Advice for the Lightning Squad needed

[Sin]

As the title says, I am a little dumbstruck by this one. The main battle-mec is very strong, but also a bit dangerous to use, a fine line that is fun to play, but while the artillery is usefull as well your 3ed member of the team seems mostly useless unless you find a weapon for him.
I frequently end up in situations where I just can't stop 3 impending attacks on the grid without sacing my support tank, or having it out of position.
I know it's difficult to give general advice for the squads, but I feel like I am missing something.

Any help would be appreciated.

[June-pie]

It definitely requires some experience with the squad. Be sure to crank up battle speed all the way if you haven't, that's mandatory, and optionally turn on the timer in the options so you know how much time you have left. Don't worry about losing a little bit of grid power if it means a faster time, just so long as you don't die before the end of the second island.

When I did it, it took me a couple tries, and when I did get it I finished with 30 seconds left.

[glass]

Starting position is pretty important. Check where the enemies can move to, then position your mechs. You want to make sure you can either make a good chain lightning or position such that they do not attack more than you can defend.

Blocking is really important. Use your tank when it has nothing else to do, boulders can block too.
Remember that blocking in 2 turns left is as good as killing the vek (it will never spawn).

Try to get good chains. Use your tank as a conduit whlie hooking an enemy to it, and boulders can be used to chain too.

Adding health to your tank is as good as adding another weapon. With extra health you can channel more lightning through it, and block more vek spawns too. It can carry it's weight without a secondary weapon this way.

If you are not confident, you can avoid picking missions like "defend the train", this squad is bad at defending as your lightning will damage them.

Edit:

The tank is also pretty good at making veks attack each other. And boulders can also be used to block firefly projectiles.

[!?!]

The tank is a conduit for the electric whip.
It even pulls an enemy towards itself to be hit by it.

[Derp Ravener]

Something I overlooked the first time I played them was that the Hook Mech (the tank) actually comes with armor. In addition to making that one great as a conduit for lighting, it's also very capable of body-blocking enemies.
The ideal for it is to pull one enemy out of position in a way that then blocks another (thus making the second enemy damage the first). Failing that though, look for opportunities to stand in front of one while pulling another, preventing both from doing actual damage.

The only other thing I can think of that might help is to remember is the myriad of ways to use the rock-thrower: the rocks can block enemy shots or emerging Vek, and it can be used to push enemies sideways. Sometimes it's more useful to do something that doesn't deal damage, though of course specifically when depends on the situation.

[jay jay the dank planezinho]

The hook mech can become quite useful if you use the pilot with the flying ability. You are going to be able to drown veks more easily that way.

[Misery]

Honestly I'm having the same problem. This squad seems.... almost entirely useless.

We have:

One mech that cant deal enough damage to 3 HP things to stop them, AND cant push anything. It's weapon has no special qualities unless the RNG decides that Vek stand next to each other or something else that can chain (and if that something else is something like a robot you need to protect, then you're screwed anyway). Just a crappy 2-damage attack that pushes nothing. Later, it might have a function, but "requires upgrades to do anything" doesnt make for a good attack.

One mech with a harpoon that's useless. ANY weapon that needs 3 tiles IN A ROW in order to even function is bad, as I see it. If this thing gets webbed and ISNT piloted by Camila, then it's effectively disabled unless it yanks itself to a building/mountain (waste of a turn) or has the rock thrower rescue it (waste of that thing's turn, and *very* situational as the thrower must be in JUST the right spot to do it if the Vek has more than 2 HP). It's also incapable of doing any damage. Even the Judoka's "pull" mech can deal a little damage on it's own due to collision.

And lastly, one with an artillery attack that's somewhat decent..... but most of the time, very awkward to position because it only pushes to the sides, and the rock would smash the crap out of buildings if it hit one. But it at least has potential, unlike the other two. Sorta.

And all 3 of them have only 3 movement. Which also makes the harpoon mech EVEN WORSE if it's forced to harpoon itself out of a web to survive an attack, because chances are it's now in a position it cant do anything else from. And, it very often cant get itself into a spot to do anything useful in terms of pulling Vek to spots that'd accomplish something. AND, it cant even block things well, because it cant freaking get there unless it gets lucky with the harpoon aiming! And only certain types of Vek can even BE blocked. Pretty much just the fireflies and the chargers, if I remember correctly.

They cant stop pretty much anything. Any battle, I inevitably get into situations where suddenly, there's 5 Vek at once because they were literally incapable of killing any of the previous ones (or could only kill exactly one).


Ugh. I seriously just dont get some of the squads in this game. Well, mostly these guys and the Hazardous squad. They seem like they *must* have additional weapons and specific upgrades to even begin to function. And possibly specific pilots.

As it is, I ran into this situation just now:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1331137127

I mean... what options do I even have to avoid grid damage? There are so many Vek because there was no way to kill more than one on the previous turn (and that only died because it was one of those leaping things with 1 HP). The Harpoon one just slightly delayed another (cause what else could it do?), and the lightning one almost maybe kinda bothered another one that had 3HP. So now, way too many and more on the way. I can only see ONE way to even kill a single Vek here, and it requires both the rock-thrower and the stupid lightning moron to focus on a single one together. The one and only good thing is that the harpoon thing has an actual function in this one battle: Moving the volatile vek. But even that's only working because there's alot of open space for the thing to use it's weapon.

And no, I have no upgrades for these guys yet. This is the second mission of the game.



I wish there were more videos of people playing this (that arent streams where the streamer stops to talk at the chat every 30 seconds), as I'd love to see some examples of proper tactics in action with these two squads. Right now, they just make no sense to me at all.

[BBB]

"Ugh. I seriously just dont get some of the squads in this game. Well, mostly these guys and the Hazardous squad"

this is how I feel about Steel Joduka.

[Sin]

Thank you all for your replys. It shows that the experiences with this game are quite varied and that people tend to favor different squads. It kinda speaks for my theory that I am missing the point of the squad. ^^' I will give them a few more trys before I decide wether or not they ought to be on a garbage dumb or not.

[Gandhi]

Well i have completely beaten the game, all achievemnts and i can safely say that every class is playable with only their starter stuff, the hazardous bois you want to put ALL your reacotrs into that plus healing early on, but first get your jumper +1 to both cuz if he dies and gets a kill he will live and hes not going to die ever with 2 dmg early on, then upgrade your tank last since hes already got 2 dmg, the three damage is nice, but over not worth it unless you have the pilot that has armor /spoiler or the heal bonus since 2 damage is a but ton for a tank to get hit with, also you might think health is necessary with these guys, ehhh not really the heal on kill will keep you alive pretty much the entire time. As for the lightning squad, i actually really enjoyed them, i feel like they are very VERY strong as long as you keep the laucher far back from the chain, what you want to do is instantly get building chain since its so good at getting sneaky kills, then use your armored tank as a conduit betwwen enemies to annihalate them all. The worst class ive had to deal with was honestly the secred squad, i wont say anything incase you havent unlocked them but they are pretty terrible early game.
Edit, also there are some situations where YOU WILL TAKE GRID DAMAGE, you just have to make the best of certain situations, the game isnt always about wat is currently happening, its also about planning ahead so you dont get trapped in a pickle.

[Leoscar]

Use an old pilot with +1 mech reactor to insta unlock the no damage to grid on the whip. Ez win the game.

[Drain]

This squad revolves around its lightning chain. The harpoon tank is used to either pull an enemy to chain, or use its own body to do so. It is armored so it can do this without dying. Upgrading its health or putting a shield into it doesn't hurt. The giant rocks also connect the lightning, and make good plugs for alien holes. Buildings connect the chain without taking any damage.

[Donax]

People tend to forget three things:
- loosing some grids is not the end of the game from time to time, in most cases you can avoid it, but sometimes you got no other choice. You have to make it worth it: killing the most powerful vek on the field is a good example.
- you can put passives and other skills to you mechs at the end of each island. This way you can complete the possibilities of your mechs. Ability to jump and escape the scorpions, ability to put clouds, fire or ice are great to get some position control. Adding an action to make you lightening mech be able to push veks is also a nice addon. You There are tons of possibilities, up to you to get creative with the builds and see what could help you in difficult situation such as when a unit is quite far, or immobilized etc..
- You don't always need to kill all veks. The objective is to survive 4 turns. Never forget that.

In case you have trouble to even finish the first island, as people said before, the key is to make chains to fry all enemies at once.
To do so, get the building chain as soon as possible and some hp on the hook mech to help creating chains. The rock launched by the artillery can also be used to chain, no just through the push, but also as a conductive object.
In early missions, veks don't have much more than 2 hp so they will die in one hit. Those with 3 hp can be finished off with a rock or can wait the next turn if needed. By the time you reach the second island you should be able to raise the lightnings dmg to 3 which is enough for most cases.

[Hakase]

Interesting! I have some problems with suicide tank, but later my brain adapts to it squad's mooves. Gonna take a look at this Lightning Squad.

[Rigatoni]

Also struggling with Blitzkrieg. Chain guy can't kill 3HP enemies at start but is happy to damage your other two mechs plus the train or other units you're meant to defend.

And as for the hook mech, positioning him to be useful is tricky. If he gets webbed you have to use artillery to save him and waste an attack.
Tried to use him to drown stuff but nope, he pulls stuff over the river right into his face.

I've done fine with all other squads including judoka but these guys are just plain irritating.

[BBB]

OK, inspired by this thread, i tried the Blitzkrieg again. I started with Mafan as the Prime Pilot (i.e. the chain lightning guy) so I had extra power from the start, which I used to ensure building were immune.

I also used the rock thrower primarily to fill in gaps for the conducting of electricity, and sometimes to block Vek spawning holes, and very occasionally to actually drop rocks on Vek heads. As the power came in i used it to upgrade damage and movement mostly.

I kept my artillery guy on the 2nd row of the deployment zone, always, and my hook mech on the front row, along with lightning guy.

I got very lucky after the first island because I unlocked a free tank, that the hook guy can now deploy. So, with the hook, and a tank for pushing, I can nudge Vek into position quite nicely.

Now add in damage upgrades, and Lightning guy hits for 3 damage, and the rocks hit for 3 damage. Plus the artillery guy now has 4 hp, meaning, in the worst case scenario, I can use him as a conduit and he survives.


My worst encounters so far have been webbers, but the Hook guy does well here, being able to hook either the webber or the webbed. Now I've just finished Island 3, and the last island is the ice island, whihc I absolutely hate lol.

So, the key is to:

use hook to position enemies, drag them into water etc, or save your guys from trouble.

get buildings immune asap, and use your buildings as bait, so enemies clump together, then you fry them

rock artillery is crowd control with some damage.


I heartily recommend any pilot that start with power, although I think the pilot that allows deployment anywhere could be interesting, as well as the one that allows double actions if you don;t move (on the rock artillery, that could be awesome)