Peter's Complete DDQ4 Strategy Guide - Tips for all Matchups

PeterGibbons316
PeterGibbons316 Posts: 1,063
edited February 2017 in MPQ Tips and Guides
EDIT: My most sincere apologies to everyone that comes here for regular updates, but I've decided that D3 is no longer deserving of my support and so I won't be taking my time to update this guide any longer. I'll leave all the information that is already here, but won't be making any updates based on future crashes.

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. icon_e_wink.gif

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
Now, on to the matchups..... EDIT: Decided that the current battle will almost always be the one people are most interested in, so I'm going to try to rotate these through and keep the upcoming battles at the top!


Newest 4* characters that have yet to appear in Crash.....
icon_quake.png Quake vs. ?????
icon_punisher.png Punisher vs. ?????
icon_drax.png Drax vs. ?????
icon_wintersoldier.png Winter Soldier vs. ?????
icon_warmachine.png War Machine vs. ?????
icon_katebishop.png Kate Bishop vs. ?????
....and many more to come, check recent comments for how other players are faring on the current battle.

Original Cycle...
icon_wolverine.png X-Force vs. icon_cyclops.png Cyclops
This was the battle that started it off, and honestly they did a great job establishing expectations for what DDQ4 was meant to be. They picked XFW as the first featured 4* most likely due to him being the character that the greatest number of players have well covered. And they made it HARD. LTs had just been released and DDQ4 was one of only a handful of ways to get them. 5* characters were (and still are) OP and they wanted to make them hard to come by - and the challenge level of DDQ4 shows that intent. So without further ado - the very first fight...

Enemy Info:
HP: 14,955
Match damage: 83/74/65/13/12/11/ 43 tutile.png / 3.5x whitecrit.png
Abilities:
- redtile.png Optic Blasts, 10 AP - Deals 5317 damage and destroys a random row of tiles.
- yellowtile.png Mutant Revolutionary, 7 AP - Converts 8 TU tiles into red tiles.
- blacktile.png Full Blast, 13 AP - Does 7121 damage, if there are more than 9 red tiles on the board does an additional 3019 damage.

Main Strategy: My first time through any red or black use by cyclops was going to mean a loss for me so I had to deny red and black as hard as possible, and yellow to a lesser extent. Unfortunately the AI will always use yellow abilities first and then red, so check proximity of red tiles to TU tiles before you allow a yellow match that will bring cyc to 7+ yellow AP as it might lead to a red cascade and a game over for you.

Tips:
  • Deny, deny, deny. You can use the black and yellow yourself which helps.
  • If you have enough black for a surgical strike it might make sense to allow him to fire a mutant revolutionary to boost your SS damage - again, check TU tile locations first.
  • How you use your yellow depends on what level your XFW is. If you can take a hit from one of his abilities, it might make more sense to try to use it as a heal, if not - the damage/shake-up is probably preferred.
  • Careful using your yellow as a shake-up. If you match it, Cyc gets first look at a fresh board, if Cyc matches it he could get some cascades - neither are particularly favorable for you.
  • Your green is a fantastic shake-up and if you do manage to gather the green AP, hold it until you can't deny a red/black match and then use it.
Recommended Boosts:
  • +2 G/B AP - Puts you 2 green matches from X-Force, and 3 black matches from SS.
  • +50% R/Y Damage - Don't need the yellow AP since you are still going to be 3 matches from Recovery.
  • +50% G/B Damage - With these 2 damage boosts you cover all 4 colors that you will be matching.

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, 3/5/5 by JordanLee
Level 120, 4/5/4 by ChuckFan
Level 180, 5/5/3 by PeterGibbons316
icon_nickfury.png Fury vs. icon_magneto.png 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 tutile.png / 3.5x whitecrit.png
Abilities:
- yellowtile.png Coercive Field, 9 AP - Converts 17 random tiles to protect tiles of strength 65.
- redtile.png Polarizing Force, 8 AP - Destroys all TU tiles dealing 324 damage for each tile.
- bluetile.png 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
icon_invisiblewoman.png IW vs. icon_quicksilver.png Quicksilver
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 tutile.png / 4.0x whitecrit.png

Abilities:
- blacktile.png Idle Hands, 9 AP - Does 1404 damage, and swaps two tiles. Costs 1 AP less for each locked TU tile on the board.
- bluetile.png 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.
- greentile.png 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
icon_ironman.png HB vs. icon_hulk.png 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 tutile.png / 3.0x whitecrit.png
Abilities:
- greentile.png Thunderous Clap, 10 AP - Does 1489 damage and destroys 3 tiles plus 1 for every 2 green AP.
- redtile.png 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.
- blacktile.png 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
icon_deadpool.png X-Pool vs. icon_wolverine.png X-Force
First of all, I LOVE the XFW/XPool duo for PvP. I immediately recognized the potential when XPool was first released and cleared out his vault giving me a huge headstart on having him at a usable level. Unfortunately this battle pits this incredible duo against each other! And I think 1v1 XFW has the upper hand, but don't worry - if you have the red covers you can manage this one!

Main strategy: Collect red (if you have the covers), deny green/black.

Tips:
  • It's best not to get hit by Surgical Strike, but your strongest color is red. So if you can clear the board of red tiles XFW's SS can be manageable. This will be very board dependent though.
  • If the board is filled with scattered red tiles you are going to have to deny black. Save your red until you need the health, no sense using it early while you are at full heatlh, only to have him heal himself later.
  • Let him fire his yellow from full health. If you don't need your red to heal, let his yellow CD tile resolve early while you concentrate on collecting red and denying green/black.
  • Enemy shake-ups are very powerful in DDQ4, but here is a time where you can use them to your favor - save your purple until a shake-up is inevitable. If he collects 8 green, or need to match his yellow CD tile, get your purple out there and maybe you can get him to eat some of those CD tiles.

Recommended boosts:
  • +2 R/Y AP, you will likely need to fire red multiple times to win this one, so any additional red AP will help
  • +50% G/B damage. Your black is completely useless, but because it is one of your stronger colors you can take advantage of a little boosted match damage from your denial.
  • +1 B/P AP. This puts you 2 matches from your countdown. Honestly though purple is so low on your priority list that a red damage or any +all boost might be better 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 74, 1/0/1 by Pokeytax
icon_thor.png Thor vs. icon_ragnarok.png 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
icon_devildino.png Devil Dino vs. icon_squirrelgirl.png Squirrel Girl
This battle was terrible. It took place during the anniversary (the only time Devil Dino seems to be available outside of Resupply), and I really hope that they skip this one going forward.

DD is a bad character with red/green abilities that do the same thing and an almost completely useless purple ability. Deny purple first, then green. Don't worry too much about yellow, just try to match away the protect tiles as quickly as possible.
icon_elektra.png Elektra vs. icon_blade.png Blade
Personally I found the Elektra battles (both as her, and later against her) to be very interesting, and some of my favorite puzzles in all of DDQ4!

Main Strategy: Manage red tiles on board, deny black/purple. The key to this battle is to keep red low until you can use your purple, then allow enough red to create some strike tiles that you can steal, and then keeping red low again.

edit: When I first wrote this it was based on my experience the first time around where I only had 1 black cover. This time around my 131, 3/5/5 Elektra had a much easier time. It did take me about 4 tries with no boosts, but by the last try I was virtually ignoring everything but black - going almost completely on the offensive, letting my shadow step both protect me and do all the damage I needed.

Tips:
  • Prioritize black until you have enough for shadow step. You don't want to get hit by his black without any of your trap tiles out.
  • Once you have enough purple, allow Blade enough red tiles to drop a couple strike tiles, then steal them. If you don't have many purple covers, save up enough to steal both of his tiles.
  • Keeping the red tile count on the board low is more important than denying purple. Getting hit with strike tiles every turn will end things quickly, but if you can keep purple on the board and have your black trap tiles out when Blade fires purple, it's likely that they will be able to be matched away in a turn or two.
  • Once you have a couple strike tiles, and there are no red matches on the board - fire your red. The boosted damage from the strike tiles is the key to winning this battle.

Recommended Boosts:
  • +1 G/B AP, puts you three matches from firing black - your key to surviving.
  • +2 R/Y AP, puts you two matches from firing red.
  • +1 B/P, two matches from purple.
  • +2 R/Y AP, +1 all, and +all damage is really the way to go if you have the +all boosts available. If not, I think focusing on AP over match damage is best. This shouldn't be a long enough battle for match damage to be a factor - your damage should be coming primarily from the strike tiles you stole combined with your ballet of death.

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, 2/2/0 by Cousin Simpson
icon_antman.png Ant Man vs. icon_jeangrey.png Jean Grey
Personally I feel as if Ant-Man is one of the underrated 4* characters, and Jean Grey is one of the more overrated ones.....this 1v1 battle kind of enforces that belief....

Main strategy: Deny purple/green. Time your attacks to utilize strike tiles (see below). Don't make match 5s (obviously). I talked about this in the luck v. strategy section below (my soapbox - sorry about that), but it's worth mentioning here - not making match-5s, means avoiding matches with a high likelihood for a potential cascade. that gives you a match-5. Some are more obvious than others ( greentile.pnggreentile.pngbluetile.pnggreentile.pnggreentile.png ) for example is one where you don't want to make a vertical match with or below that blue tile dropping 3 tiles from the top that could potentially give you or your opponent a match-5 (both very bad in this particular battle). Say that's the second row from the top and you make the match. 3 tiles are going to drop down, each one having roughly a 1 in 7 chance of being green. If a green tile falls in any of those 3 positions it is very bad for you, and there is a 43% chance that it happens - that's pretty high. So why risk even making that match? Making the match and having a green tile fall in there isn't you getting unlucky, it's you playing poorly.

Tips:
  • Don't make match-5s (see above)
  • You definitely want to prioritize purple, it's great for you, and really bad if she uses her purple - in addition to the damage it will remove all your special tiles.
  • You want to deny green, but there are some instances where you can get away with allowing her to fire her green, and then using your blue to steal her attack tiles. This is not a great trade for you, so I don't think you should actively TRY to get it to happen, but if you are forced to pick between denying purple or green - give up the green and make the best of a bad situation.
  • You want to try and time your attacks here since everything is based on CD tiles and their disappearance. So obviously you want to be able to Grow (with blue if you can), but you also want to get strike tiles from your Pym Particles. So there is a balance between getting your purple trap out early to take advantage of the strike tiles, but also having enough AP to grow before that trap tile gets matched away. You also want to try and fire it when the board doesn't have a lot of purple tiles that are grouped together (this should happen with some frequency as you will be denying purple pretty hard.)
  • Try to stack your ants after several purple strike tiles are on the board. The damage they all do each turn gets magnified by your strike tiles. It's better if this is used when there are few red matches, but that should be lower in priority to your denial and special tile protection.

Recommended Boosts:
  • +2 R/Y AP, IMO you want to double fire your yellow which is going to take 14 AP, starting with +2 that's 4 matches.
  • +50% B/P damage, this one is all about your strike tiles, so boosting match damage will help quite a bit.
  • +50% R/Y damage, not as effective as B/P, but more match damage never hurts.

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, 3/1/5 by PeterGibbons316
Level 111, 2/3/1 by MitchJewitz
Level 111, 3/0/1 by Ozark Boatswain
icon_starlord.png Star-Lord vs. icon_gamora.png Gamora
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

icon_professorx.png ProfX vs. icon_elektra.png 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

icon_professorx.png ProfX vs. icon_carnage.png Carnage (Archived)
First time around this was one of the easiest battles: go invisible, match forever, claim LT. But with the changes to Carnage (now able to target ProfX with his red) this next time will be much tougher.....

Main strategy: Go invisible ASAP. Deny red, try to keep enough purple on hand to go invisible in case you lose your tile. I'm not sure if Carnage's red will do the full 5k damage, or the 1.8k AoE. Once I find out though I will update here. Update: YES, Carnage will hit you for 4800 with his red, so you need to deny red every single chance you get.
Tips:
  • If you have enough purple, you can double cast your invisibility just to generate some special tiles to work with.
  • Make match-5s? Probably the dumbest tip I've ever written but that's going to be the fastest way to victory here, and really this battle is pretty straightforward.
Recommended boosts:
  • +1 B/P AP - This puts you 2 matches from going invisible. If you are struggling, try +2 B/P and +2 all to get you 1 match away.
  • +50% B/P Damage - No use in boosting any other AP since you only have one active ability.
  • +50% Y/R damage - This should cover all your matches, purple for you, red denial, and then you other two strongest colors if there are no purple/red matches available.
[/*]

So yeah, probably the simplest strategy of all DDQ4 battles, with so many passive abilities there aren't a lot of different strategies to pursue.
icon_kingpin.png Kingpin vs. icon_lukecage.png Luke Cage
I remember this battle being more annoying than hard, but my Fisk was 4/3/4 at the time which helped a lot.

Main Strategy:Deny black above all else (works well because you need black), deny yellow (also works out nicely), save your abilities for the exact right moment.

Tips:
  • Because of Cage's massive protect tile you will rarely do any match damage at all. So there is really no use in firing off your abilities as soon as you have them, you need to wait until the right time so that they do maximum damage - i.e. most/all of your CDs are likely to resolve. You will be matching black/yellow so there likley won't ever be many readily available black/yellow matches to screw with your CD tiles, but definitely make sure those color s are scarce before you fire your yellow.
  • If you can get enough purple, you can get away with not denying yellow crazy hard since you can drain some of his yellow AP. Remember that your purple is primarily defensive.
  • When you do decide to go on the offensive with your purple you better make damn sure you have enough power to take him out, or make sure he isn't going to get enough yellow to uppercut you.
  • Save your poke. Remember - you won't be doing match damage. So get your CD tiles out there, and hold your poke for a bit. If it looks like one of your CD tiles is certainly going to be matched away, THEN fire that black and maybe you'll get lucky and get some use out of it before it gets matched away.

Recommended Boosts:
  • +2 B/P, puts you 2 matches from Fisk Defense
  • +1 R/Y, puts you 3 matches from Maggia Pawns, but really this depends on how many purple covers you have as you will be generating additional yellow there.
  • That's it really, you can add G/B, but with that Poke being so cheap at only 2 matches I think starting with 1 or 2 black AP won't be that big of a help.

I don't recommend damage boosts here because of that protect tile. But when this one opens up again I'll check and see if running a +50% damage boost can actually generate any match damage at all (on my 140 Fisk anyway).

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 127, 2/3/3 by shmoli
icon_carnage.png Carnage vs. icon_doctoroctopus.png Dr. Octopus
Enemy Info:
HP: 13995
Match damage: 83/74/65/13/12/11/ 43 tutile.png / 3.0x whitecrit.png
Abilities:
- bluetile.png Manipulation, 11 AP - Swaps 16 pairs of tiles, dealing 1296 for each attack, protect, strike tile
- blacktile.png Insult to Injury, Passive - Whenever Doc Ock matches your special tile he generates 2 strength 173 attack tiles
- greentile.png 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 icon_razz.gif. 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
icon_thing.png Thing vs. icon_humantorch.png Human Torch
Enemy Info:
HP: 13035
Match damage: 83/74/65/13/12/11/ 43 tutile.png / 3.0x whitecrit.png
Abilities:
- redtile.png Fireball, 8 AP - 4207 Damage, destroys 2 red tiles
- blacktile.png Inferno, 10 AP - Makes 8 attack tiles in the center of the board that do 281 each, only overwrites basic color tiles
- greentile.png 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
icon_captainamerica.png Captain Falcon vs icon_caroldanvers.png 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 tutile.png / 3.0x whitecrit.png
Abilities:
- redtile.png Photonic Blasts, 7 AP - 1853 Damage, destroys all of your protect tiles
- blacktile.png Hypersonic Punch, 9 AP - 3107 Damage, 2 turn stun, gives you a 65 damage strike tile
- yellowtile.png 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
icon_jeangrey.png Jean Grey vs. icon_moonstone.png 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 tutile.png / 3.0x whitecrit.png
Abilities:
- purpletile.png Gravity Warp, 8 AP - Swaps a tile with one of your special tiles, if you have none does 2,072 damage
- redtile.png Photon Blast, 11 AP - Does 760 damage, plus 389 damage for each red tile on the board
- blacktile.png 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
icon_mrfantastic.png Mr. Fantastic vs. icon_doctordoom.png Doom
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: 15,641
Match damage: 83/74/65/13/12/11/ 43 tutile.png / 3.0x whitecrit.png
Abilities:
- bluetile.png Technopathic Strike, 9 AP - Transforms all basic blue tiles into black tiles.
- blacktile.png Summon Demons, 12 AP - Converts 6 basic red tiles into attack tiles of strength 237
- purpletile.png Diabolical Plot, 10 AP - Does 1401 damage plus 1401 for each purple trap tile on the board - he also passively adds a trap tile at the start of each turn.

Main Strategy: Deny/manage purple/black, deny blue. Use your special tiles to come back from big hits if you can.

Tips:
  • One of the reasons Mr. F is so bad is that to be effective his black/yellow abilities require making matches that generate AP you can't use. Try to hold your black until you are in a position where there are no denial matches to be made, or a denial will trigger a red/yellow/green cascade. Unless it's near the end of the fight you don't want to find yourself in a position where you are allowing Doom to get purple/black/blue matches so that you can take a useless green match for a little added damage.
  • Use your stun to save yourself from an impossible denial situation.
  • Another challenge this battle offers is the desire to not just deny, but actively manage all 3 of Doom's colors, plus red as well. Denying purple should be your priority because if he ever does get his purple ability off, you are going to take more damage for every purple tile on the board. So you don't just want to deny him the AP, you want to try to be manipulating purple so that you can easily match it. The blue/black management offers quite the challenge itself in that if he does manage to get 3 blue matches, you don't want to have blue tiles mixed in with black tiles setting off cascades. And third - if he gets his black off you really want to be able to match away those red attack tiles quickly. So you want your red tiles grouped together as well. It's impossible to do all of these things at the same time, so as the board develops you are going to have to keep an eye on his AP and manage the corresponding colors accordingly.
  • If you need to heal, try to set up a special tile match. You share blue/black so Doom will actually match your special tiles away if given the opportunity (the one thing going your way in this battle).
Recommended Boosts:
  • +2 B/P AP - puts you 2 blue matches away from Fantastic Elastic (is that not the worst ability name in the game???).
  • +50% B/P damage - One of your colors and two of his.
  • +50% G/B damage - Another color you share, and if you get your black CD out you might actually make a green match or two at some point. +All would work here if you have it available.
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, 4/2/2 by Mitchjewitz
icon_iceman.png Iceman vs. icon_jeangrey.png 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 tutile.png / 3.5x whitecrit.png
Abilities:
- purpletile.png Mind Over Matter, 10 AP - 3876 damage
- bluetile.png Psychic Feedback, Passive - Kicks your **** if you make a match-5 (2074 damage, 2 turn stun, reduces your green AP by 6)
- greentile.png 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
icon_cyclops.png Cyclops vs. icon_ironman.png 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 tutile.png / 3.5x whitecrit.png
Abilities:
- redtile.png Repulsor Punch, 9 AP - Uses all red AP doing 630 damage/AP
- blacktile.png Overdrive, 11 AP - Does 1541 damage to Iron Man, generates 9 red AP, creates 2 strength 354 strike tiles.
- bluetile.png 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
icon_redhulk.png Rulk vs. icon_hulk.png Hulk
Another easy one. Rulk (like IMHB) is designed to deal with Hulk, and so this thematic fight should be relatively easy to manage. Not only that, but he is only level 222 and covered at 2/2/2. So definitely one of the easier ones.

Enemy Info:
HP: 15,255
Match damage: 83/74/65/13/12/11/ 43 tutile.png / 3.0x whitecrit.png
Abilities:
- greentile.png Thunderous Clap, 10 AP - Does 981 damage and destroys 3 tiles plus 1 for every 2 green AP.
- redtile.png Smash, 14 AP - Does 2355 damage, drains 10 green AP from Hulk, does 157 damage for every green AP remaining, if more than 10 green AP does 30% damage to Hulk.
- blacktile.png Anger, Passive - When damaged for more than 762, creates a 1 turn black CD that converts 1 basic tile to green.

Main Strategy: Save your green and try not to make him angry (or don't worry since at 2/2/2 he only generates 1 green tile and doesn't do damage). Deny red/green.

Tips:
  • Deny red first, you don't want to get smashed. You will need a ton of green AP to win this one, but if Hulk does manage to collect green it's not the end of the world as you can drain it with your purple, or he can even drain it himself with his red.
  • You will have to make him angry to win as your Hammer & Anvil likely won't finish him in one turn (unless you have been matching him to death for a while). So make sure there isn't much green on the board when he gets angry (should be easy since you have been making damn near every green match available for the entire battle.) And if you can hold of
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Comments

  • Pongie
    Pongie Posts: 1,410 Chairperson of the Boards
    This will save me hunting down the previous threads.
    I can only contribute to the few that I found was really easy. The others took me several attempts and was mainly luck based.

    PX vs carnage
    Go invisible and deny red and green (it may blow up you invisible tile). Once invisible it's pretty much game over. Any matches you make will buff the strike tiles carnage has created for you.

    Iceman vs Jean
    Prioritise blue, keep Jean in a stun lock and it will be over before you know it. Don't be tempted to punch her unless it's the killing blow or you're swimming in blue ap.

    Carnage vs dr oct
    I'm fortunate that my carnage lacks the black ability, but the strategy here is to save red and green ap until you can launch them all and kill him. No special tiles means dr oct cannot match them away to make strike tiles.
  • Akari
    Akari Posts: 492 Mover and Shaker
    My own HB vs Hulk strat, my HB is 2/0/5 lvl 159. 2 red does something like 190 damage per AP, so my max damage for Repulsor Punch is in the 6k range. Therefore, I had to be strategic with it.

    Obviously you need to deny red and green, but denying green is higher priority. It's ok to let him get red off, especially if there happens to be a lot of green on the board, since it will wipe his green AP and possibly do damage back to him. If you get enough protect tiles out, you'll definitely be swimming in red AP at the end, but there's no need to sit on 30 the whole match. I fired it once in the middle (usually with about 10-15 red AP) when I saw the board was low on green tiles, and then saved up for a big punch at the end to finish it.

    I used +60% all damage, +2 all ap, +2 red/yellow ap boosts, took me 4 tries - and a lot of luck because he kept cascading into massive amounts of green.

    Others:
    NF - I believe I had him at 2/3/3 lvl 152 when I won. Pretty standard. Deny red/blue, chase blue/pink, blow him up. Use your yellow if you have it, but I don't think I ever got it off. Nick Fury does some real damage without too many covers.

    IW - I beat it once with 2/0/0 lvl 86 the first time, and 4/1/1 lvl 118 the second time. Going invisible and managing the locked tiles is key. I don't know why you mention that most people's blue blows up less bubbles than green creates, as both skills at 1 cover create/destroy 2. While the force bubbles count as locked tiles for QS's passive, you CAN use your blue skill and have more than 4 total on the board, as long as a) nobody matches blue, or b) you use green immediately to clear them up. If you don't have blue+green, just focus on clearing around TU tiles so that you can hopefully match them away immediately after a blue match creates a locked tile.

    PX - I cleared it the first time with 0/1/0, the absolute bare minimum. Once you go invisible, just deny green and take it from there. Most likely he'll end up getting green off once, so it's basically just luck if he gets your invis tile or not (and then you die).

    X23 - I had 0/1/4 level 131 when I won, but it seems all you need is at least 1 red and then 3 green OR 3 pink to do it. Deny black and red at highest priority, and the rest is straightforward of using your skills as you earn them. If she gets black off once, you're dead. With red, you might last a few turns, but you need to find the trap tile fast.

    (I assume Miles will be the same as IW/PX, go invis once, but be sure you have enough pink to use it twice in a row after that. If the tile gets matched away, you need to cast it twice just due to how his pink works, sadly. His pink is the 2k reward in SIM right now, so I think a lot of people will be able to win his!)

    Hope that helps, looking forward to tips for upcoming ones. I'm hoping to be able to beat a few more this time around.
  • Akari wrote:
    IW - I beat it once with 2/0/0 lvl 86 the first time, and 4/1/1 lvl 118 the second time. Going invisible and managing the locked tiles is key. I don't know why you mention that most people's blue blows up less bubbles than green creates, as both skills at 1 cover create/destroy 2. While the force bubbles count as locked tiles for QS's passive, you CAN use your blue skill and have more than 4 total on the board, as long as a) nobody matches blue, or b) you use green immediately to clear them up. If you don't have blue+green, just focus on clearing around TU tiles so that you can hopefully match them away immediately after a blue match creates a locked tile.
    At 2 blue covers she starts locking 3 tiles, but green won't destroy 3 tiles until 4 covers. At 4 blue covers you lock 4 tiles, but she can never destroy more than 3. I actually think that 5/3/5 is the better build for IW for this reason. The additional certainty in knowing that you will destroy all of your bubbles greatly improves their utility. Especially considering IW is good for DDQ4 and that's about it. :-/

    Great point on being able to have the locked tiles out there, but not having them blow up until a blue match is made. I actually won this last time around by locking several blue tiles in place to prevent them from being matched and ending my battle. It was a couple turns before I could get enough green AP to pop them.
  • Chipster22
    Chipster22 Posts: 297 Mover and Shaker
    It looks like Deadpool is featuring himself in his own contest next. That sounds like something he would do often.

    Will my 5/2/1 level 143 Deadpool do ok, or do I need to dump ISO into him? 32,124 ISO would take him to level 172. Thanks.
  • amusingfoo1
    amusingfoo1 Posts: 597 Critical Contributor
    Chipster22 wrote:
    It looks like Deadpool is featuring himself in his own contest next. That sounds like something he would do often.

    Will my 5/2/1 level 143 Deadpool do ok, or do I need to dump ISO into him? 32,124 ISO would take him to level 172. Thanks.

    I beat him at 5/2/0, probably level 159, first try last time around. So you should probably be ok, boosted a bit. Certainly I would try a few times before adding ISO (unless you were thinking of leveling him up anyway, of course).
  • Sandwichboy
    Sandwichboy Posts: 193 Tile Toppler
    Obviously 172 would be better, but having 5 red makes a really big impact already. As long as you can keep denying black and green while gathering red, that heal will keep you going even if he manages to get off an X-Force or two over the course of the match.

    Iceman is an easy one to deal with...provided you have at least 3 blue. At that point it just becomes a long game of gathering enough purple and blue to keep her locked down and either chip away with match damage, or if you have him fully or mostly covered, nuke her when you have enough blue to immediately recast build a snowman. Fewer than 3 blue covers is possible, but you're almost certainly going to eat at least one of her aoes before you take her down, so you need to have him decently leveled to survive.

    A lot of them have straight up required powers to survive, most of which you need at least 3 covers in if not a full 5. Jean needs 5 green, PX needs at least 1 purple, Bobby needs 3 blue, HB needs 3+ red, Starlord needs 4+ red (and probably 4 yellow), Antman needs at least 1 blue, Kingpin needs at least 3/1/1, GR needs 3+ black, Thing needs 4+ red, MF needs 4+ blue, Rhulk needs 5 purple...while it's technically possible without these, it basically requires beating your head against the wall of RNG until you get incredibly lucky. And some of them are still insane even with the covers that make a win possible (starlord, MF and flaptain in particular)
  • BlackSheep101
    BlackSheep101 Posts: 2,025 Chairperson of the Boards
    A lot of them have straight up required powers to survive, most of which you need at least 3 covers in if not a full 5. Jean needs 5 green, PX needs at least 1 purple, Bobby needs 3 blue, HB needs 3+ red, Starlord needs 4+ red (and probably 4 yellow), Antman needs at least 1 blue, Kingpin needs at least 3/1/1, GR needs 3+ black, Thing needs 4+ red, MF needs 4+ blue, Rhulk needs 5 purple...while it's technically possible without these, it basically requires beating your head against the wall of RNG until you get incredibly lucky. And some of them are still insane even with the covers that make a win possible (starlord, MF and flaptain in particular)
    I beat Starlord's DDQ4 battle with just 5 purple, and it was relatively easy. And I'm not sure if you meant Rhulk needs 5 green, but 5 purple, while useful, isn't going to kill your opponent. 5 green greatly ups your damage output, while having any purple at all lets you deny green easily.
  • Sandwichboy
    Sandwichboy Posts: 193 Tile Toppler
    Yup, meant 5 green. Blame the lack of sleep. Also, 5/0/0 starlord has zero ability to mitigate her spamming razor's edge, so I'm guessing you got a very good board for that.
  • Akari
    Akari Posts: 492 Mover and Shaker
    A lot of them have straight up required powers to survive, most of which you need at least 3 covers in if not a full 5. Jean needs 5 green, PX needs at least 1 purple, Bobby needs 3 blue, HB needs 3+ red, Starlord needs 4+ red (and probably 4 yellow), Antman needs at least 1 blue, Kingpin needs at least 3/1/1, GR needs 3+ black, Thing needs 4+ red, MF needs 4+ blue, Rhulk needs 5 purple...while it's technically possible without these, it basically requires beating your head against the wall of RNG until you get incredibly lucky. And some of them are still insane even with the covers that make a win possible (starlord, MF and flaptain in particular)

    Hmm, that's a low requirement for Kingpin, but if that can win, then I think I have a good chance at his DDQ when it comes up!
  • Sandwichboy
    Sandwichboy Posts: 193 Tile Toppler
    It's really the absolute minimum. Less than that and you're just not doing enough damage with the finger poke, which is really the only effective source of damage you have that can get past Cage's shield. It's easier with more purple covers, but even 1 is enough to slow cage down at least somewhat. As long as you have him covered at least 3/1/1, you have a chance. Less than that and it's going to be incredibly luck based. And don't even bother if you have 0 black unless it's 0/5/5.
  • Quebbster
    Quebbster Posts: 8,070 Chairperson of the Boards
    Chipster22 wrote:
    It looks like Deadpool is featuring himself in his own contest next. That sounds like something he would do often.

    Will my 5/2/1 level 143 Deadpool do ok, or do I need to dump ISO into him? 32,124 ISO would take him to level 172. Thanks.
    My Deadpool was 3/1/0 last time and pulled of the win with a lot of boosts and luck. I think your Deadpool will do fine at his current level as long as you play it smart.
  • Clyve
    Clyve Posts: 91
    I completed the IW fight at a 1/1/0 level 74 the first time around the DDQ4 rotation. Also, thanks a lot for the tips!
  • Akari
    Akari Posts: 492 Mover and Shaker
    It's really the absolute minimum. Less than that and you're just not doing enough damage with the finger poke, which is really the only effective source of damage you have that can get past Cage's shield. It's easier with more purple covers, but even 1 is enough to slow cage down at least somewhat. As long as you have him covered at least 3/1/1, you have a chance. Less than that and it's going to be incredibly luck based. And don't even bother if you have 0 black unless it's 0/5/5.

    I have 3/1/3, which isn't that much higher... 2 more tiles on his yellow. Well, here's to hoping I can do it when his DDQ comes up.
  • SirLanik
    SirLanik Posts: 345 Mover and Shaker
    For what it's worth, I completed Goddess Thor vs. Ragnarok with a 2/1/3 lvl 131. (barely.)

    Also completed Invisible Woman vs. Quicksilver with a 2/0/1 level 90.
  • SirLanik
    SirLanik Posts: 345 Mover and Shaker
    To mirror Quebster, also finished Xpool vs Xwolvie with a 3/1/0 lvl 111. Used DMG boost for black/green, red/yellow, and AP boost red/yellow.
  • Akari
    Akari Posts: 492 Mover and Shaker
    I cleared the DPX fight with lvl 105, 1/4/1. An alliance member named Apocalypse cleared it with 0/0/2 level 86.
  • Sandwichboy
    Sandwichboy Posts: 193 Tile Toppler
    Akari wrote:
    I cleared the DPX fight with lvl 105, 1/4/1. An alliance member named Apocalypse cleared it with 0/0/2 level 86.

    ...okay, that had to be one hell of a lucky board to clear that at 86.
  • Beat it at 1/0/1 74 - had a lucky board, but only fired each power once and ate an X-Force. It was lucky, but not crazy lucky (although I burned some +all match damage boosts along with crit bonus and +R/Y AP). The thing is, X-Force is so frail that unlike a lot of fights you have a shot at taking him down with match damage and crits. Sure, crit bonus won't do you any good with a bad board, but if your powers are very weak, getting a good board is your only shot.
  • NICE!

    That's one of the reasons I made the thread - people are easily discouraged and give up, but if they can come here and see that people are beating some of these battles with just 2 covers they are more likely to put in a little more effort and win themselves that coveted LT!
  • Pongie
    Pongie Posts: 1,410 Chairperson of the Boards
    I almost beat gamora with my level 120 3/2/1 starlord. Followed the strategy but I used 100% match damage boost, +2 all colours and +2 red/yellow. We were both down to 1k in health, so I casted red (deals 800) but I couldn't protect it the turn before it goes off. Racing away with match damage (losing cause I'm denying red and green) and died with 600 health left.