Brutal Legend: Extra Tips & Tricks

Extra tips on how to fight each faction, units, and how to control your units to their maximum potential, as well as info on Avatar combat. It expands onto the already existing faction guides by Insul providing extra info not found in his guides / correcting some info. You should read them first.

IronheadE Guide
Drowning Doom Guide
Tainted Coil Guide

His map guide also provides some very important info:
Multiplayer Map Guide

Tainted Coil

The Tainted Coil is the brute force faction. It has the most powerful units available that no other faction can fight head on without support units. The hierarchy units lets the Coil easily overwhelm a single location by spamming units right on the spot. On a map like Bleeding Coast where there is only one neutral geyser, skipping Tier 1 and going straight for Tier 2 is a viable strategy for the Tainted Coil, not having to fight for the geyser and not having to worry about losing your own units, while being able to attack the enemy player's units putting you at an advantage (provided the enemy player also doesn't skip). The difference between Tainted Coil's Tier 1 and Tier 2 is huge, as their Tier 2 units can easily obliterate armies of Tier 1 units with ease.

Pros:

• The best offensive capability of all the factions.
  
• Hierarchy makes clusters of units hard to kill.
  
• Able to produce units right on the battlefield.

Cons:

• Weak defensive capability if caught off guard.
  
• Cannot produce best units straight away from stage.

IronheadE

IronheadE are the middle ground factions. They don't have the most powerful units, but they don't have the weakest either. They do however, have the best support unit, the Thunderhog. What makes the Thunderhog so great is it's double team attack that completely stuns enemy units for several seconds, making it absolutely necessary for fighting The Tainted Coil.

Drowning Doom

The Drowning Doom are the weird bunch. Half of their unit roster consists of support units that debuff enemies, but their attack units can be pretty deadly too if not taken care of.
This faction relies on their mid-late game possibilities to literaly debuff their enemy to death when they have upgraded their units and stacked them in different variations.

Pros:

• Good support and debuff units;
  
• Guitar solos to trick enemy;

Cons:

• Relatively weak assaulth units in raw stats comparing to other factions;
  
• Require descent strategical thinking and micromanagement to keep their support units alive and usefull.

Individual Orders From The Air

Never explained in the game. Hold E (Keyboard) or Y (Xbox controller) while flying. Select all the units you want then let go of the key and send an order.

Avatar Combat Attack Statistics

Outdated damage measurement/statistics, check here instead.

Your player character/avatar has 16HP.

Each uncharged slash does 1 damage.
Charged or sprinting slash does 2 damage.
A single guitar shock atack does somewhere between 1.75 and 1.95 damage and applies "shocked" status, that stuns and deals damage over time. While target is "shocked", next shock atacks refreshes "shocked" status. Therefore for maximum damage potential from a single shock, wait it out before shocking again.
Pyro Attack (charged Guitar) does 2 damage. Useful for canceling out charged attacks from other avatars.
Burning attack does a total of 4 Damage over time. You can negate it by blocking (stand blocking in front of a Fire Beast and you won't die lol).
Grabber attack (which launches small infantry towards you, or mini-stuns other avatars, two-three of these should keep them in place for a second or two unable to do anything) does somewhere between 0.6-0.7 damage.
Earthshaker does 1.25 damage. Very good when facing lots of enemy infantry. Even better if they're stunned by Thunderhogs, as they don't get knocked back and they all take damage so easily.
Roman Candle combo is the highest damaging attack, and best used immediately after using the Chains Of Hell solo as Doviculus on another avatar. Works great on static enemies such as large single infantry and vehicles.

If you are not familiar with the combos, check the Tour Book in game.

Avatar Combat Tips

The best time to counter-attack the enemy player during a fight is right after his 2nd slash.
If you find yourself losing the fight, keep blocking until the end of the 3rd slash and quickly press the fly button.
If the enemy is flying away and you're still locked onto him, do the charged Pyro attack which will deal damage as long as you start it while the enemy is still locked on.

Avatar Differences

Eddie Riggs, Drowned Ophelia, Emperor Doviculus. All three of them have their own little quirks that make them unique.

Eddie: Has animations where his axe is not drawn. This can be problematic when leaving the Deuce or canceling a double team, because if you get attacked by another Player/Avatar while your Axe is not drawn, you will not be able to do anything about it, you won't be able to cancel his stunlock and is basically a guaranteed death sentence.

Ophelia: Grand Slam and Rock Kick combos for her are practically useless. The final attack in the combo is too slow and doesn't knock/launch enemies away. Her attack animations also feel/seem sluggish (even though they aren't), and they take some time to get used to.

Doviculus: The best avatar for combat and harassing, but to due to the nature/playstyle of the Tainted Coil faction, he gets the least opportunities to do so (gotta protect Hierarchy units). His melee weapon is the longest, and his Sprint/Dashing Attack has the least downtime, making it a really good attack to use for cancelling Ophelia's double teams with Gravediggers, or attacking enemy avatars and units in general. He also has the best Rock Kick, which launches enemies away as far as the Grand Slam combo. While the Grand Slam combo takes 3 buttons to perform in comparison to Rock Kick's 4 buttons to perform, it loses it's effectiveness at launching enemies away when there is a nearby Bride, as the final attack becomes too slow to hit an enemy before it falls to the ground, in which case a Rock Kick is better to perform.

Moving units and properly defending them

Ideally, you would want to spend as much time hack 'n slashing the enemy's units and trying to spend the least amount of time possible micro managing your own. The Summon Flag helps a lot with this (which is mostly useless when playing as The Tainted Coil).

If you're moving your units towards a beacon that is set on or near a geyser/fanbooth/stage, and they get attacked by the enemy player's avatar on the way (and not attacked by any of the player's units), it is very important that you DO NOT make them stop. Do NOT make them hold their ground, attack the enemy player or double team with your units. If you do, the enemy player is effectively stalling you and your units, letting his own units get to a geyser without much trouble or resistance from your units.

If the enemy player is attacking your units, you should do the same to his to even the odds. You can't effectively protect moving units as the enemy player can simply fly away whenever you come close to him.

There are some exceptions. If you are playing as The Tainted Coil, and you only have one Battle Nun, and she gets attacked while moving, you have to protect her. Don't make her stop, instead select only your nearby Punishing Parties (you should always have one, unless you're doing a Coil VS Coil battle) and give them the hold or attack position to attack the enemy Avatar, and then re-select them and give them the Move to Beacon command once the enemy player flies away. Alternatively, give your ranged units the Follow command, so they will automatically defend when you are nearby.
If you're playing as IronheadE and you have 2 or more Razor Girl squads, play the anvil solo to force the enemy player to the ground.

Under the circumstance that the enemy doesn't have any units of his own on the field (possibly skipping tier) you should protect your units by trying to attack him. Predict his movement, shock him before he can fly up again, or maybe even try to stun lock him with constant melee attacks.

Units being unresponsive?

Sometimes units can be unresponsive to commands (Fire Barons or Razor Girls when there aren't any enemy troops nearby and they're focusing on a booth for example, this can be a problem on Altar Of Blood). This can be solved by giving the Follow command and flying out of their range.

Units: Extras and VS Faction tips

Skullraker

The Superior Skullraker is most likely the only unit that does less damage when double teamed with. Does extra damage to vehicles.

Both Fire Barons and Headsplitters are equal in effectiveness against the Skullraker. If the terrain is uneven and rough, it makes it harder for the Skullraker to hit Fire Barons which might give them a slight edge, if the Coil player isn't double teaming with the Skullraker. Using the Fire Baron's double team attack against the Skullraker might be fatal for the IronheadE player, as upon closing a fire ring, the other riders stop for a few seconds and become extremely easy targets. If a player double teams with a Skullraker, and all the Fire Barons are all perfectly lined up, the player can destroy all three of them at once, so it is far better to use Headsplitters when facing them. Though they'll both lose to a tier 2 Skullraker without backup, due to being vehicles and taking extra damage.

The only unit that can stand up to the Skull Raker is the Metal Beast. It can kill a tier 2 Skullraker, and leave a tier 3 Skullraker at 2 HP in a Double Team battle (non-double team battle untested)

Pain Lifter

Extremely powerful vehicle unit. It's double teaming attack has Extreme range. It's the perfect long range, spawn killing artillery weapon. It is the most effective anti-infantry unit in the game. If you have any tier 1 units, and you see the enemy with one of these, send them all to retreat, as far away from the Pain Lifter as possible!

IronheadE VS Tainted Coil
Expanding on the Skullraker, if the Coil player is building only Skullrakers, countering them with Metal Beasts and Thunderhogs would be the fitting answer to that, and maybe a Bouncer or two in case they also make a Screamwagon or two. Also, contrary to popular belief, massing Skull Rakers is not a good idea. Too many Skull Rakers close to each other might end up just missing targets as their heads can't go through other Skull Rakers. Though, if the Coil player has a varied army (Skull Raker, Pain Lifter and Heart Cutter) going all out with Headsplitters, Thunderhogs and Bouncers might be the only choice (don't forget the Rock Crusher if you're Tier 4!)

Healing effects are considered buff effects, so you can cancel them with Light Of Dawn. Now go Metalbeast all those hierarchy units.

Thunderhog

IronheadE's most powerful vehicle unit. This thing is absolutely necessary if you want to take on The Drowning Doom or The Tainted Coil! Seriously, you can't go toe to toe with their tier 2 or 3 units without a Thunderhog, it's complete suicide. Drive straight into the enemy army and stun them before they can do any damage to your army, giving you a big advantage. Having 2 of these alongside your tier 2 or 3 army lets you keep the enemy army stunned throughout the whole battle, provided the enemy player doesn't destroy one of them with their avatar/player character.

They are capable of stunning every unit except the Bleeding Death, Hate Cage, Overblesser and Tree Back.
Stunning Tainted Coil hierarchy units doesn't stop/freeze any current unit production, but it does prevent the player from interacting with it while it's stunned.

Destroying enemy Thunderhogs should be your number #1 priority.

Fire Barons

The Fire Barons throw projectiles, meaning if the targets are moving, they could miss.
They are also very effective against Frightwigs. If they set a frightwig on fire, and drive into them while they're burning, they'll send the Frightwig into a constantly repeating falling animation where it cannot attack at all.

Do note one thing, the Fire Barons Double Team Flame Ring attack does Zero damage to fan booths. Do not do this in an attempt to speed up the destruction process.

IronheadE vs IronheadE

In an IronheadE vs IronheadE match: Fire Barons become somewhat ineffective VS tier 1 units (even when double teaming with the barons) if the enemy has a Thunderhog or a lot of Razor Girls. Going tier 2 for Barons and Headsplitters if you have the same amount of fan booths as your enemy is not a good idea. Only do it if you have the fan booth advantage.

Tick Choppers

They're like Fire Barons, only they never miss. Their attacks probably don't suffer from ineffectiveness vs vehicles like Fire Barons molotovs, but they're still as vulnerable and weak as Fire Barons against attacks from ranged infantry, vehicles (Headsplitter/Lightning Rod), and avatars/player characters. You can block before the ticks burst to prevent taking damage.

VS Battle Nun
If you can kill a Battle Nun before it gets to spawn any units, or maybe shortly after it spawns some, you will deal a massive blow to the Coil, putting you at an advantage. If you fail to do it while or before it's breeding units at it's stage, attack it while it's on the move. Shock it to temporarely stun it and keep it away from the rest of the Coil units so that it can't heal, making it an easy kill and a big advantage for you.

Tier 1 Ranged Units
Simply standing still and holding the block button will ensure you do not take any damage at all. Useful if the enemy player is double teaming with a Razor Girl, Bride (yes, even the bride) or Pinboy. If the Razor Girls are upgraded, this will not work. Not sure about upgraded Tainted Coil Punishing Parties/Pinboys.

Double teaming with an upgraded Razor Girl is an extremely efficient way of stunning and keeping away a Metal Beast.

Dirgible
When double teaming with it, you can heal the Dirgible as well as your units. Flying as low as possible, or right above a building. Drop an urn, and it will start healing the Dirgible.

Grave Diggers
Grave Digger double team is OP. Nuff said. Spam it VS enemy units!
To cancel it, heavy attacks on the unit Ophelia is interacting with will stop her from going underground (Sprinting Attack, Earthshaker, Shock Bombs and possibly Sprinting Guitar attack and Standing Axe Charge attack but not exactly sure). Grabber also works too!

(Bonus)

End

I might add more info/videos.

Credits to DrakeWarrior for helping me do Skullraker testing, faction info contributions, etc... and Insul for his guides.

[BrütalCommissioner]

Excelent guide! A players strategy highly depends on the map--and their factions, of course-- so I urge you to create a guide on different maps.