Strategy for upcoming Boss event(s)

[Giedrybe]

Having in mind all the "mystery" which floats around boss event and his health in particular, I thought it is a good timing to start sharing ideas, assumptions and best practises in separate thread.

We can assume that in 5-7 days we will be chasing our luck in next boss event. At least I hope we will as these events are involving many players and are popular ones.

What we miss is what somebody call possibility to win events, others claim on Funzio squeezing for gold etc. In my point of view, we also miss clear understanding what we should do - in other words we miss strategy.

We will not get detailed explanation from Funzio regarding the mechanics, but it is not the first and not the last time. This does not make us helpless. We have our brains and we are in full possibilities to collect and share tons of data - and to have our findings.

It's time to say and acknowledge - winning boss event will never ever be easy and absolutely most likely it will never be completely free in terms of gold spent. This does not mean it is unwinnable for free/tapjoy gold spenders, as I can prove it with my own example. But this thread is definitely not for you, if you think that boss events should be won by everyone without gold.

I'd say we had already identified some good things as a base to start with.
- we have 13 free/cash hits strategy
- we have 18 free/cash hits strategy having in mind leveling up/med kit (+5 hits with additional)
- we know that increasing allies boost your attack, which helps to beat boss (however you need to check out regarding new rival lists)
- in many cases, med kit is better option to gold hit (med kit gives approx 5x cash hit, gold hit approx 4x)
- cash payout after beating the boss is 4 x cash hit amount
- XP awarded for me at level 36 started from 10XP for first boss +5XP every next boss. It means 20XP for 3rd boss, 35 for 6th boss etc.

There are assumptions which need to be checked and benchmarked with data from other players, to see if mechanics are different per different level/tier of players. I'll give some assumptions:
- free hit is around 69% of attack value in your profile (however it looked to decrease to 66% in last few bosses for me... No idea why)
- cash hit is around 102% of att value in profile
- mega hit (I have not tried) ~400%
- bonus buildings are not working vs boss
- country boost is not working vs boss (pretty much confirmed assumption)
- boss health is the biggest X factor. We have two things to find out - INITIAL health of boss1 and healt increase rate per boss level.
- one of many assumption is that boss difficulty is "decided" at the start of the event. Which means that adding attack during event does not make boss automatically more difficult.

I started monitoring things out in the middle of second boss event starting from level ~11-12. Up to level 17-18 I had ALWAYS next boss having 109% of previous boss. I had to stop there, thus my records stopped. I had my records from level 1 in this particular boss event. First levels are not really relevant data regarding boss health as sometimes you need additional hit to finish few percents of the boss. In my stats I was always calculating number of hits x power of hit, which you can see when you hit the boss.

6 level Boss 19551 140%
7 level Boss 28010 143%
8 level Boss 37200 133%
9 level Boss 47962 129%
10 level Boss 61448 128%
11 level Boss 72128 117%

Here you can see total amount of health points my boss had and increase on last boss. I stopped here, but I cannot know now if I was approaching 109% zone OR boss difficulty and health points were changed from event number 1 (which could be potentially considered too easy by Funzio). I hope somebody can supply their observations as I am sure some of you have tracked your progress.

Another big topic is initial boss health. It is a big mystery for everybody, especially for those who struggle. Some say it depends on your inventory=attack, some say it must take into account your level, some think about attack density, some say it should be defined for some certain bracket of players etc. I feel that we need figures to prove some theories correct or wrong. Thus I hope this thread will give beneficial info to everybody reading this.

Potential strategies for upcoming events depends on our findings:
1. should we start next event being ALREADY strong? Means invest now into the attack and you will go relatively easier. This strategy hopes that boss event is for strong player and that boss health is more linked with your level or your rivals bracket, but not to your inventory.
2. should we start next event being relatively weak, but prepared, which means that in first few days you invest heavily in units giving you best bang per cash (depends on your level and strategy, but cheapest will always be infantry)? This strategy hopes that boss health will be less as you look rather weak compared to what you could be, but health remains low and thus possible to beat as you are increasing your attack power during the event with new units and allies.
3. what about skill points? Nobody checked if players relatively easy going to high level of boss have considerably different skill point allocation towards attack compared to struggling players.

We have many possibilities in our hands if we will have a certain mass of players collecting as precise as possible info. We can even agree to experiment/test some strategies with enough players at different levels. I can even prepare templates to fill in, which afterwards I could import into my Bussiness Intelligence soft to have detailed analysis. Anyhow, I hope we can have interesting discussion here.

We can start from commenting statements in assumptions part and your observations regarding boss health.

[Miner]

Here's the timeline to get the 13 free (or 15 free if you have the health recovery boost) hits:

http://www.funzio.com/forum/showthread.php?37548-Beat-the-Boss-Attack-Timeline-with-and-without-health-boost

I could be wrong, but it seems to me that the cash hit is the same value as your UNBOOSTED attack strength. Mega hit is 4x the cash hit.

I rarely use the free ones, so I don't know about that.

I think to get further, you need to consider the increase in your attack in terms of a percentage of your original attack score. On my low level game, I started the first boss event with an attack around 1,400 and increased it during the event to just around 3,000. I got to boss 26 without gold. On my regular game, I increased my raw attack by over 2,000 points but couldn't clear boss 16 in this last event -- but my raw attack STARTED around 30k.

No clue if that's helpful, but it may explain why it's so hard for some of the high stat players to get far without gold.

[Giedrybe]

This could be correct, at least partly. This suits my case, how I managed to go shorter with every boss event. But at the same time this seems to be to hard to believe that devs would launch such event, where 95% of players cannot do significant increase % in attack. Also this does not answers question why strong players like WP, Copenhagen can go quite far with 13 hits.

Have a look at Copenhagen's post - he states his hits there.
http://www.funzio.com/forum/showthread.php?37525-Death-Brigade-Loot-Tracker/page16
So he was going to 20-21 level with max 13 hits. Thousands of players are not in position to do that. And Cope's attack have not got +100% to attack during the event - I am quite sure. So there are ups and downs with that particular theory.

[Ashmw]

I increased my att from 59k for my 1st boss, to 70k bfr deaf. D 30th boss. Dats nearly 19% more att pts. I'm not so sure how the 19% was taken into consideration given that boost factors not part of our att pts against d bosses.

[Crazy Canuck]

My cash payout is more then 5X cash hit

My cash attack is lower then my Attack value in profile but is getting closer with every boost building upgrade I am doing.

Adding attack strength IMO has not really made the next boss much easier I have found and if it has it seems to adjust it self by the boss after that one.

[Ryans67]

Seems like my payout was 5x the final cash hit. That was for the final boss. I had 5.3m, pressed attack, and when all was said and done, I was at 5.8+. The final hit was $116,250. Works out close.

[manbeast]

one thing I noticed

1st boss- cash hit was roughly unboosted attack stat. my boosted was around 40k, hits were doing 33k
2nd boss- cash hit was roughly boosted attack stat. my boosted was 52k, hits were doing 51k.
3rd boss- back to unboosted attack stat. boosted is 55k, hits did 46k.

[Fl@sh]

My theory is that it is dependent on your level(or a handful of levels grouped together) and what they(developers) believe your attack value should be for that level/group(maybe even an average of that group). I notice a lot of the lower level campers(around 80ish) don't have to start using gold until the late teens/early 20's. I, on the other hand, run out of time starting around boss 8. My attack is decent for my level, but nowhere near what it could be. I just think it becomes impossible once you pass level 100 if you don't have around 80k attack. I had to use 60 gold for boss 9, not sure if I will continue any more, it just seems like it will get real expensive trying to move forward.

[Q Raider]

Strategy:
Develop a low level player to the minimum level to get the Elite event.
Keep a low ally count.
Do the event as far as it takes you without gold, using ally count increase and higher end units to boost stats.
At event end, drop the ally count right back down, probably to the point where there are only indestructible units in play.
Wait and repeat for next event.

[manbeast]

Strategy:
Develop a low level player to the minimum level to get the Elite event.
Keep a low ally count.
Do the event as far as it takes you without gold, using ally count increase and higher end units to boost stats.
At event end, drop the ally count right back down, probably to the point where there are only indestructible units in play.
Wait and repeat for next event.

thats pretty much it.

there is no strategy thats going to really help anyone over lvl 80

[Q Raider]

thats pretty much it.

there is no strategy thats going to really help anyone over lvl 80

No argument with that statement.

Went up over 6k in raw attack just to see the effect after hitting the "Go Gold" zone. It got me one more elite, number of hits the same as the previous one.

Add in that I am getting to the point where the lower units awarded won't even make it to the battleground and the next event will just be "Free" hits, drop maybe five elites, then progressively introduce cash options which will likely top out at around 10, then spend the rest of the time it's active trying to remember not to hit payout propositions when it hasn't activated.

[Fl@sh]

there is no strategy thats going to really help anyone over lvl 80

lots of gold

[Copenhagen]

This could be correct, at least partly. This suits my case, how I managed to go shorter with every boss event. But at the same time this seems to be to hard to believe that devs would launch such event, where 95% of players cannot do significant increase % in attack. Also this does not answers question why strong players like WP, Copenhagen can go quite far with 13 hits.

Have a look at Copenhagen's post - he states his hits there.
http://www.funzio.com/forum/showthread.php?37525-Death-Brigade-Loot-Tracker/page16
So he was going to 20-21 level with max 13 hits. Thousands of players are not in position to do that. And Cope's attack have not got +100% to attack during the event - I am quite sure. So there are ups and downs with that particular theory.

I did add 40 allies during the event (14% increase) and did a valor dump on appx. 150 units for a 11% attack stat increase.

It wasn't a very scientific approach, just tried to power up the Attack when the boss got more difficult which seemed to work, but did have large jumps in the number of hits required after defeating several bosses following a power up. The final boss #3 took fewer hits (29) than did boss #2 (31 hits)

[Giedrybe]

My cash payout is more then 5X cash hit

My cash attack is lower then my Attack value in profile but is getting closer with every boost building upgrade I am doing.



That is strange, but maybe higher payout you receive due the level range. I have monitored it closely and my payout was exactly 4 x cash hit for all 11 bosses of 3rd event and 5 bosses of second event.
I've also tested switching from USA to UK, which potentially supposed to bring positive efect on my naval power. It DIDN'T.
Regarding bonus buildings, with exclusion of composites, which are out of game for boss event, I have not TESTED.

[Giedrybe]

one thing I noticed

1st boss- cash hit was roughly unboosted attack stat. my boosted was around 40k, hits were doing 33k
2nd boss- cash hit was roughly boosted attack stat. my boosted was 52k, hits were doing 51k.
3rd boss- back to unboosted attack stat. boosted is 55k, hits did 46k.

That sucks. If things are changing now and then, I could be hard to detect any logic.

[Giedrybe]

My theory is that it is dependent on your level(or a handful of levels grouped together) and what they(developers) believe your attack value should be for that level/group(maybe even an average of that group). I notice a lot of the lower level campers(around 80ish) don't have to start using gold until the late teens/early 20's.

I am not sure of this. I am level 36 and honestly I saw only few players in my level with better stats, like Seqwins and few (1-3) others with similar attack stats to mine. Everyday I am checking at least 20-30 rivals inspecting for attack. So out of ~150 checked, only 3 are similar to me. I am at boss 12 - where I would already need to use gold. Doesn't make sense as I am rather strong player for my level OR my ally bracket. Also does not make a lot of sense that I went to finish first boss (was in levels like 23-27) - my attack was not that special.

[Giedrybe]

Cope, anyway you managed to go gold free to level 21. For a lot of players this is something to achieve. Therefore we can try to figure out what is that special in your stats what helps you to go that far. Do you mind to share your level and attack stats and how you feel compared to your rivals in your list?

Question to everybody - anybody else has done some maths/monitoring during the event? Key point is to identify how boss health is increasing. Starting health is what you cannot change, only try to prepare in advance. But getting understanding how boss health is increasing, would put us into position to calculate in the early stage of event to understand how far we can and would like to go with current bosses.

[Crazy Canuck]

Well I just dropped 200 allies to increase my density a fair bit so when next boss rolls around I will see how it effects my number of attacks needed and overall boss health strength.

[Fl@sh]

I am not sure of this. I am level 36 and honestly I saw only few players in my level with better stats, like Seqwins and few (1-3) others with similar attack stats to mine. Everyday I am checking at least 20-30 rivals inspecting for attack. So out of ~150 checked, only 3 are similar to me. I am at boss 12 - where I would already need to use gold. Doesn't make sense as I am rather strong player for my level OR my ally bracket. Also does not make a lot of sense that I went to finish first boss (was in levels like 23-27) - my attack was not that special.
You're right, I don't see too many people with stats comparable to mine at my level as well. The only thing I notice is that those who were smart enough to sit and camp around level 80 for a little bit and build up stats that are not even close to being comparable to their respective level had better luck. I have only seen one person in my rivals list with a boss item. They are a heavy gold spender with twice my attack. They only have the Warlord Siege Tank, none of the other final boss loots. My attack is pretty good for my level, yet I still struggle mightily during these boss events. I don't see an end in sight while doing these, so I refuse to spend gold when I don't know what the final number will be.

[Watash]

My opinion is that unless Funzio changes the boss events in a way to make them more attainable then all the strategies discussed here will be only minimally effective. My statement in no way reflects poorly on those who offer up varying strategies. I am always amazed at the level of participation here by smart players. I enjoy reading these posts and still enjoy the game itself. I am level 107 and cannot get past level 9 without gold, too far to go.

[Copenhagen]

Cope, anyway you managed to go gold free to level 21. For a lot of players this is something to achieve. Therefore we can try to figure out what is that special in your stats what helps you to go that far. Do you mind to share your level and attack stats and how you feel compared to your rivals in your list?


Lvl 83
Allies 271
A: 70,000

Pretty strong compared to rivals. I believe there is something to increasing yor attack stat during the event.

[SeqWins]

Lvl 83
Allies 271
A: 70,000

Pretty strong compared to rivals. I believe there is something to increasing yor attack stat during the event.

Cope you and WP, FFN....best fight of the Mid year..Make it happen and I'll sway the votes your way..GO! Grammy

[Copenhagen]

Cope you and WP, FFN....best fight of the Mid year..Make it happen and I'll sway the votes your way..GO! Grammy

I'm down. I think his level is in the upper 80s.

[Giedrybe]

The only thing I notice is that those who were smart enough to sit and camp around level 80 for a little bit and build up stats that are not even close to being comparable to their respective level had better luck.

So generally you are saying that players with v.high attack / for their respective level do better in the event. According to this, ones needs maximise attack with trying to keep level "down" as much as possible.

Potentially Funzio could do simple like this - assume some attack target per certain level, link boss health to theoretical number of hits (making it achievable to some certain boss level and when of course they calculated in gold use) and here you go. Potentially possible.

Conclusion - I don't buy it. This does not correspond to my experience from 3 boss events. Actually particularly at 3rd event I am much more stronger in gap and in % compared to my rivals, than I was at event 1 or 2. Yet in 3rd event my progress was much shorter. This also does not fit for your situation - you also feel strong for your rival list and yet you stop early in the event. So how much stronger you need to be than your rivals to be successfull? 10x? Funzio would not plan and do event for 0,5% of "population".

I am sure there is something else.

[Giedrybe]

Cope, thanks for your figures. These are event starting figures? Do you mind also giving your defense - I am curious if balance between att and defense plays role.

It may sound crazy, but in first event my att was a bit higher than def and I got warlord tank. In second event my att was at 40% of att+def value, I did worse. At the beginning of 3rd event it was similar, but few percent even lower. Sounds crazy, but at least draws the same trend. Maybe it is part of formula.

Funzio understands that majority of gold spenders are rather aggressive type = attacking players. And events usually are not meant for complete campers. You don't get crates or trigger boss if you just sit, grow IPH and defend. So maybe event goes better for those, who have higher attack value compared to def value.

Just one of assumptions.