Skyscraper - Videos and Thoughts

Skyscraper: Monkey brains, bats, ladybugs, dynamite... and twerking. What's not to love?

Although I don't think I like the poodle abusing goth chick.

[Update: May 21, 2014] 
Skyscraper has been revised. The boss stages are more difficult than they were at the initial release.

As some sort of consolation for making the area more challenging, LINE has sent us all a free Cobe. I like Cobe, but, I think it's still generally a bad idea to make stages more difficult after they have been released. That's just my personal opinion on game updates, though. I suppose it'll put players without special rangers in an even more precarious position for stage progression, and those with KSM & company may wince maybe a little at the change. Cobe may help, but probably not a ton. Cobe is a good splash ranger who can get herself (himself?) up to the front line fairly quickly and can take a few hits due to medium-high HP at max level. I believe this is the second free Cobe event since the launch of the game, so veteran players may have a level 60 Cobe already.

The New Stuff

The newly available 4 star ranger is Opera James and 5 star is Masked Moon. James is absolutely fantastic as he's a powerful splash ranger who costs less than Clara and maxes out at higher damage as well. Masked Moon at level is quite a piece of work. I personally haven't found a good reason to use him yet but at max, his health is insane and his attack is formidable. At lower levels, I would pass on him altogether because you have better options for both health and attack.

And the Treasure for this area is... click to find out!

Free Ranger Videos (Up to date)

• Stage 117 Cleared - (Free rangers, no Friend: Sol, Clara, Opera James, Warrior Jessica, Cobe)
• Line Rangers Stage 119 Free Clear - English Voice Explanation- Free Rangers Sol, Warrior Jessica, Opera James, Clara, Glenn

First-time Playthrough Links 

I used Hip Hop Brown [70], KSM [55], Dancer King Boss [60], Sorcerer Cony [50], Charismatic Jessica [70] in almost all of these first attempts... just because I can. These videos were just for fun because I recorded the very first time I encountered the new stages. If you are looking for other ranger teams, I might work on those later, though there are plenty of people who do a better job of those kinds of videos than I do! I make no claims about being a good player, I just try my best with what I have, so proceed with the attitude of fun, please. [Update: All the boss stages were revised to be more difficult, featuring more mini boss enemies per stage. Videos are probably outdated but haven't had time to sort it all out so watch with caution.]

Stage 109 Cleared

Stage 110 Cleared

Stage 111 Cleared

Stage 112 Cleared
Stage 113 Cleared

Stage 114 Cleared

Stage 115 Cleared

Stage 116 Cleared

Stage 117 pwnd (me)
Stage 117 Cleared
Stage 118 Cleared

Stage 112 Cleared (Free rangers: Sol, Clara, Sindy, Warrior Jessica, Scott) - [Update: outdated due to stage revision]

First Impressions

I stand corrected on my previous predictions. This entire zone was trivialized significantly by KSM, Dancer King, Hip Hop and Bernard. If you watched my videos above, this is quite obvious. Every stage was one-shot except for 117 & 120. I got 120 on my 4th try (with Dancer King [60], Sorcerer Cony [50] and 3 lowbies). I still enjoyed it, though. Going back and trying these again with other ranger combinations will be fun.

Mundo? More like Psycho... Pet kidnapper. I don't like her. I bet she's the one who abducted Sally for the Alien King.

In addition, lowbies have made a huge comeback. I will try my best to remember to put KSM & company back in my team when I am not playing, sorry in advance if you use my help and get a Bella :( Koji (red jumpsuit enemy) is really terrible to deal with and having a horde of lowbies in the front helps a lot. Same with the dynamite enemies (not listed in the enemy collection). It's also very helpful on Stage 120 where Mundo (poodle riding boss) body slams everything in a huge radius. Might as well let her kill throwaway lowbies. 

Richard, the green dino mini boss, has an insane range. I mean, really ridiculously long range. Everything, including Dancer King Boss and probably most towers, gets hit by his splash damage. Any time this mini boss is present, it acts as a ticking time bomb because if you don't kill him in time, your tower will get splashed down and game over -- Use your Tower Repair carefully. Luckily, his attack speed is pretty slow, and he's not terribly difficult to block with a standard health ranger.

That's all the thoughts I have for now. Hope everyone is enjoying the new area's challenges.

Stage 104 & Stage 108 Video Trial

Videos

[Update: Looking for new Stage 104 and 108 video guides? Stage 104 video and Stage 108 video updated since ranger stat changes.]

Testing this out to see how it goes. I don't think Stage 104 is particularly difficult, especially with this team of "free" rangers, but I just made this video to see if it'd be what I want... I put some annotations on the video to point out some important things in the stage.

Here is the link in case it doesn't show for mobile viewers.

Line Rangers Stage 104 Clear - Common/Free Team

Here is a video I did of Stage 108. I did a voice cast of this game instead. I'm sort of trying that out as well.

Line Rangers Stage 108 Video - Failed with Free/Common rangers <-- link in case the video doesn't show for mobile viewers.

Thoughts? Like/dislike? Or shut up, Panic, and just keep blogging with text?

Upcoming

I'm still working on an all-stage-obtainable "free" ranger team victory for the rest of the stages. Particularly Stage 108. There's also some funkiness about the stage. I've noticed there are about 2 or 3 different variations to the formation and ordering of the enemies in the stage (as you can see in the video above). I haven't figured out how it's triggered yet. Anyone else know?

[Update: Check out the videos & analysis specific to Stage 100 and Stage 108.]

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.

Quick Weekend Update April 26

I just wanted to post a quick one to bring attention to the new stuff on the blog.

1. The LINE Friend ID sharing post is a permanent new addition. You can always access it by clicking on the link bar at the top (mobile blog readers unfortunately can't see the link bar, though). Don't be shy, post your info for sharing and helping other players!

2. I updated my New Stage 84 post with a normal ranger team strategy for anyone who may want some insight there.

3. I updated my thoughts on teams and strategies for the Altar of Flame area. I've cleared the zone finally. When I have some intelligent ideas for Castle in the Sky, I'll write some new posts.

Finally, I will of course keep updating the posts with full list of rangers, obtainable rangers from new stages, and new area Treasures as I progress through them.

Thanks to everyone who has been reading and following through my adventures in LINE Rangers. I appreciate the replies and feedback!

Good luck and have fun!

Difficult Stages - Altar of Flame

Bad news. They're all difficult. End of post. :(

I'm kidding. Well, no, actually they're really all difficult, but I'll give a bit more detail. I'm finding it rather hard to recall exactly what I did for each stage because for most of them I changed my teams multiple times before finding the magic combination. Here is what I can share about my team composition for a few of earlier stages. I realize not everyone has Opera James, Macho Moon and General Brown (though Moon and Brown are easily replaceable with other health and balance rangers), so take the following as ideas/inspiration rather than a guide. The rest are fairly obtainable.

[Post updated April 25, 2014]

Team Compositions

Stage 86 and 87. 

Stage 88 - quite a tough boss stage

Stage 89

Stage 90

Stage  91

Stage 92 

Stage 95 - You can use 3 good single target rangers instead of 2

Stage 96 - Use your best splash ranger, and 3 of your best single target rangers. I use Witch Cony because she's Very Fast, as fast as Glenn. She does ok damage, but since she runs so fast, she can get in a lot of shots on the "Heaven" boss right at the start of the fight (before Tornado reset). I think Honey might be fine too, I just like long-range attacks more.

I think for every stage from 86 - 91 I've had to do my mineral upgrades and then reset the enemy stream with a Tornado. The stages in this zone are almost all (exception of stage 88) a long, dense stream of enemies and you'll have no way to really deal with them properly at the start of the game. Therefore, stalling with lowbies while you gear up your economy is the best way to go. I've gotten quite good at timing my Tower Repair item so that I get the maximum amount of time out of the stall. Remember, even if your mineral has reached max and you have a full set of minerals ready, let the invincibility timer run out its course because after you unleash a Tornado you'll want your Missile ready to launch. Firing the missile when they're all bunched up at the enemy tower deals damage to the whole lot, so don't miss out on this opportunity.

Special notes on Stage 88:

• There are some excellent Youtube videos which illustrate exactly how the composition of [1 splash, 2 long range attack, 2 lowbies] can clear it. You can substitute my Opera James for a max level Clara, it will also work. This stage is really tough because the tall guys with the black "Be Happy" t-shirt, Koichi, is on steroids. He has a lot of HP and this stage starts with eight (8!?!) of them. 
• Always start the stage immediately by upgrading minerals to 6 or maybe even 7. Do not deploy anything until that point because if you pass the midpoint prematurely here, you will also have to deal with a lot of the blondies with dolls. You have enough trouble with the tall guys, you don't want to trigger this secondary set of enemies. Fight all 8 of these tall guys on the left side (your side) of the pathway and you will have a much better time of it. 

Special notes for Stage 92: 

• Probably the toughest stage in the whole zone without Sorcerer Cony (I recommend finding a reliable friend who has Sorcerer Cony to lend you some help). Lots of big and small enemies, you will need a lot of splash damage as well as heavy hitting single target ranged units. Some people have done it with 3 lowbies, I personally did it with 2 because I just couldn't get the slug boss down fast enough with just 1 splash and 1 single. 
• Honey is an excellent choice to add to the mix because she does a lot of damage at level 50 and is very fast to get into the front of the fray. Since the slug boss doesn't move very quickly and doesn't attack very often, she can easily get in multiple big hits before dying. Since the revision, she's also pretty cheap to deploy, only 200 mineral at level 50.
• I chose Clara over my more powerful Opera James for this stage. Why? The critical point in the stage is after Tornado is used, the moment you throw out Ice Shot. You need to do the most splash damage to all of the enemies clumped up in the frozen ice right in this moment and get rid of a lot of the blowtorch guys and the smaller guys here. If you fail to time the ice shot so that your rangers are already in range to start attacking the frozen enemies, you will find that they will overwhelm you once they thaw. So, I picked Clara because she walks faster than Opera James. I kept losing until I made this team change. Obviously, if you have Sorcerer Cony, you're in good shape because she walks the same speed as Clara and attacks faster. 
• Timing of your items will be ridiculously crucial in this stage (which includes Thomas!) because of the way it affects when the blowtorch guys will reach your team -- remember, once a blowtorch enemy reaches your damage rangers, it's pretty much game over. You want to throw down Ice Shot when the blowtorch guys are about to meet your lowbies, NOT when the boss meets your lowbies. Blowtorch guy walks slower than the rest of them. It gives your team (and your Friend/Sidekick) an extra 1-2 seconds to get into range!
• Order of your ranger deployment at the start of the stage will also help you take down the boss' health a bunch before you blow them back with a Tornado. Choose carefully!

Special notes for Stage 95:

• While the big, slow slug boss is still alive, never cross the midway point. It's a short pathway, I know. But if you cross the midpoint, you will prematurely trigger the tall "Be Happy" guys and you will be very unhappy as a result. Upgrade minerals to 6 before doing anything else.
• Even after using a Tornado to blow him back, wait for him to walk WELL past the mid-point (let him walk about 75% of the way to you) before you deploy any of your rangers. I lost 5 or 6 times because I timed my Glenn to face him as he passed the mid-point, however when the slug loses half his health, he gets knocked back *very far*, farther than you would think. As a result, your lowbie or other melee rangers will cross the mid-point to meet with him again. I would really recommend you wait until he gets to the 3/4 point before you block his path.
• You'll want to bring your best single target rangers for this stage. It's not a boss stage, but the slug you fight in 92 is here along with tall guys, but not much else. Splash is less important. Bring 3 single target (preferably Sindy and Ellin, and your best third one) and Clara (or whoever your best splash is).

Special notes for Stage 96:

• Not an easy stage at all, but I found it a lot easier than 92. The pathway is super long and the boss is slow, so I right away picked Glenn as he is the fastest lowbie. The stream of enemies is not as densely packed as 92, and you don't need to deal with a lot of them at a time so 3 single target rangers is best in my opinion. Sindy and Ellin are obvious picks. If you have any of the Boss rangers, they might be good because they walk fast. I have Legend Boss at level 50, but I didn't use him. I personally chose Witch Cony because she walks as fast as Glenn and she's much cheaper than Legend Boss. Honey might also be a viable choice here, but I didn't try it with her. The Heaven boss does splash damage so I went with a long-range Cony instead.
• It's a crazy long path so don't waste the boss' first pass doing nothing (this is why I picked Witch Cony, she can run to the enemies and start attacking faster than the others). You *must* deal enough damage to him during the first pass otherwise he will cause you to lose during his second pass. He has a lot of HP and you need to squeeze all the damage you can in the time that you have, otherwise he will start to overwhelm you, you'll hit Hurry Up, then the blowtorch guys catch up and it's game over.

On a slightly quirky note, why Glenn? He costs nearly double what Scott and Bella cost as lowbie bait for the enemy. But in a 1 vs 1 race, Glenn actually runs much faster than Scott and Bella. In fact, the only ranger who even comes close to Glenn's move speed is Honey and the Conys that are speed rangers (not Sorcerer). Despite what it says on their profile, even among the "Very Fast," there are slight yet significant differences. You'll have to carefully weigh the pros and cons of using him. Some stages have you strapped for cash, so maybe speed isn't as important so Scott and Bella are better choices. Some stages require you to hold the front line super fast, in which case Glenn works out better.

All these multiple failed attempts on these stages has me running quite poor on coins. Unless you are farming for treasure in this zone, go back to Stage 80 or 76. They provide the most coin for least effort as well as decent account/user experience.

Treasure

If you are farming for treasure, I recommend 85 for section one of this zone, 89 for section two, 93 for section 3. Difficulty-wise, they are the least troublesome. Once you get a piece of treasure in each section, you will be rewarded with increased Move Speed. Not super impressive, but I am looking forward to Castle in the Sky. The treasure benefit there is increased ranger attack power. Excellent!

Challenges With The Altar of Flame

A few days into the new areas and I'm not a huge fan of the enemies in the Altar of Fire. They're about as frustrating as the ones in the Ancient Museum. The long ranged blondies wielding dolls (Judy) and the blowtorch guys (Hanabi) are insanely powerful. The range on the blondies are ridiculous. She'll whack my rangers from across the path. The blowtorch guys have a ton of health and their close range splash damage is absolutely horrendous. Koichi, the guy with the "Be Happy" t-shirt, has an absurd amount of health, but he attacks single targets only.

Of the stages I have laid eyes on, the ongoing theme seems to be that all the stages have a dense, continual stream of enemies with high-HP, high-damage enemies peppered in at various parts of the stage. The difficulty with this is you need to balance your team with the right kinds of damage in order to deal with each stage. More so than in any other zone before, I am finding that I need to choose different rangers to combat the various quirks of each stage here. Before, I mostly had a core team of 5 rangers and I pretty much used them for almost every stage. Can't really do that here anymore.

So far wherever I've gotten stuck, I find myself often going back to the basic battle strategies and coming up with ways to deal. Some stages afford you the time to powerlevel minerals while other stages require you to deal with the onslaught immediately. Not only do you need to think about how to spend your first set of minerals, you need to tactically plan out the order of the rangers you're deploying as your first line of defense.

The stages vary on how quickly the blowtorch guy pops out as well as how many of them pop out. Most of the stages in Altar of Flame will force you to pick your team based upon how you want to deal with the blowtorch guy because if you don't, he'll roast your entire team in 2 shots. So it is important to ponder: Do I need more single-target rangers to quickly kill a heavy-hitter? Do I need more (or in some stages, fewer) splash rangers to deal with the marching stream of smaller enemies? Do I need any tank/health rangers, or is it more economical to use lowbie(s) if the blowtorch guy is roasting everything?

I am getting a lot of use out of level 60 Sindy and Ellin these days. Their attack is high, attack speed is also quite good. I think if you have a Lucifer Cony, she would also be useful in some stages. I leveled up Legend Boss in case I needed a 3rd single target ranged attacker, but so far haven't gotten any good use out of him. Surprisingly, I got one team composition that could employ Sol. He's big and slow and attacks even slower, but he's really meaty. I used him just for fun for 85, and he works fine for that!

I am also personally finding that beyond 87, the use of at least one lowbie is almost mandatory unless you have some fancy rangers. In fact, even with fancy rangers, a lowbie may make life a lot easier. Fully upgraded mineral production, max, and missile power are absolutely must-haves as you step into this area because the demand of the amount of damage output you need to deal to keep the blowtorch enemies at bay is very intense -- and Sindy & Ellin are not cheap!

On the subject of cheap, don't be cheap with preparations. Spend the 500 coins to get all 4 of your Items. I don't think there was a single stage I cleared the first time without using 3 or 4 of the items. Spend the 500 coins on Sidekicks and use your Friends tactically. Deploying 3 extra power hitters at the right time can really mean the difference between a win or a loss.

It is a real bummer to be forced to go back to old zones to farm coins and grind levels but I've been doing exactly that. I've done 76, 80 and even 84 more times than I care to count, but as a result I have a big fat coin wallet. I've also found that 85 is quite farmable once I got the right team composition for the job to do it safely.

In case you were curious, the treasure for Altar of Flame is a Hermes Sandal. It increases ranger move speed. I still need a piece in the third section to activate it! I just got the 3rd star in the first section. Whoo! Although in general this treasure benefit doesn't seem to be anything worth writing home about.

This zone doesn't appear to be as insanely skewed towards using splash rangers, but in case anyone missed their opportunity to get their max level 60 Clara last week, she's now the 4-star ranger obtainable in boss stages here. Clara does really well as the token splash ranger in the team just to deal with the little enemies while your single target rangers are dealing with the bigger guys.

All in all, I'm finding Altar of Flame quite tough. I haven't finished it yet, either. It's a big gear shift from the style of play that we have gotten used to in Temple of Ice, but so far I've found it a great deal more playable for the average person as long as you play strategically. Wish you all good fun and good luck here.

Release Day! New Areas + Events + New Anguish

Today is day one of the new areas "Altar of Flame" and "Castle in the Sky" being live and available in-game. Those of you who are still working on stage 1-84, do not feel left out. The new stages are very difficult so don't feel as if 84 is a major bummer because if you can't conquer Temple of Ice, then Altar of Flame will not be much better! Take your time, train your rangers, grind some levels and gold. It's still Double Gold day!

Along with the newly released areas, Line has given us little under 2 days of another Gacha event and Ruby event. If you've been itching to play the GACHA machine for premium rangers, today's the day to get the most bang for the buck and possibly best chances at 5-star rangers. I tried my hand at it and it was an utter disappointment personally, but some other people got great results from their GACHA. Try your luck!

The user level cap has been increased to 80. I was hoping that the new levels would increase Tower HP but it so far hasn't. I'm still capped at 999999 for my tower. It doesn't seem to make sense or be at all worth anything to put more gold coins into Tower HP upgrades for the time being. Not sure if that is an accident, either.

Interesting thing that isn't working in players' favor is that enemy tower HP has increased tremendously. I didn't check lower stages but every stage from 80 up has had enemy tower increased from ~600k to 999k. 84's tower used to be 680k. It is also now 999k. This will make the splash hax strategy of killing it that much more difficult. I don't know if it was intentional or accidental. It seems quite unfair to go back to old stages and increase the difficulty in such a strange, sweeping manner.
[Edit]: I went back as far as stage 64 spot checking. Looks like the 999999 enemy tower goes back pretty far. Stage 48 is at 440k, which also seems insanely high for it. Maybe it's just broken and they'll fix it?

Stage 84's enemy tower used to have 680000 HP. Now it has 999999 HP. What's up with that...

Anyway, I'm being pwned by 86 at the moment. I'm still trying to approach it with different methods and rangers to see what works better. Frankly, I'm getting the feeling this is going to be a grinding uphill battle. Prepare thyself...

Totally New Kind of Hax Strategy - Stage 84

[Update: Probably got patched? Still a pretty funny video.]

This is so funny, clever and interesting that I had to share it. Someone has discovered a way where any Ranger team can clear stage 84. It's completely bonkers. However, *I don't know if the latest version of the game (presumably for the new areas releasing today) will patch this*. As of 11pm local Japan time, someone confirmed it still works. 

It's essentially a bug. The exploit is that you use your friend's Rangers to beat up Akira (big snowboarding boss) after the stage has declared that you lost. The boss no longer attacks but for some reason the Friends still fire on the enemy in the "dimmed screen" after you lose. Weird!

The YouTube poster calls it the "shadow Rangers bug". You will need:
  1. Turn your device and game sound up to listen to the sound of the attacks. Your friend's Rangers will take over an hour to kill Akira, any other enemies present as well as the enemy tower.
  2. Three rubies to continue the game after the "shadow Rangers" have done their job so that you may claim your stage clear victory.
  3. Friends, obviously! Pick someone strong!
  4. Your device charger. It will take over an hour according to the poster of this bug as well as some others who tested it out. You'll need sound on and screen on and pay attention for over an hour, so don't let your phone or tablet die in the middle!

[Edited: Some players have reported it takes a less than ten minutes. Some take over an hour. The important thing is to listen for when the Akira dies and when the enemy tower blows up before using your rubies to continue] 

According to poster, you need to let Akira blow up your Rangers, and as he kills your tower, you drop your friend's Rangers. In his last hit, launch your missile. Then after the lose screen comes up, listen for the sound of your Friends attacking Akira. You should also be able to see his HP bar decreasing slowly. You will also hear the moment he dies,  the sound of the enemy tower being beat up, and the moment the tower dies. That's when you know it's time to use your 3 rubies to continue. Don't worry, the tornado is built-in to the continue, you don't need to bring one with you. 

Check out their video and see for yourself if it is worth doing. It is very keen of him to notice that this is possible. Very sneaky!

Shadow Rangers - Stage 84 - http://youtu.be/pVvr5GyowH8

New Areas Coming Soon for LINE Rangers

Looks like April 17, 2014 (local Japan time, I'm guessing) is when the new content will drop. Two new zones are being opened where we will grind our faces and try to get a few steps closer to saving Sally.

"Altar of Flame" looks to be a fire-themed area with some ghoulish looking enemies. "Castle in the Sky" looks like an airy zone that might be kind of pretty. From the looks of the current map, we are going "up" some mountain where they are taking Sally captive. Perhaps "Castle in the Sky" means we are getting much closer to the top of the mysterious prison?

Anyway, I'm excited to see what's new. I am curious about whether they will increase the maximum user level for more upgrades. Particularly since we seemed to have capped at 999999 tower HP as of user level 54's upgrade (assuming 100% Treasure found) I wonder if the tower HP cap will be given a bump up. Will more desirable rangers be obtainable from the new stages? Time will tell...

In the meantime, I've been spending my feathers leveling up some extra rangers in case they become useful for future stages. If not, maybe they'll be delicious cookies for any attractive new rangers that may come along. Also, I've been banking a lot of gold coins. Personally, I've been farming stages 76 and 80 to maximize on experience gain and gold coins. When I have time and energy I also play around with different teams to see if I can clear stage 84 with different rangers.

If you have already cleared 84, what have you all been doing in the meantime? :) Leveling? Farming for Treasure? Still looking for some special rangers?

What is everyone else doing? Stage 71? 76? 81? 84? Drop me some comments!

Close But No Cigar

I was on a bit of a high from getting my Clara ranger to level 50 and decided to give the wretched Stage 84 another try. More about this gray-hair-causing stage later, after I manage to beat it one day, but today, here's how the enemy tower looked when I was done with it.

...............no words..............

Rats!

The team I used was:

• Clara level 50
• Charismatic Jessica level 50
• Hero Jessica level 50
• Fighter Moon level 50
• Sindy level 58 (Did not end up using her at all)

I will say this - who you receive from your friend/sidekick impacts how well it will fare enormously unless you have Sorcerer Cony in your own possession. In this attempt, I got a Sorcerer Cony, Lucifer Cony and a Cobe from a friend + one extra Clara support unit. In subsequent attempts, I either messed up timing or did not get splash damage rangers from friends/sidekicks. 

Well, let's hope this weekend I can get Clara to level 60 and maybe the other 175k tower hp will be knocked out. For now, Stage 84 is still owning me.

After I got all bummed out, I made a neat team just for fun.

OP team of awesome bears

I love Brown so much.