Originally published at: New Faction – Dripping Caverns – Gems of War
New Faction: Dripping Caverns Join Lil’ Johnny Bronze, as you explore the damp darkness of the Dripping Caverns! We have a new Faction to delve, as well as lots of new troops, controlled by Shoggorath! To celebrate the release of this new Faction, we will be running a Faction event over the weekend for Dripping…
1 Like
Lil’ Johnny Bronze…, sooo Blackhawk faction ? 
Bug report for the weapon being incorrectly assigned to Karakoth (ID #3017) where as faction troops are assigned to Grosh-Nak (ID #3018)
There is also an existing bug report for this which I believe was incorrectly marked ‘Not a bug, faction release moved’
1 Like
Another waste of time faction , another waste of gems factions. More poorly designed troops. Oh well I dont have to do it.
1 Like
I needs some sunglasses to play this one. Is there anyway to turn down those background colors on the floor layout. At least include a seizure warning.
3 Likes
This is not the best screenshot but I’ll use it for illustrative purposes.
Cloakmantle destroys the most used enemy gem color. However, there’s no indication of what that color is when you select the spell. Earlier in the fight, when I still had a Shoggorath, I had an opportunity to cast Cloakmantle, but the 50/50 chance between yellow and green had highly differing outcomes.
If you look at the screenshot, the bottom left corner has been there for a few moves, which is why I’m inclusing this screenshot. If Cloakmantle removed green, it would give the enemy a skull match. In my previous predicament, removing yellow would give me a 4-match. So my choice was to gamble on those odds, but risk losing Shoggorath if Cloakmantle removed green, or have it remove yellow and live to see another turn, or just match something else.
I chose not to cast Cloakmantle, which unfortunately led to a skyfall that killed my Shoggorath anyway, but it makes me wonder if this was supposed to be a nod to Lyra’s Lair in that we had to depend on randomness instead of strategy when casting certain spells.
I forgot to take the extra screenshot with the spell up because I was very excited to be this close (spoilers, did succeed with 6 tier 7s and 100+50% hoard)
5 Likes
The schedule can’t be worst, monster week means we are actually fighting stat about level 550 instead of 500 at the end if we hope to clear it on release.
Finally cleared level 500 pure faction. Now, if you play with all 4 unique faction troops, you’ll get a bonus 21 Attack, 6 Magic, 24 Life, and 24 Armor (King of Orcs, Kingdom Team Bonus IV, Elemental General, and Monster General). You’ll also get some Magic and Life from the pet. However, because 3 out of 4 of these troops are god awful, you’ll want to skip all of these bonuses and just use 4x Shoggorath.
First up is Rock Squid. He has Stone Skin, reducing skull damage by 50%. Unfortunately, his ability is utter trash. He removes gems and gains an entire 2 Armor for each gem removed. So if you remove 10 gems (of the most used enemy mana color), you’ll get a whole 20 Armor. The only thing that scales with Magic is how many gems he removes, which is useless.
Furthermore, when you remove gems, you’re likely setting up a skull hit for the enemy, and you’ll take more damage than any armor you could possibly gain. Terrible troop. Don’t use it. Note also it removes, not destroys, so you won’t gain any mana from it.
Then we have Cloakmantle, which destroys Magic+1 (again, you’ll be destroying more gems than there are gems on the board). of the most used enemy Mana color, which is fantastic design, because after you’ve used Rock Squid, there are none of those gems left on the board to destroy, and vice versa! If you use this first, then Rock Squid, he’ll gain like 4 Armor from removing two gems. That’s his entire ability! Who designs this crap?
Cloakmantle at least gives you some mana from destroying the gems. Then it webs the strongest enemy. Note that in most cases, the strongest enemy is the one immune to Web (it would routinely web the enemy’s Ochre Jelly, which is Impervious…)
Now we come to Ochre Jelly, which creates 10 gems of the most used Ally Color (in this team’s case: blue). So create 10 blue gems and 10 skull gems. Because you’ve removed so many gems already, it’s really a bad troop to use, because in a mirror match, you’re removing/destroying blue, and then you’re creating blue… so you’re just setting up matches for the enemy. Awful troop.
Finally we have Shoggorath, the only troop that actually does damage. He also explodes 5 gems of most used ally mana color (so he explodes 5 blue gems). He deals true damage to the first and last enemy and silences them. Note though if there is only one troop left, he only does damage once.
So the 4x Shoggorath team is really where it’s at. You basically just chain cast them until the enemy dies. Easy.
(I also was playing with 6 Potion of Power and Hoard level 171.)
4 Likes
I did it with 2 squid 2 shogg , which are safer. I tried 1 squid 3 shogg, died from skulls real quick.
I’m confident I may be the only one to have successfully beat the boss room this weekend with a Toad, 2 Shogs, and a Jelly at level 500. 
(Hoard 190ish, Tier 7, 3 times)
And remember ladies and gents, if your cavern drips for more than 4 hours. Please consult your doctor immediately.
1 Like
What a stupid bloody faction. No skill required just luck. Just pray to the skyfall gods you don’t keep giving skull matches to the enemy. Can’t wait to see the next delve “gimmick”. Devs have run out of ideas.
Anyone who beats this faction just got lucky that’s all. Shoggorath (literally the only damage dealer) would actually have been a better troop without the explosions.
3 Likes