Cocofang

Scantly clad men and women aren't going anywhere as far as I can tell. Just the male/female mechanic and the stripper pole are on the chopping block.

Stop making it such a black-and-white issue. First off, the current icon is only tentative as far as I have read. For me the issue with it is simply that it's immersion breaking. It does not belong in the fictional universe. It's a throw away joke that doesn't add anything. The entire "male/female" class mechanic is in a shit state as well. In some instances there is no way of knowing if a unit is either and you have to try if the spell works. It's a throw away joke made into an attempted mechanic. Which is even sillier. It's not even worth salvaging. Pretty much the only reason to even be outraged by this is on principle because of being sick and tired of the entire topic. And I sympathize. But I bet most people wouldn't even have noticed the change because both Twilight Hag and Girl Power are abandoned concepts. Bet if you were to count the amount of times those cards have been played since release, you would barely even hit triple digits.

Stanning for a stripper pole.

There are still some changes planned for Tortugun to give it a buff after consuming a unit. And both getting long range. But the hunger mechanic won't be going anywhere, it seems. And it doesn't have to. Even now Tortugun offers a very unique and involved playstyle. The approach of this rPvE deck is basically just cycling through Tortuguns non-stop. Either by making one near-frenzy Tortugun eating another one. Or Offering/Motivating it to get it out of the way before it frenzies. The reward for such heavy micro isn't quite there yet but it's a playstyle you don't get otherwise. It's fine if it stays niche. Bandits will get reinforcement by Wasteland Terror in any case. However, after the upcoming buffs, actually feeding them consistently might be very worthwhile.

A) There was no way to avoid that because the damage ran deeper. The reforging system should've been present since day 1, ideally. However, that was unfeasible at the time and so cards had one year to just pile up. The damage accumulated. This resulted in the volatile effect reforging had when released. There was no way to avoid that, no matter what. The people that already had stockpiles of worthless cards waiting would always end up benefiting the most, adjustments or not. That is an undoubtedly unfortunate reality. As you noted prices are already starting to settle in again, after the initial massive oversupply distributed itself. The small size of the community slows down this process but you can already see it at work. B) All rarities are now loosely tied together in value. Previously that was not the case. Which resulted in Cs becoming completely worthless, you couldn't even sell them anymore. Same was true for most UCs, with just a handful of outliers. As for Rs, most of them were slowly dropping in price more and more. On the other hand the popular URs kept inflating endlessly because supply was lower and they were the last remaining magnet for all the BFP that are constantly generated. The gap became larger and larger. Now all cards have inherent value, if not for play then as reforge material. The price floor was raised, while the ceiling was lowered. Which also means as soon as there is an oversupply and prices drop, these cards become attractive purchases as material. On the other hand, if cards start to inflate like before a similar thing will happen in that it becomes an attractive option to attempt reforging into these cards. If the floor drops, it drags the ceiling down. If the ceiling rises, it drags the floor up. C) We already had a one-month booster discount on release. From this we know for a fact that as soon as the discount gets disabled the vast majority of prices will rise accordingly across the board. Which means that a price change of boosters won't actually change their relative value. In any case, if you buy your daily booster for another 100 BFP discount, you will most definitely always see a positive return if you open a few. Overall the booster value settles at roughly the normal market price (be it 350 as of now or 450) although we saw gradual distortion pre-reforging. The real question is in which card pulls the value is concentrated. The entire thing relies on people opening boosters, reforging and participating in the economy. However, reforging needs to find a sweetspot where people continue engaging with, so that it can fully unfold. If it turns out people stop doing it for whatever reason, it has to be looked at why that is. @Reckoning There seems to be some anecdotal bias when it comes to the UR chances here. You are suggesting a pity system to get one every 20 packs. This means that you think a 20 pack streak without an UR is a thing that regularly happens. However, UR chances are 19.5%. Which means that you get one every 5 boosters in the long run. Looking at my own booster history of 361 (which contains some Mini Boosters), I have exactly one time where I open above 20 boosters, 28 to be exact, without an UR. I also have streaks of opening several URs in a row or in short succession. In total I pulled 71 URs. Which, you guessed it, averages out to 19.67%. It seems you are evaluating UR chances as much lower than what they actually are based on selective memory. Of course, odds don't protect against bad RNG and a pity-system would. But I wonder if the situation is as dire as you think it is. Your sample size is even bigger than mine. I'd be very surprised if you ended up below 15% UR pulls.

With such precise timings and strict procedure, I assume the effect of randomness is minimized if not eliminated altogether. If such a speedrunning script leads to a reproducible course of events, wouldn't it be possible to automate it?

Sounds like a different problem at work.

I mean, sure. Forging is not something you are meant to do when you don't even have excess cards. However the initial progression didn't really change. You have your dailies, your boost, your booster discount and your achievements just like before. But forging provides a passive benefit to new players by making cards they get have innate value and by putting a dampener on UR inflation and putting even the top tier cards within their reach. For this to fully materialize the economy (and of course the people participating) will have to adjust first. Hopefully in a way that is long term beneficial for everyone. And like previously mentioned, it's hardly possible to take the current prices at face value. Because of the sudden oversupply and the booster discount.

The game NEEDS a way to get rid of excess cards. There is no way around it. People were sitting on hundreds, in some cases thousands, of Cs and UCs. This was also becoming an issue for the server. It was dead-weight too because their overbearing supply made their economical value so low that they weren't even worth selling. Meanwhile BFP were and still are constantly pouring into the game endlessly. This lead to inflation. A fixed price on boosters merely slowed it down. But it did not stop it at all, as people originally hoped it would. Most cards became worthless while the majority of the value was focused on a few top tiers. When opening boosters you basically always bled BFP unless you hit a jackpot worth multiple boosters. The top tiers became the magnet for the inflating BFP. We had a very low floor and a very high ceiling with less and less inbetween. Card reforging tackles all of these issues at once. It serves as a card drain and also as an indirect BFP drain, since cards are merely different manifestation of BFP. They are generated from boosters after all, which are generated from spending BFP. The "hard work" isn't going anywhere, it's getting readjusted. Ideally we will eventually see a state where every card has inherent value as reforging material, raising the floor. This also means that whenever a card drops too low in value, it immediately becomes an attractive purchase if only to reforge. The flipside is also true. When Rs and URs start increasing in price too much, it will eventually become worthwhile to purchase preceding rarities to forge into them. This ties all cards together, creating a completely new, interwoven economy. But the impact of reforging is greatly exaggerated right now. People went on a reforging frenzy after the patch. All the Cs and UCs that were gathering dust were getting funneled into Rs and URs. People also rushed to participate in the economy more. This lead to a drastic increase in supply but not enough demand to soak it up (yet). It will take some time for the market to adjust and reach a new equilibrium. And a second point, that isn't being considered, is the fact that we have a 100 BFP price reduction on boosters for one month. This will also drive market prices down across the board. Consequently they will increase again in mid-January, when the discount gets removed. We already know this from release. The biggest hurdle for the market settling in again is, aside from the current discount, the player numbers. A smaller amount of player simply means the process will take longer.

Very exciting. I am looking forward to how Card Reforging will affect the economy. It's an interesting element to add to the equation. Hopefully it will make all cards more exciting and the top tiers more accessible. Maybe I can pull all the new cards right away and give them a try. Looking forward to them.

A pure fire and pure shadow guide for budget decks.

Foreword Content: Cost Tier progression Alternative Cards to use Upgrade priorities My other Guides This guide aims to put together a pure shadow deck on a budget. As always in Skylords, any suggestion is merely that. It’s all about experimenting. If you don’t like something, just change it. Want to give something a try? Just slot it in! Pulled an interesting card that you want to see in action? Build a deck around it, make it work! Struggle with a specific map? Try different cards, there might be more suitable ones for different situations. Create something else entirely from the ground up? The card pool is your oyster. With that being said my goals here are: Focus on cards of mostly lower rarity Use mostly cheap cards Introduce cards (in the deck itself or as alternatives) that have at least some interesting synergies and are more involved Be flexible, so many cards can be changed Be a generalist, usable in both rPvE and cPvE You will notice my use of singular letters next to card names, which are referring to the cards affinity. G = Green, P = Purple, B = Blue, R = Red. Cards with affinities have two different versions and they vary in effect, depending on their affinity. Affinities are represented by a small dot on the card in their respective color. They have nothing to do with what Orbs you need to play that card though. Cost The pricetag isn’t excessive but it will inevitably be higher than a budget mixed deck, because the pool of available cards is restricted. Also, because of the nature of Shadow, we have to use at least one or two more expensive cards. Forsaken - 10 (starter card) Snapjaws R - 10 Knight of Chaos - 10 Shadow Phoenix - 50 Shadow Insect - 10 (starter card) Cultist Master - 150 Necrofury - 50 Overlord - 400 to 500 Embalmer’s Shrine - 150 Soulsplicer G - 150 Furnace of Flesh - 40 Time Vortex B - 30 Necroblaster G - 10 (starter card) Life Weaving - 30 Undead Army - 10 Blood Healing - 40 Frenetic Assault R - 130 Plague - 130 Rifle Cultists - 10 (starter card) Offering G - 10 (starter card) So right away I have to say that it is really hard to make a pure shadow deck work at all without using Rare or Ultra Rare cards. Some cards are also in dire need of upgrades or even charges to become decent. If you are trying to put together a pure shadow deck without at least some investment, you are in for a bad time. So we have to assess the trade-off between budget and usability. Make sure you have BFP and gold saved up to cover the absolute necessities. Your gold reserves will also be especially strained to get the Rare cards up to speed. The estimated total to get the aforementioned cards should be around 1500 BFP, which is achievable within about three days of play. Buy your discounted daily booster, resell it to someone for more and there you go. The expensive cards don’t need charges though, which makes charge upgrades cheap at least. AH (Auction House) prices seem to be pretty consistent, if big outliers appear they usually settle again after a few days. What is more, you want to have around 15000 gold to immediately upgrade the cards that benefit from it the most. Less is workable but you'd have to cut corners. Shadow is generally a bit harder to play than other factions and trying to make working under budget restraints makes that especially true. Playing rPvE 9 is possible with the baseline version but it can be very tough. Especially the harder enemy types will be a big challenge. You’ll probably end up waiting around a whole lot in order to stack up your army. I'd advise you to stick to solo until you got a good feeling for the deck. Play one round of 6 or 7 at first. Then try 8 and 9. Tier progression Tier 1 Forsaken are our main guys, we stack as many of them as we can. One Snapjaw R is enough to serve as our support unit. We have to actively micro manage our army if we want to make the most of it. Snapjaw R applies a 50% damage taken debuff to the enemy it attacks and we want all our Forsaken to focus that target as well. This makes it possible to pick off one target after another in quick succession. Their ability Frenzy is hardly worth using until they are at least U2. Be careful with it, as it carries a high risk. If we don’t manage to use the immense damage boost to kill all opposition, we will be left with nothing. Embalmer’s Shrine is a very important building for this deck because a lot of cards have Corpse Gathering and therefore use corpse HP as a resource. While Pick over the bones is active Corpse Gathering will be much more efficient. We can build two Shrines and cycle their buffs, so we have permanent up-time if necessary. Soulsplicer G is used both offensively and defensively. We can build it just outside an enemy base and then pull their units into its AoE for Corpse Gathering. While it has some stored up, it will heal our army with Gifted Necromancy. This also makes it great to fortify a position together with units. We use it on U1 to gain access to Soul Suction, which effectively increases the area it can gather corpses from. On T1 specifically, we can use Pick over the bones to boost Soul Splicer G if absolutely necessary. Life Weaving probably won’t find much use in this tier yet. It’s actually a T1 card we pick up for later. Having it at least on U2 makes it work much better. Same for Offering G, it will see use in T3 and T4. Something to keep in mind about Offering is that it even resets a cards cooldown. So whenever we want to use a card in quick succession we can circumvent its cooldown, either internal or through a lack of charges, by offering a unit of the same tier as the desired card. Tier 2 Here things get interesting. Knight of Chaos is a pretty strong card but tricky to play and it depends on which affinity is used. Basically, we pre-cast Chaos and take care to not tag our own units. Then we run in before our own units, positioning the knight as deep as possible within the enemy army. Which affinity we use is completely up for preference though. Tainted Chaos has pretty big damage potential as enemies attack one another. But it's also riskier because you have to take care to not affect your own units. Blessed Chaos lets you use Forsaken to kill a few units before the enemy can react so it's safer. We can also use several knights to easily cycle the effect. This is seamlessly possible once it's U2. Imagine Shadow Phoenix as a spell. They deal massive AoE damage to ground targets and multiple at once can instantly kill high priority buildings like spawners. We take care to always have Embalmer’s Shrine running to ensure they make full use of Reincarnation. What’s even better is that when they use Crashdive once, they count as having died. Which means we get the usual 90% energy refund to your void pool. Considering the whole package, they are probably the strongest unit we can have on T2 hands down. There is also a fun interaction with Knight of Chaos. While Blessed Chaos prevents the Phoenix from suicide bombing Tainted Chaos lets them attack (albeit randomly) but since Crashdive isn't technically an attack the knight doesn't get damaged. Furnace of Flesh is this decks energy manipulation building. Whenever we have units we no longer need or have identified a spot where enemies tend to die regularly, we build a Furnace to speed up our void return. Having it on U1 will make it a bit more efficient. This is a vital building and will see use throughout the game. At this point we can also consider that, instead of simply destroying a left over Soul Splicer, we build a Furnace next to it and use Corpse Sharing to fuel a bit of void return until it runs dry. Time Vortex B deals a lot of damage and has strong knockback. It also shoots faster and faster the less void we have. So they have natural synergy with Furnace. Undead Army is another very important part of the deck that relies on corpses. It summons up to four Skeleton Warriors with Unholy Armor active, which means they take less damage but die after some time. Embalmer’s Shrine makes it much easier to summon the maximum amount of squads. The Skeletons upgrade level is the same as the spell, so it should be at least U2. They make great meat shields to soak up damage that would’ve been dealt to our main army otherwise. If the situation presents itself, letting the Skeletons die near a Furnace will make use of their corpses for void return. Tier 3 Cultist Master is one of the core cards in every shadow deck but it requires upgrades to gain exponentially more power. That's expensive, considering it's a rare, but it's well worth it. On its own it doesn't pack a big punch but with Call Horros it summons Nightcrawlers with Frenzy. Using these it can swamp enemies with murderous insects for a life cost. With Soulsplicer G it can push on the offensive repeatedly. But even more important is the interaction with Furnace of Flesh. This is the quintessential way to cycle void power for the rest of the game. Let a few (usually 3) Cultist Masters sit in your base around a Furnace and cast Call Horror whenever available. The Nightcrawlers will die automatically and fuel the Furnace so it gives back void power. No new power is created by this, you just get your old power back much quicker. This makes Cultist Master probably the highest value card we can pick up. Shadow Insect supplements T3. Once again, we encounter Corpse Gathering, this time to enable Soul Shock, which is a strong, spammable ranged nuke. U2 makes its usage much more rewarding. Embalmer’s Shrine helps sustaining frequent use. It can be tough to manage though, since their low health makes them impractical as frontliners. Cultist Masters can feed Shadow Insects with Nightcrawlers before you engage. Necroblaster G is one of the strongest T3 towers but it requires corpses. U2 is rather important as it makes it deal even more damage, which in turn kills enemies quicker and helps with corpse sustain. The real power of this stage lies in the spells. Blood Healing is very important to keep your units healthy, so U2 is recommended. We can use it on Nightcrawlers summoned by Cultist Master or Skeletons summoned by Undead Army. These make ideal targets since they will die anyway but their Unholy Armor reduces the health cost. This becomes an even stronger interaction once Undead Army is upgraded. Some numbers to think about: Skeleton Warriors U0 – 3 ticks of Blood Healing U1 and U2 – 5 ticks U3 – 7 ticks Blood Healing amount per tick U0 - 860 U1 - 900 U2 - 1000 U3 – 1100 This means if we have U0 Undead Army and U2 Blood Healing, we are only getting 3000 healing out of sacrificing one Skeleton. U1 Undead Army and U1 Blood Healing gives 4500, so it’s a much better investment. U3 Undead Army/U0 Blood Healing gives 6020 even. Having both on U3 will give the maximum output for this combo at 7700 healing. But that’s not all. Coming back to our T1 spells, we can use both Life Weaving and Blood Healing on the same unit, drastically reducing the health cost. Of course part of the self-damage will be spread out to surrounding units, which is vastly off-set by the healing though. However, the damage splash applies BEFORE the healing. Units that are close to death might just die from the effect of Life Weaving before Blood Healing heals them. But this combo makes it feasible to use Blood Healing on our own, permanent units without having to fear their death. Frenetic Assault G is one of the strongest spells in the game. It makes enemy units attack each other, so not only does it have huge damage potential, it makes our own units less likely to be attacked. The red affinity, which we use, can even be used on buildings, to make enemies destroy them. If the affected target dies quickly enough the spell even procs a second time. Offering G makes its first major appearance here as it can be used to sacrifice a Cultist Master in order to refresh the long cooldown on Frenetic Assault G or recharge your T3 cards in general. Tier 4 Unfortunately we have to spend big to get a decent T4 army going, since the cheap options pure shadow has to offer don’t work very well together. Which means we opt for an extremely powerful frontline in Overlord. U1 is very important here since it doubles the proc rate of Flesh Feast. This passive ability makes Overlord gather corpses to constantly heal himself. So despite only having 4000 HP, he can take a lot of punishment in prolonged skirmishes. Blood Share can be used to quickly heal some units, but a combination of Life Weaving with Blood Healing will be better in most situations. Take note though, that on the targeted unit Blood Healing prevents healing by any means other than inherent leech like Life Stealer. Necrofury cannot attack airborne targets but they wreak some real havoc. Positioning them in reasonable safety we can use Bone Shards, which is a devastating nuke that costs a lot of life points but deals even more damage. Using it early can take out big parts of the opposition before the fight even heats up. Much better to first upgrade the card though. Rifle Cultists are mainly there to fuel all your other T4 card charges with Offering G. Plague has ridiculous damage potential and is just too strong to pass on. Enemies that die while under the effect of the 5 original parasites will spread it even further. Some chain reactions later and we can have dozens of Plague instances. And they can even stack up! So if we are lucky we can have several stacks of Plague eating through a boss. Undead Army is still as useful as it was on T3, if not more so because of Blood Healing. Frenetic Assault G will also continue to serve us well. As will Furnace of Flesh with Cultist Masters. Alternative Cards to use With each Tier explained, let's look at some alternatives, upgrades or additions. Rough price chart: Very cheap - <20 Cheap - <80 Moderate - <150 Expensive - <250 Very expensive - <500 Top end - 500+ Tier 1 Options Nox Trooper – Sidegrade to Forsaken. Overload provides a lot of burst damage and they are less susceptible to knockback by virtue of being M. Cheap. Dreadcharger – Swift with The Reaping being a very strong if niche ability once upgraded. Moderate to expensive. Skeleton Warriors – Beefy frontline with Unholy Armor once upgraded. Very cheap. Phase Tower – Even after Relocation, it still has more raw stats than any unit for its cost. Cheap. Decomposer – A way to drastically speed up T2 acquisition but Furnace of Flesh quickly replaces it. Very cheap. Motivate – Useful throughout the entire game, assuming you have ways to replace the sacrifice. Moderate. Tier 2 Options Harvester – Possibly the most iconic shadow card. Extremely fun to play and an absolute powerhouse once upgraded. Top end. Darkelf Assassins – Their ability can make short work of enemies. Very risky to use though. Cheap. Shadow Mage – Difficult to use but can be very fun. Enormous damage output but they require a lot of care for sustain, like Soul Splicer G or Undead Army. Moderate. Resource Booster – If you are confident a round will be over quickly, this will speed it up further. Always a boon in rPvE where the timer guarantees that you will benefit. Very cheap to cheap. Stone of Torment – Very situational but used in clusters it can deal with most attacks. Very cheap. Unholy Power – Great synergy with centerpiece units like Harvester. Very cheap to cheap. Nether Warp B/G – An amazing utility card if used right. Don’t inconvenience your allies though, you don’t know if they want to come along for the ride. Blue affinity is better suited to CC enemies, green is more beneficial for your own units. Very expensive to top end. Tier 3 Options Ashbone Pyro – Once upgraded this card can carry T3 and even work on T4. Moderate. Fallen Skyelf – Visions of Despair can annihilate tanky enemies, even bosses, if sufficient damage output is present. A classic combo is Necrofury buffed by Unholy Hero using Bone Shards. Moderate. Unstable Demon – Quite difficult to pilot but a very engaging card once upgraded. Cheap. Infect – A whole lot of meat shields with damage potential to boot. Top end. Frenetic Assault P - The spell is so powerful that it can even be justified having both affinities in a deck. Moderate. Soulshatter – Smart usage can wipe out bunched up units. Moderate to expensive. Tier 4 Options Death Ray – Requires U3 to get faster. Leech Guns gives them immense damage output but it’s hard to sustain them in pure shadow. Moderate. Grim Bahir – Supportive unit that summons lots of meatshields. The Nether Crawlers can even be Offered to recharge T4 cards. Expensive to very expensive. Shadow Worm – Very powerful and versatile card. Self sufficient backline, Earth Diving disruptor or mobile Disintigrator. Life Stealer works through Blood Healing and the damage reduction while moving reduces its damage. Very expensive. Void Maw – Enabling a lot of damage potential and offers some guaranteed burst damage on bosses. Cheap. Altar of Chaos – Together with Cultist Master summons the bombs can deal ludicrous damage. Moderate. Unholy Hero – Makes a single unit deadly both to enemies and allies. Especially potent with already high offensive capabilities, like Death Ray, Necrofury or even Rifle Cultists. Very cheap. Upgrade priorities Some advice on what to invest in once you start gathering Gold for card upgrades and BFP for more charges. There are some mandatory upgrades and charges as a baseline and I wouldn't advise running this deck without them. These are extra highlighted. Vital upgrades AND charges Forsaken – Stronger T1 is always a priority. U2 and C2 Recommended. Shadow Insect – Better ability and more charges to Offer for Satanael. U2 and C2 Recommended. Necroblaster – More damage means better corpse sustain. U2 and C2 Recommended. Undead Army – Always have this spell ready and tankier Skeleton Warriors not only mean better meatshields but also more efficient Blood Healing. U1 and C1 Recommended. Blood Healing – Your major way of sustain, every tick needs to be worth as much as possible. U1 and C1 Recommended. Vital upgrades Cultist Master – More Nightcrawlers summoned. U2 Recommended. Overlord – Much stronger heal and damage. U1 Recommended. Furnace of Flesh – More void return. U1 Recommended. Life Weaving – Better synergy with Blood Healing. U2 Recommended. Soulsplicer G – U1 is very strong. U1 Recommended. Important upgrades Shadow Phoenix – More consistent survival and greater damage output. Knight of Chaos – Ability lasts longer, which allows chaining it and of course longer uptime. Necrofury – Much stronger ability and health. Embalmer’s Shrine – Makes any corpse reliant ability easier to use. Time Vortex B – If you use them often treat yourself to more damage. Offering G – If you use it very frequently, upgrade asap. Frenetic Assault G – Too powerful to ignore. More charges won't do anything though, because of the long innate CD. Decent upgrades Snapjaws R – Just a bit more life. Rifle Cultist – A very powerful ability but mostly used for Offering G. Plague – Much cheaper to use. My other Guides HOW TO: PvE Deckbuilding Guide - If you are unsure how to start building your own decks and what to consider. CHEAP and powerful BEGINNER Deck - If you are rather interested in a very cheap and flexible mixed deck. CHEAP Pure-Fire Deck - If you are rather interested in a cheap and flexible fire deck.

You'd obviously only go clearing the cannons after the wagon is locked down and safe. If your allies are in a hurry and want to rush the giant then they have a choice: Either take the reward penalty for not finishing the side-quest or help out doing so. You don't need three people pushing the giant (with the forth potentially even joining in) anyway, the only reason why that became the default approach is because the right side of the map is unimportant after the wagon is secure. If the cannons are meaningful again, two players might actually take on the right side. If you think about it, it's kind of weird that the meta for this map evolved in such a way that the one thing that decides over instant-failure is the responsibility of a single player. Intuitively, you'd almost expect everyone to quickly pull up a serviceable defense on the base and then joining together to secure the wagon as four, only spreading out again after that is done. But it turns out to be a one-man-job, oh well. Barely anyone questions it either. It's "Need a good Pos3 for BH or bust". Back to the topic of making the cannons more important: Ideally there would then also be a path that leads from the cannon-camps directly towards the giant so the players that cleared that don't have to traverse the entire map just to get to the final boss.

Tweeto continues to do such a bang up job emulating the artstyle. As for the name, I would lean a bit into the naming scheme of less serious, rugged names that you can imagine being bellowed across a tent while everyone is getting drunk. Things like "Boom Bomb" from Artillery. Bandit Launchers "Firebug". Corsairs "Big Fat Cannon" and Rioter's Retreat "Uproar". Descriptive, visceral names that you can yell even while drunk on gold and booze. "Treacherous Path" sounds a bit to lofty to catch on with Bandits. And a different name would help differentiate the card from "Mine" and Soulhunters "Minefield". Name: Desert Carpet Ability: Toeclippers The idea is based on carpet bombing as the area is similar. It is also something that I can imagine crafty Bandits saying. "Let's lay out the desert carpet for these folks.", making fun of the more civilized nations and their customs. The ability itself is the more grounded version and represents a type of dark, macabre humor I see as very fitting for Bandits. Since mines are equally meant to cripple and kill I imagine Bandits might have fun ironically belittling them as Toeclippers. Knowing fully well how devastating they really are. "Harhar, hope they don't mind some Toeclippers."

If you were able to trade up lower rarities to higher ones, then the excess of low rarity cards would get diminished to the point where it's actually worth it again to put them into the AH. And if it turns out the supply becomes so low that the prices, even for Commons, become unreasonable, then opening Boosters would be very lucrative once more, since even the crap cards would recoup some cost. Which would then increase supply again. Right now the value of an opened booster is determined by just a couple of cards that are valued for more than multiple boosters. Every booster not containing one of the top tiers is a big loss overall at the moment. So with enough economy participants, it should find a new balance. But the most important points are that it would stop endlessly inflating Ultra Rares by increasing supply (as people trade up) and the bottom tier Commons/Uncommons become a bit more valuable as the excess gets culled. Being able to trade up should have the effect of lowering the price ceiling while giving every card inherent value (if only as material to trade up), raising the price floor. It would also serve as a soft BFP sink, as cards are just another manifestation of BFP (they get generated through boosters, which are generated through BFP). Actually, I think a quick-sell option of turning cards directly back into BFP would be detrimental. It would generate even more BFP, which is the last thing the game needs.

I wanted to add that I think that the second to last progress picture looks much more dynamic because the legs don't just hang down but the right one has a different position.

@Chronopie For this bandit dragon you have very powerful support from Unity and Bloodthirst. On top of its innate life steal, which synergizes greatly with its high offensive stat. That will lead to this guy being deceptively tanky, it's going to be an airborne leechtank. As long as it isn't bursted out of the sky, it won't go down at all. And you got a mobile mass-cleanse that you can even use preemptively. Assuming these are U0 numbers, then the duration might even be longer than 10 seconds. Or it might be even cheaper. I think that justifies a price tag of 280-290. As for the artwork itself, the color scheme is amazing. It fits in seamlessly with other bandit cards. I do think it should be a bit bigger though, there is a lot of wasted space. Maybe have it be more centered like this. The lower jaw seems a bit small to me though. Almost like a fish eating crocodile, with a very slender and fragile jaw. It suggests that this mighty dragon is mostly hunting small and soft game. I think it should be way more pronounced and give the impression that it could crack open a Tortugun. Even if you look at the in-game model of Northland Drake, its jaw bone is very big and looks like it has powerful muscles despite having a much more slender snout than the Gen1 dragon models. And the neck seems very short, like it is ducking its head. Might just be perspective but if you look at the in-game models, the neck is always very long compared to the placement of the wings. Wasteland Wing does sound like a very fitting name. The alliteration makes it very smooth and it makes sense that it would be called like that by natives.

Hm, that's unfortunate. I recorded it on the test server because I wanted to do a run without upgrades, so that's most likely why. Won't do a blank run on live since I would have to downgrade all cards, which would waste a lot of gold. The replay should work on the current iteration on the test server though!

Of course the extra Unity can be replaced with something else but since they both stack and the G is very good on T3, while B is generally superior on T4 using both can be justified. Especially if the goal is to make the deck a bit more forgiving. Before someone gets a few upgrades and charges going on their units, it can indeed be valuable to add some more to the deck to have something to fall back on if charges get depleted. My first candidates to replace would be Fire Sphere, Inferno and possibly Comet Catcher. A cheap unit to fill the gaps could then be Thugs if you want even more prowess on T1. On T2 it depends. Gladiatrix G for more ranged damage. Enforcer and Scythe Fiends if a beefier frontline is needed. T3 either Vulcan for AoE damage or Sun Reaver as an inexpensive frontline. On T4 the already mentioned Boom Brothers or Emberstrike. If their abilities are used more conservatively, then energy shouldn't be an issue.

Foreword Content: Cost Tier progression Alternative Cards to use Upgrade priorities Replay My other Guides This guide aims to put together a pure fire deck on a budget. As always in Skylords, any suggestion is merely that. It’s all about experimenting. If you don’t like something, just change it. Want to give something a try? Just slot it in! Pulled an interesting card that you want to see in action? Build a deck around it, make it work! Struggle with a specific map? Try different cards, there might be more suitable ones for different situations. Create something else entirely from the ground up? The card pool is your oyster. With that being said my goals here are: Focus on cards of mostly lower rarity Use cheap cards Introduce cards (in the deck itself or as alternatives) that have at least some interesting synergies and are more involved Be flexible, so many cards can be changed Be a generalist, usable in both rPvE and cPvE Cost Since the introduction of the Card Reforging, the prices have changed drastically. Generally, this means that the cost for this deck is much lower. But it's still wild out there, so consider this section outdated. I will adjust it once I feel like the economy has settled in and prices are more stable again. The pricetag isn’t excessive but it will inevitably be higher than a budget mixed deck, because the pool of available cards is restricted. Rough price chart: Very cheap - <10 BFP Nomad G Sunstriders Fire Stalker Magma Hurler Banner of Glory Eruption Ravage Lava Field Unity G Unity B Fire Sphere Cheap - <80 BFP Skyfire Drake Fire Dragon Pyromaniac R Bloodthirst Suppression Comet Catcher Moderate - <150 BFP Firesworn R Batariel P Inferno The estimated total to get at least one copy of each card should be no more than 700 BFP, which is achievable within a mere two days of play. Buy your discounted daily booster, resell it to someone for more and there you go. To get to a more comfortable level of play, which means a few good charge upgrades, you are probably looking at roughly 1100 BFP investment. It's also a good idea to immediately invest some gold on high value upgrades. AH (Auction House) prices seem to be pretty consistent, if big outliers appear they usually settle again after a few days. Playing rPvE 9 is possible without any upgrades at all but lacking charges and upgrades can make it a bit tight and I wouldn't necessarily advise it. Especially the harder enemy types and map layouts will be a big challenge and probably not always work out. It's better to stick to solo until you got a good feeling for the deck. Play one round of 6 or 7 at first. Then try an 8, then 9. You will notice my use of singular letters next to card names, which are referring to the cards affinity. G = Green, P = Purple, B = Blue, R = Red. Cards with affinities have two different versions and they vary in effect, depending on their affinity. Affinities are represented by a small dot on the card in their respective color. They have nothing to do with what Orbs you need to play that card though. Here is the deck: Nomad G - Firesworn R - Sunstriders - Fire Stalker - Skyfire Drake - Magma Hurler - Batariel P - Fire Dragon - Banner of Glory - Pyromaniac R – Comet Catcher - Suppression - Eruption - Ravage - Lava Field - Unity G - Unity B – Inferno - Fire Sphere - Bloodthirst Tier progression Tier 1 The backbone of this T1 is Nomad G. You have to summon three of them at the very least so their passive healing activates, which makes them durable fighters, especially if you micro them a bit and pull back the most wounded Nomad so that enemies instead focus on a healthier one. Once upgraded, they can even deal damage to airborne targets with an active ability. Firesworn R has exceptional damage and specialize in dispatching of L units. Their S knockback is very valuable too. Unfortunately they cannot hit airborne targets. For these you will need Sunstriders. It can also be a good idea to have one squad ready to suppress buildings and finish off S squads. Your main way of managing your energy economy througout the game is Banner of Glory. Whenever you upgrade tiers on a large scale make sure to kill your own units in its aura to get some energy back for immediate use. Build it during combat so you get some energy right away when your units happen to die. And that’s not all, it can quickly be built between encounters so your army can naturally regenerate around it while out of combat. Eruption is as straight forward as it is versatile. It will help a lot against airborne units, can be used in quick succession to destroy high priority buildings, such as enemy spawns, and disrupt combat. Or quickly finish off an important target that’s barely hanging on. On T1 Suppression is kind of superfluous because you already have Sunstriders here. But it will serve you well throughout the entire game whenever you have to disable a dangerous building. Feel free to fall back on these two spells at any stage of the game. Tier 2 Nomads can still serve as your primary frontline and Firesworn remain invaluable against dangerous L enemies. While they fight in melee combat Fire Stalkers also boast regular L bonus damage. Switched to Unstable Ember they can be used as artillery pieces and disrupt combat with S knockback. Use them to destroy buildings from afar and lure enemies out to fight them in the open. Skyfire Drake is very fragile but deals devastating damage. Use their high mobility to keep them out of danger and hit the enemy where it hurts. With Pyromaniac R you get a surprisingly deadly tower. Although it cannot hit airborne targets its fire melts through multiple units at once. If you expect a lot of dangerous airborne enemies you can switch to the B affinity. As for spells you get some rudimentary healing in Ravage to keep a unit from dying mid combat. Lava Field is expensive, so use it wisely. It can give you some time to breath by knocking back S and M units. Tier 3 Any remaining T1 units should get recycled with Banner of Glory now. Fire Stalkers will rarely be worth it now but Skyfire Drakes can still be of help because of their high mobility. Hardly in direct confrontations through. Other than that Magma Hurler is the sole star of the show. Summon as many as you can and focus fire anything dangerous. Leave some energy for spells though because you will now have access to one of the most vital fire spells: Unity. So vital in fact that you can use both affinities in a deck. G has a decent healing attached to it. Use it on your Magma Hurlers to turn them into a deathball. B will find its main use on T4, where its damage reduction helps protect your valuable units. The two affinities even stack with one another, which units affected by G and B both bond together. If you have lots of energy to spare use Inferno to decimate enemies. Tier 4 If you still have any T2 units at this point, kill them. You will want to keep your Magma Hurlers through unless you have enough charges on your other T4 units. Speaking of which, we have Batariel P here. Broadly underestimated and underappreciated, its aura makes enemy entities take a whole lot more damage from all sources. Its active ability can be used to initiate combat to immediately fire it up. Fire Dragons are a quintessential fire unit as they enrage in combat and end up dealing absurd damage, which gets further amplified by Batariels aura. This combination leads to tremendous damage outputs. Comet Catcher has both offensive and defensive use. It takes some time for the comet to fall down but it can wipe out entire armies in an instant. The presence of another building or unit is required at the target location though. In defensive scenarios you can pair them with Pyromaniac which finishes off any stragglers. Similar to Comet Catcher, Fire Sphere also has a delay but anything that remains in its explosion will sustain massive damage. An extremely important spell is Bloodthirst as it lets your units heal up during combat. This is especially potent when combined with Unity B. Using these two spells in conjunction is crucial in keeping your units alive. Alternative Cards to use With each Tier explained, let's look at some alternatives, upgrades or additions. Rough price chart: Very cheap - <10 Cheap - <80 Moderate - <150 Expensive - <250 Very expensive - <600 Top end - 600+ Tier 1 Options Sunderer – The only T1 L unit in the game and very beefy for a fire unit. Can destroy buildings with ease. Expensive to very expensive. Thugs – Several of them link together and share their health pool, as if affected by Unity, making them very durable. Very Cheap. Blaster Cannon P/R – Whenever you find yourself in a situation where you are facing dangerous airborne units early on, consider using Blaster Cannon. Lure flying units into them. Very cheap. Makeshift Tower – Low damage output but its S knockback can buy a lot of time early on. Its Accelerated Construction can even make it useful offensively. Cheap. Mine – The iconic and ridiculously strong fire opener. It has ludicrous damage potential with up to 3600. Top end. Tier 2 Options Gladiatrix G – Strong and agile with good utility. Cheap. Firedancer – Artillery range and extremely high damage to buildings. Top end. Morklay Trap – Build them defensively to annihilate incoming attacks or lure enemies into them. Very cheap. Pyromaniac B – If you need solid anti-air. Very cheap. Disenchant P/G – Counteract disabling effects on your units, which is especially important in fire because most units don’t have a lot of health and can therefore die quickly if they are unable to retaliate. Very expensive to top end. Viridya – Passive healing for your army. But makes you feel dirty for diluting your pure fire deck. Expensive to very expensive. Tier 3 Options Vulcan – Very strong AoE clear but cannot hit air. Very cheap. Juggernaut – Another iconic card that can devastate buildings and packs a punch. Expensive to very expensive. Spitfire – Has relatively low damage and life but is very versatile. The only airborne unit with artillery range and siege. Very expensive to top end. Shrine of War – Probably the first card you want to add if you like to play rPvE. Drastically increases void return, speeding up the game a whole lot. Very expensive. Tier 4 Options Boom Brothers – A very involved and surprisingly powerful playstyle but it relies on fast void return with Shrine of War. The active ability is incredibly strong and with their damage bonus, they tear through any XL enemy, making them helpless with their knockback to boot. Very cheap. Emberstrike – A good addition to Boom Brothers as these cannot hit air. Strong combat stats but unfortunately worthless damage bonus against M. The ability is very strong as well. Very cheap. Moloch – Slow but close to immortal. A good combination with Unity. Expensive. Magma Fiend – If you are already going slow with Moloch, why not commit further? Cheap. Volcano G/R – If you are looking to fortify one position, this card can get the job done. Can deal a lot of damage but will take some in return. Moderate. Earthshaker – An extremely useful card. It has good CC against units but most importantly destroys buildings quickly. Very expensive. Cluster Explosion – Stupidly powerful spell that can destroy clumped up enemies on its own. Very expensive to top end. Upgrade priorities Some advice on what to invest in once you start gathering Gold for card upgrades and BFP for more charges. If you have some excess gold, it's a good idea to invest some into vital upgrades right away. It's very cheap to upgrade Commons To U2 and Uncommons to U1. Vital upgrades AND charges Skyfire Drake - More life and lower energy cost makes this card much more forgiving. Fire Dragon - More base damage means much higher damage cap. Magma Hurler - As the only T3 unit, these should be as strong as possible. They only gain some life, but that's very good when combined with Unity. Eruption - As a bread and butter spell, this needs to deal as much damage as possible. And the reduced cost adds up quickly if you cast it a lot. Unity G/B - Longer duration and lower cost makes this much easier to juggle. Bloodthirst - Your most powerful heal should do its job often and properly. Vital upgrades Nomad G - Very important to unlock its active ability and make it even tankier. Firesworn R - Its bonus damage to L units scales A LOT. It's a more expensive upgrade but go for it if you find yourself using them often. Batariel P - More damage means its aura will proc and ramp up faster. Banner of Glory - More void return means a smoother transition between tiers and shorter recovery time when units die in combat. Ravage - Stronger heal. Lava Field - More bang for your buck. Important upgrades Suppression - If you feel like you can't destroy the disabled buildings in time. Inferno - As one of the most energy-intensive spells in the game, you want it to do some work. But it depends on how frequently you like using it. Decent upgrades Sunstriders - A cheap upgrade that will help if you find yourself manning a lot of walls and just generally want to have an easier time with airborne targets and suppressing buildings. Fire Stalker - Just a bit more life. Pyromaniac R - Also merely a bit more tankiness. Comet Catcher - Much more damage but it's expensive so it depends on how much you like it. Fire Sphere - If you like using this spell. Replay A replay on rPvE 9 without upgrades. To watch it you have to download the file and add it to: C:\Users\<user name>\Documents\BattleForge\replays Budget Fire rPvE9.pmv I try to rush the spawner on the third orb but don’t quite manage so it drags on for a moment. Building one Pyromaniac on each base just to defend it. Could've also just built them at the intersection, but it's fine. The Magma Hurlers serve me well even on T4. I build Banner to regenerate my army between fights. Unfortunately my Batariels aggro on the last base and get killed but it's a minor setback at this point. My other Guides HOW TO: PvE Deckbuilding Guide - If you are unsure how to start building your own decks and what to consider. CHEAP and powerful BEGINNER Deck - If you are rather interested in a very cheap and flexible mixed deck. CHEAP Pure-Shadow Deck - If you are rather interested in a cheap and flexible shadow deck.

Holding and hopefully gonna pull the new frost shielding card once it's released🤞

Worldbreaker Gun doesn't literally break worlds. Glaciation or Glacier Shell don't literally turn walls and buildings into glaciers. Ice Age is not literally a global, extinction level climate change. It's exaggeration for dramatic and imposing effect, as used a dime and dozen in fiction and everyday language. If anything these cards show that for frost it is perfectly in line that they give their spells and entities names that present them as much grander than they are in reality. "This enormous cannon is so mighty, it can break the entire world!" "This ancient, arcane magic makes buildings as sturdy as a glacier!" "This powerful enchantment will conjure an ice age so that our protection will be everlasting!" and here "These Ice Shields are so potent, they turn any creature into an immortal bastion!" Immortal Aegis does have a nice ring to it too, though ...

I am in favor of having the player engage with the camp instead of killing the spawner over a cliff while the AI remains idle. It would still be possible to occupy the defending army and rushing in to destroy the building. But with that strat you at least have to play around the twilight camp.

The building is the designated spawn for the enemy waves, right? What behavior would you rather see?

Incredible work by Tweeto. Very lucky to have such an artist on the team. He captures the artstyle very well, I think. This looks like one hell of a fight against Lost Souls. So the intent seems to be that Winterwitch remains the go-to shielding solution for 2B2X splash, while this spell is reserved for pure frost. I hope Ice Age will remain splashable, just like Winterwitch, so they can still work together. Synergy with Ice Age G will also dictate how good the purple affinity will be. Name: Immortal Bastion Ability: Tainted/Blessed Last Stand An "Immortal Bastion" sounds like something that peak-frost could achieve. The entire faction is about longevity and tankiness, so the apex of that is obviously becoming undying in battle through the use of overwhelming shielding power. Every unit affected becomes a moving, immortal bastion by itself. The spell should have an imposing name. A coat is soft and comfy. Protection is caring. Frost however is cold, mighty and insurmountable. It does not pamper, it creates beings that can withstand anything like an ancient glacier. Something infused with the essence of frost cannot die. Not because it is actually immortal or is able to revive. No, because it becomes such an indestructible presence that any weaponry known to god, giant or men just shatters on contact. But it is also something that's not used lightly. It takes a lot of effort to weave a spell this grand, to conjure the true potential of the most stalwart faction. So it mostly sees use in dire situations, when frost has to make a last stand and become an immovable object for enemies to shatter on. This is Frost! This is our Last Stand against forces who dare challenge us and push us this far. Know true despair as your puny weapons fail you and you grind yourself to pieces against our Immortal Bastion! This! Is! Frost! Sounds about right to me 😛 There are already cards with accents in the game, Nomad comes to mind. If the accent fits for the unit and faction it could be very charming and give it some extra personality. But not every accent would be suitable for a Cocky Bandit Sniper and the factions background.