(Tested in post 13) Leveraging Tie Breaker in Raids to Win: Cheating? Exploitable Feature?

General Discussion
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Not 100% sure if this makes more sense in the bugs/Issues category or the general discussion category. The mods can move it if I have miscategorized this topic

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I think we can all agree that the Tie Breaker feature was added to keep Raids/Wars from going on indefinitely. Correct?

This may be a fringe case, but I thought it was worth bringing up for discussion.

This morning I had to walk away from a Raid to grab something from my office. I was testing out one of my “last flag” war teams on this particular raid, so not only was my team underpowered for this specific battle, but it was also horribly mismatched for the elements of my opponent. I was stacked 3/2 purple/green

I had been trading blows for a few minutes with the opponent and had them down to their last two heroes. Vivica, who was at 90%ish mana/25% HP and Leo who was charged/10%ish HP. I was down to only Rigard with sub 50% HP/mana and Cade who was hanging on by a thread and a minion.

I only had two moves left on the board, both would have charged Viv. One of the moves under Viv would have created a match 3 green. I knew from earlier in the raid that it would not kill her. The other match was off-color (red I think).

Either way, my next move would have charged Viv and unless the most fantastic cascade happened, I would be dead.

However, when I got back from my office, the Tiebreaker mode had gone into effect. That one green match killed Viv. Leo Fired and killed Cade. But killing Viv via the tiebreaker gave me enough time to work the board and get purple tiles under Leo and take him out.

So…

Here is my question. Is the tiebreaker mode based on time, a number of moves, or both?

If it is strictly time, then this is an easily exploitable feature. I should have lost that raid and I don’t really feel good about how it went down. I can see a situation where folks start waiting for the tiebreaker to kick in after charging specials to get that extra boost when they are behind.

One solution could be to not allow the tiebreaker to go into effect if the board is inactive.

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Interesting. When I’ve had to walk away temporarily my phone times out and I lose connection (losing raid). If I lengthen the time to time out in the phone my battery dies too fast (oooold phone).

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No. There’s a time limit to keep raid/war attacks from lasting forever. The tiebreaker kicks in after 30(?) turns.

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So the tie breaker is exclusively based on number of moves?

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The tiebreaker is based upon turns AND time.

If you are merely inactive, the raid/war will just time out. you will lose.

However (whatever the variable/combo is) if you are actively playing and it’s taking awhile… It will kick in.

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6

There’s no tie-break mode in war. War battles simply time out.

Raids have both a move-count and timer, either of which triggers the tie-breaker rule.

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It sounds like your war teams are so fast you never see the tiebreaker.

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8

AFAIK the timer does not trigger tie-breaker rules, it only counts down from the last 5 minutes.
Tie breaker is independent and adds the damage bonus and it does not exist in wars.

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9

Testing this out on a few raids to see what happens.

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10

I have wondered this as well, but have never tested it out since - like you - it would feel not great to exploit it.

From my observations I think these are roughly the rules:

  • Tiebreaker starts when there is 5 minutes left in the raid AND you have taken 30 or more turns. I think both of those conditions must be met, but I’ve never counted to see if I banged out 30 moves in less time (and didn’t win/lose).
  • At that point, damage on both sides is boosted by 10% multiplied by turn number minus 30.

For example:
Turn 30 bonus damage is 10% * (30-30) = 0% (normal damage)
Turn 31 bonus damage is 10% * (31-30) = 10%
etc.

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I’m pretty sure that the timer and tie-breaker should be separate :confused: That’s what my experience has been.

I know for wars there’s no tiebreaker with an increasing attack though. That’s only for raids.

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12

I’m sure I read it somewhere here.

For independency: I often run into a tie break, when only healers are left. Last time was some minutes ago on a raid, should have taken a screenshot…

No tie break in wars:

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Tie break without timer…had to let that Rigard alive :slight_smile:

Screenshot_20190918-170937_Empires
Screenshot_20190918-170937_Empires720×1560 860 KB

Edit: 5 minutes left without tie break:

Screenshot_20190918-171654_Empires
Screenshot_20190918-171654_Empires720×1560 836 KB

Less than5 minutes left, some moves afterwards: new tie break with “normal” increased tie break damage for move 32 and then she was dead…

Screenshot_20190918-171744_Empires
Screenshot_20190918-171744_Empires720×1560 843 KB

So for having an advantage, you have to work hard :slight_smile:

7 Likes
14

Fantastic work!!

I got busy so I wasn’t able to finish all my tests.

I’m really happy to see these results.

So it seems like just letting the time run down wont proc the tiebreaker.

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15

Yes, indeed. I was lucky with those 2 raids.

I even tried to look if the timeout has a hidden damage increase by firing some blues before and after the 5:00 appeared, but

  1. the damage was almost equal and then
  2. the real tie break appeared, starting with the normal 110% on turn 31, 120% for turn 32 as before, so I think those effects are both independent and there’s only one damage increase - on the tie break, not in the timeout.
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16

I wouldn’t say that I exploit it, but if I’m going nowhere against the last hero on a defense and it’s a healer that just keeps getting back to 100% because my damage dealers are all dead I just don’t give up. I know that eventually the tiebreaker will kick-in, and I will likely win. Not always tho. Patience is key.

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Tell me about it, I have been down to tiles duking it out with 25 seconds left. Watching me play when I’m desperate must be hilarious.

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And there is no timeout (maybe after some hours) and no tie breaker in Trials, uff…

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It’s not a timer. Tie breaker starts at turn 31 at 110% damage and increases 10% every turn thereafter:
image
Be nimble
Be quick

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That’s interesting but, as a ‘feature’ it is one I actually really don’t mind. If i made it that far, I usually win and i’m almost certain I have never seen it past 180%. Tiles are doing ridiculous damage and specials can be frightening.