Sentinels Of The Multiverse

[Maryring]

Sentinels of the multiverse is the World's Greatest Cooperative, Comic-Book Based, Fixed-Deck Card Game, available both as a regular card game, and as an online card game on Steam. And I was wondering if there are any other Sentinels card game players around here, and if so, that perhaps we ought have a thread discussing the best thing within it's most narrow definition. A place where we can talk about who the best hero is, who your favourite hero is, why there might be no overlap between the former two questions, how broken Team Leader Tachyon is, and how Spite really doesn't work well at all as a villain.

[awa]

I too do not find spite fun to play against

I have very little to say other than that, but i am looking forward to this oblivion thing

[The Hellbug]

I've been playing it on Steam a good bit recently. I can fairly certainly say that my favorite heroes are The Scholar and Ra--The Scholar because he's a versatile supportive tanky guy that can also do some damage with the right combination of other heroes (I like how his role changes depending on the rest of the team) and Ra because, though he may lack versatility, raw damage is frequently required for threat destruction and as your ultimate win condition and because you'd be pressed to find someone that does it as reliably as he.

[awa]

i also primarily play on steam

As a single character shes not fun but as part of a group i really like night mist

One character that kinda bugs me is visionary if she draws that damage type change card she often just makes the game almost impossible to lose particularly when combined with Ra (not to mention the way steam does the power really slows it down.)

[Knaight]

I play it in board game format, and while I make a point of playing a lot of different heroes I started with Absolute Zero for a reason and he's still my favorite.

[The Hellbug]

I play it in board game format, and while I make a point of playing a lot of different heroes I started with Absolute Zero for a reason and he's still my favorite.

I love the idea of Absolute Zero, and when I first played the game he was on my side (I played it not-digital first) and I really liked the combo-y stuff he could do, but he's just so inconsistent. Unlike other 'needs combo pieces in play' characters, he doesn't have a good way to get them down besides dropping one a turn--plenty of time to get disrupted by many villains. That said, when he goes off, he's hilarious.

[tyckspoon]

I love the idea of Absolute Zero, and when I first played the game he was on my side (I played it not-digital first) and I really liked the combo-y stuff he could do, but he's just so inconsistent. Unlike other 'needs combo pieces in play' characters, he doesn't have a good way to get them down besides dropping one a turn--plenty of time to get disrupted by many villains. That said, when he goes off, he's hilarious.

My biggest gripe with Absolute Zero is even when you do get him all set up it turns out what he's *best* at is blowing himself up. I'm not sure his ability to throw 20-some points of damage onto the board in a turn is quite worth it when it requires suffering 15 as self-damage. The second biggest is that his go-fish cards for his stuff aren't very efficient :smallyuk: I find it especially odd when you compare to Wraith, who wants a similar amount of cards in play to work with, and whose Impromptu Invention is one of the best search cards in the game..

My preferred heroes are mode-changers like The Naturalist and SkyScraper, "when X happens, do y" effects like Scholar's 'deal damage when you gain HP' and the ludicrously complicated turns you get with Argent Adept and a full selection of songs and instruments. I like being over-complicated :smalltongue:

[Sholos]

Argent Adept + Guise + Captain Cosmic for lots of sillyness. Currently I'm waiting impatiently for everything with Oblivaeon to happen, most looking forward to Harpy and La Comadore, I think. I really like playing Sentinels and Omni-X, simple as they are.

[tyckspoon]

Argent Adept + Guise + Captain Cosmic for lots of sillyness. Currently I'm waiting impatiently for everything with Oblivaeon to happen, most looking forward to Harpy and La Comadore, I think. I really like playing Sentinels and Omni-X, simple as they are.

Never really clicked with Cosmic; his stuff gets blown up too easily for my tastes to be a good support helper, and it doesn't help that pretty much all of his own damage output involves self-destructing his constructs. Every time he comes up in a game I'm left trying to figure out what he's supposed to be good at.

[shadow_archmagi]

Mr. Fixer is such an absolute delight if he's paired correctly. Crowbar scales in strange, exciting ways.

[The Hellbug]

Mr. Fixer is such an absolute delight if he's paired correctly. Crowbar scales in strange, exciting ways.

Oh, he can be kind of silly when things get going just right, but the rest of the time? I feel like he's the character that just ends up with no really helpful cards to play all game most often.

[Tentreto]

I always have a soft spot for Setback, and some of the goofiness he can do. Aside from that all the Tachyon varients are pretty good.

I absolutely hate fighting Infinitor though. I've only ever beaten him once through sheer force of damage prevention cards.

[Maryring]

At least AZ's search card will bring him what he needs. Expatriette though, she's got it rough since she really needs her guns. And if her search card reveals... say, two Flak jackets? That's gonna be a pain. I still enjoy playing with her though.

But my absolute favourite... tough choice. I love AA because bards rock. But while he is really strong, his rounds take so long. I remember a round while using him, Greatest Legacy and Scholar all together. Greatest Legacy gave AA a power use, which he used to give Scholar a card play, which he used to play his "heal or power use" card. It was the turn that never ended.

If I had to pick a single favourite it... probably has to be Tempest. Best White Mage in the game.

Also, Captain Cosmic is utterly useless against enemies who regularly use attacks that hit all hero targets, and really strong against enemies who tend to only hit a single target. Hitting the weakest hero target generally means one of his constructs, meaning he can be a very strong support tank. And with Unflagging Animation, you'll keep getting those constructs back into play. He also works well with strong healers like Tempest or AA.

[awa]

i like the captain cosmic variant where he plays three cards of his deck but hurts you if you have more than 4 constructs on the field.

[Knaight]

My biggest gripe with Absolute Zero is even when you do get him all set up it turns out what he's *best* at is blowing himself up. I'm not sure his ability to throw 20-some points of damage onto the board in a turn is quite worth it when it requires suffering 15 as self-damage. The second biggest is that his go-fish cards for his stuff aren't very efficient :smallyuk: I find it especially odd when you compare to Wraith, who wants a similar amount of cards in play to work with, and whose Impromptu Invention is one of the best search cards in the game.

A lot of the time he blows himself up and then proceeds to heal the damage right back, and that's before getting into hilarious scenarios involving fire damage or cold damage environment and enemy cards.

[The Hellbug]

The difference between, say, Expatriette and Absolute Zero is that she only really needs one gun to at least be somewhat helpful. Absolute Zero tends to just durdle until he has two or three of his combo pieces out and there are plenty of times when threat-solution in the opening few turns is critical. Add to that the fact that he doesn't have a bonkers card like impromptu invention in the Wraith deck to make sure he can get what he needs/actually get it on the table quickly, and it's easy for him to feel fairly anemic. He is a one man combo machine once he gets going (and other people supporting him can help a lot), but it's just relatively hard to get there.

[Geno9999]

The difference between, say, Expatriette and Absolute Zero is that she only really needs one gun to at least be somewhat helpful. Absolute Zero tends to just durdle until he has two or three of his combo pieces out and there are plenty of times when threat-solution in the opening few turns is critical. Add to that the fact that he doesn't have a bonkers card like impromptu invention in the Wraith deck to make sure he can get what he needs/actually get it on the table quickly, and it's easy for him to feel fairly anemic. He is a one man combo machine once he gets going (and other people supporting him can help a lot), but it's just relatively hard to get there.

Yeah, AZ is a character who will literally snowball if left to setup, constantly tanking Highest-Health hitting targets by simply being the highest health target and then healing it back up, and meanwhile has both Impales on the villain character.

That being said, you're right in that AZ needs his combo pieces right out the gate and that doesn't always happen... Which is why my favorite variant for him is the Freedom Five variant.

[Sholos]

Also Visionary paired with AZ and getting Twist the Ether on him is hilarious.

How about villains? I'm a big fan of Akash'Bhuta; she seems to have a nice balance of difficulty. Neither facerolly or absolutely frustrating (looking at you Chairman or Iron Legacy). La Capitan is another decent blend, though she can occasionally steamroll.

[The Hellbug]

I actually like Iron Legacy. He may shut down some heroes really hard, but his hyper-fast blitz sort of game is a nice change of pace after fighting against some of the more grindy villains (Apostate can be fun, but boy is he one of the guys that can topdeck a card that sets you back to square 1).

There are a few varieties of villains, actually, and some of the more interesting ones can kind of be grouped by expansion. For example, Chairman, Spite, and The Matriarch (from the Rook City expansion) are all exceptionally consistent villains (Spite of course being the king of this since you always know exactly how it's going to end up going down against him). This can be a challenge because it makes them very binary. Since they do the same thing basically every game, it really comes down to hero variability on whether or not you can handle them. Similarly, the Time Paradox expansion really tried to shake things up with 'villains you can't beat by just beating them down'. While this can be a welcome change of pace, though, certain early heroes (looking at you, Ra) are just not designed with this kind of objective in mind which can make them feel weak.

Overall, though, some of my favorite villains are the Ennead (digital-only, it's a pain in the butt to resolve all those effects at the table) because your progress against them is really obvious and the kind of threat they are changes throughout the game and La Capitan just because she tends to be one of the less 'solved' decks that still has a fairly consistent early game to put the hurt on you from the word 'go', As far as villains I hate? Well, the Chairman is a weird case because they nailed his flavor in his mechanics, fighting waves of mooks while not feeling like you're making any progress on the objective and slowly sliding towards defeat, but for this same reason he can be very frustrating. I might just say Gloomweaver. I know he's supposed to be easy, but it just never feels like he does anything at all.

[Geno9999]

I might just say Gloomweaver. I know he's supposed to be easy, but it just never feels like he does anything at all.

Personally, Skinwalker Gloomweaver is a much more fun and challenging variant to go up against. Bigger target, no relic in trash victory, and Gloomy actually attacks outside of his pins and relics. I'm pretty sure it's also the most played version of Gloomweaver of the skype group I play with.

I actually like going up against the Team Villains as well, though Villains of the Multiverse is MUCH better balanced than Vengeance.

[Leon]

Was gifted it (and all the DLC) and have been enjoying playing it both solo and with the people who gave me the game. I have yet to play the tabletop version as the person i gave it to has been very busy since then. Like a number of the Heroes and have been trying to at least get a idea of how they all play on a basic level but Tachyon and Tempest are my main goto's. I have been trying a lot to unlock the assorted variants of the heroes i like the best or that have easy unlocks.

I really want to like Unity but its so hard when her powers are locked behind bots that are a sometimes very hard to get out in play... Parse is growing on my interest as well. Early on i had gravited to Bunker but i play a lot less of him now since ive found that what he does Tempest can do just aswell and is a very potent healing option.

[shadow_archmagi]

Was gifted it (and all the DLC) and have been enjoying playing it both solo and with the people who gave me the game. I have yet to play the tabletop version as the person i gave it to has been very busy since then. Like a number of the Heroes and have been trying to at least get a idea of how they all play on a basic level but Tachyon and Tempest are my main goto's. I have been trying a lot to unlock the assorted variants of the heroes i like the best or that have easy unlocks.

I really want to like Unity but its so hard when her powers are locked behind bots that are a sometimes very hard to get out in play... Parse is growing on my interest as well. Early on i had gravited to Bunker but i play a lot less of him now since ive found that what he does Tempest can do just aswell and is a very potent healing option.

Unity is definitely a character that's very sensitive to team comp. She pairs very well with Argent Adept, or other heroes that give extra play/draw so that she can get her bots out reliably.

[Geno9999]

Early on i had gravited to Bunker but i play a lot less of him now since ive found that what he does Tempest can do just aswell and is a very potent healing option.

Bunker is a bit... subpar in general. He has his moments, such as unloading a loaded Omni-Cannon, and still having cards for days with Ammo Drop, but I find that his mode cards limit him a bit too much. I can understand Turret Mode locking out card plays, and maybe his draw phase, but it makes his base power useless unless you're using his much better variants (which is to say all of them.) But Upgrade Mode and Recharge Mode seem like they have interesting ideas and trade offs, but they're worse off than similar cards such as Tachyon's Hud Goggles, Visionary's Cocoon and Nightmist's Mistform, Legacy's Ring and Wraith's Utility belt.

Again, Bunker does have his moments, I just tend to find them in his variants, GI Bunker and F5 Bunker being my favorites.

[Leon]

Yes, if i use him these days its with GI as the ability to punch thru DR has been a great help in a couple of situations where im trying to something specific for a unlock and the Villan has been able to get several layers out.

The times ive shined with Unity have been rare but when a Bee Bot saves everyone its worth the effort.

[The Hellbug]

I've found Bunker's moment is 'against the Matriarch in general'. Damage reduction for the small hits, a big damage single attack, card draw off bird kill when you do want to clear them, and Matriarch's poor handling of equipment in general make him a stellar pick in against that villain in particular (in fact, Wraith's smoke cloud+Bunker with heavy plating can basically guarantee a win against vanilla Matriarch on their own). For me, his biggest problem is that the mode cards generally aren't worth the turn you spend playing them with all their drawbacks--well, that and that he can only reliably fetch his gear when it's already discarded.

[Maryring]

I personally enjoy the Chairman despite being ridiculously hard. Because it makes every match close, so you never feel like you're just doing rote gameplay. Thaaaat said. Jailbreak has too high a delta of randomness. Get the card early on and it does nothing. Get it towards the end of the deck and you're thoroughly gimped. So a house rule I have for the card is simply that it moves the bosses back into the deck, rather than directly into play. Which means that you don't randomly get a "you just plain lose" thrown in your face after a hard-fought victory.

Other villains I enjoy are Citizen Dawn, Ambuscade and Akash. Citizen Dawn has some interesting choice between beating up her citizens and preventing her invulnerability mode. Ambuscade is easy and straightforward, making him great for trying out new team compositions, and Akash feels like a really fun marathon.

On the other hand, I really don't like playing against Wager Master, as the game against him is so incredibly random, Warfang, because again the game feels random and arbitrary. And Spite, because Spite's mechanic plain doesn't work and I'm better off just ignoring victims entirely.

[The Hellbug]

Yeah, I get what they were going for on Spite, with a guy who suddenly becomes super powerful or whatever and just beats you down, but it just doesn't quite work. If his threat level were more on par with Iron Legacy once he flips (as in, you're dead in a couple turns) and you were incentivized a little more to save the victims, he'd work a bit better.

[tyckspoon]

The times ive shined with Unity have been rare but when a Bee Bot saves everyone its worth the effort.

Unity works best as a damage engine - multiple Raptor Bots and Shield Platforms put out an impressive damage-per-turn - but she really needs either strong defensive partners with damage redirects/damage nullification or a villain/environment combo that doesn't do a lot of AoE spread to pull it off; the DPS 'bots are too fragile otherwise. More effects that keyed on destruction of robot (like Explosive Parts or the Bee Bot's normal operation) would make that feel better, I think. The play fantasy of being the commander of a ravening swarm of adorable robotic dinosaurs is wonderful, tho. :smallbiggrin:


I personally enjoy the Chairman despite being ridiculously hard. Because it makes every match close, so you never feel like you're just doing rote gameplay. Thaaaat said. Jailbreak has too high a delta of randomness. Get the card early on and it does nothing. Get it towards the end of the deck and you're thoroughly gimped. So a house rule I have for the card is simply that it moves the bosses back into the deck, rather than directly into play. Which means that you don't randomly get a "you just plain lose" thrown in your face after a hard-fought victory.

On the other hand, I really don't like playing against Wager Master, as the game against him is so incredibly random, Warfang, because again the game feels random and arbitrary. And Spite, because Spite's mechanic plain doesn't work and I'm better off just ignoring victims entirely.

Chairman is allllll about figuring out how you're going to handle Jailbreak, IME. Feed all the bosses and minions to Haka's Savage Mana so it just doesn't matter (this is also my favorite way of dealing with things like Matriarch's bird swarm and Voss's minions - just Rampage the whole thing into Haka), use deck management effects to continually shove it to the bottom or pre-emptively discard it, force it to play off-turn so you have a cycle of hero turns to try to manage the effects before the villains go off again.. 'course, if you don't have any of those and it catches you by surprise, you're probably going to have a rough go of it, but that's how randomized games with any character/play variety sometimes work. (Or, houserule based, make it a one-turn ongoing the way Voss's minion resummoning works. Gives you a turns' notice on it incoming and allows a chance to bounce it off the board or pre-emptively pop it on hero phase to try and act against it before the villain turns.)

Every single game I've played against Wager Master has ended with the odd-numbers based wager (last one went all of 2 turns. Scout or freeze the envirionment to ensure no un-planned-for damage, play a 'you can't deal damage this turn' on Wager Master, tap the one uncompliant hero for 1 point, incredibly anticlimactic victory.) That one probably needs modification or removal - it's too easy to game the condition. He could use a re-design, I think - I'd look at something like setting up a side-deck of wagers that alter the win/loss conditions of the game, and in set up you'd deal a small number of those. Then his in-play deck would contain things that can mess with other game rules, but you would be certain of what you need to do to win/prevent happening to avoid losing.

[Sholos]

Unity is a character I really enjoy, when she works. Getting Swift Bot out early along with Stealth Bot is key, and Flash Forge and Brain Storm are your friends for doing so. Also pairing her with any hero capable of giving off-turn plays is amazing since that means she can play bots directly from hand without any gimmicks. Oh, and Omnitron-X pairs well with her.

Wager Master I rarely play against, but every time I do it's a weird game. Lost against him at the beginning of the very first turn once. That was fun.

[Selpharia]

I think altering Prison Break is a bit much; a Difficulty 4 villain means you start the game in a bad spot, and it will only get worse unless you counter the specific mechanic. If I’m playing with a team that can’t counter Prison Break, one option I like to try is just letting Informants bring out both copies with the extra plays they grant.This achieves a similar thing to making it like Forced Deployment, but of course, it’s risky.

[shadow_archmagi]

Telekinetic Cocoon: Strongest card in the game?

[Selpharia]

Telekinetic Cocoon: Strongest card in the game?

I prefer Syntactic Analysis; two plays or draws or discards from anyone out of turn, one of which you can scout with Updated Intel, and all optional from anyone on the team is truly majestic

[The_Snark]

Telekinetic Cocoon: Strongest card in the game?

Nah, Mist Form is the-same-only-better.

(They're both pretty good in the right situation, but Nightmist really benefits from the improved card draw her version of the card gives you)

[tyckspoon]

Telekinetic Cocoon: Strongest card in the game?

I don't know if I could declare a single strongest card, since there's so many variable things a card can be good at, but I'd probably have a shortlist something like this:

Argent Adept, Cedistic Dissonant, Perform effect: It's expensive to use, but as far as I know nothing else in the game does this. Uniquely capable of destroying cards that are otherwise near-impossible to target by dint of having only unique descriptors (ie, those Villain deck cards that are not Ongoings or targets.)

Wraith, Impromptu Invention: One of the best search-and-setup cards on a hero who herself has one of the best ranges of things she can do. Wraith's gear can solve or assist in almost any situation, and Impromptu Invention gets her whatever she needs to do it, no questions.

Fanatic, End of Days: Sometimes you just need an absolute reset button. Sometimes the villain deck flops a ludicrous first turn. Sometimes you just want to see holy wrath sweep the field clear. End of Days has you covered. (Protip: If there is something that has 'destroy an ongoing card' as a response to destruction, have End of Days destroy it after you've cleared everything else you want gone. Destroy that card, have it destroy End of Days in response, and End of Days is completed as it is no longer in play.)

Parse, Syntactic Analysis: Already referred to, this is always a good feeling to drop on somebody.

Parse, Segmentation Fault: At-will destruction of most kinds of annoying or dangerous effects.

Tachyon, Hypersonic Assault: Hampered by defensive effects on the enemy, since you have to deal the damage to apply the debuff, but being able to prevent an entire enemy board's worth of damage is pretty nutballs.

[Maryring]

Jailbreak's problem isn't that it can't be countered. It's as I mentioned before. It has too high a delta of randomness. That's bad design in card games as when it works in your favour it makes the game less interesting due to what's essentially a lull. While when it works against you it makes the game feel arbitrary and frustrating.

As for the best card in the game... Savage Mana is completely broken against minion decks and completely neuters otherwise hard heroes like Chairman or Matriarch. It's a very variable card though, so if you can't give Haka his lunch it loses out on a lot of value.

Actually, if there's one card that I find to be always useful no matter what it's this. Proverbs and Axioms. Each Player draws 1 card. Each Hero Character card may either regain 2 HP or deal themselves 3 Psychic Damage and use a Power.

That's up to 10 health healed, or 5 power-uses. And that's before you utterly break it with a combination of Tempest and AA's trash cycling shenanigans.

[shadow_archmagi]

Nah, Mist Form is the-same-only-better.

(They're both pretty good in the right situation, but Nightmist really benefits from the improved card draw her version of the card gives you)

I always forget Nightmist exists. :smallyuk: But yeah, Smoke Bombs+Cocoon (or Mist Form) will allow you to redirect all damage onto an invincible person, as long as you can get all heroes tied for lowest health. (Which isn't too hard, since your lowest health person doesn't take damage, so your middle people will decrease until they're tied unless you're really unlucky)

[The Hellbug]

That's only the best case. Smoke bombs+anyone with damage reduction (though The Scholar with his 2 on the metal one stands out) can neutralize all but the biggest hits. How often do you get hit for more than 3 damage in one hit, anyway? It's not a lot so this can drastically increase your heroes' lifespans. There's a reason impromptu invention is considered so powerful; not only is it maybe the best tutor since it puts its target into play and allows another play, but the Wraith has a phenomenal selection of good targets for it in her deck. Quite simply put, she's one of the most versatile heroes there is.

[Leon]

Finally got to play the Tabletop version with the friend i had given it to. It was good, plays very smooth even with the actions of using counters and such.

Started with Baron Blade on Insula Primus with my Friend on Legacy and me on Tempest ~ we were eaten by the Wildlife... Both of us had very slow card draws on getting anything worthwhile

Round Two saw his older daughter join us as Tachyon in Atlantis and we almost got Blade down but for a Defense platform popping up the turn before he could be flipped while on 14 cards.

Round Three: With Legacy swapped for Haka and on Megalopolis we got him after some bad Environment rounds stymied us for a while and he got close to winning but for some timely Burst Damage from Tachyon and then once Flipped was Bursted again then Haka went to town with a Big draw and discard to boost his ability (i cant recall what it was called and i have next to no experience with him).

Looking forward to playing it some more

[Sholos]

Baron Blade can occasionally surprise you and be a bully. One note, though, you should always have at least 3 heroes, even if you only have 2 players.

[Maryring]

The game is balanced around 3-5 heroes. Playing with less makes some cards have no effect at all... which I suppose explains how Wraith beats Spite solo but I digress. You can of course play with different numbers, but know that you'll probably have a suboptimal gaming experience if so.

That said. Baron Blade especially becomes a lot easier with more heroes. His only card that gets stronger with more heroes is Consider The Price of Victory. But use that extra hero to add... say Visionary and you'll just end up plain stronger for it no matter what. Then again, Visionary is pretty much a hard counter to Baron Blade.

Incidentally, does anyone play using home-made custom decks? One thing I'm looking forward to even more than Oblivaeon is getting the Steam version Workshop support. It'll be so cool to see what people come up with when they get creative.

[Leon]

Box said 2 to 5 and it could have gone either way really in the first one but for Insula Primus doing what it does well and the lack of both our better powers coming out in time. It was fun regardless of being eaten by dinos or not.
Have been plenty of times ive failed to beat Blade in the PC version with a party of four due to random draw of bad things or bad hands or not know what X hero can do and just trying random stuff (like continually filling Setbacks pool and then having him deal 25 damage to the villain and kill himself when something went off...)

[Sholos]

Ah, yeah, that would be confusing, since I believe that's referring to the number of players (even though you can play solo if you don't mind flipping between all the heroes). I find Omni-tron to be possibly the swingiest of the villains. Sometimes it's stupidly easy and poses no threat, and then other times it's throwing Flechettes and Singularities in your face and turn 1 EPEs (that thing that does its health in damage to everyone).

[shadow_archmagi]

Ah, yeah, that would be confusing, since I believe that's referring to the number of players (even though you can play solo if you don't mind flipping between all the heroes). I find Omni-tron to be possibly the swingiest of the villains. Sometimes it's stupidly easy and poses no threat, and then other times it's throwing Flechettes and Singularities in your face and turn 1 EPEs (that thing that does its health in damage to everyone).

You know, it occurs to me that Wrest the Mind might combo off of that health->damage superbomb in interesting ways.

[Sholos]

Oh yeah, it's easy to throw a ton of damage at Omni's face if you don't mind the backlash.

[tyckspoon]

Oh yeah, it's easy to throw a ton of damage at Omni's face if you don't mind the backlash.

Yeah, I played a game deliberately to set that up once. Wrest the Mind a pulse bomb, have somebody else give Visionary card play to put Telekinetic Cocoon in play, smack Omni for 15 - 12 - 9- 6 - 3 damage. Not quite a one-turn kill, but I think it was my standing record for most damage in a single turn for a while.. until I got Haka to eat Matriarch's entire deck of birds and then Savage Mana + Haka of Battle most of his own deck back into her face.

[Sholos]

In theory you can go infinite damage with certain abuses of Fixed Point (a card making everything else indestructible). But yeah, Haka has some of the biggest non-exploit damage potential.

[awa]

personally I always feel kinda guilt when i use something like savage mana that simple breaks certain villains mechanics. it feels like I'm cheating

[Leon]

Because i could: 34 Card Haka of Battle with a 3 Card Savage Mana vs Akash'Bhuta on 25hp with 1 DR. Was unlocking the Xtreme Prime Warden Variant.
Unlocked Dark Visionary in a complex game of keeping Gloomweaver suppressed and sorting out where his relics were and then keeping Tachyon balanced and sitting on a full trash of Burst to bring him back down to low health

Did everything to the letter for the other Visionary unlock and didn't get it, was stymied a lot by a useful harmony not coming out for a very long time and it was in a crazy few final turns that i got to cast it Got it on the third go with a lot of self harm and the help of Devious Disruption

[caden_varn]

On the PC version of the game you get a lot of variants. I know some can be unlocked by doing certain things in game - is that how they all work? Or are some part of expansions etc.? I only have the base game on the PC...

[The_Snark]

All of them are unlocked by doing certain things in-game, yes. This site (http://sentinelsdigital.com/variants/) lists all the unlock conditions confirmed, if you feel like taking a peek. (Some of the unlocks are pretty convoluted, not the sort of thing you're likely to stumble on by accident.) You can also just click the Unlock button to get them, if you don't feel like jumping through hoops.

You can't unlock variants of expansion-only heroes and villains without owning the relevant expansion, but as far as I know that's the only expansion-related limit. EDIT - I lie, some of the unlock conditions require material from different expansions (e.g. Ra needs the Ennead, the Freedom Five have to lose in Rook City). I think the Unlock button might be your only option for those.

[Leon]

you can Unlock just by clicking it... i had no idea you could. Well i guess some people will only want to do the story mode for the achievements

[shadow_archmagi]

All of them are unlocked by doing certain things in-game, yes. This site (http://sentinelsdigital.com/variants/) lists all the unlock conditions confirmed, if you feel like taking a peek. (Some of the unlocks are pretty convoluted, not the sort of thing you're likely to stumble on by accident.) You can also just click the Unlock button to get them, if you don't feel like jumping through hoops.


I'd go so far as to say the majority of them can't be unlocked by accident. Some of them are like "Lose to Omnitron twice with the Freedom Five. Then, defeat Baron Blade at Rook City with Santa Guise as the first hero. Santa Guise must be incapacitated during the fight, and no other hero can be above 6 health. The damage that defeats baron blade must be fire."

[Epinephrine_Syn]

The major purpose of the story unlocks is twofold, far as I know.

One, to give a unique and descriptive way to tell the events leading up to the unlock in an extremely shorthand but. not lacking format.

Two, it's a puzzle game for the player base. When a new Alt is first released, the unlock conditions are not made public, and there is no unlock button. Once the community figures out the exact unlock condition (not just unlocks it, but all the conditions for it), then it's made public for everyone.

I think theoretically they also have a rule unlocking it if the condition is never found within a period of time, but I can't remember that being necessary.

[Selpharia]

There’s a 1-month period before it becomes available via the button, or until the condition is found, whichever comes first.

[caden_varn]

Thanks for the info! I kinda like unlocking them via story mode, but as you say, most are too convoluted to happen on by chance unless you play a lot more than I do.

I'll doubtless get the others at some point, especially if they hit a steam sale at some point.

[shadow_archmagi]

I wish the game let you do duplicates. I'd love to have Legacy, Legacy Jr, and Legacy Sr. on one team

[huttj509]

Thanks for the info! I kinda like unlocking them via story mode, but as you say, most are too convoluted to happen on by chance unless you play a lot more than I do.

I'll doubtless get the others at some point, especially if they hit a steam sale at some point.

It was fun the time or 2 I was actively playing when a new one came out. People delving into the lore story behind, for example, Bunker's new suit and when he got it in order to get clues on possibly where and against whom to fight, lots of uploads of fight logs so people could compare who unlocked it and who didn't, and what changed between them, etc.

[Friv]

Sentinels is one of my favourite computer/card games at the moment. I even went so far as to write up rules for a solo campaign, which I modified a few times, over on another site.


Oh yeah, it's easy to throw a ton of damage at Omni's face if you don't mind the backlash.

Or the Visionary can Wrest the Mind, and then hop into a Telekinetic Coccoon so that she can't be backlashed. Then things last until the person on the card dies.

Alternately, add Extreme Haka to the mix with his Ta Moko out. Whenever Visionary would take 3 damage, he takes 2 and then heals 1. If you have another source of DR on the table, you can make things even better.

[Eurus]

Sentinels is one of my favourite computer/card games at the moment. I even went so far as to write up rules for a solo campaign, which I modified a few times, over on another site.

That sounds nifty, if you want to share.

I keep picking this back up and messing with it, it's pretty fun. I still get the feeling that Legacy, Wraith, and Tachyon (especially Team Leader Tachyon, who's just nuts) might be the strongest heroes, but my favorite might be Scholar. He just does so much different stuff, and he does all of it pretty well (although not necessarily at the same time). Nightmist is up there for favorites too, and Guise is great because he has so many silly combo tricks with different allies.

Least favorite is no contest, though. I do not enjoy Unity, pretty much ever.

EDIT: That reminds me something else I was wondering. What ways can you think of to trick out multiple tools or styles out for Mr. Fixer at once? Fixed Point from the Time Cataclysm environment will do it easily, but I feel like there should be more ways to pull it off somehow. I thought there might be a way to do it with Guise, but it seems like it doesn't work, even with giftmas or full-on Guise shenanigans like returning someone else's card to Guise's hand.

[Leon]

Setback is easily my least fav

[Knaight]

I actually really like Setback, as a sort of Absolute Zero light (AZ being my favorite character by far).

Chrono Ranger, on the other hand, is unmitigated boring garbage.

[Sholos]

I don't believe there is any way to cheat out multiple tools or styles for Mr. Fixer beyond Fixed Point, because there's no other way to make them indestructible. Same with Omni's platings and Naturalist's forms.

[tyckspoon]

I actually really like Setback, as a sort of Absolute Zero light (AZ being my favorite character by far).

Chrono Ranger, on the other hand, is unmitigated boring garbage.

Chrono Ranger is .. pretty basic and straightforward, yeah, but at least he achieves what he's meant for reliably. Not something you can say for all of the DPS heroes. Chrono Ranger's kind of Expatriette version 2, IMO. Gear dependent gunslinger, only Chrono's deck works and Expatriette's .. doesn't, really.

[Knaight]

Chrono Ranger is .. pretty basic and straightforward, yeah, but at least he achieves what he's meant for reliably. Not something you can say for all of the DPS heroes. Chrono Ranger's kind of Expatriette version 2, IMO. Gear dependent gunslinger, only Chrono's deck works and Expatriette's .. doesn't, really.

I've consistently found Expatriette the better of the two.

[Leon]

Ranger seems to be wholly reliant on the bounties to get anything beyond mere plinking done where as Expatriate can Blow stuff away wholesale with a lot more ease

[The_Snark]

I've consistently found Expatriette the better of the two.

Huh. My experience has been pretty opposite; Expatriette's shotgun is a solid card, but that's about as useful as she gets, whereas Chrono-Ranger consistently puts out a lot of damage, plus some utility effects (ongoing/environment destruction, targeted damage reduction from the dart thrower, party-wide damage boosts, etc).

Expatriette would really benefit from actual tutors for equipment (Sudden Contract or Displaced Armory), card draw (Just Doin' My Job or Kill on Sight), or a reliable source of bonus plays/powers (Jim's Hat and Ultimate Target). Without those, she feels like she has potential, but never actually reaches it without a lot of support from other heroes (which probably would have been better spent on someone else).

[Maryring]

The one advantage Expy has is that she deals with large crowds much better than Ranger. Ranger generally only focus-fires on one target, but Expy with some ammo and her ongoing can take out large groups. Meaning that she does well against enemies like the Chairman and Dawn. She's undeniably more at mercy on the draw of her hands, especially since her search cards range from not very good to incredibly bad.

[awa]

he might need the bounties but he has a card to search for his favorite bounty and i think two others to pull them back out of the discard. I like him a lot particularly teamed up with legacy who can boost all those little hits through the roof.

[Leon]

Legacy is a good boost for any damage dealer however and can take some much further than Rangers little hits

[Maryring]

Not really. Ranger has easy access to double-tapping on a single target, which gets a greater boost from Legacy than single hits, since damage boosts are per hit, rather than per total attack.

[Selpharia]

The only ones who benefit more per activation are XPW cosmic, whose power produces many small hits on the same target, and people who get to “double count” increases like AZ or Fixer with crowbars. Chrono’s problem is dealing with multiple targets. He can do it, but not without risk or cost.

[Friv]

That sounds nifty, if you want to share.

Be happy to! In a spoiler box, because it's long.

Darkest Timeline uses the 21 heroes, 28 villains, and 15 environments from the core game and Season One of Sentinels of the Multiverse. For reference, they are listed below:
Heroes: Absolute Zero, Argent Adept, Bunker, Captain Cosmic, Chrono-Ranger, Expatriette, Fanatic, Guise, Haka, Legacy, Mr. Fixer, Nightmist, Omnitron-X, Ra, Scholar, Sky-Scraper, Tachyon, Tempest, Unity, Visionary, Wraith
Villains: All non-team villains except for Chokepoint, with all of their variants except for Trickster Kismet
Environments: The Block, Dok'Thorath, Enclave of the Endlings, Final Wasteland, Insula Primalis, Megalopolis, Omnitron-IV, Pike Industrial, Realm of Discord, Rook City, Ruins of Atlantis, Silver Gulch, Time Cataclysm, Tomb of Anubis, Wagner Mars Base

There are six rounds of play. The first four rounds feature five villains each, while the last two feature four villains each. These villains must be fought on Advanced. In each round, I can only play a given hero once, and I must play their default version. At the start of the round, I arrange the heroes into teams to take their opponents on, and then the chips fall as they may. Round 1 has pre-arranged heroes based on teams and story locations; after that, it’s all my choice. The only rule is that a villain must face their nemesis if possible.

If the heroes win, that villain is defeated, yay. If the villain wins, they’re put on the “Villains Victorious” list, and the environment that they were contesting is removed from play for future villains. That territory is either ruled, or destroyed. If every environment is claimed, the game ends instantly as a total loss. Note that every villain is paired with an environment; if an already-lost environment comes up, I can replace it with any other environment.

In addition, heroes can (and will) fall. At the end of each game, any Incapacitated hero is removed from play for future battles, regardless of whether I won or lost, and is replaced by a specific variant. If a variant version is defeated, that hero is out for good.

The following variants are used:
Freedom Five: America's Newest Legacy, Team Leader Tachyon, Bunker: Engine of War, Freedom Six Absolute Zero, Wraith: Price of Freedom
Prime Wardens: The Eternal Haka, Redeemer Fanatic, Freedom Six Tempest, Prime Wardens Argent Adept, Prime Wardens Captain Cosmic
Dark Watch: Dark Watch Mr. Fixer, Dark Watch Expatriette, Dark Watch Nightmist
Solo Heroes: Christmas Guise, Golem Unity, Scholar of the Infinite, Dark Visionary, Ra of Two Horizons, Best of Times Chrono-Ranger, Extremist Sky-Scraper, Omnitron-U

If (well, let’s be honest, when) a round starts, and I don’t have enough heroes to field a team of three against each villain (15 for Rounds 3 and 4, and 12 for Rounds 5 and 6), the round divides into two sub-rounds, with 2-3 villains each. If I still don’t have enough, I divide as best I can, and any extra villains win automatically. If I have fewer than 3 heroes total, I may choose any hero to fill out the set. This hero doesn’t play cards, use powers, or use incap abilities (unless the game forces them to). They just soak damage until they die. And if I hit 0 heroes, every remaining villain wins automatically and the campaign ends.

The game ends after Round 6, assuming I survive that long. I am not optimistic. My score is equal to the number of environments still in play, which I’m mainly hoping will be a positive number.

After each battle, I’ll type up a short after-action report.

The six rounds will play out as follows:

Round One: Heroes Rise

Game 1: Baron Blade is going to crash Phobos into Mars, destroying our first extraplanetary research station! Can the newly-formed Freedom Five stop him? Baron Blade VS Legacy, Tachyon, Wraith, Bunker, and Absolute Zero on Wagner Mars Base.

Game 2: Ambuscade’s hunt for the most dangerous prey has brought him to Rook City, where he hunts Haka through the Pike Industrial Complex. Can the heroes of Rook City save the great warrior? Ambuscade VS Haka, Nightmist, Expatriette, and Mr. Fixer at Pike Industrial Complex.

Game 3: The terrible Omnitron moves through space, intent on devouring the last refuge of many species. But its future self, filled with guilt, has gathered a band of interstellar heroes to stop it! Omnitron VS Captain Cosmic, Skyscraper, Tempest, and Omnitron-X at the Enclave of the Endlings.

Game 4: A pulse of mystical energy in Egypt signals the rebirth of Ra! Heroes and villains of all stripes, drawn by the magic gathering, have come to protect or destroy this deity… Apostate VS Fanatic, Ra, Argent Adept, and Visionary.

Game 5: Unity’s temp work at Freedom tower just got a whole lot weirder, as she’s yanked into another dimension! Wager Master VS Guise, Unity, and the Scholar in the Time Cataclysm.

Round 2: New Foes
Game 1: Kismet in the Realm of Discord.
Game 2: Akash’Bhuta in Insula Primalis
Game 3: Spite in Rook City
Game 4: Plague Rat in The Block
Game 5: Deadline in Atlantis

Round 3: Betrayals
Game 1: Infinitor in Dok’Thorath
Game 2: Miss Information in Megalopolis
Game 3: La Capitan in the Final Wasteland
Game 4: Gloomweaver in Silver Gulch
Game 5: The Ennead in the Tomb of Anubis

Round 4: Vengeance!
Game 1: Cosmic Omnitron in Wagner Mars Base
Game 2: Mad Bomber Baron Blade in Rook City
Game 3: Tormented Infinitor in the Realm of Discord
Game 4: Spite: Agent of Gloomweaver in The Block
Game 5: Skinwalker Gloomweaver in The Final Wasteland.

Round 5: Invasions
Game 1: The Dreamer in Megalopolis
Game 2: Citizen Dawn in Atlantis
Game 3: Grand Warlord Voss on Dok’Thorath
Game 4: Kaagra Warfang in the Enclave of the Endlings

Round 6: The Final Battles
Game 1: The Matriarch in Insula Primalis
Game 2: The Chairman in Pike Industrial Complex
Game 3: Progeny in Silver Gulch
Game 4: Iron Legacy in the Time Cataclysm


(Spoiler Alert: I did technically beat this campaign, with only four surviving heroes, all of them in their variant forms.)

[Eurus]

Ooh, that sounds like a neat challenge. Do you do all the villains on advanced, or just the last two rounds?

[Friv]

Every single one.

I actually got trounced by Baron Blade in my first game of the set - on Advanced, he ended the game on Turn 3.