This was a tough one.
No exploder weapon among the seven on offer or todays new one, which had been flagged as an exploder. They are all so dire I decided eventually to run without a hero.
A total of 16 troops, most of which are running purple and/or red and have
little synergy and the two new troops this week are of no use.
Now the good news. We got this. And it’s fun !
Concentrate on filling Void Dragon, using Fire Lion to help. Fire him and he will usually refill himself.
Play him like Queen B.
Fire Lion converts green gems to purple terror gems which help fill Void Dragon.
The Fire Jugglers will look after themselves. Clean up with these if needed when the enemy stats are depleted enough.
Be mindful that Terror Gems can bite you in the bum so get them off the board asap
This is is a fast team which beats E12 in all kingdoms so will be good to the final boss.
The Void Dragon and Fire Juggler both benefit from +6 magic at gold Elite.
PS
It seems that the new weapon Arcane Edge WAS supposed to be an exploder but there was a complaint on the forum about the colours which were changed before reset. The spell also got changed from a useful “explode 23+ purple gems. Grant a random status effect to all Mystic allies …” TO “Deal 53 damage to the first two enemies”
Yes - as much use as a chocolate teapot
FORGOT TO MENTION
The AI enemy does not generally match Terror gems as first choice !
I’m experimenting with something quite a bit different:
Bone Hound
Midnight Queen
Void Dragon
Hands of Time (Nightweaver)
Banner: Illithia (+2 purple / +1 blue / -1 green)
Bone Hound for its’ traits and because red/green keeps it from blocking the mana colors of everything else. And because he could summon if one of the other units dies; he’s not meant to cast unless there’s a really skull-heavy board (and not from Midnight Queen spawning a ton of doomskulls because Bone Hound can overwrite those).
Midnight Queen for board control, for mana/skull generation in ways to feed other stuff and deal skull damage, and also for her third trait.
Void Dragon is the obvious damage-dealer here.
Hero as secondary damage-dealer and utility booster. Hands of Time is a secondary damage-dealer; the weapon guarantees you an extra turn if it’s fully upgraded. Nightweaver’s third trait isn’t very helpful in this set-up, as neither Bone Hound nor Midnight Queen see any benefit from a magic upgrade, but the “Hunt” and “Rising Shadows” talents are useful.
…
I suspect that this team will struggle to some degree at higher levels when skull damage gets slower, especially against enemies with some reduction in that area. I suppose that Fire Juggler in Bone Hound’s place is a possible play, although I do question if her spell damage would keep up at higher levels even with a Nightweaver feeding her Magic.
It’s not going to be an easy week at the high levels of the Underspire, but there are several other kingdoms that have the same issue.
The AI doesn’t seem to be aware heroic gems exist. It sees them as plain gems, purple for Terror gems. Whenever it gets a heroic gem it’s just a side effect of matching regular gems.
