I’m glad this was useful to you. It’s been a long term goal of mine to improve this writeup with some more information and a cleaner layout.
Having done that, I’m not sure what i did is actually an improvement haha. So as a result, I’m gonna post it in the comments here and then ask @zephyr1 what he thinks is better 
Titan Attack Fundamentals
Glossary:
- Core E&P Game Mechanic: COLOR STACKING!
a. If you’re a new player, this is basically required reading 
If there’s one thing you read here, this should be it.
- Titan BASICS
a. TF is a Titan?
b. Dealing Damage to Titans (Buffs and Debuffs)
c. Stunning Titans
d. Item Usage
e. Rare Titan rules
- COLOR STACKING
a. New Player Required Reading
Color Stacking is when you’re building a team, and decide to use 2 or more of one color. A rainbow team is one hero of each color (One purple, one yellow, one red, one green, and one blue hero).
When Color Stacking, you remove one of the colors entirely, and add in a second hero of another color. (So for example, you could have three red heroes, one yellow hero, and one purple hero. Zero green and zero blue heroes. This would be a 3-1-1 Stack.)
This is not a simple concept, honest! AND, it plays in cruelly with a common perception by players of “Skewed Tile Drops” (Link: Skewed tile drops ). The opportunity for frustration exists… But you, THE PLAYA PLAY, got to persevere BECAUSE color stacking is HARD CODED into this game as a way for players to maximize damage!
Color stacking is SO powerful, in fact, that with its aide, you’ll quickly realize that TILE DAMAGE, and NOT special damage, is the key to dealing large amounts of damage to titans!
I wouldn’t ask anyone to ‘take my word for it.’ There is mathematical proof to be found (Link: Damage Calculation by @SolemnWolf : Damage Calculation ). But I really think that this explanation below is the easiest to follow (Unless you’re some sort of math wizard). Let’s head down to Stage 8-7 and do some testing!
Alright, rainbow squad attack! I made it through to the big bosses at the end… they’re green. So blue is weak against them, red is strong. Let’s take a look at the damage dealt by each TILE with my rainbow lineup against these green mini bosses:
As you can see, my blue hero has a vertical set of 3 tiles attacking, and deals 23,25 damage. I’m gonna say an average of 24 damage.
The red tiles are STRONG, and deal 93,95 damage. Let’s average to 94.
Now… what happens when we swap out the blue hero and add in a red hero?
You’re out wolfypoo, don’t need you right now.
Tag, Azar, you’re in:
Now, did you know that the ATTACK stat determines the base amount of damage your tiles do when you’re playing? Well, if you didn’t before, you know it now. Here’s something interesting - when you have two heroes of the same color, their attack stats get added together!
That’s why my red tiles will deal more damage. Please note that azar is not leveled nearly as well as Wolfy, and wolfy has a much higher attack, too.
So what happens? Same bosses, 8-7:
no hero, no ouchies. But we knew that already. How does our red column perform?
Interesting. 184,185. Let’s average this to 184.
Alright. Now let’s compare our before and after numbers.
Blue:
Before damage: 24
After damage: 1
Change: -23
Red:
Before damage: 94
After damage: 184
Change: +90
Net change: +67 (per TILE!)
Now. Let’s keep a few things in mind:
- This is with a far under leveled second hero, who also has a lower base attack stat.
- This is meant to be used for titans because they have a known, single color. So you can plan ahead.
- For the next level of Titan damage - consider what a +25% attack does to these numbers… (you can get this from Bear banners easily at an early ish level)
3a. Blue 24 +25% = 30 damage
3b. Red 184 + 25% attack = 230 damage
So any sort of attack buff or defense debuff can pay very large dividends during a Titan attack. - Keep in mind, this is PER TILE, so basically multiply these numbers by 3 at a minimum
Lastly, I hear people on the forums, in my clan, and even my wife say:
“When I switch to stacking for one color, all of a sudden I don’t get that color at all.”
I don’t believe this for a second, and don’t think you should either. Instead, I believe what you are experiencing is that NOW youre really strongly looking for that color, and when you don’t see it you freeze up. It’s like confirmation bias.
Basically, despite being stacked for one color, you still have to play the same way. Youre gonna have to use those weak tiles (they’ll still stun a Titan by the way), so just don’t over think it and use them quickly.
Keep in mind that your heroes are all adding their attack stats together. Even if a hero dies during the battle, they’ll continue to add in their attack stat. But dead heroes won’t benefit from any attack buffs!
Quotes from @SolemnWolf as well, to give you some additional insight into how to maximize damage while color stacking:
Lastly on color stacking. It is ideal to use the ‘strong’ color when color stacking. You’ve got a free +50% attack bonus built in, right? However, going with a neutral color stack in raids can be totally viable as well. A WEAK color stack would rarely be successful. But feel free to experiment ;-).
- Titan Basics
a. TF is a Titan?
If you’re new to the game and haven’t encountered a titan yet, then well, thanks for reading ahead! Wow! You’re really an aggressive learner ;-). A Titan is an excellently designed Team Event for alliances. Once you join an Alliance, Titans automatically start showing up every 23hours.
Once the Titan appears, your alliance has 22 hours to KILL it dead! (Thanks @Benn !) A titan has a LOT of Hit Points. Hundreds of thousands at the lower end, and as your alliance gets stronger up to millions of hit points!
Titan Strength is indicated by how many stars they have. A 1* titan is the weakest, and a 12* titan is the strongest (currently! 13-14* did exist momentarily in 2018… They may return…).
When anyone from your alliance attacks a Titan, they use up one Titan Flag (The purple ones. Picture:
)
Each player can store a maximum of 3 Titan Flags at one time. Titan Flags come back at a rate of 1 flag every FOUR hours.
When a player attacks a Titan, they deal some damage. This damage is permanently removed from that Titan.
(Example: So Say a Titan has 250,000 Hit Points (HP). You attack and deal 10,000 damage. The next attack will show the titan at 240,000 HP. You attack twice more, dealing 5,000 damage and 8,000 damage. Then the Titan would show being at 227,000 HP.)
Titans do NOT heal.
Titans have some of the best Loot in the game. This is going to some of your best opportunities to get Ascension Materials. Maximizing your personal ability to damage Titans is arguably THE best way to add value to your alliance!
b.Dealing Damage to Titans
As discussed in Section 1: Color Stacking. The best way to deal a lot of damage to a Titan is to Color Stack. Tiles, even at low levels are the best way to deal titan damage. At high levels,and especially with buffs or debuffs activated, this effect is exacerbated:
BUFFS:
BUFFS are positive effects added to your heroes. Attack% Buff is when a hero or item says “All Heroes get +X% Attack.” (Picture Bear Banner:
)
MOST BUFFS that affect the same thing do not stack. So if you have multiple heroes or items that say “All heroes get +25% attack.” Then you don’t just add all of those together. You can’t throw three Bear Banners down and have +75% attack. You can’t activate a Bear Banner and Boldtusk Special and get +72% attack. It’s by and large one or the other.
WITH NOTABLE EXCEPTIONS! The first and most well known – is Wu Kong. (WK) He’s of course a 4* hero, so he isn’t going to be universally owned. But he’s a great hero to work towards getting, BECAUSE of two reasons:
“All allies get +185% attack”
WHAT! Yeah. True dat. (He also kinda blinds your allies. But hey, look at +185 does to our tile damage when they do hit! =P).
The other reason that really puts WK over the top is his effect actually does stack with other attack boosting effects (for example, a Bear Banner.).
Why? Oh I don’t know. A design decision surely.
These are the other noteworthy BUFFing heroes:
3* Brienne. Shes a mini WK and truly is excellent in the 3* world. Totally worth leveling up if you have her!! Note that her ‘Rage’ buff does NOT stack with a traditional attack buff. It is one or the other. Her buff DOES stack with WK.
3* Namahage. He only buffs himself, however. He has theBrienne Rage ability built into his special. If you use his special it WILL overwrite an existing attack buff, OR an existing Brienne Buff. (But, again, not a WK Buff).
3* Melia: The +30% Critical Chance she provides DOES stack with WK/Attack Boost. So this can be a useful way to further increase your tile damage. She’s definitely someone I would advise to be used for new players, especially against purple titans or in the absence of other Buffing options =).
I can’t think of any other 3* Buff Heroes. If I’m forgetting someone please let me know!
5* Tarlak. (I’m like, 72% sure he stacks with regular attack Buffs… I don’t own him though and I’m honestly not sure. If you own him, you’re probably not learning anything new here anyway My understanding is that he’s very desirable for Titans, at any rate )
5* Gregorion – Same as Melia. Except, ya know. He’s average and Melia is Fast. And he’s harder to get. And he’s probably outside the top 5 of best Green Heroes to fully Ascend. So there’s a lot of moving parts with this guy to really say he’s a lock to fully ascend/always utilize. BUT, you could definitely do worse.
In closing regarding Buffs:
Goal for attacking Titans is to Color Stack with the highest Attack Stat team possible, with the best Buffs and Debuffsavailable. Then to apply all of those effects to your team / the Titan. And then go to town with the correct color tiles =)
DEBUFFS:
Speaking of Debuffs, these are basically the opposite of buffs. Buffs are adding something good to a target. Debuffs are adding something bad. There are a couple effects which are very effective versus titans, and for different reasons.
The first effect is a Defense Debuff. This reduces the Defense stat of the Titan. “Target gets -34% defense for 6 turns.” Is one example of a defense debuff. As noted by @SolemnWolf, this is even MORE effective than a 34% attack buff would be. If possible, you want to look for heroes who can reduce the enemy defense.
The next effect that is noteworthy is blindness. Since titans will frequently hit and kill your heroes in one swing, giving them a chance to entirely miss your team can be very effective. Bane provides this at a low level, and almost all players have access to arrows.
Focusing on defense debuffs, these come in two varieties (Sortalike attack buffs come in different flavors). For defense the two are a straight defense debuff to all damage, and an Elementaldefense debuff. “The target gets -54% defense against ICE(blue) for 4 turns.” These elemental debuffers are AWESOME. Extremely effective because in addition to that being a very high % (54%), that actually also buffs with the 34% from a traditional debuff.
The downside is that NONE of these elemental debuffers are really available to F2P players without a LOT of luck. You’re gonna need to shell out some cash to get these guys. But hey. The game sucks like that =P Good with the bad and all.
As for our traditional defense debuffing heroes:
3*
Valen/Ulmer - Provide a -34% defense Debuff for 6 rounds. Valen is Fast, Ulmer is slow. So Valen is the better Titan choice. Unless you care about what your heroes look like. Ulmer is kinda a badass. Valen is a total punk. So they don’t make this an easy decision. And yes, I will be judging you if you decide to use Valen despite his chumpiness.
I can’t think of any other 3* Debuff Heroes. If I’m forgetting someone please let me know!
4*
Ramming Pulverizer Heroes: These guys are staples: Gormek, Tiburtus, and Grimm. They all provide a -34% defense debufffor 6 turns. This debuff is smaller than others
4* Wilbur: He provides a nice -44% defense debuff (For only 4 turns!) that does not stack with any other traditional defense debuff. However, what makes Wilbur really excellent with titans is what he does for the survivability of your attacking team. The defense buff for your team, plus the Spirit Link really helps to keep your entire team alive. This ensures you have more specials going off, of course, as well as more heroes benefitting from any buffs. He’s very good against titans.
4* Cheshire Cat: Special Mention to this bag of sCat =P. So his special at first glance LOOKS LIKE an elemental debuff. BUT it is NOT! This is a traditional defense debuff, BUT ONLY affects Yellow/Holy enemies/Titans!! So don’t go out of your way to get him or include him in a titan attack team. He’s an interesting hero, but because he’s not providing an elemental debuff he’s more on par with our Ramming Pulverizer options. (-44% for 4 turns. But does nothing else in a Titan fight. And the Special Effect blocks the board for a full 2 seconds so there’s that, too.)
5*
I mean. You’ll know them when ya see them hah =)
Elemental Debuff heroes: Guardian Panther, Evelyn, Guardian Jackal, The Polar Bear, King Arthur… I don’t remember the others but they’re good, and they’re exclusive =P
C.Stunning Titans
Stunning titans is simple. Hit their “Weak Spot” with 3 tiles and they get stunned! A Stunned titan has its next turn skipped. (Just one). So you’d get to move twice in a row.
Important caveats:
-
The tiles have to actually HIT the titan! If any of your heroes are Blinded (By Yellow Titans), OR if you have Wu Kong active, Then there is a chance that tiles might MISS the titan! You could in theory throw 10 tiles into the Titan’s weak spot, and MISS with 8 of them and have the beast not be stunned! I am 100% sure this has happened to someone somewhere in time =P.
-
Rare Titans DGAF about tiles of their color. More precisely, they REFLECT 100% of that damage. So if you’ve got a Red Rare Titan, Red tiles that hit the WEAK spot will NOT count towards stunning it. You could hit a Red Rare titan with an entire Ridiculous thread full of Red Tiles, and it would just laugh it off and then eat your children. Worse still, if you do accidently take along any red heroes versus a red titan, they’ll take damage each time a red tile hits, AND if they do happen to hit it with a special attack. Ouch.
-
It doesn’t matter if the tile deals 1 damage or 5,000. It still counts exactly the same, and you still need 3 tiles. (The 1 damage is important, because if you have zero heroes of a given color, those tiles WILL deal 1 damage. But yes, this counts exactly the same as a tile that deals 5,000 damage.)
And like. That’s it. Just gotta hit the titan =P.
D. Item Usage
Titan Relevant Items, according to Duaneski:
You can equip up to 4 items for Titans. Because I’m forgetful, I try to keep these the same at all times:
Antidotes – Arrow Attacks – Mana Potion of some variety – Bear or Dragon Banner
My thoughts on Items as they relate to Titans, in no particular order:
-
Minor Mana Potion, Mana Potion, SuperMana Potions – IF you have a team full of BUFFERS and DEBUFFERS, then these items are awesome and very useful. I am a big fan of immediately powering up Wu Kong with Mana Potions if the board is favorable, for example. But I advise you to use a sustainable amount in your Titan battles. If you’re throwing down 10 MMP, and a couple MP and SMP EVERY battle, you’re quickly going to run out. Then you won’t have Mana Pots for ANY events or for ANY titan hits.
-
Antidotes – I advise you to leave these on your item list. They’re extremely cheap to produce. And the last thing you want is to have your team blinded by a yellow titan, or burning to death from a red titan, or have an attack debuffapplied by a green titan… and have to waste mana pots or something more valuable to fix that problem. You’ll never run out of these, and they’ll save you quite a headache in a number of Titan battles. Swapping them in and out by titan color, for me, is too much hassle. I just leave them in the toolbelt ;-).
-
Bear / Dragon Banners – I really like these. I try to throw one on when the board is favorable for my stacked color. I figure it’s cheaper than charging up a buffer with mana pots. It’s quicker, too. The effect is frequently less, but it’s a good middle ground. Again, I advise you to use these sustainably. 1 per Titan hit is about all you can use sustainably. (At least, at my farming rate =P)
-
Arrow Attack – These have been a staple of my titan attacks since my first month playing the game. Any time you can save your heroes from getting hit by a titan, that’s worth a lot! Keep in mind the damage produced by Arrows up through Dragon Attacks is negligible compared to a couple strong tile hits. Please do NOT waste your Bomb Attacks or Dragon Attacks on Titans! Arrows provide the blinding effect and are SOLELY WORTH IT FOR THAT!
Regarding Tornado / Time Stop/Revive Scroll/Miracle Scroll – Personally… I think there are better uses for these items (events, other quests). They can be good against Titans, of course, but you can’t sustainable use even one of these items per Titan. (Well, I sure can’t. Maybe if you’re farming out your yang you can ). As a result, I do not recommend -ESPECIALLY to new players - to use these items against titans. (outside of a special occasion, at least!)
Regarding Health Potions / Bear Banners / Axe Attacks – I don’t think they’re worth the time it takes to physically activate them in a Titan attack (/The slot they would take up on your toolbelt). Those 90 seconds are precious, and I don’t want you to be wasting seconds of it using healing potions. IF you are dying consistently well before the 90 seconds are up, you could consider using Axe Attack / Bear Banner to increase your heroes’ survivability. I would expect this to be more effective than Health Potions. But in such a case, I’m fine with either… Making it to 80-90 seconds is important to maximize damage. But don’t waste time using Healing Potions or Bear Banners IF you’ve got at least 1 hero frequently alive at the end of 90 seconds!
E. Rare Titan rules
As mentioned in C. Stunning Titans:
- Rare Titans DGAF about tiles of their color. More precisely, they REFLECT 100% of damage from their same color. So if you’ve got a Red Rare Titan, Red tiles that hit the WEAK spot will NOT count towards stunning it. You could hit a Red Rare titan with an entire Ridiculous thread full of Red Tiles, and it would just laugh it off and then eat your children. Worse still, if you do accidently take along any red heroes versus a red titan, they’ll take damage each time a red tile or one of their special attacks hits the Rare Titan.
Additionally, Rare Titans have higher Hit Points, probably better stats, and usually have really brutal special attacks. So, they aren’t easy, is what I’m saying. I believe that Rare Titans only have a chance of appearing to an alliance that is spooled to have a 5* or stronger Titan appear. So if you’re fighting 3* or lower, I don’t think you’ll see one of these guys. (Feel free to correct me there if that’s false!).
IF your team manages to kill a Rare Titan, then each player who participated gets a bonus chance for the 4* ascension material. I believe that this is about a 5% chance for the 4* item. Not sure on that number. If anyone has a better number, lemme know =P.
