Battle Camp Released Globally! BEST NEW GAME!

Alright, so today Battle Camp is officially available for Global Download! Not only that but it seems like the Apple App Store has jumped on the bandwagon and featured Battle Camp as a BEST NEW GAME.

Now, for those unfamiliar, Apple is pretty picky about who makes their BEST NEW GAME list, so this is pretty insane for an unheard of company to make the list.

The reasons it probably made the list:

1) Full virtual world with avatars + monsters that follow you around
2) Raiding
3) Global Chat/Troop Chat/Messaging
4) Troop Halls
5) Troop Pets
6) Mosaic (This is an easter egg that I am completely addicted to, it's a board game I play with people while my energy recharges)
7) Match 3 Combat
8) Synchronous PvP (Yes, this is INSANELY fun)
9) Huge story and progression
10) Or in other words, it's a freakin MMO.

Overall, the game is insanely fun and the company behind it has really raised the bar on what should be expected.

The downsides:

1) Graphics. Personally I've said it again and again, Gameplay > Graphics. But the art style lacks the sex appeal of other games.

2) Paying players have an advantage. Sorry, but I think we're in a world where that's just a case in games. You can watch videos or do 'Tapjoy' functions to earn gold though like F2P MMOs did. Also they are adding daily logins + trading in the next patch so that should help. Overall, where other games are taking away ways for players to earn things, they add ways.

I really can't say I've had more fun playing a mobile game than I have playing Battle Camp, and their constant updates/changes keeps it really interesting to me. That and the fact I get to wander around showing off my awesome pets + costumes and can solo carry newbies through easy raids.

The game is still VERY new, but honestly it reminds me a lot of Warcraft, it's always adding content.

Download it at: http://bit.ly/BattleCampApp

Battle Camp Update

Ok, so the previous date of the 14th got changed. It will be released the 18th of this month atm.

Apparently the push back was so they could add a bunch of languages for the Global Release rather than add the languages in future patches :(

So, there have been a few questions posed on some different sites.

1) Will you get your ass handed to you by people who have been playing?

- Absolutely. There's a huge advantage to being part of a BETA. I've BETA'd a lot of games and it always gives me an edge, it's one of the only perks they get. The upside though is that improving your team can be done pretty rapidly to the point where you can compete. If you're good the edge they gained can be caught up in about a month of normal play.

2) Is it P2W like Rage/Marvel

- Yes and no. Obviously all games have a pay process, they have to make money and expecting them not to is just silly. The real question is are they greedy about it? The answer to that is no. Players earn rare spins in events just by earning trophies/participating. Players also can ask friends to send them a recharge for their energy. Finally, they do have stuff where you can watch ads to earn coins. 

Do paying players have an advantage? Yep. Not going to avoid that anywhere really, but the nice part is that you can catch up and they are regularly adding ways for players to earn stuff rather than take away those opportunities.

3) Are you going to make a fan site for it?

- Maybe. I've been busy (14+ hour days) constantly lately.

4) Any tips for newbies?

- Stay in Camp until you have a full team of Rares. Camp Rares only require 2 pieces to make vs 4-6 as you go through. Although they're weaker than other rares they will help you farm the other rares faster.

- Special monsters give way more XP than other monsters. Use your normal monsters to level a special and then feed that one to a Rare. You'll level much faster and spend a lot less stone leveling.
 
- Find a Troop that Raids regularly. The Beginner Raids aren't super hard (my player can solo the entire first raid in a day). You get a piece of a Super Rare monster for winning raids so it's the best way to power up fast.
 
- Participate heavily in events. Pretty much all players win something, but also you gain rewards by earning trophies. You can also find Event Tokens that carry over to other events and can be used to be traded for event monsters/costumes/trophies/stone.
- Play through the entire story. You get experience boosts/stone/monster grabs.

- Be active. A lot of troops are willing to take friendly active members even if they are weak because they know that they can carry them through raids and power them up quickly.

Finally, here's a piece of Battle Camp art I put together:

Battle Camp, Experience the Awesome.

So Where has Lucarda Been?

After four months of being MIA I'm back, unfortunately I just don't have time to keep up on Marvel War of Heroes and all the best strats anymore. The truth is I found a game that has pretty much everything I could ask for in a mobile game.

While Rage of Bahamut was fun for a while, the game I'm currently playing is a hell of a lot more fun. The game is called Battle Camp! I've been in the beta and helping with the game for the last several months.

I haven't been writing about it while I was playing because I didn't want to get in trouble but now that it's about to launch I figured I'd let my readers know about it first.

So, what makes Battle Camp so much better than Marvel War of Heroes?

Well, let me tell you my experience with it.

I first entered the game and opened the game and began designing my character. At first I thought, wow I can choose from five looks, then I noticed the customize button. It was there I found out that I could make my character appear thousands of different ways. I wondered how much it cost for the various vanities and I was shocked to find out nothing. The amount of customization a player can do for their character is just absurd. There are also tons of costumes players CAN purchase though that look pretty funny/weird/cute/awesome.

So, after completing my character I entered the game. The combat system is like Puzzles and Dragons (for any who have played it). This is just a grossly better system over the TCG model. All of the movement and gem matching was seamless and I found being able to determine my attacks with a combination of skill+monster stats really refreshing.

At this point the similarities to Puzzles and Dragons ended. My avatar was in a zone in the world and immediately story dialog came up and began sending me on various quests. The amount of story+quests in this game borders on full MMO status. The story is also funny with tons of puns if you read to catch them.

So, what next? Farm, farm, farm for monsters which I always find to be a fun part of a game. Farming in Battle Camp isn't nearly as brutal as it is in Marvel. I spent about 5-10 minutes an hour playing trying to gather up pieces of rare monsters. As I gathered more and more rares I ended up joining a Troop (Battle Camps version of Guilds/Orders).

That's where the game started getting really addicting. The troops have built in chats, raids that players can do, and troop pets for the team to raise (plays an important role in one of the events). Ultimately through raiding with the rest of the troop I was able to accumulate a bunch of higher rarity monsters and evolve them. After that it's just fun to watch your damage cap rise and rise in raids.

Now, that's not all there is to do otherwise I would have been bored already. Much like Marvel there are several events. There are Troop Wars which pit troops against each other (sort of like Shield Training but different), there are Raid Events where the troop gathers items together to battle unique raid bosses, and also a dungeon event where players battle their way through waves of challenge mode caves to earn tokens and battle a boss. All of the events are extremely fun and each has their own unique story.

PvP deserves a special mention because it's real head to head. Players battle against other live players to see who is more skilled on the board as well as who has the better monsters. Obviously monsters give an edge (sometimes insurmountable, sorry commons don't beat epics unless the other guy forfeits), but the cool part is that I have on a regular basis crushed people with pets much rarer than mine. The reason? Because skill plays a role.

Overall, I'm sure I'm forgetting about something but I figured any of my readers deserved to know why I haven't been commenting/playing Marvel War of Heroes. I would love to see you all in Battle Camp though.

It is on iOS only right now with an android version scheduled later this year. It doesn't get released in the US until the 14th but if you want to get in early Canada is one of the beta countries so you can download it in the canadian app store.

If you do decide to join me in game please use my referral code! And as always, IGN Lucarda.

p8cgzp

Deadpool Boot Camp

Marvel War of Heroes newest event Deadpool Bootcamp is the same as the other raid events so you could just as easily read those posts for a lot of the information and it will still be the same. That information being:

1) If you want to rank well you need raider cards, the higher the rarity the better.
2) Loaning out raid cards to friends when you sleep and them loaning them to you are both great ways to maximize points while minimizing cost.
3) Some people will let you rent theirs if you have collateral. (I still recommend only using people you know because your collateral is worth far more after the event)
4) Be highly active but passive for the first half (attack but don't use RDS/PP)
5) Use all your stored RDS/PP for enraged bosses

Group Raiding

Those are the cliff notes. But this time I'm going to talk about something that not a lot of people do. Group sharing/questing. This is a great way for lower level Alliances to do well.

During Shield Training people are able to coordinate so several are on at once but during Raid Events it very much becomes an every man for themselves attitude. I'm not saying this is wrong, the requirement of Raider cards makes it being a group activity tough. But it's not impossible.

Attacking other peoples raid bosses gives you a damage bonus, and every little bit helps. If you reasonably got 10-20 Alliance members on simultaneously when enraged bosses were popping up and did some power summoning of bosses you could give yourselves quite a bonus.

The way it would work is you attack only your enraged bosses. Attack them once then share. If everybody does this once, not only will you get a damage bonus for enraged but you will also get one for supporting a friend. With everybody doing it, everybody would benefit. It also would turn a boring solo grind activity into something a little more fun if you set up a few times to do this after enraged bosses started popping up.

It's also a nice way for people who maybe can't afford the best raider cards to get an edge.

Deadpool

Deadpool will be insanely priced. I'm not sure how high he will go, but I believe he'll be higher than any of the other reward cards. The reason for this is two things. The first is that he is a top notch speed card with a Relatively High Proc to pure attack. This is the card people stacking Spider-man have been waiting for. Second, come on, that art is hilarious and unique.

So, if you were going to push in a Raid Event this year...I'd recommend this one.

Lets Talk Shield Training

So, by now people should know enough about Shield Training to make some valid strategies and how to do well. If you don't, check back at some of my previous posts regarding it.

Instead, I'd rather address things people do that are just bad decisions. So, here is my list of things I see people doing because somewhere they think it gives them an advantage.

1) Not Building Walls

I understand that people think of these as 'free points' but the amount of points per attack power players get from destroying a wall is much lower than the points per attack power a player can get from attacking a player.

2) Single Card Defense

I don't get this one. Apparently people haven't realized yet that they are penalized for using single cards on defense? If you don't believe me...attack somebody with a single card assigned. You can attack them over and over again while receiving full or near full points. Don't do it.

3) Lockout Strategy

It doesn't work. People who use this strategy are simply saying..."I plan on losing, but I plan to take all the fun out of the game while doing it." An active team can still accumulate far more points. Now, can you do it? Yes, but you're a dick ruining the game for others and your odds of winning aren't actually increased.

4) Minimum Attack/Defense Requirements

This is something that's been around since Rage. Realistically, it's not a good determiner of how people will do. Instead you want to ask them how much PP they are willing to spend. People will aim for players they can beat naturally. But some players with high stats will merely do the minimum and do nothing after that. It's important to find members who are willing to throw down, not just members stats.

Those are my big four. But for those who don't know, the keys to winning are:

1) Active Players
2) Coordinated Battles
3) Solid PP stockpiles
4) Strong enough decks to break defenses
5) Good Attack/Defense Leaders

Captain America vs Red Skull

So, I anticipated a Hydra event for some time so it's good to see one showing up. Red Skull is one of my favorite villains, even though Captain America is a little 'too good' for my taste in heroes.

First things first. I'd like to address the Raider Card Changes. I get that people are getting continually frustrated at the diminished value of Raid Reward Raider Cards. The fact that an SR Raid Reward has not only less boost than its purchased equivalent, but less boost than its Rare equivalent is pretty annoying.

And I have to say, I am very disappointed in the change. For high level players this change makes very little difference, but for low level players this change makes rising in rank even more difficulty.

Couple this with the changes to Personal Power Packs being given out, I struggle to think of how low level players can improve their decks without spending money. I feel these change will cause the game to lose players faster as they hit a wall in improving their deck.

Now, on the upside. The value of PP had been diminishing, actually down to about seventy five cents per PP. This was partially due to how easy it was to get Personal PP during the Raid Event. So, the one thing we can look forward to is PP increasing in value back up to its dollar hopefully (but generally when things drop they don't go back up). This of course...will make it even harder for new players to get ahead.

Overall, these changes are bad. And a game that had a possible shelf life of 2 years probably has a shelf life of one as a result of them. This is due to the fact that these changes increase the chances of losing new players, and veteran players will leave naturally. I find it hard to believe that given these changes that Marvel won't be losing players at a higher rate than which they gain them.

That's enough of a rant there about the changes.

Captain America vs Red Skull

So, for this event obviously there are certain tricks. Trick number one is ideally you don't want to use any of your RDS bars until enraged bosses come along. This way the damage done is significantly more. On top of this, try to stack as many raid cards as you can for the bonus damage.

Trick number two involves retrieving prizes from raid bosses. Ideally, you want to let the inbox for your prizes get to the full 30 max before accepting them. The idea behind this is you will summon weaker bosses making them easier to finish and get RDS bars. If you gradually prizes as you beat the bosses, you will gradually get tougher bosses. This will mean that you may have 15 battles that take 2 RDS each instead of 30 that take 1 RDS each.

Trick number three involves teamwork. Ideally you'll want to target shared bosses regularly. If your Alliance set aside a two hour period during enraged bosses where you all farm enraged bosses, hit them once, then share them, you can look forward to a bonus as well. This boost to damage is welcome because it promotes active participation.

Trick number five involves renting/borrowing cards. Players all have a limited amount of time they can play and need to sleep. A strong alliance with good bonds will often be able to pass around cards for people to use even if they didn't purchase them.

Finally trick number six is to know your damage. I try to always hit the highest level boss available with a 1 RDS, a 3 RDS and a 6 RDS attack. I normally write these down so I know how much to use on certain bosses. Then when enraged come along you just triple it.

Anyway, Good luck on the event.