Am I supposed to pay for this game?

Hi folks,
I am quite new to this game. I’ve been playing for few days now, but more I play, more I feel this game is rigged and I will not play it for much longer…

HINTS
Suggested moves are pure garbage. 4 out of 5 “hints” are designed that if you take them, you just enable AI to get 4 or 5-in-a-row match or to get 3 skulls. It even makes you miss obvious turns - often it suggests “connect these 3 gems” while in column is obvious 4 gems to match. Are you serious?

AI ALWAYS GETS THE GOOD STUFF
No matter how I try. Even if I ignore hints and take away gems that AI need to fill up their mana pool… game just make it that exactly those gems drops after my last connections and all my hard work went out of the window. What’s the point in playing and trying to outsmart my opponent, if they just get anything they need?

It especially hurt in questing. Right now I am doing Morgrin Woods. Those missions are ridiculously retarded… I have to repeat each battle 2-5 times, because there is just no way how to beat the cheating AI. I even had to swoiitch to my PvP self-looping deck to be able to get a win on my 2nd or 4th try.

It’s frustrating and makes me want to just uninstall. I don’t want to win every single match and I like the idea of RNG in this game overall, but this is retarded.

GEM CREATING TROOPS
Why when enemy is creating gems they get 4 or 5 match instantly, but my troops don’t? I am using Banshee and yet again - 4 out of 5 times it creates red gems in a way that I don’t get jack shit, while AI in its next turn get at least 2x 4 in a row of red gems, from my Banshee.

AM I SUPPOSED TO PAY FOR THIS?
And from what I read I am not the only one feeling this. So, dear devs, you think it’s funny to piss off your players like this? You think they will put up with this rigged system for much longer? And how do you expect me to pay? I love to pay for good f2p games. As a “thank you” to the devs. That’s why I paid for Path of Exile, Paladins, League of Legends and few other games.

But I am not paying for a game that screws me over just because it can. Seriously. What do you expect to get out of this? Can you fix it and give us real chance to play this game? Or you don’t want to make money?

Because Steam reviews spreads really fast and I am going to write one soon. I’m just giving this game a chance to show me it’s not that bad.

It’s free to play, clue is in the title :slight_smile:

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I’d like to just address some of your points that I came across.

I think the suggested moves are just fine. I really only use them to catch 4 or 5 matches that I have missed on the board. If the game suggests a 3 match, I will just ignore it and find a different match to make. This is because usually the suggested match is not in the mana color I would like to take.

Yes, sometimes the AI will get lucky and fill up quickly due to some nice cascades. Don’t get discouraged by this! There will be times where you will get those lucky drops and it will even out. Also, the more you play, the higher your mana masteries will become, allowing you to surge more often and fill faster than the AI.

I would completely ignore Maugrim Woods right now for quests and move on to another kingdom. Currently, the weekly troop comes from Maugrim Woods, so all troops in that kingdom have a 25% stat increase, with Wargare having another 25% boost on top of that (for 50% total stat boost). This would make it very hard for a new player to successfully fight against troops of that kingdom.

There is always a weekly bonus with some troops having 25% bonus and some having 50% bonus. It just so happens to fall on the one kingdom you are trying to work on this week… :thinking:

This can be controlled, since Banshee’s spell will always change Blue gems to Red. Keep banshee full and ready to cast until you see alignment of the red and blue gems that would give you a 4 or 5 match. If you don’t want to wait that long before casting, at least make sure that changing blue to red won’t give your opponent 4 or 5 matches to take.

All in all, I would say just stick with the game. Eventually you will get some good cards and make some fun teams to use. I have been enjoying this game for 8 months now, and I couldn’t be happier with a F2P game. On your title of “do I have to pay for this game?”, I would say it’s up to you. A lot of people do not pay and still are very good at this game. You may get things slightly slower than those who pay, but not by much. I personally have spent $30 on the game because I really enjoy it and I wanted to get VIP 3 for the free scouting.

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Thanks a lot for your reply. It has valid points.

Unfortunately I just lost 3 PvP and 3 quest battles in a row due to unfair AI luck, so it’s hard to take some parts of your reply in heart. I’m gonna mark down lucky strikes for both sides to find out if you’re actually right. Problem is, after streak of shit moves from AI, that one “luck” on your side doesn’t even feel good.

I can skip Morgrim Woods, and it looks like I have to… but I am going to lose the chance to get extra traitstones.

Also - can you suggest another kingdom with beasts in it? I would like to do the week’s event but that requires killing beasts in Explore mode. In chat I’ve been told Morgrim has the highest chance to get beasts when Exploring.

About spending money - I meant it as an rhetorical question for devs. To suggest how they expect me to pay them if they rigg the game against me. This is not Dark Souls :frowning:

be careful about gem spawners, you just came in a wrong moment as devs are “tweaking” the gem spawning algorhitm so you arent alone in that feeling that it works wrong, hopefully it gets “normal” soon

besides that - the enemy most probably has much better mana masteries then you so they fill their mana faster due to that, as your account grows you will get them high too

mana mastery - chance to receive mana surge when matching gems, you can watch your masteries and % chance at Hero main screen. when mana surge happens it doubles base mana gained from that match so 3gems = 6 mana, 4gems =8mana, 5gems =10 mana, a 5gem match guarantees mana surge 100%
(hint: pay attention to the team flag and “link” named traits as they also gives bonus mana for certain colors matched, but they do not multiply with surge)

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So this is why you are trying to quest in the kingdom that has the stat bonus! It makes so much more sense now… For the event, most people who are higher level should have no problem, as a lot of people will be using Kerberos/Giant Spider/Forest Guardian/Kerberos teams in PvP.

For your situation with being lower leveled (I assume), PvP may still be your best bet for completing the event. I would try this in casual PvP, because then you can cycle through opponents with only 50 gold until you find one with a couple of beasts on their team. I don’t know how many lower leveled players will have beasts in their defense though.

For explore on Maugrim woods, yes it is the best for finding beasts, but that’s not saying much. Explore uses mostly challenge battles with one troop replaced with any troop in the game. Out of the 7 challenges, I think 4 of them have 1 or 2 beasts in the battle. So you have about a 50% chance to have 1 or 2 beasts in your battle, in which one of them may be replaced. It would take awhile. I’ll stick by my casual PvP comment and hope that lower level players have beast defenses.

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Progressing in this game really revolves around being in a guild. It doesn’t have to be a top guild, but if you can find one that is active, you get many, many times the resources you can get on your own. Trying to progress and enjoy this game, without a guild to help generate resources, is really frustrating. You can do it, but its like playing on Hardcore mode.

Make sure your difficulty is set to Normal when starting out.

Basically use suggested moves only when you can’t find your own moves on the board. To me, its there so that if only one move exists, and you can’t see it, you’re not stuck searching for it.

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At the beginning the game can be a bit difficult depending of what you get from chest.

I used to lose many matches when I started. My first good troop was sacred guardian and he helps me starting to win.

Later I started to find difficult to continue only relying on this troop and decide to build a team around Luther (epic you can win from Broken peak) I grind alot and alot of exp with this team (also climbing pvp at the time, reaching rank 1 every weeks really help with ressources at low lvl).

So don’t be frustrated, at the beginning, just work with your ressources, do not commit all your soul in a troop you’re not sure you will use, etc etc.

Also for Banshee if you don’t get 4 or 5 times it’s a bit of your own fault. I Mean Banshee don’t pop gem randomly, she transform blue gem to red, in this case you need to wait until you got alignment for 4 times.

Finally, I don’t think you need to pay for this game, gonna be honnest with you I started paying later on in the game, at the beginning it’s not that good ( maybe the starter pack but it didn’t exist at the time). I mean even if you pay you are not sure of getting the troop you want (legendary pool is pretty big). You could spend 100$ dollars and getting many legendary but not the one you want.

Be patient, start building your kingdom and the game will start to be fun.

Also you can check Tacet the terror channel on youtube, many video of the game even for beginner ;).

Regards,
Fenrignarok.

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To address a few points and clarify @InquisitorKane

  • Luck is statistically the same for player, as it is for AI. If you miss a chance and give it to the AI who starts looping thanks to that - it was your mistake - not bad luck.
  • the hints - it has a pattern. Priority always goes in direction of 5 > 4 > 3 match. The secondary parameters (there are more choices in the same category of 5/4/3) are Skulls > Color you can use > Color you don’t use. It always follows that pattern. However - only direct moves are shown. If your extra turn is supposed to be gained indirectly - the hint won’t see it. Hints are a last-resort. They often hint you turns that benefit the AI.
  • Banshee is not a gem spawning troop. It is a gem transforming troop. It is clear that if Banshee missed - it was your fault. You could check the alignment.
  • The kingdom you are doing quests in are in bonus event week with increased stats. And you are informed about it beforehand. It’s the 1st thing that appears on opening the game. Picking the only unfavorable kingdom you can out of almost 30 - and then complaining about them being retarded… You get my point. It’s like picking a knife into a gunfight and complaining about it.

That kind of summarizes my reply to what you said.
… Are you supposed to pay for a game like that? Probably not. You have a choice to. You are not obliged.
But all the points you used were either false or were presented with wrong situation that has nothing in common with the proposed problem.


If I can suggest something - that’s either waiting a while till some bugs are polished and there is also an advanced AI scheduled (so AI won’t always go for skulls, even if entangled and ready to cast for the win) or playing it casually only. Players nor developers are having an easy time atm.

But the game is fun. And isn’t “unfair”. It’s random. And if you do not like random - which means that if you do not like loosing because of bad luck - this game is definitely not for you.
Because times like those will happen from time to time. With practice - you’ll learn how to increase your odds.

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Hi @InquisitorKane

The game has no such thing as cheated AI. It’s more that we remember our bad luck (when AI “cheat”) than we remember our good fortune (when we get cascades and such).

As Zippity said, just skip Maugrim Woods for this week (every monday the event changes, you will be able to return there).

Troops which create gems are a bit fuzzy those days (they tend to create new gems, far from gems of the same color, this giving 4+ to the AI instead of you). But Banshee is NOT such a spawner, it is a Converted, so you know EXACTLY which gems will turn to red, and you will learn to choose the right time to cast the spell. If you have a red-using troop in your team and you can time your banshee when that troop has no mana… it’s very effective :slight_smile:

Game Hints are … quite random. Most of the time they correctly detect the 4+, and 5+ (however for 5+ they blink as a 3 match). Very very very rarely they will miss a 4+.
However, those hints are “bad” because they don’t pick the color you need to fill.
And when I did start the game they were confusing me, my eyes couldn’t find anything else than what the hint proposed.
=> Disable the hints from the Settings when you are in a game.
You will reenable them later when you are more used to the game.

Also, you can enable detailed help settings from within a game. It will show exactly how much mana each spell cost and how much you are earned so far. It helps a lot.

Overall you seem to have troubles with your fights. It shouldn’t be that way. Quests are supposed to be easy (except maybe the final bosses and the class-related quests).
Ideally you could try other troops, but you need souls for that :frowning: so it’s not that easy to change.

Your hero is a very good tank (1st slot) at early levels.
Make sure your hero weapon does not use the same color has your other important troops.
Ranger, Elemental Golem, Druid, Knight Koronet are very good troops for early game. I also like Blade Master, Cyclop, griffin Knight, as well as EVERY troop that apply a burn like fire lizard or globlin rocket I think. Poison is also very good early game. Stun, freeze, disease, web are not that good for starters.

Assign a class to your hero. And choose one of the three options for that class, usually it gives you 8 life or armor or 4 attack, that counts a lot !

Ideally, try and keep a soul generating troop in your team, always, like Banshee, she is very good. Or valkyrie or warg.
And try to have your hero max leveled, as well as your main damaging troop. At least level 15.

Ah, and get into a guild ! “Mana surges” changes (“doubling” the mana you collect) depends on “mastery”, which comes from your level (very small amount) and from your guild (you can easy get a +25% chance just by being in a guild !)

And keep your gems until you get 500 to buy an dragon armor (greatly increase gold and souls earned).

If you want you can PrivateMessage me with your troops or ask advices. Alternatively you can do it as reply here a lot of people can answer. The community is very nice.

You don’t NEED to pay to play the game. At level 100 or so, I put 5$ into the game to encourage the developpers for their work. Sure if you put 50$ in the game you get lot of extra gems and cards. But the game is very viable at low cash invest. (I’m level 600)

Hope you finally find enjoyment in the game.

2 Likes

Forest of Thorns. I’ve been exploring there for the green runics and am at 52 event points now. Most matches have had at least one beast. Funny, the kingdom only has 2 beasts, but the matches often include beasts from other kingdoms, often from Maugrim Woods.

And certainly, the game is free to play, you don’t have to pay any money. But if you find yourself still playing after a year, consider sending some $$ their way to support their work :slight_smile:

As for the rest… I remember when I was just starting out. I didn’t have any of the good troops, team building was frustrating and so were the matches. As you play longer, you get more troops, get more familiar with them, have more options to build good teams, win more often and it gets more fun.

Here’s a brief example of how unpredictable spawn rates can be in this game.

Just yesterday, near the end of a PvP fight, I took a 3-match at the very left of the board, just a basic 3-match. The next thing that came down? 3 skulls in a row, final attack needed and took out their last troop.

The point I’m trying to make is this, there will be moments where the Ai gets unbelievable sky-drop matches, but you’ll get them as well. If you don’t want to leave it up to chance, looping teams are the best place to start.

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First up, only amateurs play with suggested moves on. So turn it off and not be distracted any further. Second, if you want to eliminate all the problems you said, then yes you need to pay money.

Yo dont listen to @Tache he is a known troll

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Hey, if you haven’t already, get on board with a large guild. That’s if you are enjoying the game despite it’s tougher aspects for a newer player. The boons are many. Good luck either way

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Ah, but people listen to me more than they listen to whiner like you. @Vangor usual post = tug on @saltypratra skirts “Mamma, Mamma…make bad man go away”

Vangor a whiner? haha :joy::sweat_smile: Days best!

He is in the movement gang together with me and 19 others that has to fight the Soft Club who wants an easier game.

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Lol fight the soft club… I like that😎

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