken wrote:

Something we've been puzzling over for a while now and could use official word on -- what determines who gets the front line if you match environmental gems first?

This is my guess and it's been consistent so far. When there are ties, the order of your team will determine who will be the front-line when matching tiles. The center person is #1, the one on the left is #2, and the one on the right is #3.

This has actually not been my experience. I usually use OBW, Thor, and (forced character here) and unless the person has a larger than 3 Env multiplier, it always seems to default to OBW regardless of position. I think it could be a combination of the Env stat and the crit stat? This would make sense since OBW has a 4x crit stat. I think if I had her and Wolvie on the same team position might break a tie.

There was a thread a while back where someone did some mathematical line-fitting using the data from the wiki. Their theory was that those damage numbers aren't integers; 26 might actually be 26.3782, for example. Those numbers are what determine priority.

Hope that makes sense. It's consistent with a given character+buffStatus always having the same precedence relative to any other character+buffStatus. The only way it wouldn't make sense is if a character changed priority without a patch.