Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween!

It's end of October/Beginning of November so of course we can't be without more new rangers. 

They have continued the Halloween Gacha theme, but it's slightly changed. Instead of a hefty 200 rubies, you spend 150 and get a guaranteed chance to obtain either a 4-star or a 5-star ranger, effectively weeding out all 3-star rubbish ranger results. The yield is now "8+2" for a total of 10 rather than "10+3" for a total of 13. The price per spin is technically better this time (by a fraction, at 15 rubies per spin), but with the number of rangers consistently rising, the odds of you getting the couple of rangers you really need continue to diminish with time.

This month, the limited ranger is "Red" who is apparently an "Angry Bird." Honest to goodness, I don't know what Angry Birds is about because I've never downloaded the game, but I've briefly seen other people play it. It's a totally different genre from Line Rangers, so this is a strange collaborative event between the two games. And being a Limited Ranger, Red is pretty powerful. He has a *TON* of HP but he's going to need it because he's ultra-close range to the enemy. He's on a very long cooldown as well. Check him out:

That's pretty powerful! Here's what I think is the thing: Brown, Cony, Moon, Jessica and James have all been going at this for months. The Angry Birds heard that some guy was messing around with their fellow bird and decided it's time to bring it. Come on, Line Town Friends. It's time to put your game face on. Don't let this crossover bird steal all the credit. [Update: Just read the game notice... This story is exactly why Angry Birds are involved in the Sally rescue!] 

By the way, if you read the notice carefully, for the rest of November, there will be other Angry Birds events which will grant more of their characters to Line Rangers players. Pretty cute! 

Kung Fu Brown is an agile close-range splash unit. His animation is really funny. It looks like he wants to shove his nunchuku up the enemies' face. BTW I'm not a kung fu expert or anything, but I'm pretty sure nunchaku are not... part of Chinese kung fu? At least not traditionally? I guess it's just a Bruce Lee theme. But back to business: 183k splash, very fast move speed... for 330 minerals. Wow, just wow. KFBrown is going to tear melee enemies a new one. 

I was initially excited to see the splash screen include a new Jessica, but when I saw what she was I'm completely underwhelmed. I wanted her to be 5-star and very powerful. I think, as many of the readers have expressed, a powerful Jessica ranger is very much overdue. We've pretty much never had a super desirable Jessica. I know, back in the generation 1 days of LR, Charismatic Jessica was a dangerous kitty, and when Warrior Jessica was placed into the map as a free obtainable ranger, it was indeed a big deal and a huge help to the free ranger players. But it's been months since she was relevant in the least. Come on, we want OP Jessica! A 4-star premium health ranger with only 2.2M health with pretty much negligible attack in today's standards... is pretty useless. Driver Brown was free and he sports 2.4M health and costs less. I really don't see the point. Sorry, Jessica :( LINE made you just as a punching bag for Kung Fu Brown (see her description).

Thunder Brown's girlfriend Thunder Cony has finally decided to join the fight. I'm not sure if I like her yet. On the one hand, she's super fast and super cheap for fairly decent attack. If she's spammable, she could be pretty deadly in PVP. And the description... well, I hope they fix it. Cony's not going to be happy about being male.

Happy spinning, friends. I haven't got any rubies to spare this time around, but if you guys are getting the new rangers, share your opinions below! Let us know how they play into the Wasteland stages, etc.

If you're not getting the results you want, here are some hilarious pictures of people, presumably in Halloween costumes, to cheer you up. I don't know where these pics were originally from or who these people are, but they are so awesome. LOLOL

Rangers to Keep, Rangers to Eat

A friend suggested that I write a description for each ranger and at first I hesitated because I knew it would be a big opinion post. But as I combed through some different Line Rangers communities online, I realized that the question, "should I keep it or should I eat it" comes up quite often. There is nothing more devastating than finding out later that you ate a powerful ranger because you didn't know any better at the time. So if you have found your way here with this question, I hope this post is helpful to you.

Below is my description of rangers that are worth having and my reasons for keeping them or selling/combining ("synthesizing") them. Keep in mind that these descriptions are applicable for normal single-player mode.

Caveat: When deciding which rangers to put on your team, you should always consider the kind of enemies you are facing, the length of the path in the stage and how many minerals they cost to deploy. It is also important to understand what the ranger's attack stats are.

As always, the full list of rangers is here.

[This post was last updated on July 10, 2014.]

CONY  long-range speed/splash

• Lucifer Cony, Best Couple Cony, Witch Cony, Elf Cony, and Magician Cony are all speed class rangers. You can deploy Cony very rapidly back to back at very little mineral cost. Particularly Witch Cony, Best Couple Cony and Lucifer Cony at max level, if you manage to get a lot of them out, they lay waste to enemies fast. Consider using Cony for stages that have a lot of low-health enemy targets and stages that have a very long pathway. 
• Elf Cony is a 3-star ranger gift for sending invitations to friends. She was also obtainable during an event in August 2014. During this event, players could finally max their Elf Cony to level 60.
• In early stages, Magician Cony can be very helpful because she's long-range, fast, and low cost but once you get Manager, you will find that he hits much harder.
• Sorcerer Cony, Songster Cony and Summer Cony are splash rangers. They hit multiple targets with every attack they shoot out. Sorcerer and Songster are both fantastic to have on your team. They also move relatively quickly but unlike their speed class lookalikes, they have a longer cooldown (time between deployment) and they cost more minerals to deploy. Summer Cony is somewhat less desirable only because she is a 3-star ranger. But she does have advantages. She's inexpensive to deploy and for a 3-star ranger, she's really quite powerful. She trails Songster's damage by a significant amount, but she's still not bad for how cheap she is.
• Sorcerer Cony (who I lovingly call SoCo) is one of the highest damage rangers in the game. Songster doesn't do as much DPS as her big sister, but Songster is not bad still. I like Songster better than Clara because she costs less, moves & attacks faster, and hits from further away. However, if you only have one Songster, don't throw away Clara since you can easily get a level 70 Clara. A level 70 Clara is does more DPS than a level 50 Songster.
• All Conys have relatively low health so you need to protect them with rangers at the front of your army.
• End Game: Keep Lucifer, Witch, Best Couple, Sorcerer and Songster Cony

BROWN   melee (mostly)

• Thunder Brown, Best Couple Brown, Frog Brown, Underwear Brown, Summer Brown, Super Brown and Brownie are health rangers. I like the Brown series of health rangers quite a lot because they move at a decent speed and their cooldown are all about 5 seconds, which is acceptable for most stages. Thunder Brown costs the most minerals of the bunch and you may find him useful if you encounter stages that need a lot of big-HP tanks (he has over 1 million HP at max). There are more affordable alternatives like Macho Moon who can tank for less cost. Summer Brown is an interesting option as a health ranger because for a 4-star ranger, he has more HP than his 5-star lookalikes, while costing quite a bit less. Summer Brown has 1.5 million HP at level 70, but does peewee damage. For a health ranger though, the health is mostly what matters.
• Frog Brown can be obtained by inviting friends to play the game or now you also have a chance to get him from Gacha. He makes a fantastic tank for your team until about stages in the mid 80's. At that point, you may be better off with Xan. 
• General Brown is one of my favorite balance rangers. He is meaty enough to take a lot of hits and deals a very decent amount of damage. He is also pretty cheap to deploy as he is a 4-star ranger. I have often used General Brown instead of a health ranger.
• Hip Hop Brown is a speed ranger but he can dual purpose as a health ranger as well. Hip Hop Brown gains a lot of health as he levels up. He costs only 210 minerals and his cooldown is a mere 3 seconds so you can deploy him over and over to keep the front of your army safe. He can easily double as your team's primary health ranger. 
• Red Brown is also a speed ranger, but he doesn't have the kind of HP that his big brother Hip Hop does. He was available as a limited edition ranger on two occasions. He is not available in Gacha or stages anymore. He is an interesting option as a super-lowbie because of his speed and cost. At level 60 he has 153K health so he's really not a bad choice as a filler if you need someone to quickly rush to the front and take a few hits. Red Brown is a keeper because he's both a collector's item and he's quite useful as a mini-tank/lowbie hybrid. 
• Ola Brown is the first of the Brown series to break out of the melee status. He's not just any ranged distance ranger, he's the longest range splash unit in the game currently. He's a delicate guy, only 104K health at level 80, but he can throw almost 49K DPS at a cost of only 350 mineral, which makes him more attack-to-cost effective than Sorcerer Cony. His low health but long range will keep him safe from most things, but be aware that enemies like the Convini (onigiri enemy), Creamy (ice cream enemy) and Richard (green dino/lizard enemy) will definitely kill Ola Brown in seconds. One last thing: He's limited edition, only available in the GACHA mix for the month of June 2014, so you must get him while you can and then keep him forever!
• End Game: Keep Thunder, Best Couple, Summer Brown, General, Hip Hop, Red and Ola Brown.

Edward melee splash 

• Edward is a brand new limited-time ranger that is only obtainable for the month of August 2014. He's very, very strong splash ranger with well over 1 million HP. Edward's splash range is quite large, hitting a huge area in front of him where his acorn mobile zips through. 
• The cons of Edward are that he costs a huge amount of minerals to deploy. If you're not high enough level, you cannot even deploy him right away. Edward's cooldown is also very, very long - 38 seconds normally, 19 seconds at master level. At high levels, though, Edward is a great ranger to have on your team for long levels that require big sustained damage. He's definitely a keeper if you are lucky enough to have him.

COBE  melee splash 

• Cobe is really adorable and if you happen to have one in the lower stages, he (she?) is fantastic to use. He has a relatively high health pool and attacks multiple targets with his lollipop which makes him a good alternative to a traditional health ranger. 
• At level 50, Cobe starts to become less useful in the Ancient Temple area. But if you manage to get Cobe to level 70, he is still a very viable splash ranger to use throughout. The only thing I don't like about Cobe is his long cooldown period, but pair him with another melee ranger like Moon, Brown or Jessica, and he will be fine. 
• End Game: Keep Cobe if you can get him to level 70. 

MOON   melee

• Masked Moon, Fighter Moon, Champion Moon and Popeye Moon are balance rangers. Moon does a decent job being a backup tank for your team while doing more damage than a health ranger. Fighter and Masked Moon are obtainable from later stages and it's a good idea to max them out. They rush to the front and can help hold the front line if your health rangers die before you get another one up. 
• Macho Moon is a great health ranger to have because he runs faster than Brown, and costs less than Thunder Brown while packing a lot more health than Frog Brown. He is cheaper to deploy and  has a lower cooldown than Xan, so if you get your hands on Macho Moon, keep him.
• End Game: Keep Masked, Fighter, Macho Moon.

BOSS  mid-to-long-range attack

• Legend Boss, Rapper Boss, Gangster Boss and Dancer Boss all attack from mid-range so be careful using him if you have dangerous enemies that can hit past the front line. Boss does not have a lot of health so you really must try to protect him. He attacks very slowly but each hit packs a punch. His attack power is quite good when compared to other single target ranged hitters. He also moves quicker than most other single target ranged hitters. I like using Boss if I don't have access to any splash rangers. Rapper Boss versus Ellin or Sindy, I would choose either Ellin or Sindy over Rapper because of hit range advantage. 
• Gangster Boss is the only one who is pretty useless. He isn't obtainable from stages until stage 93 and by that time he won't be helpful at all. If you randomly get him from Gacha in the early stages, you can certainly use him. 
• Dancer King Boss is currently the second-longest range attacker in the game. He's so far in the distance and his attack power is so high that he's basically a cannon. If you get your hands on him, train him up and he won't let you down.
• End Game: Keep Dancer King and Legend Boss. 

JAMES  mid-to-long range single/splash

• Gentleman James, Biker James, Sexy James and Ballerino James are balance rangers who hit from a short distance away from the enemy, and they have a decent amount of health. James can take a couple of hits if your health ranger happens to die, but he is not as meaty as Moon as a balance ranger. James' DPS is nothing very special because he is not as good as Boss series rangers for attack but he sort of makes up for it with more health. I really don't find James to be very effective and I haven't ever found a reason to use him over someone else. Gentleman James has decent damage and a lot of health but he's too far away from the front line to be a tank. If you get a 5 or 4 star James, maybe just keep him around in case the game developers buff him up one day to be actually useful. You can eat him up otherwise.
• Opera James is the only splash ranger of the James series a very good one. He attacks multiple targets from a distance and at max level he hits very hard. Opera James is a solid addition to any team. At max level he costs less and hits harder than Clara but has a slightly longer cooldown. 
• Prince James is one of the newest rangers in the game and is currently the longest range attacker (longer than Dancer King Boss by a little). He does incredible single target damage (more than Dancer King), has really decent amount of HP, so he's definitely a good asset to the team.
• End Game: Keep Opera James, Prince James. 

JESSICA  melee 

• Charismatic Jessica, Warrior Jessica, and Hero Jessica are all great splash rangers. Max level Jessicas are very versatile. You can use her in lieu of a backup tank ranger like Moon. Jessica's high speed and high HP make her the perfect alternative to a health ranger altogether if you are looking for ways to increase your total damage output. Once you get to the stages where you can get Warrior Jessica, it is a good idea to farm 5 and max her out. 
• Lightning Jessica is unlike the others in her series. She is a speed ranger, moves lightning-fast and can be deployed again and again very quickly. She has more HP at max level than Warrior, but since her attack is single target, her damage will generally be much lower. For her cost, speed, and cooldown, Lightning Jessica may be an interesting option as a backup tank, similar to Hip-Hop Brown in this respect, but with lower stats. One thing to be cautious about is that Lightning Jessica's range is a bit farther back than her splash lookalikes. She leaves room between her hit range and the enemy's hit range, which may result in allowing the enemy some extra forward marching space.
• End Game: Keep Charismatic, Warrior and Lightning Jessica

There sure are a lot of humanoids.

• KSM is a splash ranger, and one of the highest DPS ones at that. He costs a lot to deploy and has a very long cooldown, but he makes up for it with his insane attack power. He is worth deploying in almost every stage and situation. You don't even have to worry whether you will waste your minerals deploying him while fighting a boss stage because he has a lot of health. He is slow, but he will survive even if he gets hit a few times on the way to the fight. Make no mistake, he is one of the most sought-after ranger in the game at the moment, so if you got him, congratulations!
• Lia is a balance ranger who packs a caffeinated punch. She is small but she actually is a very high damage single target ranger. Her cooldown is so low that you can amass an army of little girls very quickly. I had reservations about using her when she was low level because of her cost but actually at high levels she's pretty useful.
• Alice is the highest single target dps ranger that you can get from stage clears. She hits like a truck and sports a lot of health. The only downside to Alice is that she is very slow in every way (cooldown, move & attack speed). But if you manage to get her into range of the fight, she does tear up the place with her shoe. If you don't have Lia, Alice isn't a bad alternative.
• Clara is a solid splash ranger and the first splash ranger you can obtain from stage clears who can attack from a good distance away. Once you can safely farm stage 40 to get her, I would highly recommend doing so. Clara will make life a lot easier as you progress through the mid-level stages. 
• Dwight is a very powerful balance ranger to have on your team because he comes with very high attack stats as well as extremely high health, like Bernard. He costs quite a lot to deploy, but he is well worth the mineral cost because you almost never have to worry that he will die quickly. As far as single target damage, Dwight is one of the best.
• Xan is the highest HP health ranger you can obtain from stage clears. He costs quite a lot and his cooldown is longer than most other health rangers but he makes up for it by flying to the front of the fight very quickly. If you get Xan, keep him as he may very useful for stages where you need a big meaty tank. 
• Styne is pretty much the default health ranger at mid-lower stages. He's fine to use if you have no other viable alternatives available. Once you get 5 Stynes combined, he has a lot of health and remains useful until around stage 70. Styne pairs really well with Moon on a team because Moon moves fast and can be Styne's backup. If you get your hands on General Brown, Macho Moon or Xan, you might want to try them over Styne. 
• Bob is a health ranger who really has a ton of health but he moves very, very slowly. You have to plan ahead when you use Bob and learn to anticipate when he is going to die because you will need either a backup tank to help take the hit when he dies or time the arrival of another Bob to waddle his way there. If you don't have Frog Brown, Macho Moon, Styne or Xan, Bob is ok to use. Since Styne is obtainable from stage clears, I would dump Bob as soon as I got 2 or 3 Stynes combined. If you have several Bobs combined, the difference between Styne is slight and you'll have to judge for yourself which one has more of a health or speed advantage for your needs. At max, I would pick Styne still. While he has a little less HP, he costs a great deal less. If you have Macho Moon, then there is no contest. 
• Manager is probably one of the best ranged attackers you can get very early on in the game. Combine 5 of them together and you should have pretty decent outgoing damage in the lower stages. When you can trade up for Clara, Sindy or Ellin, do so. 
• Abdula's pure splash damage stats outperform every other 4-star splash ranger currently. Looking at damage alone, he even tops Sorcerer Cony at max level. However, when you compare how much he costs (which is a lot for a 4-star ranger) then actually SoCo pulls ahead by a little bit. The difference is that Abdula has nearly double the health, and therefore will generally live much longer than SoCo which under certain battle conditions will make him a much better choice. He's a keeper.
• Shu is a splash ranger whose range is almost the same as Ola Brown. His survivability makes him an excellent ranger to have. His damage is better than Clara's and he has much more health than her. He's a solid splash ranger, but he is limited edition so unfortunately, not everyone will have him. 
• Susu is part of the same promotion as Shu, but you can only randomly get him from Premium Gacha for a limited time. Susu is the highest DPS splash ranger by a mile, and he over 4 million health (at master level) which makes him perfect for standing in melee range and crushing enemies. The pros are that he's really meaty and destroys things in no time. The cons are that he's very rare to obtain, costs quite a lot to deploy and has the 2nd longest cooldown of any ranger on the roster. If you get him, by all means, you should keep him. 
• Hitman is quite similar to KSM and Abdula, but actually he is worth more damage per cost, which makes him even more worth it to deploy than KSM. He attacks from a really nice distance away, and his high-DPS is very impressive. 
• Luis, for all intents and purposes, is more cost-efficient Dwight. His damage to cost ratio is better than Dwight's, but per unit he does less damage. There are a few tradeoffs, but all in all still a solid damage dealer for a balance class.
• Chichi is the new better, faster Dwight! She's so expensive to deploy but she's worth every penny. She moves fast and she has more health than any other ranger at the moment. Her half million damage at level 80 is quite scary for a little girl.
• End Game: Keep KSM, Lia, Alice, Clara, Dwight, Xan, Abdula, Hitman, Luis, Chichi

DRAGONS  splash 

• Sol is currently the highest damage splash ranger that you can obtain from stage clears. At max level, he does about 36000 DPS, which is quite powerful. And unlike Opera James, Clara and Sorcerer/Songster Cony, Sol can actually take a lot of damage before he dies. This is his biggest advantage in the later stages over other splash rangers. He is, as many people will agree, a poor man's KSM. Definitely keep Sol and level him up. 
• Luke is some kind of a dinosaur in a suit, I guess. He is a melee splash ranger so his large health pool will help him survive in the front line. Luke does less damage than Sol but if you have Luke and you don't have any other better splash ranger alternatives, he will do just fine. But otherwise, I think Warrior Jessica, who is obtainable from stage clears, is a more versatile alternative. Keep him around if you have 5 Lukes combined as a fill-in splash ranger.
• Dickey is one of the first splash rangers you can get and he is pretty useful up to about stage 30. He's very slow getting to the front of the fight, but if you manage to get him to the enemy tower, he can help shorten the battle by splashing down the tower. He's nice to keep around until you have a better option like Vlad or Clara. Don't get me wrong - I'm only saying he's fine for the very early stages! 

• Bernard (roasted peanut? sweet potato?) is a very healthy ranger with a lot of HP. He has well over 3,000,000 HP at max level, but he is very costly and his cooldown is very, very long. He is definitely worth keeping, but more as a back pocket tank. I wouldn't use him as the only tanking unit at higher stages because he walks so slowly and takes so long to produce. But if you time it right, Bernard can be very useful indeed.
• Honey the Sally doppelganger bee is a speed ranger with formidable attack power when you get her to max level. Even at level 60 her attack is not to be dismissed lightly. Because she costs very little, move speed is very fast and her cooldown is merely 3 seconds, you can spam many Honeys out and the sheer quantity of her attacks going out can be overwhelming. Another way to use Honey is as a halfway lowbie. She's spammable, but her relatively high attack gives you a little bit of extra damage on tough enemies. Honey has helped me win several stages where the tiniest increase in damage was crucial. Obtainable from Gacha or 100 friend invitations, she's really quite worth getting and keeping around.
• Dumpy is the highest single target attack ranger currently. He has more DPS than he has HP! He rolls on his steamer to the front line very quickly and can easily get himself killed as a result. He doesn't have a lot of HP so if you use him you must make sure he is protected at all times, or he will quickly become enemy appetizer. At level 80 he does the equivalent of 477K damage per second! Seriously, make sure he lives! 
• Sindy (a tanuki) & Ellin (cloud elemental) are both fantastic rangers to have on your team in the mid-stages (~52 through 87). They are both obtainable from stage clears so anyone can get a max level Sindy and Ellin. Before getting Alice, Sindy and Ellin are almost indispensable as high DPS rangers to have on your team. Sindy does a bit more damage and attacks faster, but costs more. Ellin is a little more affordable which may be helpful in some stages. They are both very useful to have in the mid and near-end game. If you are using freely obtainable rangers only, they're practically indispensable. If you play the Premium Gacha a lot, Sindy and Ellin will be old news for you.
• Cherina is one of the newest splash rangers and she looks like a cherry bomb because she is. She rockets her way to the front line and deals an astonishing amount of splash damage. She's costs very little to deploy, has an incredibly short cooldown and sports enough health to tank (at max level). I can't begin to tell you how powerful she really is so you have to see her in action yourself. A half dozen pack of Cherinas at your front line and your enemies will be in a lot of trouble.
• Mully... I don't even know what kind of creature Mully is. But he is a fantastic attack ranger with high attack, high health, and very fast move speed. At moderate cost, Mully is great for pushing forward against clumps of difficult enemies because he can withstand a lot of damage while dealing lots of pain. He's a great ranger to have on the team.
• Elle is a new 3-star splash ranger. She's a top tier 3-star ranger and can contend with some 4-star rangers as well. Her damage is really good for the amount of minerals she costs. Elle's best feature is her long range. She can fire from a huge distance and safely stay out of the enemy fire. Not a bad ranger for 3 stars!
• End Game: Keep all of them!

LOWBIES

Little guys Scott, Bella, Crush and Glenn are speed rangers that I think everyone should keep around. There are many stages in the game where lowbies like these can be very, very useful. They are speed rangers so their mineral cost will never change even if they level up to max.

JUST MAYBE

• Dane is a 3-star health ranger obtainable very early on and I think he is useful only in the very early stages of the game. Though as soon as you can get Styne, there's really no reason to continue using Dane. 
• Pew and Vlad are 3-star splash rangers but are so slow and have so little health that half the time they don't make it to the battle before dying. If you happen to get them very, very early on, they might be useful to you. But once you can get Clara, I would not bother with either of them.
• Hunt the pirate fowl is a pretty interesting option. He is similar to Cony in that he is a speed ranger. At max level 60, he actually does damage that is not bad and he costs very little. I don't think he is worthwhile having in your main team but he is a nice option to keep in your back pocket for some specific stages that need a fast, low cost long range attacker. It's a very niche spot. 
• The single target James series (not including Prince James though) got buffed recently but I would still put them in the maybe category. There's just no clear reason to use them unless you don't have a better alternative for single target attack.

DON'T BOTHER

Alex, Frankie, Duncan, Jason, Lucas, Toti, Ryan, Walter, Becky, Clark, Jack, Jacob, Mike, Mummy, Rei, Ben, Simon, Ham, Jill, Joe, Merry, Ned, Puff, Sisi, Zac, Ron
These rangers are either so low stat or appear in the game out of sequence for their usefulness period that there are better options for your team. They are pretty much food for other rangers.

That about covers the rangers that I think are worth mentioning. If you are reading this and passionately disagree, comment and let me know why you do.

Which rangers did you keep on your team longest? Which rangers will you never eat/sell because they did so much for you?

Difficult Stages - Castle in the Sky 97 to 101

Castle in the Sky is a very strange place. Some of the stages don't follow any of the traditional mechanics, don't require any melee units, and the enemies are just plain odd. It's the most challenging area to date, for lots of reasons.

This area has undergone significant difficulty changes since it was initially released. The nerf bat hit it hard, and I think  it was probably necessary. People were stuck on stages for days, approaching weeks, and it hasn't even been open that long which means many players were not making any progress at all. As a result, they've modified and played musical chairs with all of the 4-star rangers that are farmable from stages (here is a revised list). There are even a couple of 5-star rangers now available in the higher stages. In addition, some rangers have had their stats buffed so that they are actually useful, or more competitive to be put in your team. If you have not taken a good look at your available rangers recently, look again now. Some of them might have been buffed and you may consider giving them their day in the sun. All this, just so people can be better equipped to handle the difficulties in Castle in the Sky!

Tyler, Mabebe, and Sena are not all that interesting. They have a lot of health, one of them does splash to melee, but they're otherwise not very threatening. The 2 enemies that are not listed in the collection are the Unicycle guy and the Dropped Ice Cream guy. They're the first and only jerks you see when you first enter Stage 97 and 98, and you will learn to dislike them a lot.

The unicycle enemy has a *ridiculously* long range. Think of him as having about the same range as the blondes with dolls in Altar of Flame, but without the animation. I can't seem to find confirmation anywhere but I do believe that the Unicycle guy behaves in a way that we have never seen enemies do before: If only one unicycle is in range of your team, he will just single target whoever is in range; If more than one unicycle is in range, they start to splash damage. It seems bonkers that an enemy can do this, but I can't otherwise explain why 2 unicycles can pretty much annihilate my entire team in 2 hits while also hitting my tower. So the point is, do not allow more than one of them to actively hit your rangers if you can help it.

The Ice Cream enemy has a much longer range than the animation lets on. Basically, only the longest range rangers can avoid being hit by the ice cream guy at their max range. Everyone else, including James, Clara, Boss, Sol... well, nice knowing ya. You do not want a lot of ice creams stacking up because they will start to decimate your entire team with splash damage.

Stage 97

Stage 97 is a test of control. Youtube has some great videos of people excelling at the art of staying behind the midpoint of the path. If you stay on the left side of the path, you will only have to deal with unicycles for a long time. If you pass the midpoint, you will have to contend with both unicycles and ice cream guys - very bad, almost certain death. The trick that is prevalent right now is to use only long range rangers and try to nuke down the unicycles one by one from far away. You have to get to know the order of the unicycles popping out and expect the next set of enemies so that you can properly position your rangers and throw down your items. Clara, Opera James, Sindy and Ellin all walk relatively slow, but if you use someone like Boss, Cony, Hunt, Alex, you will have to watch your toes and time carefully. If you deploy them at the wrong time, they'll cross the midpoint and you won't be ready for the onslaught of scorned dairy. I do not recommend bringing a Friend or Sidekick with you here because you never know if your Friend will send out a Xan or Moon and ruin your day.

Stage 98 is almost exactly like 97 except reversed. You deal with the ice creams right away and if you cross the midpoint you will get unicycles. It's also a control phase, but the ice creams are considerably more dangerous because of splash. The ice creams don't do a lot of damage per hit, but when they stack up, they hurt a lot. So at first I tried just using Jessica instead of a regular tank. It worked pretty well but the end of the stage still overwhelmed me so I decided, why not...

All Splash All The Time

I know, I know, not everyone has 3 cats. But consider this: Everyone has access to Clara, Warrior Jessica, Sol, Vlad and Pew. Something to think about, no? With my team of 3 speed kitties, not crossing the midpoint was not really an option. I bought myself a little time by minding my toes for the first 3 ice creams, and it's really just to stall while I try and get more James and Clara deployed. Once I was ready to cross the line, it's no holds barred, all out war. Knock them back with a Tornado, I brought my Friend, I brought my Missile, I brought the Meteor. Once the enemies were all dead, there's a little bit of time alone with the enemy tower but soon another wave comes out. I saved Ice Shot to freeze them right when Hurry Up starts and cleaved down the tower a la Stage 84 1.0. Yeah, I know it's not fair, but clearly this game isn't fair :) Honestly, this all splash team was a much more relaxed way to clear this stage. Their cooldowns are so long that I didn't bother to tap the deployment button like a crazy person.

After I did this for 98, I realized this is also doable for 97 so I went back and tried it - yep, you can do it. Note that this was probably not an option pre-nerf as the enemies really had too much health.

Stage 97 - All Splash

Stage 99 Team. I don't really remember this stage being that tough. I used Jessica to tank instead of a real tank for more dmg. She's pretty meaty.

Stage 100

Stage 100 was originally insanely hard. The damage on your team was very high, and the demand for damage on the multiple mini bosses was also very high. Without Sorcerer Cony, I think it was extremely rare for players to pass this stage. Even with Sorcerer Cony, players had a lot of problems because she's very expensive and so are high-health tanks. Post-revision, Tyler the paper airplane rider has a lot less health and he can be splashed down in a reasonable amount of time. I went with General Brown (60) and Charismatic Jessica (55) because they put out more damage than 2 tanks would. However, it is just as doable with 2 tanks, Warrior Jessica, Clara and Opera James. I might go back and try this but I am pretty sure you can do this with 2  tanks, Warrior Jessica (60), Clara (60), and Sol (70). I'll let you know when I get my Jessica and Sol to max... might take a while. The random spinning wheel hasn't been nice to me.
[Update: Check out YouTube video for clearing with Xan, Sol, Warrior Jessica, Ellin, Alice]

Stage 101

Stage 101 is a tough one, too. It took a little practice to get the timing right. Just know that you will need some splash, a really meaty tank ranger, and you definitely want Sindy. The stage starts with a bunch of Mabebe (fat bird with braces), coupled with ice creams and they're your biggest problem. The reason Charismatic Jessica works so well here is she has more health than Clara and James as a splash ranger, and you need someone who can take a few hits while the ice cream is out. You might also be able to do this with Sol. You can also substitute General Brown with Xan, Styne, Bob, Masked/Macho/Fighter Moon, or Thunder Brown. I just chose him because he's cheap, beefy, and does decent damage.

The number one thing that helped me defeat this stage was Sindy. Sindy is the longest range attack ranger and she stays out of the splash damage from the ice cream. While you are holding the front line from a lot of Mabebe, you will occasionally see an ice cream join him and that one ice cream is going to destroy your ranged splash units (Clara, Cony, James will all die). To avoid this and keep your team healthy, only produce tanks, Jessica, and Sindy until the first 3 ice creams are gone. Count them! Do not produce any other units until the 3rd one is dead otherwise it is a waste of minerals and time. Once the 3rd one is dead, you will have time to deploy Clara/James/Cony to defeat the Mebebes and move forward. Once you pass the midpoint, Tylers will come out with more Mabebe and more ice cream. By then, you should have a really healthy army to kill them off one by one.

For my troubles, I have gotten 2 star Treasures in the first section, and 1 star Treasure in the second section. To be continued! Good luck, everyone.

Stage 84 - Strategies and Thoughts

[Update: April 18, 2014] This stage has been revised and the strategy below is not necessarily out of date, but it is no longer the preferred way to clear this stage. Please see this new post about Stage 84.] 

Stage 84 is the current end-game stage of Line Rangers as of April 12, 2014. I finally beat it today despite what little hope I had when I first advanced to it. I'll discuss the only known method of winning this stage today, how I personally did it with my team, and why certain team compositions work and why I speculate some do not. Keep in mind this post, like most of my others, are based on my own opinion after reading and researching what others have tried on the internet as well as personal experience. Your mileage may vary. Hopefully there's something here that's helpful, but if not, no angry messages please.

The Enemy

I'll start with what we know about the stage. 84 has some "trash" enemies (the ones you have to kill on the way to the big bosses). Pretty much the guy in the red jacket, Adi, is the annoying jerk who is between you and the enemy tower. After about 8 to 10 seconds have passed, Akira and Ryoko will pop. If you remain at the enemy tower for a few seconds more, a second Akira will pop along with some other enemies. From previous stages you already know Ryoko has a ton of HP but he moves and attacks slowly so he's not a huge threat. Akira moves extremely fast and he does a (suspiciously flatulent looking) splash attack that hits everyone in the front line for a ton of damage. 2-3 hits will kill everything in melee range. He also has the most HP of any enemy we have ever seen in the game so far.

Goal

The strategy that is currently prominent (because it is the only known method at the moment) is gaming the tower defense mechanic by using splash rangers. As long as the enemy that your splash ranger is attacking is right outside the enemy tower, the tower will also take damage. This means that the strategic goal is to fight all the enemies at the foot of the enemy tower and use as many splash rangers as possible to cleave the tower down before the enemies kill you. The goal is to kill the tower without killing the bosses.

My Team

Having Sorcerer Cony makes this stage a great deal easier so many people including myself have tried their hand at the 3-5 star Premiums GACHA. I do not currently have Sorcerer Cony and you do not need her in order to win this stage. I'll repeat it for emphasis: You do not need Sorcerer Cony to clear Stage 84. You do need splash damage rangers but Cony isn't the be-all and end-all of this stage. Plenty of people have beaten it with other splash rangers, most notably Clara, who is currently being practically given away with the Friendship Points Event.

On my team, I used:

• Level 52 Fighter Moon (4 star)
• Level 54 Clara (4 star)
• Level 50 Charismatic Jessica (5 star)
• Level 50 Hero Jessica (3 star)
• Level 40 Warrior Jessica (4 star)

Also important to note, I made sure to have Meteor, Ice Shot and Tornado available.

Unless your rangers are godly, it helps if you have a friend or sidekick along for the ride. Bonus if you choose someone who is confirmed to have a splash damage ranger on their team. Sorcerer Cony would be helpful, but honestly, so would any Jessica, Clara and Cobe. Don't skimp on this. Having a friend/sidekick by your side this fight can make or break you. Even if they don't have any splash damage, they can help you quickly kill the trash which will get you to the tower faster.

Small note but worth mentioning that all my Treasures are at 100%.

The Method

This whole fight is over in about 30 seconds, win or lose. I spent no money on mineral upgrades. You won't have time or minerals to waste on that. Everything is going into ranger deployment.

1. Deploy 1 Fighter Moon, Charismatic Jessica and Hero Jessica. Only 1 Fighter Moon is used this whole stage. His purpose is to prevent the trash enemies from killing my Jessicas.
2. When they walk about 1/3 of the way down the road, I deploy my Friend's help. I deploy Warrior Jessica and Clara as soon as I have enough minerals. 
3. As soon as the first enemy comes face-to-face with my rangers, I release the meteor on them. Deploy Hero Jessica and Clara as soon as minerals and cooldowns allow. 
4. In a couple seconds, Akira pops out and snowboards over. Right before he gets to my rangers, I hit tornado. 
5. As soon as everything is pushed back to the enemy tower, throw down Ice Shot. Deploy any and all splash rangers with minerals remaining. Hope that the tower has collapsed before Akira defrosts and kills all my cats.

Timing is crucial for this to work. Youtube has some fantastic examples of how people nailed the deployment and item usage. 

I finally won! Friend gave me 1 Cony and 1 Clara, I didn't see what the 3rd ranger was. Notice I pretty much did no damage on the bosses. You're not meant to!

Things That Can Go (And Have Gone) Wrong

• Sometimes I'd start the stage and forget that I'm not supposed to upgrade minerals. If I spend any money on minerals, I lose one ranger which is almost sure to mean I won't kill the smaller enemies in time to push further down the pathway.
• Deploying rangers in the wrong order (Moon, then Charismatic, then Hero, then Clara, then Warrior) at the start can really mess things up too. It is really important who Aki (the enemy) takes head on as that unit is most likely to lose HP or die.  You don't want that unit to be a very valuable/expensive splash ranger.
• Deploying Friend too late caused the trash to die slower, which meant the entire team was stuck in the middle of the path, never making it to the foot of the tower in time to deal enough damage before Akira defrosted.
• Throwing meteor too late also causes the trash to die slower. Akira always pops out at the same time so if your team is still stuck trying to kill the trash, they won't be further along. (The trash being alive isn't so much the problem since they all get blown back to the end anyway. The point is if they're still alive, your team is still very far away from the enemy tower. The faster the trash is gone, the earlier your team can progress to the tower. The earlier you get to the tower, the more time you have while Akira is frozen to cleave the tower.)
• Using tornado to blow Akira back but using ice shot about a second too early. Try not to use tornado and then immediately hit ice shot. It takes 1-2 seconds for them to reach the end of the path, and you have a split second before the enemies start walking. Hitting ice shot at the last possible second buys you more time to run to the tower.
• Using tornado, then using ice shot a second too late causes you to be unable to splash damage at the tower at all because Akira has moved forward an inch. After the ice wears off I sadly watched my rangers die as the tower remained at full health.

Other Teams

I have read and confirmed these teams have cleared (unfortunately do not have the the Ranger levels) :

Clara, Cobe, Charismatic Jessica, Warrior Jessica, lowbie

Opera James, Warrior Jessica, Clara, Cobe, Jessica

Clara, Opera James, Charismatic Jessica, Thunder Brown, lowbie

Clara, Cobe, Vlad (!), Honey, lowbie

Fighter Moon, Sorcerer Cony, Cobe, Honey, lowbie

Sorcerer Cony, Opera James, Cobe, Honey, lowbie

Cobe, Opera James, Sorcerer Cony, Warrior Jessica, Macho Moon

So all of these teams have one thing in common and that is they have 3 or more splash rangers to do the job. You will have to experiment with the rangers you have available to see what works for you. Questions I asked myself when I kept losing: Are the trash enemies holding me up or are they alive too long? Are my rangers making it to the enemy tower in time? Are they walking too slow? Am I timing my items to maximize my time at the tower? Am I deploying my rangers in the correct order to push forward most efficiently? 

The stage goes by so fast that it is hard to capture everything you're doing but it's important to know what the plan is and how your execution is deviating from the plan, and why. Most of my issues came from ranger deployment order (some walk faster, some walk slower, some have more HP than others) and timing my items and friends (getting meteor to do the most damage to the most enemies on the field will save your team a lot of time getting to the tower). You'll have to figure out what works and what doesn't for you. 

For instance, in my team, I found that I absolutely have to deploy Moon first, then Charismatic Jessica before Hero Jessica. My cats were getting slaughtered by the small enemies because they run fast. Hero Jessica walks faster than Charismatic Jessica, and she also has the least HP so my Hero Jessicas were not making it to the end because she'd die. Deploying Moon first gives him a head start so he can tank the enemies while the cats kill them. Similarly, I could not use Opera James in my team because he walks much too slowly in my ranger lineup. I couldn't squeeze him into the first bunch of rangers to be deployed because of mineral cost, and if I deploy him later he wasn't useful because he never got to the enemy in time. That said, many other people have figured out combinations where they worked Opera James in and he was really helpful taking down the enemy tower. It's really up to your specific team and how you play them.

Sorcerer Cony is really desirable this fight because she runs at a decent speed, deals the most damage of all the splash rangers, she reloads her attack very quickly and she attacks from a far distance. While the other rangers are taking hits for her, she's in the back bombing the enemies away. When Akira defrosts, he's busy killing the front line, which allows her to continue attacking the tower for several seconds -- seconds count for a lot in a 30 second fight! Clara can attack an extra few seconds after Akira defrosts also, but note that Clara's attack speed is "Very Slow" vs. Cony's "Fast". Sorcerer Cony also deals higher damage, level for level, than Clara. 

Not able to get her on my team, however, I was very lucky to have all 3 Jessicas available. Somehow I got tons of Hero Jessicas and they were a huge eyesore for a long time until I decided to use her for 84. Because of the 80% stat increase from combining, a maxed out level 50 Hero Jessica (3 stars) does very respectable damage compared to a level 50 Charismatic Jessica (5586 vs 8140) at a fraction of the mineral cost (260 vs 320). By the way, level 40 Hero Jessica narrowly beats out level 40 Warrior Jessica in damage and is cheaper than Warrior Jessica! Don't throw out your 3 stars just because they're 3 stars. The 80% bonus is significant when at max level.

So that's all I've got for Stage 84. Sorry, no game breaking tips and tricks this time around. This stage is extremely frustrating, not only because of its sheer difficulty, but also because of how it corners you into having a splash-heavy team. I think if the game developers didn't think it was a bad idea when they made this end-game stage, they should know by now that it's frustrated and angered many players. I sinecerely hope they don't design anymore stages like this. The game should be challenging and force you into thinking of interesting ways to apply your ranger team, but it shouldn't penalize you for not paying to get special rangers. I understand it's a for-profit operation, but when it affects the fundamental playability of the stage, it's bad game design in my opinion. Here's hoping Stage 85+ is coming soon and will be a breath of fresh air.

Also - *spoiler alert*

Sally is in another castle.

Good luck, everyone!