Difficult Stages - Stage 108

[Quick Update 5/23/14: Since May 22, many ranger's stats were buffed. There are many ways to clear Stage 108 now, but I would suggest that you invest in Sol as a team member. He is very strong these days, especially maxed out at level 80.

New Stage 108 Video - Easy Mode with just 4 rangers: Sol, Alice, Witch Cony, Warrior Jessica]

Stage 108 is the current end-stage of the release as of this writing on May 11, 2014. It's a very challenging stage if you don't have any special rangers. Then again even if you do, if the special rangers are not KSM or Dancer King Boss, you're going to have to try a few times before you get it.

The very frustrating thing about this stage is that depending on how and when you deploy your rangers, the stage will progress differently for you. The enemy formation varies somewhat inexplicably. I've had situations where in a single stage I have gotten 1.5 Evas, 2 Convini (the best possible formation). Another time I got three Evas, 2 Convini, unicycles and ice cream. Sometimes I get a normal formation of 2 Evas, 2 Convini but with unicycles and ice cream enemies sprinkled in the lineup. Also, depending on where your team is located at the time of Hurry Up, even the formation and types of enemies you receive in the death march of this stage is different. Sometimes you luck out and you only get a sparse lineup of Mabebe, Sena, Tylers, unicycles and ice cream. Sometimes you get your rear end handed to you on a plate by a densely packed stream of more Sena than you can ever defeat along with every other enemy in this zone. Therefore, I cannot really break down the stage into digestible parts. All depends on how you play.

There is hope, however. I found this one video made by a player who has my utmost respect. He not only nailed down the perfect timing for clearing this stage with an all common/free ranger team, he's also figured out how to methodically trigger the ideal enemy formation for 108 (1.5 Eva, 2 Convini, no ice cream/unicycles during regular stage, and the best possible Hurry Up scenario). This video is here, made by YouJJay. *Please* go watch his video if you need help with 108. I'm going to shamelessly take screenshots of his video and discuss them in this post. There are some things he does that I think are genius. Definitely worth pointing out to aid you in success.

The Team & Deployment Order

I'm going to assume that he has at least unlocked the Castle in the Sky treasure, though not sure if 100% or not. His team is probably fully leveled to max and the members are Clara, Alice, Witch Cony, Sol and Warrior Jessica. In his strategy, Warrior Jessica is highest priority for deployment, followed by Sol, Clara, then Alice and Witch Cony. I mentioned before about never being "supply blocked." The idea is, you may deploy anyone who is not on cooldown as long as doing so will not cause you to be unable to deploy Jessica when her cooldown is finished. Example: if you have 500 minerals when Sol's cooldown is almost done while Jessica's is 80% done, don't deploy Sol first. Wait for Jessica's to come off cooldown, deploy her, then deploy Sol when you get enough minerals. Never deploy someone else at the cost of wasting time not deploying Jessica.

Execution

I've tried his strategy several times and it's been foolproof so far. At the start, upgrade minerals to 7, then deploy Jessica. Upgrade minerals to 8, then wait until you can deploy another Jessica, followed by Sol, then Clara. Repeat Jessica, Sol, and Clara again before deploying Alice. Early on, you should only have enough minerals for those 4 anyway, so Witch Cony won't be even a thought until you have a few of those top 4 rangers.

If you time it that way, you will almost always end up in the spot that is identical to the video. Additionally -- and this is key! -- this will allow Convini to walk up *ahead* of Eva and start to hit Sol. This is very important because if he is not at the front of his group, Alice and Witch Cony won't be guaranteed to target him. If you follow this priority of deployment you will trigger Thomas when Convini's health is low and have enough fire power to defeat him before the pack of enemies backs you into your tower.

Once Eva and Tyler start to beat up on your tower, keep deploying your rangers to slow down the HP drain from Tyler. You are required to wait for the 2nd Convini to walk all the way to your tower because you are stalling for time. Time for what? (1) You're feeding your rangers slowly to death a bit here to trigger Thomas later. (2) You need to continue to damage Eva little by little in order to kill her before Hurry Up. (3) You must absolutely not be standing too close to the enemy tower when Hurry Up timer triggers because standing in various locations on the path triggers different formations. Also, standing too close can indirectly make Hurry Up more difficult for you (more on this later).  So, when the tower gets low, use Tower Repair to continue stalling. Use your Missiles as you get them. When Convini reaches your tower, Tornado them both back.

Here's the next critically important thing to note. You need to wait until Convini #2 passes the point where his text box is located before deploying your first Jessica. You need to do this because you want to end up about 1/3 of the way down the road and fight Convini and Eva there. I'll explain why soon.

As you fight Convini, Eva and Tyler here, your rangers are going to very naturally clump up into the great ball of death that you will need in order to slug your way through the Hurry Up part of this stage. If you continue to deploy in the priority mentioned, you should have no trouble getting all these remaining enemies very low. As soon as Hurry Up starts, drop the Meteor on them and Eva, Tyler and Convini will die. Now's also the time to deploy your Friend/Sidekick.

There are 3 reasons you are located here instead of further down the road. The natural instinct is to try to get as close to the enemy tower as possible after a tornado, right? You'll have less distance to have to fight through. But in this case, being far away from the tower gives you 3 advantages. (1) Your 3 heaviest hitting rangers (Sol, Clara, Alice) are very slow. The closer your army's meeting point is to your home tower, the faster and safer you can build up your ball of death army. (2) Convini walks faster than Eva. Giving him time to walk to you will allow you to focus your fire on him alone without taking extra damage from Eva. (3) When the stream of enemies from Hurry Up pop out of the tower, they will be tightly clumped, like their own ball of death. You do not want to be on the receiving end of all of that fire power. Since the enemies all walk at various speeds, the longer they walk, the more spread out they become. By the time you meet them, Sena has fallen behind and you can pick off the lone unicycle very safely. Without danger of being ganged up on, your army will get larger and larger and be able to inch its way to the enemy.

Continue to deploy your rangers, of course, and they will slowly join your mighty ball of death as you push through the enemies. But be mindful that as soon as you reach the tower, one half-health Eva will pop out. Use Ice Shot here to freeze everything in place as you splash down the tower and also kill her. After they thaw, it's pretty much a win!

Ice Shot the 2nd Eva

This method works every time. The timing and positioning are very precise and takes all the guesswork out of the formation of this stage. All kudos go to YouJJay. Go watch his videos, like and subscribe and all that good stuff.

Sounds like updates to the game are coming fast. Hope you guys clear 108 soon!