Single hero team - HOW?

[Bud]

I see single hero teams, double and triple too, but how do they do it? My attempts will not let me use less than five.

Help appreciated

[DJQuixo]

For what, specifically? On Defense? That is easy enough.

Go to a blank hero screen. Select one hero. click apply.

No need to do this unless you are dropping cups (trophies) which, I think, is stupid and anti-competition.

[Bud]

Look at teltoc leaderboards. Several top spots have one or two heroes, only.

[DJQuixo]

That is the troll’s way of hiding their team used to finish the events. But yes, you can do this. Change your heroes, leave some blanks, click the X and when it asks to save, click yes.

[DMP]

I wouldn’t call them trolls, it is a competition.

[Bud]

Thank for trolls everywhere

[DJQuixo]

the gray area of Pay-to-play really comes into focus with these events. Those with money/gems can add food/iron, fast forward production of battle items, and “fast track” farming with world flasks and tickets.

I know that you do not HAVE to spend money to make it to the rankings, but c’mon. Even Anchor’s video shows he’s got 100 tornadoes, etc.

It’s competitive to a point, but I think that hiding your team is a little silly because it doesn’t mean anything beyond you finished stage 10 (maybe) or some other stage. One guy even changed his team to 5 guinevere for the H of it. I call it trolling but it’s mild.

[Bud]

I go back to Revelate saying challenge events are were a subtle way for devs to slow growth.

[Sidhekin]

@DJQuixo

I know that you do not HAVE to spend money to make it to the rankings, but c’mon. Even Anchor’s video shows he’s got 100 tornadoes, etc.

Hey, I have 165 tornadoes. I didn’t pay for them. All you need is patience …

(I’m not spending my tornadoes frivolously. I save them until I see a fair chance to win something by using them. And with time, even they pile up …)

[Bud]

I have 200, and 200 time stops, because I have nothing else to do with the excess iron

[DJQuixo]

Results may vary, I know that not everyone pays for their materials, but it is one place that it is quite possible to spend ~100 before an event to place in the top 10, get the high-grade loot.

I use my timestops and tornadoes on titans in an attempt to score higher, but maybe I’m just a bad player and didn’t have the reserves. I started playing in Feb I think. Used a lot of oil for antidotes, metal for arrows, etc, so that’s actually what I struggle for.

it would be naive to say that it is not a common practice for those with deep pockets to speed their production. That’s all I am saying. Not accusing everyone of this, just saying play styles vary widely at times and F2P/C2P are less likely to have the same reserves as someone who puts more into the game.

[Sidhekin]

@DJQuixo

I use my timestops and tornadoes on titans in an attempt to score higher

I soon found that unsustainable. Nowadays I only use them in a pinch, never as part of my routine.

[DJQuixo]

I use them to compensate for my lower team strength versus titans that are a little stronger than my team is ready for (10* rares, for example). Trying to stay in the B loot tier to get the maximized chances, etc.

sustainable? no. effective? so far, yes. Kind of a ‘fake it till I make it’ strategy.

[Gryphonknight]

Edit 2018-Nov-10
If you don’t mind stalking the leaderboard, you can wait until the player is actually running the challenge tier. They cannot increase their score without running a competitive team.

@Bud

I go back to Revelate saying challenge events are were a subtle way for devs to slow growth.

In my experience Small Giant leans heavily on data mining and testing common freemium activities ( see Notes on lessons ).

The challenge events are a very common event in Visual novel games and appear to be very profitable ( see Notes on business model ). Just like the eBay auctions they are based on, last minute sniping, large amounts of time, and large amounts of money can get you that Merlin avatar ( Not that I am bitter about that. No. I am definitely bitter about that. )

MY PERSONAL OPINION
The reward for completing any stage in a tier is 1 summon token ( 2 recruits worth of reward ).

The reward for completing Rare tier stage 10 is another summons token ( 2 recruits worth of reward ) and some farmable items.

I skip Rare tier, I might as well use the free World energy flask and farm s1-7-7 for recruits and rugged clothes.

The rewards for completing Epic tier stage 10 is an Epic troop token ( $2.50 USD ) and two 3* non-farmable ascension items ( $4 USD ).

I can auto play Epic tier stages 1- 8 ( 4* 3.60 Boldtusk, 4* 4.70 Melendor, Grimm, Scarlett, Rigard ). Currently I can complete Epic tier stage 9 & 10 with 1* / 2* battle items and swapping Boldtusk for 4* 3.60 Hansel or 4* 3.60 Kiril. So I collect my token, Compass and Orb then I am done with Guardians until it comes again.

==Notes==

==Business model of challenge events==

@Gryphonknight

Challenge events are like eBay, only the top bidder gets the really rare and valuable stuff, that is why the 2- 10 prizes are not nearly as good as the #1 prize. If the 2- 10 prizes were almost as good, people wouldn’t waste time trying for #1. Someone selling something on eBay want the most money they can get from it, the Devs want the most people striving for #1. Improving the other challenge event rewards would water down the time, energy and money spent trying to get #1.

You can see this also in the event summons. The Devs could add event only 3* heroes and then just have a summons of ONLY event heroes. At least hearing people complain about a x10 summons getting five 3* Drunken sailor would be new. Instead the Devs deliberately make it hard to get the Guardian heroes by mixing them in with ALL the 4* and 5* heroes.

The tier completion rewards are like buy it now on eBay, not really and auction, more of a shop. Yes, I would like it if the completion rewards were on par with a rare quest, because that seems to be the amount of time, effort and money required to get them, but the Devs need a large difference to encourage people shooting for #1.

The “Save the Winter” even is almost exactly what you are describing. Perhaps we will one day have twelve monthly specials based on a holiday. The Devs are programming as fast as they can.

I think the biggest discontent comes from “wasting hero roster slots” saving 3* heroes for the challenge event and then the tier completion rewards being so poor.

==Freemium lessons learned==

@Gryphonknight

We got several millions of downloads ( Oddwings by Small Giant ) but in terms of monetization we didn’t do a good job because we were too ambitious in our project. One very blunt conclusion was that it’s very difficult to break away from the conventions in the casual games F2P-market. You have to follow the existing conventions almost to detail and only do select few micro innovations there because consumers have gotten so used to a certain flow of things in games, which makes trying to divert from that extremely difficult and risky.

[DMP]

Personally I also have 100s of tornadoes/super mana/time stops etc because I don’t use them I’m just saving up for the future when I have a team to actually compete in legendary. I always advocate for sustainable titan hitting. Try using minor health potions, turtle banners, antidotes, and occasional usage of minor mana/arrows. You’ll find you gradually improve your titan hitting since you’re not rushing as much and you’ll get a lot of practice throwing items when you use minor hp to heal your heroes. Look at the board as you’re using your minor hp potion to find your next move.