I seem to have a better handle on how to get past level 7 now. High on harder is still only level 9, but I got hosed on damage that game and think I can do better.
I am still getting stuck around level 7 on harder. I reset my high scores and my high on harder is only 7148 now. It was like 10k, but I only reset this morning.
I hate this thread!! So now, even if this is not fir iPad and i have spent tons today .... Even this one comes home!!!! I hate you guys
What seems to be helping me is a mindset based on 2 factors: (a) my belief that the game gets harder by turn, not by level; and (b) that even on harder, levels 1-4 are cake. Accordingly, during levels 1-4 and maybe 5, I will: (1) clear the maximum number of tiles every time, more or less regardless of anything else. The chielf exceptions being to link two big groups by a smaller clear, dangerous bosses, meaningful numbers of skulls or really low health; (2) I will learn to accept my durability being at 0/4, unless shields are the thing I can clear the most of; (3) I will clear all (or perhaps nearly all) swords I can with abandon, if that is the thing I can clear the most of; (4) I will expect to have 1 or 2 skulls hitting me for their pathetic damage, and will not normally thinking about killing such a small number of skulls unless it will help link groups for a bigger clear. What this does is sharply increase your gold and exp achieved over the initial easy turns, because you will be collecting more coins and fighting more skulls. (You are turning over more tiles per turn, so clearly you are seeing and collecting more total gold, killing more skulls and getting more shields.) While you will be at 0/4 or 0/5 when you grab that big group of shields, the strategy probably also increases your net upgrades as well, because you will get a lot more total shields, a lot more bonus shields, and will be "protected" from further shield loss when at 0/4 or 0/5. I did realize some of this before, but only yesterday did I fully embrace the mindset, and it seems to be making a big difference.
Yup, I follow essentially the same plan. The main difference is that I try to actually let skulls group up in the first 4 levels as I want the bonus from clearing a bunch of them at the same time. If I can get to level 2 fast, and see what my first skill options are, it can make a big difference. I just keep getting bad skill choices.
Well my first match on normal I only lasted 4 levels But had quite some fun as soon as those freezing skulls came out!! such a little and fun game!!
Yes, that may be a slight difference in our strategy Ken. I am happy when the skulls group up, but I wont clear a smaller group of tiles then I otherwise could. I actually got to level 9 again, 2 games in a row now. Here are my stats and the details, mabye it will help. Game 1: Dazzle got me to level 9. I had no luck with DPS upgrades and was way "off curve" when I died. I believe I also had double damage, convert boss to normal, and dont remember. It just didnt really matter, DPS was too low. I played really aggressively till at least level 6, and then I started praying for weapon damage a lot and just scraping buy. Stats: 245 Turns, 804 xp, 794 GP, 666 UP, Score 11636 Game 2: This game I had enchant and double shields, but I got neither right away, and double shields didnt help all that much because unlike most games, I got pretty high defense quickly and yet lagged in repair per shield -- so a lot of my shields went to that. Still, I clearly got more upgrades than in game 1 and it showed in the score. I was also playing more aggressively for longer, since I had decent dps, and it shows in higher XP over fewer turns. That may be what got me killed -- shouldnt have played so aggressively, since I didnt have a huge safety net with two slots taken for enchant and shield turn in, and one for magic shield. That left only one defensive skill, banish. If the game had gone long enough I may have achieved a level of safety with all the upgrades...as it was, the safety margin was just too small, and maybe I played too aggressively as well. Was surely dumb to take magic sword without a better safety skill -- disarm or teleport is pretty needed. Stats: 215 Turns, 848 XP, 1016 gold (not sure why so much higher); 734 UP (not as much higher as one might expect); score of 12852
Ooh yeah, I do like this idea, and it might give the situational skills more use - if you're surrounded by skulls and collect a bunch of coins you'd probably be happy if you get the chance to fire off a Freeze and survive for one extra turn. I think this is key to surviving on Harder, you really have to make optimal use of the initial grace period before the monsters toughen up, if you waste the first 50-100 turns by collecting little clumps of stuff you don't need then you won't have the resources to survive later on. In other news, a positive review on TouchMyApps today
Got to level 12 on "harder" -- everything was pretty balanced, got decent skills, the only thing that could have gone better was getting enchanting early, rather than late. I dont think I fell off the curve, per se, but I was barely hanging on to it since I got enchanting late in the game and had no other upgrade booster. I think it was more a random set of skulls/bosses in bad spots while my cooldowns were down. There is not a big margin for error given that the bosses and skulls start hitting quite hard. I'll post additional tips when I can, but I'm sure there are probably folks that have blow past 12 on harder.
So slammed my last high score last night on the harder game play with the following: Turns 307 XP 1340 GP 1176 UP 894 Score 19268 Looking forward to Game Center support to see how that compares to other
Did you have potions into XP? You only survived 11 more turns than my high score, and had less gold and less upgrades, but 220 more XP than me.
Yeah, in that game I had Teleport, Disarm, potions to XP and Repair. I like potions to XP as it clearly is the best way to level and get points. But you have to have 3-4 points in Luck to get away with it for a long time I found.
Yeah I'm still a big fan of potions to XP, it's so powerful but I think surprisingly balanced too. It's easy to get greedy and leave yourself precariously low on health. You can try and do a potion match to fill up and not gain so much XP, build up a nice amount of regenerate, or see if you can get your...the name escapes me...the amount of health you get from each potion high so you can get a reasonable heal from only a small number of potions. I also wonder if XP gained this way benefits from those +0.25 XP item upgrades? Off the top of my head, I have a feeling that upgrade refers to skulls specifically. I had a great game going before with Teleport, Dazzle, XP potions and Disarm (possibly *the* combo that I go for). Know what got me in the end? One of those mean mage skulls that stops your abilities refreshing! Cuuuurses. I was trying to leave Teleport up for just that too. Maybe Banish would have been better in the long run. Seperate point: I'm a bit torn on spells. On the one hand I like the randomness, the making do with what you've got, forcing you to try new things and new combos. On the other, it's so frustrating...if I see Shatter, Earthquake, Slash...I'm sure there's more that make my heart sink...one more time, I'll explode. I mean really, any game where I get offered Dazzle, Enchant, Teleport etc. on the first new level, I'll know the game is going to go well. Be nice if there was some control...but of course once we can pick, I'd pick my top 4 every time. Can't have it both ways! Oh well, just thinking out loud.
I dont see any evidence that potions to XP helps you live longer than say enchanting or upgrade per shield does. Potions to XP inflates your score a lot more than those two skills though, because levels are counted more in score than upgrades. Not saying potions to xp isnt a very good skill, it is, just that its impact on score is grossly disproportionate to its survival enhancing effects. Levels dont really do more for you than upgrades, once you have your 4 skills -- they arguably do less.
On sale for $1.99. It was a steal at $2.99, and it's a total no brainer at a reduced price. For anyone who likes match-3 games with an RPG twist, this is a must buy.
I put together a quick spell list (I think it's complete? 30 spells as per the app description). Thought I'd share if anyone finds it useful, otherwise it's handy if you're posting and forget the name of a spell, hehe.
Hi I just registered so I could post about Dungeon Raid. I don't even play games that often on my iPhone, but this is a GREAT game. It's so much fun and very addictive. I've just been playing on normal for now. Anyway, for FireFlame (this may have been covered already): An incoming text message can kill my chain halfway through. Like if I see a 10 item chain, but am only 3 items into it when a text comes in, whether I close the text or reply to it, the 3 chain gets used. Anyway to fix this? Maybe the easiest would be an APPLY button or something? Also, any thoughts of adding another ability slot to give 5 total?
I've been playing this game a lot lately and I think it's pretty brilliant. It really caught me off guard, but I'm glad I gave it a chance! I'd love to have some sort of way to start a new game with one ability of my choice, maybe only unlockable after they're learned through normal gameplay? One can hope!
Sorry guys, I'm on holidays so haven't been keeping up as regularly. The next update will be submitted soon after I get back and so should be approved for AppStore in the next few weeks. As I mentioned before I was hoping to get the update out before Christmas but unfortunately ran out of time, apologies. Sweet, speaking of spells, I'll be looking at improving/revamping the most useless ones, what abilities does everyone hate? (besides Slash, which has already been hated on many times in this thread ) Yeah, that's pretty annoying and I thought I had some code to handle that. I'll fix it up so any interruptions (text message, alarm clock, etc) cancel the current chain instead of collecting it, which is how it was intended. Haven't really considered either of these ideas before, and I'm still keen to give the player a bit more control over what skills they can use. I think I'll be doing a bit of work on the abilities for the next update and right now the plan is to give the option of choosing a pool of abilities at the start of the game (either manually or using a character class that has a set of associated ability) from which level up abilities will be chosen during that game. That way you're still forced to experiment through the random nature by which skills are offered but at least you won't be stuck witch abilities you absolutely don't like. Adding another ability slot might be a bit tricky logistically and screw up balancing so I'm a bit reluctant, but a starting ability could be interesting. Someone mentioned earlier maybe having abilities associated with rare artifact items, and that might be a good way to add a 5th ability while also making it somewhat difficult to obtain.
