Are 'Daunting Challenge' stages doable?

[TigerNightmare]

It's curious how the game shows your characters with a certain power level and perhaps bases the difficulty we see on that and it's more or less accurate. But sometimes an overwhelming victory is hard, sometimes evenly matched is impossible, sometimes evenly matched is stupid easy. Whenever I see it say daunting challenge, I don't even bother. But if the stage is unlocked, we reached the right level, why are we allowed to do it? Is it really possible?

[Meowish]

It is possible, as TRPG veterans might say, this game is easy in compare with a lot of other TRPGs we've played. And for veterans, we've seen and understood how certain mechanism works so there are stuffs we can predict in this game before we even start playing certain stages, and that let us prepare for what's to come. And in the end, we ended up playing higher difficulty stages just because that "feels right" and the evenly matched ones could actually be auto-ed when you have your team setup right... even stages with 5~10 levels above our current level is possible to auto (and yes, i do know how dumb the character AI in this game are, but that goes the same as enemies AI, if we prepare our characters correctly, they can easily overpower the enemy's AI). That's why when not doing the boring Auto, we actually find stages 15~30 levels above the right difficulty for us. The game devs know about this and thus have different standards opened up for different experiences to please both sides of the players, newbie + veteran.

Preparations and past experience do count. A good Strategist won the battle before even starting it.

[PyroMail.com]

In most cases understanding the mechanic is all you need to do.
For example the Magician with the ranged attacks, who casts long range spells on the farthest target can easily be tanked by the Papal Guard. A non-SSR unit.
One other Boss stacks atk buffs which can be dispelled, which an Angel with the right tarot can do easily or with the Union ability Fair Duel, which dispels on buffs on enemy and debuffs on self.
My Units are currently level 48 and bosses with level 55 are no problem. A bit better gear and even 60 would be doable.

[TigerNightmare]

Huh. I beat Tarot Residual III-7 six levels below the difficulty. I put Maitha's cover on, spammed Simona's armor, and had Angel heal. Beryl couldn't do anything, she got one shot. Then I tried stage 8, and even though I gained some levels and increased everyone to rank 10, Simona's shields are blown through in one turn, every character can only be hit twice at most, and Maitha gets blasted if she gets attacked directly. So, I guess the answer to the question is yes if you're on the cusp, hell no if you're not even close.

[Meowish]

Originally posted by TigerNightmare:

Huh. I beat Tarot Residual III-7 six levels below the difficulty. I put Maitha's cover on, spammed Simona's armor, and had Angel heal. Beryl couldn't do anything, she got one shot. Then I tried stage 8, and even though I gained some levels and increased everyone to rank 10, Simona's shields are blown through in one turn, every character can only be hit twice at most, and Maitha gets blasted if she gets attacked directly. So, I guess the answer to the question is yes if you're on the cusp, hell no if you're not even close.

Positioning (hit and run tactic) to minimize your chance of getting hit (stay out of the danger zone), as well as buffs and debuffs to bring the enemy down to your level is important when doing harder stages. Strategy games aren't meant to be brute forced with level and gears alone, there are other stuffs you need to put into considerations, like stage rules and bonuses, especially understanding enemies AI behavior, eg, what they prioritize to hit and which direction (this allows the baiting tactic), and of course, the boss attack patterns and its preferred target (this allows you to put a bait and position a healer to keep the bait alive, and have the rest of the team do damage to the boss in safety). Characters with skills that pull the enemies towards them (fishing tactic) and repositioning the enemies are useful in breaking the enemy's defense pattern as well as let you focus your fire power on a single target before moving on to the next one. And then, there's always the pushing the enemy off the map tactic available as a mechanism in this game, which, if abused, could make this game too easy.

And preparation in this game isn't about level and gears only, there's talent skill tree you can unlock to buff up your characters stats and those count into making your characters OP their current level enemies.

Like i said before, there's that difference in between veteran who experienced similar game play before from other online Tactical games. They know where to focus their grind priority and that gives the edge of advantages over the newbie players. The advise is, focus everything on power up until they are maxed and ignore the other events that may took away your precious stamina for low payout or rewards you won't be needing until end game, when you power up your troops enough, those will come sooner or later and way faster with better efficiency. Do not fall for the FOMO tactics Online games companies love to pull at their customers.

And as Online game goes, you have 2 choices to make there, either spend time and grind the slow way, or spend money to get the resource and expedite (upgrades) the fast way, both will reach the same goal in the end, so it all depends on your economy vs time opinion there, make the right choice that you won't regret later.

Oh yeah, and a lot of people make this mistake in TRPG... having a preferred character isn't a bad thing. But do note that by limiting your character usage will means you're putting yourself in a self-challenge mode that may make the game harder than it's supposed to be.

[TigerNightmare]

Originally posted by Meowish:

Positioning (hit and run tactic) to minimize your chance of getting hit (stay out of the danger zone), as well as buffs and debuffs to bring the enemy down to your level is important when doing harder stages. Strategy games aren't meant to be brute forced with level and gears alone, there are other stuffs you need to put into considerations, like stage rules and bonuses, especially understanding enemies AI behavior, eg, what they prioritize to hit and which direction (this allows the baiting tactic), and of course, the boss attack patterns and its preferred target (this allows you to put a bait and position a healer to keep the bait alive, and have the rest of the team do damage to the boss in safety). Characters with skills that pull the enemies towards them (fishing tactic) and repositioning the enemies are useful in breaking the enemy's defense pattern as well as let you focus your fire power on a single target before moving on to the next one. And then, there's always the pushing the enemy off the map tactic available as a mechanism in this game, which, if abused, could make this game too easy.

And preparation in this game isn't about level and gears only, there's talent skill tree you can unlock to buff up your characters stats and those count into making your characters OP their current level enemies.

Like i said before, there's that difference in between veteran who experienced similar game play before from other online Tactical games. They know where to focus their grind priority and that gives the edge of advantages over the newbie players. The advise is, focus everything on power up until they are maxed and ignore the other events that may took away your precious stamina for low payout or rewards you won't be needing until end game, when you power up your troops enough, those will come sooner or later and way faster with better efficiency. Do not fall for the FOMO tactics Online games companies love to pull at their customers.

And as Online game goes, you have 2 choices to make there, either spend time and grind the slow way, or spend money to get the resource and expedite (upgrades) the fast way, both will reach the same goal in the end, so it all depends on your economy vs time opinion there, make the right choice that you won't regret later. :winkycat:

Oh yeah, and a lot of people make this mistake in TRPG... having a preferred character isn't a bad thing. But do note that by limiting your character usage will means you're putting yourself in a self-challenge mode that may make the game harder than it's supposed to be.

This is all way too generalized and not horribly applicable. I really like Simona because she can charge to the upper right part of the map and then knock three guys off the edge in the same turn. But if she does that, the main calamity starts charging towards her. The two Vlderians move down to attack the main group and they're not much of a threat, as they can be taken down by Col and Beryl easily. But then the Union spear knight comes down and does a ranged aoe attack that hits at least two of the group, and when the calamity attacks, it can kill anyone not at full health. Maitha needs to focus on healing. And the support calamity can kill anyone regardless of their positioning if they aren't both healthy and shielded, not to mention healing 3,000+ to the big calamity, plus it's too far away to quickly take out, and any attempts to move up to attack it will be thwarted by the big calamity, which is immune to all control debuffs. Everyone is too slow to keep away from the big calamity, and filling the team with assassins doesn't seem like a viable strategy, especially if the support is parked behind three rocks and is only vulnerable to direct attack on two sides. If I spread everyone out, I can't reach some of them with heals and buffs, and moving everyone down to slow down the damage just has Maitha tanking more hits and then everyone gets one shot on the next turn.

I'm also not ever spending money on this. I spend my energy on weapons, talent, and, to a lesser extent, tarot whispers. My chosen team is always situational. Gloria wasn't very useful on that map, so I replaced her with Angel to keep everyone topped off as long as possible. I haven't tried auras since I only have two viable Union units and an all SoC team seems like a bad idea. I don't know what else to do besides come back after a week.

[Kheilus]

The difficulty estimates are likely based on some calculation of unit levels and gear. But does not take into account elevation advantage, poor positioning near terrain edges, chokepoints, class effectiveness, or skillset advantage.
This means that I have beaten boss levels labelled "Invincible" but also struggled on story levels that say "Evenly Matched".

[Meowish]

Originally posted by TigerNightmare:

This is all way too generalized and not horribly applicable. I really like Simona because she can charge to the upper right part of the map and then knock three guys off the edge in the same turn. But if she does that, the main calamity starts charging towards her. The two Vlderians move down to attack the main group and they're not much of a threat, as they can be taken down by Col and Beryl easily. But then the Union spear knight comes down and does a ranged aoe attack that hits at least two of the group, and when the calamity attacks, it can kill anyone not at full health. Maitha needs to focus on healing. And the support calamity can kill anyone regardless of their positioning if they aren't both healthy and shielded, not to mention healing 3,000+ to the big calamity, plus it's too far away to quickly take out, and any attempts to move up to attack it will be thwarted by the big calamity, which is immune to all control debuffs. Everyone is too slow to keep away from the big calamity, and filling the team with assassins doesn't seem like a viable strategy, especially if the support is parked behind three rocks and is only vulnerable to direct attack on two sides. If I spread everyone out, I can't reach some of them with heals and buffs, and moving everyone down to slow down the damage just has Maitha tanking more hits and then everyone gets one shot on the next turn.

I'm also not ever spending money on this. I spend my energy on weapons, talent, and, to a lesser extent, tarot whispers. My chosen team is always situational. Gloria wasn't very useful on that map, so I replaced her with Angel to keep everyone topped off as long as possible. I haven't tried auras since I only have two viable Union units and an all SoC team seems like a bad idea. I don't know what else to do besides come back after a week.

For stage clear, most will either need to come up with their own strategy or, check a video on how others clear it to give you the hint (only if you own similar troops).

And since some stages have their own specific stage rules, it's not always the same tactic works for all stages type of design there. Example: Event versions stage rules are easy to understand, most of them have the banner or introduced heroes on a boost bonus. Which means, if you own those, you get advantages in those stages. And drop bonus means if you have those units you get extra drops % per run. For other stages where it says a specific rules like "destroy x object to gain x bonus", you will need to follow those to get advantages in those stages. Just make sure you read all the stage rules before starting, and plan your units according to that.... eg, some boss have pattern that counter range attack and then put a large attack marker on the unit they countered, if you have a ton of range attacker in that stage, you get wiped out easily... so the correct way to win that stage is to bring in your melees... or use a tough range as bait to take on the damage to waste the boss's turn. Strategy changes depending on all these rules.

For enemy units that's too strong for you, use baiting or fishing tactic so you don't have to deal with everyone at once. Sometimes for not moving your whole team in the 1st round changes a lot of things.