Difficult Stages - Stage 81

81 is another really tough stage for most people. It's an oddly placed stage in my opinion. Stage 80 was fairly tricky (and since they tweaked the stage difficulty, Stage 80 is in fact harder because of shorter pathway) but 81 is crazy hard with a 3-pow combo. Once you defeat 81, you realize that 82 is just a mini stage 81 which is strange because shouldn't difficulty step up as you progress?

I like using this team for 81. Most people should have these rangers and Clara provides splash damage from range. I personally swapped Scott for Brownie because Brownie walks slower than Scott. But Scott or any other lowbie is fine too. If you don't have Frog Brown, you can swap for another health ranger to tank. Styne is a little more expensive and walks a little bit slower, but he's beefy and viable. The only one I would not use is Xan because he walks so fast and he's really quite expensive for such front-fire-heavy stage. The lowbie in this stage is really just filler in case your tank dies and you want to prevent the enemy from marching forward. As usual, keep the lowbie production ongoing for best results.

Now if you prefer, you can do this with a traditional 5-ranger team. With Frog Brown, and 2 to 3 splash rangers, this stage really is quite doable. Clara, Opera James, Cobe and Charismatic/Warrior/Hero Jessica are all good choices, with Sindy or Ellin filling the last spot. Because of general availability, I'll discuss the stage with Clara, Sindy, Ellin, Frog Brown and Scott, though.

As far as strategies, I've got 3. Click links if you don't want to read the whole big explanation.

• Standard Push
• Hax
• Panic Mode

The Enemies

The stage comes in 3 waves. The first wave is an onslaught of penguins. They move fast, don't have a ton a health, but they dish out enough pain to give your health rangers some trouble. They come in a stream so if you don't kill the first one in time, the rest will pile up and then you're really in trouble. Wave 2 consists of 3 multi-eye white floating enemies. They have a name, Poppi, but they're really gross and terrible that no one cares about his name. He's just multi-eye white enemy. They spit out a splash damage that hits everyone in medium range. Wave 3 consists of 3 more multi-eye white enemies and 1 large walrus (Ryoko -- you'll see more of him in the next few stages too). Shortly after they pop, more penguins pop. And if you hit the Hurry Up part of the stage, you're in real trouble because a lot of penguins and more multi-eye white guys come out all at the same time.

The Methods - Standard Push

One of the key things that will make the stage a lot easier is to stay on the left half of the screen during wave 1. Don't let any of your rangers cross the midpoint or you'll get wave 2 simultaneously which is really, really not good. It's a pretty short path so staying on your half of the path is tough. One way to make sure you always stay on your side is by leveling your minerals to level 3 right at the start. This gives the penguin time to walk to your half of the path. You can allow the penguin get really close to the tower and your Claras/Sindys/Ellins will be safe because there is no enemy splash damage in wave 1. Just place a Brown or Scott in front of them and you're good.

One Brown or one Scott at a time is good enough for the penguins

Block the penguin with Scott, then Frog Brown. The next thing you should deploy is either Sindy or Ellin (pick only 1). The 4th unit to deploy is definitely Clara. Drop a missile as soon as it is ready. Continue to deploy Scott and Frog Brown so that you always have 1 in the front. At this point, you should prioritize Clara over Sindy/Ellin. As soon as you kill all the penguins and friends, level minerals to max, or get as close as you can to max. Your rangers should be crossing the middle and almost to the enemy tower.

When the last penguin dies, level your minerals as much as you can while Brown and walking to the enemy tower. Stop leveling minerals when the next set of enemies pop out and switch to deploying Brown and Scott. The extra Styne in this pic is a random support unit from a Friend.

When the next set of enemies come out, prioritize Frog Brown and Scott as your top deployment, and then Clara, then Sindy. Deploy Ellin only if you have enough minerals and everything else is on cooldown.

Once you kill the first white multi-eye enemies, start saving your Thomas (if he has popped up). When you have killed 2 multi-eye enemies, save your Missile. Once you have killed all of them, hopefully you have a healthy clump of ranged attackers in the back and a lot of Browns in the front or on their way there.

Save your Missile after the first white enemy dies. Make sure your ranged attackers are safe by prioritizing deployment of Brown and Scott. 

Launch your missile right away after the big guys pop

As soon as all of the white enemies and walrus have popped out, Ice Shot them and launch your Missile. Drop Meteor also if you want to be safe. Deploy your Friend's rangers. You should be able to get them to about half. Before the enemies defrost, send Thomas out. This should buy you enough time to kill them or come very close. If all your Browns are dead, tornado them back and finish them off.

Ice Shot and lay on the pain, give it everything you have!

Use Thomas after Ice Shot wears off. He will slow down the move and attack speed of the mini-bosses while you finish them off.

Hopefully that helps you kill off all the enemies in Stage 81!

Hax Method

Alternatively, after the penguins are dead as you head into wave 2, your priority should be Frog Brown, Scott and Clara (or whoever you have for splash attack). After the 2nd wave is dead, wait for all the enemies to pop out, tornado them back to the foot of the tower and ice shot them before they move away. Clara should be able to splash damage the tower down before the walrus dies. This method works even better with additional splash rangers if you have them.

Start as normal, killing penguins on left half of the screen. Level your minerals. Then kill off the second set of enemies (white multi-eye guys). 

Finish them the second set of enemies, save your missile. 

Wait for it... wait for it... Level your minerals while you wait for it...

As soon as all the big mini bosses are out, use Tornado. Then hit Ice Shot immediately.

Launch your missile, but it doesn't really matter. You're not here to kill the boss. The tower behind them should be melting.

All of the white multi-eye guys died, and the tower is about to go down too.  The walrus is half health but it doesn't matter. You don't need to kill him.

Panic Method With Upgrade and Reset

Another way to do it is if you do the minimum necessary to entertain the penguin pack, then upgrade & reset. Send out just 2-3 Scott, 2-3 Frog Brown, 1 or 2 Claras, 1 or 2 Ellins. Just enough to kill most of the penguins (and don't cross the midpoint line). After a while, they start to overwhelm you and back you into your tower. Once you're down to 1 or 2 rangers left, abandon them and put all your minerals into upgrading minerals to max. Just ignore the penguins. Use a tower repair when the tower HP is low. Let the penguins beat up your tower until you are max, build up a full set of minerals, and have your Missile ready. Then use a tornado to blow them all back. Immediately launch your Missile. Deploy Scott, Brown, Clara, Sindy, and Friends/Sidekicks.

This method works, but be aware that it will feel very panicky and the stage is an uphill battle the whole entire way. You don't have a tornado to fall back on later, either. It will feel more and more difficult until you have built up a critical mass of rangers to push through the second set of enemies. The good thing about this method is, fully upgraded minerals gives you a lot of production power to fight back full-force. Once you get over the initial slump, you'll drive into the enemy like a mighty fist. I would highly recommend using Ice Shot and Meteor after the walrus and the white enemies pop at wave 3.

Final Words

Timing and control is very important for this stage. You must consciously decide when you need more reinforcement of your front line, and when you have the minerals to spare to deploy your attackers in the back. If you cannot afford to upgrade minerals because the enemy is pushing forward, don't. Preserving the front line is more important than mineral upgrade (except in the Panic Method above).

If you accidentally walk past the midpoint, it's not game over. You can use Meteor to help keep the enemies down to a minimum. You don't want to lose all your health rangers over this, but it will feel a lot more frantic. On most of the other not-so-tricky stages, I try to work around using outside help. But on the really crazy ones like 81, don't be afraid to use items and Friends/Sidekicks to get out of a bad situation so that you can push forward.