Ugh, I'm hating it at SCL5, can't imagine what it's like at top power.

-J

Usually I can hold my own but I am getting killed left and right in those harder nodes. I can't even get through a single round of the challenge node. I knew that Simulator was hard but I thought that since most of my characters are level 300+ it shouldn't be too bad. I was wrong.

The big however is that if I champed my 5*s I should be OK but I am no where near ready for that ISO-wise and taking on that power in PVP.

That first day of simulator was probably the worst day. Beyond that it's not too bad comparatively. LAst month was the anniversary and I was purging the taco vaults and accumulated around 120 health packs. Today I dipped below 10. I am going to miss that cushion.

PVP was taking a lot more health packs ever since the 5*s got boosted. This PVE took a lot too. I think I could have made the stash last longer.

I have my spreadsheet ready to go, I'll have my usual report later today. I LOVE "horde cracking day".

I haven't decided if I'm going to do this or not. For one thing, my toons are further along than yours (stats coming later today). For another, I like recording each cover as it goes and yes, I can tap-tap each cover, but then I don't get the view of the purple and I would miss that. I am really tuned into when/how this game manipulates the screen to cause me to produce endorphins and I don't want to miss a single one!

Simulator is probably the hardest PVE there is. What used ot make it so bad was that they would constantly update the nodes, responding to the meta and the later nodes would be the worst they could do. They are still bad, Sim is still the hardest PVE, but they haven't updated Simulator in a while and.... it's a TAD easier than it used to be. If they keep this up, in another year or so, the meta will have shifted enough that it'll be downright manageable.

It's more puzzle-ier.

In some ways, it makes the game less interesting. The 3 easy nodes in PVE are all one-shot matches for me. Star-Lord (for Grocket), G4ocket (for strike tiles, boosted by SL), and Juggs (tanking most colors and doing team damage on a match) means any toon 4K or less is dead after one turn. If there's only 1 such toon, he gets rotated to the front (target damage and team damage will KO him). If there's 2 such toons, I'll look for a cascade. It's pretty rare that these nodes don't end on turn one.

In other ways, it makes the game much more interesting. My PVP game has increased dramatically now that there are boosted 5*s. Every week sees a combination of "same old meta" (Hulkoye, ColosWitch, ProfessSlaught) and "ok, the boosted guy is dealing SO damn much, I just gotta try it."

it's a long road to get up to 5* land. I imagine that road gets longer the more 4*s they produce. But I do enjoy it.

PVP is definitely a health pack sinkhole. Without it, my excess health packs would probably be in the thousands by now. I should check with one of my alliance members ... he never really uses health packs and at one point he had a few hundred. That was something I saw at a HeroClix convention, so it's more than 2 years since then.

My issue with the opening is knowing where the bonuses happen. I like that.
I can always get the order the covers come from the list where you apply them, but I would not know when shard bonuses had been given.

End of last hoard redemption:
ISO - 2,812,950
HP - 45,715
CP - 1,970
LL - 10
Pulls - 88

Beginning resources (change from last month):
ISO - 2,928,356 (+115,406)
HP - 39,965 (-5,750)
CP - 3,112 (+1,142)
LL - 54 (+44)
Pulls - 178 (+90 over 28 days)

Daily Gain - 3.21 pull/day

LATEST
Shang-Chi - 4/3/1 + 1040 shards
Ultron - 2/2/1 + 1128 shards (includes 250 Shards coming from Venom Bomb)
Gamora - 0/0/0 + 405 shards

Favorites:
4* I'll be starting with The Hydra Stomper, but keeping a close eye on the amount. Once he gets to 1200 (or less if I pull actual Hydra Stomper covers), he'll get me all the Killmonger shards I need to champ. After HS, I'll change over to Carnage, to mine for Doc Ock shards.

For 5*, I'm starting with Gamora to get her to 500 shards, so I can cover her "just in case" I don't pull her. After that, I'll switch over to Doc Ock as he is the next legacy 5* in line to get champed (leaving only The Wasp behind after him).

Pulls made: 91

Results:
Shang-Chi - 5/3/5 --> CHAMPED
Ultron - 4/5/1 + 1128 shards
Gamora - 0/1/2 + 1 shards

Stats:
11 of 91 pulls were 5* = 12% pull rate, a bit less than the 1:7 expectation.
2 x 50 shard 4* bonus

Longest drought (# of 4*s between 5*) = 21
# of back to back 5* = 2

After applying everything (and champing Shang-Chi):
ISO - 2,626,224 (-302,132)
HP - 43,015 (+3,050)
CP - 2,377 (-735)
LL - 7 (-47)
Pulls - 102 (-76)

Final Analysis -
I'm excited to be nearing the finish line of the legacy 5*s. At the very least, there is a plan. I'm also excited for Shang-Chi to be champed. I've been using him at 4/3/1 for a while and 5/3/5 is just gong to be sooooo much better.

Ultron is in a great place for next go-round; I'll be more concerned as to whether or not I'll land the new 5* for one cover before I complete Ultron. But that's a matter for next month.

Happy cracking everyone!

This one wound up being a miserable run.
It was Gamora-fest. She started with 0/0/0 and is now champed….and at level 458.

I finally managed to get Shang Chi champed, but Ultron is not yet champed, which would suck, but I should have him done once I get the rest of his shards in Venom bomb,

I believe that my initial run got me 36 5* in 244 pulls, a 14.57% rate, very slightly better than expected.

I began with Apoc faved. Once he was at 500 I did a bunch of hopping around and got shard covers for Thanos, Okoye, Colossus, Kitty, BRB*, and then finished out putting everything back on Colossus.
(* I only took him to an even 400…Throg is my current fav, so I would get shards via that. Just wanted to round him up.)

Gamora ended at 6/9/6
Shang Chi at 4/6/2 with 2 covers from shards to finish him.
Ultron was 7/2/3 with one shard cover and enough for one more coming in VB.

I applied everything, bought roster slots, etc.
I began with 288 pulls available.
I made 244 pulls.
After all was said and done, I was 86 pulls.

I did some math and figured that with Gamora champed, my next major spree would be in 12 weeks.
That is 84 days, at 3 pulls per day, that is 252 pulls.
With the 86 remaining, that puts at 338 pulls the next time I go on a run, once Gamora leaves.

I figured that this gave me a little freedom to dip my toes back in and see if I could get one more Ultron in one of his bottom two slots.
I made five more pulls before that happened. And in those pulls was another Shang Chi and a 500 shard bonus for colossus.

As I still had a theoretical surplus, I decided to pop some classics and stopped after three pulls, which were all 5*…Ghost Rider, Magneto, and 5X.
There were lots of extra goodies this time around. Like, in addition to the sharding I did by choice, I got a few more via champ rewards, and I hit the milestone which got me a Deadpool cover.

So I have all of the latest ones champed or about to be.

Here is where I started, and where I sit
STARTED:
Iso 16,001,560
HP 3,690
CP 5,624
LL 64

NOW:
Iso 14,738,141
HP 5,140
CP 1,715
LL 13
I am at 81 pulls.

Side note, Quick 50 up front lacked fun and got 50 5* shards.
Quick 14 still lacked fun and got 50 4* shards.

Three total 4* bonus hits for 50 each and just the one 5* hit for 50.
Oh, and then the 500 5* hit in the follow up.


Verdict….because I had a run skewed aggressively towards Gamora and did not want that, I an totally blaming it all on using the quick open.
I know it is not related, but my brain is calling it bad mono, so there you go.

Since I added a level to Okoye, I feel I must post this.

As stated in the previous thread, this is not the crutch it once was, but it is handy. And with IM Hulk now having a feeder, I still want to stay on top of it.
Okoye......Level: 486/485/484/483/482/481/480/479/478/477/457/450
Yellow (with RTF).989/982/974/967/959/952/945/937/930/923/---/---
Yellow (w/o RTF)..868/861/855/848/842/835/829/822/816/810/694/658
Red...............759/754/748/742/736/731/725/720/714/709/607/576
Blue..............114/113/112/111/110/109/109/108/107/106/_91/_86
Purple............104/103/103/102/101/100/100/_99/_98/_97/_83/_79
Green.............123/122/121/120/119/119/118/117/116/115/_99/_93
Black.............976/969/962/954/947/940/932/925/918/911/781/740
Team-Up...........491/487/483/_94/476/472/469/465/462/458/393/372
(RTF = 4* Royal Talon Fighter)


Hulk.......Level: 453/452
Yellow............_94/_94
Red...............683/677
Blue..............111/111
Purple............103/102
Green.............877/871
Black.............780/774
Team-Up...........434/431

This surprises me.
Is this was most people are doing?
I was liking 3/5/5 better as the number of charged tiles you get seemed like a better deal to me.
I can usually get a decent drop set up with 3 tile removals on red. I am not sure that 5 gets me to a better point. I know with other people, such as Bullseyes, you can find yourself really having to carefully choose where the last couple removals happen in order to avoid screwing something up.
Ymmv, of course. I just think that number of times that the extra removals help is outweighs by the number of times the charged ones would help.

(I could be biased having just come off of playing him with Onslaught, too.)

During his boost time, I would use him with Professlaught. Since making match-4s and 5s is the key with that team, I want more board manipulation. I'll get my AP up that way, charge tiles are fine, but matches are where it's at. Yes, I know the crit tiles help that too, but usually, crit tiles help me make a 4-match. I'd much rather have a 5-math, dealing damage, and then make use of the crit that comes from that.

Making this as a separate post. Heard of an upcoming game called DC Heroes and Villains that will apparently be a DC Match-3 game.

Different company, and I don't have much more information than that, but I am intrigued.

For you I imagine that MPQ's major drawback is no Superman.
For me, I think I may take a pass simply for not wanting to need another time sink.

Similar play experience here except I was going with Colossus instead of 5X.

I was finding that due to the wild card nature of the crit tile I was frequently able to get a match5 with it....or place it to where a flip would get me it.
Ymmv, and there may be some kind of confirmation bias in play, of course.

Any thoughts on builds for Gamora or Ultron?

I set Gamora to 5/3/5 at first.
The 10 on the CD tile seems a little lofty to me.
This is said having not really tried her out.
What I get from her is a vibe like that old Professor Zoom in Clix who could potentially score you a second turn. It would be awesome if you pull it off, but you are going to be hard pressed to do so.