Any easy guide for Jellyfish Cove FoS5?

[Deso.]

TL;DR As long i reach wave 9 but, that 18 mutators is really annoying. >.<

[DoomyDoom]

Make you maze circle the jellyfish counter clockwise, so that Hoverers get as little +++ as possible. Run a setup that can gib them real quick at the spawn area. Everything else can be kited long enough. Other than that - corpse explosion so to blow up whole groups of Mutators. For the last resort - move 1 slow field to the core so that their attacks are slowed.

[Neit]

Mind Control. Even though it was nerfed, it's still very useful tower, especially in this particular situation, it should make the most dangerous guy busy, while you gun down the mutators.

Try posting the maze/perks/weapons/towers you are using, you might get better answer than mine.

[Deso.]

I tried mostly use this guides. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNwEDe-dotI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWXjoP3ORWM But both are not effective dealing against Mutators.

[DoomyDoom]

Not "easy", but doable after some tinkering and trial/error:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=386334132
This shot is 1 second before victory, so it's kinda bad, but I forgot to take one after 9. Maze is slightly rearranged for last wave (any 2+ blocks lines), but you can imagine what was there before. Maybe I'll redo it later.

Anyway, the point is to overcharge 1 Gatling closest to left spawn to ~500 dmg, then slap another one, then amp then range. Insert 1 AA in the top right corner of jellyfish at wave 3 (it's destroyed on the screenshot, sorry about that. Look for single x in the corner). You will need it. A lot.
Char - same old Haigen + Gatling/Ballista, Corpse Explosion/Slowing Presence/Hollowpoint rounds.

How it works? You stand in the middle of gatlings and tank stuff. It dies real fast. On wave 9 you have to be careful not to let anyone past this point. Also on wave 9 it might be worth (didn't test yet) to reverse the flow and shorten the maze by deleting wall that cuts off top right spawn from top left (yes, initially 2 right spawns go around)

How to build? For waves 1,2,3 cut off you core with 3 blocks diagonally on the left and start building topside killzone. Put 1 Gatling with 1000 res in it (waves 1/2). Then on 3 put AA and 1 more Gatling. After that on 4 you have enough bases to build a path around jellyfish for 2 right spawns. After 2nd Gatling is at lv 3 put lv 3 amp (500 res = 1 wave), then next wave Range. Then 1 more Gatling.

[Min]

Jellyfish Cove is a VERY annoying map thanks to the Waves 7 and 9, even though I got really close to lose in my video (thanks for showing it again, Deso) from 12 times playing on it I've lost only 2 because of Wave 9 and one it was because I did stupid stuff like letting Matriarchs flank me while I was trying to stall Warriors. (Other times I lost on early waves because can be really effin reckless).

One thing that you should do is to make sure the aggressive lumes will get to the core as fast as possible. Yes, this goes against everything you've learned so far, but if all aggressive lumes dies, so does the Mutators and Healers.

Since there's so many Mutators and lumes (not the easy ones to kill), I can never handle all groups before they reach the core with something like 100k+ HP, but I can say that you must prioritize whatever will give you the most trouble, which probably will be the Hoverers.

AR-Mines are still one of my favorite solutions for this map, it's a somewhat risky tactic and I couldn't pull it off properly in the video above, but if you manage to drop them on the mutated enemies they'll die quite fast, especially if they are being bombarded by towers.

Some precautions like the one DoomyDoom mentioned, a Slow Field close to the core, can save your skin here, that alongside Shocking Revelation that can reduce the damage your core can take immensely.

[Deso.]

As far i reach to wave 9 but unfortunelly, that 18 mutators is little bit sick on this map really. ;/

[DoomyDoom]

Ok, as promised, redone in a better way. A shot after wave 9, no core damage taken on that wave:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=386836412

After figuring out some interesting math, the changes I made to setup:
Char - Sweet
Weapons - Same (Gatling/Ballista)
Perks - Synergy, Exposure rounds, Slowing presence

Dropped Amp Spire. Finally this map is beatable with <4 towers.

So, onto the fun math (short version).
Did you know that in overcharge range of 450-600 damage (didn't calculate further) for first 3 seconds Gatling is more efficient than Focus? Like, 50% more efficient? Yes, at 450 damage during 3 seconds Gatling does ~9k damage, while Focus only 6. At 4th second this difference becomes smaller, as Focus catches up, but still in favor of Gatling. Only after full 5 seconds (Ramp time for Focus, obtained experimentally since I didn't find it anywhere) it actually does more damage. For 450 damage that is ~18k for Gatling, ~20k for Focus. Numbers for 600 damage leave a window of 3 seconds where Gatling is better.

Sooo what's the point? This: as long as target can be killed within 3-4 seconds, Gatling does it better. This only applies to limited HP-to-kill, obviously (that is, irrelevant for survival). Note that every time your Focus switches targets and its target is killable within 3-4 seconds, you are, in fact, not getting optimal dps out of your tower, but, rather, losing 25-30% of possible damage.

Fair question at this point - how does it help on wave 9? 130+ k hp are obviously not in 4 second range. Well the answer is:
a) set half your towers for "least hp". They will drop mutators realy fast
b) try to kill some mutators on top/right spawns early by hand. Left spawn will instantly die by itself with this setup, so you can safely ignore it.

So, how to get it working? Simple, the answer is, largely, above. That is, Synergy + Exposure rounds. OC gatlings to 350-400 damage and bonus damage from perks will push them into desired 450-600 range.

After that kiting Patriarch is, well, not too hard. Rearranging the maze to give him plenty of stuff to crush and adding another gatling near his spawn helps a lot.

[Deso.]

Interesing conclusion with that gattling towers. Is worth put close to them amp / range spires?

[DoomyDoom]

I used amp in my initial setup as well, but it turned out that using those 500 resources to build 4th gatling did a better job - it was under-overcharged (wtf did I just say? -.-), but it was stilll good at wiping mutators when set for minimum hp targeting.

[Haigen]

Is there a way to complete the map, after the long range nerf, with towers and perks that were available when this DLC came out only? (without anti air and such stuff)

[DoomyDoom]

Originally posted by Koloss:

Is there a way to complete the map, after the long range nerf, with towers and perks that were available when this DLC came out only? (without anti air and such stuff)

Sure, it's just as simple. AA is a convinience tower, not much else.

On a scale of 1 to bad, this run is a plastic bag, but I haven't played S2 for a while.

Loadout:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=686462078
Classic DPS Skye, Ballista instead of Plasma for passive stacking (Gatling/Ballista are the last weapons available in Pursuit DLC).
Perks are all from the base game (levels 10, 11, 13 ).

Around wave 5:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=686461863
Gatling at 1, Focuses at 2-4, AR-mine at 5. Use a few mines for Hoverers+Mutators.
wave 8:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=686461894
Stash mines, throw in Range, OC Gatlings to ~300 damage.

Wave 9 solution - 2 packs of 2 mines + 2 single mines for insurance for each spawn:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=686461918
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=686461946
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=686461978
Literally drop and forget.

Wave 10:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=686462006
Patriarch blows up, clean Runners, then afk until Rhinos die to towers.

Damages:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=686462035
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=686462053
I was really lazy. ~1k core damage from a couple Spitflies which I just didnt bother to kill for a while (wave 3 I think).

[Haigen]

not really working for me. The flyers need attention at wave 4 or 5 at the time the big mob went through the maze buffed by mutators.

[DoomyDoom]

Originally posted by Koloss:

not really working for me. The flyers need attention at wave 4 or 5 at the time the big mob went through the maze buffed by mutators.

Firstly, sanity check - do you know how Skye with juxtapositioned Gatling works?
As in, that you stack passive first (spray ballista secondary into a crowd for lots of aoe hits) and then go in with gatling secondary for up to 110% (2% per hit from passive, 10% per close enemy from AAOdds) bonus AoE damage (9-12k aoe hit vs all targets, including air).
If you don't know how this works - look up Minoru Leonardo's S2 videos with juxta Plasma/Gatling, same principle, just different primary.

Secondly, flyers only need real attention at wave 3. That's why I said I've ignored them and got ~1k Core damage. Everything that spawns north-west later will die to Gatlings, Healers will all die to Gatling's AoE (they're basically a free full 60% bonus from Against All Odds when they stack).
Wave 5 - just start at the blocked off part and kill flyers with Gatling, everything else will slowly make it to your position and you have a lot of time to kite mobs from there. It does require a somewhat decent execution, but that's the actually difficult part (unlike waves 9/10, which are mostly spent afking because mines ftw).

Oh and some mazing notes, since you're most likely building it in the wrong order:
Wave 1 you block off right Core entry with 3 diagonal blocks and use the rest to build up near top left spawn
Wave 2 - you have just enough blocks to build the whole long line if you put it exactly the way I did and remove 3 blocks from the right.
Wave 3 - do the cutoff (extend from your towers to the top right spawn)
After that prolong the maze starting bottom near Core.

[Haigen]

Wow, that is indeed simple if the instructions are followed. Thanks!
The only thing that made me a little worrying is the boss. I paid attention for him, even with the mines, as he is not always walking into the mine trap. Needed to lure him into the mine pile.

[DoomyDoom]

Originally posted by Koloss:

Wow, that is indeed simple if the instructions are followed. Thanks!
Needed to lure him into the mine pile.

There exists a trick with putting AR-mines on your head and running into the boss like a live bomb. Look it up in Minoru Leonardo's guide, should be added there as far as I remember.